Rumor Mill: Atom smashed? MacBooks, location, Time Machine (updated)

It's Friday, which means that it's time to look at the latest raft of rumors about our favorite Cupertino company.

Atom-powered mini-tablet This one was pretty hot. ZDNet.de reported that Intel Germany CEO Hannes Schwaderer confirmed that there is an iPhone that will be using Intel's new Atom processor. According to lore, the elusive device is slightly larger than iPhone and speculation that it could be the long-rumored Apple mini-tablet with a 720 x 480 display.

Intel smashed this one pretty quickly, yesterday saying that Schwaderer's comments were misinterpreted. Intel merely believes that the iPhone is representative of a new kind of platform (called the Mobile Internet Device or MID) and that Atom is expected to form the heart of many MIDs.

Aha. Sounds like Steve-O bitch-slapped a few people at Intel and they retracted their statements. Where there's smoke, there's fire folks. But hey, that's me. I just really want an Apple mini-tablet.

New MacBooks coming in Q3 2008 Reports suggests that the next MacBook revisions will drop in Q3 2008 (July-September). The shipment target for this new MacBook is said to be three million units and we're anticiapting a shift from plastic to Aluminum in the MacBook. AI: "the notebooks should more closely resemble the overall appearance of Apple's aluminum iMacs and the MacBook Air" (Via: Marketwatch, Commercial Times, AppleInsider).

Location-based iPhone content Remember the patent application from back in December 2007 that would allow iPhone owners to place orders from local stores (like the famous Starbucks iPhone application)? Well, a new patent application expands that concept to different types of local content, including events, movies, concerts and restaurants. This type of application would make great keynote fodder at WWDC, no? (Tip: MacRumors).

Time Machine changes in 10.5.3 A new option coming in Mac OS X 10.5.3 will allow Time Machine users to make backups while on battery power. Currently Time Machine suspends backups when a MacBook's power cord is disconnected, then resumes when connected to power again. (Tip: AI) Who cares! I only need one thing from Time Machine: a) real scheduling, i.e. don't back me up from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. when I'm working, or do back me up at 3 a.m. every night. I'm tired of clicking the "Stop Backing Up" menu all the time, damnit!

10.5.3 delay theories My brother Jason discussed this on his podcast last night and I agree with him. I think that Apple is holding up the 10.5.3 update to screw with Psystar. The Open Computer came out midway through the development cycle for 10.5.3 and Apple's trying to make it as difficult as possible to hack it to load on the POC. Rob Parker thinks that there's a bunch of iPhone 3G and App Store stuff in 10.5.3 that Apple doesn't want to release until after WWDC, which makes more sense, but my theory's more fun!