iPhone 3G vs. 3G S

Apple has published a handy chart comparing the iPhone 3G to the iPhone 3G S. As you might expect, it does not clearly portray some key problems.

• First, existing iPhone 3G customers cannot upgrade to a 3G S for $199 or $299. Those prices are for new customers only. You will pay $599 or $699. Yeah, really.
• Amazingly, several software features Apple showed off yesterday will arbitrarily not be made available to other iPhone users. These include Voice Control and Compass. What??

Also...

Tethering, a feature of iPhone Software Update 3.0, will not be made available in the US. (Thanks AT&T.) If it happens later, it will be after AT&T adds a more expensive data plan.

MMS, another feature of iPhone Software Update 3.0, will also not be made available in the US.

The white iPhone 3G is being discontinued. If you want a white phone, you have to get a 3G S. (Not a huge deal, just pointing it out.)

By the way, was anyone else amused at the sly way Apple "countered" the Palm Pre's useful and easy-to-use multitasking capabilities? In the iPhone 3G S Guided Tour video, the commentator notes, "The first thing you'll notice is how quickly you can launch all your applications, return to the home screen, and then launch another one. Or jump between apps using embedded links." See! It's just like multitasking!

via SuperSite Blog

I'm back

I'm back from the top secret location where I worked on a even more top secret project with *censured* and *censured*. Next year is going to be excellent! I cannot wait! See you all in a few weeks, worms!!!1

Waiting for the worms...

HD DVD is officially dead

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba announced earlier today in Tokyo that it would cease production of all HD-DVD related appliances.

In a statement to the press, Toshiba declared that "it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders." The company will continue to product support and after sale services, while tapering shipments of HD-DVD electronics to a halt by the end of March 2008 and assessing what role HD-DVD may play in the PC market.

The announcement marks an end of a “format war” between Toshiba’s HD-DVD and Sony’s Blu-Ray high-resolution DVD technology. The results work out well for Sony, as the PlayStation3 is equipped with a Blu-Ray compatible DVD player. Now that the war is over with Toshiba, there may be an increased interest in Sony’s expensive gaming console.

It is best for everyone – the corporate and the consumer – that this contest between the two formats is finally over. One goes the way of the Beta-Max, the other, the way of the VHS. But hey, at least when we buy a DVD now, we won’t have to worry if it’s the right kind.

via BBC, PCWorld

Theo de Raadt Details Intel Core 2 Bugs

"Recently, Intel patched bugs in its Core 2 processors. Details were scarce; soothing words were spoken to the effect that a BIOS update is all that is required. OpenBSD founder Theo de Raadt has now provided more details and analysis on outstanding, fixed, and non-fixable Core 2 bugs. Some choice quotes: 'Some of these bugs... will *ASSUREDLY* be exploitable from userland code... Some of these are things that cannot be fixed in running code, and some are things that every operating system will do until about mid-2008.'"

Found on Slashdot.

Vista is Watching You

"Are you using Windows Vista? Then you might as well know that the licensed operating system installed on your machine is harvesting a healthy volume of information for Microsoft. In this context, a program such as the Windows Genuine Advantage is the last of your concerns. In fact, in excess of 20 Windows Vista features and services are hard at work collecting and transmitting your personal data to the Redmond company."

Found on Slashdot.

iPhone ads

After these ads, I want it even more! ;-)





Also, check out Apple's site for all ads - even i HD.

Phone Calls in Google Talk soon?

We didn't see any update for Google Talk in the last 5 months (the latest major feature was Vista support), so next release must add something important. A plausible hypothesis is phone calls. Google inserted this screenshot "from the future" in a presentation for Google Apps. We can see revealing messages like: "Show dialpad", "Call details", "Enter a name or phone number".
Great stuff!

Adobe To Release Full PDF Specification to ISO

Read more on Slashdot:

Adobe announced it will release the entire PDF specification (current version 1.7) to the International Standards Organization (ISO) via AIIM. PDF has reached a point in its maturity cycle where maintaining it in an open standards manner is the next logical step in evolution. Not only does this reinforce Adobe's commitment to open standards, but it demonstrates that open standards and open source strategies are really becoming a mainstream concept in the software industry.

This is exciting news. PDF is already de-facto standard, but when he becomes ISO standard, it cannot be stopped anymore. Go Adobe!

I Think I'm in Love

Apple iPhone. In stores... somewhere in June 2007. I want one!