Type of Article: MacMinute Web Site

During the past week, our friends at MacDesktops have posted 14 new pictures, including: Alice (Games), Caprice Bourett (Portraits), Crystal starburst (Art), Our Lady of the Assassins (Movies), and Sexy Power (Show some skin). MacDesktops is updated daily with two new pictures.

Microsoft and the U.S. Justice Department have reached an antitrust settlement that calls for the software giant to be more flexible with PC makers and to share the inner workings of Windows with competitive software firms. The 18 states participating in the suit have until Tuesday to decide whether to accept the settlement—a shadow of the original proposal that suggested splitting the company in two.

MacMinute has learned that Apple has added previous-generation 600MHz iMacs (Blue Dalmatian M7675LL/A, Flower Power M7679LL/A, and Graphite M7680LL/A) to its Snap It Up promotion, which offers customers a US$150 rebate or free HP PhotoSmart 318xi digital camera. In short, all 600MHz and 700MHz iMacs that are purchased as new are now eligible for the promotion. Apple has yet to update its materials with this information, however.

One of Taiwan’s largest notebook computer makers today dismissed rumors that it had won a contract from Apple to manufacture 600,000 handhelds. Inventec Corp. manufactures PDAs, but said it knows nothing of a contract with Apple. “Several [of] our top executives met this morning and no one knows anything about winning Apple orders,” Inventec Finance Manager Lee Kui-lan told Reuters.

Apple reportedly lost $50 million to $75 million as a direct result of the September 11 attacks, according to a Bloomberg News report that quoted Apple controller Peter Oppenheimer. The losses came as a result of reduced consumer demand and the disruption in air traffic that crimped supplies of components and deliveries of computers. Oppenheimer added that “it’s difficult to tell” how much of the lost business will return, due to the continued weakness of the economy.