Recent Articles

While the big news is obviously going to be at MacWorld next week, this week we're at the Consumer Electronics Show. There probably won't be a ton of iPhone news, so you might only see sporadic updates in the next few days. After that, though BAM.

In the spirit of quietness, go check out Whisper app for your iPhone (if you're the jailbreaking sort). You whisper a secret into the iPhone and it get uploaded to a server anonymously. You can then listen to the secrets of others. Think of it as PostSecret for the iPhone. :)

Sramana Mitra has an interesting post up comparing Apple to Palm. Actually, she's been on a tear lately when it comes to Palm and how they've dropped the corporate management ball. She scored a comprehensive interview with former Palm Executive Eric Benhamou, which reads very nicely but is also a clear example of how the problems Palm has now are the direct result of their earlier problems. Basically they followed the exact opposite trajectory that Apple did in nearly the same time period (basically).

Anyway, back to the intersection of the two companies. Mitra writes:

The Macworld Expo is coming in a little over a week and I'm wondering what it will bring for iPhone users. Macworld will obviously be focusing primarily on, er, Macs, but I'm expecting that there will be iPhone news too. Expecting it enough that, yes, Phone different will be there reporting on the events!

In any case, there's a thread up in our forums started by rener asking about what's coming and it seems like a fun thing to think about on a Friday. I won't touch the Mac rumors (except to say I want the subnotebook), but here's my shot at what I expect iPhone-wise:

The Pacific Rim Leather Jacket is a simple flip-lid style case for the iPhone. It has a clean, elegant look, but is it clean and elegant to use? Read on for our review.

Buy: Pacific Rim Leather Jacket - $39.95

Big ups to hrmpf.com for remembering a certain Apple patent: "Portable Electronic Device with Interface Reconfiguration Mode." Basically it shows a portable device clearly letting you know you're in "reconfiguration" mode by way of jiggly icons. While I personally don't much like the jigglies, I will admit that, as rener and archie say, it does make it unmistakable that you're in the "move stuff around" mode.

Here comes the synergy. Buying songs off the iTunes WiFi store while you're at Starbucks is great and all - but it turns out that most people don't go to Starbucks so they can freely surf iTunes' selections. Instead, Apple has figured out that people go to Starbucks to buy coffee and coffee-flavored beverages (let's face it, calling that mocha-double-frappa-whozit "coffee" is an insult to coffee and whozits). To that end, Apple has cagily filed a patent to allow you to order your coffee without having to actually talk to a human. Forbes describes it best:

iPhone may soon come to the land of the rising sun. Word on the street is that NTT DoCoMo head honcho, Masao Nakamura, has been seen in public holding hands with a certain American wearing faded denim jeans and black mock turtleneck sweater. He confirms today that his company is actively engaged in talks with Apple, but shrugged off questions concerning terms or product release dates.

I'll lay you odds that Apple won't swindle the same lucrative revenue sharing margins out of NTT that they've managed to extract from other wireless carriers, like our very own AT&T. And unless this agreement concerns the upcoming 3G model, iPhone has zero chance of success in Japan, which is a much more tech savvy market that doesn't look kindly on non-HSDPA phones.

<

If you bought an iPhone, odds are pretty decent that you replaced another cell phone with it. Odds are also decent that you kept the iPhone over the other cell phone. Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. Well, as it turns out, you can get a real-time price quote for your old cell phone. Just type in whatever cell phone you want to recycle at the website Second Rotation, describe the condition. If they're interested and you like the price, they'll send you a prepaid DHL label. Voila!