With the US launch of the multi-touch iPhone expected imminently, I am not surprised that Microsoft has upped the ante once more and outed it’s newest product – Microsoft Surface.

The technology that goes into this beautiful interface has been seen knocking around for a while. NYU’s Jeff Han demonstrated a similar prototype in 2006 at the annual TED conference in California and interest in the technology has been wide.

Microsoft’s package is noticeably low in Microsoft branding; a feature that has slipped over from the Zune (their media player, yet unseen in the UK) and something of a smart move.

The associated promotional site is neatly designed reflecting the product, and the logo is very suitable. The whole package seems to be another departure from what Microsoft came to represent until Apple started to make successful in-roads into digital media.

If Apple (or anyone else) had been planning on releasing anything similar, they’ve had some of the thunder stolen. It’s exactly what Steve Jobs did with the pre-announcement of the iPhone a number of months ago – the unveiling of the product months before a ship date (or even before being signed off by the looks of things) indicates a company scared that they might be beaten to it. Why else would you deviate from a tried-and-tested launch technique that whips your fans into a buying frenzy? Maybe they heard Microsoft we’re planning on releasing something big or similar soon and got spooked?

There have been rumours in recent months of the same touch technology used in the iPhone way well be ported in new Mac models, and we’ve still not seen exactly what Leopard, the next generation of Apple’s operating system can do.

It’s not like Microsoft have just copied an idea here either. It looks like they probably had the head start in terms of development (starting out as a gaming platform). They’ve got some brilliant innovation built in. Using their table top device, you can place “domino tokens”, devices and smart cards on the surface which the table can identify and interact with. The demonstration shows how this can be integrated into new forms of payment, direct marketing, organising, media viewing, file sharing and other experiences that we don’t currently encounter.

I think we are going see a new type of head-to-head we’ve not seen before between these two companies – each trying to break new markets first. We know they both have these technologies now, so it’s just seeing who uses it most effectively, first.

Visit the official Surface site or watch the CNET demo .

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This is a public service broadcast. If you have a new Macbook and are likely to ask me “Andy, what do I need on my Macbook?” then this might be an ideal read. This is especially relevant to first time mac users.

Being that I am now regularly finding myself being asked by friends about my Essential Selection, I have decided it would be far more sensible to jot it down here so that the links are all in one place.

Some of this stuff is very obvious, some is hardware, some is software, some is more Mac general than just for Macbooks. Use the bits you need.

Parallels

In my opinion Parallels is the best virtualisation software on the market. Alternatives include VMWare Fusion (a free beta, but with no right click support for Macbooks), Crossover (again free, allowing Windows applications to run in OS X directly) and Apple’s BootCamp (a beta likely to be bundled in Leopard, OS X 10.5, but requires a reboot to switch from OS X to Windows). Parallels supports any common version of Windows, however I’ve yet to find a way of installing anything without a bootable CD, so that rules out anything pre-Windows 2000 for me.

Memory

Although this is mixing hardware with software, I think it’s critical to point out the Macbook sees marked performance of virtualisation software with a memory upgrade. My logic is the sooner you buy it, the better value for money it becomes as you will get more use from it. Macbooks support up to 2GB of memory, and I recommend you buy from Orca , who offer a high quality product at a percentage of the cost of Apple’s branded stuff.

Unfortunately your Macbook will have come preloaded with two 256MB sticks (unless you customised at purchase) and these have to be totally replaced. Thankfully you can do the job yourself and it takes only a matter of minutes. The instant power boost is very noticeable and you can now happily run OS X and multiple instances of Windows at the same time with no lag. Everything else starts to act sharpish too.

(Note 1: go for the full upgrade straight out as having to again replace two 512Mb for two 1Gb down the line is going to be much more expensive in the long run).

(Note 2: keep your old memory. Not only is it pretty worthless coming in such small units, but if you ever have problems you should swap it back in to see if your upgrade was causing the issue).

Quicksilver

I’ve never heard anyone say they didn’t like this free little application , and amongst friends we’re pretty sure this is going to be swallowed up by Apple for use in Leopard (doing a ‘ CoverFlow ‘). If you’ve not discovered Spotlight yet (the inbuilt search mechanism in OS X), don’t worry about it, just go and download this instead. Quicksilver is a keyboard based search and task manager that ticks over silently in the background. Alt + Space brings up the small dialogue and from here you can open, close, move, edit, lookup, and execute pretty much anything on the computer. Enabling some of the extra plugins are a must, including:

• Dictionary Actions
• Text Manipulation Actions
• Apple Address Book Module (for searching contact details too)
• Extra Scripts (for shutdown and other shell actions)

You really can’t beat this program. It may take a few days to get used to, but it speeds up productivity no end – and that’s coming from someone who was initially sceptical.

The iSync Plugin For Your Phone

This might not be essential for some people; my W800i used to connect with iSync without a plugin, but my K800i isn’t so keen, so use this free download to remedy that.

There is no excuse not to keep your phone up-to-date with your address book and calendar with Bluetooth being so straight forward, and it provides a quick and easy way of ensuring if you were to lose either one of the pieces of kit, at least you’ll have a backup.

Flip4Mac

Quicktime is great, but you can’t play Windows Media files on there, so get the free version of Flip4Mac which gets over the proprietary movie format problem. Alternatively, if you don’t like Quicktime, VLC pretty much plays everything even if it isn’t much in the way of eye candy.

Colloquy

As an IRC newbie, this is the only app I’ve tried for, but it seems to work fine if you’re into that kinky chatroom stuff.

Remote Desktop Connections

Mac-on-PC, PC-on-Mac. No, this isn’t some geek porn mag, it’s the fantastic way you can use VNC or Microsoft’s Remote Desktop client to access another computer remotely. Although you may already be familiar with this stuff across a single platform, you might not know it’s also possible to do it across different OSs.

iWork

Throw away PowerPoint and start using Keynote for presentations. You will blow away any PC audience with this type of demo and the tools are very simple to pick up. I have less experience with Pages , but I hear very good things. Both applications come with the annually updated, fairly-reasonably priced iWork suite (only fairly-reasonabley priced because they update it annually).

Games

I am a fan of patience when wireless cannot be accessed. For this I recommend Solitaire XL . A little fancier than it’s Window’s counterpart it’s perfect for train journeys and lectures.

If you’re willing to experiment, Ambrosia Software’s Aperion X will stick to you like a heroin habit. Don’t pay for a licence otherwise the the 15 levels limit is removed and you could end up playing until infinity, and that simply won’t pay the bills.

Finally Macdoku is an interesting, free Sudoku generating app. I’ve yet to work out if I actually like it as I’ve not yet managed to complete a single game, and I’m not entirely sure it’s possible. You shouldn’t be wasting your time playing games anyway.

Salling Clicker

A little luxury, Salling Clicker means those with Bluetooth enabled phones can control their iTunes collection using their mobile. Unlike using the provided IR controller Apple give you, Bluetooth means this method works over longer distances and without line-of-sight. A nice addition is that you will magically be able to see the artwork on your phone screen, do direct searches and create playlists on the fly wherever you are in the house.

Honourable Beasts

Adium is free and allows you to run all your favourite messaging protocols at once. For the layman, that means you can run MSN, iChat, Google Talk, Yahoo! and a few others through one applications. Multiple account sign-in (polygamy) is also possible.

CyberDuck is a free FTP application which comes bundled on the install disc, but can also be downloaded. Maybe not the best FTP app out there, but it works.

Netfixer takes full-page screenshots of websites. There are other programs that do this but as I’ve not used them, I can’t comment.

If you’re not content with just screenshots, SiteSucker retrieves an entire site as HTML and with links and images intact. I use this all the time for local copies of dynamic sites to show to clients in case of an emergency. It can be a real lifesaver when the internet fails to work.

Using StuffIt Expander will help you unpack most forms of common archive. OS X copes with some standard ones, but this fills the gaps nicely.

A Couple Of Indispensable Websites

If you want to find free Mac software, I can highly recommend http://www.FreeMacWare.com as this is where much of my free software selection is made from. For software generally, try http://osx.iusethis.com . I subscribe to feeds from both these sites and something good usually turns up every couple of days.

A Couple Of RSS Feeds

If you are the sort of person who doesn’t listen to anyone else’s opinions, blindly argues the case for anything white and shiny and cries when you drop your iPod, then whatever you do don’t visit these sites. You will kill yourself through dehydration, salivating yourself to death from all the silly little rumours about upcoming product launches. Only subscribe to AppleInside or MacRumours if you think you still have a strong enough grip on reality. Little speculation you read on here transpires, but they are good places to go for the latest news on software/firmware updates and product discussions.

Software I’m Not Sure About

While Microsoft Office dominates, I’m not so sure about forking out for a license for my Mac, so I’m currently using OpenOffice . Unfortunately it’s not yet a universal binary, which means it won’t run at full performance on Intel Machines (all Macbooks fall into this category) and you have to run X11 (installed from your Tiger installation disc) everytime you want to use it. They are working on making it native, but it’s not quite baked yet.

If you have bought a Macbook since they started using Intel Core 2 Duo chips, you might or might not be aware that Apple secretly was shipping them out with the next generation wireless cards in them (801.11n draft). Most wireless home and office networks are currently 801.11g (the version before this new one) so you can’t really use it yet, but none the less if you want to ‘enable’ the extra functionality you need to pay £1.25 to download the official update from here . You have to pay for it due to a legal situation regarding selling products with hidden features.

And that’s about it. There is other software I use, but it’s specific or just bundled with OS X anyway. I’ve yet to pick my mac based text editor yet, but I know that TextMate comes highly recommended. If there is anything I’ve missed that is a good shout, drop it in the comments.

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For weeks I’ve been agonising over what comes next with regards to my phone. I currently have a rather spiffy SonyEricsson W800i, which although has the aesthetics of a flattened Irn-Bru can, does everything I need. The reason that I decided to go onto contract last year was based on a need to make more calls, and my time with Orange in the past 12 months far surpassed anything that T-Mobile ever managed to offer me on pay as you go for the previous five years.

Well, it’s that time of year again, and I’ve got the chance to upgrade. I’ve been angling quite heavily for the K800i, another SonyEricsson, and with the fundamental benefit of a camera upgrade – the key selling point for me on my last three phones.

I had been contemplating just not getting a new phone, and simply picking up a fantastically cheap, if not practically free contract and hold off on the new handset until maybe something shiny and O-SXy turned up (see what I’ve done there?), but temptation surpassed me tonight and I’ve gone and ordered it.

In a way, it is a necessary upgrade, and like all my significant purchases, the effects of my purchase trickle back down the line.

I’m not keen on buying for the sake of buying, but the K800i significantly improves on night-time photography over my current phone, and because good captures are essential for my state of mind, the ol’ 2MP camera is just not cutting the mustard any more.

The old phone will probably end up being pimped out to Father, or if not a lucky eBayer or one of my many fan clubs who I’m sure would love a piece of AAJH memorabilia for their display cabinets.

Whatever happens though, I’ll be a very happy chappy come Thursday morning, especially in the knowledge I managed to persuade the company to cough up a cheque to cover the remaining 15 days of my old contract (tell them you want to buy today, but you don’t want to miss the offer… they all work on sales-now commission).

In other news, I tried to encourage Swan to get a job. Despite being one of Loughborough’s most recent mathletics (Maths and Sports) exports, he has been unable to settle on any one job as yet (partially due to sleep, and mostly due to partying). Only time will tell if he ends up working as a high profile betsmith in the city, or more likely, an Umpa Lumpa at the Zeppelin Cider factory.

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Looks like they’ve recruited Mitchell & Webb to do some UK versions of the Apple Get A Mac Ads .

I’ve got a ridiculous pile of things to deal with today.

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It’s unusual for me to post so much tech stuff in one go, but a few things this week have got the focus of my attention.

Firstly, I have upgraded to Yahoo! Mail Plus. Most people might have assumed that being a web-type, I probably have my email system sorted down to a tee, but that is far from the truth. I have had my Yahoo! address from the first time I ever went onto the internet back in 1998 or sometime around then, and ever since have been reticent to change it because of the level of confusion it causes. I really don’t like it when people change their contact details, that’s why my phone number is what it is and has been since 2001, and I’m planning on keeping that way.

For a long time I have wanted to break the shackles of free mail, but there are just some conveniences that a third party webmail system provide that you just don’t get any other way. For example, I know my mail is constantly backed up, always accessible and is all in one place. The problem with free mail, especially Yahoo! Mail, is that you get silly little adverts along the bottom and your address doesn’t sound that professional either.

Over the years I’ve tried to create secondary email accounts. My main domain/work account has switched over so many times it is hard to keep track of where it is pointing, but as Yahoo! mail doesn’t allow you to assign your domain email addresses to your account it was never a satisfactory solution. That is, until now.

As you may or may not know, Yahoo! like Hotmail, is running a beta version of it’s new mail program. It’s like having Outlook or Mail running in a browser window, with full drag-and-drop for messages and attachments-upload-while-you-type. It’s really fantastic and really quite stable. I have been tres impressed.

The problem up until now is that it still sticks those silly little adverts on the ends of my email, I’m still stuck with a Yahoo! email address (albeit two now, they let us have a second one last year) and no domain attachment facility, unlike the lauded GMail service (send and receive your domain mail from your standard GMail inbox). But sometime recently they snuck this last feature into the lineup on their Plus package. So I signed up (£11.99 pa).

Finally, the adverts are gone, including the ones in my inbox. I have a full screen of pure message. The capacity has gone up to 2GB from 1GB, but this is of little concern as I keep my inbox pruned down to just the essentials. I now can send and receive not only from my Yahoo! address, so there are no lost messages, and I can confidently hand out my work email knowing that I only have to check one inbox from now on. I am very pleased, and don’t mind paying that small amount for the privilege.

All I want now is IMAP, and according to recent discoveries by other Y! Mail users, and also Apple’s announcement this week, I wouldn’t be surprised if it an option given to subscribers later this year. But even if it doesn’t happen, I’m still going to be happier with my mail than ever. The new interface is really leading the field in my opinion, and although Google has the edge with integration of all it’s other applications, I’d rather keep my Yahoo! Mail any day.

Secondly, I love this . What a brilliant idea; it’s funny nobody has tried this before. I’ve seen some unusual bastardisations of Mac Minis in the past, but this looks like great fun.

Finally, and not very tech related, I was incredibly annoyed this morning to find a book (the book was tech related) that Amazon had allocated me £2.32 to send, actually cost me £7.70 to send. I was not impressed.

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OK, so here’s me jumping on that big iPhone bandwaggon. You’re probably sick to the teeth of these types of blog post now if you collect RSS feeds, but at least it lets you know I am alive, well and very excited.

I followed most of the keynote yesterday on MacRumours and engadget , and was as pleased as anyone else to see the final unveiling of a brand new type of Apple product. In a way it’s funny that everyone is overlooking Apple TV as on any other launch that would be the talk of the town, but today, that’s not the case.

There are a number of blanks that still have to be filled in. Jeff Croft spotted that if it launches in June, it’s likely to be running Leopard (OS X 10.5) and I’d say that’s a fair guess. Also when this thing does finally turn up in the UK, what network is it going to run on. I had this discussion with Butts last night and we narrowed it down to likely be Orange or 02 (Three won’t get it, Vodafone are not business/high-end orientated and Virgin piggybacks anyway).

The multi touch technology stuff is an incredible advancement in portable device interaction, and you can guarantee at some point in the next 5 years this will end up on other small electricals like laptops (if Apple does what it does best and surprises us, we may see it sooner, but not this year). The one downside is tactility, which the iPods have, but this seems to totally skip, and is an accessibility issue whichever way you look at it.

It is sort of the holy grail of user interaction – gesture driven controls with real and physical feedback. Admittedly sound goes some way to solving this, but with totally visual buttons the only solution I can think of is a hover system where a visually impaired user can run their finger over the display face and hear the button they are hovering over before they press anything. It’s not quite as good as touch feedback, but who cares when the rest of the product is so goddamn perfect.

I think most people who had anticipated the product had assumed that wide-screen would mean a full length display, but in reality this is much better. Placing your hands over the screen to hold it would have been clumsy, so the bars at the top and bottom are nicely thought out, albeit at the expense of a slightly smaller screen.

What will be most interesting will be the new generation of iPods that follow. Has Apple defined it’s new style? I would have thought the iPod may well follow suit to use the touchscreen too. Thankfully battery life should be better on any units without phone capability, 5 hours talktime is pitiful (standard is between 7 and 9 on a standard smartphone I am reliably informed), but 16 hours of music playback is pretty good as far as iPods go.

And will I be buying one? Well probably, depending on my phone contract arrangements, although it probably won’t be until this time next year that I will even be able to consider it. Someone remarked yesterday that Apple were entering a new market they know nothing about, but I think that is where they have previously thrived; all you have to to do is think iPod. Oh, and a rare public appearance by Jonathan Ive ; I think Steve might have insisted that he make some kind of contribution to the keynote, as this one could be a big one.

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Anyone who likes technology should really be watching out for what’s happening this week at the big top. With CES in Las Vegas and Apple’s MacWorld in San Francisco, there is a huge amount to gawgle and drool over.

I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since the last one – I remember watching the live blogging avidly during Steve Job’s keynote speech which is always a platform for new products. Also the fantastic Gizmodo site, who provide snippets of the best from the show in desert.

So far I’ve been very impressed by the OLED flat screens – at between 3mm and 10mm thick these are going to be sweet when we finally see them, and actually Microsoft’s offering of Sideshow powered products looks pretty exciting too.

But of course for any Apple-employee wanabee, the peak will be reached this afternoon when the black turtleneck takes to the stage and we all get to see what’s new. I’m on the edge of my seat already…

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