This Summer's Macworld Expo has left many of the Mac faithful scratching their heads wondering "Did I miss something, here?". Here's a rundown on recent events:

1) Quicktime 6 (finally) released - After being held up for nearly 6 months due to licensing fee disputes over use of the MPEG-4 codec, Apple has finally released Quicktime 6 to the masses. On a sour note, Quicktime Pro users who registered Quicktime 5 must register again ($29.99) to retain the "Pro" features to cover the additional expenses of licensing fees on the new MPEG-4 codec.

- Download Quicktime 6 here

2) iTunes 3.0 released - New features of Apple's free MP3 player/encoder include:

* Create mixes quickly and automatically with Smart Playlists.
* Now you can play, download and import audio books from Audible.com.
* Sound Check analyzes your entire library and optimizes volume levels.
* Rate tracks, and sort your library based on ratings.
* New MP3 tags note play counts, last-played dates and composers.
* Turn separate tracks into one song on import using Join Tracks.
* Import and export your playlists between Macs.

- Download iTunes 3.0 here

3) New 17" LCD iMac announced - in response to consumer demand, Apple unveiled the newest addition to their consumer model lineup. The new iMac includes a 17-inch widescreen LCD flat-panel display, sports a 800Mhz G4 processor, comes with a SuperDrive (reads and writes both CD's and DVD's), uses the powerful GeForce4 MX graphics processing unit and ships with 256MB RAM. All this can be yours, for the low low price of $1,999.

- See the new iMac

4) Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) - Steve also demonstrated the next major upgrade to Mac OS X, which is scheduled to ship on August 24. New features are too numerous to list, so be sure to check out the link below. The upgrade will retail for $129.00.

- Read all about Mac OS X 10.2

5) iPod redesign - the iPod (Apple's portable MP3 player) also got an upgrade. New models sport a slimmer case design and is now available with either 5, 10 or 20 GB disk storage. See link below for pricing/configurations.

- See the new iPod

6) iTools rebranded as .MAC - In a shocking and controversial move, Apple announced today that effective September 30th, existing mac.com (iTools) users must either shell out $49.95 a year ($99.95 per year for new users) or lose their formerly free mac.com (iTools) accounts. The new .MAC service includes an increase to 100MB of iDisk storage, and comes with a "free" subscription to Virex (virus protection software). The current buzz on many other popular Mac sites regarding this new policy generally seems to be "Up yours, Apple" and "Hell, no!!! We won't pay!". Several petitions have already started urging Apple to reconsider this move, but past experience has shown that these online petitions do little to sway unpopular decisions once they've been made. Only time will tell if Apple will reconsider. In times of economic crisis, and with a market share as small as Apple has, pissing off your customers is generally a Bad Idea™.

- Read more about the new .MAC service

- Sign the petition for Apple to reconsider this move

Overall, this summers Macworld was rather "ho-hum" compared to previous Macworld Expo's. Given the current economic crisis, Apple continues to do well, though - last week posting a net profit of $32 million for last quarter (down from $61 million for the same quarter last year). Steve Jobs was quoted as saying "Not losing a lot of money is, unfortunately, a shining achievement in today's PC market".

Until the next update, keep the faith. Things are bound to get better.