With Apple’s recent unveiling of OS X Mountain Lion it’s no surprise that we had plenty to talk about. A whole hour’s worth of chatting, in fact. Allison is loads of fun to talk with, and without her self control to cut our conversation off after an hour we’d probably still be talking. Days later. Really.

Interested in hearing what I have to say about more iOS features showing up in OS X, Gatekeeper, iCloud, Notification Center, and some rabbit holes we couldn’t help but head down? Then point your browser over to Allison’s Podfeet.com website and take a listen.

Or go the the iTunes Store. Whatever. I’m easy.

If you need to get up to speed on what went down, Bryan Chaffin covered Steve’s retirement announcement at The Mac Observer, and followed up with Apple giving the CEO title to Tim Cook, the man that’s been running the company for the past few months.

Turns out a couple news outlets wanted to chat with me about Steve’s retirement. Here’s a list of the interviews and podcasts I did. For your viewing pleasure, of course:

• Forbes This is an Associated Press article, so you can find it other places, too.
• The Huffington Post Want to see how Trip Chowdry from Global Equities Research and I have very different views of Apple’s ability to perform without Steve? Here you go.
• MacJury Along with Chuck Joiner, Katie Floyd and Bryan Chaffin, we talk about what to expect now that Steve has dropped the CEO title and taken up his new role as Chairman of the Board.
• Reuters Insider Me, live, on Reuters TV. Guess who’s on with me? Yeah, Trip Chowdry. Just in case you don’t get how different our views on Apple post-Jobs are, you totally need to check this out.

There’s a good chance I missed something because the day of and day after Steve’s resignation were crazy busy. If there’s something I need to add to the list, just let me know and I’ll take care of it.

And my opinion in a nutshell: Don’t worry about Apple. It’s still business as usual, and we’ll still see awesome products for years to come. And thanks for all the hard work, Steve.

My User Conference session this year is “Working in the Cloud: Best Online Services for Storing and Sharing Your Data,” and I’ll have plenty to talk about. Here’s my session description from the Macworld Expo Web site:

Dropbox, Evernote, Google: The Internet is loaded with cloud-based services designed to make your life easier, keep you connected with information, and help you share files. Some are free, some require payment, and some are “freemium,” giving you a handful of features for free and even more when you pay. In this session we’ll take a look at the best freemium services for the Mac, iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, and how to use them effectively so your important information is always just a mouse click or finger tap away.

My session runs from 3:30PM to 4:45PM on Friday, January 28, 2011. The conference runs from Wednesday, January 26 through Saturday, January 29 at the Moscone West center in San Francisco. Dress warm, kids.

If you’re looking to save a few bucks at Macworld Expo, you can get a 15% discount on a conference package just for having the patience to read this far. The Mac Observer has a sweet deal on hotel rooms at the Intercontinental — which just so happens to be right next to Moscone West.

I’ll be running around all week checking out the latest Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad software and gear during the day, and hanging out at the after hours events, too. If you happen to see me, be sure to say “hi.” After all, Macworld Expo is like one big family reunion. But in a good way.

The MacJury podcast episodes (Part 1 and Part 2) were loads of fun thanks Chuck Joiner’s ability to throw together just the right mix of people to ensure an, um, eclectic mix of gift ideas. I was lucky enough to get to rub virtual elbows with author Joe Kissell, Jean MacDonald from SmileOnMyMac, TUAW’s Steve Sande, Pat Fauquet from MacMouseCalls, Julio Ojeda-Zapata from the Pioneer Press, and TMO’s own Nancy Gravley.

The holiday gift guide over at TMO includes staff picks for the Mac, iPod and iPhone lover in your life — and it’s only part 1, so there’s more to come.

Even if you don’t celebrate any gift giving holidays, the lists still include some fun ideas for tech stuff you can pick up for yourself. And if anyone is keeping track, I don’t have a TARDIS USB hub of my own yet. *Cough*

The PTE Charles gave me is actually a photographic table, which adds the extra coolness of being able to see the elements instead of just referencing their properties. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that elements like Rutherfordium, Meitnerium and Einsteinium actually look like real people. Amazing!

You can pick up your own photographic PTE at periodictable.com. It’s available as posters, 3D lenticular posters, place mats, and decks of playing cards.

Stephen’s map visualizes the distance between McDonald’s restaurants for the continental United States with glowing orange lights. The brighter the lights, the closer the restaurants are.

While the sheer density of McDonald’s locations in the U.S. is staggering, I was equally impressed with the technology that went into whipping up this map. Stephen was able to get ahold of the raw data from AggData, massage a CSV file with some coding magic, and build a map that shows there are plenty of places all over the country for people that think they really do deserve a break today.

That said, there’s a frakking ass-load of McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S. I can only imaging what the map would look like if it also included all the Burger King, Wendy’s, Chik-Fil-A and KFC joints, too.

Holy crap. I think my arteries are clogging just thinking about it.

You can check out everything I mentioned during my presentation over at The Mac Observer, complete with prices and iTunes Store links. Just trying to make your life a little easier.

If you weren’t at the event, sorry I missed you. It was a kick in the pants and there were plenty of really cool people to hang out with. Also, I totally scored an Atomic Love Bombs CD. Life is good.

I’m going to show how to protect your personal information, share stuff with friends online, and show you which apps can help keep your life organized. There’s some fun apps for artists on my list, and I’ll show iPod touch owners how to turn their handheld into an Internet phone.

Interested in making your own music? Cool, because I have some tips on using your iPhone or iPod touch as a musical instrument, too.

As if that isn’t enough, The Mac Observer is exhibiting at the event, so I’ll be hanging on the expo floor with Bryan Chaffin, too. If you aren’t familiar with Bryan, you should be. He’s part of the foundation of TMO and writes some amazingly insightful industry analysis pieces. He’s also part of the uber-cool rock band, The Atomic Love Bombs.

Be sure to stop by our booth and say “Hi.” Of course, we’ll give you a little extra incentive to drop by in the form of some kick ass prizes we’ll be giving away throughout the day.

Clear your schedule for Saturday, October 3, because the expo runs from 10AM to 5PM pacific time. It’s at the Petaluma Community Center in Petaluma, California. You can find out more at the North Coast Mac User Group Web site.

Oh yeah… Here’s a shameless plug for The Atomic Love Bombs: They rock, and you should really support independent bands. You can buy their album at the iTunes Store, or at their Web site. Hop to it.

I’m lucky enough to work in an industry that’s loaded with talent, and I had the chance to talk about Apple’s announcements with a crazy-long list of pros that includes Chris Breen, Michael Johnston, Chuck Joiner, John F. Braun, Terry White, and Bryan Chaffin. We talked about the good and bad with the new iPhone, gave AT&T the smack-down for fumbling on MMS and tethering, and got all worked up in anticipation of Mac OS X 10.6.

It was a true uber geek-fest, and a great reminder that I really do have the best job in the world.

Behind the scenes true fact: I was completely hopped up on Codeine when I did the iPhone Alley podcast thanks to a nasty little gum infection. End result… I’m not that different when I’m drugged or sober. Go figure.

The ever-exciting Jay Nelson, CoMUG’s amazing leader, is out of town this week, so I’m going to be filling his shoes as host for the evening, too. That’s just in case you can’t get enough of me online.

The meeting is on June 11 at 7PM at the NCAR facility in Boulder. And don’t forget: The CoMUG crew also hangs out at Ihop in Boulder after the meetings. Pancakes, tech and free Wi-Fi. What more could you ask for?

The evening lineup along with directions is available at the CoMUG Web site.