New and Noteworthy: Can Apple Usurp Microsoft as OS King?; John Dvorak: Media outlets have a Mac bias; more

Can Apple Usurp Microsoft as OS King? A NewsFactor article speculates that Apple may be planning an OS coup. "Apple Computer Latest News about Apple Computer executives have said that the company will not license out its OS for Intel-based PCs, but that has not stopped speculation that Apple will pursue that strategy to go after the Microsoft Windows empire. If Apple does -- and it would not be the first time the company has voiced denials all the way up to a product launch or a new direction -- it could make for quite a battle in the OS world." More.

John Dvorak: Media outlets have a Mac bias John Dvorak rants that many high-tech media outlets have a bias toward the Mac because they use Macs. "What's bad for Microsoft is that the bias against it is subtle?kind of like any sort of media bias, whether religious or political. As one critic once said regarding the supposed left-wing slant of the daily news media, "It's not what they write, it's what they write ABOUT that matters." Story selection. Microsoft can roll out a dozen cool products, and the media goes ga-ga over the video iPod?a rather late-to-market Apple product. They all swoon over the prospect of paying $2 to download an otherwise free TV show so they can have the privilege of watching it on a 2-inch screen." More.

Watching iPod TV "a delight" Writing for the New York Times, David Pogue praises the new video-enabled iPod's usability. "The biggest surprise: watching video on the tiny, 2.5-inch screen (320 by 240 pixels) is completely immersive. Three unexpected factors are at work. First, the picture itself is sharp and vivid, with crisp action that never smears; the screen is noticeably brighter than on previous iPods. Second, because the audio is piped directly into your ear sockets, it has much higher fidelity and presence than most people's TV sets. Finally, remember that a 2.5-inch screen a foot from your face fills as much of your vision as a much larger screen that's across the room." More.

Previously on MacFixIt

• Workaround for Entourage 2004 SP2 crashing when printing calendars
• Adobe Reader 7.0.5 (#2): Solutions for failing with "disk full error"
• iPod (with video) [#2]: Can no longer function as a bootable startup drive; Converting video files
• iTunes 6.0 (#5): Stuttering video content
• Using a VPN can disrupt AirPort Express audio stream, solution
• Backup 3.0 (#5): No way to automatically delete old incremental backups

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