
Well, perhaps we should title this missive "Last-Minute Christmas Shopping," but, hey, well, whatever... In any case, if you have a Mac Pro owner on your list, you might pick up a couple of quad-core Xeon E5335s, which Intel just started shipping -- according to one enterprising blogger, popping them into a Mac Pro makes Photoshop CS3 scream. (Or, for that matter, you could simply give your gift-target the promise of a CS3 upgrade -- according to Bare Feats, it'll definitely be worth the wait.) If $1,380 for two quad-cores is a bit rich for your blood, how about one of two new iPod games, Sudoku and Royal Solitaire, for five bucks each? Too boring? The wow 'em with a USB shaver or tickets to Nerds://A Musical Software Satire, a musical comedy that "charts the rise of computer industry giants Bill Gates and Steve Jobs." Is one your to-be-giftees a Mac road warrior? Then check out the ever-perspicacious Jason O'Grady's suggested "10 must-have software tools" for that wandering soul. But if you're feeling decidedly Scroogesque this holiday season, just hand out copies of the Snowfall screen saver -- the download's free. In other news:"I'm a Mac" Justin Long and "I'm a PC" John Hodgman just won the Garfield "Bobby" award for best actors in a TV commercial; a Microsoftie explains why there's little to worry about if you installed that quickly pulled Office patch last week; Matsushita is developing a new type of laptop battery that it hopes won't 'splode like so many did this year; it appears that Apple is shopping for engineers that will help the company produce follow-on products in the iPod Hi-Fi line; and -- just for giggles 'n' history -- check out the long and torturous history of iPhone rumors.
Links:
[1] http://mediamatters.org/items/200511210003
[2] http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5382
[3] http://creativebits.org/8_core_mac_pro
[4] http://www.barefeats.com/quad16.html
[5] http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ipod/review/electronic-arts-sudoku/
[6] http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ipod/review/electronic-arts-royal-solitaire/
[7] http://usb.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00218&PHPSESSID=b217d746f9eb5872f07d733b90b2b21c
[8] http://www.nerdsthemusical.com/
[9] http://www.playbill.com/news/article/104285.html
[10] http://www.powerpage.org/2006/12/top_10_software_tools_for_the_mac_road_warrior.html
[11] http://www.alittlebitofnothingleft.net/snowfall/
[12] http://adage.com/columns/article.php?article_id=113944
[13] http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2171241/ms-mac-guru-clears-air
[14] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6193247.stm
[15] http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2314
[16] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/timeline-apple-iphone-rumors-1999-present
[17] http://www.maclife.com/article/carbon_nanotubes_our_tiny_friends
[18] http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,0_9781595230164,00.html