TUAW rounds up Leopard reviews around the net

The Unofficial Apple Weblog gathered some of the noteworthy reviews of Leopard found roaming the interweb; reviews from PC Mag, Laptop Magazine, CNet, and Macworld.

Fun with iChat: Star Wars Hologram effect part deux

The Unofficial Apple Weblog has a different way in achieving the Star Wars Hologram effect I mentioned in an earlier blog post. This method uses Quartz Composer to pull off the effect.

Apple luminary gives his ten tips in upgrading to Leopard

Guy Kawasaki, Mac evangelist extraordinaire, has ten tips for those thinking of upgrading to Leopard. First on the list, of course, is back up, back up, back up. If you don't have an external drive to back up your previous files to, you should go out and buy one. Backing up is not an obscure process that requires prayers and rituals. Backing up should always be foremost in the minds of any computer user no matter what the platform. Please learn to back up. It will be worth your time and effort. Losing files is not fun at all.

Other tips include upgrading your third-party apps, not installing the additional fonts included in the new OS, learn to appreciate and use Spotlight, and make your Mac more friendly to your friends. More tips from Guy Kawasaki in the link provided.

Apple sells two million copies of Leopard

Apple has announced that the latest version of the Mac operating system, Mac OS 10.5 Leopard has sold more than 2 million copies during the weekend of its release.

Time to bury some of your third-party apps with Leopard [UPDATE]

I mentioned in one of my posts that some reviews have the Spotlight so improved that it no longer does file or folder searches, it doubles as an application launcher and calculator. I was curious about the application launcher bit because I am using Quicksilver as my app launcher. An application launcher, by the way, is a program that lets you launch apps by evoking the app with a key combo and type out the name of the app and pressing enter to launch it. As far as I know, most Windows users are even unaware that you can do such a thing. Spotlight in Tiger already had this capability but, darn it, Spotlight was really slow and the application launcher bit was one key press too many.

With Leopard, I've Spotlight has vastly improved. So improved, that Dan Frakes of Macworld says Spotlight 2.0 has the potential to replace application launchers like Quicksilver and Launchbar. Though these application launchers do more than launching software, like run scripts and control iTunes, Spotlight may just replace these third-party software in launching applications. I guess it's bye-bye Quicksilver for me.

Dan Frakes cites some more examples of third-party applications that Leopard may partially or fully replace.

Update:
Part two of the Leopard's Gem replacements is up.

Fastest Windows Vista notebook

What's PC World's fastest Windows Vista notebook?

Dude, it's the Macbook Pro.

Ah, I love the smell of sweet irony early in the morning.

Microsoft's having a swell time in Europe

Last week, Microsoft decided they will no longer appeal the 497 million Euros fine levied against them by the European Commission back in 2004. The EC has found Microsoft guilty of anti-competitive practices and ordered the company to open up access to its server protocols and sell the Windows operating system without Windows Media Player.

However, there seems to be no end in sight for Microsoft's woes. Macworld reported that a UK government watchdog have urged schools to stop making licensing deals with Microsoft because of anti-competitive practices.

Across the pond, a Texas SMU-Cox School of Business have done away with Windows PCs and instead installed Macs in some of their classrooms and labs. "By installing Intel Macs, we're enhancing and diversifying our computer platforms by keeping Windows XP while adding OS X," said Allen Gwinn, senior director of technology for the Cox School.