Following last week’s release of the iPhone OS 3.0, the new iPhone 3GS hardware became available in Apple Stores and elsewhere in the U.S. and several other counties. More then one million new iPhones were reported to have been solid in the first week.
The new iPhone is faster and has a better camera than the old one, but many customers in the U.S. won’t be eligible for a partially discounted upgrade until July and a full discount until 2010.
Some people who bough the new iPhone in the U.S. found themselves unable to use it for hours because of glitches in AT&T’s system needed to activate the new phones. Similar problems plagued the initial iPhone launch in 2007, and the launch of the 3G in 2008.
Outside of the new iPhone, the other big Apple news is that Steve Jobs, on medical leave from Apple since December, is reported to have undergone a liver transplant two months ago. These same reports indicate that it went well and that he has been seen at work. Rumor has it that he may return as CEO of Apple soon, though not with a full schedule.
If you need to plug a microphone into your Mac, you’ll need a USB audio adapter. The line-in on your Mac won’t handle most mics. The Griffin iMic USB Audio Interface is small, inexpensive, and gets the job done. For anyone who records from a mic this product, or one like it, is a must-have.
If there are items you do not want to back up using Time Machine, go to System Preferences, Time Machine and click on the Options button. You can add folders and files. Remember that anything you add here will not get restored if your hard drive fails.
You’d think there would be a default drawing program on the iPhone. After all, with a touch screen, it should be easy to sketch out ideas and make visual notes. SimpleDraw fills in this gap. It is a free app that allows you to draw on your screen and save the image to your photo gallery.
It’s iPhone week 2009, and the first event has passed. The third major release of the iPhone OS was released yesterday, with updates available through iTunes at about 10 a.m. Pacific time.
The new OS includes copy and paste inside and between applications, a voice recording app, and small improvements in almost every default app. In addition, third-party apps now support push notification and sales inside of apps. Some apps have already been updated to take advantage of push notification.
Tomorrow morning the second shoe will drop, with the release of the iPhone 3GS. Apple stores is many countries will open an hour or two early and start distributing pre-ordered iPhones first, and then selling them to all an hour later.
The new iPhone will feature an improved camera with higher picture resolution and video shooting capability, a compass, and voice control ability.
Lines and sales may not be as big on the first day, as those who bought an iPhone 3G on July 11, 2008, are not eligible for a partial price subsidy from AT&T until exactly one year after they bought their 3G.
Ever take notes with your Mac? You probably use a text editor or word processor. Instead, use dedicated note-taking software like the feature-rick NoteBook. It doesn’t just let you type in text. You can also add sketches, audio and all sorts of things to your notes. Makes us wish we were still in college.
If you copy text that is styled, like from a Web page, and then paste it, you will get the style as well. If you just want to paste the text, use Edit, Paste and Match Style in TextEdit and Pages. In Word, use Edit, Paste Special.
While the iPhone is capable of good 3D games, rarely do you see this in use. In Vans SK8: Pool Service there are 3D graphics and gameplay, coupled with nice controls. Even if you aren’t into skating games, it is worth looking for the lite version of this game to check out the graphics.
Next week will mark the third major release of iPhone hardware. And with it comes controversy. Existing iPhone users, who bought an iPhone 3G less than two years ago — that’s everybody with an iPhone 3G — will have to pay an upgrade price if they want to switch to the iPhone 3GS.
One side of the story belongs to AT&T and Apple. Both companies had an agreement in the U.S. That AT&T would subsidize the sale of new iPhones for an undisclosed amount around $200. So the base model iPhone cost $199. Apple got your $199 plus $200 from AT&T. AT&T got a committed customer for 2 years.
Now that the iPhone 3GS is coming out, the same deal applies. If you have never owned an iPhone before, or didn’t buy one with a subsidy, then you get the base model for $199. AT&T pays Apple. You get a price break.
If you did buy an iPhone 3G and took the subsidy, then you aren’t far enough into your contract to get a subsidized price again. So there is a $200 charge. You pay $199, plsu another $200, AT&T pays nothing, and Apple gets it all. However, you aren’t committed any further to AT&T.
From the AT&T and Apple side of things, this all makes perfect fiscal sense.
From the customer side of things, this is getting a lot of people mad.
Who will pay this extra $200? The same people who want to get the latest and greatest. The same people who are Apple’s biggest fans. The same people who stand in line to get iPhones.
This has touched off a bit of a war between bloggers and commenters on the Internet, with fact-focused bloggers stating that this is how it is and everyone should stop wining. We should have known this was going to happen and that it happens with other phones on other networks as well.
But isn’t there a win-win here?
What are the motives on each side?
The customer just wants a good price and fairness. Certainly it seems that loyal iPhone customers should be rewarded, not punished, for their desire of the new phone. But Apple needs to make a profit on these devices — they’ve got employees and manufacturers to pay, and shareholders to please.
It seems to me there is a solution, if all sides are willing to give in a little.
First, AT&T’s motive in giving a $200 subsidy is to get a customer for 2 years. Why can’t they do that again? Simply extend the user’s contract by 2 years. If you are 1 year into a 2-year contract, then just push that date out again.
Apple could give a little by accepting the old iPhone 3G as a trade-in. They could resell it as a refurbished model. Even if they don’t it removes one more possible jailbroken unlocked iPhone from the market. I’d imagine that a lot of iPhone 3GS will become just that.
And the customer can agree to pay a modest upgrade fee. Doubling the price is a bit much, but would we complain about a $49 fee?
So how about: A $49 upgrade free if you trade in your old iPhone 3G and accept a 1 year extension to your AT&T contract.
Sounds like a reasonable solution.
But it looks like we are stuck with the $200 fee. At least this means we keep our existing AT&T contract, which will be a welcome thing if Apple every allows other carriers to sell the iPhone. Maybe this whole thing is a nudge from Apple that this really will happen some day.
You can set which browser is your default browser. This browser will be launched when you click on links in Mail, iCal, Address Book and other applications.
Launch Safari. Select Preferences in the Safari menu. Go to the General tab. The first option is for “Default web browser.” Change that to any browser shown, or select one not shown with the Select choice at the bottom.
If you have the need for a deeper copy and paste buffer, then ClipMenu is a powerful choice. It allows you to save a history of your clipboard, and access it easily through the menu bar. You can also assign permanent clips to keep around and there are tons of other features. This is probably a must-have for power users and writers.
The WWDC announcements this wee didn’t disappoint, with new MacBook Pros, the new iPhone 3GS, a date for the release of the iPhone OS 3.0, and a general date for the release of Snow Leopard.
You can check out our coverage of the news in episode 250 of MacMost Now, and a commentary on what was announced in a blog post. We also did a play-by-play as new news flowed in that morning.
The new MacBook Pros are already being sold at the Apple Stores. Next week we’ll have another eventful week with the release of iPhone OS 3.0 and the new iPhone 3GS.
Then in September, we’ll have the big release of Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6. The big news is that it will only cost $29 for those of us already with Leopard, which should be the vast majority of Mac user with Intel machines, the only Macs capable of running Snow Leopard.
Part of Snow Leopard, the new Safari 4 browser, is available immediately and can run on Leopard, Tiger and even Windows. You will get it, if you haven’t already, with your next software update. You can check out some of the new features in Snow Leopard in episode 251 of MacMost Now.
