In the Hour of Not Quite Rain-iPhone at the Brink

Or maybe you prefer that other Buffalo Springfield song, “Expecting to Fly”….

What certainly will fly — off the shelves — will be a lower-priced iPhone, rumored to be announced next week. What would truly stand the iPhone even more apart from the Palm Pre, Blackberry models, and Google Android smartphones would be video recording and videoconferencing.

As Microsoft grapples with search and Bing, the real battle over the platform that will capture the best developers have to give is between the Apple iPhone and Google Android. While RIM holds a higher share with its Blackberry models, the true momentum of innovation is occurring mostly on these two platforms. Palm has to spring up on its own, without the developer base it had a decade ago. Apple has all the momentum, most of the developers, and an extraordinary base of patented technology, while the rest of the industry is playing catch-up.

See my report, “Expecting to Fly – iPhone before the Start of the Apple WWDC” in my blog, Bove’s Blips.

Google Chrome to Become Design Standard for Web Sites

Google’s Chrome browser not only has a chance in the mobile market, but it will also significantly influence the future of personal computing by challenging Internet Explorer. Google’s stated purpose is to drive innovation on the Web. Market share can be misleading when thinking about the impact of something that is truly innovative. I think that as the Web serves up more applications, Chrome will most likely become the design standard for mobile browsing and may have a serious enough impact on desktop/laptop browsing to free Web designers from the constraints of designing for Internet Explorer. See my take on Google Chrome: “Google has Mojo in Hand with the Chrome Browser” (on my blog, Bove’s Blips).

Still Can’t Open Word Docs

What’s interesting in the war of words between Bruce Chizen of Adobe and Dan’l Lewin of Microsoft is that Dan’l used to work at Apple and has a perspective from Apple’s old days that Microsoft software was essential to the Mac’s early success.

It’s hard to believe that it’s 2007, and I still get Word documents I can’t open. As I write “Microsoft’s Interoperable Assimilation” in Get Off Microsoft, I’m unable to use my Mac to open a document sent to me by a normal business that tells me they are using Microsoft Word. I have in my arsenal the Mac version of Word, OpenOffice 2.0, NeoOffice, TextEdit, and on the Web, Google Docs — all of which open older Word docs and standard formats. Sure enough, the only program that would open this file is Word running on Windows XP, and only after installing some kind of unspecified converter from the original CD-ROM. Maybe this is just a glitch, or some form of temporary insanity while we all adjust to a world of Microsoft “standards”.

Peeking inside with BBEdit, I see that the document appears to be a variant of XML. This document was saved that way by a normal business that has other things to do than change default settings so that documents can be opened on other systems. And this is how Microsoft gets away with “interoperability” — co-opting proven standards (like XML) and turning them into Microsoft pseudo-standards, which are then set as defaults for the program while offering the real standards as options. Normal businesses don’t realize how these default settings — which keep them locked into Microsoft products — disrupt rather than unify our multiple-platform world.

Linux Thrives in Shadow of Microsoft Protection Racket

Microsoft’s shakedown of the Open Source community turned Novell into a Microsoft partner with SuSE Linux; now it has turned Xandros into a partner as well. Microsoft made them a deal they couldn’t refuse. Like garbage hauling contractors in the Northeast Jersey of The Sopranos, Xandros and Novell have nothing to lose by paying tribute to Microsoft. In fact, the Linux desktop implementations, as well as Linux servers (well we knew that), are thriving in the shadow of Microsoft’s cold war. See my full report, “Microsoft Protection Racket Helps Novell with SuSE Linux” at Get Off Microsoft.

What’s the New Mary Jane?

She catch Patagonian pancakes
With that one and gin party makes
She having all the ways good contacts
She making with Apple and contract.
What a shame Mary Jane had a pain at the party!
– Beatles, “What’s the New Mary Jane” (Lennon/McCartney), one of the missing Beatles songs released in the Anthology series.

I started writing something like a Web diary way back in 1996, before the blogosphere existed, titled What’s the New Mary Jane. The last “blog entry” in Sept. 2003 told about how my band, the Flying Other Brothers, had started a mini-tour. Like Bob Dylan’s infamous Never Ending Tour (which lasted at least five years, give or take a year), our tour seems like it will never stop; unlike Bob’s tour, ours did not sell out venues and generate cash rewards. Like touring, blogging can also seem like an endless chore with no return. I suffered Blog Depression way back in 1997, and posted less and less over time until I gave it up entirely.

Until now. Welcome back, Maryjane. What’s new?

The Rockument podcast, produced by yours truly, are free shows devoted to rock music history. Each show includes information about each song and its musicians, with links to artist, fan, and historical sites, and links to music for purchase on Amazon.com or iTunes.

The Flying Other Brothers podcast, hosted by yours truly, are free shows from our tours. Also visit the Flying Other Brothers home page for info about our tours.

To support my book, Microsoft: Just Say No (No Starch Press) I started Get Off Microsoft, which offers a topic-specific blog about getting off Microsoft, and links to information, alternative software, and resources.

To get my other books — including iPod and iTunes for Dummies — see my personal site at tonybove.com.

This is my personal blog, a continuation of What’s the New Mary Jane. I promise to not waste your time. I’ll write only about things that interest me, or piss me off.