Live Blog: It's Back to the Mac at Apple Today

A couple of days after reporting record sales and earnings, Apple is hosting an event at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters that it is billing "Back to the Mac." Though Apple's famous for not offering much in the way of advance information about its media events, we don't think it's a big stretch to suggest that the topic du jour will be its flagship desktop computer.

Though Apple's quarterly shipments of iPhones (14.1 million) and iPads (4.1 million) outstrip sales of Macs (3.89 million), Apple's Mac continues to enjoy strong sales. In fact, Apple sold more Macs than ever during its last quarter. What's more, Apple's share of the larger desktop computer business is bigger than at any point in its recent history. All this without a major operating system upgrade or overhaul of its lineup. In all likelihood, that will change today.

We'll find out more when the festivities begin at 10 a.m. PDT, when our sister site CNET will be live blogging the news.

An invitation sent to reporters and bloggers last week showed Apple's logo opening like a door to reveal the image of a lion. That's a big hint, because Apple has named the versions of OS X after large cats - the most up-to-date version is Snow Leopard, and older iterations include Leopard, Tiger and Panther. In addition to new OS X software, Apple is rumored to be unveiling an updated edition of its ultralight MacBook Air laptop. Apple tends to update its computers once a year, but it hasn't made any improvements to the MacBook Air since June 2009. Apple may also rework its iLife suite, which includes programs for photo management and movie editing