A 27-year-old Aussie has turned iPhone fixing into a full-time job, but he finds his over 650 “patients” very demanding.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Rob Jacobs, who used to have a day job as a video editor, painted the picture of the weeping iPhone owner, desperate for a fix:

“The amount of phone calls I get after 10 o’clock at night. I have people coming from Newcastle waiting outside from 6.30am. People just turn up at the door, often in tears, saying ‘Please fix my phone.’ We are all iAddicted.”

Jacobs, who has been a full-time iDoc who also repairs iPods for nine months now, added that many iPhone owners were tied to phone contracts where service providers would not replace their phones once damaged.

Time for some iPhone DIY repairs? Maybe.

Via the Sydney Morning Herald

Geek blogger Chris Pirillo now has an iPhone application dedicated to him and all his prolific output: Follow Chris (iTunes Store link) is a single-person feed scraper and aggregator that pulls together content from Pirillo stuff posted on his personal site, Twitter, Lockergnome and the Geeks forum. That’s a lot of Pirillo.

But why?

I contacted developer Peter Birch (who, coincidentally, is based not far from me in Bristol) and asked him.

He told me it was just to make it easier to read all the Pirillo content that’s out there.

“I’ve been following Chris and his writing for about 12 months now. I like his stuff. Every day I wanted to see what was new and that meant checking a bunch of feeds or web sites. I just wanted to make it quicker and easier.”

So, for his very first iPhone app, Peter (normally a designer created something that aggregates a selection of feeds and puts them all together in an attractive app.

Sensibly, Peter did tell Chris what he was doing.

“I’ve told Chris about it and he thought it was a good idea. He’s given me some interesting suggestions for other apps.”

Indeed. It strikes me that this kind of single-subject or single-person aggregator might become very popular on the App Store. It would be trivially easy to build something for the internet superstar of your choice. A-list bloggers, this would be the perfect way to further inflate your already over-large egos.

Like I said, I rather think this kind of “ego app” will be very popular. If we’re lucky, it might even put the fart apps in the shade. Let’s hope so.

Google has entered the Mac side of free photo manipulation with the Monday release of Picasa for Mac. Although officially a beta version, the application previously limited to PC users is drawing positive comments from Apple iPhoto fans.

“Even though this early build of Picasa is missing some features, I’m going to use it and not iPhoto,” writes CNET‘s Rafe Needleman. The reviewer said Picasa’s features makes it the best option for day-to-day use.

Along with the usual ability to remove red-eye and basic photo editing, Picasa for the Mac integrates with Google’s free Web Albums, allowing photos to be easily shared. Apple requires the $99 annual Mobile Me online service, according to CNET.

Some features, such as geotagging and photos from your Webcam aren’t included in this beta version.

Google’s Picasa for Mac requires Mac OS 10.4 and an Intel-based system.

If you’ve ever balked at the cost of repairing your Apple gear, especially your iPhone or iPod, for example, consider what the repair shop is getting into when it receives your damaged product. As the gallery below of pictures detailing some of the intricacies involved in repairing the cracked glass touchscreen of an iPhone shows,

a) While the guys at iFixit are awesome and intrepid, and may even be willing to hold your hand through some processes, DIY repairs may not be the best route if you don’t like the prices Apple charges; and

b) your should consider device insurance and a replacement device if you have butterfingers and are afraid you may end up cracking your iPhone’s touchscreen.

We’re pretty sure that doublesided tape, portable hairdryers and big binder clips are not standard repair tools at the Apple authorized repair center near you, but hey, whatever works, right?

More photos and detailed repair descriptions are at TechRepublic.
All images © 2008, Mark Kaelin/TechRepublic.

Later today, a computer industry trade show will open in the San Francisco area.

Many thousands of computer users, software developers and IT professionals will be attending.

At some point, a senior executive from one of the better-known computer companies will stand up on stage and say a few words about forthcoming products and services.

The audience may get a little excited at this point.

Next up: Dave with the sport headlines.

The baked-in rumor news calls for a DRM-related shift in music pricing and portability on iTunes, an AT&T play for new revenues through “sanctioned” iPhone tethering plans, and yes, an upgraded Mac mini.

Phil Schiller’s Keynote is now less than two hours away and we’ll be down at San Francisco’s Moscone center throughout the day with live reports from the conference and our first impressions of what lies ahead for Apple and the Mac community.

Join us here and at Twitter for the latest frm Macworld 2009.

“The ‘Apple Community’ is now due an update in late spring, but until then the recovery will presumably be allowed to run its course without undue prying,” Oppenheimer told investors.

Monday, in an open letter, Jobs explained he suffered from a ‘hormone imbalance’ which caused his weight loss. Since September, when the Apple leader appeared frail and gaunt, fans and investors have speculated about his health and status as CEO.

Responding to economic reality, Best Buy has begun selling refurbished iPhone 3Gs with a $50 discount, the electronics giant announced Tuesday.

A refurbished 8GB iPhone 3G returned a month after purchase will cost Apple fans $149, rather than $199 when bought new. A refurbished 16 GB Apple handset is priced at $249, rather than the original $299.

Owners of first-generation iPhones can also use the offer to upgrade to faster 3G versions, Best Buy told Reuters.

Bookmarklets are great little things. They’ve been proving themselves useful on desktop browsers for years, and are now getting an extra boost of interest from the iPhone community, because you can use them to make mobile Safari do more things.

The latest I’ve seen is Safari+, which is a collection of a dozen or so useful little commands that you might be used to using many times a day on your computer, but can’t use at all on the iPhone.

So if you’ve been looking for a way to Find in page, or Display all images, or List all links, or Translate to Norwegian on your iPhone – well, your problem has been solved.

An exhibitor at the upcoming Macworld Expo 2009 may have inadvertently lent credence to widespread rumors of an updated Apple Mac mini.

A press release from SeeFile software seems to say its digital media asset server will support “new Apple Mac Mini hardware,” according to Ars Technica.

The bit of PR may indicate the updated Mac mini will offer two optional internal hard drives. Previous minis sported only 160GB internal storage.

A week after one survey found the Mac OS share nearing 10 percent, the gains appear to be increasing as Apple continues to make headway against Windows, an analyst said Monday.

Shaw Wu, analyst with Kaufman Bros., told clients he sees only accelerating advances by Apple. December’s 9.6 percent marketshare for Mac OS X was 0.75 percent ahead of November, which also saw a 0.65 percent jump, Wu said.

Last week, Web tracking firm Net Applications announced the percentage of visits by Mac OS-based browsers in December rose to 9.6 from 8.9 percent. The latest figure is more than two points above a year ago, when Apple share reached a historic high: 7.3 percent.

Windows again lost ground in December, dropping to 88.7 percent of the market in December, the second percentage loss since November, when Redmond fell below the magic 90 percent of the OS market.

Even if you don’t jailbreak, step on or otherwise open up your iPhone you can wear the innards on your chest.

No further details about who came up with the idea on the dedicated Exploded Phone site, but the café press page describes the T-shirt as “an exploded view of my brother’s taken-apart phone. He’s going to kill me!”

While it doesn’t have the look-at-me cry of the faux Apple logo light up tee, it has geek appeal in spades.

Costs $20 in a bunch of styles and colors.

Via The Next Web

Palm will reportedly use the first day of CES to unveil a handset based on the long-awaited Nova operating system. The phone is seen as Palm’s best chance to recover from a disastrous 2008.

Citing a “trusted source,” CrunchGear says the handset to be released Thursday is described as “iPhone-like” with a potrait display and a slide-down QWERTY keyboard.

In December, Palm executive chairman Jon Rubinstein told BusinessWeek the device would bridge the gap between the BlackBerry and iPhone. Rubinstein, credited with helping develop the iMac and iPod, joined Palm in 2007 when private equity firm Elevation Partners provided $325 million for a stake in the company. Last month, Elevation gave Palm another $100 million.

Disney art director Stéphane Kardos has created a fascinating series of quick sketches with his iPhone using the Brushes app, most of them with a slightly gritty urban feel miles away from Magic Kingdom style.

You can check more out on flickr where he intros the iPhone sketches by saying that they were done in five or ten minutes, less for the sunset ones.

As we reported before, iPhone art even if not yet ready for art galleries looks like it may be moving in that direction.

Via cyanatrendland

More than half of consumers say they plan to spend less on gadgets in 2009, according to a survey released Monday by a research firm.

Forrester Research announced 51 percent of consumers say they plan to spend less on gadgets this year with just five percent intending to spend more this year. The findings are part of an online survey of around 5,000 U.S. residents over the age of 18.

The news could interest exhibitors at Macworld Expo 2009 and CES hoping to lure buyers with the latest gadgets.

YES. YES IT WILL.

In an open letter addressed to the Apple Community, Steve Jobs said Monday that he has an easily treated hormonal imbalance. The statement, designed to quiet rumors spurred by the Apple CEO’s increasingly gaunt public appearances, came a day before a high-profile keynote at Macworld Expo that Jobs handed off to a colleague.

“A hormone imbalance … has been ‘robbing’ me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy,” Jobs wrote. “Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.”

Ladies and gentlemen!

Take your seats! Blow your noses! Switch off your iPhones! The time is drawing near for the annual Exposition Of Wonder And Amazement that is: Macworld Expo!

Pray cease your wild applause, ladies and gentlemen. We are gathered to celebrate the ending of Another Round Of Mostly Incorrect Rumors, and to cheer on our Leader, His Lordship Steve of Jobs, as he fails to take the Stage of Reality Distortion and instead leaves the task to his minion, Phil “Igor” Schiller.

But before we embark on this journey of discovery, let us enjoy a few brief moments of quiet and calm. Let us take this opportunity to revel in some of the rumors and gossips that have slaked our thirst for actual Apple product news in recent weeks:

• iWork as a cloud app? I don’t think so. Well, iMovie then. Whaaaa? I can really see my ISP going crazy happy about people editing movie files over their pipes. More crazy than happy, though.
• iPhoto as an iPhone app? My iPhone crashes often enough as it is…
• How about a Red iPhone? I fear not with that font, dear friends, not with that font
• Updated Mac minis? Yes! Yes please!

Iiiiiin short: lots of waffle and claptrap. Some of it might even turn out to be true. Or so vague in the first instance that even the slightest mention of a product will validate the rumor.

Even though Steve won’t be on stage (which, as Leander has pointed out, isn’t necessarily a bad thing), the advice this year is the same as the advice every other year: sit back, relax, spend Tuesday with your loved ones, and worry about the keynote later. You can be sure that it will be summarized on one or two web sites. We might even mention it here.

Oh, and don’t buy any new Macs between now and tomorrow. But you knew that already.

(Picture: trialsanderrors, under CC License.)

MacBook (Stop Motion) from Fernando Rueda on Vimeo.

Here’s a cute little stop-motion MacBook unboxing video.

***WARNING: SPOILERS***

I particularly like how the MacBook slides inside its sleeve at the end.

iPhone snap of a Macworld banner by Steve Rhodes (CC licensed).

Here’s some useful links for this week’s Macworld:

iMacworld iPhone app — IDG has a handy-looking show guide for the iPhone (I haven’t tried it yet). The app, iMacworld, includes exhibitors, products and conference sessions. You can download the application here.

Hess Memorial Events List — The Hess Memorial Events List (named after the late MacWeek editor Robert Hess and maintained by Ilene Hoffman) is probably the most comprehensive list of happenings, but unfortunately isn’t in a calendar friendly format.

#Macworld and MWSF 09 on Twitter — The Twitter hashtag for this year’s Macworld is a battle between #Macworld and #mwsf09. Try also Macworld

Macworld on FriendFeed

Macworld on Upcoming.org

Macworld on SocialCalendario

Macworld 2009 on Flickr

Several links via Macworldbound.com — “The Definitive Guide to Macworld for First-timers.”

Plenty of chatter yesterday in the Apple blogosphere about the patent application for special iPhone gloves Apple filed back in June 2007, the day before the original iPhone made its commerical debut.

In the meantime, a few companies have already produced products intended to ease the need for iPhone users in the northern latitudes to actually go inside to use their Jesus Phones during the winter. Click on images in the gallery below to see the Apple patent illustration and few solutions on the market today. And let us know in comments how you manage to fulfill your iPhone jones in places where chilly winds blow.

In 2007, British student Meredith Kercher was murdered in Italy, during a study abroad program in hill town Perugia.

About a year later, Rudy Guede was sentenced to 30 years for his part in the killing, for which Kercher’s roommate, American student Amanda “Foxy Knoxy” Knox and her boyfriend, Italian IT grad, Raffaele Sollecito, are still awaiting trial.

Guede’s appeal now before the Italian court hinges on an iPod.

During what has been hypothesized was some sort of late-night Halloween sex game where the 21-year-old Kercher was an unwilling participant, Guede maintains he was in the bathroom of the young women’s apartment.

While she was being killed with a knife, he was listening to music on iCarta, a toilet paper holder roll that doubles as an iPod dock.

Guede’s lawyers tried to head off what they thought might be viewed as a sort of Twinkie defense for the digital age in a statement to Italian media (below translation mine):

“It is nothing more than a confirmation of how some abnormal behaviors are apparently normal among young people today,” said laywers Valter Biscotti and Nicodemo Gentile. “Just as Facebook is their virtual world, they now listen to music everywhere, even in the bathroom. The marketing of such products implies a certain routine use.”

The statement was published today in Italian papers, without information on how the legal team might use or prove the bathroom listening alibi.

Add a new layer of creativity to the things you can do with your iPhone and your photos – with iSteam, a cool new app from UK developer consortium, Great Apps. iSteam uses features of the iPhone and iPod Touch including the accelerometer, multitouch, microphone and speakers to turn the touch screen into something resembling your bathrooom mirror after a hot shower, or a window on a winter day.

Blow on the microphone to “fog up” the surface of the phone (iPod Touch users need an external mic) and use your fingers to write messages and draw, just like you would on a steamy window. Realistic water droplets form on the image and leave trail marks that can be manipulated by tilting the device; shake it up to clear the screen and start over. iSteam even has finger squeaking sounds included.

Images can be saved to the Camera Roll using the screen capture method (hold the Home key & press the lock button) or emailed to iPhone and iPod Touch owning contacts directly from iSteam.

If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to work at Apple, out in the wild are more than a couple of tell-all accounts penned by former employees, and as the company prepares for its final Macworld appearance next week in San Francisco, the UK Guardian has one, published Friday, by Chuq von Rospach, a former Apple employee who has taken his experience there and turned it into a little cottage industry of freelance writing.

Von Rospach’s piece for the Guardian waxes a bit nostalgic for the days when Steve Jobs delivered the Macworld keynote, but he says nevertheless “still tune in with great anticipation” to this year’s speech by Phil Schiller, especially because word on the street says Apple will bow out of Macworld with a hiss and not a bang.

The piece is rather on the long side, and true to form for the genre, is more about the author than about the experience of working at Apple, but von Rospach does provide a glimpse of behind-the-scenes observations that are rarely seen in Apple’s context and, for those interested in one person’s perspective, provides a worthwhile read.

“Easter eggs” is a term that’s come to describe little screens, menus and functionalities software coders hide in their work. Sometimes these things are uncovered by intrepid users, who take as a point of pride the mission to peek behind as many curtains as they can find in an application; sometimes there’s either enough lack of interest in finding the Easter eggs or they are so well-hidden developers end up revealing them on their own.

Those wacky kids in Mountain View, CA who write the Google blog posted Friday about a “Bells and Whistles” Easter egg menu for the company’s voice-enabled iPhone app. The screen is revealed by repeated attempts to swipe upward on the iPhone’s touch screen from the Settings menu. At first glance, there appears to be nothing below the tab labelled “About” but continue swiping upward on the screen (five swipes in my case), and a “Bells and Whistles” tab will appear.

From the B&W tab you can change the app’s theme color, its default sound effect and more. OK. Now that’s out of the way, let’s see what else we can accomplish today…

Via Venture Beat