The official release of Apple's Panther operating system is still 3 days away, but that has done little to stop early adopters. Last week Apple provided thousands of its premier and select developers with the final release of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther for personal, professional and testing purposes.

Apple wrapped-up its developer seeding of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther last week, granting 'Select' Apple Developer Connection members access to the final build of the operating system. Several days prior, 'Premier' members were provided with the gold master of the next-generation OS. Meanwhile, a small number of Apple's select retail partners have reportedly received shipments of the Panther OS, though they are prohibited from distributing copies to customers until Friday evening.

Apple Computer Inc. engineers are hands-deep into the next major revision of the personal computer that put them back on the map in the late 1990's. According to sources, the computer maker is entering the latter development stages of the third major overhaul to its iMac product line.

According to reports, Apple has begun to distribute Mac OS X 10.3 Panther to its Apple Developer connection members. Earlier today, the company made build 7B85 available to 'Premier' developers, shedding any doubts that the build may not have been the true Gold Master.

Over the weekend, AppleInsider received a number of unconfirmed reports pertaining to Apple's future plans for their iPod digital audio media device and accompanying iTunes software.

Last week, Roxio wrapped up the development of a minor update to their Toast Titanium CD/DVD application, sources tell AppleInsider. Version 6.0.1 of the software will address a number of issues discovered with major upgrade announced in August.

Apple will provide support for WebObjects development on Mac OS X v 10.3 Panther with an upcoming WebObjects Software Update (WebObjects 5.2.2). The update will include support for WebObjects application development using Xcode, qualification of WebObjects applications running under Java 1.4.1, and support for WebObjects applications running on the JBoss application server.

According to reliable sources, Apple plans to host a media event at the Moscone West Facility in San Francisco on Thursday, October 16th. Invites to the event are set to be delivered to select members of the media this week.

Revisions to Apple's Cinema Display product line have been rumored since early June, though few details surfaced in the months that followed. At the beginning of the year, the company dropped its 22" model, only to replace it with a modernistic 20" display. Currently, Apple offers Cinema Displays in 17", 20" and 23" High-Definition flavors.

Continuing its aggressive strides in the music industry, Apple's progress in the iTunes for Windows forum has reportedly jumped ahead of schedule.

On Tuesday morning, Apple will lift an embargo securing details of a new product, sources tell AppleInsider. No further information is available at this time other than pricing, which is said to be around the suggested retail price of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther.

Apple has been preparing a set of G5-based XServes for mass-markets. According to sources, the units were being delayed until the release of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther Server.

Apple has, once again, begun seeding Apple Developer Connection members with builds of Mac OS X 10.2.8, sources tell AppleInsider.

3Dlabs, developers of 3D graphics cards for Computer Aided Design (CAD), Digital Content Creation (DCC), and visual simulation markets, is in negotiations with Apple to bring some of its graphics cards to the Mac OS X platform, sources tell AppleInsider.

Multiple sources in the past 48 hours have confirmed that Mac OS X 10.3 Panther has reached Gold Master status. Build 7B85 was 'informally' declared Gold Master sometime on Tuesday of this week. In this case, Gold Master is a term referring to the CD containing the finalized code that will be sent to the CD manufacturer to be reproduced for retail sale.

An anonymous submission to AppleInsider claims that Mac OS X 10.3 will indeed ship this month and that build 7B86 will be declared the Gold Master, if 7B85 has not assumed that role already. A second -- unconfirmed report -- states that 7B85 is indeed the final product and that it will be the version forwarded for duplication.

Apple has not seeded its Apple Developer Connection members with a seed of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther in almost two weeks. Internally, progress on the next-generation Macintosh operating system has pressed on, with new builds being distributed for testing on a daily basis.

In a followup to our initial report on future generation iPods, one source recently commented on the possible addition of a proprietary headphone jack to the iPod product line. Albeit via unconfirmed information from a primary informant, the modification would reduce the thickness of an iPod by a number of millimeters, the source said.

Apple is in the market for an experienced security analyst to assure that Mac OS X remains one of the most secure computing platforms available.

Destined to remain as the front-running in MP3 development and system integration, Apple Computer, Inc. continues to spend significant sums of cash on iPod research and development. Earlier this Spring, the company began forming a team of individuals that would focus their energies towards the creation of the next-generation music pod, sources tell AppleInsider.