Apple’s online store has been taken offline generating a clamour of excitement among company watchers who are already expecting the company to introduce an all-new range of laptops today. UPDATE: The company has updated its MacBook Pro range, read about it here. New model MacBooks, MacBook Pros and MacBook Air laptops have all been speculated upon in recent days. Taiwanese newspaper Apple Daily most recently claimed new MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air models to be due for launch sometime this month. Note: Apple’s MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models were last upgraded in June 2009, while…

You know you’ve made it when the US Army knocks at your door to ask for help. And that’s exactly what happened this month when Major General Nick Justice and several members of his staff traveled to Cupertino to discuss using Apple’s solutions in the field. Major General Justice leads the US Army’s Research, Development, and Engineering Command. He’s considering dumping some of the Army’s proprietary systems in favour of consumer products, including Apple’s army of mobile solutions. Apple gave its Army visitors a much-coveted tour of its labs and talked about how the military is…

Amazon’s Kindle service is nearly fully Mac-compatible, as Amazon today launched a beta of their Kindle app for Apple computers. The free application allows Amazon customers full access to Amazon’s electronic book offerings, and allows bibliophiles to read full books on their laptops and desktops without the use of Kindle. It is also fully compatible with the handheld Kindle readers though, synchronizing bookmarks and pages read, so that users can switch back and forth between devices without ever losing their place….

Apple’s set to account for 25 percent of global desktop sales growth this year, thanks to strong iMac sales, veteran Mac news website, AppleInsider, tells us this morning. The report cites Caris & Company analyst Robert Cihra, who estimates 15-20 percent growth in the overall PC market for 2010 with desktop sales showing resurgence after 24-months slow decline. …

We’re not saying all this is for real but Mac blogs are burning up the story of an Australian ad which seemingly hints at more expensive (ie. new model) MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs and Mac Pros. These ads show new and higher starting prices across these three product families: MacBook Pros are AUD$300 more expensive than the current generation, for example. Clicking on the ads, which appear on PC Authority, still leads to the current range of Macs at the current specs and prices. …

Macs are selling at ever faster levels, with the seemingly recession-proof Apple gaining ground on new sales records, according to the NPD Group. And Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster thinks 2010 will be the “Year of the Mac”. The latest NPD retail data shows Apple continued to enjoy strong Mac and iPod sales across the start of this year, with February figures revealing significant year-on-year growth. Piper Jaffray analyst, Gene Munster, tells us Februray Mac sales climbed 43 per cent for the month – and that’s after a January increase of 36 per cent. In all, Mac sales for the first two…