Macworld.com reports that the upcoming WWDC 2008 is sold out.

That's the first sell-out in the conference's history. This is rather big news. Critics of the iPhone SDK (and the iPhone in general) have to view this as confirmation that Apple's indeed on the right track with their mobile handset plan.



Ad: Treat yourself to a brand new MacBook Air 1.6GHz from Amazon. Free shipping and no tax. Add up those savings.

tags Apple, inc | Apple Hardware

Remember our conversation about the iPhone lookalikes from yesterday? Apple hardware didn't want to be left out.

Crave has a sweet post about a black iMac. It's not really an iMac, actually, but it sure looks like one.



Ad: Treat yourself to a brand new MacBook Air 1.6GHz from Amazon. Free shipping and no tax. Add up those savings.

tags Apple Hardware | iMac

Apple is set to launch the iPhone in India. The iPhone will be sold through 2.5 lakh Vodafone and Airtel retail stores. That translates into 250,000 places to buy the iPhone in India.

To put this development into perspective, Apple launched the iPhone in the States less than a year ago, and through around 7,250 ATT and Apple Retail stores.

This is a game-changer.



Ad: Treat yourself to a brand new MacBook Air 1.6GHz from Amazon. Free shipping and no tax. Add up those savings.

tags iPhone

Apple decided to make a phone. The iPhone. Then competitors made a ton of look-alikes.

The look-alikes keep rolling out. Case in point, RIM's Bold and the rumored Thunder.

Apple inspired Kleiner Perkins to hammer out the iFund, a $100 million fund that will invest in iPhone app startups.

RIM appears to love the idea, so they came out with the announcement that they're launching a $150 million fund to invest in BB apps. Great idea.

BlackBerry has a massive grip on executive users, but from what I've been able to determine many of those users want an iPhone. The problem is that the current iPhone doesn't integrate into their enterprise.

As we know, that's going to change in a few weeks.

Sure, RIM and their BlackBerry won't go away once Apple's iPhone has equal footing in the enterprise, but all of the RIM fans that say that RIM has nothing to worry about are flat wrong.

RIM has 1.5 things going for it. It has push email and it has a tactile keyboard. Email counts as 1x and the keyboard counts for .5x.

They're about to lose their full-point advantage, and will be on equal footing with Apple within a year-ish, as it will take some time to get Apple past a lot of IT know-it-alls (read comfortable only with what they know). But Apple will get the iPhone into a lot of enterprise environments because there are users in positions of power who will demand it.

That leaves the keyboard. That's a problem for Apple. There is a contingent of BB users that will never switch to the iPhone because it lacks the tactile keyboard. Haptic will help, and that should be coming soon if you believe the rumors, but there are some users that will demand actual keys (or buttons). No big deal: Apple has never been the style of company that wants _all_ of the business.

RIM will be fine, but the point is that iPhone is indeed a threat. Don't believe me? Actually get to know the iPhone.

Then stack the iPhone up against the RIM feature-for-feature in June, when the first iFund apps roll out. Then do it again in four months from now. Then six months from now. Then one year from now.

RIM will continue to "shadow" many of Apple's best moves, but this iPhone user thinks that RIM won a few battles, but Apple has already begun to win the war.



Ad: Treat yourself to a brand new MacBook Air 1.6GHz from Amazon. Free shipping and no tax. Add up those savings.

tags Apple, inc

iPhone's are sold out. Apparently nearly everywhere.

It's sold out in the Apple Online Store, US Apple retail stores are reportedly sold out. It's sold out in the UK. Ebay might be the only way to find an iPhone (unless you're willing actually go into an ATT store, but that's probably not going to happen).

With no first-rev iPhones available, claims that the 3G iPhone will ship any second now are rampant. I don't buy it.

I welcome a new iPhone, mine's looking horribly beat up, but we're still 60 days away from the iPhone's first-anniversary. While it's possible, it doesn't seem likely.

Venturebeat.com agrees:

The buzz around the 3G iPhone is already pretty amazing. I’ve received no fewer than five emails this week from non-tech friends and family asking for anything I know about the device. With so much rumor and speculation floating around it’s hard to know much of anything for certain. Still, I would stick by the assessment that we won’t see the device in May and that instead it will be unveiled by Steve Jobs during his keynote at the WWDC on June 9. He’ll then probably announce its availability within a few weeks, and the lines outside AT&T and Apple stores will begin to form.

I find that analysis to be spot on, and rather obvious. Short of a last-minute Special Event, there doesn't seem to be any incentive to announce the next revision of the iPhone without a very public platform like WWDC to do it on.

After all, we're not talking about a product from ATT (what a bunch of bozos). We're talking about a product that is very important to Steve Jobs.



Ad: Treat yourself to a brand new MacBook Air 1.6GHz from Amazon. Free shipping and no tax. Add up those savings.

tags iPhone

Apple, inc just got an insanely bad grade from Mother Earth. Actually, on Climate Counts' scale of 100 Apple scored an 11. By way of reference, IBM scored a 77; Apple's clearly failing.

So, what gives? Earth's so-called poster boy for the environment has been on Apple's board of directors for over five years, yet it appears as though he's had little or no impact on Apple beyond the sort of throw-away influence one might minimally expect from a figurehead.

Why can't Apple get their Green act together. If you believe organizations like Greenpeace, Apple simply doesn't want to. If you believe Steve Jobs, they're doing tons to be easier on the environment.

I suspect the truth is somewhere in between, but Climate Counts report clearly demonstrates that Apple isn't doing as much as their peers, and that's not impressive. But _last_ among its peers? Come on.

Apple's negative impact on the planet is only made worse when the company's recent growth is considered. It's made obscene when one considers Apple's legendary profit margins.

Memo to Apple: we pay more for quality, we would happily pay more for a better environmental component. Time to move ahead of tech dinosaurs like IBM. Really. No excuses.



Ad: Treat yourself to a brand new MacBook Air 1.6GHz from Amazon. Free shipping and no tax. Add up those savings.

tags Apple, inc

Macworld reviews the very cool, wooden-cased, Vers x2,

Whether or not the Vers 2x will appeal to you depends largely on the relative values you place on design, environmentally-focused production, sound quality, and features. For a basic, desktop speaker system, the 2x is up there with the most attractive we’ve tested, is solidly (and sustainably) built, and sounds decent. However, at $180, you’re paying for that design and, presumably, for Vers Audio’s attention to the system's environmental impact (which, as I noted above, I wholeheartedly commend). Similarly, the 2x’s features and sound quality are limited compared to some of the better systems in this price range. Still, I was sad to see the review unit go—it looked so good on my desk

We so want to review one ourselves.



Ad: Treat yourself to a brand new MacBook Air 1.6GHz from Amazon. Free shipping and no tax. Add up those savings.

tags iPod | Reviews

Good morning, Apple Lovers.

Here's a rare coupon code from Apple: MMK62DPBWR. Use it to save $30 on iLife '08.

According to the offer, the code is good for a "limited time." Use it wisely .



Ad: Treat yourself to a brand new MacBook Air 1.6GHz from Amazon. Free shipping and no tax. Add up those savings.

tags iLife | Deals | Apple, inc

Macworld takes a very close, hands-on look at the once-thought-to-be-vaporware Psystar Mac "clone."

If Psystar is all about giving you the Mac OS X experience at a more affordable price, it was obvious right away that product packaging is one area where the company is looking to trim costs. When the box arrived, we found it stuffed with white foam packing peanuts, making the unpacking process a big mess—I hate those things. The Open Computer was just sitting in there with the packing peanuts, with nothing covering it. Some of the doors on the front of the case that cover the optical drive and the USB ports were a ajar with little pieces of the packing peanuts lodged in there. After we cleared out the offending bits, the doors closed properly and the computer appeared to be no worse for wear.

Ad: Treat yourself to a brand new MacBook Air 1.6GHz from Amazon. Free shipping and no tax. Add up those savings.

tags Apple Hardware

Flash haters everywhere are hiding from the Internet this week. Stories about Flash are all over the tubes.

Cringely has a column on why Apple should buy Flash's daddy, Adobe. Apple Insider is doing a 3-part story on Flash, and Daring Fireball thinks iCringley is iNuts.

Then there's the bevy of iPhone cum Flash stories plastered on all sites Apple. No need to link to them here: just Yahoo for "iPhone" and "Flash" and you'll be treated to 1 trillion results in 0.00034 seconds. Ugg.

So, what the heck is


Ad: Treat yourself to a brand new MacBook Air 1.6GHz from Amazon. Free shipping and no tax. Add up those savings.

tags Safari | iPhone

If this story is true, I am not at all surprised. Further proof that the studios still don't get it:

iTunes' big studio deal announced yesterday? It's going to be an expensive one for Steve Jobs who's taking a loss on each film sold. Some terms from the WSJ: Apple (APPL) is paying $16 to the studios for each new release, and will sell the films to consumers for $14.99.

The collective hate towards movie studios and music labels on behalf of consumers is white-hot. Stories like this, that suggest studios are even ripping off the reseller(s) just add fuel to the flame.

My suggestion would be for these bozos to make it as _easy_ as possible (at a profit, of course) to get content into the hands of those willing to pay.

Apple is piracy's arch enemy: why you mess with Apple, Studios? Why? Grease the wheels. Make it possible for Apple to make a fair profit. They're giving consumers a _very_ easy way to buy your junk.



Ad: Treat yourself to a brand new MacBook Air 1.6GHz from Amazon. Free shipping and no tax. Add up those savings. Read More...

tags iTunes

Cheapskates rejoice. Just so long as they have a friend with an AT&T account.

I just ran across this on Bensbargains.net:

T Wireless is offering free HotSpot WiFi access to iPhone users. Some enterprising individuals figured out that anybody can get free access by changing their browser's user agent to "Mobile Safari 1.1.3" and using an AT&T Wireless phone number (it doesn't have to be your own).

So, if your "friend" doesn't really even have to know that you're spoofing their account, you just need to know their phone number. AT&T will have this shut down pronto, I'm sure.



Ad: Treat yourself to a brand new MacBook Air 1.6GHz from Amazon. Free shipping and no tax. Add up those savings. Read More...

tags iPhone