News Roundup for December the 24th

Wow. If there’s one thing you’ve got to love about this crazy Apple crowd of ours, it’s that they keep the news coming thick and fast right up to the wire. For a start, Apple has released an update to Mail, designed to counter the occasional crashes reported after the 10.5.6 update by some users. But don’t worry, it gets better, with reports that a new iMac will be released in January. So at least Phil won’t have wasted his entire morning.

The iPhone has been identified as the most popular cameraphone on Flickr, and has topped the BlackBerry to steal first place in the ChangeWave ‘Cell Phone Satisfaction Rating’ survey. Apparently they tied in the ‘Self-Satisfied Users’ poll. And this year’s Christmas miracle is news that the iPhone will at last be coming to the snowy wastes of Vermont. Bob Newhart will be pleased. (I’m sorry, but I know nothing else about Vermont.)

Meanwhile, Psystar has issued a statement denying “suggestion[s] that there exists a concerted effort to commit infringement of Apple’s intellectual property rights, to breach or induce the breach of Apple’s otherwise unenforceable license agreements, and to violate state and common law unfair competition laws.” Speaking by psyChat from their secret volcano-island headquarters, Psystar’s CEO added, “Was there anything else I was meant to tell them, my masters?”

(UPDATE: Just to clarify, “has issued a statement” is a technical blogging term meaning “I found this quote on Macsimum News this morning and since it’s Christmas Eve and I’ve already had about a dozen eggnogs and am riding a mince pie-induced sugar rush the size of Vermont I though I’d just quote it verbatim and then knock-off early because it’s not like anyone actually reads this site”. Thanks go to the ever-vigilant Dee Dee ‘Dizzle’ Warren of World of Apple and I Drank the Kool-Aid for the heads-up.)

Elsewhere, Doc Macenstein has decided to declare war on Apple’s war on the word ‘the’. Steady on there, Doc. Remember that every time you use the definite article, Steve kills a kitten.

Of course, this glut of Apple news does seem to extend to the Big A itself, who have to be content with putting out a piece on Dr. Brian ‘no, not the actor, the science doctor’ Cox — the affable TV physics boffin and occasional keyboard-botherer with electioneering popsters D:Ream — pictured here dispelling the myth that all science types are eccentric nutjobs. Brian uses a 17″ MacBook Pro at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. (I never did find out whether it was the Hadrons or the collider which was large.) Contrary to what Apple’s article says, I’m going to guess that Brian only works near the coldest place in the universe, since it’s unlikely that it’s his office which is cooled to -271°C, if only for health and safety reasons. Still, it’s good to know that if — when they get it back up and running — the LHC accidentally succeeds in creating a world-destroying black hole, Apple would have had a hand in the apocalypse.