I ask because smartphones have contracts, generally and because of that they seem like a complicated thing to gift. And a personal decision! What do you think about it?

The good news is that Microsoft prepared for this possibility ahead of time, and is prepared to remove the offending feature and have a clean product available for sale by the injunction date. Of course, this decision does not effect current owners of Office and Word products, nor does it affect the beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010. OpenOffice users are also safe, as their suite has been cleared of any infringement. [Microsoft and Engadget]

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but it's a pretty sobering reminder of why parents should pay attention to how their kids play games. The usual concern is violence in the games themselves and dumb kids blithely screaming "fag!" at each other, but there are obviously way worse things out there.

I know MySpace purges known sex offenders and many states require them to register all online identities, including Live gamertags, but I've never heard of any particular campaigns where Xbox Live went after them, so I'd be curious what kind of safeguards they have in place, if any. [SF Gate via Max Console]

I say "quirk" because it wasn't some sort of painful, game-ending problem. But when steering with a virtual wheel during the Burnout demo, both of us noted that the controls weren't quite laser-responsive. Yes, the system was accurate, but an ever-so-slight delay to the movement caused us to question whether it could be used for hardcore gaming apps.

Now, Jon Burton, director of Traveller's Tales (makers of all those LEGO titles), has confirmed that "Lag on the input and lack of physical buttons is really going to restrict the kind of games that can be done [for Project Natal]."

Burton believes that Sony's very different motion controller (which blew us away in terms of response and sub-millimeter accuracy) holds more promise.

From what I can tell at this stage, not having used Sony's controller yet, I do think that Sony will succeed where Microsoft fails—aiming in an FPS will probably work better on the motion-controlled PS3 than it will a 360 with Natal. But I still think Natal has a lot of promise beyond motion control alone, namely that you could use a standard 360 controller AND Natal to have a camera track your head while an analog stick aims the gun.

Burton's comment is just more confirmation that Sony is making the ultimate Wiimote and Microsoft, for better or worse, is banking on the ultimate EyeToy. Meanwhile, I can only expect Nintendo to complete this ouroboros by licensing the current 360 controller along with Halo franchise rights. [Play via Maxconsole]

What You Need

• A Windows PC (Linux dudes, you already know how to do this, right?)
• A Mac
• A router to connect them

Before we get into sharing between computers directly, are you sure you don't just want a NAS?

Talk to Me, Girl

So, assuming that your PC and Mac are both sitting comfortably on your network, wirelessly or otherwise (if you haven't gotten that far, you need more help than I'll be providing right here), there are a couple of different ways for the various machines on your network to talk to each other and share files. Think of 'em sorta like languages.

• SMB (Server Message Block) aka CIFS (Common Internet File System) is Windows' preferred network file sharing protocol, and luckily, Macs speak it, so this how your computers will most likely be talking and sharing stuff. Vista and Windows 7 use SMB 2.0, which is mo' faster for file transfers.

• FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is one you know and love, if you've ever spent any time on the internet. It's one option for sharing stuff between your Mac and PC.

• NFS (Network File System) is the protocol Unix-based systems like to use for sharing files, which both Windows and Macs can understand. A lot of NASes use it.

• AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) is like a secret language for Macs, 'cause Windows sure as crap don't speak it. But from Mac-to-Mac, it's what makes sharing just work (when it does).

Things That Will Help

My goal here is to show you how to share files between your PC and Mac easily, and for the most part, without worrying about things like IP addresses or diddling with your router's settings. But! If you want to make troubleshooting easier—this kind of networking is more voodoo than science—there are a few things you could stand to know and do beforehand.

1. Know your router. Or really, know how to get into it. For most routers, punching the number soup 192.168.1.1 (Linksys, for instance) or 192.168.0.1 (D-Link, for example) into your web browser will take you to the router's settings, where you can fiddle with things (which you hopefully already did to protect your network).

2. Make everything static. If you take your computer on and off the network a lot, odds are, your router isn't going give it the same IP address every the computer jumps back on, because it hands those addresses out dynamically (you might recognize this as DHCP in action, if you're wondering what that acronym refers to). For consistency's sake, it's not a bad idea to assign your computers static IP addresses on the network, so they'll always have the same address—I at least give my desktop PC and Xbox static IP addresses—just in case something else is broken.

Look in the router settings for a reference to DHCP reservations or static DHCP, which is most likely under the general settings tab. Hit that up, like so, and you should see a list of computers on your network, along with their MAC addresses (an ID tied to the actual networking card in your computer) and currently assigned IP address (something like 192.168.1.102). If your computer's already connected to the network and listed here, it's real easy to give it an unwavering address on your network, a matter of a couple checkboxes.

If, for some reason, your computer's not on the network and you wanna give it a static address, like 192.168.0.104, you're gonna need to know its MAC address. On a Mac, just open the Network Utility app and select AirPort—it's the "hardware address." In Windows Vista and 7, go to Network & Sharing Center, and tap view status link next to your connection. Hit "details" in the pop up box and note the "physical address." On XP, bring your network connections, double click the one you want, flip to the "support" tab, and hit details. It's the physical address. Now that you have the MAC address for your computers, you can assign a set IP address to each one, that it'll have every single time it's on the network, which is a handy list to have.

Getting Ready

Okay, let's get our machines ready. We'll start with the Mac, 'cause it's a little easier.

Mac
1. Setup a user account for sharing, either under Accounts or Sharing -> File Sharing in System Preferences. (Unless you just wanna log in from Windows using your regular Mac login, then you can skip creating a sharing account.) Click the little plus sign under users, and then you pull can a name out of your address book to use for the account, or setup a whole new one.

2. Open system preferences, go to sharing if you haven't already, and check the box for file sharing. Click options, and enable AFP (if you've got other Macs you wanna share with) and SMB. Crucially, make sure the account you're gonna be logging in from Windows with has SMB enabled.

3. To pick the folders you wanna share with other users, click the little plus sign and browse to the folder you wanna give access to. Maybe it's your pictures, maybe it's your whole Home folder. You'll need to add each folder individually, especially if you wanna give different people access to different folders. (If you're logging in from Windows with your standard Mac account, you'll have access to your whole hard drive anyway.)

After you've picked the folder you wanna share, then you just pick the user you want to share with, and how much access you want them to have. Read-only, write-only or read and write.

4. Note your computer's name on the local network. It's sitting on top of the main file sharing setting page. And, if you've got AFP turned off, you'll get this dialog, noting the IP address Windows users can access your stuff.

5. Go back to the main system preferences page, then click on Network. Go to the main connection you'll be using, like AirPort, and click advanced. Go to WINS, and set your Workgroup to the same one as your Windows PCs (probably either WORKGROUP, on newer Windows machines or MSHOME on XP).

Windows 7 and Windows Vista
In Windows 7 and Vista, the Network and Sharing Center is where we'll be spending our time. (Here's Microsoft's own guide, if you wanna check it out.)

1. First, make sure in your little path to the internet up top, you've got a picture of a house sitting between your computer the internet globe at the top. That means you've got it set to private network, so stuff's a little more exposed to other computers on the network. If not, click customize to the right of the network name, and set it to private network.

2. In Vista, you'll notice the big ol' Sharing and Discovery section up front and center. In Windows 7, it's under advanced sharing settings. Go in there, and you'll want to enable network discovery, and make note of your Workgroup (so you can make sure your Mac is on the same one) which is listed here. Also, you have the option to turn off password-protected sharing, so that you don't need an account on the machine set up for sharing. Obviously, it's less secure, but if you prefer convenience, that's up to you.

3. Now for some voodoo that's not required, but it'll make life easier and might be something you need to come back to if stuff isn't working, because OS X and Windows shake hands like goons (really it's about tweaking the LAN Manager Authentication Level, so OS X has an easier time connecting to Windows). If you have Windows 7 or Vista Ultimate, go to the Control Panel, then Administration Tools, then local security policy. Hit local policies, then security options, and look for Network Security LAN Manager Authentication Level. There, you want to switch it to "send LM & NTLM, use NTLMv2 session if negotiated."

If you're in Windows 7 or Vista Home Premium, you don't have access to that, so you'll need to registry hack it up. Open up regedit, and look for this:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\LSA\

Double click on LmCompatibilityLevel, and set the value to 1.

For more on this, just Google "vista mac NTVLM2." (Sans period.)

4. Now, we'll need to set up an account to share with. (Again, you can skip this if you're just going to use your regular Windows login from your Mac, though you'll need to have a password on the account for it to work best in Vista.) Go to User Accounts in Control Panel, then to Manage Accounts. Create a new account.

5. If you're going to be logging in with your main administrator account, you can skip this step, since you'll have access to everything anyway. For all other accounts, go to the folder you want to share, right-click on it and hit properties. Click the sharing tab, hit "share," and then you can add users to the share list, along with their permissions. Windows will share it, and give you the network path where you can access it. Alternatively, go to Computer, right-click, and check out the system properties and note your computer's name on the network and its Workgroup (make sure the Workgroup is the same as your other computers, it makes life easier).

Windows XP
XP's interface feels pretty damn ancient when it comes to Networking. Anyways, it's mostly the same stuff, just with a slightly uglier interface. I found this guide helpful when I was trying to remember where everything was.

1. Like before, you'll need a user account and password setup. Go to control panel, user accounts and create a new one, if you need to.

2. Make sure you're on the same workgroup as everything else—XP Home defaults to MSHOME, so if you need to change it, right-click on My Computer, hit properties, then go to Computer Name, and go to "Change" if you need to switch up the Workgroup.

3. Go to the folder you wanna share, right-click, hit properties, and switch over to sharing. Allow it to be shared over the network, and allow users to change files.

Sharing Stuff

Okay, if you've done everything correctly, and the gods are pleased, what you should see on your Mac in your Finder Sidebar under the Shared tab is your Windows computer. (Make sure Shared is enabled in your Finder sidebar preferences, or you won't see it.) Then, you should be able to just click on it, enter your user account and password, and voila, you can get right at everything just like you hoped.

On your Windows 7 or Vista machine, you should be able to click Network, and see all of your connected computers, including your Macs. To login, as Ross McKillop points out, your username is the name of the Mac followed by the OS X username, like this, minus the quotes and period: "MATTBOOK-PRO/matt." In XP, you'll go to My Network Places or Workgroup, and it should be the same deal, though you can just stick to the actual Mac username and password. Life's good.

Update: BTW, if you have Apple's Bonjour—Apple's zero configuration networking dealio, which powers music sharing in iTunes—installed on your Windows machines (it comes with iTunes), the discovery part of the guide above—the parts pertaining to locating the other machines on your network, should just work. That is, your Windows machines should just show up in your Finder sidebar and your Mac in your PC's Networking page, though you still need the accounts setup properly to actually share stuff.

Sometimes, things don't work like that. PCs don't show up in the Finder automagically, you can't login easily from your PC. Network discovery just isn't always that reliable. In that case we go all manual mode. Remember earlier, when I had you note your computer's name on the network and setup a static IP? That's where this comes in handy. So, know either your computers names, or their IP addresses on your network.

On a Mac, it's pretty simple. Go to Finder, tap command+k and punch in:

smb://computername or smb://192.168.X.XXX

The latter is the PC's IP address, which should be something like 192.168.0.105—unless you have a weird setup—though the last two numbers of it will obviously vary. The computer name is easier and usually better, especially if you don't have a static IP address set up.

It'll ask you what volume to mount (what folder you want stuck on your Finder Sidebar under shared, essentially), and a login, and then you're good to go. If prefer the cmd+k approach, you can add computers you tap a lot as a favorite, so you don't have to type it in every time.

It's pretty simple in Windows too, actually. Either in the Windows Explorer address bar, or the Run command type:

\\MACNAME\Folder or \\192.168.X.XXX\Folder

And it should give you the option to login there, giving you access to all of your stuff. Using the full address of the folder you're trying to get to will help with making sure the authentication pop-up appears—otherwise you might just see automatically what's publicly shared and not the stuff you're trying to log into.

Shortcuts

Logging in every single time would be a pain in the dick, but luckily you can make shortcuts to this stuff. On a Mac, as Gina points out here, under Accounts, you can add a network share to login items, so it'll connect every time you start up your computer. In Windows, you can either create a shortcut by right-clicking on the share, or you can add your Mac's shared folder as a mapped network drive, so it'll connect to the folder every time you fire up your computer.

Your Tips and Tricks

There is more than one way to tackle this particular angry bear, so if you've got your own tips and tools to share, please drop some links in the comments-your feedback is hugely important to our weekend How To guides.

And if you have any topics you'd like to see covered here, please let us know. Happy sharing!

Other Helpful Networking How Tos:
• How to Remote Control Your Computer From Anywhere With VNC
• How to Back Up All Your Stuff for Free, No Hard Drive Needed
• How to Kick Your BitTorrent Addiction with Usenet

Crispin Porter Co-Chairman Alex Bogusky (profiled here) posted the shot to demonstrate CP's massive real-time job management system, which clearly lists two ad campaigns, on January 4th and 8th, for "Windows Phone," first as "Windows Phone Q3 Media Refresh" and second as "09 Windows Phone Banners." So who knows what the actual timing for these ads will be, but its a safe bet that ads will be previewed at CES in some way. (Crispin Porter, by the way, was responsible for the Seinfeld Ad campaign).

Windows 7 Customers Are Just so Savvy

Windows 7's tech support lines have been far less busy than expected—but we can't draw any easy conclusions, like, say, "Windows 7 rulz!," because Windows online tech support has gotten much easier to use and online solutions have become more appropriate. People now know to just Google (or Bing) their problems, which probably filters out a lot of the knucklehead stuff. [CNET]

Acer's Olympic Laptop Is the Lamest Tie-In Ever

Really, Acer? You can't think of anything else to do with an Olympic-themed laptop than to slap the five ring logo on the lid? We expect better, Acer. You've come up with some phenomenal, gaudy, ostentatious and downright silly-looking laptops in the past—what's up with this one? At least slap a GO USA! sticker on the front or something. [Engadget]

Sprint Confirms HTC Hero and Samsung Moment Will Skip 2.0, Head to 2.1

In an official Tweet (ugh), Sprint confirmed that two of its Android handsets, the HTC Hero and Samsung Moment, will actually skip Android 2.0 and move straight to 2.1 when they receive the update sometime in the first half of 2010. That's sort of expected; we knew the update was coming around that time, and given the pace of Android's dessert-themed releases, certainly 2.1 would be the current release. So, not earth-shattering news, but good to see that Sprint (and Google) plan to support those phones into the future. [Slashgear]

Leaked Panasonic Four Thirds Camera Ditches the Micro

A patent from Panasonic shows what appears to be a Four Thirds camera, though not the Micro type after which we so lust. Apparently it can flip between optical and live view viewfinders with a hardware switch, and has manual sensor cleaning and anti-shake feature. Rumors suggest it may be announced at CES in a few weeks, but we'll have to wait and see. [Slashgear]

This chart from Fierce Developer shows that while Apple and RIM have been booming, and Symbian and Android have shown decent growth for smaller players, Palm webOS and Windows Mobile have been largely stagnant. Microsoft even managed to lose market share between May and July. At the rate this is going, the two carriers will need some drastic changes to stay in the game. For Palm, the answer could be as simple as an expanded or refreshed product line. For Microsoft, though, it looks like a fix won't be coming any time soon. [Comscore via Fierce Developer via Electronista]

Instead, Microsoft has agreed to give customers a choice of up to eleven competitive browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. OEMs will also be able to choose other browsers to install on their Windows PCs before shipping.

European consumers who already have Windows operating systems will be sent a software update by mid-March that will allow them to easily switch browsers. Going forward until 2015, new Windows buyers will be presented with the choice automatically. Since PC owners ostensibly have access to IE alternatives already anyway, all Microsoft is being forced to do is essentially to remind them of their options. It seems like a fair enough system, which makes it even more surprising that it took billions of dollars of fines to get here. [NY Times]

Microsoft Admits to Plagiarizing a Twitter-Like Service

It was recently revealed that huge swathes of the code in Microsoft's China-based microblogging service, MSN Juku, was directly lifted from another service called Plurk. It's so blatant that Microsoft even admitted guilt:

"We are obviously very disappointed, but we assume responsibility for this situation," Microsoft said in a statement. "We apologize to Plurk and we will be reaching out to them directly to explain what happened and the steps we have taken to resolve the situation."

Plurk has decided not to sue—for now—and will instead undergo some talks with Microsoft to see how best to resolve the situation. Microsoft, for its part, says MSN Juku was built by a third-party contractor, and they've since pulled the entire site. [Seattle PI]

Comcast Unveils Streaming Video Service

Comcast just launched a partly subscriber-only Flash video service, streaming content from a selection of its partners (27 in total, including IFC, HBO and Showtime). It's called The Fan, after the fan-like UI that's used to control which shows you watch. Does anyone want to try this out and let us know how it is? It looks like most videos are free to watch at the moment. [CNET]

Reading Gizmodo May Make You Nearsighted

A recent study showed a huge uptick in nearsightedness in the last 30 years, with in increase of over 80%. The condition (full disclosure: I'm nearsighted, and am thus biased and untrustworthy on this subject) is not very well understood, but may be due to genetics or an excess of close viewing (like, say, books, or a computer screen). The tests can't conclusively prove anything, but it seems (in my totally amateur, but totally confident opinion) that staring at an LCD screen for ten hours a day may not be entirely beneficial to ocular health. [ScienceNews]

MacDonald's Orders In-Store Wi-Fi Be Completely Free, Forever

Normally we'd be really excited about a major nationwide chain offering free Wi-Fi in every store. Hell, that's why I go to Peets and not Starbucks (well, that and the vastly superior coffee). But I have to wonder: Who is whipping out a laptop in MacDonald's? Every time I go there, I just want to grab my ball of meat-grease and run away as fast as possible to scarf down my 99-cents worth of shame in private. I'm not about to take out the MacBook Pro and sip a coffee and converse with my fellow fast food patrons. But maybe that's just me. [Electronista]

The app features some of the hallmarks of Bing, like the endless image search, image of the day and voice control. Some key features:

* Daily image from Bing.com
* Easy to access voice search
* Tips and tricks on the home page
* "Locate Me" functionality
* Ability to add pushpins and save locations
* Show multiple locations on a single map

This app joins similar apps already available for WinMo, BlackBerry and Sidekick (though not Android: Wonder why!) and is available now, for free, here (link opens iTunes). [Bing]

Needless to say, the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) is super-illegal for the average Joe to use, and the breach last month has opened up the floodgates for countermeasures. DECAF is a lightweight app for Windows that deletes temporary files, clears all COFEE logs, disables USB drives, and contaminates or spoofs a variety of MAC addresses once the COFEE software is detected. Future versions could also add features that allow users to remotely lock down protected systems.

Of course, the two guys behind DECAF have not released the source code for the app citing fears that the signatures might be reverse engineered. That means it could be riddled with software that can do God-knows-what to your computer. In this case, it's probably best to switch to Tea—or some other drink that hasn't been corrupted. [DECAF via The Register via Wired UK Image via Gimme Coffee]

Moore was speaking at the Connect! tech conference in London, where he also admitted that Microsoft is "still playing catch-up" with Apple. I guess that's true, in the way that Wile E. Coyote is still playing catch-up with the Road Runner. Windows Mobile 6.5 is a joke, and the punchline is that Windows Mobile 7 has just been pushed back until late next year.

It's one thing to be caught napping, Microsoft. It doesn't excuse falling asleep at the wheel. [9to5Mac via Cult of Mac]

Geez. What the hell is Microsoft using to punish misbehaving Xboxes? This thing looks worse than the one attacked by a crazy chick and a golf club. But we're certain that if Nic contacts Microsoft and shows them these photos of his naughty Xbox, they're sure to send him a replacement. Possibly even one that works. (Provided, of course, that this damage wasn't caused by Nic when he got the unit back, unrepaired, or by yet another nutty girlfriend.) [Flickr via Nic H]

That's a lot of emails—but not as much data as you might first think. Berkeley estimated in 2003 the average email size to be around 18,500 bytes. That's about 379 gigabytes of lost email, give or take a few Powerpoints attachments with slides missing in the "Find a reason to invade Iraq" section.

Mother Jones had details of the recovery process:

Restoration of missing emails promises to be the trickiest part of the settlement agreement. The White House first ran into archiving problems in 2003, but didn't begin to address the problem until October 2005. Only in the final days of the Bush administration did the White House begin working with contractors-including software giant Microsoft-to find missing messages.

Don't expect to see these for a while. The National Archives have to sift through the emails before they'll be released to the public. But expect a thousand Freedom of Information Act requests to let fly towards Washington in the meantime. [Telegram/AP]