If you're still looking for facts about the Snow Leopard from Apple, then you should be glad. Finally, some news about the next-gen OS from Cupertino emerged, and I am extremely happy to see this happening. After all, a lot has happened at Apple lately, but Mac OS X Snow Leopard was hidden in the shadows for a few months - at least for me, and now the news are looking great, with big hopes for new features!

What kind of new features are we going to have here as Apple Snow Leopard news? Well, there are two of them - the Cocoa-based Finder, a completely rewritten version of the good old Mac OS X Finder, as well as the whole new feature known as ImageBoot. Now, let's take them down one by one, shall we?<-125x125 Button - right->

While I warn you that we're talking - as expected - about rumors with very high chances to turn into reality later, I should tell you that AppleInsider found out from people "familiar with the matter" that the Finder, currently one of the last standing Carbon-based apps in Mac OS X, has been completely rebuilt using Cocoa. What is this really going to mean for the end user, that's what remains to be seen...

Next, there's ImageBoot - a third option for disc image-based installation, allowing Macs to boot from a remote disk over a network. In the end, you should be able to set up a bunch of test environments and then store multiple boot images on the same disk/partition. For testing purposes, this is surely going to be a huge step forward, since you're going to have a few different Mac OS X setups ready to boot as a fully native system, instead of loading images into a virtual environment and testing this way.

These being said, let's close this Apple Snow Leopard news chapter, and get ready for the next one. Hopefully, we won't have to wait a few months until the next news on this topic arrives...

In the media war raging between Apple and Microsoft, I think Apple is winning, and not necessarily by being the best of the two. Now, don't get me wrong - Apple may be better than Microsoft in many areas, but I think the Redmond giant is really helping Steve Jobs' company to grab the market, step by step. How's that possible? It's easy - all you need is a monkey boy to run the company, and a useless and expensive marketing campaign!

As you probably noticed, Microsoft's current marketing assault is nothing but a lame try to cover up Windows Vista's monumental failure. Obviously, it is simply impossible for Microsoft to release some OS these days and not recover the money put into building it, since they have deep roots in the industry, but Vista managed to fail when it comes to consumer satisfaction, and that's what really matters. After all, this is not like some online game - you quit, go check a new one, then get back, since most switchers do this only one way - the "Vista no-way!"

Now, from a life without walls, we're moving right to the "Bean Counter" and "V Word." Both movies are available above, as you probably noticed already... Until I get to see your comments, let me tell you a few things about these two new Apple ads, will you?

In "Bean Counter," Long suggests that the PC is putting too much money into marketing Windows, instead of fixing it - exactly what I was saying earlier, and what I always said regarding this issue, in the last year. Obviously, we're talking about a $300 million smokescreen to mask the problems with Vista. I would rather go for free truth, than expensive lies, but I am not in charge at Microsoft, so let's leave it this way...<-180x150 Small Rectangle - right->

At last, we have the "V Word." Whatta mystery! Now, what word could it be...Vista, maybe? Yupp, that's the word, and the purpose of the ad is to spank Microsoft for avoiding to even mention that word in the latest ads. Why avoid it? Well, according to Hodgman's character, it "doesn't sit well" with PC users, and that should say it all.

My final words are these - I never enjoy this kind of advertising, when one points out his competitor's weaknesses and problems, but at least Apple seems to say the truth this time. Unfortunately, nothing's perfect, and I think the Cupertino-based company should focus on serving its expanding client base as well as possible, and leave Microsoft alone. After all, Microsoft's Vista helps Apple more than any advertising campaign...

To me, some gadgets are extremely nice to look at, but useless. I am not talking about the iSleep pillow or the smilies for your bike. Today, I got my eyes on a new iPhone clock docking station. Just look at the image below - isn't it just great? Only that I wonder how many docking stations don't have a clock function, and how many of the iPod Touch and iPhone still need a docking station; probably not too many, but let's leave these questions unanswered for now, especially since I don't have an accurate reply to them, and let's take a closer look at OZAKI's creation, shall we?

The iPhone clock docking station we're talking about is built as a portable wooden case with a mirror-coated casing, and the long(and rather boring) name of this gadget is IP858 iMini Timber 3G iPod/iPhone Speaker. The description given by OZAKI is extremely short, only saying that you can "Play the music and charge your iPhone/iPod touch from docking station Back-lighted LCD display for FM radio and alarm clock." Nothing unexpected there, so let's move on...

... withthe technical specifications of this iPod/iPhone clock docking station, as given by OZAKI:

- 2"x2 full-range speaker driver for peak power 4w~6w
- Just 590g weight(excluded the batteries)<-180x150 Small Rectangle - right->
- Carry it by 110mm Wide, 113mm High, 115mm Deep
- FM Frequency: 88MHz~108MHz
- Packing Szie: W205*H173*D140mm

While the IP858 version is built to work with the iPhone & iPod Touch, the IP835 is an "iPod exclusive," for the remaining iPods - after all, there's more to the iPod than just the Touch, right?

Now, one more thing before we part ways. In fact, there's more just one more thing, since I want to give you the list of functions available with the OZAKI IP858 iPhone clock docking station...

- Play the music and charge your iPhone/iPod touch from docking station
- Back-lighted LCD display for FM radio and alarm clock
- Support for iPhone and all iPod nano/touch with dock connector
- Dual Alarm: wake to iPhone, iPod nano/touch FM or buzzers
- Wooden made sound power and stylish mirror coating casing

That's it for today, folks! I am sure that, if you don't have a docking station yet, you will find OZAKI's creation a tempting offer, although pricing hasn't been announced yet...

Lately, I got myself into a lot of virtual fights regarding the issues had by Apple's iPhone. If you look at those over 200 comments of the iPhone 3G problems article, you'll surely notice that a lot of people have real problems, but here and there pops up some Apple fan saying it's all about the user. I don't have anything against Apple or the iPhone, but one of the latest comments got my attention, and I considered talking about it here. First, take a look at the movie below...

...and now let's see what can be said about it. This is no fake, for sure, so let's take this out of the question, shall we? Now, talking about what could be wrong with the iPhone not working properly... that's a good idea!

I won't get into a longer debate, so I'll only give you my five cents here - it is possible that Apple allowed iPhones with different components to hit the market, so some of the iPhone 3G handsets currently available are less capable then the others. <-125x125 Button - right->I don't know anything certain regarding this, of course, but if we look back at those days when Foxconn ramped up production to about 800,000 iPhones per week, there were some concerns regarding the accuracy of the quality assurance process(this production number was a bit beyond Foxconn's nominal capacity, if I recall it well), and strange things as what's happening in the movie here may be the result of accelerating iPhone production.

Other than the above, I am clueless. If you have any better idea, please enlighten me, but until Roy decides to take apart those two iPhones and check what's inside them, nothing can be sure. I guess he won't do that, anyway, since that would surely void the warranty, but what if, by doing this, he would discover that two iPhones, which are supposed to be the same, are different?

While I still keep my opinion and I must say I don't consider the iPhone or the iPod Touch the best ones in their markets, they both are probably the best mobile gaming platforms - limited to the mobile phones and portable media players markets, of course. It would be a nonsense to compare the iPod Touch, as a gaming platform, with the Nintendo DS, for example. Anyway, today we're not going to talk how good are the Touch or iPhone for games, since I have simply "games" in my mind. Ngmoco games, to be more precise.

Feelin' dazed and confused? I bet you do, especially since Ngmoco is not a typo - it's a game producer! Even better, we're talking about a company producing games for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and this company is one of the chosen ones to take advantage of the iFund.<-125x125 Button - right-> If you forgot about that, just check this article where I mentioned it.

Now, let's see what Ngmoco games are currently available, shall we? First of all, there's Rolando, a puzzle game with touch and physics elements, MazeFinger, a game allowing you to simply run your finger through a maze - thank Apple for the touchscreen if you like it, and Topple, a pretty nice block-building game.

While MazeFinger and Topple are expected to become available later this month, with a price around $1, Rolando has no release date yet, other than "Holiday 2008," and is priceless. No, it won't come for free, only that no pricing figures have been made public yet, so you can be sure to find some Ngmoco games in the App Store pretty soon!