We love beating the proverbial dead horse around here. So when this article quoting AT&T CTO saying that AT&T was “unprepared for the success of the iPhone 3G” we had to reach for the stupid stick, all the while laughing and crying at the same time.

So, it’s not like as though AT&T had the advantage of being part of the original iPhone launch, right?

Long, long ago we hammered Apple for partnering with second-rate, do nothing company like AT&T. We’ve been long time suckers for AT&T’s empty promises, and we figured their performance post-Apple would be no different.

We were right on. Call quality and dropped calls are some of the most often heard criticisms of the Apple iPhone. These complaints were only heightened when the iPhone 3G was in the wild.

What’s different now is that it’s not just customers calling out the suck. AT&T is saying they suck too. Nothing like a little self reflection to tarnish a brand even further.

As long time proponents of an unlocked iPhone, we continue to suggest Apple ditch this loser and make multiple partners. Perhaps even launch their own wireless service. But we digress. With the launch of Google’s Jesus Phone 2.0, the timing couldn’t be better for the announcement from Apple that they’ve finally driven a wooden stake into the heart of this blood sucker.

BTW, if anything is going to kill Steve Jobs prematurely, it’s going to be AT&T. Talk about a shareholder lawsuit.



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Apple’s .Mac (dotmac) is no longer. I say good riddance; that brand was just too fragmented. Was it .Mac or .mac, or was it DotMac or dotMac?

Anyway, now we have MobileMe, or is it just Me?

As I mentioned on the announcement, Apple hasn’t really done much to end the naming confusion (admittidly, it’s marginally better), but the look-feel? Well, it’s miles better. Nice work, Apple.

If you’re still a non-member now might be a great time to try the service out. Amazon has the retail version of MobileMe at a discount here:

MobileMe: $89.99 with free shipping




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Nice. iPhone 2.0 is already unlocked. But what does that mean for the 3G iPhone as it relates to in-store-only activation?



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The professional reviews of the 3G iPhone have been called in. Verdict: They like it, they really like it.

While Mossberg and Pogue both point out better audio quality and improved ergonomics, they point out the lack of video recording, copy and past, and a few other common complaints leveled at the iPhone.

Despite the rave reviews, the reviewers seem to agree on the fact that the most important improvement comes with iPhone 2.0, which doesn’t require the new iPhone. Good news for those of you who don’t plan on upgrading quite yet.



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Someone’s launched an email campaign this is designed to look as though Apple’s .Mac department is requesting the user to update their billing information. This is a phishing scam.

The message clicks through to a form that will ask for credit card, mailing address and social security information from the user. The destination URL gives this scam away immediately, but the page layout is very convincing (it looks identical to Apple’s billing page). Do not provide this information.

Heres’s a snap of the message to help you identify it:





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Outstanding, ATT.

Macnn just posted a story about AT&T’s official 3G iPhone rate plans. Check them out here.

What’s so impressive (sarcasm) about this announcement is that ATT has remained silent about the 3G rate plans until today, one day after the original Apple warranty expired on iPhones purchased on the release date, June 29th one year ago.

Leading up to the expiration of the original AppleCare warranty on my iPhone, I’ve been asking ATT and Apple what the exact plans would be for the 3G iPhone so that I could make an _informed_ decision as to whether or not I planned on upgrading to the 3G iPhone or extending the warranty on my existing iPhone.

By releasing the 3G rate plans one day after the eligibility on my iPhone expired ATT effectively made that choice for me.

I realize that not all iPhone users and potential customers are in the same boat as I am, but as a customer that bought the iPhone on the original launch date, June 29, 2007, I’ve found this to be the first Apple product I’ve ever purchased since 1986 that has resulted in so much frustration.

Twitter is proving to be a pretty useful tool in finding like opinions. I searched for ATT and found some pretty fired up iPhone owners this morning. Here’s ATT’s twitter account via quotably.com. Check out the reactions for yourself.

I can live with the $200 price drop. That’s to be expected from the mobile handset world. I can even live with an iPhone that isn’t covered by Apple’s AppleCare warranty. But what I don’t like is being put in the dark. I would love to know how ATT and Apple justified the timing of their 3G rate plan annoucement.

The new slogan for the iPhone: Fuck early adopters.

I rang ATT this morning to file a complaint regarding the timing of the rate plan announcement. I stated simply that I wanted the opportunity to make an informed decision about whether or not to upgrade. But I needed the rate plan information before my original warranty expired. Their respoins was to place equal blame on Apple.

I rang Apple to complain and find out if they are extending their tradional 365 days-from-date-of-purchase window for extended AppleCare. Their response was that they understood the nature of the issue, and as I type this I’m waiting to find out if they’ll let me activate AppleCare on my original iPhone.

I’ll post a followup.



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This is a must read. Macworld.com discusses the ARDAgent security issue in depth here.

This is rather timely for this Mac user; I had a heated debate about Macs and viruses recently. I claimed that Macs are inherently safer than PCs. My opponent suggested that it’s just a matter of time before Macs are as vulnerable as PCs are to malicious attacks.

My confidence in Macs as admittedly shaken by the ARDAgent attack, but Macs are still easier to manage in this respect than are PCs. But is it just a matter of time, as suggested by my Mac-hating friend?



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Nice. The 3G iPhone ships on July 11-ish. Given the in-store activation rumors, better prepare yourself for a long wait outside your local ARS.

Lines are for those of us willing to suffer. There’s a contingent of would-be 3G iPhone buyers that will wait for the lines to disappear before snapping up the new iPhone rev.

But what about the undecided? The group of current iPhone owners not sure if the 3G iPhone value proposition is a good enough one to drop $200 on the phone and an additional $10/month or more for 3G service and SMS messaging (rumor has it that SMS might or might not be included in the 3G iPhone plans from ATT).

SMS plans for the 3G iPhone, by the way, start at $5/month, and go up to $20/month for unlimited SMS, according to ATT.

For the millions of us on the fence (estimates I’ve seen show about half of iPhone owners say they’ll upgrade to the 3G iPhone) ATT isn’t doing squat to help us inform our decision one way or the other.

This is rather significant because our iPhone warranty expires one year from the date of purchase. For many of us, that’s on June 29th, 2008. This is the last day that we can buy and register AppleCare for these handsets.

So without definitive details about the 3G iPhone plans, we’re flying by the seat of our pants in regard to deciding whether or not to keep our first rev iPhone under warranty or ditch the AppleCare option and apply that $70 toward the 3G iPhone.

Admittedly, there are many 3G iPhone buyers that could care less about the details. They want the 3G iPhone regardless of the costs involved. But on the flipside, there are likely just as many of us who want the nitty gritty details. All of them.

For example, are SMS messages bundled? Can you buy the 3G iPhone and pay for Edge at the current $20/month rather than pay for 3G at $30/month? This is important because, as we said months ago, not ATT customer is covered by 3G service.

And what about our current iPhones? What options do we have for these dinosaurs? Can we gift them? Will they work as iPods, syncing, updating, etc the same way the iPod Touch does?

ATT is being tight-lipped. Why? WTF knows. I realize I sound peeved, and I am. I’m not an ATT fan. They run their business like large corporations did in the 1950’s, when the customer’s needs fell beneath those of the corporation itself: Take it or leave it, sort of attitude.

As an original iPhone owner/user, I’m faced with this situation myself. Should I buy AppleCare for my iPhone before June 29th or should I simply let my iPhone’s warranty expire and risk unit failure at my own expense rather than have it covered by Apple?

Honestly, I’m on the fence. Depending on the details of the 3G iPhone plans from ATT, I might be buying the 3G iPhone. But if the plans aren’t attractive to me I will wait for the next revision of the iPhone and continue using my current iPhone (which was recently replaced under warranty).

Are you in the same boat? Waiting for ATT to spill the beans? Wondering what’s so precious about the plans that they can’t simply INFORM potential buyers of the new iPhone exactly what it will cost them to use the phone?

Memo to ATT: change.



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Why Apple thought .Mac needed a new name hasn’t been revealed by the company. There’s no real reason that a name change was, indeed, required, but perhaps it was done because .Mac/DotMac was confusing people to begin with.

MobileMe wouldn’t be my choice, but if they wanted to get away from any possible association with M$’s .Net service, MobileMe does the trick by doing away with the “dot” part of the name.

That said, Apple confuses the issue by using the .me domain for email; youremail@mac.com email address will become youremail@me.com. Simple isn’t so simple, I guess.

In the end, MobileMe is coming in July, according to Apple, and with it comes a lot of changes. MacWorld has the low-down here.

No word on the official cost. While Yahoo, Google, and a many others offer all of these services (bundled or individually), Apple has been charging users $99 per year.

Anecdotally, the price has been a long-time objection for would-be users of .Mac. It would have to be assumed that were Apple to make this a free service, not only would it be a boon to Mac users, Apple would go a very long way toward attracting Windows Switchers.

Imagine the value proposition of bundled local apps like iLife and bindled online apps like those in MobileMe? Given the sorry state of Vista, Apple could really put the hurt on Microsoft by doing away with the $99 price tag.




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Now that the 3G iPhone hype has devolved into detailed rants about the _actual_ cost of owning the new Apple handset, word about how much Apple pays for each device is showing that it might cost as little as $100 to manufacture.

I love these teardowns; sure, we know the cost of the components, but what about packaging, marketing and advertising, the cost of running the Apple Online Store or the retail stores, and all of the other costs related to the iPhone?

Regardless, Apple knows margins. They do it better than any other company in their category. Gizmondo speculates that the 3G iPhone might well become Apple’s most profitable product in its history.

With that in mind, it’s amusing that Apple has saddled itself with a company that appears to be making buying and owning an iPhone as complicated as owning any other mobile handset.

ATT, once again, is tarnishing the iPhone experience with they’re typically cryptic iPhone upgrade process. Just take a look at this crave blog post.

Not only is the upgrade eligibility nonsense unnecessarily convoluted, but ATT manages to heighten their efforts by making the calling and data plans more complicated.

Sure, this isn’t rocket surgery, but for all of Apple’s investment in making technology simple to buy and simple to use, ATT mucks it all up by breaking out SMS from the data plan.

You might say I’m making a mountain out of a molehill, but the philosophical devide between the two companies is more obvious than ever. Time for Apple to ditch this dog.

Despite Apple’s dubious relationship (my opinion) with ATT, AAPL owners have to be rejoicing. The “Half the price” 3G iPhone is going to make Apple a lot of money.

The new terms are also reason enought to consider buying some of T, which is barely above pre-iPhone levels, precicely because the 3G iPhone is going to cost consumers more than the original.



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TidBITS.com has confirmed what we suspected during the rumor stage of the 3G iPhone: that it was going to be more expensive than the current iPhone.

While the iPhone itself is less expensive, the plan is where the party comes to somewhat of an abrupt end.

The Data Plan is now $30 rather than $20, and SMS messages are no longer bundled into the plan. Check out TidBITS for the breakdown.



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ScienceProgress.com has a great article entitled, Your iPhone Is Going to Outsmart You. Here’s a sample:

“A current iPhone, with 16 gigabytes of memory, is superior to a desktop Mac of 10 years ago, and is far faster than a $10 million Cray supercomputer of the 1970s. More importantly, it has access to the web: billions of web pages and a rapidly increasing fraction of scientific publications, all indexed on a million-CPU distributed computer—a machine with a million billion bytes of memory capable of executing a million billion operations per second. A computer like the one Google uses for search is roughly similar to the human brain in speed and capacity, but is not (yet?) close in software sophistication.  The question is what a computer can do in two decades when it is thousands of times larger and faster than a human brain.”

So, if rumors about a 32GB iPhone in the works for tomorrow’s WWDC are true, we’re that much closer to becoming a slave to our passion for gadgets.

The sooner the better



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