Monday morning ... iChat beeps at me to get my attention. The message is, "Hey man, what time does the keynote start."

If you've done iPhone command-line programming, you've probably run into the dreaded Purple app errors. The iPhone complains that it couldn't register with the bootstrap server. This happens when the iPhone attempts to run more than one Purple application from the command line.

Here's the freeware, Open Source, and rich web services that I mentioned in my personal blog last week: Bazaar: Distributed Version Control Software, Weather Channel Weather Layers for Google Maps, Publish With Blogger Using Your Own Web Host, Cyberduck 2.8.2 ftp/sftp Mac Client, Wik.is: Free Wiki Service from the Creators of Deki Wiki, and Time Magazine: 50 Best Websites 2007.

Given that the iPhone is all but undocumented at the moment with the SDK not promised until February, I find that it often helps to add the following code to my classes. It allows me to see what methods are being invoked and create those as needed.

Apple will presumably have a support document on this soon enough, but in the meantime, the newly-released QuickTime 7.4 removes many of the older audio and video codecs from export dialogs by default.

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is out. And, here's what's new... Microsoft really likes to have multiple versions of the same product. There are five versions of Windows Vista. And, there will be eight versions of Windows Server 2008 when it is released. So, we should be happy there are only three versions of Office for Mac 2008 to choose from :-) All three versions come with the five core applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage, and Messenger. Office for the Mac 2008 (which I'll call standard edition here) is US$399.95 (239.95 upgrade). Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition is $499.95 ($299.95 upgrade). And, Office for Mac 2008 Home and Student Edition is $149.95. The Media Edition adds the Microsoft Expression (60-day trial edition available). The Home and Student Edition doesn't have Office-specifc Automator Actions (more on this later) or the ability to work with Microsoft Exchange Server. However, it does provide three users licenses.

The iPod touch January Upgrade (2008) added some long desired applets including an email client, notes, maps, and weather. But, I ran into a few glitches on the first day of its release...

Chances are that, by the time you are reading this, Steve Jobs has already finished his keynote at MWSF2008, announcing shiny new Apple products. As a little counterweight to the springflood of news messages this will most definitely cause, I thought you might enjoy a little walk down memory lane to rediscover how it all began, and which milestones it took Apple and the Macintosh to get to where they are today.

No, not Disco, Disc. Disc is dead. The existing iTunes movies and video model may be flawed but digital distribution is the way of the future. If the rumor mill is right, tomorrow Apple will reinvent this space

I'm frequently asked these days about what I expect the upcoming Software Development Kit to look like. The answer is, of course, that I haven't a clue--I have no insider information beyond whatever we'll find out on Tuesday. So here are a few of my guesses, pulled directly from nowhere in particular, which will probably be confirmed or corrected in the upcoming keynote.