I’ve been on the road 4 out of the last 6 weeks. I have a laptop, but hooking that up to family member’s persnickety broadband connections can sometimes be more trouble than it’s worth. Enter Google. For some time now, they’ve been touting a web app version of most of the things I use for office-y type communications. So, I decided to give it a try. All in all, a good experience. Set up was fast and easy (I even set up a new Gmail account) and all services are tied to one login. Here’s the list of apps I used on the road (and now at home):

• Gmail – Web and Pop email with a ton of storage
• iGoogle – Web desktop with handy widgets and notifiers
• Google Reader – and RSS fees reader that streams in updates from frequently visited websites
• Google Docs – a web based Word Processor and Spreadsheet for viewing and editing MS Office documents.

What I liked about the Google App stuff:

1. I’ve played with Gmail for a few years and I finally like it. Wonderful interface for traveling (especially if you have to use someone else’s computer) and it has a better than average mobile phone client. Actually, the phone client was great (mine was a java version running on a Sony Ericsson z520a – which the waters have now claimed), although I’ve heard some people have problems with caching (as I do in Google Reader).
2. The iGoogle homepage is just fun. I’m not into homepages, but this one’s nice. I enjoy the little things like the changing theme based on your local weather.
3. It took me a bit, but I do like the Reader app. I especially like it’s integration with the iGoogle homepage as well as the auto “mark as read” feature when you scroll past an article. They also have a nice iPhone specific version (I’ll talk about that later).
4. The ability to open Office documents and edit them in a browser (through Google Docs) is great on the road. When you’re tied to a different person’s machine from stop to stop, this makes working with office attachments especially helpful.

A few things that drive me crazy:

1. Even though they’ve tried to integrate all these services through some kind of menu at the top, it’s not consistent. For example, if I’m at my page in iGoogle and click on the Reader app in the menu, it takes me to Reader, but the bar goes away and I have to use a browser back button to get back.
2. Similarly, Gmail tends to want to open new windows all the time when working with the Google menu, but that’s not consistent across all the Google Apps.
3. In Safari (a Mac web browser), Gmail doesn’t give me the option to open attachments strait in Google Docs. It works fine in Firefox (or other Gecko based browsers) and Google Docs functions perfectly in every other way in Safari (v. 3 beta).

Per Pete’s request, my favorite Firefox extension is FoxyTunes.  FoxyTunes is an iTunes controller for those who are too lazy to switch back and forth from iTunes to select their track.  It’s right up your alley Pete.

In keeping with the Web 2.0 buzz-i-ness, Mozilla released version 2.0 of the Firefox Web Browser yesterday. I grabbed Release Candidate 2 and 3 a while ago and was happy with them. 2.0 is nice as well. I agree with Michael, pages tend to render a bit faster.

There is also a a nice built in spell check feature for fields. This is what I liked about Apple’s Safari browser, but I had a hard time duplicating this via extensions in Firefox.

If you’re an early adopter, it’s worth the download. If you’re not, wait for the 2.1 version so they can work out the bugs.

Here’s what I like:

Here’s what I’m not crazy about:

I know there are machines that do the whole audio and video thing, but none with such style, ease of use, and large scale distribution as the iPod. For people with broadband, this has the potential to radically change how and who they get the majority of their media content from. Blogs and podcasts have expanded the way some receive print and audio content, will the new iPod do the same for video?

I know, there are some major differences when it comes to video. It takes more time and more equipment to produce. But the iPod screen, as small as it is, could change the way we think about video intended for a small screen format. Just like podcasts, the portability, time shifting, and subscription attributes of video-casting will help draw people to it. Video and audio content have always been available on the web, but getting it when and where you want it is crucial for its success. At then end of it all, I love watching all these content producers (both corporate and independent) scramble to decide what they’re going to do with Apple’s new iPod.

Even though I like all my audio with me (more than 2 or 4 GBs) and already have an iPod, I still want one.

This is big news in the podcasting world. The article below explains the impact if you’re so inclined to read on.
Playlist: Podcasting and iTunes: Boon and bane

In other news, I’ve completed my decline into the socially cut-off. I listened to my iPod the entire time while grocery shopping at Walmart. Hey, it’s Walmart; I hate going there anyway.

This concludes the Widget test.

Alert: computer geeky post to follow

Shooting from the hip, I don’t see a lot of potential bad from this. My initial concern when I first heard the escalated rumors was software recompiling. After watching the Keynote Address from Apple’s WWDC, recompiling of apps looks like it’s going to be fairly easy for the majority of software makers. Also, support for older machines and apps looks good. The potential I see in all this is a speed increase in the laptop offerings from Apple. We haven’t seen a G5 powerbook because of heat issues. This could potentially clear that up.

When all is said and done, I like Apple because they make both the hardware and OS. My frustration with Windows when it comes to high end audio (and a lot of other things) has been because of driver conflicts with hardware that has to conform to Windows, not hardware that was designed in synthesis with an OS.

The PowerPC processors were from IBM, the new ones will be from Intel; the Apple hardware/software synthesis is still the same and OS X will still be the same and presumably Logic will still be the same. If it brings faster and cooler mobile computing, I’m for it.