Today is Windows 7 launch day and it is appropriate to show how I run Mac programs on the Windows 7 desktop. I know, you can’t really do that, but if you are running Windows 7 under Parallels Desktop on a Mac you can. In this video I show how I can access any Mac program from the Windows 7 Start Menu, and even how I pin oft-used Mac programs to the Windows 7 taskbar. It’s a slick way to run Mac programs without leaving the Windows environment on a Mac. Happy Windows 7 launch day!

UPDATED: I am a true geek, and as such in order to maintain my membership in this elite group I have to constantly noodle with my desktop. I can’t let it just sit there, I have to customize it the way I want. Here’s my Mac desktop as I am currently using it:

The customization involves the panel on the left side, produced mostly via the free Geektool utility. Geektool lets Mac users put virtually anything on the desktop, with live refreshing. I have (from top to bottom):

• Time
• Date
• Monthly calendar
• Accuweather stratus (not Geektool)
• Remember the Milk task list

All of the Geektool customizations refresh automatically at defined intervals in the background. The RTM task list is not interactive, it is just for reference. It is pulled from the RSS feed that RTM creates for each user. What do you think? You like?

Apple might have sold over 3.05 million Mac computers last quarter, but the real growth was in portables — desktop sales dropped 16% year over year while notebooks experienced a 35% jump. It’s easy to see why the company is maturing its mobile product lineup. Sure the iMacs got a nice bump too, but a new MacBook at the old $999 price is sure to appeal this holiday season. No it’s not a netbook or other low-priced light-and-thin device, but as James pointed out earlier today — Apple can’t produce a netbook and maintain profit margins above 35%. By adding more oomph to the base MacBook, the company is offering a sub-thousand dollar portable package that provides a full-featured computing experience at 4.7 pounds.

There’s a price premium involved of course, but the 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo paired with an Nvidia GeForce 9400M should handle most tasks. And it can do so on a claimed 7 hours of battery life — that’s comparable to a netbook run-time but in a computing package that still offers some get up and go. At the end of the day, I don’t think the new MacBook is going to sway potential netbook owners away from their purchase. At $300 or so, a smaller and lighter computing experience will meet many needs, and for one-third the price.

But I can’t overlook how the refreshed MacBook fits in my “3P Triangle” — this is the equilateral figure that netbooks fit squarely in the middle of, because the points are price, portability and power. A device that moves towards one point typically moves away from one or both of the other points. The MacBook refresh however, gets closer to the middle by increasing both performance and portability — in terms of battery life and less need to sit by an outlet — while maintaining the price.

No, I’m not suggesting that the MacBook should be compared spec-for-spec with a netbook, but some of the netbook advantages are diminished with this product update. For now, I’ll stick with a netbook for my mobile computing. Although it’s lacking in the horsepower department, I can tote it everywhere a little bit easier and it’s meeting my needs. Do we have any prospective netbook buyers that are considering a new MacBook instead?

Netbook enthusiasts have called for Apple to produce its own version of the low-cost notebook. There have even been analysts that stated Apple ignores the hot netbook market at its own peril. Apple has held firm that they would never produce such a “sub-standard” type of device. The firm’s stellar financial results announced yesterday can be viewed as a loud raspberry to those who want Apple to make a netbook.

The model Apple has always used for its computer business is simple — make premium computers that sell at a high profit margin. That model is still working just fine, as the quarterly results prove yet again. Apple sold over 3 million Macs in the last quarter, of which 2/3 were notebooks. The total profit was $1.67 billion on revenues of $9.2 billion. This performance is outstanding in any economy, much less a down economy, and there is no reason for Apple to change the way it does business. My take on these numbers is that Apple would be crazy to introduce a cheap netbook. There’s no way Apple can make a 36.6% margin in the netbook segment and they’d be crazy to try.

This little screencast is a showcase of some of the utilities I use every day to make my life easier. In the video you’ll see:

• App for the milk- free desktop app for Remember The Milk
• Remember The Milk Gmail gadget
• SoundSource
• Pandora One desktop app
• MacJournal

Lately I’ve been using my netbook when on the run, so I hadn’t noticed that I recently lost a very key bit of functionality. I’m talking about Google Gears and its utter lack of support for Mac OS X Snow Leopard. I just tried to install it and received the disappointing message above, which I roughly paraphrase as “No Gears for you… NEXT!” And that’s hurting my mobile workflow.

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Nearly a year ago, James and I invested in new MacBooks. We ordered the first 13-inch unibody models last November. In typical fashion, we didn’t buy memory upgrades direct from Apple, which traditionally have been relatively more expensive than third-party options. James immediately ordered 4GB of RAM, while I opted to wait. Well, we all know how that worked out for him — his MacBook would freeze up at various times, making it a very unstable device. His hopes for a fix in a firmware upgrade were dashed. And he’s not the only one that had issues — dozens of owners with the same devices experienced similar instability. To say I’m glad I held off on the upgrade is an understatement.

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It’s been a long, long time coming, but according to RIM, the BlackBerry Desktop Software for Mac will be available today. Mac owners have always relied on third-party solutions for syncing their BlackBerries up to the Mac, but no longer.

BlackBerry Desktop Software, formerly known as BlackBerry Desktop Manager, provides complete control over phone handsets from the Mac. Which means Mac users will now be able to sync PIM information and iTunes playlists with genuine RIM software. Phone updates and app installations can be handled from the Mac when OTA options are not available. The program should be available in the afternoon via the link above.

The Firefox team spends a lot of time thinking about user interface features to maximize the browsing experience. One such feature is the use of the Mac “blue button”, the button located in the upper right corner of applications windows. Hitting this button hides all of the menus and maximized the viewing area of the program displayed. In Firefox this provides a good method for taking advantage of full screen real estate. A second tap of the button brings all of the hidden items back in view. It is simple to use, and the video demonstrates just how useful the blue button can be in Firefox on the Mac.

I have started using a program for my fiction writing projects and I am liking it the more I use it. The program is StoryMill from Mariner and it is a sophisticated writer’s editor and project database to make it easier to handle any writing project. In this screencast I show the basics of StoryMill and show how I use it to handle my writing projects. StoryMill costs $49.95 but I find it worth the rather steep cost. It is available on the Mac platform.