Briefly: WWDC info, .Mac file-sharing, PowerMac clone

At 10:00 PM eastern time on Tuesday, Apple updated its World Wide Developer's Conference Web site with details on more than 130 sessions planned for the annual developer expo.

All of the session listings include a brief description with the exception of "Mac OS X State of the Union," which is completely blank. Apple is expected to fill this gap when it unveils Mac OS X 10.5, currently code-named Leopard, during chief executive Steve Jobs' inaugural keynote address on August 7, 2006.

"More than 130 sessions are planned, as well as dozens of hands-on labs, so stay tuned, we’ll be adding many more details over the next few weeks," the company wrote. It's offering $300 off the cost of attendance until June 23 when the price of admission will return to $1,595.

New easy iDisk Public folder web address

In a message on the .Mac blog today, Apple announced a new simpler way to access iDisk Public folders with a browser. Subscribers of the Internet service may now enter the URL idisk.mac.com/membername-Public to produce a page that automatically includes download links for whatever's currently in membername's Public folder.  

"All you need to do is give the URL for your iDisk Public folder to the friends and colleagues you share with," Apple said. "They'll see and be able to download whatever you put in there, whenever they visit the page."

User may also let friends and colleagues use their iDisk Public folder page to upload and share files themselves. To do so, select the iDisk pane in .Mac System Preferences and pick the Read/Write option for your Public Folder.

"You can even add password-protection if you want to limit access only to those you give the password to," Apple said. "If you add password-protection, your visitors will be prompted for a password when they first visit your Public folder."

The company notes that visitors should enter "public" (without the quotes) in the Name field when prompted for the Name and Password by Safari.

Illegal PowerMac clones surface

First iPods, now Macs. The guys over at the OSx86 Project caught wind of this unauthorized Intel-based PowerMac clone for sale on a South American Web site.

The $500 "PowerPC G6 Macintosh", an "Apple G6 Macintosh-Clone Computer" with a 3.8GHz Pentium 4, comes pre-loaded with something the seller calls "Mac OSX-86 Apple MacOS X Tiger 10.4.3."

Apple's legal department has apparently overlooked the illegal operation, which appears to have been going on for a while with the help of manufacturing facilities in China and South America. The seller lists its current "supply ability" of the machines at 10,000 units.