Numerous info bytes following Macworld keynote

Garageband.com, the internet's largest legal source of free MP3 music, and Apple Computer have signed an agreement to share the name "GarageBand." The deal was signed in April 2003 but kept confidential by both parties until now. Apple reportedly paid Garageband.com a one-time fee in order to use the name "GarageBand" for its music-creation software, part of the Apple iLife suite launched yesterday morning. It was previously mentioned that the GarageBand development at Apple spanned a period of almost two years leading up to yesterday's announcement.

90-nanometer PowerPC 970 G5

Apple's Xserve G5s offer "single or dual 2GHz PowerPC G5 processors using 90-nanometer process technology," according to a technical overview PDF found on Apple's Xserve product page. This bit confirms reports that IBM will begin shipping quantities of the chip to Apple this month, in preparation for new hardware announcements.

According to new reports, the 90-nm G5 is now in the final stages of manufacturing. Dependent on test results, this revision of the G5 could top out at either 2.5 or 2.6GHz. Among the other expected clock frequencies are 2.2, and 2.4GHz flavors. The new Xserve G5 makes use of the 2.0GHz 90-nm G5 chip, which will be the first of the 90-nm revision to ship in quantity from IBM.

As briefly mentioned in yesterday's edition, Power Mac G5 revisions are expected on or after January 20th.

PowerBooks

While details of the next major overhaul to the PowerBook product line remain up in the air, sources claim that a major architectural revision to the 12-inch PowerBook is currently underway at Apple. The end result of the modification will aim to further differentiate the low-end PowerBook from the company's 12-inch iBook family, sources say.

iTunes Music Store

Of the many new content additions that represent the iTunes Music Store's half a million offerings, IAmMusicOnline.com is one of only roughly 200 independent labels that signed deals to supply content to iTunes for downloads, according to the Chicago Sun Times. "Content includes gospel tracks from the late Grammy winner Pops Staples as well as James Cleveland, R&B dance music artist Jody Watley, and spoken material that includes poetry from Nikki Giovanni."

iPod mini

According to C|Nets News.com, the 4GB drive that lies at the heart of Apple's new iPod mini's is being manufactured by Hitachi. "Apple did not state which company is manufacturing the drive for the new iPods, but sources close to Hitachi confirmed it is the Japanese computing giant."