Even though Apple’s and AT&T’s pre-ordering systems are crashing due to high demand, several people have reported success pre-ordering the iPhone 4 through the new Apple Store iPhone app.
However, that too is over-subscribed. Attempts to pre-order the iPhone through the app are returning the following message:
“Due to high demand, we are not currently accepting iPhone 4 reservations via the Apple Store app. To pre-order or reserve yours, please visit apple.com/iphone/pre-order.
But Apple and AT&T’s systems are still down, with attempts to reserve an iPhone resulting in error messages and timeouts.
Anyone had success using a different method? Radio Shack?
We kick-off another Tuesday with three hardware deals. This is the first day Apple accepts pre-orders for the recently-unveiled iPhone 4. The 16GB model is $199 while the 32GB version is $299. Also, we have the just-announced refresh of the Mac mini, complete with aluminum body, 2.4GHz processor and 320GB hard drive for $699.
Along the way, we’ll check out the latest crop of App Store price drops, including a touch-screen version of the classic “Clue” mystery game. We’ll also look at some new iPhone software, along with hardware for your iPhone or iPod.
As always, details on these and many more items are available at CoM’s”Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
Yet another report suggests Internet giant Google has Apple’s monolithic music empire in its sites. The Mountain View, Calif. Google could have an iTunes alternative ready to announce by this fall, according to CNET. What could be even more worrisome for Apple: music labels may welcome Google with open arms.
Although we’ve known for quite some time Google plans to offer a service for Android users that would convert iTunes tracks, this appears to be the first report Apple’s rival is speaking directly to music execs.
In January, Google pitched its idea of a competing music service to music labels attending the January CES conference. After previously attempts by the music industry to get everyone from AOL to Facebook to take on iTunes, Google’s idea for a streaming music service “would be warmly welcomed by the top labels,” according to the report.
It also appears Google wants to beat Apple to the punch, introducing a streaming music service before the Cupertino, Calif. company has a chance to unveil a similar version for iTunes. Many thought Apple purchased Lala in a bid to gain the necessary technology. However, when the company recently pulled the plug on Lala without naming a successor, some onlookers doubted Apple would unveil a cloud-based upgrade to iTunes.
Still, it appears Apple’s mind remains in the clouds. The company has made strides allowing music consumers to preview tunes via the web without requiring the iTunes app first be installed.
Despite it being the lowest-cost Mac in Apple’s lineup, one analyst is disappointed today’s refresh of the Mac mini came with a $100 price increase.
“The only disappointment we have is the price point of $699 vs. the previous price of $599,” Kaufman Bros.’ Shaw Wu told investors Tuesday morning. The Mac mini had a $499 price tag when introduced in January 2005.
After a morning of spotty service, both Apple’s and AT&T’s iPhone processing systems have crashed, leaving customers unable to order the iPhone 4.
Instead, customers are lining up at retail stores belonging to Apple and AT&T. There are lines in New York, Louisiana and Japan.
We have been unable to preorder an iPhone despite dozens of tries and, and neither is anybody else, according to a surge of #ATTFAIL messages on Twitter.
Above is a line outside a New York AT&T store. “Check out this line of people waiting to pre-order iPhones at our local AT&T store. This isn’t even to take them home or anything — it’s for the right to wait in another line next Friday (to pick up the phone),” Business Insider notes.
Apple and AT&T’s systems have been choking all morning, returning error messages saying orders cannot be processed. This, of course, is good news/bad news for the companies.
The iPhone 4 is on sale at a bunch of places — Apple, AT&T, Best Buy and Wal-Mart — but Radio Shack may be the best place to pick one up, thanks to rebates on older iPhones.
The Shack is offering special trade-in deals for older iPhones that can be applied to the cost of a new iPhone 4. In some cases, a new iPhone may be free.
Will some song and dance put smiles on Foxconn Workers?
Apple contractor Foxconn Technology Group will move all workers except those building iPhones away from the highly-publicized Shenzhen factory, according to China Daily.
“We’ve got a notice today,” a source told the newspaper Wednesday morning. Researchers supporting Hewlett-Packard servers will move to northern China, while other workers are sent to Tianjin, Yantai and Wuhan. The exodus will be made in two months, the report said.
We kick off another week of deals with a bargain on the stamp-size iPod shuffle: $39 for the 1GB version. Americans by droves tuned into the World Cup this weekend to watch the U.S. and the U.K. battle to a 1-1 draw. Whether you are an American soccer fan or a European “football” fan, today’s batch of App Store freebies includes “Goaaal!” a soccer game for your iPhone or iPod touch. Finally, a USB cable isn’t very sexy — until you need an extra.
Along the way, we check out new software deals, some camera, as well as storage options. As always, details on these and many other deals are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
As it turns out, if you want a white iPhone 4 on June 24th, you’re out of luck: Apple’s iPhone 4 pre-order site is now explicitly saying that the “white iPhone [is] currently unavailable for pre-order or in-store pick-up.”
The omission of the white iPhone 4 seems to be universal: Apple’s domestic wireless partner AT&T has also sent out an internal memo saying that they will only have black handsets in stock on launch day, with the white model promised “later this summer.”
I suppose it’s possible that white iPhone 4s will be available for cold pick-ups on launch day, but everything about this indicates that Apple has had some unexpected last minute delay in producing the white iPhone 4.
It’s disappointing: I think the white iPhone 4 is a significant improvement over the style of the black version, especially with a bumper installed. What about you? Will you wait for the white iPhone 4, or settle for a black version on launch day?
When you actually click the links, Apple’s bouncing around some bad link error messages, but if you want to preorder your iPhone 4 for pick-up or delivery on June 24th, Apple’s preorder website is now live. You might want to keep refreshing it until the kinks go away. (Update: the preorder forms are now working).
Completed your preorder? We’ll see you for some jubilant crowing in the comments!
Well, it’s about time: yesterday, Starbucks announced that they would be activating free, one-click WiFi access across all of their United States locations, starting on July 1st.
For iPhone owners, this isn’t a big deal: they’ve long enjoyed free AT&T WiFi at Starbucks with their Frappucinos.
By opening up WiFi to everyone, though, Starbucks has finally allowed iPod Touch and iPad owners free access to the Internet… not to mention MacBook owners and the rest of those Android and PC toting plebes.
Over at Gizmodo, they’re making a big stink about Apple’s decision to ban two graphic novel adaptations of famous literary works from the App Store for obscenity— namely, James Joyce’s Ulysses and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
Now Apple’s reversed the ban on these two graphic novels… but in the process of doing so, have ironically made themselves look far more hypocritical in their App Store censorship policies than if they’d stuck to their original decision.
One of the offending panels from iPad comic "Ulysses."
Apple execs have a hard time telling the difference between porn and literature.
First Apple removed images from graphic novels of classics “Ulysses” and “The Importance of Being Earnest” for being, well, too graphic for the device that has been touted as “freedom from porn.”
Robert Berry, the illustrator of “Ulysses Seen,” told the New York Times that an image of a woman with exposed breasts was one of the offending panels in the comic version of the book.
Monday Giveaways took little hiatus because of holidays and big Apple announcements, but it’s BACK, and we’ve got some sweet apps to give away. We currently have 8,362 followers on Twitter, but we think 9,000 is such a better number. We want to put our cult to the test and see if you have the power to help us reach 9k followers! For every 100 new followers we get, I’ll give away a batch of codes to 10 random Twitter followers that re-tweet the special tweet below:
Steve Wozniak will be taking a break from Segway Polo and dancing the tango to be interviewed on radio program “The American Entrepreneur” Tuesday, June 15.
Tune in from 3 PM – 6 PM (EST) online and call 412-333-1360 to ask Woz your most pressing Apple questions.
Host Ron Morris will be chatting to Apple’s other Steve about his personal history, the early days of Apple, what he is up to nowadays and what Steve thinks of the evolution of the computer industry since he and Steve Jobs launched their fledgling startup in April 1976.
Electronics giant Best Buy announced today it will team up with Apple and other retailers to handle pre-orders for the new iPhone 4 handset. Tuesday, pre-orders begin at Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile storeswith delivery to consumers set for June 24.
“It’s exciting to have an opportunity to launch this iconic device with this pre-sale,” Best Buy Mobile president Shawn Score said. “Adding the iPhone 4 to our stores alongside other great smartphones like the HTC EVO from Sprint and the HTC Incredible on Verizon, giving customers a great opportunity to view each side-by-side and get the mobile phone that works best for them,” he added.
In order to handicap how well the iPhone 4 will be received, it seems we need look no further than upgrades. Trade-ins hit the 1,000 mark on the day Apple’s latest handset was announced, a marked jumped from the 141 iPhone trade-ins when the iPhone 3GS was unveiled in 2009, according to trade-in specialist Gazelle.
More than half, or 65 percent, of the iPhones being traded-in are the 3GS, according to the company. Although the iPhone has always been popular with the geekerati, the iPhone 4 seems to have crossed the barrier into general consumer conversation, reports say.
In a vaguely-worded apology, carrier AT&T Sunday blamed hackers for a security breach which exposed thousands of iPad owners’ email addresses.
“On June 7, we learned that unauthorized computer ‘hackers’ maliciously exploited a function designed to make your iPad log-in process faster by pre-populating an AT&T authorization page with the email address you used to register your iPad for 3G service,” the carrier explained in a letter obtained by BGR.
Arguably the best soccer game on any console, the much anticipated Pro Evolution Soccer is now available on iPhone and iPod Touch and boasts a unique ‘true flow’ control system, unrivalled realism and official UEFA competitions exclusive to Pro Evolution Soccer 2010. But does it compete with other big soccer games already available in the App Store?
As seen at last week’s WWDC, iMovie for iOS looks like nothing else out there when it comes to mobile video editing. The Tidbits blog has posted some more details about what you can expect, and unfortunately, there’s some limitations on what you can do with iMovie.
The bad news is that for right now, it’s iPhone 4 only, with iPhone 3GSs needing not apply because of the lack of A4 processor. Don’t expect it on the iPad until Apple’s tablet gets a camera, though.
There’s more bad news: right now, you can’t export projects to iMovie on the Mac for giving your edits some more advanced finesse. iMovie for iPhone exists in its own little vacuum for people who want to quickly edit a movie on the go. If you want to edit your iPhone 4 footage on your Mac, you’ll need to start from scratch, at least for now.
While iMovie for iPhone is likely to be locked to next-gen iOS devices, I imagine Apple will eventually integrate the software with the desktop suite and bring it to the next-gen iPad and iPod Touch. Either way, at $4.99, iMovie for iPhone looks like a steal of an app.
This is a heartwarming story: a developer of China’s most popular instant messaging client, TenCent, was invited by Apple to come to WWDC, only to be mugged upon arrival in San Francisco for his iPad. He managed to escape with just a few bruises, but his iPad was shattered. Luckily, a local Apple Genius took sympathy on him and offered to replace the iPad… and to end things on the perfect note, when the developer wrote Steve Jobs to praise the Apple Store’s great customer service, he got a nice note back wishing him a safe voyage home.
The Icon by essential tpe is a design first in a peripheral line all too dominated by bulky li-ion boxes: it looks good. Actually, it looks great, aping the style of the iOS replenishing battery icon by using electroluminescent lighting film that displays the add-on battery’s power level even when it’s unplugged.
It has all the hallmarks of just another Yanko Design wishful-thinking concept, but essential tpe swear that this is a real product which they are ready to sell you… an assertion perhaps belied by the lack of pricing details and the rendered appearance of the product shots.
We certainly hope it’s a real product though: the Icon just looks too sexy for us to root against it.
Curious about Apple’s own foray into protective iPhone cases, the bumper? The guys over at AppAdvice have taken some pretty shots of the bumper case ensconcing a new iPhone 4.
It looks surprisingly good, especially wrapped around the white model, and my guess is that by offering some padding around the iPhone 4’s most vulnerable fracture point, the $29 case will be pretty good at keeping your iPhone safe from cracks… but keys shredding your screen will be just as big of a concern as a totally unprotected handset.
Despite Apple’s feelings about them, my guess is you’ll want to invest in a protective film even if you pick up the bumper.
