Top stories

Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

Verizon iPhone Rumor Clouds Provider Picture

verizon_iphone.jpgApple may begin offering a CDMA version of the iPhone branded to Verizon sometime in 2010, according to a report at USA Today.

Citing apocryphal “people familiar with the situation,” the report claims Verizon began talks with Apple prior to Steve Jobs’ health sabbatical and says conversations have continued in the ensuing months. The report comes in the wake of news reported earlier in the month regarding AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson’s efforts to extend his company’s exclusive US iPhone distribution deal through 2011.

Sunday’s USA Today story also flies in the face of recent comments made by Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, who has been in charge of the company’s day-to-day operations in Jobs’ absence.

Speaking last week during Apple’s quarterly earnings call, Cook dismissed the idea of producing a CDMA version of the iPhone, asserting that it has no future, because many CDMA carriers plan to adopt the same 4G standard that will soon be used on GSM networks.

Whether Verizon is successful in closing a deal with Apple for 2010 or not, it only stands to reason, especially in the light of how the iPhone saved AT&T’s financial bacon in 2008, that iPhone’s luster continues to grow.

Every rumor like the one trumpeted Sunday by USA Today serves to increase anticipation for a certain (thus far unannounced) Tuesday event in June or July at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters.

About the author

Lonnie Lazar

Lonnie Lazar is a writer, musician, web designer attorney. He writes about Apple for Cult of Mac and Mac|Life, and about VoIP and telecommunications for Voxilla. Follow Lonnie on Twitter @LonnieLazar, join the Cult of Mac on Facebook, and find Lonnie's photos on Flickr.

Email the author | Read more posts by Lonnie Lazar.

3 comments

    Can’t even describe how happy this would make me.

    This is real welcome news for us Mac users with contracts BUT!!! – however the hold up is probably that Verizon wants to gut the iPhone software and sell it piecemeal back to the user, just like they do with everything else!

    We can only pray that Verizon doens’t cripple the h*ll out of it, or stick that crappy Get It Now service on it. If they offer a fully functioning up to date iPhone, that would be wonderful. Hopefully Jobs is in the middle of this twisting some arms!

Buy Inside Steve's Brain Buy from Amazon.com Buy from Barnes & Noble