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First, let me congratulate you on a fairly witty pun-based ad campaign. You’re making a point, and with quite a bit of gumption, given the lack of cool smartphones available on your larger-than-life network. Second, I’ll acknowledge our past relationship; nine good years with excellent coverage and several fairly decent phones. You still insist on sending me flyers trying to lure me back, but I’m just not that into you right now. And here’s why…

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Back in the day, Steve Jobs whipped a Macworld Keynote audience into a frenzy by announcing the iPhone. Removed from the reality distortion field, people began to wonder about the strategy that Apple was pursuing. Originally, apps on the iPhone were a no-no. Steve pontificated the wonder of web-based applications, like Facebook and Flickr; the iPhone’s killer apps were to be accessed via Safari. This was an interesting, and obviously ill-fated strategy, but several events lately set me to thinking…

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Gizmodo broke a story about a Microsoft dual-screen, multitouch table currently in the “late-prototype” development phases, dubbed “Courier”. This means that the prototypes are working and being refined, and the design concept is now being shared with other agencies who might have a hand in development, such as third party software vendors, channel partners, or testers. While the device certainly looks cool, long time Apple fans and more recent converts will feel an eerie sense of deja vu watching the video (after the jump).

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Many years ago, back when lamp-style iMacs were cool and iPods came in only one color, Apple promoted a vision of the Mac as the hub of the then-emerging “digital lifestyle.” With so much of the spotlight on iPhone OS products, there has not been a clear central pillar of this digital hub strategy. The recent release of Snow Leopard for Mac users, coupled with the just-announced iTunes 9, has refocused the digital hub strategy squarely on the Mac, and brought a wide audience some extremely cool features.

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Slick. Speedy. Sexy. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. You could easily replace the word “snow” in “Snow Leopard” with any other “s” adjective and still describe it accurately. Snow Leopard, by Apple’s own admission, is “The worlds most advanced operating system [Leopard]. Finely tuned.” It is, however, a truly unique experience for Mac users. And for 29 bucks, it can not be denied that this is easily the best OS upgrade the Mac has ever seen.

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Oh my. The Mac community is abuzz with yet another rumor of a forthcoming Apple Tablet—which is odd. Steve Jobs has publicly spoken about netbooks, declaring, “We don’t know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk and our DNA will not allow us to ship that.” The iPhone and iPod Touch are already good handheld computers…it is tough to see where a larger tablet-format screen would add any value.

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Assuming you had the right hardware, properly loaded software drivers, and the gods of fortune were smiling favorably upon you, Windows Vista brought what was arguably one of the biggest changes to the Windows User Interface since Windows 95. XP really warmed over what had already been accomplished, then wrapped it in some plasticy looking windows. By contrast, all versions of Mac OS X have delivered serious updates to the user interface, though we will have to wait to see what, if anything, Snow Leopard presents us.

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Or, “When Things Fall Apart.” And boy can things fall apart when you install the SP2/12.2.0 upgrade to Office for Mac 2008. To begin with, unless you absolutely have to upgrade, it is definitely a good idea to wait.  There are some serious issues here, which Microsoft will hopefully address soon—showstopper issues that can create significant headaches for Office users.  Everybody got their dancing shoes on?  Good, let’s begin the tango with a look at some of what this service pack contains.

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It’s official (even across the pond); Google is expanding the Chrome brand beyond a browser and creating the Chrome OS. According to the Google Blog, the OS is founded on a three S strategy: speed, simplicity and security. In an era of operating systems whose roots stretch all the way back to time shared mainframes, it is refreshing to see someone building an OS based on current needs rather than supporting legacy applications.

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Microsoft is really good at dreaming about the future; their track record on delivering it is not quite so shining. Seen ubiquitous Tablet PCs? Anybody remember SPOT? Given this track record, it is virtually not impossible to pose the question: what impact, if any, will Microsoft’s Surface have on everyday computing?

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