PC Magazine 'Leopard is “by far the best operating system ever written'

This is pretty major considering it's from PC mag (they are usually heavy Windows and Anti-Mac)"In his 4.5-star (out of 5) review of Leopard, Edward Mendelson (pcmag.com) maintains that Leopard is “by far the best operating system ever written for the vast majority of consumers, with dozens of new features that have real practical value.” Mendelson “found Leopard to be startlingly fast, brilliantly streamlined, and packed with conveniences an"

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Minneapolis Mayor First to Use Plug-In Hybrid as "Official" Car

"Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak may be the first mayor in the nation to drive a plug-in hybrid vehicle as his official city car. Since he was first elected in 2002, Mayor Rybak’s official car has been a Toyota Prius. But the dramatically superior gas mileage of a plug-in hybrid vehicle prompted him to make the switch."

Very cool stuff. No public smoking at all and people that support taking care of the environment. Why wouldn't you want to live up here?

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Daniel Craig Returning as James Bond in 4 More Films

We already know Daniel Craig will be returning as James Bond in the 22nd film that's currently shooting and due out next November, but that's not it. MGM president Harry Sloan has confirmed that they're bringing back Daniel Craig for four more James Bond films, making him the star in at least five total. How does he shape up to the other Bonds?

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Leopard will open the Mac OS X floodgates (and embarrass Microsoft) | The Digital Home - Don Reisinger - cnet.com

Leopard will open the Mac OS X floodgates (and embarrass Microsoft) | The Digital Home - Don Reisinger blogs about the tech closest to home - CNET Blogs: "Simply put, Mac OS X Leopard is one of the most significant operating system achievements we have witnessed in years. "

Good points about how M$ is failing and he expects Leopard to outsell Vista.

AT&T demands CA wildfire victims return their satellite dish

AT&T is charging a CA couple $300 for the satellite dish they didn't retrieve as their house burned down....fuckin AT&T. Get it together people.

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Leopard: Faster, Easier Than Vista - WSJ.com

Personal Technology - WSJ.com: "The Mac is on a roll. Apple Inc.'s perennially praised but slow-selling Macintosh computers have surged in popularity in the past few years, with sales growing much faster than the overall PC market, especially in the U.S. By some measures, Mac laptops are now approaching a 20% share of U.S. noncorporate sales, up from the low single digits where they once seemed stuck."

This is all over the tech news today, but I figured I'd add my it to my blog too. Uncle Walt wrote a good review. I disagree with the downplaying of some things and omission of some things I think are worth mentioning. Good article overall though and it's clear from almost every review that Apple beats M$ hands down with this release when compared to Vista.

Gmail gets IMAP - MAJOR NEWS!!

Gmail gets IMAP - Download Squad

WHOA! Major news for me. I've been wanting Google to add IMAP to their Gmail service for months now. This is great!

Not only did I get my IMAP service I also got a jump in storage from 3970 MB to 4333 MB! That's over 4GB of email for FREE! Good work Google! Thank you!!

The real reason for no BC on the 40GB PS3?

GamerNode: PlayStation 3 Video Game News - The real reason for no BC on the 40GB PS3?: "The Wall Street Journal has a new story up about the price drop of the 80GB PS3 and the upcoming 40GB model. Contained in the article, however, is yet another gem from Sony's camp -- more specifically, president and chief executive officer of Sony's U.S. games division Jack Tretton. According to the WSJ: 'Mr. Tretton conceded that removing that capability [backwards compatibility], along with a few other features, isn't dramatically reducing Sony's cost of manufacturing the console but will instead encourage buyers of the entry-level PlayStation 3 to purchase more games designed specifically for the new system.'"

Sony releases $399 40GB PS3 for the US -- November 2nd

Sony releases $399 40GB PS3 for the US -- November 2nd - Engadget: "It's official! This from Reuters: the 40GB model will be on sale November 2nd and the 80GB model will be reduced to $500."

It's official!

Apple - Hot News

Apple - Hot News: From a letter from Steve Jobs: "Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February" 

This is major news on a lot of fronts. There are lawsuits against Apple and AT&T for locking the phone and preventing third-parties from creating applications and thousands of angry users that had their phones "bricked" when Apple released firmware version 1.1.1 for the iPhone. It's good to see they are still paying attention to their customers.

Apple - Mac OS X Leopard

Apple - Mac OS X Leopard: "Mac OS X Leopard arrives October 26. Pre-order now."

Okay, it's official. Apple will release the new version of OS X at 6:00pm October 26, 2007. It's pretty exciting. Though make sure your computer meets the new system requirements. This version is a little more demanding than Tiger (10.4). If you have a machine that will run it smoothly - anything purchased in the last 3 years should be fine - then get it for sure! It's a major overhaul.

Advice if you're moving to Texas

"3. If you do run your car into a ditch, don't panic. Four men in
the cab of a four wheel drive with a 12-pack of beer and a tow chain
will be along shortly. Don't try to help them. Just stay out of their
way.
This is what they live for.

5. Remember: 'Y'all' is singular. 'All y'all' is plural. 'All y'all's' is plural possessive.

17. A Mercedes-Benz is not a status symbol. A Ford F-150 is.

24. The value of a parking space is not determined by the distance
to the door, but the availability of shade."

Apple, Target, Facebook Tops for College Students

Apple, Target, Facebook Tops for College Students - Advertising Age - News: "YORK, Pa. (AdAge.com) -- They love Apple, shop at Target, use Facebook online and are split on whether they adore or despise the Geico cavemen. They wish they were better at sports, watch TV more often than surf the web and view a lot of YouTube videos, but generally don't create them."

Interesting article. Couple this with the expectations on Leopard's impact on AAPL and the recent news that places like Princeton are eating Macs and hopefully up will keep the numbers heading up!

Apple's stock closes above $160

MacNN | Apple's stock closes above $160

Not much more needs to be said about this. AAPL closed at 161.4499 on Friday. Pretty big deal. Today the news is that they are expected to rise to as much as $255 a share! This is pretty amazing. Check the MacNN story for all the stats.

Macs gaining ground in colleges

MacNN | Report: Macs gaining ground in colleges

Now this has been going on for years, but the article it is citing is from the St. Paul Pioneer Press about schools in Minnesota!

Sony's $399 PS3 confirmed by Best Buy?

Sony's $399 PS3 confirmed by Best Buy? - Engadget: "While the docs look legit and don't seem to be Photoshopped, they can still be faked easily enough. So we did a quick lookup on the UPC code and sure enough, while the details are masked, the manufacturer is listed as 'Sony Computer Entertainment of America.'"

Engadet is showing some interesting news for people who have been wisely waiting to pick a PS3. There might soon be a 40GB model with all the bells and whistles of the current 60GB with a smaller price tag. That coupled with the system FINALLY getting some good games this holiday season and next spring (mostly the latter) might spur some sales that Sony badly needs if its system is going to reign supreme. Oh yeah, Halo 3 is out and you can get a sweet Halo 3 Xbox 360 for $399 or the regular one for $349....oh and Project Gotham Racing 4 is out today!

Sorry for the silence, Leopard is coming!

Sorry for the silence as of late. The primary excuses are an obvious Halo 3 centered mind and a not so obvious issue with the build of Safari 3 in the newest build of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard 9A559. I've been running the latest build for about a week and have been loving it, but there is a flaw. The build of Safari I have doesn't play nicely with blogger.com and it's been a pain to try and post. 

The new Leopard is amazing though. The new look aside and the little tweaks are fun, but there is a huge overhaul under the hood that is really making itself known on 64-bit processors (Intel Core 2 Duos and Xeon processors in the Mac Pros.) One thing I am really happy Apple seems to have put a lot of focus into is Spotlight. 

Now searches on my laptop are virtually instant. No longer does the hard drive go to work and have to go through it's massive index file to find a common program or a vague email I was looking for. It is truly amazing and I've been using it as a primary app launcher because it is so much faster than going into my Applications and especially utilities folder. Good job Apple.

Another thing I really have been liking is the new iCal and new Mail. The system now recognizes dates, numbers, names and addresses. When you hover over a persons name or their signature on an email you can get a map, add them to your address book or send them an email without having to select, copy and paste. The computer knows what you mean! It really is a next generation of computer intuition.

From what I've seen in this release, which only has two known errors, we are VERY close to a release. Along with the news that Apple yesterday announced to Boot Camp Beta users that their Windows installs will expire at the end of October, really nails home that they are almost ready to announce a street date and ship this guy! If you have a newer Intel Macintosh I cannot stress strongly enough how much you will benefit from the upgrades they've put in here for you. Keep your ears perked because this cat is ready to pounce!

Spears Loses Sons’ Custody to Ex-Spouse

Spears Loses Sons’ Custody to Ex-Spouse - New York Times: "Britney Spears has lost custody of her two sons after a Superior Court judge ruled Monday that her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, would take custody beginning Wednesday until further order of the court."

Well, I'm sure most people in the MTV generation already know this, but I figured I'd post it...whoa, posting celebrity news now. Sorry. I'll get back to the tech.