Joe Wilcox shoots for the easy hits and I comply:There is much to like about Leopard, but this cat scratches—oh, am I wounded. What's bugging me about Leopard is what bugged me about Vista eight months ago: Feature or UI changes made without really good reasonsApplication compatibility problemsDiminished performance compared to the predecessor operating systemIrksome sense the software shipped before being really readyIf you're not up on Apple's SOP, that last point is what they always do, Joe. In fact, the company shipped its first Leopard update less than 24 hours after it hit retail. Expect plenty of updates in the weeks ahead.Like Microsoft, Apple has added new and annoying security prompts to the operating system. This morning, I downloaded an updated NewsFire RSS reader and got a warning popup asking if I really wanted to open this application—because it came from the Internet. Maybe Apple's user interface designers should watch their own TV commercialsUm. No offense, but Apple had their version of UAC well before Microsoft did. That it's even more annoying in Leopard says a lot about the company's hypocrisy obviously.Leopard is no better than Vista, in the sense that some—perhaps many—of the same migration complaints and problems apply. Windows' visibility and exponentially large number of applications amplify its complaints. There are more potential problems to have with Windows compared to Mac OS X. Besides, Microsoft is the successful company so many people love to hate. Criticism is easy, and it's frequent.Exactly. Both companies sell OSes, so it seems like a fair comparison. But there are one billion people using Windows right now, compared to about 25 million on Mac OS X. Do the math.By comparison, Vista's shakedown is largely over. I have little to complain about and lots more to like about Vista than I did in February.Yep. It just keeps getting better, no doubt about it.It will be interesting to watch the Mac lobbyists go nuts on thi...More

Apple PR:Apple today announced that it sold (or delivered in the case of maintenance agreements) over two million copies of Mac OS X Leopard since its release on Friday, far outpacing the first-weekend sales of Mac OS X Tiger, which was previously the most successful OS release in Apple’s history. Sales included copies sold at Apple’s retail stores, Apple Authorized Resellers, the online Apple Store, under maintenance agreements and bundled with new Mac computers.I'm surprised they don't count copies downloaded via Bit Torrent in that total; they've pretty much counted everything else. Still, good numbers, and probably about 40-50 percent of what the overall retail sales will look like for the life of the system....More

The Wall Street Journal reports that the long-rumored Google Phone is happening:Google Inc. is close to unveiling its long-planned strategy to shake up the wireless market, people familiar with the matter say. The Web giant's ambitious goal: to make applications and services as accessible on cellphones as they are on the Internet.Within the next two weeks, Google is expected to announce its plans to bring Google-powered phones to market by the middle of next year, people familiar with the situation say. In recent months Google has approached several U.S. and foreign handset manufacturers about the idea of building phones tailored to Google software, with Taiwan's HTC Corp. and South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. mentioned in the industry as potential contenders. Google is also seeking partnerships with wireless operators. In the U.S., it has the most traction with Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA, while in Europe it is pursuing relationships with France Télécom's Orange SA and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.'s 3 U.K., people familiar with the matter say. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.The Google-powered phones are expected to wrap together several Google applications -- among them, its search engine, Google Maps, YouTube and Gmail email -- that have already made their way onto some mobile devices. The most radical element of the plan, though, is Google's push to make the phone's software "open" right down to the operating system, the layer that controls applications and interacts with the hardware. That means independent software developers would get access to the tools they need to build additional phone features.Put simply, it seems like the exact opposite of the iPhone, though of course Apple is racing to change that. I wonder whether the 'gPhone" influenced that decision at all? ...More

So a number of readers spied something in my Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard screenshots that I was trying to subtly get out there: Apple is so lame and so childish that the icons it uses in Leopard for networked Windows PCs are CRT displays with a Windows blue screen of death. (See this image for details.) Normally, I'd see this for what it is--typical juvenile stupidity from Cupertino--but now that Leopard is shipping in the real world, a bit of irony is afoot.You see, Leopard has its own blue screen of death. And it's happening to an alarming number of people who buy the new OS and install it on their Macs. Apple has been forced to acknowledge the problem and even use the term "blue screen" to describe it. And they've posted a fix, well, really more of a workaround, that involves an insane series of UNIX terminal commands. Have fun with those blue screens, Apple. My advice: Describe this as feature number 301. Heck, you might be able to wrangle 3 or 4 new features out of it. :)...More

George Ou casts a light on a dirty little secret for Microsoft: It's Windows Media DRM platform was open to the world for a whopping three months.Just over a year ago when hacker “Viodentia” wrote FairUse4WM and broke Microsoft’s Windows Media DRM scheme wide open, Microsoft responded with record urgency in a mere 3 days.  But when Viodentia came back as “Divine Tao” and wrote a second major revision of FairUse4WM this July and broke Microsoft’s Windows DRM scheme wide open again, Microsoft didn’t seem to be as concerned and spent their usual 3 months to patch the issue.  As of the last patch Tuesday, the current version of FairUse4WM no longer works so the ball is in the hacker’s court again to break Microsoft’s latest DRM revision.For those customers who wish exercise their fair use rights, they’ll have to go back to the old analog method of converting their music until the next version of FairUse4WM comes out.I just have one question here. What took so long? When I first heard about this breach back in July, I did what I always do: Buy a song online that I already own and use the tool in question to see if I can bypass the DRM. It worked flawlessly, and if I'm not mistaken, it worked on songs purchased from the Zune Marketplace as well. ...More

Is there anything more heartwarming than this? And for the record, it's called Soxctober, not "Rocktober." Obviously. :)...More

While the Apple hype machine and its fanatical followers would have you believe that Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" is a major upgrade to the company's venerable operating system, nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, Leopard is yet another evolutionary upgrade in a long line of evolutionary OS X upgrades. But that's not a dig at Leopard at all. Folks, Leopard is good stuff. But then that's been true of Mac OS X for quite a while now....More

I shouldn't have written so quickly about not playing Halo 3 single player again: I forgot about the skulls. :)If you're not familiar, basically Bungie has turned a few Halo 2 easter eggs into a full-blown feature of Halo 3: Now there are 13 of them, and each time you find one, you can alter the game experience in various ways, usually to make it harder. There are silver skulls, which aren't actually worth any achievement points, and gold skulls, which are worth 10 points each. Some are very easy to find, some are quite difficult and some even disappear when certain conditions are met.Anyway, I guess I'll tool around with the skulls for a few days before completely giving up on single player. ...More

I'm taking part in one of four Webcasts that HP is doing next month to promote their MediaSmart home servers. Here's some info about the events:Do you have multiple PCs with increasingly large amounts of digital photos, music, video and documents? Is managing, accessing and protecting this digital media becoming a seemingly impossible task?Join HP and Microsoft for one of these FREE live webcasts as they unveil and demo the long-awaited MediaSmart Server, based on the wildly popular Windows Home Server software from Microsoft.This educational event will show you why the MediaSmart Server is the ultimate solution for:Accessing your files easily and more securely over the internetSharing your life online with family and friends using HP Photo WebshareOrganizing your personal files and digital entertainment in one locationProtecting all of your digital media and documentsIn addition to a live demonstration, you'll also hear from consumer technology industry experts, like Rob Enderle/The Enderle Group, Rick Doherty/Envisioneering, Paul Thurrott/SuperSite for Windows, and Ed Bott/ZDNet on how the explosion in media consumption is driving the need for the new home server category. Representatives from Microsoft will also be on-hand to respond directly to audience questions related to the new Windows Home Server software.I can't actually discuss the product yet, but suffice to say it's absolutely excellent, which is why I agreed to be involved in the first place. (Full disclaimer: I'm not getting paid for this in any way.) I'm looking forward to reviewing it, and Windows Home Server....More

I guess that 85 million copy figure I used earlier was off a bit, or a ton if you factor in Microsoft's biggest market, corporations:Windows Vista's numbers keep growing, with Microsoft Corp. saying Thursday that it has now shipped 88 million copies of the operating system, almost double the number of copies of XP in the same amount of time at its launch.In late July, Microsoft said it had hit the 60 million shipment mark with Vista.Microsoft had previously said that it had shipped 20 million copies of Vista in its first month and 40 million copies of Vista in the first 100 days.Three-quarters of the copies sold of Vista were higher-priced 'premium' versions, compared to 59 percent of the copies of Windows -- primarily XP -- available a year ago.The 88 million figure mostly includes Vista-installed PCs bought by consumers and small businesses, as well as packaged copies of Vista sold in stores or online.It does exclude the tens of millions of Windows corporate volume licenses ... Nevertheless, revenue from companies renewing their volume licenses for Windows, which gives them the right to upgrade to Vista, was up 27 percent.Also some interesting Xbox numbers:Halo 3 generated $330 million in revenue;Xbox 360 console unit sales increased 90 percent, driven by a price cut in August and Halo 3-related demand; Interesting stuff....More