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This week has been seriously fueled by technology. Things that have seriously elevated my excitement level this week include:

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
This thing is set to be seriously cool with the introduction of Silverlight. The ability to build applications that run in the sandbox and have the rich WPF UI is enticing, particularly for applications that are very UI intensive. With a solid web service back end and rich communication support in Silverlight, this could seriously rock. Using Expression Blend is a treat as well.

New MacBook Pro
The new release of the MacBook Pro, with Santa Rosa and LED backlighting is a sweet deal. While only the 15.4″ got the best upgrade (LED), the rest of the line got a minor refresh. Of course, no case redesign yet, but maybe that will come with Leopard, along with a 17-inch LED upgrade. The high resolution (1920×1200) 17″ display is a nice add-on for the biggest model.

Parallels 3.0 DirectX Support
While not anyone’s favorite desktop VM company, they have a solid support base in the Mac and continue to add new features. Their support for DirectX is a nice plus, but they say it doesn’t run Aero yet so Vista users have something to wait for for now. Depending up on the UI updates in Leopard, this could see another refresh soon.

VMWare Fusion Unity
Not to be left behind (well, at least in the desktop coherence area), VMware showed a video of Unity. This is some seriously cool tech, including Expose and Dock support. Very cool, VirtualSMP support for those dual-core systems, and basic DirectX 8.1 support (likely 9.0c or 10 by October’s Leopard release). I’m most excited about this due to the history of VMware and how well they work for us at work.

BlackBerry Curve
While not as big as I would have liked, the Curve is a nice upgrade. The camera and video support is slick, but the lack of WiFi (on Cingular) and GPS makes it sort of meh. However, being so close to the iPhone release, this consumer unit is going to get a lackluster reception at best.

iPhone
Okay, this thing is coming and the coolness factor is off the charts. Every day the hype gets higher and higher. And with the widespread availability of WiFi connections, everyone is going to want it. Cingular/AT&T is going to make a killing with this phone, and customers are going to buy them like crazy. I only hope I can resist the urge.

WWDC 07
The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference is always a fun place to get excited. With the expected release of a feature-complete build of Leopard, this should be a big week (or a dud, if your feature didn’t make the list). Expect to see a new UI for the Mac, some great file system improvements (ZFS), and likely a ton of slick overhauls that haven’t gotten any ink yet.

Put all these together and you have one hell of a month of June.

I’ve been keeping an eye on Apple notebooks for quite a while. While I currently have a 17″ Dell XPS Gen 2 gaming laptop, I find myself using it more for web surfing and software development than I ever do gaming. When you talk about the performance and size of notebooks, the small MacBook and MacBook Pro jump to the front of the pack.

Nothing that Dell offers is as thin as the MacBook line of notebooks.

With the upgrades from Intel coming soon, I’m thinking when the platform reaches the following level I’ll make the change.

• Santa Rosa Platform (DDR2-800)
• 4 GB RAM
• LED Backlight on a 15.4″ display with at least 1440×900 resolution
• Hybrid Flash Disk Drive
• Dedicated Graphics Card (nVidia 8400 or something similar)
• Leopard and Boot Camp
• 2.4 GHz+ Core 2 Duo with 4MB Cache

That would be enough of an upgrade to convince me to switch to the MacBook Pro. I would of course run Windows on it (hopefully 64-bit Vista by that time, if it is ready) most of the time.

So why buy a MacBook to run Windows? Because nobody else makes a 1″ thick, slick looking notebook with the support network of Apple.

SanDisk has released a 32GB SSD for the consumer market. Based on the performance and power numbers, this monster is going to be sweet. Extreme speed and half the power of a hard disk make this technology a solid winner in the mobile marketplace. They say it is capable of 100 times the IO operations of a regular disk drive. I find that hard to believe, but who am I to doubt product marketing info?

Microsoft finally opened up their site to show the new ultra-mobile PC running Windows XP with a new touch-screen interface. The keyboard looks pretty slick — a type of virtual thumbpad that appears on the UI. No details on the devices yet, but 800×480 seems to be expected with a 7″ diagonal screen. I’m sure more details will roll out in the next few days, but I’m starting to think this is a “wait for generation 2″ device at least. HDMI output anyone? Vista compatible?

Microsoft UMPC Site

Origami Project Site (Blogs, Forums, etc.)

From additional reading, it sounds like a “good start” but definitely not “fully cooked” yet. They did mention that you could ugprade to Vista (for how much?) and that XP and Office were included “in-the-box.” So by simply waiting for fall you can get a device running Vista instead and avoid the upgrade fee. This also gives the market time to gear up with accessories.

I’m a bit disappointed by the bulk of the device. Huge overhangs outside the edge of the screen and what appears to be space wasted for the sake of space. I want thin with a border around the screen that is no so freaking big. A bit taller than the PSP with game-type controls on the sides would be good, but not so much as to obscure the on-screen keyboard.

I realize details are sketchy, but so far this segment would address the needs for a GPS replacement, perhaps a Skype console with additional features, who knows what else. Hopefully we get more details over the next few weeks.

Another Update:

Close-Up Shot of a device running Origami

Take a look at this shot, seems like an iTunes style application for buying video online.