MOBODOJO

I’m here at Radford Studios, part of the CBS Studio City group, hanging with my Mac nerd pals at MacDayLA. I’m actually on the panels today as an expert (whoduhthunk?) and I’m giving Q&A session on virtualizing Windows on the Mac. The first guy to come to my table at breakfast asked me, “Why would anyone want to run Windows when they have a Mac?” I told him that not all developers had “gotten it” just yet. Its rather sad, really. Considering the fact that Microsoft is spiralilng downward in the ranks of quality (let’s just say they don’t have a long way to fall). It seems like 4 of every 5 people I speak to today (no, they’re not all Mac users) have one or more significant complaints about Vista.

It seems that overall people are getting sick of Microsoft and Microsoft isn’t taking notice. People are tired of the high fees for software, the limitations of being held within the Microsoft universe, the glitches and security problems, and the lack of responsiveness from the Redmond corporation. This frustration is being shown in greater numbers of sales of Mac laptop and desktop systems and more and more people moving from Windows to Mac OS X. PC World magazine declared the MacBook Pro as the best laptop on which to run Windows Vista! None of this bodes well for Microsoft and Ballmer’s not doing much to change that perception.

As usual, time will tell the tale. Right now I’m listening to Scott Bourne, a fantastic photographer and a very funny speaker.

If the iPhone just isn’t for you, then Google has an option, and its called Android. No, its not a robot, its a mobile handset OS. Now, before you follow the link, know that the people over at Android Community are stark, raving mad. Yes, they’re lunatics and then some. They have six videos and at least 50 images of Android in action, an event Google set up. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. If you’re ready, here’s the link.

Wanna make apps for the iPhone? So do a lot of people. Its easy to do, if you can code. Just hop on over to Apple’s Developer Connection, get a free account, and download the SDK. Just be aware that all development needs to happen on a Mac OS X-capable machine. Oh, and if you don’t have an iPhone to test on, there’s a conveniently provided emulator. Nice, eh?

If you’ve been paying attention to All Things D, the chatty technology “event” headed by the WSJ’s “Uncle” Walt Mossberg, you may have come across a Gizmodo entry where Brian Lam got to take a look at Michael Dell’s lappy. It turns out that the lappy in question is the upcoming Dell Mini-Inspiron. There are no specs at all, but from the image to the left you can see that its damn small. I’m going to guess that its going to run a Linux-based OS, have an Intel Atom or VIA C7M processor, possibly 2GBs of RAM, ship with an 80GB drive and have SSDs as an option, and will likely feature Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, though there will probably be a WiMAX option. Pricing is going to be sub-$500 and there appears to be no exact availability information.

Whee! If there was anything at all which could top the overall badness of Windows Vista and seal the deal for the end of Microsoft as a world dominating powerhouse, its Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates showing that Windows 7 will be nothing more than Microsoft’s Surface UI grafted on top of Vista’s diseased core. If you aren’t clear on what Surface is, just think a really big, really heavy iPhone which you can only use as a tabletop. Sure, it features the blatantly copied groundbreaking multitouch interface which allows images to be moved about and resized willy-nilly. You can read all about it at Gizmodo. Gee, I hope I can wait until Windows 7 comes out! It’ll be so neat. I can have a Mac and then next to it, see, I’ll have another Mac, but it won’t be a Mac. Yeah!

Betcha thought the HP 2133 Mini-Note was an HP design. I sure did. Man, can I be a dupe. Anyway, it turns out that VIA is the mother of that slick lappy, and they’ve opened up their reference design to anyone who wants a stab at it. Of course, this is a hardware reference design, so its not like hacking Linux, but if you have plans to sell microlappies, this might be the way to go. I signed up for a free account and received my account information immediately. I validated the account request and voila! I’m in. Now, don’t go expecting delivery of the MoboDojo MicroLappy ‘486 anytime soon, kids.

This could be the case in more ways than one, really. LinuxDevices.com is reporting the announcement of Bestlink’s Alpha 400 Linux-based micro-lappy. The tiny device, which is retailing for US$219, is based on an Ingenic Semiconductors 400MHz Xburst CPU which is fabbed on a 0.18 micron process, meaning it likely runs pretty cool and for a long time if the battery is large enough. Otherwise, it features 128MBs of RAM, a 1 or 2GB SSD, an SD card slot for additional storage, and two USB ports of unspecified speed. There are various additional ports for audio and mouse (PS2?). Finally, the Alpha 400 sports a 7″ 800×480 display with offers True Color, which LinuxDevices notes is generally considered 24-bit. I won’t go into details about wireless access, since none is included. Sadly, Bestlink doesn’t specify which distribution is installed on the device, though they say its based on the 2.4 kernel. You can buy now from their website. To add it to your shopping cart, click on the Products link and click the PC (1) link in the left column. That will add it to the cart, though I didn’t go any further.