Monday isn’t over yet, but it’s 4:20 in California, and there’s still no sign of Google’s new iPhone application.

I apologize if I got your hopes up with yesterday’s post. It is, I now recall, foolish to try to anticipate Apple because Apple simply doesn’t function the way most companies do.

One note on yesterday’s post: a couple people seemed to think I was arguing that Apple should treat Google better than other developers. I wasn’t.

Apple should treat them all better — by providing explicit guidelines about what apps will and won’t be accepted and by providing explicit review timetables.

It is stupid for Apple to treat application writers so shabbily because the applications they write sell Apple products and make Apple money.

Barring this policy of universal courtesy, however, Apple should at least be smart enough not to piss off really big companies like Google. It’s just stupid.

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Make your own here.

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Can’t we just hurry up and get the apocalypse over with, already?

Geez.

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That’s right. Anyone who owns a TiVo can now order a pizza with the remote control — and then track its progress from the oven to the doorstep.

There is, as Victor points out, just one large problem: the pizzas come from Domino’s rather than a local pizza parlor that you actually like.

Perhaps TiVo could release some sort of open API that would let any restaurant that delivers food get on the system.

Via ZatzNotFunny.

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Apparently the president-elect is loathe to surrender his digital sidekick after he gets sworn in:

But before he arrives at the White Home, he’ll probably be forced to sign off. In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A decision has not been made on whether he could become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that seemed doubtful.

For all the perquisites and power afforded the president, the chief executive of the United States is essentially deprived by law and by culture of some of the very tools that other chief executives depend on to survive and to thrive. Mr. Obama, however, seems intent on pulling the office at least partly into the 21st century on that score; aides said he hopes to have a laptop personal on his desk in the Oval Office, making him the first American president to do so.

I understand the allure of perpetual connectivity, but if I were about to become president, one of the first things I’d do is deactivate my e-mail accounts, cancel my Internet service and put my computers in storage.

As Governor Palin learned, e-mail transforms from convenience to political target when you step onto the national stage, and the value of cracking the president’s e-mail account will be exponentially higher than breaking into a vice president’s.

Plus, even if you’ve the entire NSA locking down your e-mail accounts from hackers both foreign and domestic, there’s still the huge chance that you’ll tap out an incriminating message of some kind (whether deliberately or accidentally) and see it subpoenaed in a criminal investigation or congressional hearing.

Way more hassle than it’s worth.

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I’d never really thought about until now, but it was kind of odd that Microsoft didn’t have its own on the web store to sell all its Xboxes and Web server software and whatnot.

No longer!

Microsoft has officially launched its very own on the web store, where you can now shop for basically anything that Microsoft sells.

And, in a nice touch, when you buy a software program, you can choose to either download the program or have a physical CD mailed to you.

Plus, when anticipation builds for the new Zunes, Microsoft can pull an Apple and temporarily close the store and then — tada! — the store relaunches with all the new models available!

Now Microsoft just needs to figure out how to manufacture that anticipation…

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(source: Wedbush Morgan Securities)

I wrote an article back in April arguing that video game retailer GameStop (which is based in Grapevine) was one of the few national retail chains poised to excel even in a slow economy.

Lo and behold, data released yesterday showed that video game sales rose 18 percent in October, when virtually every other retail category worth speaking about saw their customers go into hibernation.

I’ll admit that I was getting a little nervous about my original prediction, since we’ve had the housing and financial industry meltdown since then and a variety of speaking heads predicting the worst recession that almost anyone alive this day has ever seen.

But games — at least for now — are holding their own.

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You can check the full list here, and it seems there are a few obvious good deals in there (a Memorex 1080p upconverting DVD player for $29, for example, or the 32-inch LCD TV for $399).

But other “deals” are less impressive.

For instance, one of the bargains listed is the 8-gig iPod touch for $229.

But $229 is exactly how much Apple is charging for that model right now.

Still, if you don’t want to battle with the mobs at Ideal Buy on Nov. 28, you might find some goodies at the ‘Shack.

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Given how good the Storm looks, the fact that it’s $100 less than the BlackBerry Bold (with two-year contract, of course), and comes with 8-gigs of storage versus one gig on the Bold, I don’t see why anyone would prefer the Bold unless tactile keyboards are really critical to you.

Actually, the Storm does have one major drawback: no Wi-Fi.

That’s close to inexcusable, especially given that the Bold does have Wi-Fi.

Still, if Santa is reading this post, I certainly wouldn’t mind getting a Storm for Christmas.

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The New York Times is asking readers to vote on who the president-elect should tap to be the next attorney general and who should run the departments of defense, treasury, state and homeland defense.

I generally find review sites that gather lots of reviews from the public to be more accurate than ones that rely on a single expert, or even a handful of experts. I wonder if the idea would produce a superior cabinet than any one president could pick.

If you squint, you can see who was leading as of 3:15 central — or you can go to the NY Times and cast your own vote.

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