Some of this neat stuff is evolutionary, some of it occasionally borders on--or even is--revolutionary. This column is about one of each.
Alternate PC reality
For several years--and four major product revisions--Mac users have been the beneficiaries of Connectix's technologically very clever Virtual PC (VPC) package. It's includes the software equivalent of Transmeta's Crusoe processor, since it translates x86 instructions into PowerPC instructions and then executes the native instructions for speed. VPC also comes with integration software that allows drag and drop of files between the Mac OS and the PC OS running inside VPC.
The jingoists among you may well scoff and suggest that the only reason one would want to use VPC is envy of the real thing. Hardly. I have a degree of flexibility and functionality with VPC that no regular PC can offer. What really makes Virtual PC so cool is that I can try things out--install new OSes, new applications, new software in general--without having to worry about breaking anything irrevocably, or incurring a huge time debt of cleanup after an experiment goes awry.
Virtual PC creates large files that serve as virtual disks, so I can, eg, duplicate such an image--assuming abundant disk space, of course--and then try something out without jeopardizing an otherwise stable configuration.
The down side is that Virtual PC on a Power Mac doesn't run as fast as a real PC would, and that does occasionally prove frustrating. But aside from the performance issue, having the ability to run multiple PC universes at the same time on the same machine is inherently quite useful.
PCs in a PC
Now, thanks to the Connectix's development of Virtual PC for Windows PC users can get the same advantages of VPC on the Mac, except on a PC.
I initially installed VPC for Windows on a machine that was running Windows 98. Despite Win98 being an unsupported "host" OS, VPC for Windows installed without a hitch, and I was able to install OpenBSD 2.9 as a "guest" without mishap.
As a result, I can have my standard Windows environment and, on demand, one or more OSes running in their own, well, virtual PCs. Each OS thinks it's running on its very own dedicated hardware, all the networking for a guest OS is handled by VPCs lower layers so that all the PCs running on a single machine, ie host and guest(s) alike, can share the same IP address. Everything just works.
Since I'd planned to upgrade this particular to Win Me anyway, I nuked the real PC drive's contents, performed a clean install of Win Me, and then installed VPC again. I then downloaded the Mandrake 8.0 ISO images, mounted the images directly in VPC--something that I cannot do in the current version of VPC for Mac--and installed the OS. Just like with OpenBSD 2.9, nothing untoward happened, the install completed successfully, and the Linux "guest" OS appears happy in its new home.
Virtual PC for Windows is going to rock the worlds of IT professionals as well as anyone with a use for running multiple OSes simultaneously. It takes a little while to wrap one's brain around the idea of using Virtual PC, but the convenience of creating a new virtual PC to try something out, makes Virtual PC for Windows well worth investigating more closely.
A better Palm?
For reasons that I haven't explored too deeply, I'm not a regular PDA user. It just hasn't seemed to offer me anything I needed badly enough. I have plenty of friends who would be sunk without their PDAs, so I'm not blind to the ecological niche that such devices inhabit, it's just not an open one in my personal informational ecosystem.
That said, I've used Palm devices for stretches of time since their release, and I recently had the opportunity to use Handspring's Visor Edge for a while. In part this has been an experiment to see whether I'd find the experience addictive enough that I would want to integrate it into my life. But I also wanted to see where the evolutionary path of the Palm device has led us.
The Edge's industrial design is very well thought-out. It has the right size, is pleasantly light, the flip-cover works well, and the stylus slots into the side of the unit nicely. Much attention to detail has gone into this.
The Edge, like all Handspring devices, has a Springboard interface, which allows me to attach add-on hardware widgets. The Edge's standard connector is physically smaller than the standard Springboard slot, but the unit comes with an adapter sleeve that lets you use existing Springboard modules with the Edge. The Edge's USB-only cradle is also very cleverly designed and--most importantly for something you don't want scooting around on your desk unbidden--weighted well.
State of the art
After downloading various bits of Palm software, as well as using appropriate conduits to software I use on my desktop, it's clear to me that Palm software has evolved for the better since I last spent time with one of these devices.
The Edge isn't perfect, though. I wish the backlight were a little brighter, and I wish the unit were flash upgradable (though, having had lengthy conversations with folks at Handspring about why Visors' Palm OS is ROM-based, I understand their reasoning). On the other hand, the Springboard interface is quite compelling, and I find the VisorPhone module extremely tempting, especially because it's a dual-mode GSM phone. If I felt compelled to get a Palm OS PDA today, and didn't feel that I needed a color screen, I'd quite likely get a Visor Edge.
Not just business as usual
Both Virtual PC for Windows and the Visor Edge really make clear to me is that innovation is far from dead, it just proceeds sometimes intermittently, and often out of the glare of the limelight. If you look for them, there are still plenty of worthwhile gems to be found.
Those who think they've already seen it all are mistaken.
