Macworld Conference & Expo 2008 registration is open. For those of you who may not be familiar with this event, it is a major happening in the Mac world. Macworld will take place in San Francisco, California at the Moscone Center. The conference is kicked off by a keynote presentation from Steve Jobs, the co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc. During this keynote address Steve updates the Mac faithful on the company and usually unveils new products. The conference is scheduled for January 14-18, 2008. Early bird registration is open through December 14, 2007.

I’ve never been to one of these. So, I plan to attend for the first time in 2008. Who else is planning to attend? Will this be your first time?

I have not been fortunate enough to own the new aluminum Apple keyboard. However, I’ve read some stuff online that folks are having issues with a couple of the Function keys. Specifically, these are F3 and F4. Apple released a keyboard update, which doesn’t seem to fix the issue. However, Nik Fletcher at The Unofficial Apple Weblog has come by some instructions on how to resolve this situation. It worked for him. And it may work of your. So, instead of waiting for Apple to release another update, check out Nik’s post and take matters into your own hands.

Google has released a new version of Google Earth. With version 4.2 you can now not only explore the earth, but you can lift up your sights and explore the sky. What’s different this time is that this version is available simultaneously for Mac and Windows. With the original version of Google Earth, Mac users had to wait for Google to release a Mac OS X version. This is another indication that Google is trying to be more Mac friendly. After all, Google’s CFO sits on Apple’s board. I’m sure Steve Jobs is making sure that the biggest search engine and free software developer plays nice with Mac.

Now that the new iMac has been on the market for about 2 days, lets answer the question, “What’s new about it?” Some of you may have seen it already. You are blessed. For the rest of us, here are some major changes.

One of the biggest changes and most apparent to the eye is the material of the encasing. Apple has chosen to use aluminum and glass to construct the casing for the new iMac. This brings the iMac inline with the rest of the Pro line of computers. The MacBook Pro and Mac Pro are made of aluminum. In addition, the new iMac is thinner and comes with a new redesigned keyboard. The keyboard is also thinner and looks similar to the one on MacBooks. And all iMac now come with a glossy screen.

Beside the changes on the exterior there are some changes under the hood. The new iMac is faster, with processor speeds up to 2.8 GHz. And it accommodates more memory – up to 4 GB. Furthermore, the new iMac comes with a larger hard drive, up to 1 TB of storage. To enhance the video speed, Apple upgraded the video card to the new ATI Radeon HD. Now all of the iMac models include a FireWire 800 port.

With this upgrade, Apple has discontinued the 17″ iMac. It is replaced with a 20″ model, but offered at the same price as the outgoing 17-incher. If you haven’t seen the new iMacs, head over to the nearest Apple Store and check them out. I’ll be doing that in the next day or so.

If you’ve been having issues with your optical drive on a MacBook Pro, fire up the Software Update on your machine and load the SuperDrive Update 2.1.  It should improve your drive’s performance.

Today has been a very exciting day for the Apple community.  Lots of announcements and even some disappointments.  All of the news have already been covered by a number of blogs and news sites.  I will just list of the major items of interest.

This week is the World Wild Developers Conference (WWDC).  Apple Inc. hosts this conference annually in San Francisco.  Most of the announcements came during the keynote address by Steve Jobs at the opening session of WWDC.   Here some of the things we learned.

1. Mac OS X Leopard: several previously undisclosed features.  Here’s a condensed list of these features.  Engadget has a post with greater detail as well as coverage of the entire keynote address.

A. Leopard will deliver a revamped Finder.  This is something Mac users have wanted for some time.  One of the most noticeable changes will be the Cover Flow style browsing of files and folders.
B.  A new updated, polished and unified look of the user interface.
C.  Built-in tools to keep the desktop organized.  A downloads folder to store all of the things downloaded through the browser.
D. Quick view. An easy way to preview files without opening them.  It even features a full screen preview.
E.  Boot Camp will be native in Leopard.  You will no longer need to restart your computer run Windows.  It won’t be work the same way the Parallels runs Windows alongside OS X, but it will be a much easier process.

2. Safari 3.0 beta: Apple released a public beta of Safari 3, which is part of Leopard.  However, the bigger news is that Safari is now available on Windows.

3. iPhone:  Apple has opened up a door for third-party applications on the iPhone.  Develops will be able to write web based applications using Web 2.0 compatible code and AJAX.  For more details hop over to Engadget.

Steve Jobs announced that EA Games will release its games on the Mac.  Among the first will be Madden and Tiger Woods 08, which will come in August.  Other games such as C&C, Battlefield 2142 and NFS Carbon are on their way too.

In addition to these announcements, Apple has also revamped its web site to match the look and feel of Leopard.  Head over to apple.com and see the new look and while you’re there download a copy of Safari 3.0 beta.

By the way, Apple has posted a Quicktime video of the keynote address from WWDC.