Microsoft may have backed out of the show’s live special, but Family Guy definitely has the geek cred thing down.

[Nick McGlynn]

The original 1.2GHz Core 2 Solo U2200 processor (which was soldered in place) has been swapped with a 1.33GHz Core 2 Duo overclocked to 1.438GHz. And the 48GB SSD is replaced with a fast RunCore ProIV 128GB SSD. Amazingly, the battery life is said to be pretty much the same.

It’s a pretty involved mod, but it’s a hackintosh I’d definitely like to take for a spin. That 4.5-inch touchscreen doesn’t look too bad, either. [MicroPCTalk via UMPC Portal via SlashGear]

They promised it last week, and now they’ve delivered: Atom support is back, although apparently implementing the fix isn’t the easiest project. Still, the ball’s in Apple’s court now. Is this going to turn into a Palm Pre-iTunes thing, or will Apple just let it lie? [Yahoo]

I say almost, because there was still some noticeable frame dropping. But still, I could actually watch HD flash video (windowed and full-screen) without it stuttering like a slideshow. One issue with YouTube: the CPU pretty much went into overload once the video was playing, and on the third viewing I had to Force Quit Firefox to wrestle back control.

But this is good news for hackintoshes, and netbooks in general. In my post earlier today about AnandTech’s Flash 10.1 CPU-utilisation tests, some Giz readers with netbooks reported that they’ve noticed a difference, too. Let’s post those comments here so other readers can see what sort of netbook you have, and if Flash 10.1 is worth trying.

For the record, my MSI Wind U100 has 2GB of memory, a 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor and integrated Intel 945 graphics. (Pic above is of the Dell Mini 9).

I want to find more (any) time for my painting, but with so many things to do, my artwork usually stalls. Like this half-rendered art piece, crashed and showing Mac OS X’s spinning beach ball of death.

It’s a painting replica, painted with acrylic on top to make it look half-baked, then fitted with an electromechanical rotor that spins the infamous Mac OS X beach ball on top of it. Oh you clever James Theophane you. [Painting Crash via Make]

A post on the Windows Blog entitled “How we really designed the look and feel of Windows 7″ renounces Simon’s quotes with a curt, yet harsh line:

I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed.

Youch. That’s gonna be a fun day at work tomorrow for ya, Simon. [Windows Blog]

Aldous is not a designer or developer, but works with Microsoft partners — sales, essentially. But his quotes are pretty odd despite their authoritative tone. Check it:

What we’ve tried to do with Windows 7 – whether it’s traditional format or in a touch format – is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics.

Windows 7 and Snow Leopard may have some similarities in UI, but certainly not in graphical design — Windows 7’s airy, sky-blue aesthetic makes liberal use of transparency effects, while Snow Leopard dials back OS X to a more slick, grey-scale efficient look that matches its hardware design. Yeah, the Windows 7 Start Bar is inspired by the Mac Dock, but even they don’t look anything alike. Then there’s this:

We’ve significantly improved the graphical user interface, but it’s built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform, for instance.

What? Not to kick a dead OS, but what? We’re not taking this as an official Microsoft statement, since nobody on the Windows team would ever say either of those quotes, but Microsoft better rope in their middle managers and teach ‘em about interview technique. [PCR via AppleInsider]

The (main) man behind the NetbookInstaller software, which takes care of enough of the under-the-hood tweaks to make netbook hackintoshing approachable, heard the plaintive cries of his flock and handed down a decree from on high:

The kernel will be fixed. It’ll just take a few weeks.

This certainty, combined with the flip-flopping Atom compatibility in earlier 10.6.2 builds, points to the breakage as an intentional choice, not just some incidental bug.

Update: Actually, there’s an interesting case to be made: The 10.6.2 killed Atom in all builds of the update. Interesting. —Thanks, Eduardo!

Even better, for anyone who dove straight into the 10.6.2 update only to find themselves very suddenly without a working netbook, there’s a quick fix: Downgrade your kernel! Using the same instruction set you can do a partial (excluding the kernel) upgrade to 10.6.2, but you’re probably just best off waiting until everything is patched-up right and proper. [Meklort, MyDellMini]

That means using another OS (like Windows 7 via Boot Camp) for Blu-ray playback. Back in OS X, reading and writing Blu-ray discs is possible if you’re using software like Adobe’s Premiere Pro CS3 with Encore, or the Blu-ray plugin for Roxio’s Toast.

Another thought: The kit costs $US200 bucks. Add that to the entry-level Mac Mini’s $US600 price tag, and you may as well start thinking about other media PC options. Fail. [AMEX Digital via Engadget]

[OS X Daily]