iPhone image, courtesy Apple

Exactly one year ago today Apple Fanboys (and girls) were able to finally get their hands on what they had been savouring for four months - the first generation Apple iPhone.

In this year, several firsts have come to this revolutionary device, as well as new products spawning from the iPhone. Below is a list outlining the most notable:

1. iPhone Price Drop - How can anyone forget the iPhone price drop that angered millions of Americans? (And the Europeans who had their iPhones a little early.) While early adopters had to wait six (or in some cases 24 HOURS) in line to get their hands on the piece of glass, plastic, and silicon that millions had been crazily salivating over, Mr. Steve Jobs himself decided to “make the iPhone more affordable” by taking a machete and slashing the price of the 8GB iPhone to $399, while eliminating the 4GB iPhone altogether.

2. The iPhone Gets Jailbroken - When the iPhone debuted many Apple Fanboys (and girls) were rather upset due to the fact that Apple in essence “lied” about the possibility that developers could develop true third party applications for the iPhone. What Apple learned from this is to not mess with the Apple Addicted sixteen year olds who have nothing better to do but sit around and try to figure out how they can hack and potentially ruin a $599 iPhone. Lo-and-behold, it was just that - a teenager who saved up his money from a part time job to buy an iPhone. He worked into the wee hours of the morning “soldering” his iPhone’s dock, until he had finally reached success!

3. Apple Sells it’s One Millionth iPhone - “It took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,” Steve Jobs’ Apple’s CEO said. In just 74 days, Apple sold one million iPhones. With this announcement, Apple was confident it was well on it’s way to achieving it’s goal of selling one million iPhones before years end.

4. Apple Announces True Third Party Support - In March, Apple officially announced the iPhone SDK, which would enable third party developers to develop true third party applications which would be able to take advantage of all of the great APIs (accelerometor, touch, ambient light sensor, etc.) that Apple had developed. At the keynote, in which Scott Forstall VP of iPhone Software and Phil Schiller did most of the heavylifting, several technology companies debuted their applications which Apple had invited them develop with the newly announced iPhone SDK.

5. iPod Touch is Introduced - On September 5, 2008, Steve Jobs took center stage as he had done many-a-time before, and introduced an entirely new line of iPods. Among the newly announced iPod Classic, Shuffle, and Nano, was the iPod Touch - the “little brother” but close relative of the iPhone. The iPod Touch had the exact same multi-touch functionality that the iPhone had, as well as the Safari web browser which could take full advantage of it’s integrated wi-fi.

6. Custom Ringtones Come to iPhone - The lack of custom ringtones upset every iPhone owner, but in September of ‘07 Steve Jobs made the announcement that you could make your own custom ringtones from any song in the iTunes music store for $.99.

7. 3G and Exchange Support for iPhone - What was truly and ultimately keeping the iPhone from becoming a business class smartphone and not just a toy that a twenty-something was expected to have was it’s lack of 3G and corporate level Exchange support. In March, at the iPhone Software Roadmap event, Phil Schiller announced that the iPhone would finally get corporate support in the form of Exchange and Activesync. This was a major leap for the iPhone, as now Apple could increase it’s market share with push e-mail, contacts, and calendar.

While there are several firsts yet to come such as video capture and FLASH, the iPhone remains one of the most revolutionary devices of the new millenium. If you would like to contribute to this list, or have a suggestion, please comment or e-mail me at richard@macfocusmagazine.com.

The folks up north in good ole Canada are more than unhappy with the rate plans Rogers/Fido is going to offer for the iPhone. iPhone fans in Canada have set up http://ruinediphone.com to protest the pathetic plans. The creator has set up a petition and posted a copy of the letter he has sent to Steve Jobs about how unaffordable the data plans are. A portion of this letter can be seen below.

” To our great disappointment, Rogers Communications Inc. has announced VERY unfair rates in comparison to AT&T in the United States and to other authorized wireless service providers around the world. As a result, a consumer movement was born yesterday (June 27th) in protest against these rates. 

Nearly 6,000 people have signed an online petition to help make a difference and the list is growing rapidly. In the last 48 hours, the website has had 40,000 unique visitors from around the world supporting Canadian consumers. There are a vast number of Canadians that would take the opportunity to buy an iPhone at $199CAD but these new plans have put it out of reach for many. ”

His site has been featured on CNN money and states “14,853 people say NO to Rogers.” Steve you better do something before the iPhone name is ruined, and I don’t mean a cease and desist letter.

The iPhone is no different, because Apple spent two and a half years perfecting the iPhone to get it ready for presentation, and another six months beyond that getting it ready for sale back in 2007. Regardless of how you feel about working on a screen that small with only an imaginary touch keyboard, there’s no denying that you can feel that Apple worked hard to make its multi-touch interface as perfect as it could so that it could get out of your way. Add to that the beautiful integration of the phone’s apps and the awesome way that it actually correctly syncs stuff with your computer, and you’ve got a nice device. But at the same time, it’s Apple’s very careful attention to the basic details that show how much work they do, and so many people have talked about all of these things that I really don’t need to go into more detail.

Yet, at the same time, I have continually been an iPhone naysayer for a number of reasons. Granted, it’s the first phone that I’d be willing to do stuff on other than calling other phones, and with the recent iPhone 3G announcement coupled with the App Store, I really have run out of things to say about the device. But unfortunately, the iPhone has one weakness that brings one major stain to the consumer experience: and even one that Apple can do little about: it’s a cell phone.

In the future, when archaeologists dig up our remains and discover more about our history, they’re probably going to wonder about us in a couple of ways: they’re going to wonder why we didn’t have universal health care, why we didn’t have free, open wi-fi in every major metropolitan area nationwide, and why we had cell phone companies charging for the crazy plans that we have now. In most cases, cell phone companies (or the predominant ones, anyway, like AT&T and Verizon in the U.S., Rogers in Canada, etc.) are simply old twentieth century phone companies that discovered this new 21st century cell phone technology and decided to sell it by using old twentieth-century techniques. I mean, why else would you be forced to sign two-year contracts for (in my opinion) prohibitively expensive plans that limit you to a certain number of minutes, and even charge you minutes for checking your own voicemail? Oh, and if you’re going to be doing any kind of web data with your device, better start counting those megabytes! All of those limitations, and yet I can’t find a decent plan anywhere for less than $40/month?

Granted, that kind of crappy service probably is a perfect match for the crappy cell phones that predated the iPhone, but the iPhone is a different beast. It’s a phone that deserves a plan with unlimited data because it actually makes it possible for a human to use the web on the go, and between Mail, Safari, YouTube, iTunes, and all of the other incoming App Store apps that the new iPhone will be using, you’re going to need that data. It deserves Visual Voicemail because it’s the first one that has the hardware necessary to let you have enough control over your voice messages to be able to treat them like e-mail (and without wasting minutes calling it up, I might add). It truly is a different phone, because it truly is a computer that happens to have a phone built in. But because that phone is built-in, that makes it subject to the need for a cell phone carrier, and that’s where Apple’s perfection breaks down.

It is true that Apple has been able to come up with some new ideas to loosen the networks’ traditional stronghold on cell phone sales. While many carriers end up taking control of about half of a phone’s software functionality, the iPhone feels like a pure Apple product. And, similarly to how the Intel Macs don’t have an “Intel Inside” sticker, the iPhone doesn’t have an AT&T logo or anything emblazoned on it. Apple has also actually figured out how to improve the activation experience. Forget having to set the phone up and all that stuff in a store or calling a service rep up on the phone, just buy the iPhone the same way you’d buy an iPod and set it up online yourself in a setup system that actually works.

But there’s still plenty of room for the carrier to gum up Apple’s offering. First off is that darned two-year contract, which makes it quite difficult for people to switch over from their old phone to the iPhone, and difficult further for some to be willing to commit to the device. Add further the fact that the cost of the plan under the contract (starting at $70/month for the new iPhone 3G), and that’s over $1500 you’ll be shelling out over the next two years, in addition to the high cost of the phone. As I noted in my previous article on MacFocus Magazine, halving the price of the iPhone may be beneficial, but having AT&T bump up the price of the service by $10/month actually adds to the existing cost of the iPhone. And even then, cell phone companies still can find ways to muck it up, from preventing Apple initially from permitting developers on the iPhone to sending out 300-page bills.

This has been none too apparent this past weekend with the news coming from Canada over the new iPhone rate plans from Rogers, which show just how absolutely ridiculous it is for this kind of new technology to be dictated by the outdated ways of these phone companies. In a way, it’s kind of unfortunate that Apple couldn’t make a cell phone carrier service as innovative as they’ve made MobileMe as a web service.

And so, it’s for this very reason that I’m not getting an iPhone. Yes, it’s now perfect in just about every way, but it’s locked onto AT&T (why, Apple, couldn’t you sell an unlocked version?), at a prohibitively expensive high monthly rate that few teenagers can afford, and for a two-year contract, besides. Maybe someday, when either the iPhone is granted more freedom to roam with (pun intended), or when the major cell carriers start to develop some more brains in their thick skulls, I’ll be more compelled to shell out for an iPhone. But until the rate plan side of the iPhone package gets somewhat better, iCan’t.

Take 2003, for example, when the PowerMac G5 was first introduced, topping off at 2 GHz, and Steve Jobs promised 3 GHz within a year. In 2004, Jobs had to apologize for the G5 not making it to the 3 GHz mark, but being quick to note that the percentage speed increase was higher than Intel’s. But then just a year after that, in 2005, he announced that the Mac would be shoving aside the PowerPC and adopting Intel chips.

Then, in 2006, Jobs previewed Leopard at WWDC, saying that it would be released in the Spring of 2007. But that promise also didn’t make it into the next year, when Leopard was re-previewed (reviewed?) again with an October 2007 moniker.

Now, once again, another inconsistency has taken center stage. It was in 2007 that Jobs told developers that the way that they could write apps for the iPhone was through Safari “web apps” that used HTML/CSS/JavaScript/AJAX, repeatedly calling it a “sweet solution.” Well, the market disagreed and instead hacked together its own programs, and so here we are now in 2008, when exactly half of the keynote was dedicated to the new iPhone SDK and API and the brand new apps that the iPhone would be able to run. More on that later.

However, in my opinion, I do believe that this year’s WWDC keynote was a success (and the first one since 2005 that I actually thought was somewhat enthralling), and the main reason that I felt it was a success was that Apple took two of what I considered to be its worst-flawed products and actually made something good out of them. Let’s see what I mean.

iPhone 3G: The Reason Why You Shouldn’t Adopt Early

Those of you who have followed my comments have known that I’ve been a continuous skeptic of the iPhone from day one. Granted, I hate cell phones for numerous reasons, primarily because of their miserable interface that cannot even begin to be described by all of the negative adjectives ever coined in the English language. When I first watched Steve Jobs introduce the iPhone, I was intrigued by the new interface and the concept of multi-touch, which really seemed like the way a smartphone should be.

But the unusually strong dose of reality distortion field wore off quickly, at least for me anyway, upon learning of its flaws that made it clear that it was a first-generation product. Probably the biggest hit for me, the young teenager on a low budget who was already living life just fine without a cell phone, was the price. $499 for a cell phone? (No, I wasn’t even thinking about the 8 GB model at the time.) I’ve heard of smart phones costing a fortune when they’re unlocked, but the thought of paying $500 for a cell phone (plus tax), and then having a two-year contract with AT&T starting at a minimum of $60/month (that’s $1440 right there) was ridiculous. Oh, and I’m not really a big fan of AT&T for various reasons.

And furthermore, the iPhone had a great potential to be a powerful mobile computing device, but by closing it off to developers, the actual possibilities for what the device could actually do were quite hampered. Is it a good cell phone? Yeah, but I’m already living fine without one. Is its browsing capabilities cool? Yeah, but I’m already browsing fine on my MacBook. Does the touchable iPod look interesting? Yeah, but if I needed it I would have gotten an iPod a long time ago. That’s pretty much all it had, despite the absolutely ridiculous amount of hype surrounding it. Good luck if that could justify me spending half a grand and signing away my soul to AT&T for two years.

But that’s partially why I actually seemed intrigued by the news of the iPhone SDK and the App Store (as well as the Enterprise support to a bit of a lesser extent): Apple finally pulled its face out of the sand and realized the iPhone’s true potential: as a mobile platform. Maybe it took the craziness of the iPhone hacking ecosphere to convince Apple that the SDK was necessary, maybe it was a message in one of Scott Forstall’s dreams, who knows, but it’s clear from the demos that we saw back in March and again at WWDC that the App Store on the iPhone is something major. As David Pogue said, we’re going to see the iPhone and its multi-touch interface become the next major development platform, and the first true development platform for mobile devices, whether it be games or productivity apps. All iPhone and iPod touch users will be able to make their device do what they want or need it to do, whether it be for enterprise use or personal use, and that is major. Add in the fact that the iPhone’s price is now actually reasonable at $200, and you’ve got yourself a winner. I don’t even care if the new iPhone has 3G or GPS; to me, the App Store is the shining gem in this box of marbles and, along with the price drop, fills in the largest gap in the iPhone’s feature offering to date.

Unfortunately, there are some downsides. While the iPhone 3G may be $200 cheaper than the previous generation, the fact that it is still tied to AT&T’s 3G network, which costs $10/month more than the EDGE network did, means that with the two-year contract, you’ll be paying at least an additional $240 (yuck yuck!), and that’s presuming that you’re even in one of the few areas that benefits from having 3G speeds available. The battery is still sealed inside and you still can’t expand the memory. Despite the phone’s widescreen that’s particularly suited for widescreen movies, the storage space still maxes out at 8 or 16 GB, only enough for a handful of movies, and maybe one or two if you want to pack your music or other video on there. And we haven’t even considered the space that the new iPhone apps could take up, either. And it still isn’t available in an unlocked version, although the fact that Apple and AT&T have severed their revenue-sharing agreement means that perhaps Apple won’t come down as hard on those illicit unlocks.

And what of the iPod touch, its little brother? It barely got any showing in the keynote other than a mention that the upcoming software upgrade (enabling the App Store et al) will be half the cost of the upgrade that came last January. But the iPhone’s price has dropped dramatically, and the touch’s has not. Now an 8 GB iPod touch costs a full $100 more than the same-size iPhone, and it doesn’t have a 3G connection or GPS, or a phone or SMS for that matter. It also still costs $50 more than the iPod classic with ten times as much storage space. True, it will gain the App Store, but at the disadvantage in that it’ll only connect to the internet at a difficult-to-find-and-often-not-free Wifi hotspot, which reduces the benefit of all of this “push” magic (more below) and again makes you wonder why you don’t just stick to your laptop. There still seems to be something missing in the equation for the iPod touch, and for those of us who aren’t willing or aren’t able to sign a contract with AT&T, it might still be advisable to hold off a bit on the touch…

MobileMe: .Mac Develops an Ego

The other thing that I was glad to see was that Apple finally decided to do something about its ruptured appendage that we have all called .Mac for the past six years. .Mac may have had somewhat of a good value back in 2002, but that value was short-lived and Apple mostly forgot about it as .Mac withered into less and less.

With this rebranding of .Mac, now called MobileMe, Apple appears to have re-entered the web services market with a much stronger arm and a much smarter brain. Apple has focused on what was .Mac’s strongest elemenet–its excellent syncing abilities–and has redeveloped the whole service around it. Plus, Apple has learned quite a bit from its other projects: MobileMe is not a Mac-centric service and can now be seriously considered by PC users as well.

Of course, MobileMe still has its old .Mac (and even older iTools) roots, except that the price tag seems a bit more worth it. The e-mail and iDisk actually offer quite a bit of value with a whopping 20 GB of combined storage space. Now, that’s an iDisk that would actually be big enough to store my files for access from multiple computers (if I was still working from multiple computers like I did once upon a time). The other major features (calendar sharing, address book, web gallery) are still there as well. The only feature that I’ll really, truly miss is iCards. I guess Apple likes its Mail stationary and its iPhoto cards better, but I really think that it’s a darned shame, since it’s won many loyal fans over the past eight years.

However, with MobileMe’s new emphasis on Exchange-like “push” services, Apple is finally giving the service a meaning again. No longer just a gimmick for putting your iLife creations on the internet, MobileMe is now about helping you work smarter across multiple devices, be it Macs, PCs, or iPhones/iPod touches. Even a complete non-Mac user (which many iPod/iPhone users are) could benefit now from MobileMe and find its services quite useful. Plus, with webmail applications that feel almost completely like their Mac OS X counterparts–who knows how they got them working on IE7–it really looks like Apple has got a winner. My only gripe here is that $99/year still feels a bit steep, especially if you’re looking to combine it with the monthly plan on an iPhone, but at least the service feels worth something again and I’ll be interested to see how this takes off. Who knows, maybe even I’ll be getting a me.com e-mail address soon…

The Final Word

In our tech-enthralled world, people really get quite overhyped about brand-spanking-new things, and don’t pay as much attention to things that get refreshed and updated to be better and more complete. However, WWDC showed us that the fuller the pot is, the more delicious the soup. Though my personal position will probably prevent me from taking advantage of these new products any time in the near future (I’m still saving for a Time Capsule), Apple has finally begun to win me over to these products, and I’m sure others as well. I really think that we’re on the precipice of a new frontier for Apple and the industry, and we’d better get ready to hang on for the ride.

Iconfactory recently showed of Twitterrific for the iPhone and it’s currently available on the Mac. What if there were the possibility that for $20, you could get both applications ad-free? That would be a hit because you’d essentially get the iPhone app for $5. You could then synchronize the settings on one to be on the other. If you’re on the go and don’t like how your iPhone displays the tweets, change it on the fly and the changes will automatically adapt to your Mac.

Another possibility in my mind would be the marvelous blogging app, MarsEdit. If Red Sweater Software were to release an iPhone application, you could easily write articles on the go. In the car and have a random thought? Just grab your iPhone or iPod touch. If you have connectivity (whether it be GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, or WiFi), you can instantly post to your blog. Perhaps your in a keynote conference and you want to do a live-blog? This could be an excellent way of blogging instead of having to lug around your laptop.

A final idea would be the oh-so-interesting game, Spore. This may very well be planned out, but if you could sync your creatures and worlds between your iPhone and Mac, you could very well have the next Nintendo DS or Tamogachi on your hands. Continuing your virtual evolution with your creature on the go could be very addictive and cause more people to run into streetlights. While it’s not a possibility yet, if the iPhone/iPod touch were able to create an ad-hoc network over WiFi, your characters could roam around to other Spore Mobile users’ worlds and others come into your worlds. The possibility is there, the technology just needs to be put in place.

The App Store is a very cool thing that will definitely be big and something to follow once it’s released. Let’s just hope that developers play their cards right.

NOTE: The preceeding is strictly the opinion of Truman Kain and not of MacFocus Magazine or anybody affiliated with MacFocus Magazine.

Upon first seeing this video, I felt the implications of having a community literally being connected 24/7 were absolutely groundbreaking. Changing your classes on-the-fly to receiving important announcements from your professors instantly. These applications can ease the burden for those on both sides; the students and the faculty. This one of the amazing sides of the iPhone. It demonstrates that the iPhone really isn’t a phone but a platform for future development. Just as David Pogue of the New York Times said, “You’re witnessing the birth of a third major computer platform: Windows, OS X and iPhone.”

“You’re witnessing the birth of a third major computer platform: Windows, OS X and iPhone.” - David Pogue

However, after the video was done I also had a second reaction. That is the uneasiness that can come from being so dependent on technology. What if all of the iPhones were to break? What would the students do? I guess ACU (and other universities who would place a dependence on the iPhone) would simply have to cancel classes. I deeply hope that we don’t rely on technologies such as these for every second of our lives, but use them as a tool to better our lives. I love technology, but it truly scares me when people place their entire lives on a single device. If there is one thing I can say to future iPhone users, such as these, it would be: Please keep in mind that the iPhone is an amazing tool, but you need to remember that it’s simply a tool, not your life.

The iPhone, as noted throughout Steve Jobs’s WWDC Keynote, will have profound effects on the future of technology. This is one of the many that will come. Now we look to the next months to see what other amazing implications this device can have.

If you’re the type of person who would love to have VoIP on your iPhone to save you from going over hundreds of minutes each month, then you’re in luck. This week there were two more iPhone VoIP services released on top of one that currently existed via Installer.app. Each of these services offers something a little bit different, so you will have to pick the one you like the most.

1) Sipgate - This version of iPhone VoIP comes with 111 free minutes when you first start using it. After that, you have to sign up for a SIP account to get more. It only works over WiFi as you would expect and also supports other third party VoIP services which is a plus.

2) iCall - This service is completely free, and it still only works over WiFi. However, it does have the ability to switch between using VoIP while in a hotspot and your AT&T connection while not at anytime during the call which is great. It will be available with the App Store that will come out with the SDK next week.

3) Fring - Just like the other two, Fring needs WiFi to work, and this one if completely free. However, the only way to get this one currently is through Installer.app on a jailbroken phone. Otherwise, you’re good to go.

Which one looks the most interesting and/or best to you? Which feature do you like most about iPhone VoIP? What would you like to see added?

For $1.98 a month, you will get two fresh ringtones in your iTunes “ringtone” section every week. But these aren’t any old ringtones. These aren’t low quality snippets of the hottest rap song. Instead, they are fun, quirky original ringtones by the famous Geoff Smith. 

Mr. Smith is the man behind some of the most notable podcast jingles, and has done work for people like Adam Curry, Cali Lewis and countless other well-established podcasters. In addition, he has created the soundtrack for the iYule virtual fireplace in your pocket. 

The setup is simple and flawless. You simply enter all your information at ringtonefeeder.com, await for an email to show up in your inbox, click the link that opens iTunes and you’re ready to go!

Each week, you will receive one ringtone with just music, and the other with Mr. Smith’s marvelous voice. Ringtone feeder is a must have for all users with the iPhone. 

I came up with a few reasons on why you should not upgrade to the 3G iPhone!

1. Unused Features - There are really only two new features that you get with buying the 3G iPhone: GPS and 3G networking. First you have to look and see if you even live in a 3G area. If you do not, then you will still be on your EDGE network. Then how often do you really think you are going to be using the GPS feature? All it is going to do is suck your battery life out.

2. 2.0 Firmware - You’re still going to get the same applications, the same software, and same everything on your current iPhone and the 3G iPhone. So why would you go through all of that trouble to sell your current iPhone, and wait in line and do all of that just to get a set of new features?

3. Contracts - That is right, maybe you were not aware of this, but the 3G iPhone will actually be $10 more a month. So instead of paying for your regular base price, you better be prepared to tack on an extra $10 each month. You need to think of it this way. They lowered the price, but you still have to pay about the same money in monthly fee’s.

These are my top 3 reasons on why you should not purchase the new iPhone. If you want more, Chris Pirillo has a great list that I would suggest on looking at. 

The most anticipated video recording app for the iPhone named “uShow” was previewed in December by Monster and Friends. Since then we have seen nothing more than a few screenshots, and a beta registration. However, the beta never arrived and there is now a stay tuned message on uShow’s registration page

The owner known as “Drunknbass” closed all comments on his video recording post, on http://monsterandfriends.com, due to a mass amount of users insulting and badgering him with questions and rude comments.

Users have posted a comments on a different post regarding one of Monster and Friend’s other apps asking when we should expect any of his apps however, there has been no response.

Even though there is not much activity on his own site many angry users, including those contributing money to Drunknbass, have posted threads on ModMyiFone. Here, many questions and concerns have been brought up including the possibility of uShow just being a publicity stunt. A portion of one of these posts (click here) by “iPhoneMadness” can been seen below.

“As long as I’ve read about this, there has been NOTHING produced from you. Your all talk. Fake. I wish you would just stop posting. Even if you do come out with Ushow, your attitude alone would make me not download it, much less pay for it. ESPECIALLY since there is already a proven app that works, which I might add, doesn’t come with an arrogant, childish, attention seeking dev.”

Drunknbass responded with

“shut your hole.”

It appears Drunknbass is very secretive about uShow and hasn’t allowed anyone to test it nor has he posted many screenshots. 

Many of his supporters have turned to a different app called “iPhoneVideoRecorder” by Dreamweaver. Their app provides a fairly good quality video recorder that provides video/audio quality settings as well as an option to upload videos to YouTube.  Even though it is not free it allows you to record up to 30 sec without purchasing a license. 

As the screenshots on http://ushow.com suggest, uShow may be able to upload to many video sharing sites however, no one knows if we will ever see uShow on our iPhones. Until Drunkbass releases more many have deemed uShow a noShow.

Please note we will be temporarily closed Thursday, May 29 at 3:00 p.m. and will reopen Friday, May 30 at 9:00 a.m. During this time, please visit one of our other two Manhattan locations.

Some brave Apple store employees secretly told visitors that a 3G iPhone commercial was being shot here. If it was a 3G iPhone commercial, we wouldn’t find out for a few more weeks. But, something was shot here. Trucks brought in lights, cameras, and booms in by the dozens. Some bystanders who were lucky enough to somehow snap a picture noted that inside the Apple store, there were cardboard boxes covering a table. Could these be the next generation iPhone under-wraps?  

Gizmodo notes that director David Fincher was hired for the job. Mr. Fincher, the director of movies like “Se7ven”,”Fight Club”, and “Panic Room”, is Final Cut Pro user.  

AppleInisder points out that that last week in Los Angeles, a fake Apple Store set was built. It was a regular production until an unnamed product came out. At this point, only essential staff were permitted to be on set. The latest filming in New York city may very well be a continuation of the last shooting.

As always, there are some out-of-this-world speculation around events like this. Multiple people said that they saw a case marked “5+4″. A few hours later, this showed up, saying that Steve Jobs was in the case. 

But whatever it was, something indeed happened last Thursday night, and its only for time to tell. 

Image Source: The iLife

Article Sources: 

AppleInsider, Gizmodo, MacRumors, The iLife

If that wasn’t enough, there’s more! Apple also implies that the iPhone or any other device could use an interface to display the direction in which the device lies. Welcome to the days where you no longer have to worry about losing that small little Bluetooth headset people, Apple may one day save us again! There are virtually endless uses for something like this and it could easily be expanded to other devices with maybe a simply chip someday. What do you think of all this? Do you like the idea of not being able to lose your small little gadgets anymore? I sure do!

Image and information from AppleInsider

A rumored screenshot has surfaced that shows, with the upcoming firmware, the iPhone will have the ability to switch between 3G and EDGE for data transfer. If true, this is great news for the road warrior. Because the iPhone doesn’t have a removable battery (and most likely the future iPhone), once your battery is dead, you’re sort of out of luck, unless you’ve got a car charger. If this rumored feature is real though, you will have the option of choosing 3G (Blazing speeds, lower battery life), or EDGE (Ok speeds, good batter life). Now obviously, when current iPhone owners download this firmware (2.0), they will not have the option to use 3G because, as you know, the current iPhone doesn’t support 3G or else I’d own one. This is pretty smart on Apple’s part. If there isn’t 3G support in your area, you can keep using EDGE, and hey, you still have good battery life. And if you ARE able to transfer data at 3G speeds, you can always switch to EDGE once you’re low on juice. Good move, Apple.
Source: MacRumors

I believe that providing better service globally is an important step for Apple, considering that some sources indicate that there are between 1 and 1.5 million hacked iPhones spread across 35 to 40 different countries, despite being authorized in only four. International service is a must at this point; after all, there is obviously a global market for the iPhone. While it’s always better late than never, truly worldwide distribution couldn’t come any sooner.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

With all the hype around the iPhone for the past year, there is no doubt in my mind that WWDC this year is going to be full of, to say the least, interesting announcements. The obvious of these announcements being a 3G iPhone along with statement about its SDK and new software are going to be talked about for quite a while. However, my question for you is what else do you think will be announced, if anything at all? Will there be new iPods or Macs? Or maybe even just some larger software updates? Your guess is as good as mine.

If I were to guess what other announcements there are going to be at this event, I would say Leopard 10.5.3. Version 10.5.2 has been around for a while now and there are still some bugs that need fixing with certain applications. Another thing I would presume to be released or talked about would be .Mac. There has been a couple of rumors floating around that this service is going to receive a major update that will make it more competitive with Microsoft Exchange. That would be a great compliment to the iPhone’s Mail.app as well as how it is soon going to support ActiveSync. Either way, it appears like the current version of Mac OS X is going to change for the better.

What do you think about all this? What are you looking forward to about this event?

Apple Inc.’s iPhone can already playback video, browse the Internet, and place phone calls, but a new filing by the handset maker suggests it may one day take your lunch order and serve as a tour guide at the local zoo.

Now, how could Apple pull off a stunt like this? The patent implies that they would use a short range wifi network that can detect when an Apple product, such as an iPhone, connects to it. By doing this, it would be able to offer special content to that device.

In my opinion, if this patent is ever put into effect it would be the start of a whole new digital age. Paper menus and tour guides would be a thing of the past. With this, you would simply walk into a new restaurant or town and then be instantly greeted with a digital menu or tour guide on your device. That would be purely awesome. Digital media would be put at the forefront of our lives and would help us with everything that we do. It would completely ease many of the tasks that we do in our everyday lives and take a lot of strain off of visiting new places. I really hope Apple puts this patent into effect, because I can’t wait for something like this.

Last week, at Munich’s BMW World, Intel Germany CEO Hannes Schwaderer revealed that Apple would in fact be using Intel’s Atom processor in an upcoming iPhone. This particular iPhone would be bigger than the current model, but not because of the Atom processor, because of a bigger screen. Now though, only days later, Intel is denying Schwaderer’s statement, saying instead that he was talking about devices “that the Atom might power in the future.” So, what could this all mean? It COULD mean that Intel really did screw up, and Schwaderer really didn’t mean what he said. OR, it could mean that Apple’s trying to keep things on the down-low (which is almost always the case with most Mac Rumors.) I personally think that a 3G iPhone will be introduced on June 9th, and the next iPhone after that will incorporate the Atom processor. With the newfound power (and a bigger screen), this future model may even be able to run intense applications like Photoshop. That’s right: Photoshop on your iPhone. What do you think?
Source: MacRumors

The current iPhone is on AT&T’s 2.5G network, and by switching to 3G the iPhone will be much more powerful, and have more features. This includes better service, faster internet connection, and much more. 3G also allows to have video calls, but there has been no confirmation on this feature yet.

One feature that I want to talk about in particular is the wireless internet. I am not talking about in your home, being connected to your airport. I am talking about when you are on the road, and you are browsing the web. For those that already have the iPhone, I am sure you are surprised on how fast it is, I believe it is almost as fast as dial up. The 3G iPhone will be much, much faster as some people are saying.

Other than the iPhone connecting to the 3G network, there will not be many new features. You are still going to have the same capacity, the same OS, and same look. Some rumors are saying you will be able to record video, send and receive pictures, and that the whole phone will be a glossy black.

Now, usually when products like this are coming, there is usually a delay because of the demand for the product. So far, this does not seem to be the case for Apple. Apple is reporting that they are actually ahead of schedule, which means they should be on track to release the 3G iPhone sometime this summer.

The iPhone hasn’t even been out for a year yet, and Apple is already beginning to make it better. It’s like I alway say, there are two types of phones you can buy: There is the iPhone, then there is everything else! No phone can compete with the iPhone, they just can’t. It is truly the greatest phone out there, there is no flaw in it.