False Alarm

Well, looks like it was a false alarm. There doesn't appear to be any updates. No new iMacs. No new keyboards. Nada.

-Steve

Apple Store is Down

Could this mean there is a new product on it's way? A new keyboard perhaps? Hrmmmmm?

Or does it mean that the site is undergoing maintenance? Maybe setting up the frame work to start selling ring tones? Hrmmmmm?

Only time will tell.

-Steve

iPhone a Virgin No More

A very dedicated hacker has violated the iPhone in a most exciting way. That's right folks, the cherry has been popped. Engadget has the story, but I don't know where it originated from.

Evidently it was some simply little alpha build program, more of a proof of concept, but it was inevitable. Honestly, I think El Jobso has planed to open it up all along, but will be holding off until about a year, then make a big announcement at WWDC next, making it look like he's caving when in reality it was his plan all along. But hey, that's just me.

This is cool. I don't have an iPhone, I'm on Verizon. I want one, but would rather have a smaller one, like the much rumored "iPhone Nano."

What say you?

-Steve

New iLife and iMacs August 7th?

Another juicy tidbit is sporting around the internets that a new iLife suite and iMac are on their way in early August.

I take this with a grain of salt since I think Apple would have an event to announce this stuff. Upgrading a chip is one thing, completely changing the design of something is another.

Either way, both are due for something, and I think everyone agrees they're coming, the questions is when? You can read more about it here and here.

[Update: See the post for 08/01/2007 to see this is starting to look more and more like a reality.]

-Steve

An Apple OSX Worm? GET OUT!

Well, this one was only a matter of time. It's all over the internets that there is a proof-of-concept OSX worm that might just WREAK HAVOC ON ALL US WUSSY ELITEST MAC USERS!

Alright, not really, but be serious, this is only being reported because it's for OSX and Apple is all snobby about how secure they are. I think part of that is because they have a small market share. I think another part is because they actually are more secure.

At any rate, this looks legit, but I don't know enough about how this stuff works to try and explain it. Instead, read about it yourself here, or here.

-Steve

The Original Mac Phone

I saw this on BoingBoing and thought it was cute. Looks like Apple has some form of phone way back in the day.

No idea how it works. But here is the Dutch site that the tidbit comes from.

They've also got pics of some other interesting Apple phone projects that never got past the design phase.

-Steve

This should rev your gears...

Engadget is posting that both Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3 will be coming to an Intel Mac near you.

I own Gears and thought it was a solid game. I'm more of a tactical shooter Tom Clancy sort of guy, but Gears was a good time indeed. Never got into the whole Unreal thing, but hear that they're solid as well.

Perhaps this is an indicator of things to come? Gaming has been a soft and sore spot for Apple for quite a while now. Now that everything runs all x86 like, and the college crowd (i.e. the big time gamers) are more and more buying Macs, I guess it was an inevitability that this would have to happen eventually.

The question is, how widespread will it be on a long term basis?

-Steve

Nobody's Perfect

I saw this on Engadget today and thought I'd share. Looks like the Jesus phone has a few issues. 68 to be exact.

I'm not going to try and explain any of the bugs, since I don't have a phone and can't really elaborate on what the bug means, but I encourage anyone thinking of picking one up to check the article out.

As with most new consumer electronics devices, it pays to wait until the first revision to come out.

-Steve

The iPhone Nano?

Well, I just checked and sure enough there is a bit of breaking news. Looks like there might just be an iPhone Nano on the way for the 4th quarter. I believe it's going to be 4th quarter this calendar year, but I could be wrong.

For more on the story check out AppleInsider for the scoop.

-Steve

AFK This Week

I'm out of the office this week, which is where I do most of my posting from. If anything interesting pops up I'll throw it up, but don't expect too much to come through the pipe.

-Steve

New Additions to the iMac Family? New limbs? Opposable thumbs?

The word on the street for some time has been that the 20" and 24" iMacs would be seeing some renovations in the near future. A lot of people expected something at Macworld, but that didn't happen.

Well, now AppleInsider is saying that there will indeed be rennovations headed to the 20" and 24" iMacs. "The new models "have been described as both slimmer and sleeker than the 17-, 20- and 24-inch models they will replace." Sleeker than the current designs? Hrmm...maybe Apple does want everyone mounting them on their walls after all.

Any why not? Especialyl if you're going to give them new peripherals as well. The side that is insider said "a super-slim external keyboard for the new Macs" is on the way. "It's said to draw upon the aesthetic and feel of the low-profile keyboard which was first integrated with the company's 13-inch MacBook portables in May of 2006." Interesting indeed.

No word on the 17". Most predict its going to go the way of the mini, which is to say the way of the dodo.

-Steve

New VMWare Fusion RC1 Release

I've been enjoying the joys of Windows virtualization for about a year now. Wait...let me think about what I just said..okay, so technically virtualizing Windows isn't a joy, but it does make it so I don't need a Windows...you know what, skip it, I'm not going to crap on Windows here just because it's Microsoft and I'm an all "high and mighty" Mac user.

Fact is I work in IT. So I need to use Windows. Sometimes I work from home and I need to remote into my workstation at work. Problem is, I've got a Macbook. Had it for a year now. So, what's a fella like me going to do? Easy, run Windows virtually.

I was turned on to Parallels a few weeks before I got my Macbook last July. I picked up the software about three weeks or so after getting the Mac. Now, I'm all set. When working from home, or when I visit a site that must be (for some God forsaken reason) visited only with IE, I just boot up my virtual machine and I'm all set.

For a while Parallels was the only guy on the street. Then, the 500 lbs Gorilla of virtualization threw their hat on the pile. VMWare has been releasing betas of their Fusion virtulization software for a few months now, but last week they put out their first release candidate.

This is a big deal. Because with two competing virtulization products on the market it only bodes well for consumers. Competition breeds innovation....and cheaper prices!!!! I've been holding off upgrading to Parallels 3.0 (which has 3d support that I won't use since I don't game on my computer) to see how it will stack up against the final release of VMWare Fusion.

Anyone else there following this story and in the same boat as me?

-Steve

Apple 2.0 Article on iPhone Misses the Mark

Philip Elmer-DeWitt has an article up on the Apple 2.0 blog titled "The iPhones Secret Blindspot." Problem is, the article completely misses the mark on a lot of issues, while not really explaining why their argument is important.

The gist of the article is that the iPhone doesn't have any built in social networking features (ala the WiFi sharing of the Zune), which Elmer-DeWitt see's as Steve Jobs not understanding the end user.

Before taking some of the article to task, I'll offer two points that I thought were right on the mark. Number one, "There would be an official Apple iPhone wiki that all iPhone owners are immediately subscribed to for communal sorting-out of issues." I'll agree with this. However, a help button or something that just brings up a wiki site in Safari would address this, which can easily be a software update. Number two, "There would be official Apple iPhone support forums that are directly accessible from the phone." Again, I'll agree with this, but this as well can be fixed with a software update. Both of these points are arguable though, as any web user can look online at Apple.com or any of the plethora of other web sites out there that would give them help. They can ever use, get this, the iPhones built in web browser!

Okay, now, on to the article as a whole. Elmer-DeWitt goes over the arguments about AJAX and non-third party applications. Sure, this might be a sticking point, in the future, but since this is an legit OS running on the phone, public pressure can change this. However, developers do have a very solid point with this.

His main point though is when he mentions an article that Sweedish blogger Peter S. Magnusson wrote entitled iPhone's Missing Killer App: Social Networking. Magnusson says "Steve Jobs doesn't understand the new end user." He doesn't? Interesting. Please share more of this view. So, Magnusson does, "...Jobs does not understand the 21st century computer usage paradigm. In this century, people don’t send memos to each other. And that’s what email is - electronic memos. Today, people chat; they blog; they share multimedia like pictures, video, and audio; they flame each other on forums; they link with each other in intricate webs; they swap effortlessly between different electronic personae and avatars; they listen to internet radio; they vote on this that and the other; they argue on wiki discussion groups." What do I say to this? WEAK!

First off, people as a whole don't chat, blog, share pictures, video, audio, post on forums, link to web sites, listen to internet radio, and argue on wiki groups. This is a very broad based statement to apply against all internet users. The fact is, most people don't do this. Most people use the internet to browse web sites and send e-mail. Youth, and trendy interneters like us, do the stuff he posts about, but most people don't. The majority of people have not yet caught on to this aspect of the web.

Second off, these things simply have not proven themselves yet. No one knows how to make money off online videos. Wiki are still a mystery to most people. Most people do not know how to create a web site (nor do they find the need too). A lot of people don't know that there is even internet radio. Common users just don't utilize the web for this stuff. To the average users you've got e-mail, web, and mail AOL IM, and I don't think I'm being broad based here.

Third, the majority of the social networking stuff that's "lacking" on the iPhone can easily be accessed from Safari, the built in web browser. Post to message boards, check. Blog, check. Share pictures, check. Watch video, check (heck, YouTube is built in for crying out loud, but he doesn't mention that). It's there, why? Because it's on the same place it's always been, the internet, and the tool most people utilize to explore the internet is the web browser, period.

Elmer-DeWitt mentions that "For my money, it's more important that Jobs fix the things that keep the iPhone from replacing corporate Treos and BlackBerrys." The problem is, this isn't the target audience. The iPhone isn't a Treo, of a Blackberry, it's a Razor or Chocolate that atually delivers. It's a phone that regular people want, and it's made to give it to them, not IT departments. The Treo and BlackBerry had several generations to grow into what they are now, and to compare a consumer based product to a business based product is unfair. When Apple markets the iPhone Pro, or whatever, at the business market, go ahead and compare them, but for now you should be comparing this against the Sidekick, Cholocate, and plethora of Nokia media phones out there.

Social Networking is in its infancy, and to make a product centered around one is risky, too risky for even Apple. It's probably right on the money that this will be how people use the net soon. And by this I mean social networking based web usage, but for now that's simply not the case. You've got a whole generation of people out there between 5 and 20 who know the internet as Facebook and Myspace. When those people are in middle management a product like what Magnusson describes will be right on the money. But for now, it's just too soon for that.

-Steve

I touched one...

A co-worker picked one up yesterday. He just went into an Apple store and they had them in stock.

I played with it a bit this morning. I'll post some pictures, video, and a summary of my experience a bit later.

-Steve

The Universe Just Got A Little Bit Smaller

Engadget is reporting that Universal has refused to renew their contract with Apple. What does this mean? Potentially all Universal media, music, movies, and TV, could be yanked from iTunes in the not too distant future.

But why? Why stop doing business with the 3rd largest retailer for music? Simple, greed. On both sides of the isle.

Universal, like all media companies, thinks consumers are criminals by default. They think that the consumer will jump at every chance to pirate or do something illegal with something they own, be it music, movies, carpeting, dairy products, whatever. So, Universal is a staunch advocate of DRM. Oh yeah, they also think that every portable media player manufacturer should give them money (or as they call them, royalties) to offset their "theoretical" losses to piracy that these same devices are "helping support." I know, it doesn't make any sense to me either.

Apple, unlike most software companies, is big enough to be able to go toe to toe with Universal. So they do. Universal wants songs to cost more, Apple says no. Apple doens't want to fork over money from it's iPhone sales. Universal wants them to. Apple knows it's got a strong card to play here because, frankly, no one else sells music, TV, and movies online as well as Apple does, and Universal will miss out on a good deal of income if they don't renew.

Universal really likes DRM though. And after EMI went DRM free, and their sales, at least for the time being, are up, that just grinds Universal until they get all hot and bothered. Problem is, who wins? I think Apple is pushing for Universal to go DRM free with their music. Universal says no.

Hopefully, everyone comes back to the sandbox with their toys and figures this out.

-Steve

How Many Sold?

Global Equities Research claims that 525,000 iPhones were sold through Sunday.

That's a TON of product to move in a 3 day span, really 2.5 if you cut most of Friday out.

It appears as though Apple made enough iPhones to satisfy most of the initial rush. Of the three malls around Atlanta that have Apple stores, 2 of them still show iPhones available prior to 9 A.M. this morning. I assume that will change as the day goes on.

I have one co-worder who ordered one, but he may try to see if he can pick one up from an Apple store on his way home today.

I'll let you know if I get any hands on time with it.

Now that the whole iPhone launch is over, we can turn out heads to more important things on the horizon, like OS 10.5.

-Steve