Briefly: MacBook, 60GB iPod resets, iPhoto

2.3 million MacBooks this year?

Apple's two primary notebook manufacturers — Asustek and Quanta — are expected to benefit from strong shipments of Apple's MacBook lines this year, Apple Daily is reporting.

Citing market sources, the Chinese newspaper said shipments of MacBooks are expected to total 500,000 units in the second calendar quarter and accelerate to 300,000 units per month in the third quarter.

For the entire 2006 calendar year, Apple's MacBook shipments are expected to hit 2.3 million units, the paper added.

Randomly resetting 60GB fifth-generation iPods

Apple is acknowledging internally and through its network of service providers that some 60GB fifth-generation video iPods may be plagued by random resets during normal use.

Affected players may either freeze or reset randomly while users are listening to music, watching a video or navigating through menus, the company told its service providers and AppleCare support reps.

Apple said the issue is limited to 60GB video iPods manufactured before production week 550 (or serial numbers xx550xxxxxx and prior.)

AppleCare reps are being told to direct callers reporting the issue to an Apple Retail store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider for diagnostics tests.

Technicians will then run an SD RAM test to determine whether the player is in need of a repair or a simple software restore.

Apple updates iPhoto with more eye candy

Apple on Tuesday afternoon released iPhoto 6.0.4 (35MB), a minor update to its digital photo cataloging software.

The update contains a variety of new Greeting Card and Postcard themes for use with Apple print services, including invite and thank you card designs for summer parties, weddings, birthdays, and so forth.