Seems like all the cool stuff happens when we're out of town. We can't leave San Francisco for a couple of weeks without Hell freezing over and Apple releasing a way to run Windows on Intel-based Macs. We have to admit to some relief when we heard the neighbor's dog going ballistic on the mailman this morning, and overheard some hipsters making fun of The Marina this afternoon — we were starting to worry the fiber of the universe was unraveling.

Of course, it wouldn't be Apple without that sense of smug self-superiority, so we're glad to see the company got some digs in on the sidebar of its Boot Camp website: accusing Windows of operating in the last century, and reminding users how Windows machines are plagued by viruses.

MacWorld has the FAQs about running XP on a Mac, some benchmarks that indicate the process works pretty well, and speculation on how this will affect Mac gaming. There's plenty more speculation as to how this will affect Mac market share in general, including a MacUser/USA Today debate. And Ars Technica reported on the folks at Apple Matters who are taking the role of French Canadiens in the issue, refusing to let their beautiful Macs be sullied by something as gauche as Windows XP. Also getting a lot of attention is the Parallels Workstation, which allows Intel Macs to run Windows without the need for a reboot.

All the news and speculation and debate just leaves us in the lab with one question: anybody want to buy our used PowerBook G4?

After the jump: more bitter rivalries set aside, featuring the other Apple, and TiVo.

The lawsuit between The Beatles Apple Corps and Apple Computer continues, but MacWorld UK reported that the music label's chief let slip during the trial that The Beatles catalog is being prepared for digital download. This could be for any online music service, but some are speculating that they could be made available over the iTunes Music Store as part of a settlement between the two Apples.

And two other rivals making nice: DirecTV and TiVo have extended their agreement to let the satellite provider's subscribers receive the TiVo service for three more years. This is good news for those of us who are stuck with satellite and would like to make the switch to HDTV, but have been wary of spending a ton on any new equipment until DirecTV got its act together.