Apple whips rivals in consumer purchase plans

More American consumers plan to buy an Apple computer in the next 90 days than any other brand, a market research firm says.

Analysis: Intel developer forum introduces your next MacIntel provided 170-plus hours of technical instruction last week at its developer forum. Rik Myslewski sorts through it and pulls out the relevant news for Mac users about how the nuts and bolts that hold together the entire world of computing will influence future Apple hardware.
Macs, Aperture a big hit at the Beijing OlympicsThe Mac Pro and Apple's photography workflow application, Aperture, have made life easier for many photographers at the Beijing Olympics.

Product	Score	Price
17-inch MacBook Pro/2.5GHz	219	$2,679.00
15-inch MacBook Pro/2.4GHz	204	$1,899.00
15-inch MacBook Pro/2.5GHz	222	$2,478.00
13-inch MacBook/2.4GHz (black)	196	$1,479.00
13-inch MacBook/2.4GHz (white)	193	$1,288.88
13-inch MacBook/2.1GHz	180	$1,088.88
MacBook Air/1.6GHz	124	$1,650.65

Product	Score	Price
24-inch iMac Core 2 Duo/2.8GHz	268	$1,721.15
Mac Pro/8-core 2.8GHz Xeon 5400	314	$2,594.57
20-inch iMac Core 2 Duo/2.4GHz	230	$1,147.09
20-inch iMac Core 2 Duo/2.66GHz	254	$1,434.12
Mac mini Core 2 Duo/2GHz	172	$777.77
Mac mini Core 2 Duo/1.83GHz	159	$559.99

Product	Score	Price
24-inch iMac Core 2 Duo/2.8GHz	268	$1,721.15
17-inch MacBook Pro/2.5GHz	219	$2,679.00
15-inch MacBook Pro/2.5GHz	222	$2,478.00
15-inch MacBook Pro/2.4GHz	204	$1,899.00
13-inch MacBook/2.4GHz (black)	196	$1,479.00
13-inch MacBook/2.4GHz (white)	193	$1,288.88
Mac Pro/8-core 2.8GHz Xeon 5400	314	$2,594.57
20-inch iMac Core 2 Duo/2.4GHz	230	$1,147.09
20-inch iMac Core 2 Duo/2.66GHz	254	$1,434.12
Xserve (2.8GHz Quad-Core Xeon) (2008)
13-inch MacBook/2.1GHz	180	$1,088.88
Mac mini Core 2 Duo/2GHz	172	$777.77
Mac mini Core 2 Duo/1.83GHz	159	$559.99
MacBook Air/1.6GHz	124	$1,650.65

Dust kills
Dan Frakes takes his own advice about Mac maintenance and winds up fixing a problem involving dusty internal components.
How to: Upgrade a G5's optical drive
How to upgrade the optical drive on a first-generation Power Mac G5, and what kind of results you can expect after the upgrade.

New life for old Macs
Just because you’ve upgraded to a new Mac doesn’t mean your old machine is finished. James Dempsey has several suggestions for ways that creative professionals can squeeze more life out of aging hardware.
The Mac keeps driving Apple
All people seem to talk about these days is the iPhone, but as Monday’s quarterly earnings announcement proved, the Mac is still very central to Apple’s business.
Aluminum keyboard loses its luster
Jonathan Seff changes his mind on Apple’s aluminum iMac keyboard design, finding it a bit too hard to type on.
Improved iMac graphics won’t matter to gamers
The graphics options available for the new 24-inch iMac are impressive, Peter Cohen says. But they’re unlikely to cause gamers to embrace either the updated desktop or the Mac platform.
The iMac turns 10
When was the last time Macworld didn't pay close attention to an Apple product launch? Ten years ago.