Apple iPhone to be on Verizon?
According to this note online, that may be coming. All I can say as a loyal Verizon user is “it’s about time!” The iPhone should have been available on all carriers from the start.
Archive for the ‘iPhone’
WWDC, 3G Jesus Phone, App Store, AT&T Rate Hike
If you want my thoughts on the keynote, you can read them over on Tech.Blorge today. Let’s just say that I was underwhelmed by the whole keynote, and send you over there for the details of why. Yes, Jobs announced the release of the 3G iPhone (affectionately known as the Jesus Phone by my friend Cyndy who writes with me on Profy). He looked as under excited by it as the Apple WWDC audience did, frankly.
Also announced was the Mobile Me synching plan, a much needed but still less than adequate replacement for .Mac, several iPhone applications and iPhone 2 – none of which were ready today, interestingly enough. Meanwhile AT&T, the carrier you are forced to use with the iPhone and the reason I don’t have one yet, is hiking rates to go along with the new 3G iPhone. Typical. What did you think of the WWDC keynote? Was is all you had hoped for?
Did you hear the one about Apple fitness?
I wrote about it on Mac.Blorge. Apple is getting into the fitness market – and a little more as well. Some of the news is cool (Apple fitness, tailored to you – awesome) and some creepy (identity metrics and more).
MacWorld 08 Thoughts
I was underwhelmed by the MacBook Air. I think it is geared to the business traveler who doesn’t need an actual optical hard drive or any serious storage space because they will only us it to write letters and such. I don’t want a laptop I have to buy a separate hard drive for to store photos, movies, files, etc on. I think they should have kept this in development until someone made a ultra slim hard drive to put in it. Because the MacBook Air with a massive slim hard drive of 160GB or more PLUS the Ram and Flash is has already would have truly been stunning. I’m guessing some gadget heads will buy the air out of a need to have the latest thing right out of the starting gate. I keep seeing comments around the net from people who don’t get that it only has a flash drive and RAM who think the 500GB is plenty of space for a computer, but trust me, it isn’t that kind of memory, folks.
As for the rest of it? The iTunes movie subscriptions and the improvements on the AppleTV and such? That was better than the MacBook Air, frankly. I still wish the AppleTV was also a true DVR, but this is a step in the right direction. Too bad Time Warner countered the innovation with an announcement of a crippling price hike based on bandwidth. Sometimes the entertainment and technology sector can’t win for shooting itself in the foot all the time.
I was also concerned with Apple’s recent Bad Apple legal tactics against bloggers and other fans, and had high hopes they would do something to rectify the situation a bit, but this reaction to a fan tells me I shouldn’t hold my breathe. I had a press pass to this even this year, and no way to go. Now I’m a bit glad I didn’t try harder to find the money for airfare. I would have enjoyed seeing my friends in California, but I would have been disappointed with the overall Keynote. I probably would have had fun wandering around after though – maybe next year.
Apple and Starbucks Patenting A Way To Cut In Line
In the news this week, Apple filed a patent petition that would eliminate the irritating necessity of standing in line. Once the technology is live, it is expected that Apple will begin testing it out in Starbucks stores, a good fit after the hugely successful iTunes song of the day campaign and iTunes WiFi channel in Starbucks from this year.
Basically, the technology would allow you to pre-order your cup of java or snack before heading into the store, pay for it, receive an order number and grab the item at the pick up window when you arrived – no waiting. It’s like cutting in line at a concert, without the ensuing fisticuffs.
This revolutionary development for the impatient out there, like me, will work with technology like the iPhone. It is not, however, expected to be iPhone exclusive – it should also work with your MP3 player, PDA, laptop or regular cell phone, though I do expect Apple to give its loyal iPhone customers first dibs on the “beta” version.
Apple’s application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office describes a process for placing an order and then notifying customers when an order is ready to grab at a pick-up station. One goal, the patent application notes, is to avoid an “annoying wait in a long queue if the purchaser arrives before completion of the order.”
Of course, all good ideas come with a price, and the cost of this innovation is information. Stores opting in to the program, like Starbucks, would be tracking your orders and learning your favorite things, tailoring your shopping experience to suit your needs. I’m sure marketing to consumer taste would logically follow that, unfortunately.
The patent puts Apple’s partnership with Starbucks in a new light. The technology promises to morph Apple from the business of simply selling gadgets and music and movies that can be played on those devices into an intermediary in all kinds of exchanges.
I Can’t Believe It Is Almost Christmas: Apple Gift Guide
Apple released the Apple Gift Guide this week. I can’t believe it is almost Christmas! The link below will get you free shipping on items ordered from the Gift Guide. Enjoy!
Apple Store Gift Guide – Free Shipping on all Gift Guide items.
Apple Makes An Uncharacteristically Bad Marketing Move
Apple is usually the guru of marketing. They pioneered the art of “culting” a brand, creating a lifestyle associated with their products, an “in crowd” feel, if you will. Sure, some Mac users take that too far, turning off potential converts from Windoze land, but for the most part it just engineers brand loyal customers. Apple genuinely makes what I feel is a superior product, so most of the time I can overlook their cult followers customers’ antics and even their constant marketing to a type.
This time Apple has gone too far. How, you ask? By the way they are handling the iPhone. I was already upset that they tied the phone to Cingular/AT&T. I had Cingular, but have since switched to Verizon for reasons unrelated to Apple. Even when I had Cingular, I was pissed when Cingular was gobbled up by AT&T, the Big Brother of telcos, willing to sell out its customers to Uncle Sam and Shrub at the drop of a hat. The fact that Apple willingly signed on with them really chapped my hide, and did some major damage to Apple’s image for me and many other politically aware Apple users.
Now, they have restricted sales of the iPhone in such a way as to prevent unlocking the phone for other carriers. Apple, if you’re listening, that stinks worse than year old gym socks stored in fish guts. How have they restricted unlocking? By limiting sales to two iPhones per person, and prohibiting cash sales altogether. That’s right – they won’t let you buy an iPhone for cash, for fear you will use that precious anonymity to resell the phone as an unlocked iPhone.
Apple has really gotten my goat with this one. Will it make me stop buying their products? No. But it will make me NOT buy an iPhone. Not even when they get the second generation out. That’s right – they lost two potential sales in this house, and I hope they lose a lot more iPhone sales until they wise up and lift the unlocking restriction and remove the exclusive AT&T contract requirement. A company as good as Apple doesn’t need to be associated with Big Brother Bush and his lackey’s at AT&T.
iTunes Goes Wifi
Apple Week In Review
I got a bit busy this week, as I mentioned over on Smoke Rings. That means I missed some excellent Apple news for you. By way of apology for tripping over my own deadlines this week, here is a quick recap of some of the highlights:
- MacWorld has opened registration for the the big MacWorld 2008 event and exhibition. Even better, for a limited time you can enter the code below at this site and get into the exhibit hall portion of the show for free. Yes, FREE. I wish I still lived in Santa Barbara – I’d so be there! (Use Priority Code: 08-E-VF01 to get the Exhibit Hall passes for free until October 5th.)
- This is a nice look at the man behind the beautiful designs of the iMac, iPod and iPhone, Jonathan Ive.
- The drummer from the Ramones, unable to resurrect his career legitimately, has decided to make some money by suing Apple and a host of others over use of his music. Git.
- This site tells you how to stream movies to your iPhone from iTunes. Awesome.
- Apple asks its workers to cancel holiday plans between Turkey Day and Xmas this year. The plan seems to be to release the new line of slim MacBooks,, and that coupled with new iPod options and other innovations may make this holiday season quite busy for Apple.
- Steve Jobs was subpoenaed by the SEC in the back dating case.
Have a great rest of your weekend! Can’t wait to see what Apple news and rumor abounds in the coming week.
You can also read my work today at Profy (NovelMaker, Mog vs LastFM), The Writer’s Well, and Smoke Rings. Enjoy!
The RIAA Killed Your Ringtones
RIAA has been a thug-life thrill killa for years now, but this one takes the cake. Do you know why Apple passed up their goal of user generated ring tones? That’s right, the ever evil RIAA made them. I am so sick of having to hear about and deal with the RIAA / MPAA bullshit, aren’t you? They should take a good hard look at digital media trends and get with the times already. Sadly, that probably won’t happen any time soon. Definitely read those two intelligent links on the RIAA and ringtones – you’ll learn something new.
Clearly, the record companies jumped on ringtones as a whole of stack of potential profits that could not be allowed to go without remuneration. Apple makes very little from sales of music in iTunes; the vast majority of revenues are funneled back to the record companies, which then devise how to avoid paying their talent and keep as much as they can.
I’ve ranted and raved about the RIAA so often on so many of my blogs that I feel like I’m repeating myself to write it all over again. Don’t worry, I still believe in fighting the good fight! I just don’t want to bore you with repetition. That said, you can read my previous rants thoughts on the RIAA at the following links:
How Do You Find New Music In An RIAA Thug Age?
Arrrr Ye Mateys, Do Ye Have Stolen Music?
FSF Calling Steve Jobs To Account For His Words.
MPAA Tries On RIAA Steel Toed Boots.
Prince: Marketing Genius And RIAA Defeater.
Bush’s Daughters And RIAA Copyright.
Annoying Future: RIAA Schooled By Judge.
Harvard Encouraged To Stand Up To RIAA.
End Of Boycott RIAA Month, Not End Of Fight.
Score One Digital Radio, Zero RIAA.
Television Melding With Internet.
Now They Are Dragging Out The It’s For The Children Chestnut.
The Reasons Behind The Reason.
OK. I just realized how much I’ve written about this topic. There are about 100 more RIAA posts on my various blogs. 
Just go to any of them and type in RIAA, it seems, and you’ll get a gazillion jillion hits.
iPhone Credit Coming Your Way
Did you pay full pop for your iPhone? Angry at the $200 price cut announced yesterday? Never fear, Steve Jobs is on top of it. He announced a credit for iPhone owners who paid full pop today.
The letter from Jobs on the Apple site about the credit is here.
Rumor Mill: iPhone Ringtones?
Speculation abounds that the September 5th press meeting called by Apple means iTunes Ringtones for the iPhone will be announced. What do you think?
Hax0r Hot Rod
the teen who spent 500 hours unlocking the iPhone this summer has traded the hacked device for a 350Z, three 8 GB iPhones (for the three friends who helped him) and a consulting gig. Awesome.
Honoring Blue Box History: Unlocked iPhone
By now you’ve heard that someone hacked the iPhone, unlocking it so it can be used with other carriers than AT&T/Cingular on any GSM network. Hallelujah! Many are surprised that Steve Jobs hasn’t weighed in on the issue, but I’m not. He got his start by renegade computing, after all, in a dynamic double Steve duo with Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. I would be more surprised if he came out against the hack. Let’s hope he honors his roots and keeps mum on the subject. 9 to 5 Mac has a nice synopsis of the hack and the history on their site.
More Frivolous iPhone Lawsuit Action
Seriously, people? Have you nothing better to do than file lawsuits like this one over the potential cost of the battery needing to be changed in your iPhone, sometime in the distant future? According to the source, this isn’t even the first lawsuit filed over this. There are more?? Get over yourselves people. Seriously.
Macs and the Business Market
Apple doesn’t chase after the business market the way Microsuck does. That’s been a fact for many years. The reason why is the big question. Fanboyz and Fangrrlz will spout “because Apple doesn’t need to” and other company jargon until the cows come home as a reason (which is why people sometimes see Apple users as a cult, not a user base), but is that the real reason?
You can rattle off a list of things that Apple does not do that makes its products and services a poor fit for corporate IT, and this list has not changed for years. To the extent that Apple products have actually infiltrated big businesses, it’s been through small groups of enthusiasts—the canonical example being the art department that somehow manages to get themselves Macs, despite a company-wide standardization on Windows. We’re seeing some of the same phenomenon today with the iPhone: employees purchasing iPhones because they’re cool, despite corporate IT’s prohibition against them.
Some see this as the seeds of an uprising. Here’s Gruber’s take:
Self-important IT experts will continue to insist that the iPhone “must” or “needs to” support “business software systems”, but in the meantime, their employees will be buying iPhones on their own. [...] Like many successful revolutions, this one might come from the bottom.
Ars Technica thinks that the main reason Apple doesn’t market to enterprise is that it would require an entirely different marketing strategy than the one it has so successfully employed for years. Marketing to business means selling to an IT department, and Apple markets products directly to end users. I agree – it really is that simple.
Because Apple markets to the people who will actually use the products they sell, and not to the IT geeks who would have to maintain them, Apple users really are happier with their purchase and overall experience. IT departments are shunning the iPhone, for example, because it doesn’t have the traditional clunky interface or support hard to use business software like Exchange. Well, no shit sherlock. and customers are buying them because of that – they don’t want a clunky interface, or to be tied down to hard to use corporate products, not because that hard to use product is better, but because the IT department is familiar with it and doesn’t want to change.
This is why Apple does not compete in the enterprise market in the traditional sense. This is why no other company created the iPhone. This is why most desktop PCs are pieces of crap. When you don’t focus on the user, the user gets shafted.
Truer words were never spoken. Read the rest of the Ars Technica / FatBits analysis, it’s worth it.
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Tags: Apple, Enterprise
Bluetooth iPhone Music
It seems you can play music on a bluetooth headset using your iPhone. Cool.
Two Recent Mac Purchases I LOVE
I made two recent Mac purchases, and I love them both.
The first recent purchase was Mojotones by VoodooErgonomics. I’ve been using a product called Xingtones. Xingtones has been great, I have no problem with Xingtones, but I have to say Mojotones came along and blew it away. They are both $20, so well within most budgets. They both make excellent sounding ring tones. they are both easy to use, though I have to give Mojotones the edge here for being a little more pleasant to look at and overall a slightly simpler interface.
So if they are both equally good products for creating your own ring tones? What really put Mojotones in first place? Four little words: Full Song Ring Tones. also, it is fully integrated with iTunes. Unless the song is locked by the artist, you can make any song in your iTunes folder into 30 clip on repeat or a full song. I love it! Plus, it is one click action and it works with any phone. Xingtone only works with one phone number at a time.
The other little gem I bought this week is the Griffin iMic. For under $40, I can now transfer all of my vinyl and cassettes to my MacBook. How sweet it is! It is a completely plug and play device. If you find the set up as it comes in the box is too noisy on your records and you don’t want to run them through garage band for clean up, they also sell a $20 grounding cable for your turntable that eliminates the problem. The hissing noise just sounds like an old school record to me, so I don’t need the second cable. I’m having a blast with this. It’s too bad I have to work to afford these toys, otherwise I’d be playing with the thing all weekend.
I’d write more gushing words about the iMic, but I have to go play some more old school punk records now. I’m currently on 7 Seconds. See you on the flip side!
Read eBooks On Your iPhone
Thanks to Readdle, you can now read your eBooks on your iPhone. This little application offers a full features reader for the iPhone. Not only can you read eBooks you have purchased, you can upload documents you create yourself via Readdle’s web site and read those on your iPhone as well. Readdle is a free service and comes with 50 MB of storage.
Free WiFi At Airports in August
iPhone users are getting a treat this month from Internet access provider Boingo. The company is offering free WiFi during the month of August at the following terminals:
* AZO – Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport
* BNA – Nashville International Airport,
* BWI – Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport,
* DTW – Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport,
* EWR – Newark Liberty International Airport,
* JFK – John F. Kennedy International Airport,
* LGA – LaGuardia Airport,
* MDW – Midway International Airport,
* MSP – Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport,
* OKC – Will Rogers World Airport,
* ORD – O’Hare International Airport,
* STL – Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, and
* YYZ – Toronto Pearson International Airport.
To use the service:
Users interested in trying out the service are supposed to connect to the “Concourse†SSID with their iPhone at one of the identified airports; launch Safari on the iPhone and connect to the Boingo Web page; enter your e-mail address on the special promotional page and then click on the Go button.
Tags: boingo wireless, airport wifi, airport internet, wifi internet, iphone
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