TUAW reports that they have heard that Apple will be seeding developers with an early build of Mac OS X 10.6 at this year’s WWDC. This news comes in the midst of reports that Apple is preparing for 10.5.4 — an ongoing maintenance release of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).

TUAW also believes that Mac OS X 10.6 will quickly ship in January 2009, only 15 months after Leopard’s initial release in October 2007. The blog also revives rumors that Mac OS X 10.6 will drop PowerPC support and become Intel-only. 

While we can’t vouch for the January timeframe, MacRumors has also heard that Mac OS X 10.6 would be making a debut at WWDC. We were uncertain, however, how public a release it would be: whether it would be seeded to a limited number of developers or if it would be a more central focus in Jobs’ keynote address.

References to Mac OS X 10.6 were recently found within the iPhone SDK installer.

So could we really see 10.6 to be talked about at WWDC? Lets hope

Apple also announced today the launch of iTunes movies in the UK.

“We’re kicking off movies on the iTunes Store in the UK with over 700 films for purchase and rent,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We think customers in the UK are going to love being able to enjoy their favorite movies on their iPod, iPhone or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV.”

For movie rentals, customers have up to 30 days to start watching it, and once a movie has been started customers have 48 hours to finish it. 

iTunes movies are available at £6.99 for library title purchases and £10.99 for new releases. iTunes movie rentals are £2.49 for library title rentals and £3.49 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at one pound more.

CNet reports (via iPhoneAlley) that Apple is poised to launch the first of the 3rd party iPhone applications at WWDC on Monday.

A source at a software company that has been working on a native iPhone application tells us the company is getting ready to launch that application on Monday, which could also imply that Apple’s App Store will be up and running that day.

A Monday launch of the iTunes App Store would also imply an immediate release of the iPhone 2.0 Firmware which would be much earlier than expected. When Apple announced the iPhone SDK beta and 2.0 firmware, they said the final release would be available “by the end of June.”

Apple has launch their back to school promo for this year. The promotion will run through June 3rd to September 15th and provides a rebate of up to $299 for qualifying people who buy a Mac and an iPod Touch or iPod Nano.  

Apple’s 24-hour flagship 5th Avenue retail store in Manhattan is in the process of shutting down for the night. An unusual move for the 24-hour store. Apple’s retail page reflects the temporary shutdown:

Please note we will be temporarily closed Thursday, May 29 at 3:00 p.m. and will reopen Friday, May 30 at 9:00 a.m. During this time, please visit one of our other two Manhattan locations.

Employees are telling passersby that a commercial is being shot at the 5th Avenue Apple store. We’ve been told that Apple’s 5th Avenue store has only been entirely closed twice in its history: the iPhone launch and the Leopard launch. 

According to MacRumors sources, Apple is actually filming a commercial for the upcoming 3G-capable iPhone with filming to occur inside and around the 5th Avenue store.

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