iPhone Stress Tests

Thank god for the intertubes. I mean where else can you go for this kind of stuff. PCWorld performed all sorts of unthinkable things to a $600 device so you don't have to.

iPhone is for sale online

Apple Store - however, expect to wait up until a month before you get it. Now waiting in line 6 hours doesn't seem so crazy now, does it?

I've Got My iPhone!

Yep, it matches the hype. After 6 hours in line, it took less than 15 minutes once 6pm hit and the doors opened.

Words cannot adequatly describe how awesome this thing is. The screen is beautiful, the multi-touch interface is extremely easy and intuitive. The iPod is incredible, the internet is incredible and the phone is incredible. The AT&T network could certainly be faster, but was fine for most tasks except YouTube and the web. But it's faster than you might think.

The virtual keyboard is really a snap. I'm having no problem typing things. There's an occasional fat-fingering of a letter, but it's simple enough to correct or accept the iPhone's spelling suggestion. I've even started typing with two thumbs (blackberry style). I need some more practice for that, but it won't be too long before I master it.

My only issue so far is the headphone jack is a bit deeper than most, and my tape adapter won't work with it. I'm sure someone will come up with an extension, but I really don't plan on using it too much in the car anyway.

This thing is sweet.

Activation was a breeze and took about 2 minutes. They've really thought of everything. Call quality is great, sms is great and email is super easy. If you have your Mac setup with address book and iCal (which I have automatically update from Entourage) and Mail, it just zips everything over. You don't really have to do anything. I was able to get my OneSpring Exchange email with no problem.

The wi-fi is very nice. When the iPhone detects an available wi-fi connection, it asks if you want to connect. If the network is secured, you have the option to enter the password. If the network name is not broadcast, you can set it up to connect. All very simple.

Yep, I'm a dork In Line

Number 35 or so in line at the Apple Store Perimeter Mall in Atlanta, GA. Pretty sure they'll have one when I get into the store in 6 hours.

:-)

Lines Already Beginning to Form

Well, we're about 10 hours away from the moment. I'm heading to the Atlanta Buckhead store today around 12 or so. Hopefully that won't be too late. I want an iPhone, but I really don't want to wait 10 hours in line for it. :-)

A Little Over 1 Day And Counting

Can't you just feel the anticipation in the air? No, wait - that's Atlanta air pollution.

iPhone goes on sale TOMORROW at 6pm. Apple has created a very handy iPhone availablity finder to help locate your iPhone.

It looks like we're going to be adventursome and try the Apple store tomorrow, so it should be a geektastic time for all!

iPhone

Not that this hasn't been covered in 1000 other places but here's the latest....

• iPhone activation is through iTunes, so no need to wait to have it activated and set up in the store. Should significantly impact lines on Friday for the positive


• Talk/Data plans are actually affordable - starts at $59.


• Official reviews are out. iPhone excellent and unparalleled in some areas, sucks in others (especially AT&T's s-l-o-w network). The virtual keyboard seems to require some getting used to, but once you do it's fine. I'll of course post my own review after I get mine setup on Friday. :-)


• Even Vegas is getting involved....bet on various aspects of the iPhone.


• iPod functionality won't work without activation & two year AT&T committment.

iPhone Central

Just in case you weren't getting enough iPhone news, the good folks over at MacWorld have an iPhone-dedicated blog, iPhone Central.

Apple Kicks Amazon's A$$

Apple is now the third largest music retailer after surpassing Amazon.com. Now on to the top two....Best Buy (#2) and Wal*Mart (#1).

Safari Beta 3.0.2 Available

If you're having/had troubles with the Safari Beta, version 3.0.2 is out.

iPhone News Summary

• There's an awesome 25-minute guided tour online.


• The iPhone web site has been redesigned.


• Will be sold online via Apple Store.


• 4 foot iPhone displays have invaded Apple and AT&T stores. Even more pictures.


• Contract cancellation fee will be $175. (why would you cancel??!!)


• When the store runs out of iPhones 1 person before you in line, you can order for mail delivery, with delivery in 3-5 days after launch; assuming you didn't beat up the guy who took the last one and are now in jail.


• 200 field technicians have been secretly testing the iPhone and looking for technical glitches for more than 10 weeks. They say it's ready for prime time.


• iPhone reads Word, Excel and PDF Files.


• 2000 temps will be hired for iPhone launch.


• Too lazy or important to wait in line yourself? Pay someone else to do it.


• Apple releases Safari Beta 3.0.2 for Mac...oops, wait....this isn't iPhone news...

The iPhone Manhandled

Did the iPhone shrink?

New iPhone Specs

Apple announced today the battery life on the iPhone is better than expected - 8 hours of talk time versus 5 hours. The iPhone will also sport an optical-grade glass screen instead of plastic. Both address two of the most common concerns - battery life and scratchability. The news sent Apple's stock soaring today. The only lingering (major) concern is the lack of tactile keyboard.

We'll all know soon. Of course at this point the phone can really never live up to the hype, but if it does - wow.

Get Ready To Camp Out

If you want to be "cool" like me, you'll want to make sure your sleeping bag, beer and munchies are ready for the evening of the 28th / day of the 29th. There will be limited availability for the iPhone in the beginning.

Should you de-frag your Mac?

No.

Apple Doesn't Lie

One of Apple's ads in the UK was recently challenged for truth in advertising. The commercial was "Restarting" where Apple claims Macs don't get viruses and don't crash. The British Advertising Standards team agreed with the ads.

New Paul McCartney iPod/iTunes Ad

Check out Apple's new iPod ad - Paul's Dance Tonight. Very cool.

Remove iTunes Plus Watermarks

If you're an uber paranoid type and have to remove the watermarking on iTunes Plus songs, there is a way to do it. You have to do it song by song, but paranoid people won't mind that.

Safari 3.0 Day Two

Okay - here are the problems I've run into so far on the Mac Safari 3.0:

Yahoo Messenger - Conversations reset to the top after every entry. EXTREMELY annoying. Why would Safari affect Yahoo you ask? Well, in addition to the Safari application, Apple updates the entire WebKit architecture which other programs like Yahoo Messenger and Dashboard Widgets rely on.

Blogger - While it works MUCH better than the previous version of Safari, I'm not able to add images to this blog's posts. Back to using Firefox for blog posts.

Others are having more severe issues.

No SDK = No Killer Apps?

Gizmodo makes a case for how Apple is limiting the iPhone potential by not having a true software development kit for the iPhone. At the Keynote yesterday Steve said that no SDK was needed - developers just need to use the built-in Safari browser to deliver distributed apps. The software lives on the web server, not on the phone. However, what is not clear is the availability of things like the built-in address book and other native applications.

I think Gizmodo has very good point and something Steve & Co. should pay very close attention to. Feels like one of those "we won't license the hardware" decisions from 30 years ago. And we all know how that decision played out.

Update: The Motley Fool weighs in with their opinion.

Safari on PC

Wow. If you think the new Safari is fast on the Mac, wait until you see it on the PC! It seems even faster, and blows IE 7 out of the water.

WWDC Announcements

Nothing too earth-shattering today at the Stevenote during the Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC), but cool nonetheless. Here's the roundup:

Leopard - New Desktop, Stacks, New Finder (with Coverflow!) and QuickView were the "secret features" Steve alluded to at Macworld in January. Add this to Spaces, Time Machine, iChat and more, and Leopard will be one kick-ass system. Check out the demos.

Safari - Public beta of version 3.0 was released today. The shocker that no one predicted - Safari's available on Windows now. I'm using 3.0 to type this, and it certainly works faster and better than the old. I used to have to post in Firefox because Safari didn't play nicely with Blogger. I'll be loading it up on my Windows XP virtual machine over in Parallels shortly. Download it.

Games - EA announced they were coming back to the Mac. I didn't even know they left. Id Games showed some incredibly detailed gaming on the Mac as well.

iPhone - Steve revealed that the iPhone will go on sale at 6pm on 29 June. Can't wait.

Apple.com - Not sure if this was discussed during the Keynote, but Apple.com has a new look & feel which is very nice. As a usability professional I especially like the sliders at the top of the pages to select products & services. Nice touch.

Fun? Hack?

This from Macenstein just had me rolling on the floor:

Have you ever woken up after a long weekend of partying and you couldn’t remember what day it was? Well, how about whether Jesus died or not? If you’re like me, this has happened more times than you’d care to remember...

Man, if that weren't ever true. If you indeed need to know what era it is, just follow these simple steps.

My New MacBook Pro On The Way

I broke down (like it was hard) and ordered the new 15" MacBook Pro. I recently changed jobs and am doing the independent contracting thing for an awesome Applications Definition company- OneSpring. Am doing a lot of interactive work and need a workhorse. My 1st gen MacBook has actually surprised me and has been an awesome little machine. I just need more screen real estate and processing horsepower.

Will provide a full review mid-late next week after it arrives.

New MacBook Pros

These are being covered everywhere, but here's the highlights:

New 15" and 17" MacBook Pros

LED-backlit screens (15" only): lower power consumption=longer batter life. Oh yeah, and it's greener.

Up to 4GB of RAM (previous model was 3GB)

Intel Santa Rosa architecture - 800MHz bus (compared to 667 before)

17" doesn't get the LED screen, but you can get high-res (1080p) screen for $100 more.

Longer battery life - 30 minutes to an hour.

802.11n Wireless (previous cost extra to activate)

Screaming video card - nVidia GeForce 8600M GT

Price stays the same - starting at $1999.

Plus everything else the previous version had - Bluetooth, Firewire 400 & 800, etc.


Can't wait to get mine soon!

It Was 20 30 Years Ago Today

The Apple ][ computer was launched 30 years ago. I'm feeling really old now. But for the record, I was 6 at the time.

It's always interesting to see what the technology was 30 years ago. Get these specs:

Price: $1298 (close to the top-end MacBook or mid-range iMac today)
Processor: 1 MHz MOS processor (minimum on a Mac nowadays is 1.83 GHz)
RAM: 4 KB of RAM - that "K", not "M" (minimum today is 1GB)
Storage: Programs were loaded and stored on the built-in audio cassette interface
Upgrades: A $2638 version was available that had 48 K of RAM.

The Apple II hooked up to a monitor or TV set via a composite video cable, and displayed color for the first time.

OpenOffice Come to Mac OS X - Alpha

It's an alpha version, so if you're looking for some really stable and bug-free software, look elsewhere. My favorite feature currently missing is the ability to print. From an office suite. Get it? :-)

OpenOffice is the open-source office suite that is fully compatible with MS Office. It's available in a stable version for Windows, and in Mac OS X under X11, but this is the first version that you don't have to be an ubergeek to install.

iTunes Plus - Worth The Plus?

http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifiTunes Plus offers songs at twice the bit rate (256 vs. 128) and sans DRM. The lack of DRM to me provides the value of the 30 extra cents - but does the bit rate?

According to two independent sources, probably not.

The average person can't tell the difference between the two. My ears might be a bit better tuned that the average person, but I don't hear much of a difference either. But storage space being dirt cheap, why not have the higher quality?

29 June It Is

Boy, when Steve says "late June", he means it. You can't get any later than 29 June (for a weekday). New ads released tonight on TV and on the web proclaim 29 June.

Check out the ads - very cool. Man, I can't WAIT!

Complete Mobile Phone Access

Accessing your mobile phone from your Mac is a frustrating exercise at best. Most of the time all you can do is do some limited syncing of contacts.

Fonelink changes that by giving you full access to your mobile phone. Well, as long as it's supported. Mine isn't, so I couldn't test this for you. VersionTracker gives the software 5 stars, so it can't be that bad.

2010 from 1988

An incredibly boring and dry prediction on what 2010 will bring from Apple - made from 1988.

DRM-Free Music Identifies Purchaser

New iTunes Plus music shows purchaser details. So F---king what. Don't steal music. Jerk.