Word in the OSX86 world is that a new product will revolutionize (and simplify) the process of installing OS X on a PC -- and that product is called the EFiX. The USB dongle allegedly pops into a free port and allows you to install the retail version of the Mac operating system on just about any system by automatically locating the proper hacks and drivers needed. Famed OSX86 hacker Netkas has demoed a beta unit on video (which you can see after the break) and claims that it's working as it should. The manufacturer is aiming to have models available for purchase by June 23rd... barring any more "sabotage." This sounds like a much more reasonable solution than marketing a Mac clone -- feel free to send one our way whenever you like guys.

[Via Boing Boing Gadgets]

You probably remember the SplashTop instant-on, Linux-based OS from past posts or perhaps developer DeviceVM's demo at last October's reader meetup in San Francisco. It's well known that this embedded feature will ship standard on select ASUS motherboards, but as we were cruising around the PC manufacturer's booth today, we happened to catch a rather unexpected application for SplashTop: running on the EeePC. Neither ASUS nor DeviceVM has made any announcements with regard to porting the software onto the popular ultra-portable laptop, but unless our eyes were deceiving us, this Eee was all ready to run Pidgin, Skype, or a browser without booting into the main OS. We'll keep our eye on this one, as the merger of these two technologies would certainly create quite the compelling user experience.

It's not like you won't be seeing this tomorrow anyway, but just in case you can't wait another second to check out what Apple's OS X Leopard will look like on the shelf, well, here you go (short vid after the break). The company's trend of minimizing packaging is clearly at play here -- great for the critics but a little disappointing to those of us who remember when buying software meant getting ten discs in a huge box. So, are you impressed, or were you expecting more from Cupertino's award-winning designers?

While some of you have no doubt been running Windows Mobile 6 for a few months or more already (thanks, XDA developers!), the majority of the world is just recently getting its first taste of Microsoft's latest mobile operating system from new devices like the Sprint Mogul and updates to others like the T-Mobile Dash. The critics have certainly been, um, critical of the new OS, to say the least -- "evolutionary, not revolutionary" seems to be the general consensus -- but until we're allowed to behold the glorious light that is Photon, it's the best we've got for now. Still, while WM6 has beefed up Office support and arguably improved the tethering sitch, there are a number of issues that users have been griping about for years which have curiously yet to be addressed. Where's the tabbed browsing in Pocket IE? How come we have to rely on pricey third-party apps to make a decent Today screen? And the old favorite, why can't we have the choice of "managing our own memory" and using that damn "X" button to actually close an app?

These are just a few of the complaints that have been making the rounds about an OS that feels like its definitely in need of a serious refresh -- if for no other reason than to draw some of the hype away from splashy young competitors; so, what do you think: what could Redmond have done differently this time around?

Much to the dismay of those Macheads who've started hitting size limits in Tiger's HFS+ file system (all ten of you), Apple has confirmed to InformationWeek that Leopard will not in fact adopt the more capacious ZFS alternative as promised last week by Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz. Senior director of product marketing for the Mac OS Brian Croll told IW point blank that "ZFS is not happening," contradicting Schwartz's assertion that his company's 128-bit file system would be bringing goodies like built-in data integrity and virtual storage to the iMac and friends. Meanwhile, Sun had no comment on the matter. Of course for most users creating an average Word or Photoshop document, this reversal really doesn't mean much, and may in fact be beneficial when we consider the higher processing demands made by the so-called 'Zettabyte File System." For changes in Leopard that are actually, like, real, you can check out our roundup of the new features right here.

Now that the commercial release of Microsoft's Vista operating system is just around the corner (well, probably), the question on most people's minds is, "how much is it gonna cost me?" Fortunately, the titular Ed Bott of "Ed Bott's Microsoft Report" over at ZDNet blogs came across some rather interesting information on that very topic this morning; it appears that Microsoft Canada's website accidentally posted the SKUs and matching prices (in Canadian dollars, of course) for all of the forthcoming flavors of Vista. Although the items have since been removed, Bott managed to copy down the prices, and they read as follows: $499 for Ultimate, $379 for Business, $299 for Home Premium, and $259 for Home Basic, with the corresponding upgrades listed at $299, $249, $199, and $129, respectively. Now keep in mind that these are Canadian prices for the Canadian market, so simply doing the currency conversions won't give us an accurate idea of what these packages will cost in the US. In order to put things in perspective, Bott compared the relative prices of future Vista versions with current XP versions in both markets, and extrapolated likely US pricing from that data. Based on his calculations, retail pricing for the full / upgraded flavors of Vista in America should look something like this: Ultimate going for $349 / $199, Business at $269 / $179, Home Premium for $239 / $139, and Home Basic priced around $199 / $99 -- in other words, not much more than you'd be paying for XP today, and nowhere near the high of $450 that'd we'd previously heard.

If you're one of the many folks eagerly awaiting the January release of Windows Vista, then there's a small-but-not-insignificant chance that you may be in for a letdown -- a 20% chance, actually, according to outgoing Microsoft CTO, lifelong Engadget reader, and occasional video pirate Bill Gates. During a presentation in Cape Town, South Africa, Mr. Gates informed his audience that although there's an 80% probability that the next-gen OS will ship as scheduled, "we've got to get this absolutely right," and stressed that "if the feedback from the beta tests shows it is not ready for prime time, I'd be glad to delay it." Now, we can't imagine that anyone would want to purchase buggy software, so it's reassuring to see that Microsoft is committed to only pushing a polished product out the door, but we have to say that Gates' choice of words here makes him come across as just a little cavalier. Because if he's "glad" to continue frustrating us with these tragi-comic delays, then there's probably quite a few people out there who will be just as glad to stick with their copies of XP out of spite -- or even worse, make the dreaded leap over to Leopard or Linux.

[Thanks, Matt and Oliver O.]

As promised, Nokia has just posted the Internet Tablet 2006 operating system for download -- although as of this writing you get redirected to an error page -- giving 770 owners access to those handful of new features announced last month. You'll recall that instead of dropping a QWERTY-equipped version of the tablet as we were hoping/expecting, Nokia disappointed more than a few fans by only unveiling a software upgrade that adds an on-screen keyboard along with the Google Talk client. Even worse, Nokia warns that "installed applications designed for OS 2005 will not be compatible with OS 2006 edition and will not be restored even from backup," so kiss your old apps goodbye if you're planning on upgrading. Still, current 770 owners will probably want to take plunge just so they can run programs developed exclusively for the new OS, and hopefully the software 'board will suffice until Nokia takes our advise and changes up the input style in the next generation of WiMax- and webcam-sporting tablets.

[Thanks, Alessandro Z.]

Ken Fisher over at Ars Technica has done us all a good turn and pored over the latest version of the mind-numbingly boring Windows Vista Logo Program Device Requirements documentation, summing up the key features that consumers can expect to see from machines sporting the Vista Premium logo. Effective immediately, PCs wishing to display the coveted sticker must rock only USB 2.0 ports, at least one digital output for all add-in video adapters, 100Mb Ethernet and/or WiFi (which must be of the 802.11g flavor), and HD audio quality that passes some kind of "high-fidelity audio experience test," with other requirements concerning Serial ATA drives, HDCP compliance, HD playback, and support for bootable USB drives going into effect on June 1, 2007. Also noteworthy in Fisher's analysis is his claim that hybrid hard drives will not in fact be necessary for laptops to flash the Premium logo, as previously reported by TG Daily based on a conversation with Microsoft at TechEd. Instead, Fisher argues that the so-called "Storage Requirement 0005" in question is only a list of technical standards that need to be met by hybrid HDDs should manufacturers choose to include them in their devices, which makes sense after considering how unlikely it is that Redmond would force such a new and unproven technology down people's throats.

Read- Vista Premium logo requirements [Via Slashdot]
Read- Hybrid HDDs not required after all