Ahead of tonight’s big Apple event, where it is widely rumoured that they will announce their first sub-$1000 notebook, Microsoft has gone for a surprising PR drive. In an interview to CNET, Brad Brooks, VP of Windows Consumer Product Marketing repeated the favourite argument against Apple - they are expensive and one has to pay hidden costs. Microsoft has also sent an email to technology writers that even provides a detailed comparison of Mac products (the current range) and ‘equivalent’ PC machines. 

While Apple fans will rubbish these claims (they already are responding in droves), I thought it was remarkable because it is an acknowledgement from Microsoft that Apple is a threat to both their market share and mind share. Both the CNET interview and the email from Microsoft are a treat to read. In the context of the recent ‘I am a PC’ effort which again was acknowledging that a smaller competitor is running circles around him, this smacks of desperation and falsehood. I am sure it will get nods of acknowledgement from die-hard Windows users but how does one explain the un-taxing experience of using an Apple to them?

Over at his personal blog, New York Times tech columnist and CBS news correspondent David Pogue takes a look at T-Mobile’s G1, the world’s first Android based mobile phone. His overall first impressions seem to be fairly positive, although he does note a few severe shortcomings, compared to the iPhone:

At the same time, the G1 is not an iPhone. More features means more complexity; the G1 has five physical buttons on the face, not one. It’s got a trackball, arrow keys and the touch screen, too. It’s not a multitouch screen, so you lose all those niceties like pinching to zoom in and out. That keyboard and removable battery make the G1 a lot thicker and homelier than the iPhone.

And, of course, it’s not an iPod. It plays music, but doesn’t play video at all [UPDATE: except YouTube videos], let alone capture it, and there’s no way to buy TV shows or movies even if the phone could play them.

But then, it’s completely open and neither Google nor T-Mobile will censor any applications from the built-in application store, apart from the malicious ones. It sounds more like a competitor to Windows Mobile than the iPhone to me, but we’ll have to wait and watch.