Once again I find myself playing with Google’s new applications. I got sick and tired of my host’s email interface (plus the fact that it’s being blocked by some network) that I tried Google Apps For Your Domain. I specifically wanted to try this out for educational purposes.

So it powered up my email. It reminded me of the days when I’d use Everyone.net to provide my former company (Loyola Plans Inc.) a free web-based email interface. Everyone.net is no longer free and if Loyola availed of its services now, it would have to cough up a horrendous amount just to support all of its employees all over the Philippines. So Google comes up with something free. And it’s not just email anymore.

What you’re seeing on the right side of this review is my organization’s portal page. I’m just tweaking with it, but I like the fact that all of my users can move things around (hello again, Web 2.0!) and choose what they want to see on the surface. If you check up close, there’s even a horoscope feature that syncs to my birthday. Yes, my start page shows that I’m a Piscean and today’s horoscope even accurately described what kind of person I am (that I feed on uncertainty and complexity because it drives my imagination and enables me to do many things) :

“Tying up the loose ends of your life should be your highest priority today and you Fish can have more tangles than anyone. Normally, you thrive on uncertainty and complexity, for this feeds your imagination and inspires you to do many things. However, change is in the air and you will be better off if you can simplify now so you don’t have to do it under pressure later on.
Saturday, January 20, 2007 “

Let’s see. I have here CNN, Newsweek, Slashdot, People Magazine, CNN Money, Quotes for the Day, Forbes, Reuters Oddly Enough, 1UP Video Game Reviews, Entertainment Weekly, the Weather Report, Stickies, and my calendar, of course.

None of those default index pages wherein the content is applicable to everyone else. I chose the content I want to appear and I’m happy seeing them all in one site. I know myYahoo has the same offering but this is your own organization’s domain we’re talking about here. Gad, if I went back to the days when I tried to sell the idea of an Intranet to Loyola…well, this thing just makes me want to weep at the fact that it took nearly a decade before my web-related wishes would come to fruition. I had to manually edit the intranet before…and no one even bothered to check what’s new. Except the stakeholders.

(In the 90s, I emailed Amazon and urged them to come up with a customizable co-branding facility so my visitors can just buy directly from my site. It was only late last year that they released aStore and ECS. Google apparently likes doing the same thing.)

Heck, even the webmail lets you use your own logo instead of Gmail’s. Ditto for the calendar. Now, the only thing missing is for Google to go from aStore to ECS. What do I mean by this? I’d like Google to be able to let me use my own CSS and layout so that I wouldn’t be so limited to just changing the colors of my masthead and uploading a banner/logo. I’d also love to change the color scheme of my Gmail interface. Predominant blue is waging a civil war with my logo’s color scheme.

Other than design issues, I’m pretty happy with this. Someday, however, I’d like to see this thing let me create groups and post pictures. This would be good for my slides and photo-heavy classes like HUCOMIN and APPROJ2.

I waited this long to write a review about Mi-chan because I wanted for the excitement to simmer a bit. Can’t be too hasty, especially when you’re evaluating something that you had just received after lusting over it for so long. It’s been three months since he arrived and I still am very much in love with him. Everything is so beautiful and shiny on a Macbook and even though Yahoo!Messenger is still at version 3.0, it still looks better than it ever did on a PC.

Mi-Chan has built-in iLife Studio, which allows you to create movies, DVDs, music that look professionally done. If you manage to buy Keynote and Pages, the Mac’s answer to Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, you’d notice the difference in available templates. Well, actually, even with the Microsoft Suite for the Mac, the templates are considerably better looking than the ones available on a PC by default. What’s really nifty about Mi-chan is that he has a built-in webcam, Bluetooth, and the ability to convert just about anything to PDF.

I remember my cousin asking me if she should choose a Sony Vaio over a Macbook and I recall replying with, “Think of it as if you’re choosing a husband.” You’d always have to go with the following critera:

1. Looks (Beauty) - Check!
2. Sophistication - Check!
3. Intelligence - Check!
4. Flexible to my needs - Check!
5. Shows me new ways of doing things - Check!
6. Can switch between right and left brain hemispheres - Check!
7. Reliable - Check!
8. Life expectancy - Ding! Ding! Ding!

Number 8 marks the clincher! I mean, really, who’d want to blow her investment over something that will leave her (or die on her) when the going gets tough? On the second day that I got Mi-Chan, a student of mine tripped over the DSL cable attached to him and sent him flying. Mi-Chan landed with a thud, but, except for the underbite he got from the ordeal, he’s still pretty much running. This is because Mi-Chan has SMS or “Sudden Motion Sensor.” It detects if there’s sudden movement and freezes the hard drive to protect it from possible damage.

Other noteworthy features include the iCal, which is heaven-sent for workaholics like me. I get to organize all my activities, both social and work-related, in color-coded goodness. The Photobooth is also a wicked tool that I use in lieu of a digital camera. Of course, I’d be nuts if I forgot all about iTunes.

Now, before you can say that I kissed my gaming habits goodbye, I would have to inform many PC gamers/web developers that there’s this thing called Boot Camp that lets you partition your drive in such a way that it can also run Windows. Yes, I have Ragnarok Online and Neverwinter Nights on the Windows side of Mi-Chan.

Like all relationships, it’s not always a bed of roses. For one, I can’t run Open Office files. Another thing: My hard disk drive space is too small. I had originally thought that since I don’t use a lot of space on my old PC, the same thing would apply to a Mac. I was dead wrong. Having two operating systems can drain your resources. If I had known this, I would have ordered at least 250GB of disk space. I also have too little memory, having only 512MB RAM to work with. I suppose I’ll have to upgrade.

Mi-Chan also heats up quickly. It would probably be a good thing if he’s human, but I need him cold. The best way to counter this problem is to have the air conditioning running or have fans directed at him. It would also be a good idea to get those steel stands that raises a laptop’s elevation.

Overall, I’m very satisfied with Mi-Chan. Scratch that. I love Mi-Chan. Enough to have my human boyfriend insanely jealous. Heh.

More pictures of Mi-Chan here:
http://skysenshi.multiply.com/photos/album/18