With the recent release of Google’s Chrome for Windows we had to expect a Mac version anytime soon. Not yet. Unannounced. For those of you who just can’t wait, there is Codeweavers’ Crossover Chromium.

Takes forever to install, but it is worth the sneak peek. It is more of a curiosity, an exercise in style, a challenge— than the real Chrome. The people behind codeweavers ported the Google Windows browser to Mac OS X exploiting Wine to run Windows applications on Mac Intel. Wait for the real thing to come out but this is a nice proof of concept of Wine if anything. Stop whining and have some wine on codeweavers.

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Well, just when I thought I could start talking about something else, FRING appeared. A very neat little application for your WiFi enabled phone that allows you to port your SKYPE, Twitter, AIM, Yahoo, SIP and MSN accounts. These types of applications could put a serious damper on mobile phone operators revenue streams. WiFi is fairly ubiquitous in large cities. It should be easy to remain connected using these types of applications. Doubled with the previously discussed SIP account, there is a good case for adopting any minimal data plan from the carriers and enjoying full conversations and Internet access without the price tag of exorbitant data plans. More on the subject that won’t just go away, later.

To continue on the wireless posting on Nokia’s N95, it is as Mac friendly as they come. First you have to install a plugin for iSync that you can obtain here. You obviously activate Bluetooth (in Tools, Bluetooth) and have to pair the device with your Mac, the usual way by entering a number that could have been made much shorter. You’re ready to sync to your heart’s content. You can and probably should use USB instead.

The N95 is so Mac friendly that there is also multimedia transfer application that you get here and that allows you to easily transfer music, video and pictures to and from your Mac. Voilà, let the artist in you express wirelessly.

I recently downloaded Counterpath’s free VoIP client called X-Lite (version 3.0). You can get it here.

It is very practical as I found out the hard way on my last trip to Montreal that just carrying a WIP330 is not enough to guarantee access to VoIP over WiFi. Hey LinkSys, get your act together and upgrade the firmware of that beautiful phone to support WPA2.

On another wireless node, I bought a NSeries NOKIA N95 that among other things, supports WiFi. Hope that unlike Microsoft Word, I will use more than 10% of this phone’s capacities. It already is pretty close to “one device to rule them all” à la Tolkien. It is a 3.5G phone, supporting HSDPA.

Don’t know about you, but the first thing I do (aside from wondering why batteries are still delivered not fully charged) is take a picture (5 Mega Pixels). Then I configure WiFi access and my Gmail account to feel at home. One note on configuring your Gmail account as IMAP over an HTTPS connection— specify the ports. I then picked a nice ringtone (until I actually download and install a Led Zep one).

The WiFi access is nice and configures itself almost automatically (hey you have to enter the key!). Also, the screen switches from landscape to portrait as you rotate the phone. Most interestingly, the device has a growing community developing hacks and applications for it. Almost a social network. We’re getting there. There is so much to say about this power house. You can configure Skype. Use the phone to monitor your home. Use it as a GPS, record 640×480 video on 8 Gigs of storage, record memos, incidently make or receive a call, etc. Thanks Steve for pushing the boundaries. Others have to follow and the N95 is the next best thing to an iPhone.

Here is our url that you can capture with your phone to store this address. We’ve gone full circle to hieroglyphs…