And here’s Andy’s killer review for the Chicago Sun Times. A couple more days and I’ll have one in my own hands! How about you?

UPDATE:  Here’s a series of videos that Andy did in NYC with Fast Company.

No picks this week, just some live coverage of Apple’s “It’s Only Rock and Roll” iPod/iTunes event.  You can check out the new goods here:

• iPod Nano (with video camera)
• iPod Touch
• iPod Shuffle
• iPod Classic
• iTunes

Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh Test Drive from Andy Ihnatko on Vimeo.

Hardware & software:

• Lightroom 2.2 for $263.99 (on Amazon) from Leo Laporte.
• Tiki Towers for iPhone for $.99 from Alex Lindsay.
• Tiffen Dfx Aperture Plugin for Aperture at http://www.tiffen.com for $299.95 from Scott Bourne.

Picks of the Year:

• Silver Efex Pro at http://www.niksoftware.com for $199.95 from Scott Bourne. 
• Transmit at http://www.panic.com for $29.95 from Leo Laporte.
• MarsEdit 2  at http://www.red-sweater.com for $29.95 from Leo Laporte.
• Feeder at http://www.reinventedsoftware.com for $29.95 from Leo Laporte.
• iShowU at http://shinywhitebox.com for $20 from Alex Lindsay.
• Handbrake at http://handbrake.fr/ for free from Alex Lindsay.
• Panasonic DMC-LX3K 10.1MP Digital Camera for $399.98 from Alex Lindsay.
• Drobo USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 for $461.63 (on Amazon) from Andy Ihnatko.
• Flip Mino HD for $203.79 (on Amazon) from Andy Ihnatko.
• Scrivener at http://www.literatureandlatte.com for $39.95 from Andy Ihnatko.

Books:

• Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: A Novel from Andy Ihnatko. 

• Andy Ihnatko was on the “Tech Night Owl Live” show last week.  He comes on around the 1:30:00 mark.  Here’s the episode and here’s the show site.
• For Mac news, commentary and advice, check out The MacCast.
• For those headed to SXSW, you can catch up with Merlin.

No picks on this show but maybe we’ll get some later in the week.

The crew will be hard at work at the Macworld Expo, so look for a few more shows this week. You can see their schedule here: http://www.pixelcorps.com/podcaststudio

http://twit.tv/merlin.pdf

Tune in to Leo’s Twitter feed for a heads up.

Is it a major upgrade/revision?

• Leo Laporte — Wasn’t expecting much, but was very impressed.
• Andy Ihnatko – Thinks most of the juice is under the hood. Feature-wise — nothing too awesome, but everyone will find a key feature or app that makes it worthwhile for them.
• Scott Bourne — Curious to how long the honeymoon will last and if Leopard will experience the criticism ala the iPhone.
• John Siracusa — Pointed out that it’s been a long time since the last release and of course there will be a number of changes. He wrote about 30,000 words on Leopard over at ars technica.

Time Machine – what do you think?

• Leo Laporte – Calls it “backup for mom.” Not a fan because if there’s a fire – both drives are toast. Good for the “unwashed masses.”
• Andy Ihnatko — Not a fan either, but prefers SuperDuper!. However, he thinks it’s great for people that can’t really be bothered with a backup.
• Scott Bourne — Perfect for Aunt Fay and the millions that “don’t backup squat.”
• John Siracusa – Thinks EVERYONE will use it.

What will “power users” find the most valuable?

• Andy Ihnatko — “Back to My Mac” is the killer features that can be exploited in many different ways.
• Scott Bourne — “Word of the Day” screensaver. Second choice is the “shell” screensaver.
• John Siracusa — Connecting to network resources is no longer a beach ball fest.

What will developers find most useful/valuable?

• Andy Ihnatko – Again, “Back to My Mac”. This could be infrastructure for products in 2008!
• Scott Bourne – The Danish Spell Checker.
• John Siracusa — Chooses Core Animation…

Has anyone played with Spaces?

• Leo Laporte — Loves it. Feels that it’s finally been done right.
• Andy Ihnatko — Really likes it. Designed like a toggle switch.
• Scott Bourne — His favorite feature.
• John Siracusa — Gets the job done. Only missing a way to change desktop backgrounds.

The Dock…

• Leo Laporte — Actually moved it back to the bottom and loves the pretty glow!
• Andy Ihnatko — Took away his ability to navigate folders. Thumbs down.
• Scott Bourne — The stacks don’t make sense.
• John Siracusa — Thumbs down.

Menu Bar?

• Leo Laporte — Likes it! Loves the distraction.
• Andy Ihnatko — Two thumbs down. Fails because of the desktop images that bleed through.
• Scott Bourne — Likes the idea of looking pretty, but questions the value. Does find it distracting.
• John Siracusa — Nobody in their right mind cares about what is behind the menu bar!

Who should upgrade?

• Leo Laporte — Feels it’s a painless upgrade and you should just go get it.
• Andy Ihnatko — About 4 things made it a must-buy including Mail and Back to My Mac.
• Scott Bourne — Has six machines and put it on one so far. Can’t risk it in the production environment, and prefers to wait a few weeks to look for any fallout.
• John Siracusa — If a home user, and you can pick anything that would make your life easier, then go for it. In a production environment, you may want to hold off until everything is confirmed.

On a personal note – I did end up getting Leopard (I held out until Monday – such strength). Almost everything works except for my old version of Parallels (which was a major drag) and an OLD version of Photoshop Elements (I think version 1.0 – had to ditch that anyway). Other than that, pretty smooth!

One weird thing happened so far when I started using Notes and Tasks in Mail.app. After the info was added, Mail would continually crash and report back to Apple. I was having Windows flashbacks. To fix, I went to iCal and deleted all todos. Back in action, but I’ll hold off on Notes in Mail for a bit!