The G1 will be the first phone to offer push Gmail, which is something we're expecting to see on the iPhone in the not too distant future. Gmail also features a Google Talk presence on Android, thanks to the fact that Gmail gets its own mail app while all other mail services are relegated to a simpler one. You can sync you contacts and appointments with the G1, but only via Google's services; no Outlook and Exchange support here. In fact, you must have a Google account to use this phone, according to Walt Mossberg.

Google Maps offers street view that you can control using the built-in compass, turning the phone around and looking around like you're actually there. A neat gimmick, but we'll see how useful it actually ends up being.

Here's a video Google released on Google Mobile Apps integration:

When we first heard about EFiX—a simple USB dongle that'll let you magically install Leopard on your PC—it sounded too fantastic to be true. Well, I used it to turn my gaming PC into a Mac Pro over the weekend, and I'm somewhat amazed to say this, but it works perfectly.

I grabbed all the updates straight from Apple—including 10.5.5 last night, so you don't have to wait for a hacked patch like you would running a typical Hackintosh—installed a whole bunch of software and have been using it for several days. It runs beautifully, just like a real Mac Pro.

The Process

There are, of course, rules you have to adhere to, as there tends to be when using black magic. The major one with EFiX, and its only real "catch," is that you have to use the supported hardware, not a very long list indeed. But outside of the Gigabyte motherboard requirement (reportedly some Asus boards using a P45 chipset also work), it's actually fairly generic. I just happened to have everything on the list.

If you've got the hardware, the whole process is simple, so that even if you've never cracked your desktop before, you could still get this done with a quick search online for the requisite know-how. I plugged the EFiX dongle into a USB header on my motherboard—not, as you might have assumed, to a USB port on the outside. That's really it for getting your hands dirty, though. I restarted my computer, selected EFiX as the boot device—it was listed under hard drives, actually—and was greeted with a drive selector. After selecting the Leopard disc, it started installing without a hitch.

Okay, there was a slight hitch. My video card, an Nvidia 8800GT, isn't supported by the firmware EFiX ships with. EFiX already has the update on the site, but its updater is only coded for 32-bit Windows. If, like me, you run Vista 64-bit, you will have to install Vista 32-bit on the drive you intend to put Leopard on, just to update the stupid firmware.

After I did that, everything was peachy. The only slight inconsistency is that my 8800GT shows up as a 256MB card, when it's actually a 512MB card, and my 1066MHz RAM is only running at 800MHz apparently. But that's sorta trivial.

The Numbers

Here are some benchmarks compared to some numbers Adam over at Lifehacker ran for his Hacktinosh vs. a MacBook Pro and Mac Pro. Obviously, my hardware is newer—a 3GHz E8400 Wolfdale Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM (running at the slower 800MHz, rather than 1066MHz) and an Nvidia 8800 GT (with the OS only recognizing half of the memory). The total guts of my computer cost just under $800 when I put it together in May, hard drive included. (Mac Pros start at $2,300.)

Day to Day

One thing to keep in mind is that EFiX has to interlope every time you want to boot to Leopard, so a cold boot takes at least two minutes, between booting to EFiX, picking Leopard, then loading it up. And when you go into Windows, EFiX will show up as an attached USB drive. These aren't dealbreakers—once you're up, performance is great. Overall, the experience is really incredible for how smooth and seamless it is. Updates, installing software, everything is just like a real Mac. The best way to put it is this: I've got a Mac Pro now.

I occasionally feel like Windows is running just a smidge more slowly, but benchmarks compared to before I installed EFiX don't support that creeping feeling, so I chalk it up to paranoia.

Is the dongle worth $170 $155 (EFiX USA originally quoted me $170)? That's a personal question. Do you wanna go through the usually more complicated—but free—Hackintosh process? Perhaps the best way to look at it is this: If you've already got the supported hardware, it's like buying a Mac for $155, since you can still have your trusty PC just a restart away on the same machine. Also, even as simplified as it is, you still need to know what you're doing. There's no official tech support, though there is a very active forum that provides helpful answers to queries.

Updated: EFiX USA is handing all of the distribution in the US for E-FiX.com, who actually doesn't do any of that. They were selling units on eBay but their main site looks like it's up now. So far in our dealings with the company (who sent us EFiX to review) we haven't had any reason to think they're scamming anyone, but it's understandable if you wanna approach this with caution. [EFiX, EFiX USA]

You can spend up to $100 a month for various cable and satellite services to watch the new season of programming that began this week. Or, if you've got an internet connection and are willing to be a little more creative than buying episodes for $2 off Amazon Unbox or iTunes, you can view most of it for free. There are limitations, of course, but after digging through each channel's website, I found the sheer amount of cost free (and often commercial free) content to be staggering—even for the traditional "cable" channels.

So here's how you get it.

Network Shows (HD) Grade: A+
We're going to knock out a big "duh" point right off the bat. If you have an HDTV with an integrated HD tuner, there's a good chance you can get all of the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and even PBS) in HD for no cost at all. How? Over the air (OTA) HD via antenna—a signal that probably has less compression than cable or satellite. Stick it to the man by purchasing any UHF/VHF antenna. If you don't have the time/money for a roof mounted antenna, we've had success with the flat (non rabbit eared) RCA ANT1500. It runs about $30. To find the OTA channels offered in your area, go here.

Network Shows (Runner Up Options) Grade: Mostly Honor Roll
For NBC and Fox/FX programs including 30 Rock, The Office, Heroes, and House, Hulu is your best runner-up resource to OTA HD (full show list here). The quality isn't quite as good as you'd get in a standard def broadcast, but the shows are available commercial free online and play instantly in full screen mode. ABC.com is superb as well, offering their highest rated shows like Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and even 4 seasons of Lost in HD streaming. CBS.com is the most disappointing with somewhat random, limited offerings of their programming, and no episodes of their top-rated CSI shows available online.

Bravo Grade: F

Our first cable channel starts with a strike-out. Bravo has a huge thumb print online, all of their content is chopped into tiny clips, as if sliced and diced by Top Chef contestants into a mocking plate of amuse bouche. Bravo's site lacks any full episodes of their big shows; Hulu lacks them too (which is a bit surprising because NBC owns both entities). Moving on...

Cartoon Network/Adult Swim Grade B+
Both Cartoon Network and its after dark Adult Swim alter-ego offer substantial content online. It's standard streaming quality, but the embedded video goes full screen and quite a few original shows (like The Boondocks) as well as syndicated shows (like Family Guy) are available in constantly rotating episodes.

Comedy Central Grade: A+
Sometimes it seems like Comedy Central plays nothing but The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Luckily, both of these programs are available in full online dating back several weeks (the price is that you have to put up with a few commercials). A huge amount of South Park's back catalog is available as well. But don't go to Comedy Central's main site. Instead, hit up the links that we cleverly hid in each show's title.

Discovery Networks (Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, etc) Grade: F-
This is where you take a blow for being cheap. The only programs currently offered online from Discovery Networks are Meerkat Manor, Flip That House, Smash Lab and Project Earth. Plus, you'll also have to download their player (ick) to watch these programs. One of, if not the highest rated show on Discovery Networks is What Not To Wear. Needless to say, it's not part of their online lineup. But kudos to Discovery for not compressing Sunrise Earth to YouTube sizes.

ESPN Grade: A for Effort, C- for Execution
It's not HD. It's not even SD. But while the true sports fan might feel slighted by ESPN360's resolution, no one can question the content. Quite simply, there's more on ESPN360 than the real ESPN and ESPN2 combined. At any time, you can watch a multitude of live major sports games—over 10 while we're writing this. And if you forget to tune in, ESPN360 keeps the content online for 24-48 hours. The big catch: ESPN360 won't work with all internet providers (depending who your ISP is, you may not be able to access the player).

FX Grade: B- and Improving
On their site, FX promises complete shows "coming soon." But until then, we have an alternative. In case you didn't see the note above, many FX shows are available on Hulu. Their complete show listing is here. (Note: Hulu claims to have The Shield, but its links come up dead.)

MTV Grade: B+
MTV is now shoved full of so many advertisements that nobody should pay for it. Luckily (depending on your definition of the word), most (if not all) of their content appears to be available through their website. Music videos along with their top-rated show The Hills are available, as are many of their other shows including gems like True Life and Made. Aside from the commercials, the main catch is the spastic, often unorganized presentation of MTV.com.

SpikeTV Grade: Incomplete
Good news and bad news. The good news is that SpikeTV has an excellent, high quality video player that offers most of their shows commercial-free, and shows are easy to find in straightforward episode lists. The bad news is that if you watch SpikeTV for Ultimate Fighter—their biggest show—you'll still have to tune in the old-fashioned way.

Travel Channel Grade: FF
Complete miss here. But if you enjoy one-minute clips of Samantha Brown, live it up. Their site is chock full of 'em. Otherwise you have to subscribe (!) to the channel or buy episodes through Unbox etc.

USA Grade: B- for Execution
Does anyone watch USA anymore? If so, Monk, Psyche, Burn Notice and In Plain Sight are available on their site. Streaming is fast and quality is somewhere around SD widescreen. About three episodes of each show are available at a time in rotation and a pretty annoying DirecTV logo knocks the full screen player off center. If you're not satisfied with the USA website, Hulu has a nice selection of USA content as well.

When It's Worth Paying For
If you don't have a media PC, then the convenience of watching television on your television may be worth the large premium for cable/satellite. Then again, a few hundred dollars can buy you a powerful media PC that will not only allow you to watch streaming content, but record OTA HD with a tuner. How much is your cable bill per month?

If you watch niche interest channels like TLC, Bravo or Travel Channel, you'll find that only limited content is available at all online (through services like Amazon Unbox) and, of course, it costs money. Still, if you only use Bravo for, say, Top Chef, buying a season through Unbox for $23 isn't the worst alternative to a multi-month cable subscription.

But most of all, if you want to watch non-network content in HD, cable and satellite are both, by far, your best options. Even with as much as Comcast and DirecTV compress HD signals, you'll be looking at a picture that's far more beautiful than streaming web content or what you can buy from Amazon or iTunes (at the time of this writing). But if your service provider still doesn't offer the smaller cable channels in HD, then just why are you renting that box again?

Sony PSP: A healthy and thriving homebrew community had sprung up around Sony's PSP, with alternate, user-made firmware adding new functionality like a wider range of supported media codecs and the ability to share music. Oh, and, well, there was also that little issue of mass piracy of games. Sony issued a number of firmware upgrades—a whopping six each in 2006 and 2007—designed to curb the little thieves, but which had the unfortunate side effect of discouraging the more creative, less piratical wing of the homebrew community. Sony used the "carrot and stick" method, enticing users with marginal new functions when the real purpose of the upgrade was to stop the homebrewers. This led to users actually trying to downgrade, or move back to an earlier firmware. Sony in turn tried to make it harder to downgrade, escalating the squabble into a war with its own customers.
Degree of Evilness: High. This is a deliberate attempt to harsh PSP users' buzz.

Sony PlayStation 3: The PS3's anticipated firmware 2.40, on the other hand, was a simple disaster. The famously expensive console was due to receive a major update, adding the flashy XMB interface to the mix. Unfortunately, while the update did work for some, it bricked a lot of PS3s, producing some very upset gamers. Sony pulled the update and re-released it, repaired, as 2.41, but Sony's mucked-up firmware was the Story of the Day. Bad press, ill will and useless hulking black machines. Not a great moment for Sony.
Degree of Evilness: Low. Simple incompetence from a corporation that should know better.

Apple iPod: Back in 2004, Real cracked Apple's FairPlay code in order to allow music purchased from Rhapsody to be played on iPods. When Apple released an update blocking Rhapsody users, Real cracked it again. Apple released another block update, and so on until Real ran out of steam. We doubt there was much demand for the service at the time, but Apple's clampdown was shameless. Hell, Apple could have played Real compatibility as yet another reason to buy an iPod.
Degree of Evilness: Medium-High. In the end, it was more bratty than evil.

Apple iPhone/iPod touch: When the first iPhone/iPod touch software was jailbroken, a few updates came out under the guise of bug fixing that just happened to make unauthorized use a lot more difficult. This time around, with the 2.0 release, the setbacks were more accidental than deliberate. The new 2.0 firmware may have creaked open the floodgates for third-party applications, but it also resulted in a lot of instability. Thanks to the update, iPhones have crashed at a rate never seen before (well, outside of my last couple Windows machines, that is), the keyboard gained a frustrating lag, "backing up" takes almost as long as the Iraq occupation (zing!), and, in a total affront to common sense, THERE IS STILL NO COPY-PASTE.
Degree of Evilness: Middle. A mix of self-preservation and circumstance, with some brazen stubbornness from His Steveness thrown in.

Nintendo Wii: In Nintendo's Photo Channel 1.1 firmware update, the game maker quietly removed support for MP3 playback in their Wii console. They replaced it with support for the iPod-friendly AAC codec, a far-too-obvious hint at what we all suspected: Nintendo has been taken over by the White Devil. How else do we explain the move from that GameCube controller that was clearly designed for some moon octopus to a remote control so simple I can operate it with my genitals? What about the new and incredibly racist all-white color scheme, the minimalist design aesthetic, and the cavalier and haughty attitude toward competition? Readers, watch out, or Jobs will get you ne-AAAACK!
Degree of Evilness: Nintendo can do no wrong. (And Steve Jobs is perfect.)

Firmware updates that leave you worse off than you were before are a kick in the crotch. But what about the slow, increasingly painful wedgie of unfulfilled promises? Electronics companies often promise to deliver features in firmware updates that, for whatever reason, aren't included at the time of purchase. In the best of cases, this is frustrating: Samsung's P2, for instance, promised Bluetooth compatibility, games, skins and more upon release, but was only achieved, finally, months later. But what if, as in Samsung's Blu-Ray/HD DVD combo player, the product line dies before the promised features (Blu-Ray 2.0 compatibility) can be updated? Firmware updates should be a surprise, a freshly-wrapped hand-me-down present that makes your crappy old gadget seem somehow new again, not a license to shove an unfinished product out the door.

This is just a short list of troubling firmware updates—if you have some firmware horror stories of your own to share, be our guest. And for all of you who immediately click "YES PLEASE!" to all auto-updaters, take heed, and maybe wait 24 hours before doing the upgrade.

To get both operating systems to run, the BIOS has been modified to behave more like standard PCs (rather than Macs or Linux machines). The original BIOS for the XO was originally conceived for AIX and Solaris servers, all running variants of UNIX.

In Windows, the screen flipper and directional pad both work fine, and I'm told by Michail Bletsas, OLPC's connectivity guru, that the camera is also not a problem, as the drivers were available for XP even before they were available for Linux.

You'll note that even sped up 3X what it actually took, Windows still seems a little slow to boot. Michail says it takes a little over a minute for Windows to boot on the XO with 2GB of onboard memory. 2GB of space is needed for Windows XP, though one gets the impression it would do a lot better with 4GB. The machines still have only 256MB of RAM.

And in case you're wondering what that red OLPC is doing in the background, we explained that last Friday. [One Laptop Per Child]

Adding gadgets is the same as adding books. Just type in the name of your gadget and Delicious Library will search Amazon for similar items, allowing you to pick the one you have and adding it to your shelf. Other options are scanning in bar codes for stuff you just purchased either with your iSight or a Bluetooth scanner, or just manually entering in items and adding pictures yourself (the first two options automatically grab photos). We only had time to enter in a handful of our gadgets, but we like what we see.

Any complaints we have are minor, like having to use Safari if you want to manually drag in a URL, or the fact that you need OS X Leopard to run it. The new categories go really well with their lending feature, which you can use to keep track of who has your crap, or just keeping track of when you remove a tool from its home. For $40 ($20 for upgraders), it's a bargain if you're always misplacing your stuff. [Delicious Monster]

Here's the list of all new features announced in Windows 7.

Q: I chose sides early in the HD DVD/Blu-ray shenanigans and unfortunately, made the right decision and supported HD DVD. What do I do now?
A: Try and sell your HD DVD player or Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on as fast as you can. Go list it on craigslist or eBay already. The mainstream hasn't heard about HD DVD's demise just yet, which means you can find some chump to buy your player and movies on the cheap. How soundly you sleep at night is up to you.

Q: Really? You mean my player is useless? Won't there be any more movies released on HD DVD?
A: A few more releases that are already in the pipeline might trickle out in the next couple months, but just watch as all the studios abandon the format and go exclusively Blu-ray. You're better off just selling off all your stuff unless you want to keep it around to win our retro Gizmodo tech contest of 2028.

Q: But what if I already have a gigantic HD DVD library?
A: It depends on how gigantic it is. If it's not too big, you can re-buy your library on Blu-ray. If it's huge, you might want to buy a combo player, like the one from LG, in order to ease your transition. Either way, you're going to be out a bit of money. You might want to just shoot yourself in the face now and be done with it.

Q: I chose sides early in the HD DVD/Blu-ray shenanigans and chose Blu-ray. What do I do now?
A: Besides calling up your grandmother to rub it in her face, there's not much you need to do. Just sit and wait for your favorite movies to come out on Blu-ray.

Q: Right, but how long do I have to wait, exactly, before I can watch Batman Begins on my PlayStation 3?
A: Beats me. Now that Blu-ray is the de-facto format, the studios should be falling over themselves trying to remaster their already released HD DVD movies onto Blu-ray. If we had to guess, it'd be within the year.

Q: OK, now that the war is "officially over," is it time for me to buy a Blu-ray player?
A: Maybe. It's still relatively early in the technology's lifespan, which means prices for Blu-ray players are still quite high when you compare it to the sub-$100 upscaling DVD players you can find at Wal-Mart. Plus, the BD library is incredibly thin when compared to DVD, so you might not be getting much use out of the player in your day-to-day movie watching. But if you really do want to get into the HD game (and have an HDTV to back it up), it's finally safe to buy a player.

Q: So you're saying that I'm going to be paying more for these movies on Blu-ray? When will the prices drop to DVD levels?
A: That's tough to say. For example, Superman Returns is only $14.98 for the DVD version but $23.95 for the Blu-ray version. It's going to take a few years yet for that 23 to drop to 14. If you had to force us to guess, we're going to say about three years. That's 2011.

Q: I don't buy movies, I rent them. When are Netflix and Blockbuster going to get in gear and stock a bunch of Blu-ray movies?
A: As soon as the major studios start releasing Blu-ray movies in bulk. If you recall the VHS to DVD transition, it took quite a while for VHS tapes to phase out, and this transition will be quite similar. Again, if you forced us to guess, we'd have to say 2010.

Q: Screw it, I'm convinced. I'm going to go out and buy a player today. Which player should I buy?
A: Unless you're morally opposed to gaming or having a gaming device in your living room, you should go with the PlayStation 3. It's software-upgradeable, plus it's relatively cheap even when compared to standalone Blu-ray players. You even get a gaming system thrown in.

Q: Speaking of gaming, what if I already purchased an Xbox 360 and want to be able to watch Blu-ray movies? Will I have to buy a PS3?
A: Maybe not. Even though Microsoft backed HD DVD and released an HD DVD add-on, they weren't staking their entire console on the format (hence, the add-on). This means that Microsoft has a big minus in their column when comparing the 360 to the PS3 in terms of high-def DVD playback. It's a hole they're going to want to patch up right away, so don't be surprised if you see a Blu-ray add-on for the 360 some time in the near future.

Q: Can you sum up what I, the average consumer, should do at this point in one sentence?
A: Wait one more year for the Blu-ray format to mature, for more titles to be released, and player prices to drop before jumping in.

Some of these, like the timeline or map result views, would only come in handy if you were doing a specific type of search. While they look pretty neat and could come in handy once in a great while, we can't really envision them catching on in any widespread fashion.

Some of the others, however, look to be much more functional. Shortcut aficionados will love the new keyboard shortcuts, allowing you to zip through a large number of search results without the inefficiency of using a mouse. Don't be surprised if these start functioning on the main Google search before too long.

You can see samples of all Google's new search views as well as make any one of them your default now, so go ahead and poke around and see if one catches your fancy. [Google Experimental Search Views via Official Google Blog]

Boot Camp won out for overall speed, where Parallels won for virtualization (running Windows at the same time as Macs) performance. VMWare Fusion, on the other hand, "wins" by keeping your OS X and Window environments separate, which isn't really a feature but more of a lack of a feature—Parallels does a much better and faster job cross-integrating applications and documents. But if you're into keeping up the wall between the two operating systems, there's an option for you. [MacTech]

This was originally going to be a piece about how Microsoft had no idea what the consumer wanted, where I would explain what I thought Microsoft needed to do to fix it. Oh, I still discuss the flaws, but while talking to the Windows Mobile team, I learned about the next two versions of the mobile OS. Turns out, Microsoft knows exactly what's wrong with the WM platform, and it knows what to do to fix it. Trust me: there's hope on the horizon.

Before I get to the big Windows Mobile fix, it's important to see where it is now. Take a look above at the Windows Mobile Professional (the touchscreen version) and Windows Mobile Standard (the non-touchscreen, usually slimmer version). Got a good look?

The number one biggest problem with Windows Mobile is its UI.

I have no problems with Windows itself, and I work on a Vista PC (along with a Leopard Mac) every single day. WM's problem is that it isn't Windows. Here are a few of the unnecessarily complicated attributes that Windows Mobile doesn't share with desktop Windows:

• It's very hard to multitask. Multitasking is there, and you can run multiple programs at the same time, but everything is "full screen" and there's no easy way to switch between apps. There's no task bar to see what apps are open, and there's no indicator to the user that anything else is open. You actually have to dig into the Start menu, then Settings, then the System tab, then Memory, then the Running Programs tab just to see what's going on! Microsoft fixed this by inserting a dropdown task manager in more recent builds of Windows Mobile 6, but you still can't jump from app to app with ease. Which leads us to...

• Closing a program doesn't really close it. You'd think that pressing the "X" button on an app closes it, but all it does is minimize it. You have to dive into the menus to terminate a program or, on a newer build, go back to the Home/Today screen and close via the top-right icon. Not exactly what we call convenient.

• Different builds work differently. We can see why there are two major versions of Windows Mobile for phones—Professional and Smartphone—since different form factors require different UI philosophies for input. But when you compare the Tablet PC version of Windows with the standard desktop version, there isn't that huge of a difference. If you know how to use one, you should know how to use the other. Not quite so when you switch from the stylus input of Windows Mobile Pro to the D-Pad of Windows Mobile Smartphone. This isn't noticed by the masses, since most people only use one Windows Mobile device, but it is a telling concern. Plus, getting around with that D-Pad sucks.

Beyond OS structural design, the day-to-day usage of Windows Mobile isn't what you'd call "friendly," either. In fact, it'd probably punch you in the face if you even made eye contact. Take dialing, for instance. How can the main purpose of a phone—calling someone—be so hard to do? If you're using a Windows Mobile Professional device, you have a few options, none of which are good:

• You can pull out the stylus to tap in the digits. This requires two hands.

• You can try and use your fingertip to call, which doesn't normally work, so you'll use your fingernail, which does work but, as it results in many misdialed numbers, takes forever.

• You can slide out the keyboard and find the dialpad buried among the QWERTY keys and dial, which requires two hands and intense concentration.

• You can try and bring up the contact list, which takes a long-ass time to scroll through, or you can slide out the keyboard again and search by name. Again, two hands.

• Voice Command has been an option for years, but then again, it kinda works, but it doesn't work well.

• Probably the best way to go is to program your most important numbers into speed dial, as you'll be able to actually talk to the correct person within, say, three button presses.

Compare that to the iPhone, which has just a touchscreen, but gets you to the keypad, your favorites, recent calls or your contact list, all within two key presses of the home screen. Dialing shouldn't be this hard, and the fact that it is just illustrates how bad the rest of the UI is.

These additional visuals should illustrate the fact that Windows Mobile isn't a platform designed for the general public. Even for technically knowledgeable users, there's a gigantic learning curve when picking one up for the first time. Imagine giving one to your parents. Then imagine all the calls you'll get—from their home phone, no less, because they couldn't figure out how to use their new Windows Mobile.

WM's core suite of apps include IE, the SMS client, the email client and Windows Media player; all are sub-par compared other smartphones. There's a reason why the iPhone's browser marketshare is already 0.09% when the entire Windows CE family (which includes Windows Mobile, among other things) is only at 0.06%. Why? It's because nobody wants to go online with that version of IE. They'd rather wait until they get a real computer rather than trudge through WAP decks, insufficiently optimized versions of web pages and hard to use interfaces.

If you're an advanced user, you'll eventually be able to learn how to bypass or augment certain parts of the phone with third-party applications. Going back to the dialer example, the default dialpad has buttons that are way too small to be usable. This isn't unfixable: You simply have to download a new dialer skin, transfer it onto the internal storage or memory card, shove it in the right directory, overwrite some files and restart the phone! What the crap? If you want a nice, full-sized picture of your contact to show up when that person calls you, you'll have to pay $19.99 for another add-on app. If you want to enable certain features, you actually have to go into the registry and manually make changes. Provided, that is, you go out and find a registry editor.

But enough about the software, what about the hardware? Isn't Windows Mobile really slow because it's insufficiently powered? Yes and no. Yes, because there are certain phones like the T-Mobile HTC Wing and the AT&T Tilt that feel like watching old people practicing Tai Chi. Then there's the Sprint HTC Mogul that's fast as lightning and feels more like watching Jet Li destroy a school full of martial arts students. I blame many manufacturers for not juicing up the hardware enough, and I blame carriers for overburdening these phones with too much junk that people aren't asking for, like the AT&T music store or Sprint video shop. (It's a lot like all of that promotional junk that comes pre-loaded on a new computer.) When one phone pisses the pot with lackluster performance, the entire platform gets a bad name.

The matter of fact is, Windows Mobile can do just about anything you'd want it to do. It can edit Office documents, send and receive Exchange email, browse the web, chat on IM, give you turn-by-turn GPS directions, play music, watch videos and so much more. The features are there, but the experience isn't. Turns out, the Windows Mobile team knows it.

Microsoft is working to fix the whole WM platform. Here's how:

Even when using a super sluggish WinMo phone, it's less an example of a manufacturer not meeting the minimum requirements for RAM, ROM and CPU power, and more a problem of software which has not been optimized to run on it. This is often the service provider's fault. For example, two phones with the same 400MHz processor can be totally different depending on how much optimization the provider decides to do. When you're using a slow phone, blame the provider.

On the same token, the Windows Mobile OS team actually does set a minimum hardware requirement for the "core" features of the OS to make sure the user experience is a good one, but the minimum-requirement bar may be set too low. When companies add apps on top of the core, things start to wobble. Product manager Derek Snyder told me that Microsoft will raise the bar for minimum requirements to a level where phones can be loaded with more software without slowing down the most basic of tasks (e.g. sliding open the AT&T Tilt from portrait to landscape mode).

That's not to say Microsoft isn't dodging the problematic UI and the other software shortcomings. Derek admits that, up until now, the team has focused too much on the enterprise side, attracting IT customers with vertically useful features like Exchange support, not on ease of use. Starting from here on out, they're going to be more consumer oriented. "The business stuff has been taken care of," he says.This focus can be clearly seen when you look above at the leaked Windows Mobile 6.1 details we showed you last week. There's an much more streamlined home screen that puts only a few things in your face at once. There's a caller-ID box that lets you easily see who's calling. There's threaded SMS. There's a recent programs list in the Start menu. They are great updates, but they are tweaks, not huge fixes, baby steps toward a goal that may not ultimately be reached until one or two major revisions down the line (read: Windows Mobile 7 or 8).

It is the next version of Windows Mobile that looks promising. First, Microsoft will retool the main suite of applications such as IE, email and SMS. According to them, they will try to bring IE up to par with the iPhone's Safari browser, and deliver "desktop grade" browsing with zooming and scaling and all that good stuff. Then there's the improved music and photo experience, taking what they can from other smartphone designs like Palm, iPhone or Symbian, and integrating it into their own apps. There's talk about doing some sort of collaboration with the Zune team, but that's still up in the air.

I'm holding out for the next, next version of Windows Mobile (WM8). That's the one that will be started completely from scratch, with "new plumbing." This is the version you've been waiting for, implementing a completely redesigned user interface, "revolutionary" features like global search, and new concepts such as automation and connections within the phone, ideas borrowed from other smartphone operating systems. This means that you'll be able to go from viewing a person's address info in his contact card to seeing where he lives in map view in one click. There will be much more of this intuitive flow, and far less digging through menus.

Derek sums it up like this: right now the Windows Mobile user experience is lacking. The features are there, but actually using these features is another story. Normal people can't figure it out. He says it's like using a Creative Zen vs. using an iPod or a Zune. You actually want to use a device that does the work for you, instead of making you do all the work. It took guts for Microsoft to admit what its mobile OS was lacking; we're going to do our part and accept their word that a more robust platform followed eventually by a more headache-free interface is where Windows Mobile really is headed.

Windows Mobile 6.1 pictures courtesy Boy Genius Report; Dialer screen courtesy ZDNet; WM Standard courtesy Into Mobile

We just got a big box of books from the publisher and proceeded to do to it what we've done to everything else we love—stick it down our pants. So yes, please buy the book and make both of our Christmases a happy one.

Oh, and thanks to everyone who pre-ordered. You should be getting your books very soon!Buy my book! [Amazon]

Before the software, here's the hardware we used to explore WinHoServer. Norco's DS 520 has a 1GHz Celeron M processor, up to 1GB RAM, eight SATA II channels, 3 eSATA ports, four USB 2.0 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports and a total capacity of 8TB when using 1TB drives. It's got an MSRP of $649, which may seem high for a headless machine, but it's not quite like a standard Windows machine you've used. True, you can make a Windows XP or Vista machine into a NAS that backs up and has RAID and allows remote access, you need deep networking and computer experience to do so. WinHoSo is designed for the average family with more than one computer. And you pay for both the convenience and the upgradeability.

Here are the main features Microsoft will be using to sell this to you.

Backup: Much like Vista itself, Windows Home Server allows you to back up your computer drive by drive to one centralized location. You can even do this with every computer in your house, provided you've got enough space installed on your Home Server. Like Time Machine in Leopard, this is a fire and forget method of backing up that's painless and easy enough for your mom to do (and if she can't, you can always remote access in and do it for her). We set our Vista machine to back up once a day and it's done by the time we wake up in the morning.

Network Storage: Another one of the main features allows you dump all your files off your computer and onto your network. Homes that have more than one machine can consolidate music, photos, and movies so the files can be accessed anywhere. For example, you can stream music to your Xbox 360 directly from the server. It depends on each OEM's implementation of the software, but most have hard drive slots in front that are hot-swappable, plus eSATA ports and USB 2.0 ports in the back for easy external expansion as well. All the drives—including external ones—are consolidated into one big pool that services your network. When you plug in a new drive (as shown above), it will format (assimilate) the drive and add it to the hive mind (Borg Collective).

What's great about this network storage is that it's essentially a poor man's RAID. You can choose top level shared folders on your server for file duplication, which backs up the same files onto another one attached hard drive for redundancy in case one drive fails. There's also access rights for different users so you can keep your "photo" directory separate from your family vacation pics. And since it's an SMB network share, OS X and Linux machines can use it as well.

Remote Access: In addition to being able to access your files through the network, you can also grab them over the internet with remote access. Setting it up was extremely easy, which is a credit to Microsoft to boil down port forwarding and domain registration to something normals can do. To enable it, just head to the settings, switch on the feature, and the server will auto-configure your router via uPNP. After that's done, you go through the handful of steps to register a free domain name (yourname.homeserver.com is the result) and you can now grab your files from anywhere.

What's even better than accessing files from outside your home is accessing actual computers. Home Server allows remote access connections for privileged users (ones you give permission to) to control certain machines on your network. Connecting requires Internet Explorer, so non-Windows PCs are out. This reiterates the point that this is a Windows ecosystem-focused product. However, we couldn't get remote access to work correctly on 3 different machines we tried—it kept giving us a timeout which we suspect is a firewall/router issue—but we'll try again and update on how well remote access works when it actually does.

Monitoring: In addition to hot features like backup, file share and remote access, there's small features that let you keep your home network in check as well. WinHoSo can monitor the status of all computers connected to it via the Network status section. This, as shown above, lets you see the status of each computer's firewall, antivirus and whether any updates are pending from one place. For families, you can see if your kids have disabled the firewall or the antivirus because they wanted to play some trojan-laced game they downloaded.

Extendability: The Windows Home Server platform also serves as a base for plugins, which either extend the functionality software-wise or act as a gateway or driver for some piece of hardware you're using. Announcements for these will come soon, but suffice it to say things sound very promising.

Do It Yourself: For those of you who already have a spare machine you can use as a WHS node, you can already pick up an OEM copy from Newegg for $179. The installation process takes about an hour, after which you'll be set up with your own Home Server without having to buy a pre-made machine.

In more ways than one, the WHS product reminds us of Windows Media Center Edition, a design that started out as a niche product but was updated and improved every year to be so great that it eventually outsold standard editions of XP—and then incorporated full out in Vista.

Microsoft wanted this to be an easy to use product that families can take advantage of without having to think about it. It incorporates well into existing homes that have more than one computer and want to back up/store/share their data. Norco's implementation is a fine example of how this Windows Home Server will work, bringing an all-in-one kit that's both expandable on the hardware side and extensible on the software side. They may have a hard time convincing people that they need this in their homes, but we're definitely sold. [Windows Home Server]

Norco

Of course, by installing Leopard on a PC, you are endangering the stability of the space/time continuum, risking not just the future of the Earth and our own humanity, but the existence of everything in the Universe. And we could never condone anything that Back to the Future told us was best avoided. [OSx86]

Thanks Jason!

1. Leopard works fine on old machines as long as they're not too old. Leopard only works on Intel, G5 and G4 Macs that are 867MHz or faster—meaning your really, really old PowerBooks or iBooks are borderline. You can try rigging up an install on Macs that aren't too old (like the one we tested on), but you don't get the Core Animation or other fancy effects. It's slightly slower to start up and shut down compared to Tiger, but you get more features.

2. Veteran Windows users probably won't change their minds about switching. If you're thinking of making the switch to OS X, Leopard doesn't provide a dramatic change over Tiger—so if you didn't like OS X before, you're probably not going to change your mind now. That said, the improvements over Tiger just makes it all the more worth your while to give OS X a shot. Depending on whether you absolutely need certain Windows apps (you can find many Mac equivalent apps), you can have the option of dual booting with Boot Camp or running both operating systems at once with Parallels like myself.

3. Time Machine provides the easiest built-in backup software on any OS. Even compared with the built-in backup software on Vista, Time Machine is super easy and super automated—all the while keeping functionality high by including easy-to-use file versioning as well. If you're not already backing up your Mac with apps like the similarly powerful SuperDuper, Time Machine is a big reason to upgrade. All you need to do is plug in an external USB hard drive and everything's taken care of for you, all in the background without any input from you. If you're already happy with your backup method, this will be a marginal feature, but if you're tired of dealing with backups or losing data, Leopard is for you.

4. iChat gives you powerful video, screen and document sharing. Another one of the major improvements in Leopard is in the iChat app. Not only do you get video effects, there's lots of work-focused document sharing and screen sharing as well for working with people over long distances (totally would have been useful when I was writing my book). There's also iChat recording for recording your video chats or meetings for later viewing. That's a killer feature for some, totally useless for others. But if you're going to be doing any kind of screen-viewing with other people, iChat is probably the easiest way to do it since it launches right from your chat application.

5. Leopard is the only way you can dual-boot Windows on your Mac. Boot Camp may have been free before, but your old copy will expire at the end of the year. That means you need Leopard to dual-boot Windows and OS X. You can still use virtualization software like Parallels or VM Ware for using Windows at the same time as your Mac, but you're sharing system resources between the two applications. If you only need to use Windows—and you need to maximize your RAM and CPU—you're better off with Boot Camp.

6. Leopard probably will work with your applications. It's likely that Leopard will work with just about all your applications and plug-ins, but there are going to be a few bumps along the way. For us, our Griffin PowerMate, a NAS driver (which caused us a massive chain of consecutive kernel panics), various Unsanity add-ons and Mail.app plug-ins all have to be updated for Leopard before we can use them again. You should make sure all your critical apps are Leopard-compatible before you upgrade by checking their web sites, otherwise you're going to find yourself actually downgrading back to Tiger while you wait.

7. If you use your Mac every day you should upgrade now. On the other hand, if you use your Mac for more than just a few hours a day, chances are you're a hardcore user. If this is the case, you should definitely buy Leopard. There might not be one glaring feature that makes you rush for your credit card, but all the small improvements—from iCal to Mail to Address Book to Finder—will make your day-to-day computer use that much more convenient that you'll be glad you upgraded.

8. Leopard is not much more resource intensive than Tiger. We've noticed slightly more RAM usage compared with Tiger, but as long as you have more than 1GB of memory it's not a huge deal. You do need about 10GB of free space to install Leopard, but after you're done there's no real noticeable storage increase demands. In fact, we're pretty sure that our MacBook Pro runs faster now after upgrading to Leopard than it did back on Tiger. You probably don't need to buy more RAM for this, but it couldn't hurt.

9. 64-bit performance speeds up newer Macs. If you're on a Core 2 Duo Mac (that's pretty much all new Macs purchased in the last year or so), Leopard will eventually give you 64-bit versions of your apps. It's a bit technical when we get down to talking about frameworks and the building blocks for new applications, but just know that 64-bit versions of the same applications will run faster than 32-bit versions. Plus, you have no performance penalty for running 32-bit applications along-side 64-bit ones.

10. You might not need Leopard right now if you're on an old machine. Although Apple lists 300 new features in Leopard, on a few of them are critical—and none of them are showstoppers. If you're going to buy a new Mac soon, the new Mac will come with a copy of Leopard, saving you $129 in the process. Plus, the cost of iLife '08 isn't included in Leopard, meaning you're going to have to shell out another $79. If you buy a new Mac, you get both of these for free. Even if you're not planning on a new machine, you need to take a good look at the features listed above and see just how important they are. If they're only marginally crucial to your every day usage, it's safe to wait until you really need Leopard for something before upgrading.

Bonus: There are three very tangible reasons to upgrade to Leopard: Time Machine, iChat and Finder/Quicklook upgrades. If you have a good backup solution now, or don't use iChat video, and don't have to browse a lot of multimedia files in finder, you might not need to upgrade.

2:02 - Wilson: Yeah, except it has been confirmed: no R2D2 hologram effect!!!!!!!

2:01 - Wilson: So, you can do file sharing both ways when you're in iChat screen sharing. I can reach into your Mac and grab whatever I want. And likewise, I can drag anything from my desktop and just pass it through. Very Salvador Dali, if you think about it. Or maybe MC Escher.

1:59 - Wilson: I can totally see my dad, when he gets his new iMac, wanting me to take charge and move stuff around. It looks damn good too. Here's the thing: you can see the compression in the visuals. When you're looking at the other person's screen, if you look close, it looks like a JPEG saved at low quality. But from a few feet away, it's terribly convincing. And super fast - I am totally impressed with the speed of the iChat screen sharing.

1:57 - Wilson: Screen sharing: There are two kinds. The first kind is over your LAN, Technically, anything Leopard Mac see in the Network tab on the left, you can do screen sharing. I think you can even do it with .Mac Back to My Mac machines. The second kind is iChat Screen Sharing. What I like about that is that you get the full IT style control over the other users screen.

1:55 - Wilson: NAS—that's the problem, as Mossy pointed out. You need to run a Mini or something with Leopard Server. No shit—Leopard Server. But the cool thing is, you can set that up, with like a 750GB drive, And then have all of your home Macs doing LAN backups to that computer

1:54 - Wilson: Oh, so I don't think you can use a Time Machine backup drive on any computer other than the one it's been assigned to. When you unplug your Time Machine external, nothing happens, but the instant you plug it back in, Time Machine does a backup — in the background. You never see anything, but it silently backs stuff up every time that drive is connected.

1:53 - Wilson: I am just nerd enough to do that, too. Like, you go to these folders that have dates on them, and you click on each one. But I can't figure out the hocus pocus there. Like, how does each folder have a full set of the data?

1:52 - Wilson: Time Machine, Big fan of that. You plug in a virgin external drive and it asks if you want to use it. And then, after the dump, if you don't want to enter the space field and all that. You can actually browse around in file view

1:44 - Wilson: I also like the reflections you see in the dock when you move windows around

11:07 - Jason: Agreed. Good first hour with stuff we enjoy, but we'll dig in deep for the review.

11:07 - Jesus: But first hour has felt good.

Wilson: Spaces is going to help me a lot. A Photoshop Space is what I've been dreaming about for months now. You can select apps to auto launch in their assigned Spaces with the "Open at login..." command in the Dock. So like you assign PS to its own Space, then say Open at Login, and then you're good to go. And anything you do that needs PS will cause the screen to do a George Lucas side wipe over to your PS Space.

11:06 - Jesus: And probably give Spaces a harder try. When I finish Zelda.

11:06 - Jesus: There's stuff that I like very much, like Quick Look or Time Machine. Obviously I need more time to get into all the details.

11:05 - Jason: Yeah, I agree. It's good and has decent upgrades and small, but important (once you use them) features—but it's not mindblowingly better than Tiger. You won't be losing out on anything if you don't upgrade right away.

11:04 - Jesus: Well, time is up. Bottom line after one hour: feels good, but not frikkin' amazing.

11:03 - Jason: That's an hour. So what's our verdict?

11:01 - Jason: The new Airport Menu also looks nice and it's slightly easier to use (it could be just my feeling).

11:00 - Jason:

10:59 - Jason: Oh, and the feature in Mail where if someone says "Tuesday" or "10/31" that lets you mouse over and create a new iCal event for that? AWESOME.

10:58 - Jesus: Preview's new image manipulation panel is nice. Will save me opening Photoshop more than once. Fast too.

10:57 - Jason: Yup, Wikipedia's there in the Dictionary App.

10:56 - Jesus: It seems very niche, but I like these details.

10:55 - Jesus: Definitely a winner. I'm going to use this with my LEGO Millennium Falcon stop motion, instead of using the camera's card.

10:55 - Jesus: I tried the improved Image Capture tethered camera support.

Wilson: Also, Pogue was uppity about Stacks. I looked into it and I get what he was upset about. If you have a ton of stuff in a folder, it will cap out at a certain point, But when it's set for "auto" it will fan it out until it reaches a critical size then go to a grid view

10:54 - Jason:

10:53 - Jason: Stacks are pretty neat as long as the folder you're looking at doesn't have a billion files in it. Gives you a quick way to get in and out.

10:52 - Jesus: And it will definitely help newbies. Much cleaner.

10:51 - Jesus: The Finder looking like iTunes is definitely better than before. And the network access feels faster too. Less stalls.

10:51 - Jason: I actually liked spaces alright from the betas, but yeah, that workplace switching is annoying.

10:50 - Jesus: I just can't stand how it drives me automatically to other workplaces.

10:50 - Jesus: Spaces definitely is annoying me. I'm turning it off.

10:49 - Jesus: "Boobs of the day" dashboard widget, here we come.

10:48 - Jesus: That works beautifully too. Just like Jobs boomenized in the keynote.

10:48 - Jason: Yep, looks great. I now have a widget comparing my gamerscore to someone else's.

10:47 - Jason: Making a widget from a page in Safari now.

10:45 - Jesus: OK, trashing "Pending bills" again now.

10:44 - Jesus: Yep. It works. All is there, like magic. I love this.

10:43 - Jason: Dashboard looks the same as before.

10:42 - Jesus: I'm going to start trashing some files around.

10:41 - Jesus: I set the backup volume to an external drive. I wonder what would you do with laptops. It could be cool to have an HD and perhaps an SSD in a future MacBook, using the HD for backup on the road.

10:40 - Jesus: Wow. It's full of stars.

10:40 - Jesus: OK, Time Machine is up and running.

10:39 - Jason: Safari looks the same as it did on Tiger (the Safari 3 that is). Not much change here.

10:38 - Jason: Frontrow looks very much like an AppleTV. (I can't seem to take a screenshot of FrontRow)

10:37 - Jason: Sync's done, nothing new that I saw. Oh, and Notes don't sync to Mail. Darn.

10:36 - Jason: Oooh, it lets you choose to sync to either Entourage or Address Book instead of first to Address Book then Entourage.

10:36 - Jason: Here we go, syncing an iPhone.

10:35 - Jason: Sorry, I'm back. Running iChat Video seems to crash my Airport Extreme (Gigabit) router though. Not sure what happened there. Knocked my other computers offline too. Had to reset the router to get back on.

10:32 - Jason: Oh yeah, even with an old system it still feels faster than it did on Tiger.

Wilson: Pogue and Mossy bitched about the transparent menus, but from what I've seen, the subtle transparency looks pretty good.

10:31 - Jason: No problems with menu dropdown transparency here.

10:30 - Jesus: FINE! BE THAT WAY! It's nice to see that the machine seems to keep the speed after you install a new OS, however.

10:29 - Jason: I'm running this on a 2.33 MacBook Pro w/ 2GB RAM btw. Eat it Jesus.

10:29 - Jesus: To the guy who asks if it's worthy to install in a iBook G4: I don't know how it will behave in the iBook, but my PowerBook G4 1.33GHz it feels fast.

10:28 - Jason:

10:27 - Jason: I'm loving the new iCal. There's more information on the screen at once, there's a month in the corner, and everything is tighter.

10:26 - Jesus: The whole changing to a different work space just makes me dizzy. But then, Zelda in the DS makes me dizzy.

10:25 - Jesus: Maybe it's just me, but my brain is still expecting a document to open in place.

10:25 - Jesus: I'm starting to find Spaces annoying.

10:24 - Jason: Leopard mail is super fast.

10:24 - Jesus: Before I had to open them, now I can click and boom!

10:24 - Jesus: Definitely a winner. I went to my Giz's illustrations folder and there are a lot of base files and versions with similar names.

Wilson: I like how the new icons show more a preview of Word docs and PDFs and all that. Multiple page PDFs have that binder edge, and have this turned down page, so you can see a glimpse of page 2. It's like, even before you get to Cover Flow and Quick Look, you have some new, better ways to find your stuff.

Wilson: Quick Look is awesome, But doing Quick Look out of Cover Flow is even awesomer. And you know what's even still more deluxely awesomer than that? The Quick Look is great though. Doing Quick Look out of Cover Flow when the folder you are browsing is like on a Vista PC on your local network. That is super deluxe, son.

10:23 - Jesus: The QuickView is going to come useful for me, however.

10:22 - Jason: Idle CPU usage seems to be slightly higher for some reason. Activity Monitor says it's WindowServer and Dock using 13% and 12%, along with mds with 30%. mds is spotlight, so it looks like it's indexing everything. If this is anything like the beta, it's going to take a few hours to finish.

10:21 - Jason: Damn, my Tri-pane widescreen plugin (Letterbox) for Mail doesn't work anymore. It worked in Beta.

Wilson: But Mail has data detection. You can mouse over like an address or a phone number and it just IDs it as data it can use, and it stores it in the right place. Even weirder, creepier, is the fact that it can read your invitations to parties and figure out what day it's on and what time and where, and add it to your iCal. So when the machines take over, they will be scary stalkers. I am not sure we should have bestowed them with this technology. Steve Jobs head atop a robot body, commanding a legion of OS XXV robots

Wilson: Data detector in Mail is pretty cool. But, like, do I care about stationery? Seriously, do I? No. That's the answer I hope you rushed to.

10:20 - Jason: Mail Import's finally done.

10:18 - Jason: I agree, Jesus. It's fine when you're looking at album art, but how often do you look at your files just to look at your files? Except images.

Wilson: Cover Flow isn't my favorite thing in iTunes, but I can see how it would be better here. I mean, think of folders of photos or something - I really think I will use it to scan through stuff like that.

10:18 - Jesus: Coverflow on the Finder seems to me more like a gimmick, however. It's cool, works well but it's not always useful. It's great in iTunes because you are just browsing and then you say "oh, I feel like this." But for the Finder, it's not useful.

10:17 - Jason: @Jawzxy It's opaque.

10:16 - Jesus: Movie preview chokes on some formats though. This is a clean install, by the way.

10:15 - Jesus: For small amounts of pictures scrolling is quick, but if I try to scroll fast too fast you have to let the machine catch up to grab the thumbnail previews.

10:14 - Jason: Halfway done updating mail!

10:12 - Jason: The 2D dock on the sides are a nice touch, a nice change from the 3D effect dock (that didn't quite make sense) in the betas.

Wilson: I also like the reflections you see in the dock when you move windows around

10:10 - Jesus: Activating Coverflow takes some time for me. It's not instantaneous on my machine (PowerBook G4 with 2GB of RAM)

10:09 - Jason: It definitely feels speedier (like the betas) than Tiger, yeah. Even on an old install.

10:08 - Jesus: OK, opening a big porn image folder now.

10:08 - Jesus: Feels zippier to me than Tiger. Definitely faster than the betas.

10:04 - Jason: The new OS X theme seems nice. The transparency for the menubar is gone, but still reflects a little of what wallpaper you choose.

10:04 - Jason: Importing my 63272 messages from old mail to new mail says it's going to take an hour! At least!

10:03 - Jason: Opening movie is very fun. Doo doo, doo doo doo.

Options that require Jailbreak
• SSH/File Transfer: All you have to do is drop an iPhone's iPod-compatible ringtone into the /Library/Ringtones directory, meaning you can use MP3s, AACs (protected and unprotected), or M4As. Anything that your iPhone's iPod supports will work.
• iBrickr (Windows): iBrickr actually transcodes your sound files for you, so if you're looking up old WAV sound pages from 1999, iBrickr can convert them into something that the iPhone understands before syncing. [iBrickr]
• iFuntastic (Mac): Same as the SSH/File Transfer option. Just drag them into the correct /Library/Ringtones folder. [iFuntastic]
• Sendsong: Allows you to pick any song from your iPod and move it into the Ringtones section. Install this with AppTapp.

Options that don't require Jailbreak
• iTunes Music Store: You can manually place AAC files into the correct iTunes Ringtones folder as long as it has the right file extension. Works with purchased iTunes songs or songs you've converted to AAC format. [JoeMaller]
• Rogue Ameoba's MakeiPhoneRingtone (Mac): This takes advantage of the iTunes 7.4 and iTunes 7.4.1 ringtone file compatibility workaround to get the Ringtones show up in iTunes. All you have to do is drop in an AAC file, which can be one of your songs purchased from iTunes. [MakeiPhoneRingtone]
• iToner (Mac): Copies ringtones to your iPhone, bypassing iTunes, should be guaranteed to work with future iPhone updates. Costs $15. [iToner]
• iPhoneRingToneMaker (Windows): Transfers ringtones to your iPhone, but lets you edit them beforehand in its editor so you can chop down long songs to a manageable clip. [efksoft]

We recommend you use one of the free methods, since they're actually quite easy to do. Even if you don't want to jailbreak your phone, the iTunes Music Store manual method and Rogue Amoeba's MakeiPhoneRingtone can take care of this for free. But if you want to make sure your ringtones don't get deleted when a new version of iTunes or iPhone Firmware comes out, you may want to try jailbreaking and placing the songs into the ringtones folder manually.

Obligatory iPhone Book Whoring: These iPhone Ringtone features are covered in my book, How to Do Everything With Your iPhone, along with hacking, cracking, and much more. Don't worry, that cover is going to be changed. Soon. *Sends nagging email to publishers*

Additional research by Benny Goldman

You get the standard Meebo IM networks you get on the desktop. You can even log in to the same Meebo account and use the same settings, including away messages and previous messages. Actually chatting is great as well, allowing you to keep the keyboard up while chatting, which is super convenient. They wanted to make this as light as possible, which means some features are stripped out (like adding contacts). But all the important ones you need to hold a conversation are there. [Meebo]

With Soonr, you can view a bunch of doc types (over 40), including PDF, Word and Excel, but they're re-rendered onto the iPhone by Soonr instead of using the iPhone's default rendering (because it can't). There's Microsoft Outlook integration as well, and even Skype text and voice chat. The voice chat isn't quite free, since it uses the Skype-out dialing to hook your iPhone call into the Skype call, but for international calls it's probably much cheaper than actually dialing the number on your phone. [Soonr]

Download [Soonr]

In our own tests, the IMs came in super speedy and in iChat-esque bubbles (like the SMS app). There's even chat icons on the top to represent tabs, so you can cycle between different conversations. It's still in alpha, which explains why there aren't any options for, say, hiding offline contacts, but it's still good enough to earn our recommendation as the best chat app so far. [BeeJive]

It's definitely snappy, and subjectively it does seem to beat Firefox rendering the 10 or so pages I visit daily outside of my RSS feeds. However, on my 1920x1200 widescreen monitor, pages in Safari seem a bit "fuzzier" than they do in Firefox. And yeah, while it's cliché to say at this point, I do like the interface for the most part—it beats the pants off of the ugly-stick-beaten IE 7, in any case.

In-line finding, while slightly slower than Firefox's find-as-you-type, is also more detailed with instance numbers plus a fairly schmancy highlighting effect. Also nice is SnapBack, which brings you back to your original search results or main page of site with a little icon in the search bar.

Now for some complaints: One niggling annoyance is that the keyboard shortcut for opening new tabs from the address bar is different from both Firefox and IE 7—with them you just hit Alt+Enter and the address pops up in a new tab.

I realize it's an Apple app, but can't we follow some standards? (Clearly, I don't own a Mac, so your Mac standards mean nothing to me.) Which, depending on how much of a stickler you are for an aesthetically unified computing experience, Safari's steadfast refusal to pick up any of Aero's UI elements might drive you a little nuts. The sole tiny corner for resizing the window is bothersome to boot, since I'm used to just grabbing and dragging.

Final thoughts? Definitely worth a download. You might like it, you might not, but overall it's a solid experience. – Matt Buchanan

WWDC 07 [Gizmodo]
Safari 3 Public Beta [Apple]

•Resizable Text Fields
Probably the best new feature of the beta (aside from increased speed). If you frequent message boards or use online blogging software you will appreciate being able to resize any of your text input blocks.

•Movable Tabs
Just like Firefox, Safari lets you rearrange your tabs into any order you want. And it even 1-ups its competitor by letting you drag them off and to create their own new window.

•Real Time Text Searching
And taking another cue from its foxy friend, you can search for text in real time throughout the web page your viewing. Although Safari does it in a much prettier way.

•Modify How Long Safari Keeps Your History
We can't tell you how many times we wanted to go check back on a page we visited, only to find that our history didn't keep track that long. Safari lets you decide how long it should remember where you've gone. Just for a day or even a year.

– Ben Longo