Apple’s .Mac service may see a significant upgrade, with new features set for introduction beside the launch of iPhone Software 2.0 in June.

Multiple reports this week have claimed Apple’s preparing to introduce ‘push’ email support to its subscription service, but it appears there’s even more improvement planned.

Among other new features, .Mac users can perhaps look forward to full over the air synching of calendars, contacts and email; .Mac synching on Windows and more.

These features will raise the bar and versatility of Apple’s sometimes criticised subscription-only service, while enabling .Mac users to enjoy similar features to those offered through Microsoft Exchange.

 Apple and Google are testing a way to link YouTube with the iTunes Store, offering links to video available for sale on iTunes beside selected YouTube clips.

Apple has been experimenting with strategies to link iTunes up with social networking websites, and offers a referral scheme to those who want to link their sites up with the service.

Early reports suggest the new system’s in testing right now, as the iTunes links are appearing beside only a handful of YouTube clips (such as one from Kanye West), and the move is only visible to US users at this time.

 AT&T yesterday updated its iPhone website, promising use of 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across the US as included within the regular iPhone tariffs - only to remove all references to this later that day.

The company briefly last week switched on Wi-Fi access at its hotspots across the country, switching it off just a few days later. 

At the time, the company offered no information on its moves, but its updated page now promises: “Access to AT&T's more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, including Starbucks all for use in the US.”

The updated information on the company’s iPhone pages (in the Plans section) strongly suggests access to the hotspots will once again be enabled at an immediate future point.

 NBC has begun offering iPhone and iPod touch users in the US the chance to stream full episodes of the broadcaster’s shows, despite not making these available through iTunes.

Like the BBC’s iPlayer service in the UK, shows aren’t being made available for streaming to audiences outside the US, who will see a message warning them the streams aren’t available from their location.

NBC’s shows - including The Office - are streamed in QuickTime format and are made available ad-free.

iPhone or iPod touch owners wanting a slice of NBC’s goodness simply need to visit the NBC.com website, click on the video tab, and they’ll get the chance to select between available shows, many of which offer full episode streams for viewing.

 iTunes offers music at inflation-busting prices, it seems, with the 99-cents per track price remaining static since the service launched in 2003.

Now, we’re not saying prices should go up - but we are interested in a recent Digital Audio Insider analysis of the inflation-adjusted price of a download through the service, which reveals that should prices have kept up with inflation, songs would now cost $1.14. And by 2012 songs will cost the equivalent of 74-cents a track, assuming prices remain static.

That download prices have remained static isn’t so remarkable when you consider the continuously falling price of CDs.

 Apple’s UK iPhone network partner O2 has sold out of iPhones.

 America Movil will sell iPhone across Latin America starting this year.

The largest cell phone operator made the announcement today, the latest in what appears a fashionable string of mobile telcos to let investors know they’ve bagged distribution rights for the Apple mobile phone. It had been thought local operator Telcel would take this prize, though with recent indications that Apple isn't seeking wholly exclusive deals, there's still an outside chance Telcel will get to carry the device.

With a subscriber base of 153 million in 2007, America Movil operates in 15 markets in the region, including Brazil, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The public company is pretty much commanded by the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim, who ousted Bill Gates from the top of the pile last year.

 Ten years ago this week Apple introduced the product which single-handedly helped the company rebound back into the ascendancy, the iMac.

We thought it worth a repeat of then Apple iCEO Steve Job’s introduction of the new $1299 system, which offered a 233MHz G3 processor, 32MB of memory, a 4GB drive, USB and a CD-ROM drive (and built-in modem). Critics at the time slammed the system’s lack of a floppy drive, but ten years on and the iMac is still here. The floppy drive is not.

Happy birthday, iMac.

 The iPhone has revolutionised the mobile web, senior mobile executives agree, and heightened activity in terms of WiMax deployment may offer even more opportunities for Apple ahead.

Peter Cannistra, VP-strategic partnerships for WiMax, Sprint, Nextel, told Digital Hollywood that the iPhone is ““a great first mover; it’ll be improved on and imitated and really will be the catalyst for a lot of devices in the future.”

Cannistra was speaking as part of an experts panel at Digital Hollywood. He shared his space with Michael Ball, account lead, Interpublic Emerging Media Lab; David Shim, Sybase 365 VP-product management and strategy; Larry Berkin, senior director; Access Systems; Brian Johnson, executive chairman, mBlox; and Lee Hancock, CEO, go2.

Others on the panel agreed the iPhone would generate a wave of copy-cat phones, but suggested the future of mobiles will include larger touch screens and the evolution of a truly mobile internet, with iPhone imitators embracing Google’s Android platform for future evolutions.