Matsu’s World: The One Less Traveled

Yup, Apple is finally shipping a database for the rest of us. Yesterday they released a new product called Bento by FileMaker.

As you may know, FileMaker is an Apple company that provides database software designed for small to medium sized businesses. Now, they are selling a new $50 database product for individuals who want to track collections of things or just plan a party.

This product fills a whole in Microsoft’s offering as Office for Mac doesn’t include database software. Now, Mac users have a database program that will fill that need. I wonder how well it integrates with Microsoft Word or Excel.

By the way, did you know that “bento” means “lunch box” in Japanese? It does.

I haven’t installed the demo yet, but I will do it this week and let you know what I what I find out about integration with Microsoft’s office software.

Yes, you can see all of the latest Apple product announcements, or at least rumored announcements, at this blog site. The author (Graham Bailey) even recorded a Steve-Jobs-like-keynote and includes it in his blog post. It’s amusing, to say the least. Check it out!

And, for some more serious AiR (Apple  iRumors) go over and read this BusinessWeek article.

Don’t you just love rumors about new technology. After all, you can dream about finally getting that product or feature you always wanted, but nobody will create. I think nobody spreads rumors as passionately as Apple users.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not speaking badly about Mac users. After all, I’m typing this blog post on my Mac laptop (Intel). And, I own a couple of iPods and every other member of my family owns at least one iPod, my teen-aged son owns more than one. So, my observations are not from an “outsider” nor am I some Microsoft Windows bigot. I actually see the value of all three of the most popular operating systems (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux). And I routinely use all three. But, I must confess that for everyday use; e-mail, web surfing, word processing, spreadsheets, etc. I prefer to use a Mac. It’s just more comfortable and just works. Oh, and I use it for viewing photos and listening to music all the time. Now you know where I’m coming from.

Back to the latest Apple rumors. Have you seen the Apple banners they put up at MacWorld? Like ancient medicine men interpreting tea leaves, Apple fans everywhere are trying to guess what they mean.

I am sending two of my I.T. staff to this week’s MacWorld in San Francisco. Being the weekend before a major trade show dedicated to the Apple Mac you know everyone is making their predictions on what Steve Job will announce during his keynote address on Tuesday. It’s always a big event, but this year it may be even bigger than last year. After all, last year Steve confirmed the shipping date for the iPhone, something they had announced about six months earlier.

This time, the speculation by Fortune magazine is Apple will announce a new sub-laptop. Something smaller than the 12″ screen laptop currently available. Rumored not to have a conventional hard drive, it is supposedly a memory-chip-only (flash memory) computer. If you haven’t already seen it, you should go here to see a regular MacBook Pro that’s been converted by replacing the hard drive with a Samsung SSD (solid state drive). I’m not sure there’s a big market for something like that. I would rather see a tablet Mac, like the IBM Thinkpad tablet, only it runs Mac OS X. THAT is something I could get excited about. Although, according to this article an Apple tablet (aka Newton) is not likely to happen this week.

While I am talking about wishes I have for Apple, I can’t pass on the chance to once again share my wish that they would develop a way for Windows applications to run natively on a Mac (in Mac OS X). It’s technically possible to do, but my guess is that Apple is not willing to engage in all out war with Microsoft and provide a direct replacement for the Windows operating system. That’s my guess. If Apple won’t build in the ability to launch Windows programs in Mac OS X, then I wish they would buy or license Parallels or VMware for Mac and include it with every computer they sell. That way, ALL of their computers can run Windows applications out of the box without buying anything else. I know that you can always buy Parallels or VMware for Mac, but it would be better if it were just part of the operating system with full Apple support.

In a little more than one day we will learn which rumors were on target and which rumors were born out of the imagination and wishes of a Mac fan. I predict most will fall in the latter category.

The rumors are flying on the eve of Apple’s upcoming scheduled product announcement. Tomorrow, September 5, 2007, Apple, Inc. has arranged a product announcement but in normal fashion they won’t say what it is. The most informed guesses include an upgraded iPod with a touch screen display that will borrow from the iPhone user interface.

I imagine the new iPod “TS” will look a lot like an iPhone, but it won’t be able to make/receive calls. For many people that will satisfy them as they really don’t want to (or can’t easily) change cell phone providers or products due to contractual obligations and stiff penalties for early cancellation of their existing contract.

I hope the new iPod will do more than just play music and videos. I hope they throw in wi-fi networking into the new iPod so it can run the iPhone-type Internet browser. That would be very interesting. And, it would be nice if they included synch software that works with an Exchange server so I can use it to keep track of my schedule and maybe read and send e-mail from it. Hey, they could call it the iPod PDA (or just bite the bullet and call it a Newton!).

I guess time (about 12 hours) will tell. I can’t wait to see if Steve Jobs has any surprise announcements in addition to the expected announcement.

You would not believe the commotion the new iMac “Slim” created in my department when the first shipment arrived yesterday. (Do you call it iMac Slim or iMac Silver?)

I was in the conference room working when one of my staff walked in hugging a largish brown cardboard box. In tow was about 10 of his fellow IT guys and gals who knew what was in the box. They had come down to unbox the new iMac where they could all see it and experience the moment, together.

Recognizing the magnitude of this historic moment, I reached for my digital camera, but I had taken it out of my laptop bag the other day, so I swooped up my cell phone and snapped this photo of the team of Apple fans as they posed with their new best friend.

I should also point out that Chris J. Davis is standing to the right, just outside the frame. He did not want people to know he was part of this event. I thought about drawing him in with a pencil, but decided to grant him his wish and leave him out of the photo so nobody would know he was there.

(Note: I decided to make the second photo a black & white pic. It just looked better without color.)