Finally, a way to wirelessly push information between my iPhone, personal Apple computer and work Windows PC - “Exchange for the rest of us.”

Today at WWDC, Apple Inc. Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO Steve Jobs announced the revamped .Mac service called MobileMe (available July 2008). Among other announcements, which confirmed several months worth of rumors leading up to today’s keynote, MobileMe stole the show in my opinion. All current .Mac members will be upgraded automatically in July and the pricing structure will remain the same ($99 per year). Here are links to some of the features that will be made available as well as an interesting guided video tour of the service.

Sync all of your data between your personal Apple Computer, Windows PC and iPhone:

• Mail: Instead of email being “fetched” by a device at a predetermined interval, email is pushed to your device as it arrives much like Exchange and Outlook.
• Contacts: Changes to your contacts is automatically synced between devices as you modify them, whether you are working on your iPhone, Apple computer of Windows computer.
• Calendar: Any changes to your calendar is pushed out to your other devices automatically keeping all your scheduled information up to date wirelessly.
• Gallery: Manage your photo gallery from anywhere; In iPhoto, MobileMe’s web interface or from your iPhone. Upload and share from anywhere. (Goodbye Snapfish)
• iDisk: Online storage, starting at 20 gigabytes. Easy access to files from anywhere, integrates file sharing with email for those files that are to large to email. (Additional storage is available)

Also discussed at WWDC today was the new iPhone operating on the 3G network allowing faster speeds when not on a WiFi network and the addition to GPS integrated into the phone as well. The iPhone 2.0 is now compatible with Microsoft Exchange allowing seamless integration into the corporate environment. And finally, the third party application “AppStore” was described in more detail with a few guest developers who have already developed native applications for the iPhone.

For those of you who might have missed it, a music video created and directed by Dennis Liu went viral on YouTube last week. Now, I’m not a big fan of linking to YouTube (purely personal aesthetic reasons) but this clip isn’t on Vimeo. So, here we are…

Set to the music by The Birds And The Bee’s with their a song called “Again & Again,” Dennis showcases just about every aspect of an Apple computer.

For Apple, I figured it was a cool idea that shows the beauty, style, and most importantly - the function of Apple computers. People think they’re really cool looking, and I totally agree, but they are also wickedly powerful machines.

At the young age of 23, Dennis is currently a producer at an advertising agency. He was looking for a way to break into the creative and directing scene which, as he states, is a very competitive industry. Dennis wanted to create a commercial music video in the genre and theme of what he feels Apple Inc. would create themselves.

The video titled “Apple Mac Music Video” took about a month of planning and three months to execute.

TUAW has recently published an interview with Dennis about his video and the response it has received so far.

Without my calendar I would be lost, there’s no question. I live by my iCal on my personal laptop and even more so since I purchased an iPhone. Having my important dates moving between my mobile phone and laptop has become an essential part of my everyday life.

Up there with iCal is the simplicity and ease of use of Google Calendar. It has had the ability to subscribe to my iCal feed from my personal computer for quite some time; a handy feature when I needed to check up on an important date. Though one draw back is that any iCal subscription in Google Calendar is read only; a frustrating limitation when I need to change a date, time or create a new event.

Obviously, even though I like iCal and Google calendar - it’s not very productive to use both when the conversation between the two is not a two way street. Especially when you have at least six different calendars like I do.

Enter BusyMac with their system preference BusySync. Loaded with a slew of features to help you sync, subscribe and publish your iCal with various calendar protocols and services; BusySync has finally allowed me to fully connect my iCal with Google Calendar. I can add an event in Google Calendar and have it show up when I get home in my iCal and vice versa.

I was reluctant, at first, to drop the $25.00 on something that was only a preference pane. But during the trial period I found how convenient and reliable it really was to have a connection between Google and my iCal. I also found a coupon code (Hint: Daring Fireball) that knocked off five dollars. I always suggest doing a google search for coupon codes before you buy something online, example: BusySync Coupon. Doing this always makes it a bit easier when you find a deal on something, and it’s no different than looking for coupons in the Sunday paper.

Last week, Paul Stamatiou posted a review of his MacBook Air. He purchased it nearly three weeks ago for $15.00 (See: How I got a MacBook Air for 15 Dollars) and has since replaced his MacBook Pro as his primary computer. He concludes his review with an answer to the question, “Any Regrets?”

None at all. The Air has enough power to do my work tasks and small enough to bring everywhere. Down the line I can see myself eying Mtron’s 128GB 1.8-inch SSD capable of 100MB+/sec read/write throughput. Hopefully it comes in a PATA/ZIF flavor as the Air does not use SATA at the moment. Subtle rumors indicate a move to a 45nm chip and a SATA drive in the summer, but we’ll have to wait and see.

If I had to pick out one thing about the Air and call it my favorite, it would be the sturdy construction. This thing is solid and feels like it was carved from a block of aluminum. Despite the bugs and issues, the Air gets a 9/10.

The MacBook Air has met both praise and criticism since it’s announcement at the MacWorld Expo in mid January. As for many Apple products, the arguments for and against the product are of different sides of the same coin. It’s too thin or it’s amazingly thin. It’s too basic or it’s perfectly basic. It will never serve as a primary computer or it’s perfect for my primary needs. Apple has always had a knack for stirring the pot of innovation and reacting with the critics strong emotions.

I for one will wait to see the product line mature and expand the features that are available to it as technology and the industry catch up before I consider purchasing one. But it is great to hear such good feedback from the early adopters.

To read Paul’s full review and reader comments, visit his website at: http://paulstamatiou.com/

By now you may have heard that Apple has updated the Airport Express ($99) wireless router. Now that their high end routers have all made the journey to supporting the new (still in beta) N wireless standard, it was by time the little brother of the group received a long over due update. But this still doesn’t seem to get the Airport Express any more respect, is it destined to live a life of ridicule?

Prelude

Apple offers you essentially four options for wireless routing, three of these are variations inspired by their Airport Extreme. The Extreme is made to be a primary wireless router taking on the heavy lifting and demands of your household or business wireless network by serving up to 50 users at a time per unit. It has all the technology you would expect in a wireless router to get your network traffic through the air and on a wired network. It also gives you the option for network USB printing or network USB storage.

Time Capsule takes the Airport Extreme to the next level. Choosing between the 500GB version ($299) or the 1TB version ($499) you can have an Airport Extreme in a larger form factor with a built in hard drive. This helps you, via wired or wireless, take advantage of the new back up technology dubbed Time Machine that Apple planted in their latest operating system 10.5 Leopard.

Respect

As I mentioned above, the Airport Extreme Router has a little brother called the Airport Express. Though Apple likes to market this little router as having the power to shoulder a household “apartment size” network on it’s own, I would never recommend it as such. The Express is a good compliment to your home or business network whether you use an Airport Extreme or a router from another vendor such as LinkSys, D-Link or Netgear.

Often times, people like to compare the Express to other routers that have the feature set and lifting power of an Airport Extreme. This often leads to frustration with the Express unit as well as some devaluation when trying to compare it to imaginary rivals that may be in the same price point but both are built for different applications. The Express deserves more respect for what it is capable of doing, especially where the others leave off.

The Express is a small complementary wireless router and a travel companion. Use it at the other end of your house to extend the wireless coverage of your Airport Extreme. If your main router is in a convenient spot for your needs but an inconvenient spot for a printer, use the Express. Put it in a centralized closet with the printer; that way you are not only extending your coverage into that area of the house but putting the printer in a centralized and sound muffled location.

If you have a super home theater or just a modest home stereo the Express can help you access your music. Pluging the Express into an outlet near the stereo and then an audio cable running to the back of your stereo places all the music in your iTunes library at the tip of your fingers and the volume dial of your stereo. This set up will ensure that you never have to sort through your CD collection again, that is, after you rip it all into iTunes.

When you are on the road, the Airport Express can travel along with you quite nicely. Most hotel rooms have a short Cat5e cable coming out of the wall for free wired internet. Slap the Express on the end of that cable and you now have a wireless connection from anywhere in your hotel room… Sit at the desk, on the bed or even the balcony. The small form factor will also please you with it’s small footprint in your suitcase or laptop bag.

The Express can also store multiple configurations. Say you had an Express hooked up at home and decided to take it with you on the road. At your hotel you can set up a new encrypted network in your room without deleting the settings you use on your home network. When you get home, it assumes the normal work load that it had before you left. The next time you go back out on the road, the express will be ready and waiting for you with your “on the road” location ready and saved.

Conclusion

Sure, there are some great options for wireless networking out there; some are cheaper, some are more expensive some are even better. Though, the Airport Express plays well with others and has a great feature set but never seems to get the credit it deserves. It does what it was made for very well. Though $99 could be a little pricey, I envision a $79 price point as a sweet spot. I have definitely gotten my money’s worth out of mine and I can’t wait to pick up the new revision to add to my 500GB Time Capsule and Black MacBook.

Unplugged (By: Brik Software) is a light weight Preference Pane that keeps an eye on your Mag-Safe power connection. Anytime that connection is lost, whether it’s on purpose or by accident, UnPlugged gives you a pleasant Growl notification that you are now using battery power. It can also alert you to when the connection has been restored, as well as, display battery levels as they decrease at intervals you determine.

I’ve been using UnPlugged since October. I have configured mine to notify me upon disconnect, re-connect and every 25% as the battery drains. I feel it is a must have application for anyone working on an Apple portable with a Mag-safe adapter.

Unplugged has been featured on the developers website, OSX Hints, Version Tracker and I Use This.