Mailbag for May 23, 2010

Mailbag: May 23, 2010

This week in the mailbag:

More Secure Google Searching
Upgrading from the Office 2010 Beta to RTM
Running Windows 7 on a MacBook Pro?
Windows 7/Mac OS X Snow Leopard Deathmatch
Bill Gates Told Steve Jobs About the iPad in 2007

Have a question? I can't guarantee an answer, but I'll try. Drop me a note! (And let me know if you'd prefer not to have your name published.)

topagentgirl provides a useful tip for Google Search users (i.e. "everybody"):

According to Google, this brings one significant advantage:

Note that encrypted Google search is in beta, because it covers only "core" web searches, and not things like image search or maps.

Also, using encrypted search doesn't limit the data sent to Google. Google still uses anonymized search data to improve the service.

Given the several million people who are currently running the Office 2010 public beta, Lester G. asks what is likely to be a very common question:

A couple of notes about Office 2010. First, you can't upgrade from the Office 2010 beta (or any pre-release version), in place, to Office 2010. If you try to set up the final ("RTM") version of Office 2010 on a PC where a pre-release version is installed, you'll receive a warning that you need to uninstall that pre-release product first.

Of course, doing so leads to the worry: What gets saved, and what doesn't get saved? Microsoft doesn't offer any obvious way to backup and restore Office settings--a big functional hole in my opinion--let alone one that works between Office versions. (So this would be an issue for anyone hoping to upgrade from an earlier Office version, like Office 2007, to Office 2010.) Note that you can perform an in-place upgrade from Office 2007 to 2010. (That said, Microsoft does not offer any retail Upgrade packaging.)

And you can continue to keep using the Office 2010 public beta through October 31, 2010. That should be enough time to sort through whatever upgrade issues there. Note that in my testing, I didn't see any major functional differences between the beta and final releases. So there's no rush.

As for what gets retained, I don't have a complete list. It will retain all of your data files--your documents, of course, but also your Outlook PST file. But you should still back those things up first, before uninstalling the beta. Other settings--like the custom Word dictionary, or your auto-correct options--are not retained. You can manually backup and restore Office 2010 ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar customizations, which is nice but limited. Basically, I'm looking around for more complete documentation, and would love to find a tool that does back up and restore Office settings and customizations. If anyone is aware of such a thing, please do let me know.

James C. needs to develop iPhone apps, so he has to use a Mac. (Gotta love Apple.) But he's a Windows guy at heart. (Who isn't?) So he wants to know...

I can't see spending $2300 on a laptop, period. :) But yeah, I think it will be just fine. It's pretty standard PC hardware, and Apple supplies drivers for their special stuff.

A couple of notes here.

Despite the common hardware, Macs are not ideal Windows machines. They have non-standard (and unexceptional) keyboards, Apple's drivers are often (purposefully?) out of date and/or non-optimized. And of course they are expensive, often crazy expensive like this particular machine.

Macs do, however, have the unique ability to run both Mac OS X and Windows, something that's not (legally or easily) possible on a regular PC. And you get two choices for this Windows compatibility, virtualized solutons like VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop, which let you run Windows, and Windows apps, side-by-side with Mac OS X and native Mac apps, and Boot Camp, free with Leopard and Snow Leopard, which lets you dual boot between Mac OS X and Windows on the same Mac. Both of these solutions have limitations--virtualization comes with a performance hit, for example, and of course with dual boot, you can only one system (and one set of apps) at a time. But at least they're options.

The biggest limitation for Windows users on the Mac, of course, is that you have to buy a retail Full version of Windows 7 in order to legally run Microsoft's latest OS on that hardware. That can be expensive ($150 for Home Premium at Amazon.com right now), and if you go the virtualization route, you'll also need to purchase VMWare or Parallels (about $100 apiece). But heck, you're a Mac user now. Get used to spending money. :)

And speaking of the Mac, Burt B. asks about a neglected series of articles here on the SuperSite:

I need to figure out if it's still worth it. It seems like OS X development has crawled and interest in Macs is being pushed aside for the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch devices.

And of course, my own focus is being pushed increasingly to the cloud and mobile devices as Microsoft and other companies make similar moves as well. I will look into completing that series, though. I agree it's an interesting opportunity. It may just be less relevent than it was originally.

Daniel Smith tipped off Gizmodo about an interesting revelation in a recently re-released video from the Wall Street Journal's 2007 D5 conference: In this video, which was recorded before the iPhone shipped, and before Apple even began development of the iPad, then-Microsoft chairman Bill Gates describes almost the exact situation Apple has created with three computing devices for different scenarios--smart phone (iPhone), tablet (iPad) and PC (Mac.) Meanwhile, Apple CEO Steve Jobs says that the PC has plenty of life left in it and has always adapted to market changes and would do so going forward.

First, shame on you for tipping off the kids at Gizmodo. :) This is exactly the kind of insight that the gadget blogs are incapable of.

With regards to the actual discussion in the video, when asked what is principle computing device will be in five years, Bill Gates finally gets a word in edgewise when Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher stop pontificating and interrupting the real reasons we're watching. (God, they're just terrible, aren't they?)

Open, honest, and, as it turns out, extremely prescient. So how about Steve Jobs? He's also interrupted repeatedly by the terrible hosts, but finally manages to get out the following:

This isn't as one-sided as some have made it sound. Gates is more specific, and arguably more correct about what's happened, but both offer up a reasonable explanation of the years that have since elapsed.

In some ways, both guys were simply championing what their companies were doing at the time. This is to be expected.

Gates did basically describe the iPad *and* iPhone, though I'd point out that his vision for tablet computing is far more functional than the reality, with ink support and so on.

And then of course there is the unfortunate reality that Bill G. can talk but Microsoft never executes, while Steve Jobs says one thing, throws off the competition, and then just executes brilliantly on the real strategy. When this was recorded, the iPhone was a known quantity inside Apple, but I have to think iPad prototypes and ideas were being tossed around as a possibility too.

Interesting stuff however you look at it, thanks.

More next week...