iPhone OS 3.0 is now available.

Here’s Apple’s 3.0 features page. The list of new features is nothing short of incredible. Cut copy and paste. Landscape keyboard. Spotlight search. The list goes on. And it’s free for iPhone owners.

Andy Ihnatko has a great article posted about 3.0 called, 10 nifty things about iPhone 3.0 that id have like to have known from Day One.” Title aside, the article offers some great tips.



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Billshrink.com has done a sweet job of analyzing the cost of ownership for the Pre, iPhone and the G1 (what the heck is a G1?). The iPhone doesn’t look great in comparison to the the Pre. We’ll give Billshrink the honor of showing you the damage, but we blame AT&T.

This, again, highlights AT&T’s problem. We could rant for pages, but we’ll just say that AT&T is a business run by opportunists and underachievers, and not worthy of a partnership with a company of Apple’s pedigree.

The recent flap over AT$T’s iPhone 3GS pricing and unknown pricing and availability for tethering and MMS are just the most recent examples of how AT$T has missed the mark. They’ve been overpromising and underdelivering since mMode.

You can’t get blood from a turnip. We’ve said that for years. Literally. None of what AT$T did and didn’t do at WWDC surprised us.



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Apple’s Apple Store Special Deals
is packed with factory refurbished Macs and iPods. Prices on iMacs and MacBooks start at $749. Similar deals on all other models.

Among the best deals, find the 2.4GHz unibody MacBook now $1099. This model, with backlit keyboard, was $1299 Monday morning.

Here are two reasons to buy a factory refurbished Macintosh.

First, while refurbished Macs ship in a brown box, they come out indistinguishable from new Macs. These units are beautiful, and once out of the box you won’t know it’s refurbished.

Second, refurbished Macs from the Apple Store ship with the identical 1-year AppleCare warranty. Same coverage, same customer service, same tech support, same access to help and training at the Apple Retail Store.

There’s no reason a Mac shopper should overlook a factory refurbished Mac. We’ve been buying refurbished Macs from Apple for more than a decade. We’ve never had a single issue that wasn’t resolved by Apple in a fashion that could be said to be different from the way Apple would handle an issue with a new-in-box unit.

Take a look at what’s available in Apple Store Special Deals
section if you’re in the market for a Mac.




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This is a big day for Apple. WWDC. The possible official return of Steve Jobs.

While the rumor mill is churning out predictions of incredible stuff from Apple (the most recent rumor to be debunked is a that shows a video conference between Apple’s next iPhone), we’re going on record: there will be no Apple tablet.

Apple doesn’t ship products they know will appeal to only a contingent of Apple customers. The tablet is one of these products. Sorry, tablet fans.

We are pretty sure that Apple won’t ship a tablet (something similar in size to a MacBook), but what Apple spies claim to have seen in this general department might actually be nothing more than a larger iPhone. That’s something we won’t dismiss out of hand.

But even a significantly larger iPhone seems unlikely. In fact, our WWDC predictions could be summed up with this phrase: More evolution, no revolution. That means a better iPhone (perhaps a high and low market handset) and no iTablet, or any other off-the-chart-new product from Apple. That’s just how they roll most of the time. How can you bet against that?



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The Pre is in the hands of some influential reviewers at the time of this post. According to some, the reviews are excellent, and to others the reviews are mixed, albeit generally positive.

When products are reviewed, they’re often compared to their competition. In this case, the Pre’s obvious rival is the iPhone. To date, there hasn’t been a unanimous winner in the fight against Apple’s mobile handset, but the Pre comes very close. Hats off to Palm.

While that’s quite an achievement, the comparisons are actually not quite fair to Apple. Apple’s current iPhone is nearly a year old today. In the handset market, where Apple is considered to be very unusual - only launching a new model on a yearly basis, rather than quarterly or even more often that that - a 12 month-old handset is ancient.

The general opinion appears to be that the Pre didn’t hammer Apple’s iPhone. This has to be a bit of a disappointment to everyone at Palm. Not that they didn’t see it coming. The iPhone is a formidable adversary.

But whether the Pre wins or loses against the iPhone isn’t very interesting to this iPhone user. What I find interesting is the debate over Palm’s timing. Much has been made of Palm’s decision to launch the Pre before Apple’s keynote this coming Monday.

Perhaps, in hindsight, it was a bad idea to launch the Pre before Apple is expected to announce their third edition of the iPhone, which they’re expected to do Monday, June 7th. Obviously, Palm decided to take advantage of a rather open playing field by beating Apple to the punch by a few days. Based on the amount of media coverage Pre’s generating it seems like this was a great move on Palm’s part.

Or was it?

What I think many Apple fans and critics, both, forget is that Apple suffers from post-keynote apathy with near metronomic regularity. Putting the Pre into the hands of critics in the mist of the bitching and moaning might have been a stroke of brilliance. Let’s make the case for this opinion.

Apple’s stock price predictably pushes up, even soars, prior to an Apple special event. Then reliably sells off in the immediate wake of Apple’s announcements and introductions. This rolling effect is, in part, fueled by several factors.

Apple news and rumor sites ramp up their posts with spy shots, claimed leaks from Apple-contracted manufacturing plants and parts suppliers. These stories about Apple’s forthcoming products churn up the Apple community.

Internet message boards, and most recently Twitter, buzz with predictions and, frankly, expectations of pie-in-the-sky dream iProducts, such as the perennial Apple tablet Mac. We might eventually see on of these (perhaps even this Monday), but think of how long this occasionally “substantiated” rumor has been floating around the Mac community. Even the iPhone was preceded by rumors for years before Apple actually announced such a product.

The rumor mill is partially responsible for elevating the public’s expectations well beyond Apple’s ability, or intention, to meet these often wildly unrealistic expectations. (To my knowledge, Apple is unique in this way. No other tech company consistently, year after year, generates this kind of interest in what Apple is _expected_ to do next.)

The result is an eventual, and nearly predictable letdown on behalf of Mac fans and journalists.

Apple critics were out in force when the original iPod shipped, for example. “Too expensive” was the refrain. Predicted to fail, the iPod is now dominating its product category. With nearly every Apple product, one can argue that the build up lives up to the actual product.

This is in no way a suggestion that Apple ships inferior products. Quite the contrary. Despite shipping superior products. Apple simply can’t - and probably doesn’t care if it does - live up to the pre-hype (no pun intended) over their products.

So, it’s for this reason that we think Palm missed the mark with their launch timing. Wouldn’t it have been better to launch the Pre once the inevitable bitching and moaning over Apple’s next iPhone was well underway?

You can pretty much set your clock for Monday’s keynote. As the text updates start flowing, Apple haters and Apple lovers, both, will begin their critiques and bold “no one will pay that much for a fill-in-the-blank-Apple-product.” There will be no shortage of gripes about omitted features, “No copy-and-paste? That makes the iPhone useless.”

Despite these predictable gripes, the next iPhone will succeed, but if I were launching an iPhone competitor, I’d time its launch exactly when the blowback against Apple begins. And that’s when they announce their next big thing.




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Crave blog is asking iPhone users to chime in with their AT&T experiences. Following the comments should be _very_ interesting.

We’re not shy with our opinion of AT&T. We cut our teeth on their over-promised mMode service years ago, and subsequently switched to TMobile. We were as happy as clams.

When the rumors about the iPhone started heating up, long before any acknowledgment from Apple, Apple-Project flat out demanded (it was worth a try) that Apple step to the lead of handset makers and ship the iPhone unlocked to any network.

After all, when you buy a Mac you have your choice of broadband providers. Imagine if Apple said you could only use one company?

We sited AT&T’s poor network performance and poor customer service as reasons beyond the virtues of giving customers some choice.

Then the iPhone announcement came from Apple and we sounded off with our disapproval. Then the iPhone shipped and we bought one. Our experience hasn’t been a horror story, but we’ve still got several gripes.

First, and foremost, AT&T’s customer service in our opinion is still sub-standard. We often find that we receive a different answer to the same question each time we call and get a new representative. Then there are the slightly unfriendly reps, but that’s not a regular experience for us. Yet, that’s something we never experienced at TMobile.

The network has been hit and miss for us. Most of our issues relate to calling other iPhones. That’s a long dark troubleshooting story that has never been resolved by AT&T. Coverage has been slightly worse for us than TMobile, but not bad enough to complain about.

Then there’s the pricing models. Many correctly defend AT&T’s iPhone plans as being competitive, but they’re certainly not the market’s best value. We also have a huge problem with the lack of low-cost iPhone plans.

Sure, there are ways around the base iPhone plan, but customers who are not plan-savvy can’t be asked to figure stuff like that out. We’re talking about the contingent of customers we speak to regularly. These are infrequent users of their handsets, and others who don’t want to pay more than they’re currently paying for a mobile phone. Generally speaking, the complaints in this department come from users accustomed to paying about $40/month. AT&T has nothing for them off the shelf.

Recent rumbles about a $10/month less expensive AT&T iPhone plan have been discussed, but to this Apple shareholder $10/month will only slightly increase the iPhone’s appeal.

The last aspect of our distaste for Apple’s relationship with AT&T is less tangible. We simply don’t think AT&T shares Apple’s passion for innovation and customer service. We’ve gone as far as to suggest that this relationship has slightly tarnished our view of Apple as a brand, being so closely associated with a company like AT&T. It’s hard justify a position like that, but that’s our opinion.

We’ll be watching the Crave survey, particularly because it looks like Apple and AT&T are going to be together a while longer.

Like AT&T? Hate the company? Swing over to Crave and speak out.



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Rumors about the third iteration of the iPhone are rampant right now. Among the most attractive rumors, and perhaps one of the least likely due to the cost, is an OLED display. Besides the fact that it would make your favorite apps look incredible, battery life would skyrocket as a result.

Another rather extreme rumor is a backlit Apple logo on the backside of the phone. While this would look great in theory, I imagine more than a few modest iPhone users covering it up with a finger or two when wanting to use the phone in situations where the logo would draw a lot of attention.

CNet’s Crave blog has a roundup of very reasonable rumors, and even a June 17th arrival date. Look for faster processors, more storage and video recording. Read more details here.






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The recent furor over the Apple iPhone app submission process came to a head with Trent Reznor’s rant against Apple over an application he submitted and had rejected. Reznor had a solid argument on face value, but to anyone who has followed the progress of Apple’s iTunes Store it all sounded rather childish.

The obvious rebuttal to all of the criticism about the way Apple accepts and rejects iPhone apps lies in the development of the iTunes _music_ Store. Apple has systematically added features to the iTunes Store since it launched. Allowances, restrictions, ratings, gifting, etc. The list is long and impressive.

So, it’s not a stretch of the imagination-for some of us, anyway, to see a day when Apple adds all of these, and perhaps several completely new, features to the iTunes App Store. It’s that simple.

In time Apple will implement restricted content features to the App store, just as they’ve done for the iTunes Music Store. Until then, however, we suspect that this won’t be the last tirade against Apple over app submissions.




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Anytime someone asks us what computer we recommend, it’s always an Apple. No surprise, right?

Anytime we’re asked why Apple, we say the top three reasons are (1) you get what you pay for: so buy quality, (2) Apple’s customer service, (3) Apple’s resale value.

There are a lot of other reasons to buy a Mac, such as the simple fact that Macs look great and they’re fun to use. Another really solid reason to look at a Mac is that Consumer Reports ranks Apple’s MacBooks at the top of their Recommended list.

Check out CR’s site for more info, including the criteria used in the testing process.

Apple Store Special Deals
is jam-packed with factory refurbished Macs and iPods. Prices on iMacs and MacBooks start at $849. Similar deals on all other models.




Ad: Treat yourself to a brand new Apple MacBook Air, MaBook, or MacBook Pro
from Amazon. Free shipping and no tax. Add up those savings.



Apple’s Apple Store Special Deals
is jam-packed with factory refurbished Macs and iPods. Prices on iMacs and MacBooks start at $849. Similar deals on all other models.

Here are two reasons to buy a factory refurbished Macintosh.

First, while refurbished Macs ship in a brown box, they come out indistinguishable from new Macs. These units are beautiful, and once out of the box you won’t know it’s refurbished.

Second, refurbished Macs from the Apple Store ship with the identical 1-year AppleCare warranty. Same coverage, same customer service, same tech support, same access to help and training at the Apple Retail Store.

There’s no reason a Mac shopper should overlook a factory refurbished Mac. We’ve been buying refurbished Macs from Apple for more than a decade. We’ve never had a single issue that wasn’t resolved by Apple in a fashion that could be said to be different from the way Apple would handle an issue with a new-in-box unit.

Take a look at what’s available in Apple Store Special Deals
section if you’re in the market for a Mac.




Ad: Treat yourself to a brand new Apple MacBook Air, MaBook, or MacBook Pro
from Amazon. Free shipping and no tax. Add up those savings.



This is fun. iPhone haters hate the iPhone’s keyboard. Not rally drivers, though. Check out this wonderful test of the iPhone keyboard’s accuracy:

Apple MacBook Air, MaBook, or MacBook Pro

One of the longest held complaints about .Mac and MobileMe was the lack of customer service options offered by Apple. Getting help with even mundane issues was, in a word, often maddening.

Apple normally excellent customer service options, such as their toll-free tech support line and in-store Genius Bar were occasionally helpful answering questions about MobileMe, but Apple lacked a direct channel of communication with customers.

Sure, there was a link on the MobileMe site where users could email a question or request, but this was often an infuriating irony: Apple offered Internet services, but took days to respond to MobileMe issues.

Thankfully, Apple has fixed this inexcusable customer service oversight. On April 27, 2009, Apple formally announced Live Chat Support for MobileMe. I used the service yesterday to confirm that my renewal code was in fact activated as my Account page didn’t reflect the updated expiration date. I was chatting with an Apple representative within minutes.

Bravo, Apple.






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