There are way more awesome shots at Raneko's Flickr gallery: [Raneko/Flickr via Cult of Mac]

I'm guess the qualifier is that it's 30 percent of the computers at retail, not including biz or education, but still, that's a crazy amount of computers.

Table of Contents

Intro

What It All Means: Snow Leopard Review
So much of what's going on with Snow Leopard is almost invisible—especially until developers can take advantage of it—so what does all that really add up to?

Chapter 1

The Real Cost of Upgrading to Snow Leopard
Sure the box price is $29—if you meet the right conditions, like running Leopard on an Intel-powered Mac. But what if you don't? Find out what it'll really cost you.

Chapter 2

Getting Ready for Snow Leopard
For most people, Snow Leopard might be the easiest upgrade ever, but to make sure it's really as painless as possible, there's a few things you should to do to get ready, from better-safe-than-sorry sister site Lifehacker. (Backup! Backup! Backup!)

Chapter 3

Hey, There's Actually a Buncha New Features Here
While Snow Leopard isn't pack the Leopard-like explosion of 300 new features, there's actually a decent bit of new stuff going on: QuickTime X is a whole new QuickTime, there's built-in text substitution, and the wireless networking interface is actually useful now.

Also check out the Buncha New Stuff, Express Edition, a condensed version of what's new and noteworthy with 15 tricks you can actually see and play with.

Chapter 4

Grand Central Dispatch, or Snow Leopard's Embracing Multicore Awesomeness
One of the most key under-the-hood technologies in Snow Leopard, Grand Central Dispatch is Apple's solution to the tricky problem of coding apps to take full advantage of the mostly untapped power of the multicore processors inside today's computers.

Chapter 5

GPGPU Computing Is Going to Make It a Little Toasty for Snow Kitties
The other major leap toward harnessing all of the power a modern computer truly offers is Snow Leopard's inclusion of OpenCL 1.0, a framework that lets programmers easily use the tons of cores inside your graphics card for a whole lot more than gaming.

Bonus Content

• The Snow Leopard Incompatibility List
• How to Build a Hackintosh With Snow Leopard
• What the Snow Leopard Box Should've Looked Like
• Snow Leopard vs. Windows 7
• 10 Takes on Snow Leopard

Is there something missing, a discussion you were hoping to have but aren't seeing here? We want to be thorough, so let's have it. Go ahead and hit us up, either in direct emails or to our tips line, with the subject "Snow Leopard Guide."

Testable in an invite-only beta, you can register to potentially try OnLive here. And even if your internet connection isn't top-notch, it may be worth a shot anyway. OnLive is clearly trying to tune their service to all service speeds, as they'll want to know your connection type, speed and ISP.

And if any of our commenters have gotten in the beta early, let us know what you think so far. [OnLive via Kotaku]

The original Lauren 2.0 spot's been pulled off YouTube, and in the re-cut version, the reference to the MacBook Pro costing two grand has been dropped (since "MacBook Pro," whatever that means now, starts at $1200). Not that it actually changes the intent of ad one bit, since Lauren 2.0 still manages to get in there, "It seems like you're paying a lot for the brand."

Which is all it needs to say, really, since that's what most people already think because of Apple's own success at positioning itself as a premium brand, even as they cut prices on basically everything they make.

Success is a bitch that way sometimes. [YouTube via AdAge via MacRumors]

Sure, it helps that Apple only sells two computers under $1000—the white MacBook and Mac mini—so if you get a Mac, it's probably going to cost over a grand. In fact, the average selling price of a Mac is $1400. But, consider that Apple claimed just 66 percent of the $1000+ market in the first three months of 2008, and 88 percent in May of this year.

It also means that people just aren't buying super tricked-out PCs—which is something Microsoft courted with its Laptop Hunters ads, showing how cheap PCs were compared to Macs. To wit, the average selling price of all PCs in June was precisely half that of Mac: $700. (For Windows notebooks, sans netbooks, the average selling price was $569.) Which suggests there are way more Laurens than Giampaolos in the world.

Update: It should be noted, however, that these numbers are for retail—not for business purchases or PCs people built themselves.

Of course, I would definitely prefer far more Laurens. [BetaNews via BusinessInsider]

Amazon S3 runs 15 cents per GB to store, 10 cents per GB to upload, and 17 cents per gig to download. Sounds pricey, but Time Warp's developers say that you only pay for the storage you use (unlike services that are flat $5 or $10 a month) and the program's compression and smart filtering keep it cheap—so 20GB of data would actually only cost around $1.50 a month.

How much are your Time Machine backs up worth to you? [Time Warp via TUAW]

And so we've been running these PC value ads. Just giving people saying, hey, what are you looking to spend? "Oh, I'm looking to spend less than $1,000." Well we'll give you $1,000. Go in and look and see what you can buy. And they come out and they just show them. Those are completely unscripted commercials.

And you know why I know they're working? Because two weeks ago we got a call from the Apple legal department saying, hey — this is a true story — saying, "Hey, you need to stop running those ads, we lowered our prices." They took like $100 off or something. It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I've ever taken in business. (Applause.)

I did cartwheels down the hallway. At first I said, "Is this a joke? Who are you?" Not understanding what an opportunity. And so we're just going to keep running them and running them and running them.

I actually do find that oddly satisfying, if Turner's telling the straight story about how it went down, even if, yes, MacBook Pros are the best value they've ever been, since it shows Apple as a bunch of whiners.

What's not so satisfying is that bit at the end essentially saying that they're going to run the Laptop Hunter ads until the utter end of time. Take the Seinfeld approach guys—not that one—and go out on top. Well, as "on top" as those ads ever were, anyway. [Microsoft via Ars]

Brent Freidman lays out exactly how to get Time Machine backups to work with any Windows Home Server machine in a point-by-point method that's pretty easy, despite some Terminal tinkering to make it work—follow that here.

If you wanna use just a generic NAS, you can do that too. Personally, I followed this guide by Adam Cohen-Rose—though there are others—to get it going on a 4TB WD ShareSpace several months ago, though WD now has a much cheaper consumer version. It's a hack that also takes a little bit of work, but ditching the USB cable is totally worth it.

If you're in the market for a NAS (if you don't have one, you are, even if you don't know it yet) check out our guide to finding the perfect networked storage.

Definitely a good weekend project, so let us know how it goes or if you have any tips in our fancy new comments if make the the attempt. [CompuGeek via MS Windows Home Server]

Mac Plus
Mac SE/30
Mac LC
Mac IIc
Performa 6200CD
Mac Centris 610
Powermac G3
Powermac 7200
Performa 6400/200
Powermac 6500/250 (x2 one missing front)
Powermac 8600/300
Powermac G5 DP 2Ghz

There's gotta be a more productive hobby than this out there for you, gigantic ginger. There's just got to be. [Flickr]

Maybe, maybe not. Although the old version didn't have DVD either (the new version does), there was no Blu-ray functionality at all in iTunes before. And, it doesn't really make a lot of sense to have iTunes be the Blu-ray playback, so we're not sure what's going on. [9to5Mac]

According to CNBC's Silicon Valley Bureau Chief, PCs need the following things to "perform as well as a Mac": $50 a year for anti-virus software, $104 multimedia software, $100 music software, $140 "Photoshop—you get that with Apple" and $129 for a Geek Squad visit. Over $600 worth of extra stuff. Oh, and Macs get 4x the battery life, have faster processors and a higher resolution screen.

Um. What? Last time I checked, you can get pretty decent antivirus software for free, my MacBook Pro didn't come with Photoshop, and iTunes was free on OS X and Windows. For multimedia, you've got Windows Media Center, which is also pretty free. And Picasa—hey, it's free too—isn't a bad alternative to iPhoto. Okay, you might have to spend money on video editing software, since MovieMaker ain't so hot. But you know what? A lot of the stuff MobileMe charges you $100 a year to get, Windows Live provides for free, like SkyDrive's 25GB of storage. I would also like to meet this mythical Mac with an all-day battery, since we sure haven't seen it.

Look, there are some valid reasons to pick a Mac over a PC, just like there are valid reasons to pick a PC over a Mac. But you shouldn't smear blatant horseshit all over them, especially when it's already confusing enough for regular people, your audience, Mr. CNBC Silicon Valley Bureau Chief.

Update: No wonder the figures Goldman tosses out look so familiar. Reader Rob points out they're pulled straight out of this piece by Arik Hesseldahl in BusinessWeek. Did I just miss the credit to BusinessWeek or Hesseldahl? [CNBC - Thanks Jason and Rob!]

The Pitch: It's web karaoke with access to 5,300 songs online, complete with YouTube-esque song recording and sharing.

The Price: A $40 kit includes 2 mics and a base unit (free with a year's subscription to 5,000 songs) and $10/month for the service. There's an optional free service, supported by ads, with 300 or so songs.

The Verdict: The service is in many ways fantastic, but a limited music library and some service hiccups make it slightly less than we'd hope for $10/month.

Essentially you plug in a USB audio mixer along with one or two mics, go to a website and select the song you'd like to sing. It streams music (in full midi karaoke fashion) with an optional (covered) vocal track to back you up. Press record and your clip is encoded in Flash video (and if you have a webcam, it's of you). You can embed these clips on webpages, email them to friends or keep them to yourself.
But while the microphone hardware seemed to be of a decent quality, my preview audio of my own voice was modulated and delayed. When I played back a recording (which won't be pasted here since I'd prefer to avoid the public flogging), I found that while the audio was clear, I was evidently singing too fast.

Still, even if you don't want to record, it's just an annoyance to deal with realtime delay and voice compression.

Plus, you need to click the microphone button every time a song plays to enable it. Otherwise, you are singing to yourself. Isn't this karaoke? Don't you think the software could make the base assumption that, sure, you might want to sing into that mic you bought? Designers, ask me to turn the mic off, not on.

There's also a pretty crap music selection. I know, 5,300 songs sounds like a lot, but a few quick searches reveal that the pool of songs is only about shin deep. You can tell a library is pretty small when every search result turns up "Elton John" as a suggested alternative. And then there's this little problem, as illustrated during a recent conversation with Jason Chen.
No John Mayer, but there's lots of R Kelly. So if you like being peed on during karaoke parties, you're all set.

This review got pretty critical, but it's only because, at the end of the day, I really liked The Ultimate Karaoke Experience Kit. Its basic problems are in implementation, not design. Sharing works really well, strange interface kinks can be ironed out, and its music catalog can grow. Hopefully we're looking at a gen one service that only gets better. And really, for about the price of Karaoke Revolution, it's not the biggest risk to try it out for a month. [Karaoke Channel Online]


Decent Web Interface

Recording/Sharing Is Easy

Poor Track Selection

Vocal Preview Problems Are Worrisome

It's for reasons we've heard before—there's just way less stuff out there attacking Macs. He told Tom's Hardware:

"I'd say that Macs are less secure for the reasons we've discussed here (lack of anti-exploitation technologies) but are more safe because there simply isn't much malware out there. For now, I'd still recommend Macs for typical users as the odds of something targeting them are so low that they might go years without seeing any malware, even though if an attacker cared to target them it would be easier for them."

Whatever OS you're running, the best thing you can do, he says, is to just keep your system up to date (then you won't get Conficker, either). And not be stupid. Since no anti-malware software would've stopped his exploit:

"None of those protections would have probably worked, or at least there were potential workarounds. The best thing the user could have done is not click on the malicious link. Of course, in some cases such as a man-in-the-middle attack, even this wouldn't have helped."

Oh, so maybe everybody is just screwed. [Tom's Hardware via AppleInsider]

This year you get at least 9 programs for $40, and probably more (12) if the company meets its sales goals. The list includes:

iSale (equinux, $39.95)
Picturesque (Acqualia Software, $34.95)
SousChef (Acacia Tree Software, $30)
World of Goo (2D Boy, $20)
PhoneView (Ecamm Network, $19.95)
LittleSnapper (Realmac Software, $39)
Acorn (flying meat inc., $49.95)
Kinemac (Kinemac, $299)
WireTap Studio (Ambrosia Software, $69)
BoinxTV Sponsored Edition (Boinx, $199)
The Hit List (Potion Factory, $69.95)
Espresso (MacRabbit, $80)

And 25% of all Macheist sales go to charity, which leaves us with a warm and fuzzy feeling. If anyone has tried any of the above apps, share your experiences in the comments. I'm on the fence, but I'll probably give in to the INCREDIBLE VALUE!!! [Macheist]

MacHeist 3 software bundle now on sale with unprecedented value for Mac users

SAN FRANCISCO, California, March 25, 2009

After months of anticipation from Mac users around the world, the MacHeist 3 Bundle is now on sale at http://www.macheist.com, featuring 12 popular Mac applications normally valued at over $900 for just $39.

This year's lineup offers customers a variety of pro and consumer apps. A sampling of the dozen apps includes iSale ($39.95), a two-time Apple Design Award winning eBay auction manager app, SousChef ($30), a digital cookbook and cooking assistant, World of Goo ($20), widely considered 2008's best puzzle game of the year, Acorn ($49.95), a powerful and easy to use graphic design and photo editing app, and Kinemac ($299), a robust 3D animation software.

The bundle also includes four unlock apps. WireTap Studio by Ambrosia Software (normally $69) will be unlocked for all customers when customers raise $100,000 for charities, with 25% of all bundle purchases donated. BoinxTV Sponsored Edition ($199) is the second unlock, and The Hit List ($69.95) and Espresso ($80) are combined as the final unlock point.

The sale kicked off on Tuesday evening immediately following the MacHeist Bundle Reveal Show, co-hosted by Veronica Belmont, Lisa Bettany and Chris Pirillo and streamed to several thousand viewers on MacHeist.com. Over a thousand bundles were snapped up by eager customers within the first 15 minutes of the sale.

MacHeist is offering the bundle to Mac users for 14 days. The sale ends at midnight, EDT on April 7th.

This year's bundle includes:

iSale (equinux, $39.95)
Picturesque (Acqualia Software, $34.95)
SousChef (Acacia Tree Software, $30)
World of Goo (2D Boy, $20)
PhoneView (Ecamm Network, $19.95)
LittleSnapper (Realmac Software, $39)
Acorn (flying meat inc., $49.95)
Kinemac (Kinemac, $299)
WireTap Studio (Ambrosia Software, $69)
BoinxTV Sponsored Edition (Boinx, $199)
The Hit List (Potion Factory, $69.95)
Espresso (MacRabbit, $80)

In addition, the first 25,000 customers receive Big Bang Board Games (Freeverse, $39.95) as an early buyer's bonus.

It does provide a bump over the cheaper GT 120, but as Rich Brown says, it only pushes the Mac Pro's gaming performance from "mediocre" to "acceptable." And this is on his $3499 review machine.

Obviously there are way cheaper and more powerful Windows alternatives for gaming, especially if you build your own, but the option for an even awesomer (if pricier) graphics card from Apple, like a Radeon HD 4870 X2, would be nice. We know the Mac Pro isn't built for gamers, but still. Let's hear your best "Macs suck for gaming" comments below anyway. Be clever, people! [Crave]

The included pic, supplied by Christian, says it all. We've been calling the spinning rainbow cursor the wrong name all these years. Instead of spinning beach ball or "this is what happens to me whenever there's something NSFW on my screen when the boss walks by" or whatever it is you call it, we should be saying something else.

That something? "Semmel des Todes" (bun of death).

And here's some bonus trivia for those readers who enjoy dissecting OS cursors all the way back to their humble beginnings. In this case, the "spinning wait cursor" started annoying users way back when Steve Jobs worked with NEXTSTEP, which would eventually become the OS X we all know and love, somewhat, today. [Thanks, Christian!]