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On this week's Digital City, we discuss Google's rumored new phone; get to the bottom of the current iMac shipping delays, and go over the best games you can play on a Netbook (all after Dan had to get up at 5am to shoot a local news TV segment on his favorite holiday games).

Then, things take a turn for the weird with a solid gold PlayStation 3, rumored to be under Jay-Z's Xmas tree; and a surprising NYC find -- a Mario-themed pizza place that is calling out for a visit from the ghost of intellectual property lawyers past (see below).

Related links:
>>Is Google making a phone?
>>Top 20 Netbook games
>>Top 5 Holiday Game Picks (CW11 morning News)

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Spotted on Houston street in NYC.

(Credit: Dan Ackerman)

Apple products have topped the list of the most popular computers sold in U.S retail in October, an analyst for market research firm NPD Group told CNET on Friday.

(Credit: Apple)

The recently introduced 21-inch iMac was the top-selling desktop for the month, Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, said in an interview. Apple's high-end iMac 27-inch model took the No. 3 spot in the desktop category, he said.

"Apple gets a bounce whenever they come out with new computers," Baker said. "For the most part, October was a down month on the Windows side because [PC manufacturers] were working through inventory before the Windows 7 launch."

The company also took the top spot in the notebook category in October, with the $1,199 MacBook Pro, Baker said. Overall, Apple took 4 out of the top 10 positions for notebooks in U.S. retail for the month, according to Baker. In addition to the top-seeded MacBook Pro, Apple also secured the 8, 9, and 10 positions.

"[The $1,199 MacBook Pro has] always been a great seller," Baker said. "It's priced pretty aggressively for Apple, but to some extent, it also benefited from the same slowdown on the Windows side."

NPD has not released an official report on the sales data, and Baker declined to give CNET a rundown of the other computers in NPD's top-10 lists for desktop and notebook retail sales in the United States in October. It is important to note that while the NPD data includes online and retail stores, it does not factor in direct sales.

Sales of computers in October were obviously very good for Apple, but Baker doesn't feel that the so-called "halo effect" from the iPhone or iPod is what is driving sales. Rather, he points to the overall consumer experience.

"Over past few years, Apple has continued to gain share in the market, and there are a lot of ways to explain that," Baker said. "It could be the stores, the computers themselves, the iPod, or iPhone. I think it's a combination of all those things."

(Credit: CNET)

Last month we blogged about a bug marring Flash playback on the latest 27-inch Apple iMacs. Users on several Web sites, including the Apple Discussion Threads, noticed a problem with the Flash player that caused choppy audio and video playback, but it appears that the newest Mac OS X v10.6.2 update fixes the issue that was apparently caused by a conflict with the Airport driver.

According to Apple, the update "addresses video playback and performance issues for iMac (21.5-inch, late 2009) and iMac (27-inch, late 2009) computers that may occur in some situations while AirPort is turned on." Since our own 27-inch iMac also experienced slow Flash streaming and intermittent sound hiccups with the AirPort turned on, we downloaded the 10.6.2 update and left it to sleep overnight.

Prior to the update, the Flash Player consumed 114.4 percent of system resources, but 24 hours after the update we're happy to report 26.8 percent usage in the activity monitor and smooth performance across all popular streaming video Web sites like YouTube, Hulu, etc.

Much thanks to the Apple Forums and Apple itself for quickly addressing the needs of its community. If you haven't updated yet, simply choose Software Update from the Apple menu to install OS X v10.6.2.

(Credit: CNET)

After reading Engadget's report citing recent complaints about Flash video playback mucking up system resources on the latest 27-inch Apple iMacs, we decided to test out the claims using our own system. Users on the Apple Discussion threads noticed a bug in the Flash Player that bogs down CPU processes, resulting in choppy audio and video playback.

We visited several sites with heavy streaming video content like Hulu, YouTube, and the Break Media Network, and experienced similar issues: popping sounds and jerky video rendering the content unwatchable on several accounts. Like many of the users in the Apple thread, we called up the Activity Monitor and saw that the Flash Player demanded a surprising 114.4 percent of the iMac's CPU processes.

We were able to temporarily fix the problem by putting the computer to sleep and waking it up, but some people are speculating that a hardware malfunction could be to blame. We've also tried to contact Apple for official word, but our messages have been as yet unreturned.

If you're experiencing similar problems, we'd like to hear about it--leave a comment and let us know the issue and what you did to fix it.

(Credit: Matthew Fitzgerald)

Apple's new iMac all-in-one desktops impressed us, especially the massive 27-inch model we reviewed this week. But we're left wondering what happened to the rumored Blu-ray drive option. Playing HD optical disc content on that big 2,560x1,440 screen seems like a no-brainer, so we set out to see if we could successfully hook up an external Blu-ray drive.

First we connected a USB-powered external BD-ROM drive from HP to the new 27-inch iMac. The iMac's OSX 10.61 operating system allowed us to explore the file structure of the Blu-ray disc, but there's no official Blu-ray software available for Mac, so we were unable to actually play it.

Our next step was to create a Boot Camp partition so we could install Windows, an operating system compatible with most Blu-ray playback software. In this case we installed Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit, along with Cyberlink Power DVD9. After creating the partition and installing Windows, we ran the boot camp software on the Mac OS X Install DVD, another necessary step that allows Windows to identify our hardware.

Finally we loaded in a Blu-ray disc into the slot-loading external drive. Through Cyberlink, it played back well, at least at first glance. The picture looked as crisp as we' d expect from a BD disc, and definitely seemed much sharper than a DVD. To delve a little deeper we also checked out some specific video quality tests along with CNET HDTV reviewer David Katzmaier.

First we checked a helicopter flyover of the Intrepid from "I Am Legend" and it was clear the setup couldn't properly handle the 1080p/24 content--we saw the halting, stuttering motion in the conning tower and the wings of the airplane, for example.

The next thing we looked at was picture quality using the test patterns on the FPD Benchmark Software for Professional Blu-ray disc. Overall it was good; during the motion blur test it performed poorly, with the onscreen test patterns (letters, numbers, etc,) hard to make out. But this problem can be caused by a number of sources--Windows Vista running on Mac hardware, the USB Blu-ray drive, the Cyberlink Power DVD9 software or all the above. Suffice it to say that average users probably wouldn't notice these issues if they weren't looking for them.

In the end, Blu-ray is still a distant dream for iMac owners, but if you absolutely, completely need to have this feature, it is technically possible--even if the results aren't perfect.

Note: If you're wondering about the Apple Magic Mouse in the photo above--we did get it to work in Vista--but just the basic, not the "magic" finger gestures.

Read the 27-inch Apple iMac review.

Read the Apple Magic Mouse review.

More on motion resolution on HDTVs

Apple may be ready to introduce a new line of iMac all-in-one desktop computers before the end of year, according to a new report on AppleInsider.

Citing "people familiar" with Apple's plans, AppleInsider said the new iMacs got the go-ahead in early September and have been in production for the past couple of weeks.

(Credit: Apple)

In addition to a new thinner enclosure, the new iMac line is rumored to possibly include a Blu-ray optical drive. This would mark the first time Apple would include a Blu-ray drive in one of its desktop or portable computers.

Based on previous updates from Apple, it's reasonable to expect the company to also include faster processors, perhaps newer graphics cards, and increased hard drive capacity. Current models feature processors ranging from 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo to 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

Hard drive capacities go from 320GB on the low-end model to 1TB on the high end.

Apple also usually keeps the prices of its updated machines pretty close to the previous ones, although they have reduced prices on occasion. Current prices range from $1,199 to $2,199.

An old iMac shell seems to make a suitable habitat for a hamster. Who knew? And the good news is you can buy it now on eBay. The bad news, of course, is the creator wants a ridiculous $350 for this thing--and it doesn't even boot up on hamster power.

The most suitable rodent inhabitant for the iMac cage, says its creator, would be a hamster, since hamsters tend not to chew as voraciously as mice, gerbils, and rats.

(Credit: eBay)

"Everything is safe. I put my own hamster in there for a while just to get a good laugh and sense of accomplishment," says the cage's maker.

(Credit: eBay)

This story originally appeared on Gizmodo.

It's been a busy day for Apple.

In addition to quietly updating the consumer-friendly MacBook, Apple on Wednesday also launched an iPod promotion targeted to students.

The iPod Touch

(Credit: CNET)

With the promotion, students, faculty, or staff members can buy a MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or iMac and get a free iPod Touch. Of course, students and educators can also see if they qualify for additional savings through Apple's education store.

There is a bit of a catch. You have to buy the iPod Touch at the same time as the Mac to qualify for a rebate. After the purchase, you fill out the rebate online and wait for the money from Apple.

To qualify you have to be a student or employee of any K-12 or higher-education institution. Parents of a higher-education student are also eligible for the program. Full details are available from Apple's Web site. The promotion ends September 8. Rebates must be submitted by October 9.

Apple has a long history of offering its education customers discounts and incentives when they head back to school. However, this year is a bit different because many students haven't even left school yet.

Typically, Apple starts this type of promotion in the summer and ends it in September. The earlier start date may be a way for the company to try to boost Mac sales over the summer.

If you were following me on Twitter last week, you probably know of the disaster that hit me hard Tuesday night: my 24-inch aluminum iMac, sporting a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 320GB hard drive, failed.

I quickly determined that it was a hard-drive failure. I tried running Disk Utility off my Leopard install disc to repair it. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I then tried repairing the invalid sibling link and invalid node structures. Once again, I failed.

Remembering that I also failed to pay for AppleCare, I decided that I needed to find a way to salvage my hard drive. So I tried connecting my iMac to my MacBook through a FireWire cable to get the contents off of it. That didn't work.

At this point, it seemed that I was out of options. I determined that it definitely was my hard drive that failed on me, so I could still use my iMac with a new hard drive, but there was one catch: removing the hard drive and replacing it would be extremely difficult, since unlike most other computers, opening the case with a few screws and popping out the hard drive was impossible with my iMac.

Believe it or not, that 24-inch aluminum iMac has only one screw on it, and it only gives you access to the RAM. To access the hard drive, I had no other option but to crack open my beautiful 24-inch iMac with the aid of suction cups. And I decided to share my experience with you.

Here's my step-by-step guide on how to crack open your iMac and replace your hard drive. (Disclaimer: Neither I, nor CNET, nor any of its affiliates is liable for any damage that might occur to your computer by following these steps. Follow them at your own risk.)