Apple released a new “spreadsheet application” called Numbers as part of its iWork suite. A number of people have already started commenting that this is not exactly a spreadsheet application, but more an application that includes spreadsheet features, along with page layout and some other tricks.

Over the next few weeks, you’re probably going to hear some people claim that its a whole new concept. John Gruber, for example, mused: “This is a total ground-up re-imagining of what a ’spreadsheet’ app is.… Numbers might be as much a new Hypercard as it is a new Excel.” Don’t you believe it though; we’ve seen this before.

In many ways, Numbers is really the new OpenDoc.

Originally conceived as Apple’s answer to Microsoft’s Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), OpenDoc was about embedding “components” into documents that would all be linked together. You might have a spreadsheet component, for example, that was linked to a graph component. When you edited the spreadsheet, the graph updated. There would be other components you could add, maybe to show images, for example. Back when OpenDoc was under heavy development, this was the canonical demo what OpenDoc would do for you. It would, in fact, look a lot like this screen from Numbers:

I seriously doubt that Numbers works exactly like OpenDoc did, and it certainly doesn’t have the full blown complement of OpenDoc features. For example, you probably can’t add your own components to it (yet). But it sure looks like the way OpenDoc was supposed to function, and I’d wager that a great deal of OpenDoc code ended up inside it.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Though it is not a huge technological breakthrough, I thought I’d detail a system my wife and I now use for things like shopping lists and so on. It has been working out fairly well, though we have not pushed it as far as we could.

The system is based around a web-based service called Backpack. This is a free service were you can create checklists, notes, images, file links and so on into private or public pages (you can pay a small fee to get even more features). In an of itself, Backpack is pretty neat, but not Earth shattering. Basically, it is a very simplified and streamlined wiki. It’s real brilliance is that the people that created it also created, maintain and publicize a simple application programming interface (API) for reading and editing Backpack pages. This has allowed the creation of a number of third party tools that make Backpack more useful than it would be left to its own.

One of the tools that makes use of this API is a simple Dashboard widget that allows display and editing of lists, notes and reminders from Backpack. We’ve installed this on our kitchen iMac in place of the Stickies widget that we used to use for grocery lists. Now, when we’re in the kitchen and need to jot down something to get at the store, we use the Backpack widget, which ultimately stores the information on Backpack’s servers.

Another tool built on the API solves the main drawback of our previous “Stickies widget” method: we had to remember to print out the list before leaving for the store. Being scatterbrained doofuses (doofi?) most of the time, we would usually forget this or, more often, be out for some other reason before remembering we needed to go to the store. As we both carry Treo 650 Palm/cellphones pretty much all of the time, we can access our Backpack data that way. We could do this just using the web browser in the phone; however, there is a dedicated Palm application called Satchel that works much better. Like far too much Palm software, it is not free (one reason Palm is languishing, I feel), but offers a much cleaner and faster experience than mobile web browsing. Satchel can both display and edit lists and notes as well, so not only shows us our shopping list in the store, but allows us to add to it when the muse is upon is during the day.

The best part is that Backpack being based on a central store means that our lists are always accessible to both of us without needing to worry about any syncing or other such idiocy. It just works.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Back in the days of Macintosh System 6.0, Lamprey Systems (”software that sucks”) brought us “Your Own Personal Savior on a Floppy Disk”, but then He languished as technology outpaced Him. Now, He’s back, redubbed MacJesusX, promising Mac OS X goodness, “the Insinerator Sin-Removal Tool® and state-of-the-art 80’s programming techniques”.

The latest version, unfortunately, isn’t as fun as the System 7 version. I think one reason might be that it doesn’t use the hypnotic theme song from the earlier one. To restore it to its former glory, I’ve managed (not easily) to extract said theme and translated it into a short MP3. You pretty much have to listen to it on a loop to get the full effect. If you have QuickTime installed, hit play on the control below to see what I mean.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I don’t usually click banner ads, but I followed one a few minutes ago that seems like a killer deal to certain Mac users. It’s called MacHeist and is a bundle of eight, possibly ten, shareware applications. Since two of these appear on my list of recommended Mac OS X software seems to be worth a look. Part of the proceeds go to charity as well.

The final two applications only get unlocked if a certain amount is raised for charity. Since the deal ends on 16 Dec 2006, it looks like this might not happen, which is a pity considering that one of them, TextMate, is the best application of the lot.

Since I already own Delicious Library and TextMate, I’m not sure I’ll buy this bundle, but I’m tempted. Some of the other apps seem intriguing.

Update: Evidently, Daring Fireball thinks you should care less about what you are paying, and more about what the developers are getting. The lesson I take away from his analysis: developers charge too much.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Almost a year ago, I suggested that anyone attempting to replace Apple’s overpriced .Mac system should call it !Mac. Since then, a number of concepts and hints on how to do this have been posted to the internet. The most thorough one that I’ve seen is Matt Simerson’s How I created my own .mac replacement. It is fairly involved and does a lot, but still doesn’t support the one feature I’d actually use: machine synchronization.

Now, however, someone named Kent has issued a bounty on an “easy install” version of such a system called, oddly enough, the notMac Challenge. He’s also matching contributions. This site was evidently just mentioned on MacWorld, so in the ten minutes I’ve been watching the site, the prize jumped from $879 to $2,874.

I still think !Mac is a better name, but it’s harder to Google.

Popularity: 4% [?]

There should be a “Rumsfeld” mode in Bugzilla (or other issue tracking systems) that tracks issues the way Donald Rumsfeld does. Something where the “severity” field is something like this:

Come to think of it, why doesn’t the government have a big public bug tracking database? Certain “power users” could be officially assigned issues to take into their own hands, like “fit the pothole on 5th and Main” or “secure the El Paso border against brown people looking for work you won’t do”.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Since my wife has given her old Palm device to my sister, I thought it would be a good time to post a list of recommended Palm software in the same vein as my earlier Mac OS X recommendations. If you have something you enjoy using, let me know about it.

Popularity: 4% [?]