The first full-on preview of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard reveals a faster, sleeker cat that's designed to be more compact and efficient, and to take full advantage of the fast multi-core processors in Intel-based Macs.

In an unexpected move, Apple revamped much of its laptop line. The 13-inch aluminum MacBook goes Pro, while the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models receive performance and spec bumps. Apple also slashed prices on both new and existing models.

A free Safari plug-in makes pages load faster by turning Flash content into Flash-on-demand.

Demonstrating a continued commitment to the low end of its notebook ladder, Apple has again quietly bumped the specs for the $999 white polycarbonate MacBook. Changes include a 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (up from 2.0 GHz), 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (up from 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM), and a 160 GB hard drive (up from 120 GB).

Apple has announced that attendees at the Worldwide Developers Conference in early June will receive "a final Developer Preview release" of Mac OS X Snow Leopard. That implies that Snow Leopard will ship for the rest of us later in the year - anyone want to bet on October, given past release dates?

Apple has released Mac OS X 10.5.7, a bug and security fix update that touches on several areas of Leopard and Leopard Server. Also posted were updates to Safari and Security Update 2009-02 for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and Tiger Server.

My latest attempt to use Migration Assistant marks the first time the utility has ever worked for me.

Apple reported its "best non-holiday quarter in history" for the second financial quarter of 2009, posting a $1.21 billion profit on revenue of $8.16 billion.

Want to see how Apple's industrial design has evolved over the years? Edible Apple has a graphic that shows every Apple product released (computers, iPods, displays, mice, and keyboards), in chronological order. Someone should make a poster.

Apple's update to Mac OS X Snow Leopard is approaching, but will the company charge the usual $129 for it, even though it isn't slated to offer any new user-focused features? Adam argues that making Snow Leopard nearly free would benefit everyone, including Apple.

Ars Technica is reporting that Apple has updated the lowest rung of its educational desktop offerings from the otherwise-obsolete 17-inch white polycarbonate iMac to a 20-inch aluminum model. The updated model includes a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1 GB RAM, a 160 GB hard drive, a SuperDrive, and Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics processor - quite an upgrade considering the price will remain at $899. Unfortunately for most of us, this deal remains available only for schools and not for individuals.

Apple's refreshed Xserve features significantly improved performance thanks to new Intel "Nehalem" Xeon processors and a new system architecture, along with an interesting option for a 128 GB solid-state boot drive. On the downside, Apple didn't address criticisms of the Xserve's industrial design that would make it easier to administer in a data center.

Apple has released the first general Mac OS X update of 2009, with regrettably terse release notes.

If you've had an Xserve drive fail, you may have considered putting a replacement drive inside its Apple Drive Module to save some money. That may be a false economy, though, as Adam discovers when chasing down exactly what goes into Apple Drive Modules and why they cost so much more than bare retail drives.

An ebook on our most-requested topic is now available: Joe Kissell's "Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal." If you've ever wanted to learn how to use the Mac's command line, or if you want to extend your skills beyond rote entry of commands you read in an article, Joe will teach you what you need to know.