Great view of tablet PCs past to present from the NYTimes:

Another former Apple executive who was there at the time said the tablets kept getting shelved at Apple because Mr. Jobs, whose incisive critiques are often memorable, asked, in essence, what they were good for besides surfing the Web in the bathroom.

An affordable, razor thin, lightweight, wireless, multi-touch screen pad that runs Mac OS X and iPhone OS sounds promising. I want one. I’m not sure why.

Craig Hunter sums up the ongoing cat and mouse game between Palm and Apple over iTunes sync. In effect, Palm doesn’t need iTunes to sync to the Pre:

They can sync the Pre to a customer’s iTunes music library with a public, open, and documented approach that has been used by third-party developers and device makers for years. This capability was created by none other than Apple itself.

Why does Apple provide a way to access iTunes data?

Clearly they took this approach to give customers access to their music in a manner independent of iTunes and Apple, now and in the future, since a well written XML file is almost like a self contained fossil record… Apple is keenly aware of the issues surrounding online music sales, both from the standpoint of protecting the intellectual property of musicians and record labels, and the rights of customers.

If the means to sync to iTunes data already exists, and is sanctioned by Apple, do other companies or applications use it?

Clearly, other companies know how to sync painlessly with iTunes music (see RIM’s Blackberry Media Sync for example), so why doesn’t Palm develop a syncing solution for their own hardware?

Then why does Palm play this silly cat and mouse game with Apple’s iTunes connectivity, at the expense of their customers?

Perhaps Palm doesn’t have the resources to develop their own sync app. Or maybe they want some publicity. Or maybe they just want to push Apple’s buttons. Who really knows. But I seriously question the strategy and brains of any company that ties critical product capabilities to the unsupported use of their competitor’s software. I mean, really? Can it get any more ridiculous? Can you possibly send a more mixed, less confidence-inspiring, “we’re a bunch of hacks who can’t provide our own sync software for our products” message to customers?

Some executives falsely believe that any publicity is good publicity. It is not. Palm is desperate and vengeful. That’s not a good combination.

Remember way back last week when news of Tweetie 2.0 for iPhone hit the streets. No upgrade price. Just full retail for version 2.0. How much? $2.99. The Macalope on the big dust-up:

And when the Macalope says “big dust-up”, he means big celebrity-style dust-up.

“Boooooo!!! RT @TwitterDispatch: Tweetie ‘Upgrade’ costs the same as buying new: http://j.mp/b6VgC”

Yes, that’s former Charmed and Who’s the Boss star Alyssa Milano re-tweeting “sarcastic” quotes to stick it to the man! Who’s the boss? Alyssa Milano’s the boss now, indy developer beeotch!

The only problem with The Macalope is that he it shows up barely once a week.

Palm updated the Pre’s webOS to version 1.2.1 which restores Media Sync to iTunes 9.0.1. Derek Kessler of PreCentral:

Now it’s time to figure out what Palm did this time that took less than 40 hours of work, and how long it will take Apple to put out an iTunes update to break it again. Eventually we’re going to reach a point where either Apple will have to radically overhaul the iTunes sync structure to block the Pre, or one of the two parties relents and stops hacking/patching their software.

I love a good cat and mouse game. Now it’s Apple’s turn to be the cat.

Bambi Brannan on Quicksilver as the perfect Mac utility:

Quicksilver is, decidedly, for the geekier Mac user, the heavy duty power user, the pinball wizard who disdains mouse and menu for the fluid freedom of keystrokes. That requirement makes Quicksilver, as a powerful and free utility, a utility not for the rest of us.

My thoughts precisely.

Fake Steve on The Huffington Post and what it means for traditional media news and content:

And what are the old media guys doing, when they should be out there reinventing their business? Why, they’re talking to Congress and trying to get a bailout for newspapers. Good Lord! That’s like organizing a bailout for black-and-white TV.

Of course, every new paradigm shift comes with good news and bad news.

The good news is, we’re heading toward a period of incredible creativity in news and entertainment, with a new medium that is far superior to ink on paper. The bad news, at least from my perspective, is that I’ll be selling a piece of hardware whose success depends on whether the content guys can dream up cool new things to do with this piece of hardware. And, as we’ve already established, most of them are bozos.

If content is king, where’s the prince, the heir apparent, the revolutionary, the future?

Somewhere out there, a genius is waiting to be discovered—the Orson Welles of digital media, someone who will create an entirely new language for storytelling. If you’re reading this, Orson Jr., please get in touch. I’ve got something I want to show you.

Unfortunately, regarding traditional media, Fake Steve misses the difference between content creation and content distribution. That said, Apple is smack in the middle of both.

Totally anecdotal report on AT&T’s miserable iPhone service in New York. MacNN:

Nearly a third of all iPhone calls made in the New York City area are dropped, according to a Genius Bar technician at Apple’s SoHo retail store.

I believe it.

Great set of charts which highlight Apple’s revenue and profit picture since Steve Jobs returned in 1997. Chris Jade in The Apple Blog:

Fiscal year or calendar year, it just doesn’t matter, either way 2009 will be the first year the company sells 10 million Macs.

While Mac sales continue to grow, and iPhone sales skyrocket, iPod sales (except for the iPod touch) have leveled off. The bad news and the good news:

The bad news is that the phenomenal growth the iPod enjoyed from 2004 through 2007 appears to be over. The good news is that’s still more than 50 million iPods per year. For FY 2009, projections are for just under 54 million iPods to be sold, which would be just under the record of 54 million sold last year.

Today marks the end of fiscal 2009 for Apple.

Excellent interactive Flash graphic of presidential approval ratings by Gallup dating back to Harry Truman. How does President Obama fare?

At 55% overall, Obama’s approval rating is a tick below that of George W. Bush at six months. It is well above Clinton and Gerald Ford, who was hammered for his pardon of Richard Nixon.

The initially high approval ratings dropped dramatically for all presidents since Truman, except one.

Bill Clinton.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, right? Even really bad opinions count for something, right? If anything, a horribly misguided opinion or malformed perspective can tell us much about the person giving us their opinion.

I use Tweetie on my Mac and my iPhone (arguably the best of the many Mac Twitter clients). The Mac version costs $19.95 (or, free, if you don’t mind advertising). The iPhone version of Tweetie is $2.99. Here’s the twist. The newest version, Tweetie 2.0 for iPhone will also cost $2.99. There’s no free for current Tweetie users. No upgrade fee. Just $2.99 for the newest version. Outrageous, right? Not.

Patrick of Just Another iPhone Blog:

I just can’t find a way to think of this as anything less than spitting in the face of existing Tweetie users… Offering no upgrade discount is just a slap for those who have helped make Tweetie a success… What do we call Tweetie once Tweetie 2 comes out?  Tweetie 1?  Tweetie Old, Abandoned Version?  Tweetie For Suckers Version?

Whoa. I didn’t realize that PMS was cross gender.

I’m not sure I can get past the horribly bad taste in my mouth on this ‘no upgrade’ issue.  It’s foul and I think if the decision sticks I’m more likely to delete ‘Old Useless Tweetie’ and not look at 2 at all.

Assuming that Patrick meant what he wrote, and his perspective isn’t just typical blog flame bait, here’s a major problem with this kind of thinking. Other than being boorishly insensitive, ludicrously cheap, and obviously ignorant. The price differential—going from Tweetie 1.x to Tweetie 2 at $2.99—isn’t worth an extra liner pad in my panties. Again:

I just can’t find a way to think of this as anything less than spitting in the face of existing Tweetie users.

Maybe, just maybe, Tweetie’s developers need to make a buck to stay in business. After all, if Tweetie for the Mac is $19.95, and Tweetie for the iPhone is $2.99, the differential means they need a lot more customers to make the same revenue, and it’s revenue that must cover ongoing costs to make a profit.

$2.99 isn’t worth the effort required to avoid soiling your panties on those special days of the month, Patrick.

What is? How about Bento, the popular FileMaker-like database app for Mac and iPhone? The first version was $49 and arrived less than two years ago. Bento 2 came last year. Bento 3 came out yesterday.

How much is that Bento doggie in the window? $49. Upgrade? Get a $20 instant rebate if you upgrade to Bento 3 through the FileMaker Online Store. Or, $29 for what? New features or bug fixes?

Bento 3 is surprisingly similar to Bento 2 but costs the same, or $29 more for the upgrade. I like Bento. I don’t like a $29 annual tax for the privilege of using a few more features (10 new templates, shared libraries, iPhoto integration—anything else?).

I’m more inclined to get upset at an annual $29 fee for use than I am $2.99.

New game for Mac users goes retro to the 1920s.

Flirt, taunt, play poker, and shave your legs to plow through superstition, intolerance, repression, and last century fashions. Uncover the town’s depraved secret before it entraps your girls.

Two words: Cheesy. Fun.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the non-niche smartphone market (via Michael Arrington and TechCrunch):

I’ll call anything that’s under about 50 million a year niche. And I’ll call anything that’s north of 300 million a year non-niche. PC’s are not niche devices. Part of the reason I think they’re non-niche devices is, multiple people can manufacture them, they all interoperate, they work together, etc. TVs are not niche. You know, there’s more than, well over 300 million of those sold a year. They interoperate in that case mostly based on standards, but with some innovation. Phones are not niche. The categories where, I think, a single player can control a large percentage of the volume are the smaller categories.

Michael, there’s a journalist technique called the follow up question. Have you heard of it?

What about devices which sell between 50-million and 300-million a year? Outside of Windows, does Microsoft have any experience other than niche? Are smartphones a niche of phones? And, how does Microsoft’s mobile strategy fit in with phones, niche or otherwise, since Windows Mobile sales are going down, not up?

Our basic play with our software is to try and be super high volume. So I think you can have an Apple in the phone business, or a RIM, and they can do very well, but when 1.3 billion phones a year are all smart, the software that’s gonna be most popular in those phones is gonna be software that’s sold by somebody who doesn’t make their own phone.

I’m having trouble following. Microsoft wants to be super high volume, yet the iPhone, decidedly a niche smartphone, outsells Windows Mobile smartphones in units and revenue and applications. And why is it that the software that is most popular must be sold by somebody who doesn’t make a phone? Is it that way now? No.

Come on, Mr. Arrington, ask Mr. Ballmer a follow up question.

MA: The Zune HD: A hit. Seems to be a great device. Still haven’t had my hands on one. Do you have one on you right now?

SB: I don’t actually.

Sigh.

I’m serious. There are a lot of questions that real journalists would like to ask of Microsoft’s CEO. Instead of following trends, fads, and buzzwords, why not ask Mr. Ballmer why Microsoft’s Zune has not competed well against Apple’s iPod line? Or, why have Windows Mobile sales fallen in light of the acknowledged strategy of being a non-niche player?

MA: Would Twitter fit with your technology platforms and distribution?

SB: Twitter’d be great, yeah. I mean, not that we’re talking about buying Twitter… I mean, the Twitter guys want to stay independent, that’s great. Using – making Twitter an asset to one of our businesses, that would be the real question for us, how does it fit, but obviously, yknow, they’ve got a lot of kind of buzz and interest at this stage, but, no, I think they’re fiercely, uh, committed to staying independent, which, which I respect.

Sigh.

Oh, wait. I see. Twitter would be a good fit with Microsoft’s businesses because it loses money, too. Got it. Thanks.

Some say Mac OS X Snow Leopard is ready to run on a handheld multi-touch screen device. If so, applications like Conjure might be a precursor to the future Mac interface.

Once you see a Conjure video and then imagine an oversized iPod touch in your hand, the fabled Mac 10-inch multitouch screen iTablet cum iPad, you’ll understand. Instead of using a keyboard and mouse, the future of Macs may be somewhat more like digital finger painting on a multitouch screen.

Conjure is ready made for the future that hasn’t arrived. Yet.