Cult of Mac

Verizon is flip-flopping on unlimited iPhone data plans faster than a fish out of water.

This morning, Verizon’s chief operating officer, Lowell McAdam, told the Wall Street Journal that Verizon’s iPhone 4 customers would be treated to an unlimited $30-a-month data plan. Otherwise, the network wouldn’t be able to compete with AT&T, which has grandfathered a lot of iPhone customers to unlimited plans, even though it now offers only tiered plans.

But not so fast. McAdam now says the unlimited data plan will be a “temporary offer,” and that Verizon will also move to tiered pricing in the not too distant future. Better act fast.

How long do you think the unlimited data window will be? A week? A month? Six months?

WSJ: Verizon iPhone: $30 Unlimited Data (for Now)

Office for Mac 2011 is without a doubt a huge improvement over the frankly terrible 2004 and 2008 versions, but when you’ve been burned twice before, it’s hard to justify dropping $150 to find out.

Now Microsoft sends word that they’re doing something smart and offering a free 30 day trial of the entire Office for Mac 2011 productivity suite, giving unfettered access to Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook 2011.

The download is around 900MB and requires an Intel-based Mac and 2.5GB of space. It can be found on Microsoft’s Office of Mac trial download page.

It’s hard to really recommend a software suite like Office for Mac, especially when there’s free alternatives like Open Office. That said, if you can justify the money and you need what it’s offering, Office for Mac 2011 is a surprisingly excellent suite that feels right at home on the Mac operating system. Why not give it a try?

Back in early December as Verizon began to roll out its next generation LTE mobile broadband network in the United States, they offered customers their first taste of 4G not in a handset but with a USB modem, the LG VL600.

The only problem? It didn’t work on the Mac. That earned our ire at the time, since Verizon had suggested that 4G was what was going to “earn” them the iPhone.

Obviously, 4G wasn’t what brought the iPhone 4 to Verizon — it’s 3G only, just like the AT&T model — but it’s still nice to hear that Verizon intends on fixing the LG VL600 to work with Mac through new drivers, just in time for the sudden onslaught of Apple faithful who will be rushing to the network at the beginning of next month.

Last year, the Apple Peel 520 came along, a neat little kludge of a case that would turn your jailbroken iPod Touch into something a little more iPhone-ish thanks to a build in cell modem and SIM card slot. All told, the Peel 520 would allow you to make and receive calls and texts, while even giving a small boost to your Touch’s battery life.

The only problem? The Peel 520 was a bit bulky. Luckily, it seems like the makers of the original Peel did well enough with their product that they’re going ahead with a second-generation version, which is so noticeably sleeker that it could even be mistaken for a regular iPhone 4.

The improvements don’t end there, though. The Peel 520 couldn’t do data, but the new Peel gets GPRS. No one’s going to mistake EDGE speeds for the real iPhone’s 3G, but even so, it’s certainly nice to have in a pinch.

The next-gen Peel don’t have a price or release date yet, but give it a month or two and you’ll be able to find it through the usual Hong Kong importers soon enough.

Whether you are looking to home your card shark talents on your iPhone, find the best deals at MacWorld or grab an inexpensive AT&T iPhone 4, we have it all here. First up is a batch of iPhone App freebies, including “700 Solitaire Games,” which unsurprisingly offers plenty of practice for the favorite computer card game. Also, instead of just wandering around the upcoming MacWorld event, why not have an iPhone app that will point you to the most-interesting gadgets on the showroom? We wrap up our spotlight deals with some bargains on refurbished iPhone 4s, including a 16GB model for just $79 plus AT&T activation.

Along the way, we’ll also take a look at other Mac gadgets, including a 27-inch LED Cinema Monitor, an iPod/iPhone charger and some software for your kids. As always, details on all of these items, and much more, can be found on the CoM “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

The Mac and iOS platforms are no stranger to games in which it is up to the player to fight off the zombie apocalypse, whether with a shotgun or a collection of cheerily bobbing anthropomorphic plants.

Atom Zombie Smasher is a different kind of zombie game entirely though. Sure, it’s Z-Day, but you aren’t the guy in the thick of things: you’re the G-Man watching an entire city go red with the undead from above, ordering your troops to secure city blocks and evacuate citizens, while you do everything you can to make sure you don’t need to deploy the nuclear option. Which you will, and which is half the fun anyway.

A procedurally generated RTS with a wicked sense of humor, Blendo Games’ Atom Zombie Smasher also supports up to four player co-op. If you’re interested, there”s a demo available on the official site to download, and the full version will only cost you $15 more.

Despite Steve Jobs’ promise that it would get better, AirPrint is currently only “all that and a bag of chips” for people who happen to be lucky enough to own a few specialized printers.

Google’s not waiting for Apple to get AirPrint together, though. They’ve just announced Google Cloud Print, a new service that allows you to register your network-connected printers with Google’s cloud services and connect them to your Gmail account. Once you’ve done so, you can print email and any attachment that Gmail can read (including HTML, DOC, PDF and more) directly from the Mobile Safari Gmail interface.

The ability to wirelessly print from Gmail using an iOS device is a pretty swank offering, but unfortunately, it’s not really Mac friendly right now. Enabling the feature allows of downloading the latest Chrome beta from the Cloud Print Website on the computer connected to the printer you want to use… but it’s Windows only, and because Chrome for Mac betas tend to lag behind the Windows beats in features, OS X users will have to wait for Google Cloud Print support to come to the platform… a timescale the search giant itself will only commit to as “coming soon.”

Research in Motion’s PlayBook Tablet could sell 4 million units in 2011, and 6 million devices in the first 12 months following its release, expected sometime this quarter. That’s the word from RBC Capital analyst Mike Abramsky, who Tuesday morning told investors of results from survey taken after the recent CES.

Although the survey figure is substantially above previous estimates of 1 million PlayBooks sold this year, 6 percent of the 1,100 people polled said they “likely” will buy the RIM tablet. The percentage is half that of a similar survey conducted in February 2010 just after Apple unveiled the iPad, Abramsky notes.

The Eastman Kodak Company has all but lost their patent infringement case against Apple over the image preview used in iOS today after an ITC judge dismissed Kodak’s claims.

An elderly Israeli woman returning from London was caught last Thursday trying to bring 44 iPhones into Jerusalem through Ben-Gurion International Airport by strapping them to her body.

Procrastinators and cheapskates rejoice. Today is your lucky day!

The popular coupon site Johnny Funcheap is offering Expo tickets for just $10. That’s a $15 savings (normally $25).

Just enter the priority code FunCheap.

Macworld 2011 starts on Thursday, January 27 and runs until Saturday, January 29. The show floor is open from 10am – 6:00pm all three days.

The evidence continues to mount that the iPhone 5 will contain a Near-Field Communication chip, with Bloomberg now agreeing that the next iPhone will be NFC capable.

If you’re looking for something to do in San Francisco during Macworld, eleven of the city’s strip clubs are offering half off admission with your Macworld badge.

When I first spotted this two-page centerfold ad in SF Weekly I wondered: do they think Macs are more randy or just more lonely than other tech people?

There are tech conferences every day of the week in San Francisco – this is the first time I’ve seen a big ad for a group of strip clubs promoting discounts for tech-conference goers.

Also: don’t they know a lot of the attendees are women? You can see from our last year’s “Faces of Macworld” gallery by Traci Dauphin that Macworld isn’t necessarily a man’s world. Dunno. Maybe I should gather a fistful of dollar bills and some geek girls for an expedition.

It was a half-empty or half-full quarterly revenue report for Verizon Tuesday. Just weeks from the Feb. 10 sale of Apple’s iPhone, Verizon fourth quarter profits fell $2.6 percent to $26.4 billion, a hair’s-breath from analyst expectations of $26.48 billion. However, the carrier also reported earlier today adding 872,000 postpaid customers, far exceeding Wall Street expectations of 646,000.

Although consumers could have put off a decision to join Verizon Wireless until the carrier begins selling the iPhone, subscriber growth was described as “spectacular” by one analyst. “The expectation of [Verizon] getting an iPhone appears not to have had an impact,” Stifel Nicolaus’ Christopher King told Reuters.

Apple’s iPad tablet computer may be the perfect vehicle to view glossy magazines, but the iTunes subscription model has some publishers ready to turn the page.

On both sides of the Atlantic, publishers are grumbling about Apple’s iTunes store. Some popular US publications, including the New York Times and Playboy, recently announced web-based subscriptions that will offer more flexible options and control over content than iTunes. In Europe, Apple faces a probe by Belgian antitrust authorities over whether it is abusing its market position by requiring that publishers only sell subscriptions through iTunes.

Although publishers aren’t necessarily keen to pay Apple a cut of each subscription they sell, that’s not the only issue. Sales through iTunes means that Apple controls subscription data — and access to their own subscribers.

“If Apple allowed real subscriptions in iTunes and shared the user data they collect with publishers, that might end the war right there,” said Marco Formento, Global Digital Director at De Agostini Editore, an Italy-based group which publishes in 13 languages and 30 countries. “Otherwise, a lot of publishers will go around Apple to keep that contact with their clients.”

Full story over at Talking Points Memo

Verizon Wireless is still in the countdown stage of offering the iPhone 4G Feb. 10 and the carrier already is adjusting prices. The first big change is the discontinuation of a $15 per month for 150MB data plan. Instead, the carrier will push all smartphone owners (yes, you with the iPhone) into a $30 per month unlimited alternative.

Although iPhone smartphone customers will see a rate hike, owners of “feature phones” will actually benefit, according to a tech blog that Tuesday published a price list from an anonymous source. Non-smartphones will pay $9.99 per month for a 75MB data plan, up from $9.99 for 25MB.

Mike Daisey isn’t afraid to rant. The mercurial storyteller first made a name for himself on stage by decrying the state of American theater. Tech is a natural target for him – he’s survived a stint at Amazon.com and takes apart computers to relax – so he really makes his point forcefully with a two-hour monologue called “The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” onstage now through Feb. 27 at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. (See our review of the show here.)

During our 40-minute conversation, I get the uncomfortable feeling he’s ranting directly at me. In fact, the show takes tech journalists to task for being subservient to the industry as well as missing the whole story of where all the shiny gadgets we report about so breathlessly come from. Ahem.

Cult of Mac talked to Daisey about why both Apple fans and PC people will enjoy his show, as well as his own gadget gear and why donning Steve Jobs’ signature black turtleneck on stage would’ve been “fucking stupid.”

Boom boom, pow — the Black Eyed Peas, already one of the most cutting-edge bands to rock an iPod, may just have made music videos so two-thousand-and-late. That’s because they released an app today that includes a stunning, immersive 360-degree, augmented-reality enabled music video that sticks you in the middle of the action with the ability to pan around and become part of the action. And guess what — it’s only available on the iPhone, with no plans announced yet to make it available for any other platform.

It’s only been active for a matter of hours as far as I can tell, but already at the time of writing, the official App Store Twitter account has over 36,000 followers and I expect it will soon attract many more.

This appears to be an account for the old skool iOS App Store. No doubt the newer Mac App Store will get an account of its own in due course.

Satarii is a small San Francisco startup trying to get a super cool iPhone video accessory off the ground.

The Satarii Star is a tracking device that follows your every move while shooting video. Just set the iPhone in the cradle and put the tracking device in your pocket. When you move, the tracking cradle swivels around to keep you in the frame. It’s a super clever idea and looks to work pretty well. See the video below (the fun starts a few seconds in).

More evidence to suggest Apple’s elusive white iPhone 4 is coming this spring has appeared in the U.K. today, as operators Three and Orange are now listing the white device on their websites. Although both websites are showing the device as “unavailable” or “out of stock,” the fact that they’ve been added to the inventory reinforces hopes that the device is on its way.

This discovery follows news earlier today that AT&T is also listing the white iPhone 4 in its ‘Online Account Management System’, suggesting once again that the device will be available soon. AT&T also give no indication to the device’s availability, however, many are expecting a late February or early March release.

Apple has been promising the white iPhone since its launch 7 months ago, but following several delays and countless rumors regarding manufacturing issues and imperfections, the device is still yet to be made available.

If the white iPhone 4 does show its face late next month, what does this say about the iPhone 5 expected to be announced this June? Although there is still demand for the iPhone 4, it seems strange to me that Apple would still go ahead and release the white device just several months before announcing the next-generation iPhone.

Who wants complete ringtone freedom? Sure, you do. So Johnny Ixe of XVision (yeah, we’re wondering about the name too), the developer behind DataMan, has a new app called GeoRing that’ll play tracks from a user-created playlist whenever the phone rings — no extra ringtone-making fiddling or syncing or and just like DataMan, GeoRing can record where each call was answered (along with when and the call’s duration, of course).

There’s an included custom silent ringtone (so the iPhone’s actual ringtone doesn’t play over the music) and the ability to set where on the track playback starts. Pretty cool; we’d like to see the ability to assign songs to contacts though. GeoRing is a buck, and only works with iPhones 3Gs and 4.

We start another week of Apple bargains with a new batch of price cuts on select applications from the iPhone App Store, including “Pinball HD.” Also in the spotlight are a leather sleeve for your iPad and a bumper holder for your iPhone 4 from IGg.

Along the way, we’ll also take a look an 83 percent discount on some iPod touch cases, as well as photo manipulation software for your Mac. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Master storyteller Mike Daisey’s one-man-show “The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” is a theater piece that every Apple fan should see.

It’s a laugh-out-loud monologue about the world of Apple, but it delivers an important message: The products we love are made under inhumane conditions.