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A New Kind Of Heist: Six Apps For Free

Those crazy MacHeisters are at it again, and this time the deal is even harder to resist.
The first ever MacHeist Nano won’t cost you a penny. You can download, without charge, fully licensed copies of ShoveBox, WriteRoom, Twitterific, TinyGrab, and Hordes of Orcs. If 500,000 people take part (which I think is a pretty safe [...]

Getting More iPhone Home Screens – And Keeping Them

A couple of weeks back, I wrote Temporarily Get More iPhone Home Screens Via Cunning Bug Exploit, but had heard staying away from the iTunes Applications tab within my iPhone was probably a Very Good Idea. Reader Larry Pressnell noted that since the most recent iTunes update, his extra screens have been accessible in iTunes.
Since [...]

Cult of Mac Favorite: MobileStacks Is the Best Reason To Jailbreak. Period.

I really like Stacks on my Mac. Stacks makes it fast and easy to find files, folders and apps right from the Dock. It makes managing a Mac pretty slick with all sorts of little UI tricks. That’s why I recently gave MobileStack a go on my jailbroken iPhone.
I must say that it lives up to the [...]

Gallery: Behind the Scenes From Two Classic Apple TV Ads

Is this Steve Jobs driving a tank in a classic Apple TV spot from the late 1990s? That was the rumor at the time: Jobs was making cameos in Apple commercials.
Ken Segall, the TBWA ad man responsible for naming the iMac and Think Different, reveals the truth after the jump. He also shares some rare [...]

AT&T Now Offering Useless Car Charger With iPhone Purchase

9:02 pm, December 27th, 2008, Pete Mortensen

charger-at-t.jpgCompetition in the cell phone industry is legendarily cut-throat. The major carriers will do whatever they can to retain and induce people to sign long-term contracts ad buy new phones. This often includes ludicrous stunts and special offers that ultimately deliver little value.

That’s especially true with a wonderful little deal AT&T is offering right now with the purchase of an iPhone 3G. With your two-year contract and at-least-$200 investment, you’ll receive this handsome (?) car charger for Steve’s Amazing New Device worth almost $10!

Except you won’t. It’s only compatible with the original iPhone. (a Consumerist informant claims this is an inventory-clearing tactic) This is especially funny, because I can’t imagine someone deciding to take the iPhone plunge because of a crummy car adapter. The iPhone has broken most of the rules of the cell phone upgrade cycle, mainly by making OS upgrades and the addition of new applications a mandatory part of owning a cell phone.

What’s not a part of owning a phone anymore? Crappy plastic add-ons used as inducements to the purchase of an over-priced and under-delivering phone from Motorola.

Consumerist via Gizmodo

Posted by Pete Mortensen in Apple, iPhone, iPhone 3G | Comment on this article

About the author

Petemortensen

Pete Mortensen is the communications lead for growth strategy firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

Email the author | Read more posts by Pete Mortensen.

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6 comments

    ipodjuice.com is giving away a free replacement charger that actually works with iphone 3g for customers of at&t who got this crappy charger. now THAT is good customer service.

    Nice Gesture, on December 28th, 2008 at 6:50 am

    What are you talking about? I have this same adapter and it works fine with my 3G!!

    John, on December 28th, 2008 at 3:22 pm

    I too have this same adapter and it works with my 3G also
    all these news sites are showing this story and their basis is one guy

    anyone ever thought that maybe his adapter was just bad????

    Andrew Mastro, on December 28th, 2008 at 6:11 pm

    i thought the original iphone had the same dock port as the 3g, or, in fact, any current ipod? why would this charger not work with a 3g? consumerist (like most gawker blogs) is so full of crap sometimes it’s not even funny.

    firesign, on December 30th, 2008 at 1:41 pm

    In the ATT store, they offer the car charger with usb port for us to buy so also my husband can charge his sony ericson cellphone, a great deal!.
    Well, the usb does not work so I’m using my old ipod classic car charger for the iphone, and I will return the useless car charger to ATT.
    Really disappointed!

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    lily

    lily, on January 12th, 2009 at 7:00 pm