Cult of Mac

Just like AT&T’s iPhone 4, the Verizon iPhone 4 will feature a Retina display, a front-facing camera, an Apple A4 chip, and HD video recording. Other than the CDMA chip in the Verizon device and the redesigned antenna, the hardware is exactly the same. So, how do you choose the best device for you?

We’ve created a handy comparison chart that will help you identify the difference between the two options. If you’re looking to purchase Apple’s latest iPhone, the chart below will help you choose the best carrier for your device based on price, data allowances, and additional features exclusive to each. Check it out after the break!

AT&T lost its iPhone monopoly, and may soon lose a million or two customers, to Verizon. But I think Verizon’s freshly announced support for the iPhone is on balance a very good thing for AT&T.

Estimates for how many current AT&T customers will switch to Verizon range from half a million (Barclays Capital analyst James Ratcliffe) to 6 million (Davenport & Company analyst Drake Johnstone). The likely number is probably somewhere between 1 and 2 million customers. (Full disclosure: My wife works for AT&T Interactive, a division of AT&T.)

AT&T Mobility currently has more than 93 million customers, and often gains somewhere between 2 and 3 million customers per quarter. So the loss of say, 2 million customers is significant but by no means catastrophic.

But what does AT&T gain?

Feast your eyes on the new Verizon iPhone 4. Apple’s iPhone 4 has finally hit the largest CDMA network in the U.S.  so now my Verizon friends can stop coveting my iPhone 4 and get their own!

Click the read link to see more images.

[via Engadget]

We start the day with deal for nearly the entire Apple family of products. First up is the latest batch of bargains from the iPhone App Store with a number of freebies, like the aerial combat game “Mortal Skies.” Next is one of two leather (or faux-leather) cases for the iPad. We wrap up the spotlight deals with a number of accessories for the sixth-generation iPod nano, including wristbands, screen-protectors and cases.

Along the way, we’ll also check out a solar charger for your iPhone, a two-year warranty for your iPad and 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.

Early photos from Engadet’s hands-on shows a picture of the Verizon iPhone 4 sitting on top of an AT&T iPhone 4. They look the same until you notice that the mute button and the volume buttons on the Verizon iPhone 4 has been repositioned.

The mute button has been placed in a lower position than the original iPhone 4 on the left side of the iPhone frame. This has led to an offset in the position of the volume buttons also. This means that existing iPhone 4 cases may not work with the new Verizon iPhone 4 model.

Considering all the time and money invested in case design and manufacturing this has to be a set back to the existing case industry and it will lead to confusion in the retail space. However, since case vendors deal with many different phone form factors to begin with this may not be a big deal to them. I’ll be reaching out to a few of them for comment about this soon.

Is this the fall out from Antennagate? Although Apple representative, Tim Cook, claimed that the antenna changes were made to accommodate the CDMA network. I have to wonder if we’ll see the same changes made to the AT&T version of the iPhone 4 or the next generation iPhone 5.

[photo via Engadget]

[Updated to clarify additional changes in volume button position and to correct some typos.]

On one side, an iPhone 4. On the other, an iPhone 4. Spot the difference.

The new Verizon flavored device, left, has a new antenna layout wrapped around its exterior.

This is nothing to do with people moaning about “antennagate”. It’s a functional redesign to allow the phone to work with Verizon’s CDMA network.

It does look, from this photo at Engadget like the mute switch on the Verizon device has shifted a fraction of an inch southwards – which might mean that some cases and covers that fit an AT&T phone won’t necessarily fit a Verizon phone.

Otherwise, the devices appear to be identical in every other respect.

Amusingly, Verizon’s own web pages about the iPhone 4 are chock-full of stock photos of the AT&T version of the device – only the front page has the photo (annotated above) that clearly shows the refreshed antenna layout.

[polldaddy poll=”4367123″]

Are you ready to drop A&T like all those important calls? Or are you going to wait — and see if that new antenna really changes the death-grip issue?

Let us know in the comments.

Tuesday’s announcement Verizon will begin accepting pre-orders for the iPhone 4 only increases the pressure on Android, Apple’s biggest smartphone rival.

“This will put considerable pressure on Android which cannot be underestimated,” Shaw Wu, analyst at Kaufman Bros., wrote by e-mail. Although the announcement held little not already known, today’s announcement is “nonetheless big news as this doubles AAPL’s market opportunity here in the U.S.,” We added.

So now that Verizon has announced that they’re selling shiny new iPhone 4’s you’re chomping at the bit to get off of AT&T or T-Mobile and join the ranks of Big Red right? Of course one of the biggest draw backs to doing this is that your Early Termination Fee could cost as much as $325. While it’s not the easiest thing to do, there are multiple ways to get out of having to pay the ETF, and we’re going to show you a couple of ways to avoid the fees.

Those expecting the 3G limitations of Verizon’s CDMA network to disappear with the iPhone 4’s debut should think again.

Asked whether or not you will lose your data connection when you get a phone call on the iPhone 4, Cook responded: “It’s consistent with other CDMA devices right now.”

That sucks. That means no talking and browsing at the same time, and if you get an incoming call when your 32GB iPhone is working as a mobile hot spot, everyone connected to you will have their signals drop. Bummer.

Asked if this experience would be jarring to those who expected constant voice and data, and asking how Apple could allow this when they are so focused on user experience, Tim Cook paused for a long time before answering, then finally said: ” I think people place different emphasis on things — I can tell you that the number one question I’ve gotten is when will the iPhone work on Verizon. I couldn’t be happier to tell people that. They will make those sorts of tradeoffs.”

In other words, Apple knows this is a problem, but there’s nothing they can do. They aren’t happy about it.

In a Q&A session after the official announcement of the Verizon iPhone, Tim Cook has answered some interesting questions about the CDMA iPhone, including why it doesn’t run on LTE.

Asked why Apple didn’t embrace Verizon’s LTE network, Cook said: “Two reasons — the first gen LTE chipsets force design changes we wouldn’t make. And Verizon customers told us they want the iPhone now. I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve been asked ‘when will it work on Verizon.”

He’s referencing LTE’s extraordinary demands on battery life here. Apple doesn’t usually jump on new technologies fresh out of the gate anyway, so it’s to be expected.

We know that the Verizon iPhone 4 will be almost identical in hardware to the AT&T iPhone 4. We know it’ll launch on February 10th. But what will it cost, and when will it be available to pre-order?

First the price: the 16GB Verizon iPhone 4 will cost $199, the 32GB will cost $299 with a mobile hotspot included that can support up to five devices. That’s a big perk: unlike AT&T’s iPhone 4, you get tethering!

As for pre-orders, Verizon is giving its existing customers a week’s window to pre-order the device starting February 3rd. Come February 10th, orders will be open to all customers on both Verizon and Apple’s official website.

One thing that no one mentioned? Unlimited data. It appears that the Verizon iPhone 4, despite everyone’s hopes, will not be the exception to Verizon Wireless’ tiered mobile data approach. Pity.

Verizon has made the launch date of the iPhone 4 on their network official: it will be coming on February 10th, and according to Verizon’s Dan Dee, they are ready for launch, and no one is going to experience the sort of congestion that has become synonymous with AT&T’s iPhone service.

“Wireless customers have been asking for the iPhone on Verizon — and we’re excited to offer this to existing and new customers. I want to tell you how dedicated we are to launch this. Our employees are ready, we’ve been scaling our shipping systems. We’ve been scaling our inventory systems,” said Vee.

“I want to spend a minute on how robust our network is. We have designed this network for customers to have an optimum experience. We have been drive testing this on our network. We’re now into the thousands of devices, and we could not be more pleased.”

“iPhone 4 is going to run on our network… network capacity — we have advanced the capacity and built margin into it. We’re ready for this launch,” asserted Vee.

After years of spotty AT&T service, Verizon knows this is what people need to hear to be convinced to make the switch.

Apple COO Tim Cook has just taken the stage to shake hands with Lowell McAdams and bring an official Apple presence to the Verizon iPhone event.

“I want to thank the senior team at Apple — it has been a real pleasure to work with them. To explain more about that product, I’m pleased to introduce someone who’s become a friend and colleague… Tim Cook,” Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam introduced.

Tim Cook’s appearance probably negates the chance that Steve Jobs will show up at this event, but his presence is hardly necessary: the Verizon iPhone 4 isn’t really a new product, and Cook’s presence is as much blessing from Cupertino as Verizon’s launch needs.

According to Cook, Verizon and Apple have been working together on this since 2008, and the teamwork has been “off the charts.”

After several minutes of bragging about Verizon’s networks and partnerships, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam has just dropped the bombshell: “Today we’re partnering with a giant of the industry, and that’s Apple.”

Boom. “”Our relationship with Apple has developed over the last two years. In 2008 we started talking about bringing the iPhone to a CDMA network. We spent a year testing. Late in 2010 we started offering the iPad… today, we are extremely gratified to announce that the iPhone 4 will be available early next month.”

And just like that, three years of rumors have finally ended: the Verizon iPhone 4 is coming early next month, and the last major exclusivity deal for the iPhone has crumbled.

Verizon’s 11am press event has just started, and while the Verizon iPhone hasn’t been revealed yet, it’s coming… we can just tell!

Taking center stage, Verizon President and CEO Lowell McAdam just tipped his hat to the Verizon iPhone by saying, “If the press writes about something long enough and hard enough, eventually it comes true.”

Seems like a pretty big tip of the hat to the Verizon iPhone to me, but only the device itself will prove the matter.

Amazon’s Kindle for Mac software is hardly new, but the free e-reading app has just hit the Mac App Store… and quickly soared up the charts, becoming the fifth most popular app in the free section.

As people await details of a deal allowing Verizon to sell the iPhone, analysts are predicting whatever the announcement, it will all be bad news for AT&T. The current exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier, AT&T “is going to get demolished,” one Wall Street onlooker warns.

Gleacher and Co. analyst Brian Marshall, who expressed the dire warning to Reuters, is not a lone voice. Indeed, the move bringing the iPhone to Verizon could see AT&T lose more than 3 million contract customers – a loss not seen since AT&T Wireless merged with Cingular Wireless in 2004. Why the losses? Another analyst says it’s simple: iPhone envy.

Here’s a fun little hack. It combines the convenience of digital music with the tactile pleasure of browsing through someone’s music collection and having something physical to pick up and look at. Flickr fella bertrandom put it together in his spare time.

Each plastic disk represents an album or a playlist. Inside each one there’s a RFID tag. To play it, put the disk on the cardboard box turntable, in which there’s an RFID reader connected to a computer. The music starts immediately.

Of course, you might argue that if you’re going to have a shelfload of plastic disks, you may as well just have a shelfload of CDs, which is perfectly retro enough for some people. But where would the fun be in that?

Could the Genius Bar be going head to head with the Geek Squad in Best Buy stores around the country?

TUAW certainly thinks so, but that seems pretty fishy to me: why would Best Buy agree to juxtapose their own utterly inept and criminally exhortative customer tech organ with Apple’s far classier and fuller serviced one? The Geek Squad can’t come off well in the comparison.

On Apple’s part, though, the move makes a great deal of sense. Genius Bars around the country are already stuffed to the gills with appointments. Short of opening more retail stores, there’s not a lot Apple can do to eliminate he congestion… short of taking advantage of a retail partner’s surplus of big box space.

Clever! We’re interested in seeing how this works out: bringing the Genius Bar experience to Best Buy would certainly be one way to more easily cover more customers.

AppCleaner is a freeware utility for deleting software from your Mac.

The long legal battle between Intel and NVIDIA that has held Apple’s MacBook line of notebooks back from using Intel’s latest Core series processors has finally been resolved, with the chip and graphics maker having just announced a six year cross-licensing deal worth $1.5 billion

Don’t expect the deal to lead to integrated NVIDIA chipsets in future Sandy Bridge based MacBooks, though: NVIDIA says they have no intention of re-entering the chipset market. However, the licensing agreement does give Intel access to NVIDIA’s technologies, which means that Intel might be able to improve their own integrated graphics solutions.

UPDATE: TechCrunch is quite vociferously denying any hanky-panky in this affair. “Hey Cult Of Mac, We Didn’t Photoshop That Deleted Verizon iPhone Tweet,” they say in a new post. TechCrunch notes the original Tweet is still in Google search and that they weren’t the first or only outlet to notice. See here. With apologies for jumping the gun on a bit of a slow news day, we also note TC is likely right that “somebody at Verizon panicked.”

Given the standard pandemonium in Apple-oriented corners of the Internet whenever a special “invite-only press event” is scheduled that might have something to do with the Cupertino company’s products or personnel, it stands to reason a Verizon employee’s tweet from an iPhone on the cellular carrier’s official Twitter account days before the entire tech world expects Verizon to announce it is finally going to start selling iPhones might be seen as a newsworthy event.

But could it also be an opportunity for one of the most widely followed tech blogs on the net to indulge in a bit of traffic-ramping scammery?

It’s time for yet another Monday iPhone App Giveaway brought to you by Appular! This time we’ll be posting delicious app codes on the Cult of Mac Facebook and Twitter pages and it’s up to you to grab them first. We’ll be dropping codes throughout the day so it’s best to Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter so that the codes are immediately delivered to your desktop.

Special Thanks to Appular for helping us put together these app code giveaways! If you’ve got a mobile app that you’d like marketed effectively, contact the good folks at Appular!

Here’s a look at the apps we’re giving away:

We start off the week with three spotlight deals for the iPhone. First up is a new crop of discounted iPhone applications, including “Core,” an Apple-related news tracker. Next is an 8GB iPhone 3GS AT&T is offering for just $49. We wrap things up with a 93 percent discount on select iPhone 4 cases.

Along the way, we’ll also check out a deal on unibody MacBook Pros, starting at $1,019. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.