5 Things You Can Do With Your iPhone That *Will* Get You Into Trouble With Apple

So you broke down and got one. Maybe it was the recent price drop or that guy at the office several cubes down showing off his flashy new toy that got you into the Apple store, credit card in hand. No matter what the reason its now time to get down to the very serious business of putting this uber-techno gadget through it’s paces. When we are done with your phone it won’t look, work, or sound the same and there ain’t a darn thing Apple or anyone else is gonna do about it! So lets start with something simple and work on up to the good stuff.

UPDATE: Don’t bother with anything you see here if you plan on installing the latest iPhone update (version 1.1.1) since it will not work.

Technorati Tags: apple, cell phones, gadgets, how-to, iphone

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Apple WWDC Impressions and Safari 3.0 on Windows

Was it just me or did the reality distortion field seem just little less this year? Don’t get me wrong there were numerous really interesting features of OSX 10.5 Leopard that I just can’t wait to try out but nothing really jumped out as a huge earth shattering announcement. New games, iPhone development and lots of neat eye candy on OSX made up the majority of the keynote with Safari on Windows is perhaps the most interesting item to come out of this year’s event. So in an effort to beat the crowds I managed to snag a copy right away (as soon as Steve made the announcement) and here are my impressions of Apple’s first effort at a Windows web browser.
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Apple Releases New Santa Rosa Macbook Pro

Just when you thought the Macbook Pro could not get any better….meet the new Macbook Pro, now with both significant speed increases and several eagerly awaited features such as LED backlighting (on the 15.4″ model only) and “up to six hours of battery life”. The new Macbook Pro features 2 gigs if ram standard and the brand spanking new Nvidia 8600M GT video card just in case you thought the previous generation’s performance was not good enough for ya. Oh, and the price stays at $1999.00 for all of the above….wow!

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3 Reasons Why the iPhone Is Already A Huge Success

So now that we know the iPhone is going to be officially released on June 29th we can all sit back and watch how Apple is yet again going to force the market to adapt vs. Apple adapting to the market. Although the iPhone is far from perfect, the implications of at least three technological advances are going to force just about every cell phone manufacturer to completely reevaluate the high end handset market. Since Apple will be effectively raising the bar for what will now be considered “top-of-the-line” handsets the likes of Nokia, Motorola, and LG are going to have to step up to the plate or face an uncertain future. Ultimately the impact will be a positive one for everyone, even those who don’t buy an iPhone since other manufacturers will begin to adopt similar types of technology into their own phones as demand for those features increases.

Technorati Tags: apple, AppleTV, blackberry, cell phones, iphone, ipod, mp3

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Something New, Something Old?

So it appears that Palm Inc. has been quite busy lately with rumors now circulating about a “response to the Apple iPhone” in the works. Not such a huge surprise since Palm has been in the handheld buisness since day one but with the iPhone due June 20th I can’t really imagine Palm coming to the table with something quite as interesting. I could be wrong, but with all the hype being generated by the iPhone’s design it stands to reason that *someone* is going to come up with a decent knock-off, might as well be Palm! The important part of this announcement really is the realization that even if the iPhone is a financial dog for Apple the design itself has made a huge impact on the smartphone market. I personally love the idea of the touchscreen vs. the traditional keypad and dedicated buttons found on my current phone; the Blackberry 8800 and can’t wait to see if the iPhone concept takes the cell phone market by storm.

Technorati Tags: apple, iphone, ipod, linux, mp3, palm

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A Mac User’s View of Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)

After my less-than-thrilling experience with Windows Vista I decided to take the plunge and download the latest release of Ubuntu with the intent to see just how far Linux has come in the last year or so. Last time I used Linux was for a server setup which worked very well but I was not all that impressed with the desktop implementation back then, which was about a year ago. Since then Ubuntu has emerged as a major force on the Linux desktop front with several solid releases that have much of the internet buzzing about how Linux might be finally ready to give the folks in Redmond a run for their money. So what does a die hard Mac fanboy have to say about the latest release of Ubuntu (Ubuntu 7.04) Feisty Fawn? Quite a bit actually…..

Technorati Tags: apple, linux, mac, review, ubuntu, vista

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5 Reasons To Cancel Cable, Use iTunes, And Save Money

One year ago this week I took the plunge and canceled my Comcast cable TV service and replaced it solely with a Verizon DSL connection and content I have downloaded through the iTunes music store because I was sick and tired of paying over $50+ per month for tons of commercials and content I never had the time or the desire to watch. The cable companies always seem to make so you have to pay for the top of the line package just to get that one show you really want to see. So after one year of nothing but iTunes (and a handful of other downloadable content sites) am I still a believer? You bet! What started out as pure frustration regarding yet another cable bill increase quickly evolved into one of the most rewarding decisions I have ever made. So what did I watch? How did I managed to pull this off, and most importantly, did I save any money? Read on for those answers and whole lot more.

Technorati Tags: apple, AppleTV, cable TV, video

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AppleTV Mini-Review

Now that the initial buzz about AppleTV has had a chance to die down I figured it would be a good opportunity to discuss my own impressions and experience setting up and playing with this new device. First off, one major misconception regarding the AppleTV is that it will compete with Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition software product. This could not be further from the truth. As many other AppleTV users have already discovered, this device is something much different and does not attempt to be all things to all people. Although the AppleTV has some very compelling features for those who exclusively use iTunes to manage their media library, folks who don’t use iTunes won’t find anything useful about this product.

Technorati Tags: airport, apple, gadgets, ipod, AppleTV, review, video

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iTunes Store is Having Minor Problems With Content Downloads

Just in case you have not already noticed the problems plaguing the iTunes store over the last few days (Apple TV launch?) here is a quick heads-up. My own last few downloads off the iTunes web site have resulted in incomplete files. Some of these problems appear to be badly uploaded content from the vendors such as the History Channel’s “Lost Worlds” season which has two incomplete episodes while others just appear to fail during the download process and do not resume. I also noted several podcasts which seem to be also effected by this problem. Notebly the latest episode of Hack .5 has only the first 15 seconds before it dies. This is really irritating me since I was happily having a good time watching some of this content on my new AppleTV when I discovered the problem. So far Apple has not made any attempt to correct the problem which I am sure others are finding annoying as well.

UPDATE: iTunes support staff responded to my report of the two problem files by refunding the charges and initiating an dialog with the owner of the content to see what went wrong and to fix the two files ASAP. Kudos on Apple getting back to me quickly and giving me a full refund no questions asked.

Technorati Tags: apple, ipod, music

Apple Inc. iPhone: Will It Sell?

Ok, now that the virtual dust has settled and the Steve Jobs reality distortion field has finally dissipated I think its now time to take a more critical look at the groundbreaking Apple Inc. iPhone. As many had expected, Apple did come through and announce the pending release of the much ballhoo’ed iPhone, a integrated (convergence device) of an widescreen iPod Nano, a cellular “smart” phone, and an internet communications device.

Technorati Tags: apple, cell phones, fashion, gadgets, iphone, ipod, mp3, video

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