Gearfuse

The 6th major release of Apple’s Mac OS X is slated for release as early as late March, says sources. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, which became available for testing last August, is marked as a major release featuring the added innovated feature of both 64-bit and non-emulated 32-bit drivers.

64-bit capability allows users to use higher then 4GB of memory in their computer, and is said to run even quicker then 32-bit with same memory amounts in both. The faster bit-rate for 10.5 Leopard will allow a faster reaction time for loading applications.

Also added to the OS X is a few application surprises, including Time Machine, a automatic session restoration and backup program, and Spaces, an application allowing easy navigation between programs needed for the same task. Along with the new programs comes a dashboard of over 2,500 widgets, improved Spotlight and iChat support, and a “Core Animation” developers tool for minimal coded animation. — Andrew Dobrow

Report: Apple to release Mac OS X Leopard as early as end of march [MacDailyNews]

Yet another patent has been filed hinting at a cell phone with a form of iTunes integration. The patent was published on November 30th and is listed as Serial Number 501184. Though this patent does not mention the iPhone, it does hint to wireless portable computing device. According to the application:

A portable computing device capable of wireless communications, the portable computing device comprising: an enclosure that surrounds and protects the internal operational components of the portable computing device, the enclosure including a structural wall formed from a ceramic material that permits wireless communications.

Despite how vague Apple is sounding with this patent, this is very much how Jobs and the boys do things before they release one of their most beautiful of devices [say perhaps at MacWorld?] By now we’ve all heard about how Apple will show off two versions of the iPhone and apparently they will be open to all networks! And of course, we’ve also heard about how the first generation iPhones have already been ordered for an early 2007 release. So it looks more and more like the iPhone is becoming a reality. We sure hope so. See you at MacWorld, iPhone! — Zach Wilt

Apple Patent Hints at iPhone [eWeek]