While I typically comment on the interesting news items that didn’t quite make the headlines each week, I have to start with a comment about the iPhone and women’s fingernails story from Tuesday over at iPO. I asked my wife about it all and sought an analog that seems to work. Are you ready guys?

Many UNIX nut cases (said with much affection) wear pony tails. What if the iPhone in addition to (or because of) its touch sensitive keyboard were particularly sensitive to static electricity, and every time one of the pony tailed guys answered his iPhone, his hair touched the screen and dropped the call? What would be the response? “Well, cut your $#@&^%$ hair!” the women in the audience would claim. Chances are, the guys wouldn’t like this and would spend countless hours (using the vi editor) lambasting Apple for a poor ergonomic design. “Cut my pony tail? Surely, you’re joking!”

I say this because I had to delete a particularly sexist and inappropriate comment related to that article amidst what I thought was an onslaught of testosterone poisoned men.

Indeed, there isn’t much Apple engineers can do about the electrical properties of women’s fingernails, but that’s a cultural norm. There are things women do to make themselves attractive. Someday Apple will figure out a solution. And someday some of the men who embarrassed themselves this week will someday have a daughter, if they’re blessed, and change their iTune.

Back to our regularly scheduled broadcast.

Backing up a little to June 19, I saw an interesting article at Microsoft Watch that reminds us why Vista is such a mess and Windows 7 probably won’t be much better. Under the terms Federal government’s Antitrust suit from November 2001, a government Technical Committee has overseen Windows development. In addition, some of Microsoft’s competitors sought and obtained an extension to the oversight, so there will be two more years of government meddling. Monopoly life is so much fun.

Need I say more about why Vista is a mess?

On Monday, there was a neat story at Gizmodo about Morotola’s last ditch effort, a phone code named Alexander. In a clever play on the ROKR, RIZR, RAZR series, the headline read “Motorola’s Secret Alexander Cellphone: If It Fails, Moto Is OVR.” The article graphic had a Moto trademark emblem burning upon re-entry. Fun stuff. With Palm dying and Moto on the rocks, I wonder who’s next.

On Tuesday, Extremtech mentiond that Office Depot has kicked off a recycling service for old and broken electronics. It’s a green thing to do, especially since electronics can have heavy metals and other bad things that shouldn’t be in landfills. Just make sure your spouse doesn’t throw that old iPhone 2G in the box — it’s still worth big bucks.

I was going to defer the AppleScript story, then decided that this is big news after all. Apple goes through four phases with technology: 1) Push for all it’s worth, 2) Probe to see if people still want it, 3) Make concessions to calm developer fears while working on the Next Big Thing, and finally, 4) Dump it unceremoniously and move on. In my opinion, AppleScript is in Phase 3. Get ready for Phase 4.

On Thursday, I ran across a hilarious article at Seeking Alpha on how Microsoft can probe Google’s weaknesses and strategies they might use. It’s a sensational send up on the kind of thinking Microsoft engages in, and it had me rolling on the floor laughing.

If you’re in the mood for a different kind of humor, you can read up on “Steve Jobs and the Great 3G iPhone Scam.” I passed on this story because everyone knows by now what they’re getting into with the iPhone. AT&T wants to raise its ARPU, Average Revenue Per User. The 3G network cost a lot of money to build. Faster data means more cost. And the joys of using the iPhone come at a price: you’re either in or you’re out. However, the author of the article, like any author, believes in what he’s writing about, and that’s his privilege. I’ll file it under “Inquiring Minds Want to Know.” Just make sure you’re in a good mood when you read it.

StrangeCharm will return on July 11th. I wish everyone a happy and safe Independence Day holiday.

A secondary story that caught my attention this week was from Radio Ink. It seems that radio (not satellite) listenership amongst people aged 14-24 is up for the first time in awhile. They survey, “Youth Radio and New Media” said that 54 percent are listening to radio a little more than in the past.

The research was good news for terrestrial radio which hasn’t had much to celebrate. Even so, I am skeptical. I keep an iPod shuffle in my car, plugged into the sound system, and I always prefer my own songs compared to what’s playing on FM. That’s one reason I dropped the new car free subscription to XM radio a long time ago. I guess it’s good news in the sense that the more people enjoy music, the more they’re going to explore conventional radio — even if it is commercial-ridden AM and FM.

Another interesting story was at ChannelWeb on the Winds of Change for IT Managers. This story basically reiterated that IT managers are being read into the new culture and they better get up to speed fast. The key statement by the consultant was:

“The second point, [Robert] Anderson said, is becoming increasingly important, as now end users are driving many of the solutions IT evaluates and deploys. He used the incoming crop of recent college graduates ready to join the work force as an example: they are used to high-powered computing, social networking, mobility and text messaging. Not catering to that group could not only drain the potential talent pool, but ultimately affect the bottom line.

When I think about stories that MacBooks are the cool thing to have on campus and PC notebooks are considered suitable only for dunces, I am beginning to think that Apple has done a wonderful job, call it insidious, with its marketing campaign and OS X quality and security. Ten years ago, IT Managers could come up with all kinds of pseudo-reasons to avoid a Mac when it had 1.8% market share. Today, however, that new college graduate is going to be UNIX, Mac, Networking, iPod and iPhone savvy. The message is, get on board or be left behind by a new breed of companies that will steal your talent and leave you in the dust.

Midweek, I got a nice e-mail asking me to provide feedback on my WWDC experience. It was excellent this year, and I wrote about it in my WWDC reports. One thing that struck me about the photo, however, was amusing. During the WWDC week, I did lots of head counts, and I could only account for about 2 percent women at WWDC. However, the picture in the e-mail from Apple shows four women in a gang of about 20 guys. The contrast in the perception/image presented by Apple and the reality was interesting.

Today, I read a story about the Flip Video camcorder at TVNewsday. Sorry, subscription required. Ted Landau wrote about it on May 27th in his blog, and apparently it’s getting to be a popular item with TV news reporters.

Here’s the key part:

Earlier that day, [reporter Jeff] Maher got a tip that city fire marshals were ready to burst into local schools that were behind on
safety inspections. With just half an hour’s notice and no video crew, Maher dashed to Garfield Middle School where he captured the whole story with a camcorder no bigger than a pocket comb.

“I doubt if 90 percent of our viewers could see any difference,” says Maher. “And it freed up a photographer to shoot another story, so it was much more efficient.”

It seems to me that the Flip Video could be a real game changer, especially for things like Citizen Journalism at the summer Democratic and Republican conventions.

I actually spoke with a press representative with Psystar this afternoon. He said that Apple has not contacted them yet. And they’ve sold thousands of systems to date, according to the Psystar rep, many of which are running Mac OS X. Tom Krazit and Jason O’Grady have machines and will or already have reviewed them. I find it very interesting that Apple has taken no action so far, and it could well be that Psystar has found a legal way to do what they do. Time will tell.

Finally, I have to put in a good word for the SmileOnMyMac people who publish TextExpander. Needless to say, I do a lot of typing every day, and TextExpander nicely handles all the often used monetary and html strings that I need over and over. I’m using it right now within MarsEdit as I write this blog, and I use it within BBEdit to compose my stories. It’s very cool and very helpful for anyone who writes for a living.

That’s it for this week!

Have you ever wondered what computers are good for? Jackie Mason knows. In his hilarious video blog, he tells us: Maybe they aren’t so useful after all. No one over, ahem, 50-ish, knows how to use a computer. If they bought one, it was just because they’re ashamed to say they don’t have one. The problem is that they’re hard to use and the information inside them isn’t so easy to get to. “Do you know anyone who reads 300 newspapers a day?” he asks contrasting computers and RSS feeds (even if he knew about them) to the simpler life.

And we’re accosted by strangers. If someone came over to you in a restaurant and said, “Hi, I’m gonna join you for dinner,” would you be happy to hear about it?, Mr Mason asked. It gets better and better as Mr. Mason dissects, folds, spindles and mutilates modern computer life. Maybe life was better when we read one newspaper daily, then fell asleep. Not.

I have about 210 RSS feeds I subscribe to, so I guess I’m guilty. (Hooray for Vienna.)

Last night, I was watching TV, and there was an ad for Overstock.com. The ad had all the usual stuff, but then they got to the intriguing part: MP3 players! Now that’s exciting, right? When the ad showed one of the MP3 players, I snapped a photo with my camera. (No JPEG screen shots yet available on my HDTV. Sigh. Maybe some day.) Here’s the photo.

Phooey. I was hoping for an iPod no one wanted and was turned over to Overstock.com. Lots of those around, right?

I got a nice note from Microsoft today.

“This morning Microsoft and Holland America Line introduced new digital media workshops taking place on all Holland America Line cruises. The Holland America Line Digital Workshop powered by Microsoft Windows will enable cruise guests to document their vacation memories while at sea.

With the help of Microsoft “Techsperts” (technology experts) and through a variety of class offerings, guests will learn how to share all their digital memories through email, blogging and social networking – so friends and family can see where they’ve been cruising even before they return home. They will also have the opportunity to learn how to do basic photo and video editing and basic photo card and scrapbook design.”

Interesting. That’s usually the kind of thing that Apple does. Let’s see … who would like to volunteer to go on a Caribbean cruise for two weeks and teach iPhoto on a Mac? Show of hands? Naw … we can leave that to the Microsoft guys.

On to WWDC. I’ll be there along with team members from TMO, but since we can’t divulge the details of the sessions, all under NDA except the keynote, we’ll be keeping you informed about all the other events and chatting with developers. Watch for the WWDC 2008 Special Reports.

I saw an article this week that talked about what to name the second generation iPhone. It’s likely all going to be decided on Monday, but it’s still fun to think about. I’ve been calling it the iPhone 3G to emphasize that that it’s not a 3rd generation iPhone. (3G iPhone). But I saw a respected publication fall into the trap and actually refer to it as Apple’s third generation smartphone.

Jeff Gamet and I were chatting last week, and we decided that Apple will call the new iPhone … the iPhone. And leave us to figure out how to differentiate the two models. They’ve done that before.

In addition to the iPhone 3G, I have the feeling that Apple is going to announce something else. A larger iPod touch-like device with a larger screen, OS X, and a bunch of new multitouch gestures to operate it as a true Mobile Internet Device (MID). I’m thinking of a seven inch screen, 700 grams, and $799. Not so big as to replace your MacBook Air but enough to make all of us (and the Apple developers) drool for this true MID for those occasions when we don’t want to carry a notebook around. Apple has it within their current technology. The pieces are in place. I feel it coming.

Write me Monday if I’m wrong, and you want to rub it in. But it’s coming.

Finally, for all of you who are attending WWDC and plan to attend Stump Wednesday night, don’t forget to bring a clean spork!