MacOS

The Robert X. Cringely stuff was cute once, but it's hit "Fake Steve Jobs" territory now: We know who you are, and it's just not fun or funny anymore. More to the point, The X-Man's latest is just plain crazy talk: MeMobile, You Kaput: Apple's plan to take over the world It's worth noting, incidentally, that even the title of this post is horrible. I thought this was going to be a criticism of MobileMe, which would certainly be warranted, if Bob had ever actually used .Mac. Nope, he really thinks this is the Big Time. Watch the recorded video of the speech ... Phil Schiller doesn't show a word processor, doesn't show a database or a spreadsheet, and doesn't show a presentation program. In short, he doesn't show the guts of any networked office-type application. He shows applications that are actually far more sophisticated than any of those. Again, use .Mac. The stuff Schiller showed off isn't sophisticated or even particularly interesting, beyond "push email, contacts, and calendar," which gets a lot more interesting when it's Gmail/Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft. Just a thought, since those will happen. Then MobileMe loses it's appeal. Unless you're an Apple fanatic who can't stand the loss of his precious mac.com email address. Trust me, they're out there. Given the code Apple already has for its iWork applications, how much more effort would it take to webify those apps, too? Not much, I'd say. A year from now I guarantee you that MobileMe will offer a complete suite of web-based Office applications. This can go one of two ways, and either way, no one will ever care less: 1. Apple does what Cringely predicts and brings its mostly lame iWork applications (OK, Keynote is admittedly cool) to the Web, so anyone can use them. And... what? We need another Google Docs alternative, really? Do people really look to Apple for productivity applications? Seems like a stretch. 2. Apple doesn't do what Cringely predicts for a very good reason: iWork, ostensi

byPaul Thurrott