A Snow Leopard Delight: Baked-in HP Scanner Support

I recently discovered that I was no longer able to scan using my HP PSC 1507 all-in-one post Snow Leopard upgrade. Frustrated, I headed out to the HP drivers haystack portal and found this gem.

Apple and HP have baked all of the scanning functionality right into OS X. I no longer have to deal with the atrociously bloated HP software bundle that previously handled all imaging. Now I can simply fire up Preview and import directly from my scanner.

Google Chrome OS Targets MS and Ubuntu, Not Apple

While the web weenie in me is extremely excited about the news of a Google web-centric OS for mobile devices, I think that some of the tech press is off in their assertion that Chrome OS in some way will threaten Apple. I don't think Chrome OS will impact Apple in the notebook space anymore than Android has threatened their smartphone dominance. Neither product is targeted at Apple's consumers.

Apple sells a polished digital media experience and targets consumers who want to pay a little more for the quality, simplicity and polish. Google's Chrome OS won't target that same consumer. Google's offerings are all fantastic for what they are - free and good-enough to get the job done. They aren't in any way a threat to Apple who's customers feel that the premium price they pay is an assurance of quality and value. Besides, Google Docs are great for quick and dirty documents but they'll never provide the impact of a Keynote presentation or the pro feel of a Pages production. The web simply doesn't offer that level of software robustness today and won't anytime soon. Apple's customers care more about multimedia than they do productivity tools and Google's offerings simply can't offer the same level of streamlined sophistication or integration that the iLife suite does for managing and creating digital media.

On top of that, Apple has the advantage of deep hardware integration that augments their software in ways that won't be possible with a distributed, open-source OS. Web service integration at the OS level is relatively easy to achieve but it's not the whole story. A truly immaculate computing experience, which is what Apple customers demand, can only be achieved with hardware and software integration.

It's Microsoft that should be most concerned about this development simply because they sell software as their primary source of revenue. Google will give this OS away to anyone that wants to put it on cheap netbook hardware. These budget-conscious "laptop hunter" customers that Microsoft counts on would probably opt for the Chrome netbooks. I don't see Microsoft being able to counter this without completely altering their business model.

What about Ubuntu? While Ubuntu is a perfectly suitable OS for netbooks, it's not the most usable and won't offer the same level of service integration that Chrome OS will. Simply put, it doesn't feel like a product and I don't think it stands a chance against an actual brand.

Ultimately, both Microsoft and Google should both be concerned about Apple's missing netbook. I think we've seen what they can do when they take their time and truly let design happen. They could very well be about to deliver a product that redefines mobile computing in ways that will take the entire computing industry down an entirely different path.

The Macintosh Genesis of PowerPoint

Did you ever wonder how PowerPoint got it's start? Here's a hint - as with most of Microsoft's most successful products, it wasn't cooked up in Redmond.

Check out this MindJet Connections interview with Bob Gaskins, the father of PowerPoint. It's an interesting read.

Apple MacBook Update Rumors Are Kinda Lame

Seth Weintraub at Computerworld has posted some rumored details of Apple's forthcoming portable refresh.

Please pass the Nodoze. Maybe if they could replace the entire keyboard with a glass surface that would morph into whatever input device required. Garageband? You get a mixing board. iPhoto? you get a standard keyboard with a set of photo editing controls - sliders, dials, etc.

If this is simply a glass trackpad with some of the same lame gestures that appear on MBA, I'll pass. Wake me up when the real revolution comes to town. Seriously, is this Apple's idea of next-gen tech that their competitors simply can't compete with?

Anything less than direct manipulation of objects on the screen is gimmicky at best. When are we going to move beyond detached and remote pointing devices and into a computing experience that lives up to the promise of iPhone OS?

Microsoft In A Gunfight...They've Brought Toy Guns

Microsoft groupie Mary-Jo Foley has a post on her "All About Microsoft" blog asking if the empire should strike back against Apple's marketing campaign. Personally, I don't think Microsoft is in the position to "strike back". Any sort of lashing out they do will be perceived by an already leery public that they're just being big, bad bully Microsoft. Honestly, I don't believe that Microsoft is even capable of countering Apple's campaign given that they simply don't have a compelling consumer product to build it around. At the end of the day, their biggest hindrance is that they can offer no objects of lust. Apple's product line is jam-packed with sexy.

Microsoft is a software company, writing mainly business applications. While software can be sexy, Office is not. Windows is not. We're not talking about gaming consoles or mp3 players so this campaign has to be about their computing experience. Without using venom against their competitors while placing focus on their product, what's their story going to be? Windows One Care is the way to go? Live! is amazingly amazing? You're gonna love the gadget bar in Vista? Our start menu is shiny? There are thousands and thousands of programs...and viruses...written for Windows Vista?

Duh: Intel disappointed with Apple over iPhone chip choice

Forbes says that Intel is "disappointed" with Apple over it's iPhone chip choice. Well duh. Apple is great at learning for growth in areas that are somewhat foreign to them. This is Apple's MO. Work really closely with a company in an industry that they don't have experience in. Turn around in a couple of years and apply what they've learned coupled with their own engineering smarts to do it themselves even better.

Remember the ROKR project with Motorola? Fact finding mission for Apple.

Heck, remember the PARC visits? The rest is Macintosh history.

Apple has it's own really, really small, low-powered chip design IP now in PA Semi. My guess is that they've learned quite a bit about the ins and outs of the silicon business over the past 3 years in working with Intel to design groundbreaking board and chip configurations. Just take a peek at the MacBook Air for reference.

Apple Inc. Is About To Redefine Mobility

On Monday, June 9, all eyes in the tech world will be focused on Steve Jobs as he addresses the WWDC crowd. As usual, the rumor mill is running at a fevered pitch with impossible predictions and fantastic expectations. I should be conditioned by now to prepare for a let-down given that it's almost always too good to be true. With the exception of last year's Macworld iPhone announcement, Apple almost always seems to underwhelm by delivering great but seemingly restrained products. After all, Apple has carefully crafted the reputation as the world's greatest innovator. Why wouldn't we expect them to change the world on an annual basis?

I have a hunch that this time Apple will deliver in ways that most of us didn't see coming. While we've all been obsessed with the iPhone, Apple has been thinking much bigger. Well not that much bigger, maybe a couple of inches across and slightly thicker. You see, this is the way they do things there in Cupertino. They give us products that completely captivate and amaze to the point where Apple is able to work behind the cover of distraction to cook up something even more enthralling than before. They had us so focused on the iPod's evolution as a media player that our wildest iPod + phone fantasies didn't envision the convergence device that was finally introduced to us as the iPhone.

This time Apple will introduce the world to a product that it never thought that it wanted. The Ultra Mobile PC has been around for years and Bill Gates has been ready to change the world with it in just about every interview he's given since 2003. The problem with the UMPC isn't only that it runs a clunky version of Windows or that nobody has ever figured out a way to market it or that it's never been presented in a sexy form factor. The problem is really that it's a concept that was ahead of it's time. Like the mp3 player before it, the consumer market hadn't really yet gotten it's head around the concept of digital media and nobody had given them a cohesive approach to managing it. In stepped Apple with it's iTunes software and service and suddenly the mp3 player is a common household item. On Monday, I fully expect Apple to show the world what it really wants in mobile computing.

The world wants a device that it doesn't have to unfold and lay on a table or our laps. The world wants a device that it can use standing up or sitting down. The world wants a device that allows us to do all of the things that we typically do while mobile - consume media, IM, check email, surf the web, create documents and not much else. The laptop is really overkill for what most of us need in a portable computer and it's not all that convenient to use either. Imagine a device that you can whip out of your backpack, purse or man-purse at a moment's notice and begin using with the same level of effort that it takes to engage your iPhone. Imagine a device that allows us to interact with our digital objects in a tactile manner. The iPhone has taken us there in a small way. It has changed the way we navigate on a handheld device. This new device will change things in a much larger way.

Not only will Apple deliver to the world this device that it doesn't yet know it wants, but it will package and market it in a way that will leave us all wondering why it's taken so long to get here. Like the iPod and iPhone, this new device will be integrated with software both on the desktop and in the cloud that will make our digital lives more seamless than we ever imagined.

Of course I've always been accused of being a dreamer and I won't shy away from those allegations. Monday could very well come and go and all I'll be looking at when Steve leaves the stage is a new iPhone with faster internet and hundreds of 3rd party applications. In fact, I'm almost certain that will be the case. However, in the event that the dreamer in me was right, don't say I didn't tell you about it first. Afterall, Apple patented this over 3 years ago.