This was a busy week in tech. I’ve been trying to write this post for days and the list of stuff to include just keeps growing.

From oldest to newest:

BackRow Developers’ Kit
Apple doesn’t provide one, so this guy does. Nice. Doesn’t sound like a kit “for the rest of us,” but it’s a start. Really this guy’s just trying to get a job. Nice.

Google Street View Maps (here) and Microsoft Live Search Maps (here)
The Google maps are pretty cool. I saw the front of my apartment building. Navigating them is kinda slow, and privacy concerns are already surfacing.

The Microsoft maps look interesting, but they don’t work on my Mac, and I haven’t taken the time to try them on a Windows machine. I’ll never stop being annoyed by Web services that aren’t fully cross-platform. I’m over the fact that not everything works (or works well) on Safari, but I expect everything to work on Firefox, regardless of the underlying platform. Shame.

Palm Foleo
A Linux-powered laptop-like device at 2.4 pounds is a neat idea. The fact it’s an add-on to a Treo (or other smartphone) is an interesting, if at times impractical twist.

I think the fact it’s Linux-powered is very cool, but I generally agree with Engadget’s impression of it. The TreoCentral guy is, not surprisingly, more open-minded about it. The general consensus seems to be in line with Engadget.

The fact it runs Linux and has built-in Wi-Fi (which apparently operates independently of a tethered smart phone) means it will probably be a popular hacker toy. A light, subnotebook-sized machine that will provide Web browsing for $400? It may create an unintended market.

Microsoft Surface
Cool stuff, but the initial applications are less than exciting to me.

Interesting Development Technologies
LINA, Google Gears, Google Mashup Editor. More on Google Gears and Mashup Editor later.

Real Networks. Yawn.
Real built some product that allows you to download Flash videos. Apparently the installer is less annoying.

Didn’t they build something a while back that was a “threat” to Apple? What was it called, again? Does it still exist?

AppleTV Developments
YouTube. Cool. I’m more excited by the 160 GB hard drive, though. I’ll stick with my Mac Mini for the moment.

If it gets IPTV, though, I will be really, really interested.

Jobs and Gates at D5
I’ve read the transcript and I’m halfway through the videos.

iPhone Lands June 29
It’s official, and the ads are already posted. I’m gone back and forth, but I’m now 90% sure I will be picking up an iPhone the minute I can get my hands on one. Will they be available at the Fifth Ave Apple Store at midnight June 29?

This will be daily notes on tech stuff I read or find.

Google Desktop for Mac

Google Desktop for Mac was announced yesterday.

I wasn’t really expecting it, though the announcement was probably no surprise to anyone who cared. For some reason I figured Google would somehow show “respect” for Spotlight by not releasing search on the Mac. I think I know better.

In my whopping 20 minutes of use I’m finding each has unique advantages. Google Desktop is a faster way to search Google, my Web history, and Gmail. Spotlight is still for app launching and finding local documents as well as assets managed via the iApps.

I knew better, but I hoped anyway Apple would license Google technology to do desktop search, or would at least integrate Google searching into Spotlight. Instead, as with Windows XP, I’m stuck with two incomplete desktop search tools. Vista’s desktop search sorta works, once you set the default search engine to Google, anyway. (I’ve only got Vista on my unloved personal Dell, so I haven’t spent a huge amount of time using it.)

Yes, I know there are Google Spotlight plugins. I haven’t tried one in a while; maybe I should try again.

Mossberg: New PCs “Ruined”

Walt Mossberg does a nice job summarizing the frustration that’s part of setting up a new Windows machine. I spent seven hours a couple Saturdays back setting up a Windows machine for my Mom. It was infuriating, and I know what I’m doing. The Mossberg article and this one by Ken Rockwell made me decide I should get my Mom a Mac. She uses her computer to browse the Web, write email, and manage her digital photos. Why should I keep putting either of us through phone calls to me about annoying Norton questions and vague errors?

I have to agree with Arrington on this one. I will take extra steps to use del.icio.us anyway, but this level of integration with Firefox is great.

Okay, I just installed it and have barely used it, but I’ve used it enough to be excited about it. It goes onto my XP machines tomorrow.

Old News: Apple TV

The Apple TV has been around for a few weeks now. I’m a lot less excited about it than I thought I would be. I haven’t even gone to the Apple Store to play with one. Having read up on it I’m feeling better about my Mac Mini media center arrangement.

Engadget’s review seems about right. Useful as a simple iTunes extender, but it’s got some growing to do. Still, I may check one out when I’m in Chicago this weekend.

Windows Live Writer works pretty well, actually. It assigns the correct time to post, handles categories, and the editor even incorporates my stylesheets.

I find it ironic that this software supports both the Microsoft blogging platform (Spaces) and other major platforms, while Apple iWeb doesn’t work with WordPress and others.

I’m writing this post using the new Windows Live Writer Beta. It’s not bad so far and (so far) seems to work with WordPress.

Nothing much to say at the moment, except that I rode my bike today and I finally got a freaking Wireless Mighty Mouse.

This is the second post in an as-yet-untitled series. I’m thinking of titling the series either “Tales of Petty Angst” or “Letting the Little Things Win”. (The first post in this series was “Who steals an Umbrella?“)

Today’s woeful tale is of my semi-beloved PowerBook, which fully let me down tonight when its hard disk went south. It now sounds like a coffee grinder. I’m in the process of wasting the next few hours of my life installing Mac OS X Tiger on my portable FireWire drive so I can boot the PowerBook and then (hopefully) grab my data off the soon-to-permanently-expire disk.

After all this I’ll have the privilege of blowing a couple hundred dollars on a new startup disk. Some additional dough will be required to have it installed, of course, because I checked into the installation process and I’m not going near it.

All of which reminds me how hot the thing has been running lately. Has it always run this hot? I don’t remember. Apparently, though, we’re all supposed to accept that laptop computers run hot. (Actually, we’re supposed to call them notebook computers now–we don’t call them laptops precisely because we don’t want to encourage people to scorch their laps). We might even consider being happy about this; it’s a small price to pay for faster and faster processors, right?

When I got my first Mac in 1993 I was firmly in love with computers. (Or Macs, at least.) This unconditional love evolved into a love-hate relationship following my foray into Windows use in the latter part of the ’90’s. (I gave up on the Mac for several years when it seemed like the old Mac OS would never be replaced. OS X brought me back a few years ago.)

As I experienced continual frustration with my computers I found myself more and more wanting to offload the processing complexity and software to the network. For a while this seemed imminent, but then the tech crash happened. Nirvana didn’t seem so near any more and I got tired of stressing about computers. The relative stability of Windows 2000 and XP also lulled me.

I got plain sick of Windows after a while and then started having feelings for Macs again when OS X matured a bit. I like Macs more than Windows again, but ultimately both of them disappoint me in the same ways.

I just don’t have the patience for all the overhead any more. Years ago I would have known my Mac inside out; tonight I had to reference a book to figure out how to boot my PowerBook from the install DVD. It used to be I would have spent an afternoon searching out software updates; now I get annoyed when the computer automatically prompts me to install them. At this point I have better things to do with my life than spend a bunch of time on the care and feeding of my computer. It should just work when I need it.

A lot of the time I don’t need even half the power of my computer. I expect most folks don’t. I love the promise of my computer, but I hate the reality of living with it.  

Will hosted applications that “outsource” the complexity to Web companies like Yahoo!, Google, and Microsoft fix all this? They’ve been doing this for a while on things like email and calendaring, of course. The next generation services are getting nearer and nearer. Will these services make our software and hardware-heavy Macs and PCs unnecessary? I don’t know, but I do know I’m ready for something simpler.

Windows on (Intel) Mac is at the top of Memeorandum again. It’s not quite 24 hours since my previous post and the developments continue.

Today’s top headlines focus on individuals who bucked Apple’s compatibility commitments and installed Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and Windows XP Media Center Edition.

Windows on Mac is really capturing imaginations. Exciting stuff.

So Apple quietly announced Boot Camp Wednesday and it’s been covered by pretty much everyone since then. It was at the top of Memorandum Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night (okay, it was third at 9:50 Friday) and it’s at the top again tonight.

It’s of course been covered by the usual folks such as Mac Rumors and MacWorld. It was covered in Business Week this week, was on the cover of USA Today, and Walt Mossberg has already weighed in on it. Nowadays Apple gets a lot of coverage from the mainstream media, but this level of coverage is unprecedented. Every variation of “Hell has frozen over” and “pigs are flying” has been used to describe this event.

My first thought when I read about Boot Camp was “Goodbye, Dell.” My initial feeling was the Mac would now work as a full-fledged Windows PC and the early tests already appear to confirm this.

From now on it will Macs all the way for me. My PowerBook and Dell will eventually be replaced by a single MacBook Pro. I’ll dual boot it using Boot Camp or its successor, or maybe I’ll use a virtualization solution like Parallels or VMWare. (I didn’t know until this week that emulation and virtualization are two very different things from a technical perspective. No more Virtual PC for me. My bet is Microsoft kills the product.)

Even if I need a second or dedicated Windows system for some reason (I hope I won’t) I’ll just buy an additional Mac. I like the hardware that much better. Life’s too short to burn money on another annoying Dell laptop.

I’ve been thinking about the impact this will have on Apple’s business and what it means for their product strategy. In general I think it will bring more folks to the platform, both “typical” folks and enthusiast users.

I’d guess dual booting will serve as a nice security blanket for potential switchers held back by fear of being unable to run Windows programs. How many of those individuals ever actually dual boot their system is another question, though configuring a dual boot system should get easier when Apple integrates Boot Camp into Leopard. Configuring a dual boot system would seem to be a nice value added service for whatever remains of the independent Mac reseller channel.

Interestingly, Nicholas Carr postulates (with credit given to Daring Fireball) the dual booting capability will be particularly attractive to “high end” or enthusiast buyers who are more profitable and this is the reason for Apple’s dramatic stock price increase following the announcement:

It’s not that Apple may be able to expand its general market share by a couple of percentage points; it’s that those percentage points are likely to represent many of the most attractive customers in the market.

I consider myself an enthusiast buyer and the capability is obviously attractive to me, so I think the argument holds water.

Will Macs that run Windows ultimately marginalize the Mac OS? I’m not as confident as John Gruber at Daring Fireball, but in general it seems that, given exposure to both operating systems, folks find Mac OS X more appealing than XP. The Apple-developed Mac-specific software like iLife and Final Cut Studio are also selling points for the Mac OS.

With regard to third-party software available on both platforms I don’t think the picture is as clear. If Leopard and subsequent versions of the Mac OS continue to keep Windows as a dual boot option instead of providing some sort of cleanly-integrated virtualization solution it would seem most of the dual platform developers will probably continue to create Mac-only versions.

If, however, Windows runs within the Mac OS in a fashion similar to the Classic app integration I wouldn’t be surprised if some developers scuttle their Mac versions. Software like Quicken, which has a weak Mac version, comes to mind.

All this is speculation, of course. Apple’s been playing things pretty smart, so I remain optimistic. This is great news for me personally. I’m a lot more anxious to get a MacBook Pro. Paging Apple: please deliver the 17-inch version.

I used ecto for Windows for the first and last time yesterday.

I was stuck in the airport and on a plane and decided to make productive use of my time by writing the Asheville post I published a short while ago.

Without going into detail I’ll just quickly ramble off the issues that made ecto for Window a pointless piece of software:

• Saving an item as a draft is cumbersome and counterintuitive.
• Saying the above makes it sound like the feature ultimately worked, which it didn’t. I launched ecto tonight and the post had mysteriously disappeared. Were it not for Google Desktop Search’s cache, which caught the preview HTML ecto generated, I would have lost the post.
• Speaking of preview HTML, the preview HTML 1) did not display paragraph breaks and 2) displayed styles which look nothing like the styles on my server.

I’m pretty bummed I paid $8.00 to add the Windows version onto my order when I bought ecto for Mac. It feels like an afterthought product developed by a Mac-focused developer.

Now that I think about it I’m not thrilled with ecto for Mac, either. The text editor isn’t very robust and you can’t add new categories within the editor. Sigh.