What's particularly cool is that Pogoplug is currently working on developing remote backup assistance. They don't support Time Capsule yet, but the Pogoplug developers say they're working on having "the Pogoplug play nice with [Time Capsule and other remote storage devices] and allow our users to back up to their home drives automatically and regularly."

Being able to set up off-site backup drives with just a simple plug-and-go sounds like an awesome business opportunity for anyone with a central router and a whole bunch of USB hubs. But even if you're setting up your off-site backup at your sister-in-law's ("Sure, go ahead and plug in that...um...thing. Can I take it out if I need to vacuum?"), that's a fine way to keep your backups physically remote from your primary computing space. At just $99 plus the cost of a hard drive (the lifetime service is included free), a bargain.

Today, Apple announced a ship date and upgrade pricing for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. 10.6 will debut this September as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users for just $29. "We've built on the success of Leopard and created an even better experience for our users from installation to shutdown," said Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering in an Apple Press Release. "Apple engineers have made hundreds of improvements so with Snow Leopard your system is going to feel faster, more responsive and even more reliable than before.

Snow Leopard features include built-in Microsoft Exchange 2007 support along with a slicker install process, faster applications, and 64-bit versions of standard applications that boost overall performance. Apple brags that "[u]sers will notice a more responsive Finder; Mail that loads messages 85 percent faster and conducts searches up to 90 percent faster; Time Machine with up to 50 percent faster initial backup; a Dock with Expose integration; a 64-bit version of Safari 4 that boosts the performance of the Nitro JavaScript engine by up to 50 percent and is resistant to crashes caused by plug-ins."

In addition to the $29 single user upgrade, a family pack upgrade will cost $49. Tiger users will pay $169 for a 10.6/iLife box set or $229 for a family pack.

All users who purchased or will purchase a new qualifying Mac between 8 June 2009 and 26 December 2009 will receive a free upgrade package and pay $9.95 for shipping and handling. You must request your up-to-date upgrade within 90 days of your original purchase.

Snow Leopard requires a minimum of 1GB RAM and runs on Intel-based Macintoshes. Full system requirements are hosted at Apple's tech specs page.

• Live receptionist -- Want to have a real person answer and direct calls? PhoneValet now allows a receptionist to perform those functions.
• Call out to deliver voice mail -- To keep employees in the loop when they're on the road, PhoneValet will call their cell phones to deliver important voice messages.
• Change greetings remotely -- Prior to version 6.0, PhoneValet users had to be sitting at a computer to record new outgoing voice mail greetings. Now they can do this from any phone.
• Mailbox privacy -- Messages for others on a shared PhoneValet server are now hidden.
• Network dialing -- Desktop dialing is now available to any PhoneValet or PhoneValet Anywhere user on the network.
• Shared phonebook / call log editing -- PhoneValet Anywhere users can now edit phonebook entries or trim call logs.

There is more fallout from the current Leopard update to version 10.5.6. Many users are flocking to the Apple support forums to share their tales of woe about Time Machine failures after the update. (Ironically, Time Machine was on the list of items that received bug fixes).

Upgraders are seeing Time Machine stall, fail to identify the target hard drive, lock up while Time Machine is 'preparing' to backup, and other assorted glitches. There is no guarantee that these issues were caused by the update to 10.5.6, but users are seeing a lot of problems in parallel to the software changes.

MacFixit has quite a bit of guidance on the Time Machine issues. One of the most interesting observations is the long pause while 'preparing' to backup. It seems TM needs to do a deep traversal of the data because it sees a lot of file changes to copy, as would be expected with a major software update. The advice is to wait it out and and eventually TM is likely to get going. I had the same issue and eventually stopped the process, erased my TM drive and started again. That was after more than 2 hours of 'preparing'. It looks like I might have been better off to wait.

I had hoped 10.5.6 would fix the occasional TM error I get telling me that the backup failed, but then when I try again, everything is fine. I spent a good hour on the phone with Apple support on this problem some months ago, but didn't get anywhere. Many others have seen this rather arcane message and reported it. Hopefully it will be fixed in the next OS update.

It's good to keep in mind that most people updated without any dire consequences, but there are enough people grumbling that it merits a closer look by Apple.

It's not as big a jump as an upgrade from v3 to v4, but VMware's fetish for releasing upgrades late on Friday continues with the 2.01 build of VMware Fusion, now available for download. The new version's DMG sizes up at a healthy 246 MB, and the list of enhanced features and fixed bugs is reasonably long. Standouts include several improvements to mirrored folder performance and a safety check that pauses snapshot creation when your virtual machine is active.

Version 2.0.1 is a free upgrade for all VMWare Fusion owners. If you spend your Friday night upgrading it (we know you, and we know you will) please let us know how it goes. Note that there is still an incompatibility between Fusion and the CheckPoint SecureClient software noted on the release notes page.

• If your Mac is new: Boot up the new Mac and go through the setup screens. When the setup assistant asks if you want to migrate information from your old Mac, choose "From Time Machine backup or other disk."
  
• If your Mac has an existing account, don't fret. Just open "Migration Assistant" located in /Applications/Utilities.
  

Gallery: Migrating to a new Mac

Like many of you, I suspect, I still have PC-using relatives that have steadfastly refused to come over to the fairer side of life (and reduce my tech support burden). One of the biggest hold-ups has been their Windows-based software investment, particularly in Adobe applications. Well, with the release of CS4 it's time for upgrades, and I have some new ammunition in the battle to get my folks switched over: Adobe's competitive cross-upgrades.

Adobe allows registered users of their Creative Suite applications to switch platforms at the standard upgrade price (e.g. cross-upgrading from Windows CS3 to Mac CS4 is the same price as a Windows CS3 to Windows CS4 upgrade). So if somebody you know is getting ready to plunk down the cash for the Windows CS4 upgrade anyway, now would be a great time to suggest that they make a complete upgrade and switch to Mac at the same time.

Adobe doesn't seem to advertise the cross-upgrades that much and they're only available when purchasing the upgrades over the phone (800-833-6687). In addition the previous Windows versions must be destroyed and certified with a Letter of Software Destruction (pdf link). Nonetheless, if you have some Windows based hold-outs now would be a great time to get them on board the Mac train.