Around the Web it's kind of quiet really, essentially what’s emerging today includes: Apple prepares to upgrade .Mac; Steve Jobs is an iPhone inventor; a series of sync solutions for Macs and various devices have appeared; some Web sites think Apple may have filmed an iPhone commercial in a New York retail store; and Apple plans its biggest ever student promotion in the US.

Apple preps .Mac upgrade

We hoped for it, we dreamed of it, we even chanted ourselves silly so one day Apple would make .Mac worth paying for. Well, looks like our hopes may be answered, with news of a re-branding of the service. A name change just won't be enough, so we rather hope for new features, too.

Steve Jobs iPhone

He invented the iPhone, you know, it says so right here. And the device will offer video conferencing and GPS, video recording and a blogging app. Yippee!!

Sync solutions

Could the wave of syncronisation solutions reaching the Mac be connected to work completed in preparation for the mooted .Mac upgrade? We’d ask the developers, but they won’t break an NDA. Check these apps:

MarkSpace - Missing Sync for Windows/Palm 

Nova - FoneLink 2.0 for Macs.

Filming the commercials

Apple seen filming commercial at New York Fifth Avenue Store. We see no sense repeating this, when those enthusiastic eagle-eyed watchers at The iLife have a live blog, pictures and everything. Rumour has it Apple was filming a commercial for the new 3G iPhone. (Oh yeah, the iLife servers are being hammered right now, expect slow loads etc., etc..)

Knowledge is power

“Education is in our DNA,” Apple executives are prone to say, and with the company now being the biggest laptop seller to US education - bigger than those fraudulent, deceptive and false advertising types over there at Dell - then it’s pretty clear Apple’s preparing to up the ante to consolidate its place in the market. The company will next week launch a promotion to those eligible under its student discount scheme, offering the best set of incentives yet to stimulate sales. A little bird told us that some think an iPod touch may be part of the tantalizing temptation, as Apple weaves together another slice of its wireless ecosystem.