iTunes Movie Rentals - A Review

So I was in Jersey City, NJ this week working with E*TRADE and had an opportunity and reason to try out the new iTunes Movie Rentals. I am impressed. I rented "Superbad", which is a frickin' hilarious movie. I rented it on iTunes and seamlessly moved it to my iPhone to enjoy on the flight back home. Awesome. It took all of 12 minutes to download the movie. It took all of 2 minutes to move it to my iPhone. Awesome.

I also just hooked up my new Apple TV. The new software update to bring computer-less movie rentals to the Apple TV has not yet been released, but I'm still impressed. It is syncing with my iTunes library right now, but so far I've enjoyed a few music videos and TV shows that I previously downloaded from iTunes. Awesome.

Did I say awesome? I'm extremely happy with both the rentals and the Apple TV.

Update I'm now listening to my music collection on my TV and watching my iPhotos stream across - AWESOME. This is cool. You need to get one. Now.

Best. Quarter. Ever.

Apple posted revenue of $9.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.58 billion for the first quarter of 2008 (in Apple's financial reporting, that ended 29 December.). Compare this with revenue of $7.1 billion and net quarterly profit of $1 billion.

- 2,319,000 Macs shipped (44% unit growth and 47% revenue growth)
- 22,121,000 iPods shipped (5% unit growth and 17% revenue growth)
- 2,315,000 iPhone sales

And how does the stock market react? Apple stock plunges around 15%. Huh? I don't get it. This is on Apple's second quarter guidance that revenue and sales may slow a bit due to uncertainties with the economy. That I understand - but they said slowing, not decreasing. With the growth and profits Apple is seeing, they'll still have one heck of a quarter. And 45% of the quarter's sales were International. Other economies aren't going into the shitter like America's.

In the interest of full disclosure I am an extremely(!) minor Apple stock holder. And I'm not going to over react and sell them. Yet.

Pole Position for your iPod

Those of a certain age will fondly remember the arcade classic Pole Position. Race your car around the track and enjoy the scenery. My personal favorite was the sit down version.

Well, relive your glory days on your iPod. Download it today!



(via TUAW)

iPod Touch Fee Legally Required?

Engadget has a piece that the iPod upgrade fee is possibly due to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Hooey. Hooey if it's due to some crap-ass accounting act (thank you very much Enron and Worldcom). This world's out of order. YOU'RE out of order (what movie?) Hooey. Just hooey.

Early Adopters Screwed Again?

Criticized by Way2Poppy immediately following the Keynote, other Apple fans are also feeling pissy about Time Capsule.

Be careful, Apple. Treat your best fans best. Unfortunately, this is becoming a trend.

Ouch! LOL!

(via Digg)

Apple TV On The Way

Okay - I've been wanting Apple TV for a while, but it was one of those things that I didn't really NEED. But now that there are rentals available - I need it. I don't watch that many movies - but when I do it's spare of the moment. So Netflix and Blockbuster are out. Apple TV will give me what I want. It should be here in the next few days - I'll update my experience in the future.

Is Apple Screwing With Us Again?

For iPod Touch users, the keynote on Tuesday was bittersweet. On one hand, they can now get the same apps as the iPhone - Mail, Stocks, Weather, Maps, and Notes. On the other hand, it costs them $20.

This is pretty crappy in my opinion. I will say I am not an iPod Touch user, but I did get caught in the iPhone price reduction fiasco. I personally even didn't care too much about that even - the cost of early adoption, etc. But this is a disturbing trend. It would be one thing if the cost of the iPod Touch went up $20 to accommodate the new features, but that's not the case. So early adopters of the Touch now pay $20 more than what someone who buys a brand new iPod Touch.

I'm not saying that Apple isn't deserving of the $20. It costs money to develop software, host it, sync it, etc. But at least make it fair. Or logical even.

Mac Uses Have a Superiority Complex

Mac users are more liberal, less modest, and more assured of their own superiority than the population at large. True, but so what?

Via Engadget

If Only I Had the Resources to Pull This Off

Very good. A couple quick thinkers mocked up a vinyl and fleece manila envelope as the perfect case for the Macbook Air. You had to see it coming, but this was fast! Only $29.95 (hey, it's not a real envelope - these are handmade!)

(via Engagdet)

MacBook Air is the Perfect Machine

You're Dumb. And I agree.

iTunes Rental Details

Engadget has put together a handy and comprehensive chart of what is possible with the new iTunes Rental service. Ya just gotta love DRM!

In Case You Missed the Keynote

Impressions of Macworld Keynote '08

Well, it's that time of year again. Time Capsule is cool if you don't already have a base station. But they need to just allow the same functionality if you have the "standard" Airport Extreme with an external drive. I want wireless backups, but I don't want to plunk down $500 for it. I've already got the Airport Extreme and a hard drive hooked up, they need to just let me use it that way.

The MacBook Air is awesome. Some interesting things left out of the Keynote is that the battery is iPod/iPhone-esque - not user removable. Personally not a big issue, but some will be frustrated with the inability to swap batteries. The Sony that he kept comparing things to may be thicker, but it also has a built-in optical drive, larger hard drive and the ability to have the solid state drive and hard drive at the same time. But the Air certainly has the sex appeal. It's not for everyone but it fits in nicely to the product line - MacBook for home, MacBook Air for highly mobile executives who really just need the basics - email, web browsing, office apps (esp. presentations) and MacBook Pro for those needing video and image editing, content creation, etc.

iTunes rentals is awesome. I want an Apple TV now. We use the cable on demand movie rentals all the time which is great, but the selection is very limited. NetFlix is great, but we're too spare-of-the-moment movie renters - Netflix/Blockbuster require too much planning and thought. Having 1000's of movies available at a touch is awesome. I will likely buy an Apple TV.

iPhone update is pretty slick. Makes me really excited about 3rd party apps for the phone. The "current location" functionality is pretty slick although here at home it locates me in the ballpark but not very close. But if you were trying to find something or you were lost, it will be close enough to work.

Keynote - The game.

This is very funny and clever. Play a Pac Man-like game where you're Steve and you have to collect your stuff before the Keynote address. But don't run into anyone and reveal your secrets!

SteveNote Expo

Microsoft - The Board Game

Microsoft - the board game.

Warning: iPods Can Cause Death

C'mon. iPods don't kill people. People kill people. In an effort to reduce the deaths from dumbasses too busy listening to their iPods and paying attention to other things while crossing the road, they ran a contest for a campaign. This is the outcome. Extremely clever ad I must say.

via Engadget

New Macs

Apple surprised everyone by announcing two updated products ahead of next week's Macworld today. The new Mac Pro sports 8 core processing, insane graphics capabilities (you can run 8! 30 inch cinema displays at once!), new system architecture and a whole lot more.

The XServe gets updated as well with 8 core processing, new system architecture, 3TB of internal storage and unlimited Leopard client licenses for under $3k. Not bad.

Can't wait to see what Apple has in store for us next week!

Think Secret Shuts Down

Famed Apple rumor site Think Secret is shutting down after a settlement between it and Apple. If you recall, Apple sued Think Secret over trade secrets and was watched by bloggers everywhere to see if they would be given the same immunity as journalists.

Touch Up Your iPod Classic

Make your gen 5 or 5.5 iPod Classic look a little more like the touch with this hack from iPodHacking.com. Follow the instructions carefully tho!

GPS Coming to iPhone

This is awesome. We have a Garmin GPS for the minivan - the wife can't find her way out of the garage without it. Anyway, one is coming for the iPhone- this would be awesome to have stashed in my briefcase or in the car for when it's needed.

Happy Birthday C64

Man, I can't believe it has been 25 years. My very first computer, the venerable Commodore 64, began my love of computers. I remember sitting in front of the C64 for countless hours playing games, dialing into BBS's with the 300 baud modem and waiting forever for programs to load on the 1541 5.25 floppy disc drive. (LOAD "*",8,1)

I also remember spending hours with my brother programming Mad Libs in basic.

Everything I learned about computers I learned from the C64.

On Monday 10 December 2007 the C64 will turn 25. There is a ceremony on the Computer History Museum in California. Even the reclusive former CEO and Commodore Founder Jack Tramiel will be there.

On The Edge - The Rise and Fall of Commodore - A fascinating and must-read for any Commodore fan.
Play Free C64 Games @ Gametap
C64.com
The C64 Orchestra

Update: As my brother pointed out in the comments, our first computer was really a Commodore Vic 20. But as far as I recall, all we ever did was play Gorf on it and never used it as a computer. But technically, I stand corrected.

Stacks - The Way It Was

Kuragari.com has a quick blurb about some aspects of how the original Stacks functionality was working in early Leopard betas. Apple, bring this back! I'm one of the seemingly few people that like the Stacks functionality. Does it need help? Yes. Would the way it worked make it better? Definitely.

Last Day for $100

Today's the last day to spend your $100 iPhone credit - so you better get to it!

20% of 2007 Tech Train Wrecks Attributed to Apple?!

What a crock. You're telling me the admitted yet way overblown debacle that was the iPhone price cut was more of a train wreck than Vista? I'm starting to believe in the Y! Apple-hating rumors.

MiShare MiSongs WithYu

MiShare connects two iPods together enabling easy file transfers. Neato.

via Boing Boing

King of Business

Our hero, who art in Cupertino,
hallowed be thy name.
your vision come,
your influence be done,
on Macs which are like heaven.
Give us today our iPhone, iPods and Macs.
For give us innovations
as we forgive those who use Windows.
Save us from bland and unusable products
and deliver us from Microsoft.
For the electronics & media kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever. Amen.

The WOW Stops Here

CNET UK has listed Vista as one of the worst technology products. I will admit that I've only seen Vista from a distance. I use XP nearly everyday for the one application I need for work that won't run in Mac OS X. XP is a fine OS - it works fine, especially since I'm only running one program. XP on my old work's computer was pretty spotty, but I believe it was all the crap the IT guys crammed on it. Otherwise I'm 99.9% in Leopard and love it.

Anyway, Vista is in good company - Sony Rootkit CDs, Atari Jaguar, the Apple "Puck" Mouse (although we always referred to it as the breast implant mouse) and a few others.

Where do I pay? Right here.

Apple stores freshen up for the holidays. Personally, the scanner checkout is a brilliant glimpse of our retail future.

Apple Black Friday deals here. You're running outta daylight.

Cool Apple Ad

I'm an avid reader of Engadget and noticed a "ginormous" ad at the top and upper right. Seems Engadget themselves has even commented on it..

Regardless of how you feel about advertising, especially on the web, you have to admit it's pretty clever.

Check it out over at Engadget.com for the next day or so.

Warm Up That Credit Card - Ready, Set, Shop

For the past 5 years or so, Apple has had a 5-10% sale on just about everything on Black Friday online and in-stores. This year is no exception. If you've been thinking about a new Mac, now is the time.

Tickle Me Zune

Microsoft is playing the supply-demand game to earn media coverage like this. "Cabbage Patch Doll" my ass.

Go Data-Less With iPhone

AT&T just rolled out a new iPhone plan - phone only. No data. So if you only surf the web, get email and visual voicemail whilst connected to a wi-fi network, you can save $20 a month. Otherwise suck it up and keep payin'.

Leopard 10.5.1 Pounces

Okay, enough already with the damn cat puns. Geez. What am I going to do with you people?

Oh, Leopard 10.5.1 is now available. Just run Software Update.

Mac OS X Is Bigger Than Jesus Windows in Japan

According to Japan's Business Computer News, Mac OS X share has risen to over 60% while Microsoft's has collapsed from over 75% to less than 30%.

Touch, Phone Go 1.1.2

With the iPhone going on sale in the UK and Germany today, Apple has released 1.1.2 for the iPod Touch and iPhone. According to sources there is finally an "add to calendar" feature for the iPod Touch. The iPhone is noticeably more responsive but I haven't found any new features yet except for support for international keyboards and the like.

I Touch Myself

Crave claims the Apple tablet PC is nearly a reality. Interesting.

Time Magazine Invention of the Year

Last year it was GooTube, this year it's....you guess it - the iPhone.

The Fastest Windows Vista Laptop...

...is a Mac. The MacBook Pro to be exact. Faster than all the others.

Leopard Goodies in NY Times

The New York Times reviews Leopard:

So Apple’s mission in Leopard was to make us aware of needs we never knew we had — something Apple is usually good at.

They Actually Listened

Apple just sometimes doesn't seem to listen to their customers. Sure, they quietly acknowledge whatever it is someone's bitching about and fix it in the next version of the software or hardware. But on occasion the bitching is so loud that they have to do something fast. It's happened throughout Apple's history. Most recently with the iPhone pricing. But now Apple has heard the cries to open up the iPhone to third-party developers. Why they didn't do this from the start I don't really know. What could make a kick-ass phone like the iPhone even more desirable? Killer applications. Apple announced today that they'll deliver an iPhone SDK (software development kit) by February of next year. It will also enable developers to develop for the iPod touch as well. Sweet. About damn time too.

Getting Ready for Leopard

In case you forgot or need to catch up on what all the Leopard hubbub is all about, here's a top ten list for you. Or if you're having trouble sleeping, here's the top 300 list.

Mine is on order of course and due to arrive next Friday. I'll miss out on the free t-shirt that Apple is giving away that day, but thanks to my corporate discount and $100 iPhone credit, it's costing me a whopping $24.

Amazon has a great deal - Leopard for $109.00. If you purchase it along with Parallels you'll get another $20 off. Not a bad deal. Of course if you're purchasing Parallels that means you're running Winblows which sucks for you. Wait, I'm also running Parallels. Bastard! Always one step ahead.

High Quality DRM Free Now Cheaper

Apple officially announced today that they're reducing the price of iTunes Plus to 99 cents from $1.29. Hmmm....I wonder why they did that?

Leopard Pounces on October 26

Pre-order your copy today. Leopard has some kickass features - TimeMachine, Spaces and so much more. And unlike that other operating system, Mac OS X usually improves performance of older Macs instead of making them obsolete.

Menu Bar Items

Here's a great collection of menu bar applications.

Why *Wouldn't* You Want To Buy It?

Zune Zune Zune

MSFT has unveiled the new Zune. Nothing too exciting: 4, 8, and 80gb models all similarly priced to the iPod line. A few things to note, though:

• Wireless syncing on your home wi-fi network is a nice touch. As a family with two different generations of iPod, it's annoying to plug in to the wrong cable.
• Zune Social is an intriguing idea along the lines of iLike. It's a nice way to find new music from sources you trust.
• DRM-free marketplace. I know iTunes has some as well, but this coupled with Amazon's new marketplace makes it pretty clear to me that this is where it's moving - and iTunes needs to maintain solid relationships with the record industry so they can also move in that direction without falling too far behind.

The Zune will never be an iPod killer. I think the only way the iPod will ever die will be from self-inflicted wounds. Nevertheless, I'm glad a competitor is pushing Apple a bit on some features that are lacking in the iPod line.

iPod Touch

The iPhone met or exceeded the hype in most instances. After living with the godphone for a few months now, I have very few complaints. I wish it was louder with less distortion. That's about it.

I saw the iPod Touch today and admit it's a sexy device. It's half as thin as the iPhone and noticably lighter. The screen is the same beautiful 3.5 inch the iPhone sports.

So why didn't I buy one? One simple reason. Storage. At 8GB or 16GB I have no need for it. My iPhone covers that space. What I really really wanted was an 80GB iPod touch. For that I would have sold my current 5th Generation 60GB iPod. While the iPod classic is nice - it's lighter, thinner and has more storage - it doesn't really offer much above and beyond what I already have. Sure, battery life is much better, but I don't really need that.

I think Apple really missed the boat on the iPod Touch. Sure, they'll sell a crapload of them, but I think they'd sell a couple craploads if they offered a high-capacity version which is thicker, but has the storage people want.

iPod nano - Insanely Small

Wow. I checked out the nano today at one of my local Apple stores. Wow. Gives a whole new meaning to impossibly small. I was surprised at how much better it looks in person, including color. Images just don't do this wonder justice. The scroll wheel is small, but completely fine even for my fat sausage fingers.

Did I mention this thing is small? Incredible engineering. This thing really has it all - might even be the perfect storm. Decent screen size for movies, insanely small, ridiculous battery life, cover flow, games and more.

If the look was putting you off, seriously give this thing a chance by seeing it in person. I think you'll be surprised.

Deal on 2GB MacBook Memory Sticks

Not sure of the quality of “Transcend” brand memory, but one of the comments says it’s really Micron which I’ve at least heard of.

2GB DDR2 667 (PC2-5300) Notebook Memory - $88.99 each after $5 instant rebate and another $5 with promo code EMC918SYME03

High-Quality Album Art

Josh's iTunes Album Art Grabber goes straight to the source - iTunes itself for album art. What's great is that the album art is up to 1425x1425 pixels - sweet! The downside is that it's one artist & album at a time, and you need both the album and the artist. Sometimes the picture returned will give you a 404 error. If you change the ".jpg" to ".tif" it sometimes will work.

iTop and iStub

Popsci.com is featuring an interesting use for a broken or obsolete iPod: the "iTop" (original by Owen McGarry here.) Very simple actually, it just involves a bit of slicing and hinging and hacking. Have a need? Have a go.

On a side note, I finally checked out the iPod stub nano at the Apple store today and I have to admit, the pictures and ads do not do it justice. This is a neat little device. For some reason, it feels more out of science fiction or some retro-futurism idea than any other incarnation of the iPod, probably because it's so damned tiny and packs quite a wallop. I still have no need for said device, but get your hands on it and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Ringtones Are Live

Apple turned on ringtones in the iTunes store yesterday. I finally had a chance to try it and for the most part, it's pretty cool. As always, Apple has done an exceptional job of making it easy. The hardest part was selecting which part of the songs I wanted to use as the ringtone.

As covered elsewhere, you can only make ringtones of songs you purchased from the iTunes Store. That goes for songs purchased prior to yesterday too.

You cannot make ringtones of songs you already own but did not purchase through iTunes. It's all in the licensing and you have the RIAA to blame for this one. Believe it or not, ringtones are not considered derivative works and record companies can do as they please with them.

My beefs:

1. Your $0.99 purchase price only gets you the portion of the song you select. If you decide later you want a different part of the song, it's another $0.99.

2. One song, Happier by Guster, was indicated in the store as a ringtonable song, but once purchased it was not. Outcome of this pending with iTunes Customer Support. UPDATE: The helpful folks at iTunes support suggested ignoring the missing bell and right-clicking and selecting "Create Ringtone". Duh. That worked. The bell icon should still be showing tho.

3. The little bell icon needs to be added to your view. Go to view options and then select ringtone. Seems Apple would have turned this on by default for iPhone users. Nit-picky I know, but deal with it.

Starbucks & iTunes & Apple

Okay - let's dismiss the fact that it's Starbucks. Their coffee truly sucks. If you like it, you really don't like coffee. Bitter and ewww, just yuck. What's truly significant about this.

Let's disect it. You have an iPod touch. You walk into a Starbucks and you're working and listening to the music playing over the loudspeakers. I'd be lieing if I said I never wondered what a song was while I was working at my local Caribou.

Think about it. You're in the coffee shop, and on your iPod it shows you what's playing. Think about the technology to make that happen. Regardless of the fact that it's Starbucks (with coffee that sucks). Think about the integration and the customer ease-of-use. Incredible. This will be popular over the long haul.

iPhone Price Cut

We can certainly debate what it means. Is it that Apple is not selling them as they hoped or as some have suggested that Apple wants in the mobile phone business in a big way and are willing to do the unthinkable (for Apple) and discount their product.

I actually don't care (too much). I love my iPhone and knew while standing in line for 6 hours that I was taking a risk. The same is true with any technology that you buy early.

There are three things that make this particularly frustrating for us reasonable early Apple adopters:

1. Apple doesn't discount. Ever. Well, okay, once a year the day after Thanksgiving, but never like this. A 5%-10% discount maybe, but 30%?

2. Timing. We Apple fans know that within 6-10 months Apple will release new hardware with more features at the same price. In this instance, the same exact product is getting a price reduction instead of the same price for an upgraded product. And this is happening after 2 months? If Apple had released a new 16GB iPhone at $599 and discounted the 8GB to $399 this wouldn't sting so bad. And get ready, there will be a 16GB iPhone in the very near future.

3. Visibilty. When Sony lowers the price on some Blu-Ray player or other electronic item, it's not plastered across the front page of every newspaper. So the people who bought the player earlier don't even know the pain of the lower price. Apple can't do anything nowadays without a bazillion people watching.

Regardless, it's the risk you take with technology. Would I like to see Apple offer something for us loyal early adopters? Sure - who wouldn't. Will I be all pissy and whiny like many out there and threaten to stop buying Apple products? Hell no.

If you purchased your iPhone within the last 14 days from Apple or 30 days from AT&T, you can return it to the store for a credit. If you waited in line for 6 hours and are now pissed that it's cheaper, suck it up and get a life.

R.I.P. iPod Hi-Fi

Yep, that's gone too. No loss. It had great sound, but was a bit bulky especially for Apple.

Pissed About $2 Ringtones?

Well, if you compare with what other carriers are charging for a 30 second or shorter clip of a song, Apple's $2 is either right on par or even slightly lower. I know with Cingular (which AT&T has already screwed up, but that's for another post) musical ring tones were almost $3 and you had no control on what part of the song the ring tone used.

With the new ringtone service from Apple, you get to choose what part of the song is the ringtone.

If you were willing to cough up $3 for a ringtone before, you'll surely cough up $2 and have full control. Damn kids.

But if you're going to be stubborn about it, TUAW has a few ways to get ringtones on the cheap (or less).

UPDATE: TUAW also has a review of the actual iTunes functionality.

R.I.P. 4GB iPhone

Apple unceremoniously killed the 4GB iPhone today due to lack of consumer demand. Can't say I blame them. If you're spending $500 on a phone, you might as well go a step up ($100) and get the most storage you can so it obsolescence comes a tad bit slower.

But if storage isn't an issue and you want a great deal, Apple is selling the remaining stock of 4GB iPhones for $299.

R.I.P. White iPod

A little-noticed item in today's announcements was the death of the white iPod. There are now no iPods in the iconic white. The new iPod Classic comes in Silver or Black. The iPod nano comes in every (might I add "unique") color except white.

While I personally carry a black iPod, there will always be a place in my heart for my first iPod - 5GB of storage, solid state wheel that actually turned, big clunky buttons around the wheel. Ah, memories.

Gizmodo has a fitting tribute to the white iPod.

The Beat Goes On

Summary:
New iPod Shuffle colors including a RED model.
New funky-looking iPod nano with 2” screen, video playback, new colors
New iPod classics with thinner metal enclosures, longer battery life, new UI, 80GB and 160GB storage.
New iPod Touch – basically an iPhone without the phone at 8GB and 16GB, Wi-Fi, YouTube, Safari.
Wi-Fi iTunes Store for iPod Touch and iPhone with lame Starbucks integration.
8GB iPhone Price Drops $200 to $399. No word on 4GB model.
Ringtone Service for iPhone – 99 cents for song and another 99 cents to turn it into a ringtone

NBC Doesn't Trust You

A bit more on NBC's recent idiocy regarding iTunes.

What the hell...

...is this?

NBC Gets Greedy

Apple announced today that it will no longer be selling NBC programs on iTunes despite their popularity. It seems NBC wanted to increase the per episode price from $1.99 to $4.99.

Nice try, greedy bastards.

AT&T Exclusivity is Over

Engadget has claims that iPhoneSIMunlock.com has indeed done it. They've unlocked the iPhone SIM to decouple it from AT&T without a lot of high-tech gadgetry and wizardry. I say kudos. While I've been a happy CINGULAR customer for many years, I am amazed at how quickly it turned to shit once it became AT&T. Fewest dropped calls my ass. Sure, perhaps when it was Cingular that was true, but AT&T within the last few weeks has been absolute shit. Case in point - myself and my good friend Robert were working from a coffee shop sitting directly across from each other. My iPhone? No Service. His iPhone? A full 5 bars.

$100 off iPhones!

If you really really want an iPhone (and you should) but don't want to spend $499/$599 for it, the price excuse is now gone. While supplies last, get a refurbished iPhone for $100 off, or $399 for the 4GB or $499 for the 8GB version.

I've owned a myriad of Apple refurbished products - iMac, MacBook, iPod - and have never (knock on wood) had any problems whatsoever. So get an awesome product at an unbelievable price.

$99 iPod Nano

2GB iPod Nano. $99. Refurbished. Good as new. Forget the Shuffle. Buy now. 'nuff said.

New iMacs, New iWorks, New iLife

Well it's about damn time. I've been waiting for a new iLife for way too long. New sexy iMacs were launched this past Tuesday along with iLife and iWorks updates. The new iMacs are significantly thinner, feature a glass glossy screen and upgraded specs. It also sports a new ridiculously thin keyboard in a wired or wireless version. The 17" model is discontinued, but is replaced by a same-priced 20". All around yumminess.

iLife features upgrades to all the suites, along with a new photo sharing enhancement which quite honestly I've not had time to learn much about. iWork upgrades Keynote and Pages, but adds an Excel-killer (come-on, Keynote absolutely makes PowerPoint look like a hack) called "Numbers".

.Mac also received a more-than-much-needed upgrade. Among many other things, it now supports 10 gigs of space instead of 1; supports personal domains and tighter integration with iLife & iWork.

More on this eventually.

Apple Launches MyTunes

Apple seems to finally be embracing web 2.0. MyTunes enables you to post what you've recently purchased, your favorite artists and what you've reviewed. Check out mine in the right navigation. Kinda cool. It'd be even better if it pulled not just what you've purchased in iTunes, but you're entire iTunes library.

Microsoft Office 2008 Delayed....Until 2008

I really don't understand what's the point of naming your software after the year it was released. Do I really want to be reminded that my copy of Word is now over 3 years old? Or my copy of iLife is over a year old. In this day and age of rapid technology advancement why would software vendors name things this way.

Microsoft announced that MS Office 2008 will be delayed until 2008. Don't even get me started about releasing software before the year of its name. Maybe software marketers all came from the automobile industry where model years are all f'd up.

Let The Parodies Begin

Need I say more?

Ohhh a Zepplin!

B&W has this, well, Zepplin-looking iPod speaker system. B&W is known for high-end speaker systems. At $600, I'm sure this thing rocks.

(Via Gizmodo)

New iMacs Next Week?

Apple has sent exclusive invites to select members of the press to a special event next Tuesday August 7 at 10am PDT. New brushed aluminum iMacs have been rumored for weeks so that's anyone's best guess.

3 Billions And Counting

Apple announced today that sales of songs on iTunes has surpassed the 3 billion mark. Kudos. 350 or so songs of which were purchased by yours truly. Wow, that's kinda scary.

iPhone Software Update

VP of iPod Product Marketing Greg Joswiak told analysts this week that an iPhone software update is "coming soon".

A Hint of Things to Come?

Major online retailers have cut the price on the 30 & 80 gig iPods. Amazon has the 30 gig for $10 off and the 80 gig for $27 off. A hint of new iPods on the way? Only time will tell. Otherwise, if you're in the market for a new iPod, now is a good time.

Tones of the Ring

Tired of waiting for official ringtones for your iPhone to be made available via iTunes? Here's a DIY using iTunes' previews. Pretty slick.

Apple Financials

Apple sold 270,000 iPhones in the first 30 hours. AT&T reported a couple days ago that they activated 146,000 phones in the first two days. I may suck at math, but that pretty much means that AT&T screwed up activations on about 124,000 phones. Good job.

Apple posted crazy growth . Sales of Macs and iPods were way up, 1.7 million and 9.8 million, respectively. Profits were 818 million. Sweet.

The Free Mac Classroom

Once upon a time, Macs dominated the classroom. Unfortunately, dumbass school boards think that saving $300 on a PC equates to an actual cost savings. Add in the anti-virus, dedicated IT administrator, maintenance agreements and more, and they've actually spend $600 more than what they would have spent on those "expensive" Macs.

Regardless, there's a site out there dedicated to cataloging the free software that's out there for the Mac, and there's a ton of great software there. Check it out.

Even God Uses A Mac

New MacBook Pro Adapter

Not that this is phenominal news or anything, but Apple has a new power adapter for MacBook Pros. This one is nearly 1/2 the size and closer to the size of the MacBook one (the new adapter s on the left, duh). Notable for those of us that have to lug it around with us from job to job.

I'm a Star!

Well, okay, maybe not. But I did start contributing to MyFirstMac.com with a couple articles....

• What's The Best Way To Print My Photos?


• Backing Up – How to Ensure Your Valuables on Your Mac are Safe

Oh yeah, well my 1 year old can beat your 2 year old.

Not to be outdone by a two year old, this 1 year old has figured out the iPhone:

The Apple dPhone

Apple has toyed with telphone technology in the past. Here's a concept from 1983 of a desktop telephone. In one of the pictures, it shows someone writing a check from their phone. No telling if the phone is networked in any way. I'm guessing that the answer's "no" since we're talking about 1983 here, but still. Interesting.

Mmmmm. Bowling.

Sims Bowling. $4.99 for your 5th generation iPod. Now. Go get it.

So Easy A Two Year Old Can Do It

Which is Cheaper? $600 iPhone or Free Treo?

The answer will surprise you.

The iPhone App I've Been Waiting For

Not really.

Finally - Something To Do With A Zune

This is hilarious. Hide your iPod or iPhone inside a Zune to protect it from thieves. Awesome.

Missing Something?

In case you forgot, you can apply cost of the songs you've purchased from an album to complete the purchase of the full album. Now you can complete that album for $7.99 or less.

OneTrip - iPhone App Review

For some reason this cool little iPhone app seems to be overlooked. OneTrip definitely is the best-looking app yet. It's a nice basic shopping list app. Just click on what you need from various categories. As you place items in your card, just tap the checkbox next to the item. Very slick. The only thing I can think of to make OneTrip better is to be able to add specific quantities of items.

21 iPhone Tips

Some of these are not so "secret", but you may find a gem or three in here.

Yellow Submarine iPod

That sexy stud Way2Poppy at TooPoppy reports on the long-rumored Yellow Submarine iPod. Is there nothing that guy doesn't know? I love him.

incase iPhone Case

Gizmodo reviews the incase iPhone cover. And I agree on all points. I bought a black one the night of the iPhone purchase because my good friend Robert said I'd drop it. And he was right.

iPhone Disk Usage

Bummed that you can't use your iPhone as portable storage like your iPod? So are a lot of people. The good folks at Ecamm brings you iPhone disk storage.

iPhone Pet Peeves

TUAW has a list of iPhone gripes. It's been two weeks and the initial euphoria has begun to wear off. I admit to agreeing with some of these, although the 2-3 clicks to get to things i a bit exaggerated I think. Sure, it could be less, but it really doesn't get in the way or really take up that much time. And I'm not sure why people are going into the settings all the time, other than to tinker. Here are my personal pet peeves:

• No multiple delete function within email


• EDGE. It's not as bad as I thought, but the iPhone is so much better on wi-fi.


• Earpiece Sound quality. If the volume is turned up all the way, I get a fair amount of distortion on phone calls. The speakerphone turned up all the way is fine, so I'm guessing the earpiece is just a lower quality component. Not enough to truly impact the experience, but I shouldn't have to hear it for $600.


• Crashes. Safari crashes on a regular basis as does the mail app. The phone does recover gracefully as it tries to leave things where they were when it crashed, but I'm just not used to crashing apps since I use a Mac for everything I do. At least when the iPhone crashes it continues to work. My Blackberry used to crash all the time and I'd have to do a hard reset each and everytime which usually took about 5 minutes.


• Slide To Answer. If the phone is locked, and you get a call, you only have one option on screen - to answer the call. You should also be able to decline the call as well. Sure, you can press the standby button once to ignore, and twice to send the call to voicemail, but the instinct is to use the screen.

I'm sure I'll come across a few more over time. It doesn't make me regret my decision in any way. This is a beautiful and elegant phone; both physically and in the software.

This Is Just Oh So Wrong

iPhone App Review: TIPR

I was taken aback about my post about the new iPhone Apps as someone that I didn't personally know actually made a comment! I thought only like 3 people read this blog. I guess we're up to 4 now! Yay! :-)

The comment asked for some feedback about their iPhone application, TIPR. TIPR is a new iPhone application that does what the name suggests - help you calculate tips at a restaurant. Now I personally love this app because I am severly math-challenged. It should be simple enough to calculate a 20% tip, but I constantly screw it up.

The application is the best kind - it does one thing, and it does one thing well. The user interface is simple and elegant - just like the phone it works on. You simply punch in the amount of the check, dial-in the tip percentage (be gracious people) and click submit. It comes back and gives you the tip along with the bill total. Including the total is a nice touch, especially for math-challenged people like me.

The only issue I found with the app is a calculation error for hefty bills. Punch in something like $987 with a 20% tip and it comes back with a $-986 tip for a total bill of $1. Nice if it were true. This is not likely to come up much with average users, but I have personally put a similar business expense on my corporate credit card in the past.

It would be nice if the keyboard defaulted to the numeric keypad when entering the bill amount, but I'm pretty sure that's not something that could be controlled via the Safari browser. Hear that Apple? We're having to sacrifice a superior experience because you won't give developers a true development kit. I hope Apple rethinks their approach. While developers will indeed come up with some outstanding apps, they'd be even better if they could get to the core of the environment.

The only other enhancements I could think of would be a way to access customary tips when traveling outside the US and a way to "split" the bill amongst X number of people in a party. How many times have you been out to dinner/lunch with a group of people and it takes 45 minutes to figure out what everyone owes. However, this might need to be a separate app (with a simple link from TIPR) or something. I wouldn't want to clutter up the simple TIPR interface with a less-common need.

Great job on TIPR guys! Definitely an early must-have iPhone app.

Roll Out Them Apps

While the developer community is generally unhappy with Apple at the moment with the lack of a true SDK for the iPhone, it hasn't stopped them from developing some great Safari-based apps. Gas.app and TIPR are two I've actually used recently, and others I will be exploring soon.

The No B.S. iPhone Review

Gizmodo has the most realistic review of the iPhone I've read to date. It's harsh where it needs to be and gushing where it should. I personally don't care about a lot of the smaller missing features, but I do agree that the sum is greater than the parts. I'm sure Apple will blow us away with the first iPhone update and address many of these things. Of course a software update won't fix any issues with AT&T. But I've been with them for about 3 years or so now and haven't had any issues. I've actually been pleasantly surprised every time I've had to deal with them on some things.

iPhone Enhancements List

By now you've got some things that you wish the iPhone did. Macenstein is compiling a list - add yours today. I'd agree with most if not all of them so far.