The Jesus Phone

When Apple Went Wrong

MSNBC has an AP story about Apple products that went "wrong." Now, as a recent convert over to all things Apple I'm well aware of a few things they've flopped on. However, this article was, how you say, a bit underwhelming. I mean, they really had to stretch a bit here.

The list of flops are as follows:

1. The iTunes Phone (aka ROKR), 2005
2. The one button mouse (1983)
3. The Cube (2000)
4. The Newton (1993)
5. The iMac (1998)
6. EWorld (1994)

Now, I'll give them 3, 4, and 6. However, I've got a problem with 1, 2, and 5.

First of all, the iTunes phone wasn't even an Apple product really. It was from Motorola, and they just licensed being able to use iTunes on the phone. I would hardly call this an Apple flop. The phone sold well, it was just not what people wanted, so, they discontinued it.

Second, the one button mouse is not a flop. If it was a flop it wouldn't be in existence anymore. I hardly call something that has been around 15 years a flop. Sure, you may not like it, but that's your problem. If you want two buttons, stay with Windows.

Third, the iMac? WTF? Their argument for this one is that it's no longer "exciting." Give me a break. It's their consumer desktop, no different than a Dell. Actually, it's closer to a Dell than ever before, the only real difference is case design and OS.

Anyway, give the article a look yourself.

-Steve

Will the iPhone fail?

David Platt on his Shockbusters blog wrote a pretty bang up article about why the iPhone will fail. He makes some good points but fails to factor in one thing...a newer smaller phone which removes most, if not all, his arguments from being valid.

Honestly, I was surprised there weren't two phone to begin with. I thought there'd be a MacPhone and MacPhone Pro when they made their big annoucement. The Pro being the current iteration of the iPhone.

Anyway, one thing a lot of people are overlooking as a failure point for the iPhone is something not related to Apple at all. That failure point? AT&T.

A bit of disclosure here, I worked for, at the time, AT&T Wireless for about 18 months while I was in college. For the most part, it was a pretty solid experience. Sure, there were things I didn't like, but there were also a lot of things I did like working there.

When I first started working at AT&T Wireless we were still on the TDMA standard. This was the 2G standard that most of America used. Then, the transition to GSM came. I had a GSM Ericson phone and liked it. I then got a Nokia GSM phone and liked it even more. However, this was back in 2002-2004, before using my phone for data was still something new, and as far as the US market went underdeveloped.

However, things are different now, and phone really push the internet thing, none moreso than the iPhone. The problem is, what happens when this service sucks? In the case for AT&T, they may have been one of the first to push GSM mainframe, but they have floundered when it's come to data speeds.

The fact is the CDMA networks are much better than the GSM networks when it comes to data transmission. In addition, GSM voice and phone quality can arguably be considered more reliable, regardless of what commercials say. A phone is worthless if the service doesn't work for it. THat's what I'm worried about for the iPhone.

AT&T is in a state of flux and catch up. Their data network is slow, and their call quality and customer service quality is in the rear end of the market. However, they now have the hottest product in the market. Anyone should be able to see this catch-22.

What happens if more people come over, specifically for the iPhone, and AT&T can't give them a good experience? Well, for one they're stuck with an expensive device they can't use. They try to leave they get nailed with a 175 dollar ETF. I mean, in the worst case they could be out like 2 grand after a two year contract.

What if the end result of this is that Apple has the best phone in the market that no one wants to use? I think this is a real possibility. If this goes bad, and AT&T get stigmatized, no one will come back to them. A 5 year exclusive contract is worthless if everyone leaves after 2 years and doesn't come back.

I hope Apple has an out in that deal in case a worst case scenario happens. However, the data network is one of the reasons Apple pushed to have the WiFi aspect of the phone pushed so hard. Fact is, they'd almost rather you forget you're even using AT&T to get data, and try to use WiFi as much as possible. WiFi is fast, AT&T's data speed isn't.

I'm pretty sure this won't happen, but it is a possibility. AT&T is working on getting their data network to speed up, but who knows how that will end up.

-Steve

iTunes 7.3 this Friday?

By now everyone knows that the iPhone comes out Friday. However, one thing you may not know is that the iPhone does all of its sync up magic through iTunes...which is a good thing or bad thing, depending on who you talk to.

Something else that many people don't know is that there is a new version of iTunes on the horizon, iTunes 7.3. It is expected to come out sometime Thursday or Friday in anticipation of the iPhone release.

The iPhone Tech Specs page at Apple.com has the dilly:

Mac System Requirements
-Mac computer with USB 2.0 port
- Mac OS X v10.4 or later
-iTunes 7.3 or later

I don't expect any new features to hit the fan with this release, as the last two versions were to support new products as well (iTV and iTunes Plus). However, it's good to see them moving along the software, and who knows, maybe one trick or so will make it in.

-Steve

iPhone Reviews

Well, the reviews are all starting to come in from legit media outfits.

Here are a few of them:

NEWSWEEK, Steve Levy

USA Today, Edward Baig

New York Times, David Pogue

Overall, the handset seems to be solid...very solid. However, the service seems to be the weak point. I'll have more on that tomorrow.

-Steve

Apple, From Day One To iPhone Day

MacUser posted an interesting link to a website that has a FREAKING HUGE jpeg of every product Apple ever created. It starts with the Apple I (made in a wooden box nonetheless) and ends with the iPhone.

There is a seperate section at the bottom with a list of accessories as well, but as with the Lanthanide and Actinide series of the periodic table, no one really pays attention to them,

Anyway, I thought it was worth a look for those who dig old school product design like I do.

-Steve

First iPhone Camper in NYC

Once again, from AppleInsider. Those guys just have everything today don't they?

-Steve

Rest Easy My Son, You Can Open It Yourself

The iPhone onslaught continues. It has been confirmed that you can unbox and activate your iPhone in the comfort of your own home.

I'm sure this has calmed the fears of many an Apple zealot who must archive with pictures every step of the unboxing process of all Apple products.

Read the blurb on AppleInsider here.

-Steve

iPhone Rate Plans Released

The iPhone news continues. AT&T has offically released the rate plans for the iPhone, and they don't look too bad.

This comes from AppleInsider: "All iPhone monthly service plans are available for individuals and families and are based on a new two-year service agreement with AT&T. Individual plans are priced at $59.99 for 450 minutes, $79.99 for 900 minutes and $99.99 for 1,350 minutes. All plans include unlimited data (email and web), Visual Voicemail, 200 SMS text messages, roll over minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile and a one-time activation fee of $36. Family plans are also available."

That doesn't sound too bad to me. I'm not a smart phone users myself...I just need something to make phone calls and play Sim City on, but those rate plans seem easy enough for me.

It looks like AT&T is really going to use the iPhone to push subscriber growth, instead of using it as a cash cow and gouge users with high data rate plans that were required for activation. Honestly, it seems like a smart move. Subscriber growth is pretty stagnant now in the new user realm, by now everyone who wants a cell phone has one. So, it AT&T can use this now to get people attached to their brand with the "hot new phone," it only spells good things for them in the long term.

-Steve

OS 10.5 Leopard Videos!!!111!!!

Some blog out there has NO LESS than 15 demo videos for Leopard. You can get to the site by clicking here.

The videos, which range from 22 seconds to over four minutes, cover a multitude of topics. Whomever made these, they went though some good amounts of work to get them. Hopefully they didn't just get themselves a nice law suit to boot.

The topics covered (and length):

Cover Flow (0:44)
Screen Sharing (0:22)
Stacks (1:14)
Speech (4:39)
Preview and PDF's (1:30)
Printing (2:14)
Quick Look (0:40)
Parental Controls (1:37)
Front Row 2 (1:21)
Parental Controls 2 (4:10)
Address Book (1:59)
Safari 3 (1:26)
New Screen Savers (1:03)
Spaces (0:34)
Terminal (0:47)

This is around 25 minutes of video content to feast your eyes on. Nothing HUGE here, just more in depth video of the stuff Steve showed off at WWDC (both times). An interesting note, and something I noticed was as WWDC 06 but not WWDC 07, was the voices thing. At WWDC 06 we saw Steve show off how the new robot voices would work. Now it appears as only one of those voices is going to make it into the final cut. Bummer.

-Steve

TIME Magazine article about the iPhone

I warned you, I told you a ton of this stuff was coming. Sure enough, TIME.COM has an article today about the iPhone.

Click here to check it out.

Honestly, save yourself the time. I didn't find the article to have anything substantial, and actually thought it was pretty dumbed down. They try, and fail, to talk about how the iPhone will spur innovation in smart phone design. Buy mostly they just talk around the issue with snide comments here and there about poor interoperability of handsets between cell networks.

-STeve

Leopart Roadmap Revealed...I tell you what that means

Someone's talking...and that someone is probably dead now. You see, that's how Mr. Jobs works. He trusts you. He trusts you to keep a secret. And when you don't...well, you're disposed of. Because once you're outside of the circle you're as good as dead.

Anyway, the Leopard road map has been revealed, or at least thats what some people thing. What's a road map? A road map is a time line, so to speak, that outlines when certain things are going to happen.

For most people nothing about a road map means anything to them, nor is any of it important with the exception of one thing, a release date. In this case the "leaked road map" doesn't have one. Instead it goes over time frames for testing, the ceasing of adding additional features, testing windows for updated betas, and a tentative cut off date for the Gold master. In other words, it doesn't have anything that someone couldn't estimate (probably pretty accurately at this point) based on standard software release guidelines.

Nonetheless, here is a link to the article on TUAW. However, you can find plenty else about it in other places as well.

-Steve

Safari Update 3.0.2

Apple really has been chugging along since releasing Apple Safari 3.0 Beta at WWDC. If Apple Update hasn't told you already, Apple released 3.0.2 om Friday to fix a few bugs on the Windows and OSX side.

Changes in Safari 3.0.2 for Windows beta:
- Latest security updates
- Improved stability
- Fixes for text display, non-English systems, and start-up times

Changes in Safari 3.0.2 for Mac OS X beta:
-Latest security updates
-Improved stability
-Improved WebKit support for Mail, iChat and Dashboard

While Apple still has a long way to go with Safari, it's good to see them on the ball like this. I'm not giving up using Firefox just yet (although the Mac version isn't as good as the Windows one IMO), but if they [Apple] stay on top of things that might change.

-STeve

iPhone News

While I'm sure a TON of this stuff will trickle in on a day-by-day basis, AppleInsider has a little article up about some of the hubaloo going down at AT&T stores.

You can read it by clicking here.

I really get the sense AT&T is pushing for the iPhone to be their flagship piece of hardware. Something that brings in people that otherwise wouldn't think of signing up with AT&T.

I've got news for them...AT&T that is. You'd better get your butts in gear when it comes to customer service. Because a person who drops six hundred dollars on a phone isn't going to have the patience for a numbskull in customer service who blames them for billing plan and rate plan issues.

Just a tip.

-Steve

iPod Mini Skirt?

I caught this on Crave. What will they think of next?

-Steve

Gizmodo Picture

DIY Fix Broken iPod With A Business Card

I caught this on Gizmodo. Seems as though you can fix some iPods with an ordinary business card.

Click here for the DIY site with instructions.

-Steve

iPhone Guided Tour

I've read on numerous sites that Apple has published a video tutorial for the iPhone. I checked the site and sure enough, there it is.

Seems pretty neat. Might help a few people too.

I personally won't be getting one.

For one, I'm on Verizon.

Two, I don't need a smart phone. Something that can play Sim City, iTunes, and make calls is enough for me.

Three, I don't like that I'd have to get a data plan for something that has built in WiFi. Seems asinine to me and just SCREAMS corporate entrapment. Seriously, why would I need a data plan, WiFi is everywhere in Atlanta.

Anyway, it certainly does look sexy, even if I'm not getting it. Maybe when the iPhone Nano comes out I'll pick that up. My contract with Verizon should be up by then anyway.

-Steve

Wii's public reception almost "Apple iPod-like"

Being the tech savvy fellow that I am, I read both sides of the isle, that is the Mac and PC isle. And it's a good thing I do because I found this cute article on PCWorld.com that has a brief mention of Apple in it.

The article in and of itself is about the Nintendo Wii, of which I'm a big fan and own one. At the end of it I was surprised to fine a cute little comment about Apple. It goes something like this:

"The Wii is penetrating our culture, but few people are talking about the PS3. Look at all the stories about the Wii injuries, which seem to have done nothing to hurt the console's appeal. And the game system is even becoming synonymous with "easy." I'm tempted to call the Wii's public reception almost "Apple iPod-like." We all know Apple's success in launching new brands and product lines. I'd put Nintendo up there, too. Just look at its track record: GameBoy, GameBoy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite."

Now, I'm not going to go into specifics about all of the products that Nintendo released that weren't successes (GameCube, Virtual Boy, PowerGlove to name a few), but I can grasp the sentiment of the writer.

Either way, it was nice.

-Steve

Tip for Switchers #1: How to Zip a file in OSX

I'm a switcher from Windows XP. I've used Windows for over a decade. Thus, I've gotten used to how things work there. As tech and computer savvy as I am, OSX is still a new OS for me, and although I know it has everything Windows does (for the most part), a lot of that is done a bit differently.

For example, compressing (or zipping) a file is done similar, but with a different name. In Windows XP, you right click, and then sent to a compressed folder. When you right click in OSX that option doesn't pop up....verbatim. Instead, there is something that says "Create Archive."

Now, I had no idea what that meant. I just wanted to zip a file, not create an archive. So, as I do for everything else, I went to the Macworld forums, which is an amazing resource for switchers such as myself, and asked. Sure enough, "Create an Archive" is the same thing as sending something to a compressed folder.

So, there you go, your switchers tip #1.

-Steve

iPhone will play YouTube's videos using the H.264 codec

I thought this was interesting. Sladshot has a link to a story that says that "the iPhone will play YouTube's videos using the H.264 codec(as will the AppleTV after an upgrade) for higher quality."

I thought that the commercials made it look like the videos were in better quality than what I get on my computer or, God forbid, my Wii. Turns out I'm right.

I think this is pretty neat. I'm considering getting an Apple TV sometime over the sumer (purely for home theater/AV reasons) and do tend to watch a lot of YouTube. So, knowing this makes me more confident in my impending purchase.

What do I watch on YouTube you ask? Well, any time I need to relax or fall asleep "Joy of Painting" episodes with Bob Ross make a great sleeping pill

-Steve

6 Month Bug List Charty

I saw this on Engadget today. Jeff "Security Guy" Jones, some guy who works for Microsoft, made a blog post showing a chart that displays the "vulnerabilities found" (not actually exploited) in the first six months of releases of several OSes, and mow many of said vulnerabilities were fixed.

From the looks of the chart both Windows XP and Vista have Mac OS 10.4 beat. I'm not sure of the methodology of the chart, or what is defined as a "vulnerability found," but it's interesting nonetheless.

Here's the chart:

I don't know what OS is RHEL4WS Full, but it certainly looks like it's full of swiss cheese. My guess, some sort of Linux distro. At any rate, I'd be interested to see how these "vulnerabilities" are actually defined, as in what are the result of a crappy browser, and which are just network intrusion things and whatnot. You know, stuff I really don't know anything a

I'm sure some Machead will counter act the report and when I see something I'll post it up.

-Steve

My Little Apple Blog

About a year ago I bought my first Apple computer. It's a Macbook. It's very nice. I love it. Well, I don't love it...I mean, love is a very strong word, something that should not be attached to inanimate objects such as notebook computers. At any rate, I think you get my point.

Since that time I've become a bit of a Mac head, or as Leander Kahney puts it, a member of the Cult of Mac.

I think Apple is a pretty neat company, and I enjoy using their products. I find myself scouring the internet looking for little tidbits of into on iPods, laptops, desktops, OSX, iPhone, whatever. It's fun, and I've decided that when I find something I think is interesting (including some great parodys) I want to share them.

So I set up this blog. Originally I wanted to use the name My Apple Blog, but www.myappleblog.blogspot.com is taken...and by the looks of it whomever has that blog is doing a real bang up job.

I settled for My Little Apple Blog instead. So that's what it is, little. I've tried blogging before, lets hope this time things turn out a bit better.