I really had counted Palm out. My old Treo died on me last month and I never even considered getting another Palm device. I've owned Treo/Palm products for nearly a decade, but they'd finally lost me with the options I saw on the shelves. I'm super happy with the Sprint network, so my long-term plan was to hold out with the Treo long enough to see Sprint come out with an Android handset. Obviously that didn't happen, so I ended up going with a (free) Moto Q9. I'm happy enough with it (the keyboard is phenomenal and it was free) and I can get $150 for an upgrade after a year, so I figured by then I'd have a good option to settle into for the long term (I typically run phones into the ground before upgrading.) Apparently, I will have a good option, but it won't be an Android handset. It'll be the Palm Pre.

The device itself looks slick as hell (including the ever vital QWERTY keyboard) and the new WebOs feels like it was made for me- especially since it's running HTML/CSS and JavaSript! All that and it's built on top of Linux…

I'm seriously lusting after this device and it wouldn't surprise me if I end up forgoing the upgrade cash to pick up a Pre when it becomes available.

Quick review?

It kicks ass.

It's tiny but comfortable, looks really nice and I'm happy to be able to mess around with Ubuntu whenever I want to scratch the Linux itch without relying on virtual machines.

It will also travel really well. Compare it to my workhorse:

Which would you rather have in your carry-on?

The following chart only tells part of the story (both based on the specific demographics of this site and for the fact that XP is off the chart) and is really only offered up for perspective on what Apple is up against in their battle with Microsoft for OS dominance. Apple has made healthy gains in the OS market share race over the past few years, so keep that in mind when you look at the following chart.
(more…)

or

Next Time You Hear "Twitter" or "FriendFeed" and "Mainstream" in a Sentence, Check Out This Post…

As of this writing, there are approximately 1.46 Billion internet users. The following are the best approximations of usage/traffic for several sites and technologies in order to provide some perspective when thinking about and discussing some of the sites and services that are currently making noise in the tech press. I hear and read a lot about the following sites and technologies and sometimes the claims make me scratch my head in confusion ("twitter has gone mainstream"), so I figured I'd do a little research to put some numbers together so I could more accurately separate out the hype.

These are pulled from different sources and have different methodologies, so there's not much scientific rigor to the following. That doesn't mean it isn't interesting an interesting list to peruse anyway
(more…)

Welcome to the "Mojave Experiment." What do people think of Windows Vista® when they don't know it's Windows Vista? We disguised Windows Vista as codename "Mojave," the "next Microsoft OS," so regular people who've never used Windows Vista could see what it can do – and decide for themselves. Now decide for yourself.

The "Mojave Experiment"

Apparently people loved it. Me? I use Vista at home and I love it too. I wish I could use it at work as well. XP is a drag in comparison.

I know what you're thinking:

"zomg, Vista is teh lame!"

And maybe it is if you're trying to upgrade an old machine or are stuck with software/peripherals from five years ago (and I know a lot of people are, so that's a valid complaint.) For my particular situation (a high end machine running Ultimate with current/latest version licenses for all my essential software) it's great.

There, I said it- great.

The biggest complaint I've had in the year I've been running it was the fact that my scanner was unstable and I had to replace it with a newer, Vista ready scanner and drivers. Even that's more on buggy driver support from the manufacturer than it is a fault with Microsoft.

Beyond that, while I have a few complaints about access control oddities, it's pretty cool.

I know what you're thinking now:

"Madness! Who's the crazy man?"

That'd be me

*I need to run a couple of normally innocuous apps in "root" mode to get them to work correctly- my Garmin training software being one- WTF?