Paul McCartney: “It’s all happening soon,” he told Billboard.com. “Most of us are all sort of ready. The whole thing is primed, ready to go — there’s just maybe one little sticking point left, and I think it’s being cleared up as we speak, so it shouldn’t be too long. It’s down to fine-tuning. I’m pretty sure it’ll be happening next year, 2008.” (link)

“Let me put that statement into American English,” says Fake Steve Jobs. “Paul wants more money.”

First Leopard Update: More than a dozen improvements in Mac OS X 10.5.1, issued three weeks after Leopard’s release, including fixes in Mail, Airport, Time Machine, Back to My Mac and some pesky Firewall issues. Not yet repaired: Among the repairs: that nasty core data bug.

iMac Anti-freeze: Apple also released a graphics firmware update that’s supposed to finally solve the freezing problem some aluminum iMac users have been suffering since September. I’ll believe it when my Dad tells me his iMac has gone more than a week without crashing.

Three New Mac Ads: The Get-a-Mac ads are back on TV (and available from Apple here) after a summer hiatus. “Same joke,” writes Michael Gartenberg. “Still as effective.” But maybe not quite as funny.