The patent sounds like it's basically bringing Aperture's monocle view for viewing full-res areas of photos instantly (which is also amazingly useful) to the OS as a whole—hovering over an icon could spring a bubble with four app choices to open that file, or provide other info on what you're looking at.

Apple also seems like they're trying to patent those horrific Snap previews you find on fine blogs everywhere—that blow out a preview version of the webpage being linked to when you hover. That one we can do without. [Apple Insider]

"Ignoring fundamental principles of antitrust law, and the realities of the marketplace, Psystar contends that Apple has unlawfully monopolized an alleged market that consists of only one product, the Macintosh® computer."

It's doubtful that Psystar has the grounds to win or even the money to fight this case, but the stated principle here is kind of weird. The whole line of Macintosh computers is one product? Hardware that could run Mac OS comprises an "alleged market?" It's hard to quite make sense of what they mean other than "PLEASE DIE." We'll see what happens in court on November 3rd, when Apple passes that sentiment on to Psystar's face(s). [The Register, with full filing at ZDNet]

The 4G iPod nano features an optional spoken interface to help with audio navigation, and the new hardware includes blind-friendly features like the “shake to shuffle” function (we were wondering who that was for!). Apple's new mic-integrated headphones provide tactile controls on the cable, and can also be used to receive vocal commands. But most importantly, Apple has promised in this agreement to flesh out its compatibility and make iTunes 8 and iTunes U 100% accessible for the blind by the end of the year, as well as donating $250,000 to the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind. As much as I rail against Apple, this is a really worthwhile cause and makes me feel pretty warm and fuzzy towards the White Overlords. [AppleInsider]

You all know we are not fans of John—one of Steve Jobs' favorite pop heads—but having experienced similar situations with family and friends, we absolutely sympathize with his frustration. Update: Some readers are saying this is staged. We don't know if it is or not, but it's funny nonetheless. Update 2: No, we are still not fans of John Mayer.

...

OK, you are right. We don't. [Tumblr — Video no longer available — Thanks Benny and Richard]

But just think, a Psystar Open Computer might become a sought-after collector's item in a matter of months. Maybe buying one wasn't such a bad idea after all! [Yahoo!]

Jesus Diaz: Tell me more about Lux. This is a framework that anybody can use, right? Under any platform?
Christian Moore: Well, yeah, is an open source framework I've been working on for experimenting with user interfaces. It's more a general framework than targeting one main deployment platform. That video is actually all AS3 running in Flash 9 over Mac OS X, but you can integrate it with any development system and platform.

JD: Why Flash?
CM: Because it's fast to prototype in. However, the software is broken into several segments. One C++ application that tracks hands that talks to Flash... WPF... or another C++ app... and basically everything you can imagine. You can enable multitouch in any environment, like Cocoa.

JD: So anyone can grab the framework and make native multitouch apps right in Mac OS X or Windows or Linux.
CM: Yeah. We have an Xcode-developed app for photo and paint coming, as well as a tracking application. But using Flash for this demo was the fastest way for us at the moment.

JD: How many people did this?
CM: I did the core system, but four people from the NUI Group contributed demos.

JD: What machine is running the demo in the video? Looks amazingly fast.
CM: Just a MacBook.

JD: And for the multitouch screen?
CM: I use a ~box from naturalui. It's ghetto tech, I know, but I developed the majority of Lux on a cardboard box. And it works great.

JD: Indeed, it looks like it works perfectly right. How does this compare to frameworks like UITouch, in the iPhone?
CM: Apple's UITouch its very, very well designed. It runs at the core level, while ours is more a free environment to develop on top... to learn about multitouch and share code.

[Lux and NUI Group]

I'm runnin a stock Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 with 4GB of RAM. I counted 108 apps total and gave up bored after I had running anything from Photoshop, Visual studio 2008, Office professional 2007, Safari, and Media Center all the way down to that rescource hog, Minesweeper.

This fascinates me at oh-so-many levels:

• How the heck do you have 100 graphics applications installed in your computer in the first place?
• Why do people still care about this kind of things?
• What do you people really care about when it comes to the performance of your computer?
• How comes we haven't had any Linux user telling us he's running 250,000 apps simultaneously on six different monitors.
• How many applications can the Beamz run?
• And finally, how many graphical apps can you run in your computer without it burning down in flames?

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. Please write your opinions and personal benchmarks in the comments.

Hackers, in the past year, have managed to procure top-secret information directly from Pentagon computers, as well as from major military contractors, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Growing concern for the safety of sensitive information has led to the introduction of the Mac computers as a way to thwart the efforts of hackers prematurely. At present, Apple provides some 20,000 of the Army's 700,000 servers and desktops. This may be a very small proportion, but the number is growing annually. This fact sits a little uneasy with us:

Although we would not trade our Macs for Aladdin's lamp, calling them in to the Army's systems to further its security is questionable. First thing, we are not great believers that Macs offer greater protection than Microsoft's offerings; secondly, even if they did; where there's a will, there's a way. That way may not be so difficult with Apple computers, making the route of attack potentially easier. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Apple's Mac OS X license state military use of its software is forbidden? [Forbes]

Top of the list were fixes to Apple's Common UNIX printing system (CUPS), in both its network and AirPort implementations. Fixes are also in the offing for mail flags and fonts in the Mail application and also the way Mail interacts with iCal.

According to Apple Insider, the company also wants those developers to carefully test 37 of the components of OS X:

Among them were Data Detectors, the Mac OS X Dock, the Finder, grammar checking, iCal, iChat, Mail, Parental Controls, Quick Look, Rosetta, Safari, Time Machine, and Leopard's 802.11 AirPort implementation (which has troubled some MacBook users.)

The breakdown shows Windows to be making major aesthetic development around the release of Windows 2000. Mac OS took off a little later, with OS 9 looking like a gimped UI in comparison. Mac OS X saw Apple make a large step up in the graphic pants department. The eye candy at present seems pretty level between the two. Perhaps Apple has the slight edge? However, functionality is an entirely separate ball game. What do you guys make of it all? Post your views, as well as the obligatory Apple/Microsoft flame war, in the comments below. [Top image via VineetB-log]

The other issue involves a flaw in certain 2.5-inch Segate SATA drives with a firmware version 7.01. As mentioned last week on Giz, the flaw causes read/write heads to fail and scratch up the drive. Again, these issues are not official, but you may want to take steps to back up your data just to be on the safe side. [TomKarpik via AppleInsider]

Wilson: I love Spaces because I can keep all of my normal daily net stuff in one Space. Then, when I want to get to the desktop, I just go to an open space. All my windows stay put, yet I can jump around.

Blam: I use Exposé for that. I don't like Spaces because on top of multiple windows, and multiple monitors, I can't keep track of all my windows. And hitting the CTRL key or any presettable key for switching is slow.

Wilson: It seems like Spaces wasn't designed for multiple monitors. Exposé only gets you to the point of moving stuff out of the way, but Spaces means you can clear the screen, and start new work. When the new windows pop up, the old ones don't come back until you go back to the old Space.

Blam: I despise how it will switch Spaces automatically when I click on an icon for an app on the dock, but don't know how to fix it.

Wilson: I hear you. I hate how I accidentally click CTRL-arrow (instead of Option-arrow) and everything suddenly vanishes. But my brain is starting to divide itself into four equal spaces, one that I ALWAYS leave blank.

Blam: How many spaces do you use?

Wilson: Two to three.

Blam: Exposé is easier to trigger. I just move my mouse to a corner. It's faster and I can get to the desktop that way and open new apps.

Wilson: CTRL-arrow or CTRL-1 2 3 or 4 - what's so hard about that?

Blam: Moving things between Spaces is annoying. You gotta hit the main Spaces key or icon.

Wilson: Why do it then? Go to a space, open what you want, and it stays in that Space. I actually like it because you can do all of your Finder window stuff in one Space. When you have a bunch of apps open, Finder windows get second-class treatment. Here they can have a separate (but equal) Space of their own.

Blam: But what if you want to drag a file to an icon? Or another window in another Space? Pain in the ass.

Wilson: Drag a file from an open window? Just use the Dock. Another window in another space requires Fn-F8. You are right, it's a bit of a step, but no bigger than Fn-F9 or Fn-F10 (my Exposé keys). You have yours setup with a mouse, but I'm a keystroke guy. They used to call me the Stroker, I assumed because I liked keystrokes, not because I liked spending an hour in the bathroom during HS. (That was a joke.)

Blam: Hahahaha. I just am confused with Spaces, even after I gave it a good try. Exposé does enough for me.

Wilson: I only really ever used F11, "clear all." And now Spaces is much more useful for that.

Blam: Try mouse setup of Exposé, dude. It is insane, especially while dragging files.

Is Exposé insanely great? Or will Spaces take its place? Tell us what you think.

UPDATE: Want to move an open window from one Space to another? Grab it and drag it to the edge of the screen. After a beat, it will jump into the next Space over, and you can leave it there, or keep a-goin'. Pretty cool since it means you can move apps around without going into the bird's-eye-view.

The problem with its implementation of sandboxing—where an app is placed in a "sandbox" so it can't get rough with the rest of the OS if it's hacked—is that a lot of the most commonly hacked apps like the browser, mail client and IM app aren't run in a sandbox. To top it off, the sandbox walls aren't as thorough as they should be, mostly applying to network access. Library randomization has similar problems—it wasn't implemented everywhere it should have been, like the Dynamic Link Library, according to Ptacek.

Of course, someone has to actually exploit the flaws—incompletions more so than outright screw-ups—to cause damage, but Apple should probably patch them up with some haste, particularly the leaky firewall issue. [Cnet, Mac World]

"Early indications are that Leopard will be a huge hit with customers. Leopard's innovative features are getting great reviews and making more people than ever think about switching to the Mac."

Apple Sells Two Million Copies of Mac OS X Leopard in First Weekend

CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple(R) today announced that it sold (or delivered in the case of maintenance agreements) over two million copies of Mac OS(R) X Leopard since its release on Friday, far outpacing the first-weekend sales of Mac OS X Tiger, which was previously
the most successful OS release in Apple's history. Sales included copies sold at Apple's retail stores, Apple Authorized Resellers, the online Apple Store(R), under maintenance agreements and bundled with new Mac(R) computers. Leopard is the sixth major release of Mac OS X and is packed with more than 300 new features.

"Early indications are that Leopard will be a huge hit with customers," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Leopard's innovative features are getting great reviews and making more people than ever think about switching to the Mac."

Leopard introduces Time Machine, an effortless way to automatically back up everything on a Mac; a redesigned Finder that lets users quickly browse and share files between multiple Macs*; Quick Look, a new way to instantly see files without opening an application; Spaces, an intuitive new feature used to
create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; a brand new desktop with Stacks, a new way to easily access files from the Dock; and major enhancements to Mail and iChat(R).

Pricing & Availability
Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard is available through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), at Apple's retail stores and through Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $129 (US) for a single user license. The Mac OS X Leopard Family Pack is a single-household, five-user license for a suggested retail price of $199 (US). Volume and maintenance pricing is available from Apple. Leopard requires a minimum of 512MB of RAM and is designed to run on any Macintosh(R) computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4 (867 MHz or faster) processor. Full system requirements can be found at www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs.

* Requires an additional hard drive sold separately.

After I upgraded my MacBook Pro to OS X Leopard, the first thing I did was grab a brand-new Maxtor USB drive and format it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility, just like I had countless times before. As soon as I erased the disk, Time Machine popped up as promised, and asked if it could use the disk for backup. I said yes, and was on my merry way. Only I wasn't.

Time Machine ran for a bit, and then crapped out after about 10GB. I went into Disk Utility and saw that although the partition was formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled), the volume itself still said FAT32. I clicked Erase to reformat the drive, and got the format failure error you see above.

I tried this with FAT-formatted drives from Seagate, Iomega and HP as well. Each time I saw the same thing. I could reformat the partition to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and Time Machine would recognize it. Get Info would say that it was formatted correctly. But Disk Utility showed that the volume was formatted for PC. Inevitably, if the Time Machine backup was greater than 10GB, there were problems. Worst of all, if I dared try to format the volume for Mac, I would get the dreaded error, and the disk would be temporarily unmountable.

Not only did I vary drives, but I tested the problem on various systems too. I tried it booting from the Leopard DVD, with the same results. Ditto when I tried it using my wife's Leopard-upgraded MacBook Pro. (Yes, his n' hers MBPs. You can insert your "awwww" here.) The end result was that I couldn't break the FAT grip on these damn drives.

I made some calls, I talked to some people, and eventually here was the solution: you wipe the hell out of the drive by creating new and different partitions. So, do not head to the Erase tab in Disk Utility to prep a PC-formatted drive for Time Machine. Instead:

• Go to the Partition tab. Create two partitions. Under Options, select GUID Partition Table (what you would use to make a Mac OS boot disk) and click OK then Apply.

• Once your partitions are in place, do it again, reverting back to just one partition, but still keeping the GUID Partition Table option. Click OK and Apply again, and at this point you should be cool.

• To be safe, you can then go to Erase and set formatting for Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then format it once and for all. But when you get there, you will probably see that your volume is already formatted in the right way.

UPDATE: Some people have gotten this to work without creating two partitions. If you like, try creating just a single partition, but using the GUID Partition Table option. This may be all it takes to break the chokehold.

Using this method, I have gotten all of the disks to work just fine with Time Machine, and I don't anticipate any problems in the future.

OK, I know, quite a bit of nerdiness, but I wanted to get out there and tell you about the problem I encountered, in case you are having the same troubles, or plan on getting there sooner or later. Also, this solution is actually a workaround of sorts. My hope is that Apple can update Disk Utility with a stronger form of disk erasing that doesn't require so many manual steps, but if I am missing something obvious, I'd love to hear it. Please share any troubles you've had, or any better solutions you've cooked up.

Special thanks to Dorian and Ken!

Giz: Can you override Time Machine to seriously delete stuff you never want to see again?
Apple: In the "starfield" view you have an option: "Delete all backup versions of this file." If you do that, you will never see it again. Also, you can select things you don't want to be picked up by Time Machine. You can affect the scope, and specify areas you don't want to cover.

Giz: Will I want to leave Time Machine running when I'm in the field, or will I have to turn it off to preserve battery life?
Apple: No, it is really low over head.

Giz: Will I be able to get as long battery life on MacBook Pro?
Apple: No specific measurement, but don't expect to see a huge difference.

Giz: Are Mail To Do and iCal To Do the same?
Apple: There is one list of To Dos that can be expressed in both iCal and Mail. To Dos are also synced to your mail server, so you can see them from multiple machines.

Giz: What do Mail To Dos look like when viewed from 3rd party mail apps or from an iPhone?
Apple: To Dos show up as normal mail in 3rd Party and non-Leopard mail programs, including iPhones and Blackberrys.

Giz: Are Widgets from Leopard going to be made to work across all Apple platforms (i.e. iPhone)?
Apple: Widgets will work in Dashboard and will continue to work in Dashboard.

Giz: What's new with the Dictionary tool?
Apple: There's a lot of pretty cool stuff. We've added Wikipedia support and a Japanese dictionary as well.

Giz: What are the system requirements?
Apple: Intel Processor, PPC G5, PPC G4, 867MHz or better; 512 MB of memory; DVD drive for installation.

Giz: Will Leopard come with iLife '08?
Apple: No. If you buy a new CPU with Leopard, you get the new verison of iLife. If you have an older system with Tiger, you have to buy both the iLife upgrade and Leopard upgrade.

Giz: Does iChat still have the Star Wars hologram effect? We've added a whole lot of different effects. I am not sure if the hologram one is in there. We included the most effective ones, the ones that work the best. I think [the hologram effect] is not in there.

Giz: What's the name of the next OS update cat?
We don't talk about future products.

Though they couldn't answer all of our questions, they did recommend visiting the updated Mac OS X page, particularly the section on 300+ New Features.

"I have found the code quality, at least in terms of security, to be much better overall in Vista than Mac OS X 10.4. It is obvious from observing affected components in security patches that Microsoft's Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) has resulted in fewer vulnerabilities in newly written code. I hope that more software vendors follow their lead in developing proactive software security development methodologies."

Yes, actually.

This is not just some paid shill. He's the guy who took home a $10,000 prize for his MacBook hijack a couple of weeks ago. But he has a tip or two to help keep things as secure as possible, too:

I recommend that Mac users make their primary user a non-admin account, use a separate keychain for important passwords, and store sensitive documents in a separate encrypted disk image. I think these are fairly straightforward steps that many users can take to better protect their sensitive information on their computer.

Contest winner: Vista more secure than Mac OS [Macworld, via CrunchGear]

There's an alpha available that works (in most occasions) and a $50 donation gives you dibs on development builds and perks. We wish Cody the best of luck, but side with Ars on this one in saying that its ambitious goals require more resources than one person. – Louis Ramirez

Project Aims to Bring DX10 Gaming to XP, Linux, OS X [Ars Technica via FayerWayer]

Previously, in the last episode of "Burn iPhone Burn!": anonymous Cupertino-area man going by the pseudonym of I'm Just Going to Make Up Some BS, So There!™ He Who Shall Not Be Named™ declared to Ars Technica that "Apple had 50 OS engineers working around the clock in Taipei to make sure that this shipped on time." He argued that the problems were with Q/A and the software. Meanwhile AT&T COO Randall Stephenson said that everything was A-OK for an oh-so-great iPhone launch and J.R. discovered that Sue Ellen is really Steve Jobs' daughter. Today, Gizmodo's own Deep Throat in the Infinite Loop campus spills the beans about the not-really-MIA Apple gang.

Discover the thrill and suspense of the missing 50 OS X engineers and much more in the all-new-but-sightly-stale-and-corny episode of our Gizmodo Series... RIGHT AFTER THE JUMP!

When I read the rumors of the 50 teamsters shipped to work in Taipei from Cupertino I was sceptical. Never trusted the rags. Never liked the rats who wrote them. Something in my head was still rumbling like the boys' bowling balls at Joe's. They didn't buy it either: how was Big J going to hide it? Fifty of his top OS X engineers couldn't disappear into thin air for such a long time. Impossible, they said. Just the missing cars in the parking lot was going to make it obvious.

They were right. Too many people, too many days, too many questions. It all seemed obvious and stupid, but I never trusted easy cases. I was running short on time. I needed a drink and an answer. I knew I could find one of them at Lola's Bar. There was Jimmy T. on the corner. If someone had what I needed, it was going to be him. Like every time I found him, he was drowning his money and liver with the two Jacks. I told the bookie from Mason to get lost and got myself a glass of the one from Tennessee.

I cut the crap and asked directly. It was too dangerous, he said. Big J's people were everywhere, nobody was going to talk and risk get killed. Another clue about why the rags' rumors made no sense. He told me to meet at Catalina's. Good fish and crabs restaurant across the Bay. I wasn't interested in the fish but the seafood was probably going to enjoy Jimmy: He never arrived and I never heard from him again after that day.

I started to wonder if there was more than meet the eye in this case. There was. Or were. Two more eyes, big and blue behind a dirty martini at Catalina's cocktail bar. The curves in her satin dress didn't leave much to the imagination. Her first words didn't leave much either. I got what you want, she said. I knew she did and I took it straight away. And also all the information I needed.

She gave me everything: alcohol, lipstick, French perfume, Italian lingerie and at the end, she couldn't hold it any longer: yes, the 50 engineers weren't in Taipei and they never were there. A few went and came back, mostly hardware engineers. She knew it because her brother worked closely with the OS people. Fifty engineers were just too many not to notice. For him or anyone else. And besides, they already had plenty of prototypes of Big J's new secret weapon at his underground quarters. More kept coming regularly on secure shipments. No need to send the boys there, no need to risk the whole operation on stupid trips. It was simple. And it all made sense.

I left her in the motel room and went back home. On the corner with Logan there was again that John D. tramp calling for attention, his lips wrapped against a dirty brown bag. The old man started shouting at me. Big J's new stuff was flawed because nobody wanted a "convergence device," he said. I didn't know what he was talking about, but obviously he was drunk and alone, desperate to get hits, love or both. Nobody cared.

I didn't give a damn at first but then I just gave him a few bucks so he could get a couple of Mickey's Big Mouths and sleep it off somewhere else. I didn't need his usual crazy babbling next to my window that night. After that lady, God knows I needed a good rest. – Jesus Diaz

iPhone Coverage [Gizmodo]

So word in the Valley is that Google and Apple are still going out, going dutch at Mel's Drive-In and doing naughty things at Apple dad's garage. Now Google wants to get the relationship one step further without putting pressure on Apple and has released Google Desktop for Mac OS X.

It indexes applications, Mail messages, PDFs and all kinds of files supported by Spotlight's plug-ins, as well as the history of all your web browsers and Gmail. It will even keep track of deleted files. After trying it, it feels slower than Spotlight in my PowerBook (maybe in a MacBook it will be different, since it's a Universal application), but it's quite nice and solid for a beta. More first impressions after the jump.

The setup process is painless. The install application even includes a panel to "explore" and install Google apps for Mac OS X, which at this point includes Google Desktop, Google Earth, Gmail notifier and the Picassa Uploader.

After it's installed, you can double tap the Command/Apple key and the widget—which is not Dashboard, but an independent application—will appear on top of the windows. Like Spotlight, Google Desktop will start searching the moment you write in the first letters of your query. The response is good, but Spotlight seems to come up with the results faster, no doubt a result of being integrated at the file system level.

The widget will present you with the top 10 results, a number that can be changed up to 15 results from the preferences, which are integrated with Apple's System Preferences. From here you can also authenticate with Gmail, so it presents both your local and Internet mail results in the same window.

If you want, you can also access Google Desktop from Safari or any other browser by either accessing it from the menu bar icon (which can be activated from the preferences) or by clicking on one of the bottom options of the widget results list. Doing this will give you extended results just like Google does on the Web. The search will even display results from deleted documents, something which Spotlight will probably include in Leopard thanks to Time Machine.

Bottom line: solid enough for now, so if you have a Mac, go and play with it. – Jesus Diaz

Download page [Google - thanks Oscar!]

Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard Upgrade Charts [Mac House, via CrunchGear]

In the battle to see who can have the shiniest and most wonderful user interface ever, we can't really tell what Apple will do to top Aero or Aqua, but no doubt it will require a beefier graphics card to get it done. For specifics, we'll have to wait until Steve Jobs's Macworld keynote on Tuesday, January 9, 2007 at 9 a.m. – Charlie White

RUMOR: Aqua to be replaced with Illuminous [applegazette]

Right now, it isn't that huge a deal. The programs making use of the library (like XNJB for Mac OS X which is pictured here and amaroK for Linux) still only offer rudimentary support for the Zune. The only thing you can do is read the files on the player and transferring files to and from the Zune is still a ways away.

However, a fully-functioning Zune for Mac OS X and/or Linux might get people to take a closer look at the Zune rather than automatically discounting it. Of course, you'd first have to be convinced that the Zune is worth going out of your way to configure esoteric libraries just to get it to work on your OS of choice. (Try saying the Zune is worth it to some people.) Still, progress is better than no progress and more options are always welcome. – Nicholas Deleon

Zune on Mac OS X and Linux [Zune-Online]

The SlingPlayer software appears to be a Universal Binary, meaning that it'll run natively on both the new Intel-based Macs and the older PowerPC-based systems. You'll need to be running Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later to get in the hot public beta action and you'll need the appropriate home network setup in order to fully enjoy the benefits of Slingbox.

Good, now Mac users can get in on that hot "place shifting" action. It's about damn time. – Nicholas Deleon

Download Link [Sling Media]

The drive will be compatible with both Windows and Mac, and will include Roxio's Toast 7 Titanium Blu-ray burning software for Mac. The FireWire and USB 2.0 drive will also be able to read and write DVDs and CDs. As expected, this first-out-of-the-gate McBurner won't be cheap, starting out at a $1148 retail price. No word when it will be available stateside. – Charlie White

Japanese Mac users get first OS X-friendly Blu-ray burner [Reg Hardware]

The WWDC keynote address is scheduled for August 7. Since this is a conference primarily aimed at developers, don't expect too many exciting consumer-related announcements. Now, where's the Video iPod? – Nicholas Deleon

Apple execs to preview "Leopard" at WWDC [Apple Insider]

CoverBuddy is a cute piece of software that makes your PSP somewhat useful. Using your Wi-Fi network, you can access iTunes and control it with your PSP. It's $20 and works with Mac OS X, though a Windows version is planned. Could be worth the bucks if you are wandering around your house a lot, don't have SONOS, and spent the cash on a PSP expecting fun things.

PSP = iTunes Remote [DAPreview via Binary Bonsai]

Prices and reviews for Sony PSP [CNET]