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Apple has released new PowerBooks today. Sizes and screens remain the same, with the G4 CPUs being speed-bumped to 1.5 or 1.67Ghz. 512M of RAM and integrated 802.11g and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless networking is now standard, and Apple’s new Scrolling Trackpad and a Sudden Motion Sensor to help protect your data in the event the machine gets knocked around.

AppleMatters has a page on dissecting the iPod Shuffle.

macnews.de has some pictures of the insides of a Mac Mini. It’s an entirely new motherboard design, and is not just an iBook-in-a-box.

Apple announced their fiscal 2005 first quarter results yesterday.

For the quarter, the Company posted a net profit of $295 million, or $.70 per diluted share. These results compare to a net profit of $63 million, or $.17 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $3.49 billion, up 74 percent from the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 28.5 percent, up from 26.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 41 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple shipped 1,046,000 Macintosh® units and 4,580,000 iPods during the quarter, representing a 26 percent increase in CPU units and a 525 percent increase in iPods over the year-ago quarter.

Apple has released iTunes 4.7.1, available as a direct download or via Software Update.

iTunes 4.7.1 fixes a buffer overflow in the parsing of .m3u and .pls playlist files that could allow earlier versions of iTunes to crash and execute arbitrary code.

Apple has announced a ton of new software and hardware products and upgrades during today’s Macworld Expo keynote address.

• Quicktime 7 includes H.264 compression, the standard used in HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies.
• Final Cut Express HD will be priced at $299
• iLife ’05 updates the iLife apps to iPhoto 5, iMovie HD, iDVD 5, Garageband 2, and iTunes 4.7
• iWork, the new replacement for Appleworks, includes the Pages word processor and Keynote 2 presentation software
• The Mac Mini is 2″ tall, 6.5″ wide, with a G4 processor at 1.25 or 1.4Ghz, 40G or 80G HD, and a combo drive. Both models have 256M RAM, and prices start at $499 for the 1.25Ghz model. No keyboard or mouse is included – this is a “bring your own keyboard, mouse, and display” Macintosh.
• The iPod Shuffle is Apple’s entry into the flash-based music player market. Weighing 1 ounce, it comes in 512M ($99) and 1G ($149) models and uses USB2 for data transfer.

The iPod Shuffle is available immediately; the Mac Mini will be available starting January 22nd.

Apple has finally added a section of its website geared towards IT Professionals.