The iPhone Effect. AT&T learned of it in June, when demand for the iPhone 4 sent Web sites crashing and executives apologizing. Thursday, it was Verizon Wireless’ turn. The carrier halted sales after what was described as historic demand. Even more “incredible” was the timing: 3 am to 5 am.

“It was a very good day,” Verizon Wireless president and CEO Dan Mead announced Friday. “In just two hours, we had already sold more than any first day launch in our history,” he added. This from a phone 7 months old and likely to be replaced by a newer model later this year. This at a time of day when most people sleep and just two hours after pre-orders began. This when only Verizon customers were eligible.

Web developer Chris Galzerano has been digging through the latest beta of iOS 4.3, and his digital archeology has uncovered some interesting hints about what the iPad 2 will look like and what hardware it will boast.

First, iOS 4.3 seems to strongly imply that the Verizon will have its own iPad. The firmware describes iPad 2,1, iPad 2,2 and iPad 2,3, which suggests three models in WiFi, 3G GSM/UMTS and 3G CDMA flavors.

If you’re looking to play a game on your Mac about a homicidal, anthropomorphic rabbit on a quest for vengeance (and hey, who doesn’t), Lugaru HD by Wolfire Games has been the only option around since 2005. That changed a couple of weeks ago, though, when another developer started offering an identical game called Lugaru on the Mac App Store for $1.99… only a fifth of the price of the original game.

What’s happened? Well, some months back, Wolfire Games sweetened the pot of the Humble Indie Bundle (which they are also behind) by making Lugaru HD open source. They released the source under a GPL license, but as is common in these sorts of situations, they retained the rights to the game’s assets: graphics, sounds, levels, etc.

Unfortunately, it appears some less-than-scrupulous devs decided to take the source code and the assets and fling them up on the recently launched Mac App Store. Infuriatingly, they say they’re in the right.

Simplenote is my go-to note taking software on both the Mac and iOS, thanks to its titular simplicity and the nicety with which it plays with external apps like JiustNotes. Now it’s got a beefy update that adds even more functionality to the mix, including Dropbox syncing and lists.

While its only for premium customers, Simplenote’s Dropbox option allows notes to sync with your Mac’s Dropbox folder as simple text files, editable in any program that can handle a plain .txt.

Another premium option is support for lists, which allows any note to be turned into a task list that will allow you to edit the list items inline and even drag-and-drop to rearrange them. This is actually a great feature, as I tended to use my Simplenotes folder as a task list anyway: this just makes it all the easier to manage.

Unfortunately, for both of these functions, you’ll need to be a premium subscriber, which means paying the Simplenote guys $20 a year… but honestly, they deserve it.

As Apple’s App Stores become larger and larger, the difficulty of curating them and organizing apps in a browsable way becomes increasingly difficult. It also becomes increasingly difficult to allow customers to find what they want through simple search terms

To try to keep things tame, the iPad App Store has just gained some useful new filters to help you search through the store’s wares. Now when you’re looking for an app, you can assign a filter to the search thanks to the magic of popovers: Category, Release, Date, Customer Ratng, Prive and Device.

This is an iPad-only tweak for right now, and might stay that way, given the limitations of display real estate on the sub-4-inch line of iOS devices. Interestingly, though, they’re also not available on the Mac App Store. I reckon that will change, especially as the Mac App Store grows.

Another nice little change? Apps you’ve previously bought now have buttons next to them that say “Install” instead of “Buy.” Much appreciated, Apple: I was always worried I’m going to end up buying the same app twice under the old system.

[via MacStories]

You waited four years for this: four years of torment spent envying, coveting, planning, anticipating. When you first heard it could finally be yours, you could scarcely believe it, but then the frenzy set in, and you knew that there was no shortage of teeth you would shatter or life you would spill to finally get your hands on one, and god help any man who would come between, for he would not recognize the death that he faced until it was too late.

Luckily, it didn’t come to that. In actuality, all you needed to do was stay up a little past your bedtime on Wednesday and the Verizon iPhone was yours, at least in pre-order theory. Now you’re in the end zone: just a week more to wait until you can finally call an iPhone 4 your own.

You don’t have long to wait, we swear. In fact, an iPhone might already be on its way to you, as some Verizon customers are already getting shipping confirmation notes. Ever Verizon’s FAQ allows for the possibility that pre-order customers could get their Verizon iPhone early, so if you got a pre-order in before they sold out, check the mailbox!

The Stationery Pad is an often overlooked feature of Mac OS X, designed to let you create your own template documents.

It’s a very flexible system – pretty much any document you create can become a template.

Here’s how you use it.

The Chronic Dev Team has released an updated version of its Greenpois0n utility that allows you to jailbreak your favorite iOS devices running iOS 4.2.1. The good news about this new release is that the utility will perform an untethered jailbreak, which means you can reboot the device without having to have it tethered to your computer.

This version is new and I haven’t tested it myself yet, but from what I am hearing there may be a few problems with the utility so you might want to wait a while before using it.

Greenpois0n is currently only available for the Mac and it isn’t recommended for people who have unlocked iDevices or are interested in unlocking.

You can download a copy at the developers site or via this link.

[via iClarified]

Apple has finally released the Gold Master version of Xcode 4 after releasing it earlier today and then pulling it suddenly reverting back to the sixth beta preview that was previously released. Why this happened isn’t known and I don’t expect Apple to explain it.

However, now it is back and I highly recommend it. I have to say it is a welcome addition to my developer tools since the crazy multi-window interface of Xcode 3 wasn’t something I liked using.

Xcode 4 introduces a fully updated integrated design environment for Mac and iOS developers — the type of environment I’m more comfortable in. It offers a lot of really nice new tools that were first introduced at last years WWDC.

Check out the new features in Xcode 4 and if you are a registered Mac or iOS developer get a copy of Xcode 4 GM now.

If you’re an iPhone-craving Verizon customer, I have some bad news for you. They’re all gone. In just over 17 hours, Big Red managed to sell out of its complete allocation of CDMA iPhone 4s available ahead of the long-awaited device’s Feb. 10 launch.

What do you reckon? A million sold already?

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

AT&T apparently is offering its iPhone customers free 3G Microcell service if they don’t move to Verizon. That’s the word from one of our readers, who told us a relative received the e-mail offer.

The free service is “our way of saying ‘thank you’ for your continued loyalty,” according to the AT&T ad copy. The reader was received the service immediately, a reports there were no hidden charges with the deal.

We start with a deal on a 32GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad for just $670. Then there is the UrbanFlip Leather iPad case. We wrap up the deal spotlight with a 1.4GHz MacBook Air for just $949.

Along the way, we’ll also check out an 8GB iPhone 3GS from AT&T for just $9 plus activation. Details on these and other bargains (such as 93 percent of on select iPhone 4 cases) can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Institutional Shareholders Service, an independent proxy-advising service, and the Laborers’ International Union of North America have endorsed a shareholders’ proposal to require Apple, Inc. to disclose a succession plan for Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, according to a report Thursday at Bloomberg’s Businessweek.

Apple shareholders will consider the proposal, which would mandate Apple’s board disclose a CEO succession plan annually, at the next shareholders’ meeting on February 23.

Jobs announced his most recent medical leave of absence from the company on January 17, which led to new rounds of speculation in the media and blogosphere as to the Apple CEO’s health and his long-term prospects for continuing to lead the giant technology enterprise.

Tim Cook, Apple’sChief Operating Officer, has taken over responsibility for day-to-day operations in Jobs’ absence, but the board has offered no guidance as to who might take over in the event Jobs is unable to return to work.

As Verizon’s systems get crushed with customers eager to buy an iPhone 4, Apple has hinted that the iPhone 5 will be coming to the carrier in July.

Everyone knows that Apple will be refreshing the iPhone hardware this summer. But the big question about today’s Verizon launch is whether that carrier will get new hardware in less than six months. It seems likely. Apple is strongly rumored to be working on a dual-mode handset that works on both GSM and CDMA networks. But where does that leave VZW’s early adopters? How are they going to feel about buying a device made obsolete in a few months?

The New York Times columnist David Pogue asked Apple these questions. Here’s what Apple said:

Apple won’t say if there will be an iPhone 5 for Verizon this summer. (“Let’s put it this way: We’re not stupid,” is all an Apple rep would say.) But if it does, and you buy an iPhone 4 now, you’ll be stuck with an outdated phone in only five months.

To me, this reads like a tacit admission that the iPhone 5 will launch on Verizon and AT&T simultaneously this summer. Obviously Apple won’t pre-announce the iPhone 5 on VZW because no one that network will buy the iPhone 4 today.

As Apple says, “We’re not stupid.”

It looks like Nvidia’s fastest graphics cards could be headed for the Mac — courtesy of an unofficial hack.

The Russian hacker known as Netkas has hinted that he’s cracked Nvidia’s Fermi ROM, the firmware underlying its most powerful cards, which are currently Windows-only.

In a post titled “On the mac’s fermi ROM,” Netkas posted a winking smiley face — a hint that he’s cracked the drivers for Nvdia’s most powerful line of graphics cards.

Netkas is a highly regarded hacker, most famous for his Hackintosh EFI Bootloader hack, which allows generic PC hardware to run Mac OS X.

Given the hacker’s reputation, it is “certain that he has found a way,” says HardMac, which follows graphics hacks closely. Hardmac reckons Netkas was able to adapt the ROM of Nvidia’s Quadro FX 4000, which has Mac drivers.

HardMac is hoping to see Mac ROM for Nvidia’s GTX 580, the most powerful Fermi card available.

There’s a thriving hacking underground that unofficially adapts Mac drivers for Windows PC cards, which are usually much cheaper than their Mac counterparts.

The iPhone is only a gadget made of wires, metal and glass. However, as Verizon is learning, the Apple handset — and its enthusiastic fans — can also be a force of nature. Despite its planning and words of assurance, Verizon is being hard hit as the carrier’s Website takes a pounding from wave after wave of iPhone 4 pre-orders.

By e-mail and Twitter, buyers are reporting pages loading slowly and various errors. The dominant theme: Verizon is getting slammed. Potentially bringing a knowing smile from AT&T (remember the carrier’s formal apology over a round of pre-order snafus?), press accounts Thursday recall a fateful statement from Verizon made a year ago: “We are not going to have any flaws on the execution of the iPhone launch,” the president and CEO of the carrier’s telecom and business department said at the time.

Ken Segall, the advertising guru who named the iMac and coined the “Think Different” slogan, wants to bust what he calls the “last myth about Macs:” security.

Segall takes to task all the usual arguments – Macs are only secure because there aren’t that many of them and that Macs are actually more vulnerable, thanks to the known vulnerabilities.

So where are the viruses? Where are the hacks?

[polldaddy poll=”4493899″]

With the launch of The Daily yesterday, Apple revealed a new subscription model for iPad publications.

You can currently check out The Daily for free for two weeks, then subscriptions run $0.99 per week or $40 a year. This model is currently only available for that publication, but is expected to be expanded soon.

The next time you download on iTunes, you’ll be asked to agree with the updated terms of service about in-app subscriptions.

The 347-word TOS specifies that subs are non-refundable, automatically renew and may hand over your personal details to publishers – which, to me at least, sounds like the same kind of hassle faced with analog magazine subscriptions.

Are you pleased that Apple has created a new, uniform model for subscriptions or are you going to stick to paper?

Let us know in the comments.

Most in the tech world for months have expected today to arrive, as Verizon Wireless begins accepting pre-orders for the iPhone 4. However, AT&T – although it has known about the potential impact of losing exclusive rights to the Apple handset for an equal period, is still offering a flurry of last-minute reasons why iPhone owners should stay where they are.

Attempting to reach the price-conscious, AT&T has doubled the amount of data iPhone owners can consume while paying the same rate. AT&T is also offering a wireless hotspot service, similar to Verizon’s, for smartphones – at the same price of tethering to a computer. No matter this feature was first provided Android users. However, like some late-night pitchman, wait, there’s more.

When the iPhone first came out, Steve Jobs — quizzed why Apple had eschwed a stylus — famously quipped that in his opinion, “If you see a stylus, they blew it.”

It’s a great quote, but in reality, it’s always been a little too dismissive of the benefits of styluses. In truth, there’s a lot of uses for a stylus on a touchscreen — for example, in creating digital art. Styluses are also of great people to people trying to use touchscreen devices who can’t keep their hand steady: my mother, for example, has a hard time typing on her iPod Touch without one because she has had tremors since a stroke a few years back.

It’s nice to see, then, that Apple is softening a little bit on their position against styluses… at least when it comes to filing patents.

Disappointed that the Verizon iPhone doesn’t make use of the network’s nascent 4G network? Well, your iPhone might not be able to suck in LTE, but your Mac now can, thanks to Verizon making time in an already busy week to release the latest version of their Verizon Access Manager for Mac software.

Why is this important? Well, thanks to the updated software, if you have Verizon’s Pantech UML290 4G LTE modem and are running Mac OS X 10.4 or higher, you’re now ready to skate along the cutting edge of mobile broadband.

Unfortunately, all the news is not good: LTE will only work on your Mac if you have that one Verizon 4G modem. The other one — the LG VL600 — still doesn’t support Mac, although it is expected to do so later in February.

Verizon has just begun taking pre-orders for the iPhone 4, and already there is concern the carrier may clamp-down on owners of the Apple handset, notorious for their use of data. The carrier reportedly is ready to reduce the bandwidth on the top 5 percent of its subscribers.

“If you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5% of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high quality network performance for other users” during peak demand, according to a policy paper obtained by a tech blog. The note surfaces amid early reviews, citing the Verizon iPhone as stable, but slower than AT&T.

The ripple effect of Apple’s decision to force e-reading apps like Sony Reader and Amazon’s Kindle to at least offer the option of purchasing content as an in-app purchase is already being felt in the publishing world, with several publishers across Europe already planning a summit in London to discuss the threat.

Describing themselves as feeling “betrayed”, the head of the International Newsmedia Marketing Association (a body which represents almost 5,000 members in 80 countries worldwide) are planning to meet with the European Online Publishers Association to “compare notes” on Apple’s new rules.

Why are they so upset? Simple: they have already set up their magazine and newsreader apps to go through their websites, because Apple was refusing to offer an iTunes in-app subscription service. Now, Apple’s introducing such a service… while simultaneously threatening to kick out anyone who doesn’t use it.

At long last, ladies and gentlemen, after all these years of waiting, we finally have it: an app that puts cheese on your head.

Other folks have been waiting for Duke Nukem Forever, or for a 15-inch MacBook Air, or for democracy in their dictatorships, or even for basic stuff like world peace and an end to disease. Oh, and flying cars, people are still waiting for those.

But for the rest of us – for those of us who have longed for an app that puts cheese on our head – the waiting is over. iCheeseHead fulfils all our virtual cheese-on-head needs, and costs less than most real cheese.

Rupert Murdoch can keep his $30 million iPad newspaper. We can all have cheese on our heads now, and nothing else matters.

When we talk about the massive anticipation for the Verizon iPhone, what we’re always considering is the regular customers, whether the guy from AT&T who has been waiting years to switch away from the mushy, dropped call maker, or the Verizon customer who has had to pretend an Android phone is just as good as an iPhone for years now.

We never talk about the Verizon employees though… a shame, since they probably want an iPhone more than anyone, if only to stop people asking them constantly when Verizon will have the iPhone and treating them like second-class citizens.

Unfortunately, if you’re a Verizon employee, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer to get your iPhone, at least if you want to link it to your Verizon-expensed business line. Try to activate an iPhone on your existing number and Verizon will detect it and change it to a personal number.

Is an iPhone worth paying for your calls? Apparently, Verizon thinks it just might be, because while they can’t stop employees from getting one personally, they have distributed a memo pleading with all employees to postpone iPhone purchases for themselves, their friends and their family until the initial rush is over.