Rumours are already flying thick and fast about the reasons behind Apple pushing back the Leopard launch till October, and speculation is rife as to what could have caused the delay. A feature that has been discussed ever since the iphone launch, has been the arival of a touch-screen capable OS-X, and personally, I’m backing this as the killer feature which is causing the delay. An AppleInsider report released publicly yesterday, has quoted American Technology Research analyst, Shaw Wu as purportedly informing clients that “while Apple cited a shift in resources to iPhone and more time for developers to beta test as reasons for the delay, our analysis indicates that if not for the ’secret’ features, the core Leopard operating system would likely have shipped on time.” AppleInsider however, refused to speculate what mysterious features, the new operating system might include which have pushed the launch timeframe all the way back from Spring, to October, but thankfully, Gizmodo chimed in with their own thoughts.

• iChat AV: now with pet tracker
• CorePants: new API to design pants, because pants are important
• Three-fingered tracking on MacBooks: mmmmm, sexy
• TimeWarp upgrade: allows real-life time travel so OS releases always stay on schedule

This Week In Web is written by Andrew Sommerich, and is a weekly column on TechZi, published each Friday.

5: The 411 On Google- 1800-GOOG-411

Google has launched their 1800 calling service- Goog411. This is the first Labs service in about 6 months. Good onya Google! It also has great speech recognition, as demonstrated by my Skype call.

4: Don’t Lie- KishKish Lie Detector for Skype

Now in your skype “Do More” section- the FREE KishKish Lie detector for Skype. For when you think your friend is lying. I tested it out on a friend, and it’s not very accurate- about 49% maybe. However it was totally worth the $0 I paid for it.

3: Is it worth the extra 20% ?- 128kbps Vs. 256kbps Audio

While Apple upload all that 256kbps EMI music to iTunes, we should all test our ears to see if the extra 20% increaese in price is worth paying. If it’s not the quality, it’s the lack of DRM that should be cool.

2:Time for a new computer?- BSOD Screensaver!

Sick of slow loading times and want your parents to buy you a new computer? Are people using your computer without your permission? Want to make your friends restart their computers for no reason? Try the Blue Screen Of Death Screen Saver! Ironically available from Microsoft as a free download.

1: Mmmmm… Octo-Corey - Mac Pro x2

Wow- The speed is AMAZING! The 8-Core Mac Pro is 8 Xeon Cores, and can take upto 16 GB of RAM! Apple’s long- awaited announcement was predicted to come at WWDC in June, so there’s no telling what they’ll announce in June (Leopard, iPhone, AppleTv 2).

Related Sites: Rate UK Computer Companies

Oh yeah! At last - after months of waiting, I’ve finally received a Joost beta invite, meaning that I have had chance to test out and run the software on Windows Vista 64-Bit. For those of you that don’t know, at present, there is NO operating system that is less compatible than Vista 64-bit, so you can imagine my surprise to find that the team behind Joost (previously Project Venice) had done a pretty good job at patching version 9.2 up for general Vista consumption. There are still a few small niggles to be ironed out (random stopping during playing mainly), but all-in-all Joost looks set to become a TV-killer. The hype wasn’t all just talk though - Joost is all what it’s been cracked up to be… Here are a few screenshots in the mean-time whilst I explore the software some more. Thanks Andrew for the invite!

UPDATE: Check out the new poll in the right-hand sidebar.

Taking the format wars to a whole new level, today Sony announced infront of a stadium full of fanboys, that the Official PlayStation Magazine UK will now ship from June with a cover mounted Blu-Ray disk packed full of content. Of course, the only reason behind this is to force PS2 owners to upgrade, but unless Sony finds 40GB worth of content to stick on each disk, I aint buying in. Sure, if they’re willing to fill it with content, but otherwise, I’m red-flagging this one as a rather bad marketing attempt which will more likely pick stragglers off as opposed to bring them in… Nice try Sony, but not good enough.

Despite it’s evil-sounding, doom-inspiring name, the Hamster Shredder from Tom Ballhatchet may prove to be one of the most ingenious energy-saving, fraud-combatting, quirky little gadgets around. The concept, which is to be showed off publicly in Salone Del Mobile next week, from April 18 - 23, looks set to teach hamsters a lesson, once and for all. Whilst you’re enjoying a cuppa, your hamster is exercising, shredding your old bank documents for you, whilst making itself a nice little pen. Hamster gotta run, if hamster wanna poop. Nevertheless, I can’t help envissioning some poor mangled hamster trapped in the roof of it’s cage… via Engadget.

Featured Sites: Gadgets | Gadget Types

As you all know, I love to post my blog ponderings up here, in plain view on my blog. I like to debate new methods of advertising, ways to monetize the blog, keep my RSS subscribers, attract new readers, improve my layout and design, etc.

So today - I’m leaving an open microphone so that you can all give me your thoughts on what needs to be improved. To kick-start things off, I’m considering applying to a few sponsored reviews agencies. Perhaps even offering some sponsored reviews outside these networks. What would you do, if this was the case? Stop reading the blog? Stop reading these particular posts? Send me an e-mail telling me that I’d won a hundred-million dollars?

All I have to say on the topic of sponsored reviews, is that if I was most probably going to write about a similar story anyway (Yes - I’ll be limiting reviews to realted-only products!), then so long as I maintain an honest opinion on the product/website/community/shin-dig, then I see no reason not. Especially if it means I can remove the ugly PPC adverts, etc. But again, I’m asking you for ideas. What better way to find out exactly what you guys want?

Anyhow - I have to wait until the Google Pagerank update later this month till ReviewMe will accept my blog. Once that is done though, you could very well be staring straight at a PR6 TechZi! I won’t get my hopes up…

We’ve know it for years - EVERYONE hates DRM. Period. Even the French military hates it… In the latest bizarre twist of unusual events, popular comic writer, Chris Pirillo, founder of bLaugh and self-proclaimed king of all things smitey, has been kidnapped by an unknown alien rebel group protesting against the use of DRM.

The real reason aliens won’t contact us - DRM!

Update: Due to the large number of people arriving here through search engines, by searching phrases related to this e-mail scam - I’d like to confirm this. This IS a scam. Do not be fooled. Now on with the idiocy and let’s see what these 419ers pulled out the hat this time…

I get my fair share of spam, and even some claiming to be from companies like Microsoft. But the stupidity of this one half-choked me to death!

MicrosoftMSN

Microsoft Award Team
20 Craven Park,
Harlesden London NW10
United Kingdom

Ref: BTD/968/07
Batch: 409978E

Dear Winner,

WINNING NOTIFICATION!!!

The prestigious Microsoft and AOL has set out and successfully organised a Sweepstakes marking this year 2007 anniversary we rolled out over L10,000.000.00 (Ten million Great Britain Pounds) for this year Anniversary Draws. Participants for the draws were randomly selected and drawn from a wide range of web hosts which we enjoy their patronage.

The selection was made randomly from
World Wide Web site through a computer draw system extracted from over 100,000 individuals and companies, attaching email addresses to ticket numbers. If you ignore this, you will regret it later. Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail better test.

Your email address as indicated was drawn and attached to ticket number 008795727498 with serial numbers BTD/9080648302/07 and drew the lucky numbers 14-21-25-39-40-47(20) which subsequently won you L1,000,000.00 (One Million Great Britain Pounds) as one of the 10 jackpot winners in this draw. You have therefore won the sum of L1,000,000.00 (One Million Great Britain Pounds). The draws registered as Draw number one was conducted in Brockley, London United Kingdom on the 7th of April 2007. These Draws are commemorative and as such special.

Please be informed by this winning notification, to file your claims, you are to make contact with your designated agent who shall by duty guide you through the process to facilitate the release of your prize. To file for your claim Please Contact your fiduciary agent

Mr Phill Williams
Microsoft Promotion Award Team
Email: pi_williams@hotmail.com

You are advised to contact your fiduciary agent with the following details to avoid unnecessary delays and
complications:

Your Full Names
Country
Ticket Numbers
Batch Number
Serial
Number
Lucky Numbers

As indicated in this winning Notification and Phone numbers. Thank you for being part of this promotional award program.

Our special thanks and gratitude to Bill Gates and
his associates, we wish you the best of luck as you spend your good fortune. Thank you for being part of our commemorative this year Anniversary Draws.

Sincerely,
Dr. Bryan McDonald
Microsoft Promotion Team

THE PRESTIGIOUS MICROSOFT AND AOL!?!?!? I’ll leave it at that.

The latest, widely anticipated installment of the wildly popular Grand Theft Auto franchise has left both fans and scorners waving their respective flags in varying shades of black. Back in February, Take Two (the parent company of Rockstar Games, founded by Mark Seremet) came under fire from the law after the CEO was found guilt of backdating stock options. Other senior managers are still udner investigation.Tut-tut…

Anyhow, the latest bang on the noggin’ for the company comes after the most recent trailer posted on the Rockstar website appears to depict Liberty City as rather similar to that of New York City. In the trailer, landmarks looking rather similar to the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Cyclone in Coney Island can all be seen rather openly, letting fans and watchers speculate what this might eventually mean for the game.

The New York Daily says that:

“Setting Grand Theft Auto in the safest big city in America would be like setting Halo in Disneyland,” said City Councilman Peter Vallone, chairman of the Council’s Public Safety Committee.

Despite this, it’s my guess that most people in the gaming industry would actually love to see Halo invade a flowery little theme park. Watcha think?

Anyhow - keep watching TechZi these next few days. We’re hoping to have some exclusive information on the Take Two situation and I’m currently in talks with a well-placed Take Two insider who’ll be telling us what he can. I can’t say much more yet incase this whole thing turns out to be nothing, but it’s looking promising. Place your bets on the Digg Homepage, here!

via Gadgetell. Sourced from Game Politics.

My host, here at Zi Media, Nate Whitehill, as winner of John Chow’s Win A Wii Competition, Supreme Ruling Overlord Of The Graphics Freak USA Council, Evil Genius Entrepreneur, life-long friend and world-renowned ‘feed the chickens’ team leader, I reckon he’s qualified enough to design me an ickle MyBlogLog button. Nice going - me likes the shiny/spiffy/reflective/web 2.0ness of it! You can see it in action in my sidebar now. For those of you who’re interested, Nate actually designed Zi Media, TechZi, CarZi and is helping me with my latest venture. Video-X. I’m rather demanding, I guess… All will be revealed soon.

Oh - and whilst you’re here, do join up in our MyBlogLog community! Not only does it help my pagerank (lots of profiles linking to community - which links to me), but it shows off my spiffy following of great readers. Join in now and join the 200-odd others who already have done.