Sources indicated to MacScoop that Apple is readying the launch of renewed Mac Pro and Cinema Display line-ups in January.

UPDATE: SEC filings published by Apple today, reveal that the company currently faces several law-suits. Among them, a law-suit related to the stock-options grants, another on iTunes/iPod monopoly, a patent infringement on the Nike-iPod kit and unhappy iBook G4 customers.

Apple is reportedly facing a probe by federal investigators on the stock-options case that was revealed earli

We wish to all of you visitors, members, sources, announcers, contributors and Mac-site owners a merry Christmas.

You've already offered us our present for this year's Christmas, as we're having a daily traffic record during the week-end (not counting traffic records generated by Apple events coverage).

Tipsters informed MacScoop that Apple is planning to use HDMI technology in its next generation of Cinema Displays, while another recent vague report claims that a larger than 30 inch model could also be on the way.

The latest build (9A321) of Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 is revealing several great features. We gathered all this information found on other reports and forum postings in one article, for you, Mac OS X fans!

Apple has seeded the build 8P2111 of Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.9 update to developers earlier this week.

This month, both Parallels and VMware updated their virtualisation solutions for Mac OS X. Parallels has released Parallels Desktop build 3094 while VMWare has released the first public beta of VMware for Macintosh.

Apple won't use Samsung's HDD technology

APCMag published an interview of Samsung's CEO. One of the topics related was the use of flash memory to increase boot, wake-up and application launch performance on computes. .. told that Apple was not interested in its HDD technology which consists of hard disks that have their built-in Flash modules.

Apple has posted a Security Update labeled "2006-008". It provides the following security fixes:

The "iPhone" is the name commonly used by the Mac-centric community for the widely and long rumoured phone by Apple.

But "iPhone" is also a trademark originally owned by Linksys, a consumer network equipment maker, purchased by Cisco, the giant networks and telecom equipment maker in 2003.

For the development of MacScoop, MacosXrumors and MacCulture, I'm using TextMate, a great text editor by Macromates. It has several special features for programming and it's quite powerful.

As previously rumoured, Adobe has released a beta version of Adobe Photoshop CS 3.

This version is a universal binary and represents a major change in terms of performance when running on Intel-based Macs.

Apple posted an update for Airport labeled "2006-002". It is intended to the users of the latest generation of MacBooks and MacBook Pro based on the Core 2 Duo processor, as stated in the description provided by Apple:

UPDATE: Leopard build 9A321 is reportedly adding an "Answering Machine" feature on iChat.

Early this week, Apple has seeded the build 9A321 of Mac OS X Leopard to developers.

AppleGazette claims that Apple is developing a new user interface so as to replace Aqua. The new interface will be renamed "Illuminous".

Apple has updates its professional photography retouch software, Aperture, to version 1.5.

This update is recommended to all users and brings the following enhancements:

Aperture 1.5.2 addresses issues related to overall reliability and performance in a number of areas, including:

Readers pointed out that Apple may encounter quality issues with its latest iteration of the MacBook Pro line-up, as a significant number of complaints related to display issues are being posted on Apple's support forums.

Today, Apple has launched New Zealand iTunes and online stores.

“We’re thrilled to bring the iTunes Store and the online Apple Store to our customers in New Zealand just in time for the holidays,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “With over two million songs, the iTunes Store features the largest catalogue of local and international music in New Zealand, and with the new online Apple Store, it’s easier than ever to shop for everything from a personally engraved iPod to a customized Mac.” states Apple's press release.

Recent revelations and analyst reports recently fueled rumours that Apple may be considering entering the gaming industry, starting with additional iPod games.

First hints came out after Stan Ng, iPod Product Marketing VP, told iLounge during an online interview that Apple has formed a team of game developers for the iPod and that the company is interested in that market.

Proximity has announced today on its web site that it has been acquired by Apple for an undisclosed price.

We are pleased to announce that all Proximity technology and intellectual property, including artbox workgroup and artbox enterprise, was recently acquired by Apple.

Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg.com claims in the latest episode of Diggnation that he has gathered reliable information about the forthcoming iPhone.

MacScoop has obtained reports from sources believed to be very reliable, claiming that Apple is developing a smaller and ultra-thin form-factor MacBook Pro.

The new laptop should be even thinner and weigh less than the current models in the MacBook Pro line-up. In spite of this very tiny and lightweight form-factor, the miniaturized MacBook Pro should keep its built-in optical drive and sport a dual-core processor, providing unequalled size/performance ratio in the PC industry, sources told MacScoop.

Here's our news catch-up for this week: