Windows 7 was rude enough to crash catastrophically Friday, an hour before a column deadline. After 45 minutes of hopeful auto-repair, an error message unceremoniously notified me that, no, nothing will be repaired automatically today. “Would you like to shut down?” Um, no, I wouldn’t.

The only solution was to reformat the disk and rebuild the system — a procedure I’ve done maybe 50 times since first installing Windows 3.1 in the early 90s.

I’m thankful for Carbonite. As of this writing Tuesday, the online backup servive has been restoring my 172 gigabytes of data since Friday. So far it’s 22 percent done. I should be all restored up by July.

Sigh.

The failure took my column with it, of course. I had to re-write it on my iPad.

Which got me thinking about the future of Windows, a future looks bleak from the perspective of turning to an incredibly stable $500 appliance while my $2,000 PC restores itself after yet another crash.

Steve Jobs calls Android a “probe in your pocket” because it spies on users, according to Wall Street Journal reporter Kara Swisher.

Apple’s iCloud music locker will not require users to laboriously upload all the music in their iTunes libraries, but will instead rely on “scan and match.”

If you’re goin’ to San Francisco for WWDC be sure to join us next Thursday, June 9 for the Cult of Mac Meet and Greet at Potrero Hill’s notorious Il Pirata.

We’ll have some goodies to give away. Here are the details:

Joshua Kaufman claims that he recently had his MacBook stolen, and so he did what anyone who was smart enough to follow our guide to recovering your pilfered Mac would do: he logged into his Mac via Hidden and has been secretly snapping photos, taking screenshots and snapping the alleged perp ever since.

Lodsys originally gave indie iOS devs utilizing Apple’s own in-app purchasing mechanism twenty one days to either license their patents or get sued, but never trust a patent troll’s promises: days earlier than scheduled, Lodsys has already filed lawsuits against iOS devs who didn’t yield to their threats.

Apple has finally stepped in to squash MacDefender, the malware that has exploded on users’ machines over the last few weeks. Fulfilling their promise to nuke MacDefender from orbit, Apple has just released Mac Security Update 2011-003.

There’s more in that update than just a MacDefender nuke, though. For the first time ever, it introduces self-updating antimalware software to the Mac.

As any fan-boy (myself included) will testify, Macs don’t get viruses – or rather, that’s what we used to say…

With the popularity of the Macintosh platform at the highest it’s ever been, we are no longer as immune to cyber attacks as we could once claim. Only last week the ill intentioned ‘Mac Defender’ virus raged chaos on Macs the world over. The question of Mac security has raised its head once again – and this time, we might actually need to pay attention…

When best-selling tech author Clay Shirky tweets “lucky to be alive. Always wear your seat belt!” he gets our attention.

When Steve Jobs unveils iCloud at next week’s WWDC, we know that all four major music labels will be onboard Apple’s streaming music service… but what about Hollywood?

Up until now, it looked as if iCloud would launch as a music-only affair without the proper deals inked with video content providers, but in a surprise development, it looks like Cupertino may be scrambling around Tinseltown trying to round up signatures after all.

The iPad has already killed netbooks, and now it’s starting to do the same to laptops. Within five years, the iPad might even kill off the Mac, says NVIDIA… replacing it with ARM-based machines that can outperform even the speediest Intel processors.

After months of rumors, Apple just gave us a nice little pre-WWDC present: if you don’t mind a little bit of cramping, you can now use Keynote, Pages and Numbers on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

We start another week and the last day in May with deals for the Mac, iPhone and iPod user. First up is an iMac bundle, including a quad-core Intel i5 processor running at 2.5GHz. The desktop package also includes a 22-inch screen and 8GB of RAM for $1,389. Next, an iHome portable speaker system for your iPhone or iPod. Finally, a leather flip case for your iPhone 4.

Along the way, we also check out discounts for iPhone 4 and iPad cases, as well as other bargains on accessories. As usual, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

After months of whispers and rumors, Apple’s finally tipped its hand: iCloud is a real product, it’ll debut at next week’s WWDC, and through it, iTunes will be making its long-rumored leap into the cloud. But when all is said and done, what will iCloud actually be, and why should anyone care?

Today at 1PM ET/10AM PT, I’ll be hosting a live Q&A about iCloud and Apple’s cloud ambitions over at The Washington Post. The Q&A will last roughly an hour. I’d love it if some of CoM’s readers came by to ask questions and chat.

To follow the Q&A, all you need to do is click this link, or go to https://wapo.st/jqM0Bk. You can ask questions now. Otherwise, you can ask a question via Twitter by either sending a question to @postlive using the hashtag #wpchat.

I hope some of you guys will come by and chat about iCloud with me, lest I have to fill dead air with obscene limericks. See you then!

Update: And that’s all she wrote! Thanks for coming by and asking questions, guys. If you want to see the transcript, you can find it here

Google’s new Chromebook? We called it the MacBook Welfare, but Forrester CEO George Colony has another term for it: “corporate idiocy.” Why? Because with iOS, Apple saw the future of computing, and that future’s not the web… it’s the app.

In the halls of power, you’re more likely to see an iPad or an iPhone, as U.S. federal agencies toss BlackBerries aside for Apple technology. Could President Obama get an iPhone next?

This morning’s press release from Apple clearly outlining the topics Steve Jobs would be covering in next week’s WWDC keynote make it crystal clear that the next iPhone is not officially on the conference’s agenda for the first time in three years. Instead, WWDC will focus on software: iOS, Lion and iCloud.

But could there be a “one more thing?” And could it be the iPhone 4S? That’s what a new rumor is suggesting… but take it with a grain of salt.

If you had to write a list of New York City’s most popular attractions for camera-toting tourists, would the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue be on it?

Where will you get the fastest streaming speeds once iCloud launches? Most likely at the new retail location Apple is opening up a stone’s throw from its North Carolina data super center.

Apple’s announcement that iCloud should appear June 6 couldn’t be better timed. Owners of iOS devices are heavy music and video users, streaming more media than Android or any mobile operating system… and with iCloud’s debut, it’s only going to get more lopsided.

At the University of Iowa, school administrators want students and visitors to quickly and easily learn what’s happening, get around and find campus resources. Their new iPhone app is a notable step towards that goal, including addressing that most pressing of all questions: is my laundry done yet?

Apple has just sent out a press release, and the rumors are true: iCloud is coming at WWDC next week.

As an added plus? Steve Jobs will be keynoting after all.

With a number of applications running in the background while we’re hard at work, desperately vying for your attention, it’s easy to get distracted when one of them catches your eye. A solution to this problem is OmmWriter – an award-winning application that helps you block out the distractions that surround you at your desk and enables you to focus on your writing. The team behind this magnificent word processor have now brought OmmWriter to the iPad.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjRhuF5qHQY&feature=player_embedded

A new jailbreak tweak making its way into Cydia will enable users to delete home screen folders – and return all of the applications within them to the home screen – with a single tap.

Apple has launched a new replacement program for customers with white MacBooks who have seen their rubber base separate itself from the plastic casing and leave their notebooks with an exposed undercarriage.