Meanwhile, there is lots of other news. Steve Ballmer is speaking at TechED. Paul Robichaux is liveblogging his keynote at http://www.e2ksecurity.com.

Microsoft UK is bringing me to the European announcement of IBM's new Tablet PC. They say this is HUGE for Tablet PC acceptance because many corporate customers wouldn't consider Tablet PCs until IBM got into the market.

I'm in the Microsoft Home in London. They have taken over a home in a residential neighborhood here and decked it out with the latest technology.

But, that's not the news you came here for, is it?

I tell ya, EVERYONE is talking about what the Apple change means. I turn on Skype and MSN and folks around the world are IM'ing me.

Wanna watch the keynote details pretty much in livetime? MacRumors.com has setup a site to bring you the latest.

In other news, just met Ian Dixon, the guy who does the Podcast Network's Media Center podcast. Nice guy and he asked me about what the Apple change means too.

Someone asked, in my comments, why I'm hanging out in Starbucks in London instead of a local cafe. One word: wifi.

Starbucks has it and very few other places do. I know I can rely on Starbucks.

Some other observations. There are far less computer users here than in Silicon Valley and Seattle. That's not to be unexpected, but it sure shows a difference in the culture here. Cell phone usage is about the same, at least on my unscientific observations, but the culture talks about "texting" a lot more than in the US. The Olympic Committee here even has big posters asking people to support London's bid to get the Olympics by "texting" a certain number.

Another difference? I've seen no Macintoshes since leaving the states.

What differences do you notice in computer usage between where you live and other places in the world?

Back to Starbucks: I'm also getting around to lots of other local and non-US places, don't worry about that! I like getting the local flavor.

I can't wait until the geek dinner tomorrow night. I can't believe 200 people are showing up. That's almost as many people as attend many conferences!

John Gruber is asking why I can't reveal technical details on the Apple decision to switch from IBM to Intel processors. Simple answer: cause my sources didn't have them, or wouldn't provide them. Apple is very compartmentalized to prevent leaks. The OS guys, for instance, are kept from even seeing new hardware they are gonna run on and the hardware guys don't know anything about new OS's coming out. Then, even the hardware guys are only allowed to see the projects they are working on.

Makes it very hard to figure out what the details are -- especially since only Steve Jobs and a few other senior execs know the details (and Steve isn't one of my sources). I guess we'll all learn more today. But, I do have lots of questions that I haven't heard answers for.

It's very possible that the answers don't even exist. Think about how such a large decision needs to ripple through every part of an organization. Imagine if Bill Gates made a decision to do something so huge like this. I wouldn't know all the details, even though I know a lot of people inside Microsoft. It's why it'll take a couple of years for this change to make its way through Apple's entire product lines. This is a HUGE change for rafts of workers inside Apple.

Like I said, the entire industry is shaking because of Steve Jobs' decision. It's impossible to know all the details until the shaking subsides a bit.

It will be one of the most interesting weeks in technology since I started blogging, that's for sure.

Already more news outlets have reported on this story than any other I can remember.