A lot of people have made the assertion that MeeGo could thrive without Nokia’s presence in the collaboration. And, there’s some potential for traction there as Android lawsuits and patent claims mount. However, as they mount, Google has shown their willingness to acquire as many patents as possible to thwart those lawsuits.

In short, those that think that Samsung and LG will dump Android for MeeGo due to patents and licensing… well, are wrong. It isn’t going to happen, probably even if MeeGo bundles a Dalvik runtime, enabling full Android app compatibility.

So, is MeeGo dead? In its current form, yes, I think it is. But, then there is Canonical. Canonical’s efforts in mobile have had far worse failures than MeeGo, however they are the undisputed champion of desktop Linux today.

And therein, we see a solution. Make MeeGo part of the Ubuntu family, and make everyone happy.

I realize there is a lot of motivation around the Qt community to keep MeeGo as-is. However, these Qt attractions lack one focus; a product to sell to consumers. Qt alone does not sell products. And while Canonical’s market share in desktops is fractional, they get Linux, and they know how to foster a product that rivals Google, Apple, and Microsoft.

I think the future of MeeGo rests on a deal being cut, and sadly, I’d say the odds of it happening are only 50/50. Today, there is not one successful real-time OS that lacks restrictions. iOS is real-time, but trapped in a walled garden. Android and Windows Phone 7 are not real-time, and webOS has suffered from being jailed in HP’s devices… where it has rotted.

MeeGo as a platform, I believe can work, however, I believe just as strongly that it will require the embrace of the entire Linux community to catapult it to success in a mainstream consumer audience. Let’s work together to have one true Linux platform become a success across mobile, desktop, and embedded. The Ubuntu umbrella can be one that encourages all other forms of Linux to thrive, even if Ubunutu isn’t how you roll.

However, I will say that I am disappointed at the pricing that has emerged on other web sites (here’s just one for example).

At double the pricing for Amazon’s Cloud Drive, I can’t say I’ll be using iCloud. For $120/year I get unlimited storage on CrashPlan, for up to 10 computers worth of storage in my house. Other online backup services combine online backup with mobile app access to all your files, at one low monthly price.

What about communication? Calendars? Etc? All freely supported on Google Apps. Which, I might add, is still free for up to 10 email addresses worth. At the current free Google storage rates, that translates to 75 GB per domain name… and domain names cost only a few dollars a year.

I hear the argument all the time that these cloud services are different than raw storage, they make lives easier. Granted, I don’t think iCloud should compete with the “unlimited storage” shared hosting solutions. I think that’s unrealistic.

That said, I think cloud solutions do have to compete with services like Google Apps and Windows Live. If I can store documents via email, if I can manage them in a Gmail view, and if I get 25 GB free from Windows Live SkyDrive… what am I paying for with iCloud?

Of course, there’s the freemium argument as well. People will get “hooked” on iCloud with the first 5 GB, and then want more. And they then won’t want to move. Sorry, I don’t buy it. I think people will get more tech savvy as their 5 GB get used up, and ask even more technically-inclined people for a way to keep the free file bash going.

That may work for Apple too, but it’s far from a cost-effective solution. iCloud may be the best cloud out there, but in terms of bang for your buck, I don’t think it’s there yet. Not with the pricing that has been disclosed, at least.

The navigation buttons on the right were rendering flatly. With an inspector, I had noticed that the width img tag was defined, but for some reason the height wasn’t. I have no idea how that happened.

Now, on other browsers, it just proportions the buttons and everything’s fine. Well, on IE9, it didn’t do that, and made the image flat. So, the fix was simple… I just pulled up the image and defined the height in pixels, and hit save. Presto, site operating properly.

No, the screen grab below has not been edited in any way, nor was it coaxed into fruition. It is what appeared after clicking the close button after a “successful” Office installation.

And yes, it did infinite loop. Had to force quit the setup “assistant” and relaunch Office to break the loop.

For the sake of the developers, I’ll call them Team X. Team X had a great product on the market, it was great at updating Mac software. I wanted to take that to another level, and add App Store functionality, get funding, and make a software marketplace that would transcend Mac and Windows.

I’d been watching the iPhone (now iOS) App Store, and saw its potential. Mind you, this was circa 2007-2008, when Cydia was impressive before it took a single jailbroken App Store purchase.

So, what killed the project off? I listened to Steve Jobs. No, not the way normal people do. I listened for his commentary on a Mac App Store when someone asked him about its potential. He said bluntly that there were no plans for one.

When you hear something that blunt from an Apple leader, you should know, then and there, that it’s the exact opposite of what you were just told. Just like nobody wants to watch videos on their iPod, the screen after all is just too small. When I heard that, I knew it was inevitable that Apple would leverage the iTunes Store infastructure, combine it with digital signatures (which at the time were brand new to Mac apps), and roll out their own App Store.

What’s next? I suspect Apple will continue the burn and roll out a Windows App Store. You might think this is insane. After all, Apple wants to ship Macs, not convince people to stay with Windows.

I however would argue there is a lot of merit in a Windows App Store, fueled by the largest commercial digital content distribution store ever (iTunes).

First, it’s a product that Microsoft has failed in completely. The Windows Marketplace was so much of a dud that Microsoft had to kill it off to give Windows Phone Marketplace a fighting chance… the desktop version paled in comparison.

Plus, Apple wants to show users the “Apple experience”. They want to prevent people from buying into the “Google experience”. Those two factors drive Apple to be okay with distributing Windows apps, so long as it takes place inside of Apple’s systems and Apple’s rules. It convinces more and more people to use iTunes on a daily basis, and that will fuel the additional sale of more iPhones, iPods, and iPads… all of which are successful because they are Windows-friendly.

Take Safari. Apple’s brilliant web browser was ported to Windows in order to ensure people could get a taste of the Apple browsing experience. It wasn’t needed for iTunes, despite what many think.

And, let’s not forget QuickTime for Windows. Many (too, too many) forget that QuickTime existed on Windows a good decade before Apple shipped iTunes. Some have screamed at me in postings that QuickTime only exists for iTunes, a laughable assertion. The reason QuickTime existed on Windows was the same as all the above examples; to get people to like Apple.

If people are buying, downloading, updating, and maintaining their their Windows software, the Apple way, it will be pure profit for Apple, and pure sting for Microsoft. I’m not interested in getting into a product fight with a company that has billions in the bank, hence why you can rest soundly that I won’t be building a Windows App Store right now.

Here’s the deal. I purchased two Windows Vista Home Premium product keys way back when Vista was shipping. They were $50/each, under their Family Upgrade Discount deal. I purchased the keys from a special Windows e-store that is since defunct.

Fast forward to 2009. I only wound up using one of the keys (which, was still a good deal, considering Home Premium ran $119 at the time). The other key went unused.

Well, now I want to use that second key. And, unfortunately, I didn’t know many Family Upgrade Discount keys were invalid. There’s no support number to call, and no department that appears to field these invalid keys.

Any better suggestions than to get pass the buck treatment at 800-MICROSOFT?

The reason is that Vista SP2 and Windows 7 are not compatible with the older Sprint SmartView included on the demo CD. That version of SmartView is custom-coded to these Sprint 4G Franklin U300 cards. And, to add to that, these U300 cards carry a different firmware (likely so they can all be deactivated at once when the trial period is over at year’s end).

I have been told that they are working on a solution, but it is difficult since these cards are “in the wild now.” Sprint did tell me that it is also difficult to solve because they have to coordinate with Clearwire and Franklin on a fix.

The best advice I have been given is to call the WSTS team in a few weeks, using the phone number included in your Sprint 4G demo kit. I would suggest calling now as well as in a few weeks, if you are in that situation. The more people that report to Sprint that their apps require Vista SP2/7 (or have already upgraded all their systems… like me…) the more likely they’ll implement a fix.

And, of course, if you can, hold off on updating to Vista SP2 and/or Windows 7 until this gets solved. Updating SmartView to 2.27 from sprint.com will not fix the issue, as the public version of Sprint SmartView will not communicate with your demo card.

Presumably, after the trial period ends, this will be solved anyways as the cards will no longer be on a demo period. I expect Sprint will issue an updated SmartView that flashes the firmware on these cards to the same firmware as a standard-issue U300.

In case you didn’t hear, Sprint was handling out Sprint 4G cards (with free service until the end of the year) like candy at the Open Developers Conference… much better than Halloween treats.

Sunday’s are becoming more of a day of rest for me. As a recovering workaholic, I don’t really have that balance down quite yet. So, I’m going to work… to take more of a break on Sundays.

And, I figured I’d kick this trend off right by hacking my Xbox 360 hard drives. Buying in to one of the deals that I covered over on CheapenGadget.com, I picked up one of the last good deals from Circuit City. Basically, the deal was a refurb combo, leftover from one of their (failed) Xbox 360 bundles. Essentially, it was an Xbox 360 wireless controller and 20 GB hard drive for only $36. As commenters noted at the time, it was an okay deal, made less hot because Microsoft reserves 7 GB per drive.

And, as I’ve blogged quite a bit in the past, I think it’s pure antitrust that Microsoft will ban you from Xbox Live, if you put your own SATA hard drive into the Xbox 360. Sony, on the other hand, welcomes you upgrading your own hard drive.

Thankfully, a well-known trick works around this. Buy buying just the right Western Digital 120 GB 2.5-inch hard drive (WDC WD1200BEVS), you can flash the drive with Xbox firmware. Then, Microsoft sees the blasted drive as an Xbox drive, and you don’t get banned from Xbox Live.

Sure, this is an old hack at this point, but what can I say? I haven’t actually taken the time to play an Xbox 360 game in weeks. Okay, months. When you see what I’ve been up to, I’m sure you’ll understand.

As the staff has warned me, it’s easy to wreck the latches in the process. But, even PC Word whipped up a photo gallery (even though they made a typo on the drive model)… so I doubt it will take very long to do.

Update: Upgrade was a breeze. About the hardest part (and I’m not joking) was putting the hard drive back onto the Xbox 360. When you have an HD DVD drive on top, clearing everything off to pop it back in is a pain.

Seriously though, there were no real hassles, aside from having to unplug everything SATA from my PC. The hddhackr tool didn’t play well with my PC until I had unhooked all other devices (many DOS tools don’t like simply turning the ports off in the BIOS).

I’ve already installed all of my games to the hard drive, and queued up all the downloads. Even with all of that, I only managed to fill about half the drive. Like many, I found a T6 and T10 torx screwdrivers to be the right tools.

Oh, and I do encourage every Xbox 360 owner to undertake this hack, even if you have the 60 GB hard drive. Even if you have to hunt down a tech-savvy friend to do it for you.

Like other antivirus software, it now treats tracking cookies as an infection (which I hate, since it falsely tries to convince uninformed users about the importance of their antivirus software). This annoyed me, since there is no way to tell it to handle tracking cookies automatically, but ask about other issues.

The final straw was when it began declaring AutoPatcher a virus, and quarantining false positives… again, even though I specifically told it to not auto-quarantine anything.

I was installing the betas in a random pattern across the machines, to find out which one would give me the most headache. And, we have a winner!

Long story short, some of my phone modification tools were declared hacking malware, and instantly quarantined. But wait, there’s more! The antivirus software then filled up my hard drive with multiple copies. Then, it went into the zip files, and flagged those as infected too (and by zip files, I mean web site backups… gigabytes in size).

Long story short, I probably have another half hour to go to undo the mess. Trend Micro, you’ve come a long way from the ActiveX scanning tools of long ago… and not in the right direction. If an antivirus software is going to start quarantining several gigabytes of data… it should at least prompt the user and check. This is no different than a computer receiving a request to open all email… Mail is smart enough to say “whoa, do you really want to do this?”

The only difference here is, these were false-positives, I didn’t do anything to warrant this action from Trend Micro. Hopefully Microsoft’s Morro won’t be as abusive…