This is what Google is doing by integrating Google Voice into GMail chat sessions. The new integration of GMail and Google Voice means that a phone will no longer be necessary. (This is a feature that’s still being rolled out, so you may not see it yet.)

Doesn’t sound like something you’d do? Right now, I have a client in Washington, D.C., who communicates with me through business email setup on GMail, as well as through text chat from GMail, and of course by phone. If we’re text chatting, it’d be nice to have a “click to call” option if we need to sort something out in an audio conversation. Seems to me it’s far more productive than having to pick up the phone. Now, it’d be nice if Skype was somehow integrated into this sort of offering.

Wondering what you’d buy with the app? Apple just released details of the their latest Mac Mini. While the price has gone up yet again (once $499, up to $599 last year and now $699), this small-footprint desktop computer packs a fair bit of power, starts with 320GB of hard drive space, and sports the Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system. If you’re planning to do iPhone or iPad development, or simply want a Mac, this is your lowest-cost option.

Unfortunately, due to demand for the new iPhone 4 and possibly the new Mac Mini, the Apple online store is down, though the Apple Store app seems to be working. From my quick test, it appears that you pay for items with the same payment details that you asigned to your iTunes account, so be careful. And make sure your delivery info is up-to-date.

If you were thinking about getting a new iPhone, you might have to wait until after the Jun 24th availability date (USA, UK, and 8 other countries). Thanks to preorders today, the system crashed and word is that they’re sold out. If your order didn’t get in before 1:30 pm PST, your phone won’t arrive until Jun 25th – July 5th. At this point, AT&T is taking preorders by hand. On the other hand, AT&T stores will have phones in-store starting Jun 24th, on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you’re just after the Mac Mini, they seem to still be in stock. No idea if the Mac Minis will have the new Mac OS 10.6.4, released today, but that’s probably likely. You can of course get the OS upgrade — which includes Safari 5 Web browser, without buying a new computer. If you do, it’s a good idea to back up your hard drive before updating your OS.

The library will have over 300 images in five main categories: Buttons, Electronics, Objects, People and Symbols:

As a hardcore user of mind mapping software to plan and manage all of my work and personal tasks, as well as to solve problems, I’m happy to hear about this. Images add a richness and visual cues to mind maps, making them easier to absorb, understand and remember.

The image library add-in for MindManager sells for US$29 and is currently available (from the Mindjet online store) for the English, German, and French MS-Windows desktop versions. A Japanese will be available later, though no mention is made of the Mac version of MindManager.

A few years ago I got a high-end Acer laptop with dual processor but only 512Mb of RAM. Already too slow. Then I had a desktop with 512Mb, and even after adding another 512Mb RAM, it wasn’t enough. That was followed by a 2Gb desktop, and it seemed that applications which previously ran fine in 1Gb of RAM suddenly decided to take advantage of as much of the extra RAM as possible. The same’s happened now on my 3Gb RAM laptop, though this one’s running Windows Vista. (That is, maybe Vista just needs more RAM for everything.)

Are Windows applications just not efficient? Don’t developers know how to make apps lean and mean? Or is Windows hogging RAM just because it can?

Apple fans might be inclined to say Mac OS X performs better, and I’d actually agree. While I do get a big of “lag” when using OS X, I find that I can have numerous apps running with just 512Mb of RAM. Sure, more memory is always better, but it doesn’t seem to matter for Windows OSes.

Of course, the problem might just be that the 3 or 4 applications that I run every single day on my Win XP and Vista laptops are simply inefficient. What it boils down to, especially when my laptop crashes regularly, is reduced productivity. Maybe other people don’t have the same problems. Thoughts? Have you found that your computer never seems to have enough memory?

The mobile communications market is extremely competitive. Some cellular service providers are giving away netbooks on new 2-year data plans – or at least reducing the price significantly. But with the latest Apple iPhone 3G priced at an affordable $99 (with AT&T data plan), it’s hard to say which will win out: netbook or high-end smartphone.

The companies they’re filing against include Palm, Nokia, and RIM. Wait a minute. Isn’t Palm founded in the U.S.? (Maybe I’m wrong.) Oh, and isn’t RIM the company that makes the CrackBerry BlackBerry series of devices? You know, the phone that President-Elect Barack Obama loves, and which I believe he claimed would have to be pried out of his cold, dead hands. Or something like that. Despite security concerns, Obama plans to keep his BlackBerry. (RIM must have some secret “presidential monthly plan” or something.)

By the way, if you can’t make it to Washington, D.C., to see the Presidential Inauguration on Jan 20th, you can watch it online.

Well if you’ve got the money for that much bling phone, go for it. Just don’t drop it in the toilet – supposedly one of the most common mishaps for mobile phones.

What do you think? Would that even work – as in be any more monetizable than Twitter? Keep in mind that a similar service, Pownce, got purchased by Six Apart and for the most part is getting buried. Seems standalone microblogging services will have a hard time against Twitter. But integrate a micromessaging service with another app – such as the way the status message is on each user’s Facebook wall – and then it becomes very useful.

So if Twitter decided to license out their technology to be integrated with the likes of, say, LinkedIn, MySpace, and so on, then you have a potential way to monetize. But where does that leave Twitter competitors such as Identi.ca? Well, I’m predicting the rise of BuddyPress-powered niche social networks, so you might see Identi.ca’s Open Source version integrate into there, in the form of plugins. Whether the latter can be monetized any better than Twitter remains to be seen. The key issue is where hosting will be done and whether people are going to want to have to remember multiple login account details.

Of the top 100 search trends this morning, it seems like 90+% specifies either a school name or a local TV station’s call letters. Isn’t anyone looking for Britney Spears this morning? Or which bikini-wearing American idol contestants? Or silly college girls selling their virginity to the highest bidder?

Except that parents are not looking for “school closures,” the search term. That wouldn’t give them local results, right? The simplest way is to specify one of the following search options:

1. [radio/TV station call letters] school closings
2. [school name]
3. [city name] public schools
4. school closings [state | county | city]

Replace the square brackets with appropriate text. The vertical bars mean “OR”. So for #4, you might search for “school closings Illinois”.