Remember 1995? It was the year a lot of people were convinced the Internet was going to take over the world, or as a matter of fact maybe become the world. Companies were pouring billions of dollars into empty buckets with not bottoms. Even the Rolling Stones landed a nice lucrative contract from Microsoft to use a song for Windows 95. That was over a decade ago and as we all know the bottom that was never that completely fell out of corporate America and millions lost millions of dollars. Now, we have what everyone is calling web 2.0.

Web 2.0 seems to be software websites and languages oriented around experience and business practicality. Or maybe not, how is MySpace going to charge reasonable advertising rates on a site that is the most popular and have a demographic that’s very ambivelous to ads? At any rate, 2.0 ushers in a lot of interesting techniques and sense of community throughout the Internet ##- AJAX aside, there is tremendous potential for Web 2.0. Google is a corporate giant that has just leapt into the fray with aggressive drive, and more companies should do that. Falling behind at this juncture, now that so much has been learned from the web days of old, could be fatal.

I read how you can use your GSM Cell Phone as a Bluetooth modem on Mac OS X. Unfortunately my plan with Unicel is not on their GSM network, nor is my phone capable of working with that network. Knowing how to enable this little gadget setup and hook up a new MacBook Pro with Bluetooth would be awesome for surfing the web from my sailboat.

It appears that all the reports of Apple distributing movies from their online iTunes Music Store are a tad early in their predictions. According to DVGuru the negotiations don’t seem to be working out so smoothly. Of course with Steve Jobs at the helm, the selling price might be one of the biggest catching points. With music, everyone knows of the $.99 price-tag for all single songs. TV/videos are roughly $2 a pop, and I have no idea what the movie distribution prices will be ##- my guess is hollywood wants it $15 or over, and Jobs ain’t budging.

As many of you know by now, this is a very Macintosh friendly blog. News has come out that Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates will be leaving ship in 2008. He won’t be getting done completely, as he’ll remain the Chairman of the company. Apparantly he will be spending more time with the wife, Melinda, and working on charitable activities.

Microsoft???s Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie will immediately assume Gate???s title as chief software architect and begin working side by side with Gates on overseeing all software technical design.

Source: MSNBC.com

It’s out of the box now, officially. AOL is renovating Netscape with Jason Calacanis at the helm.

Unfortunately, I’ve never used Digg, which is the model that Calacanis are attempting to reformat Netscape.com like. The difference with the AOL model vs. the Digg setup is that AOL/Netscape are using bloggers to comment on the incoming links and tips.

Check it out if you like at beta.netscape.com

Not sure how many Mac users out there play video games, but there are many rumors going around that Apple may buy Nintendo to leap into the gaming console market. I doubt this will happen for many reasons.

First, Apple likes manufacturing the hardware. As history shows, especially of the last 7-10 years, Apple is very good in this field. For Apple to just acquire a 3rd party to leap into a market, the party would have to be willing to compromise quite a bit, which Nintendo (with much of the same character as Apple) probably would not allow.

Second, Microsoft took huge losses with the Xbox in its attempt to penetrate significantly. One thing that Apple and Nintendo share that perhaps Microsoft and Sony might not, is that lack of desire to be the number one for market-share. Apple and Nintendo seem to be two companies quite alright carving out a niche of quality over quantity.

Finally, it just wouldn’t seem like Apple Computer…

Many folks love their wireless keyboard and mouse. I don’t even own one, but I have my reasons. As you can probably assume, my reasons have to do with the potential downside of the products use.

If it was a perfect world, I would use a wireless device like a keyboard and mouse. Unfortunately sometimes computers don’t want to do exactly what you want them to do. I’m sure you’ve experienced hang-ups or lock ups with your machine at one time or another. You probably just did a CTRL + ALT + DEL or a APPLE + OPTION + ESC to close the program out, right?

What if the program that’s acting up is the software needed to run the wireless devices you are using? Hmmm, guess you wouldn’t be able to hit those keys and send that messages to the machine, would you?

I’ll wait until there’s some truly reliable devices/software for the wireless office. If anyone knows of some, drop me a line.

Now for those of you that know me, and many of my friends, you know we’re Macintosh users. I have a PowerMac G5, PowerMac G4 and a Powerbook G4 (the little old 12″ and I’ve had it since 2003, not long after I got my PowerMac G4). I’m not an unusual Apple computer user in the sense that I have kept my computers for a long time and still continue to use older models. One of the biggest advantages I think few people realize between the platforms (Microsoft and Apple) is the significance of the operating system. I’m not about to start another thread comparing the superiority of Apple Computer’s Unix-based operating system over the long-overdue-in-need of an upgrade Microsoft XP. Nope. I just want to point out a few differences between Windows two very outdated operating systems.

As one can imaging, XP Home is designed for the home and consumer user. Most of thesoftware runs fine on this setup, but a few features which XP Pro has are not included.

On the other hand, XP Pro adds two significant differences. For beginners, it has multi-processor support. For the machine to be able to use both processors, you need XP Pro.

Finally, perhaps more for a work environment, there is Remote Desktop. Which allows you to log on to another machine using your computer ??? probably not to be of much help at home if you only have one computer to worry about.

Replacing its iBook model with a newer, bigger screen (13.3 inches vs. 12 inches), and loaded with an Intel core duo, Apple announced earlier the replacement: the MacBook.

The MacBook now offers up to 2Ghz of smashing power and prices start just over $1000.

The sweetest selling point is probably that you can now have up to 2GB of RAM in these little machines…. sweet!

Of course it seems natural now that all Mac “books” will be coming with iSight and Front Row, as this new MacBook model does as well.

Maybe I’ll get to play with one of these little machines in a bit and see if I can make it scream…. Of course I’ll write about the experience if it happens.

Rumors are out that Apple Computer is working on a cellular phone of their own. If they are, which they probably are, I would expect some sort of integration with iTunes.

As far as the race towards dominating the consumers electronics world, Apple seems to be several steps ahead of the competition offered by Microsoft and Sony. Sure, there’s the PS2 and Xbox, but I see a lot more white ear buds in folks ears than I see joysticks in hands.