• CG: Ars Technica reports that Apple’s knocked apps with names trying to leapfrog the queue back into touch. Ha! https://tinyurl.com/6nwecr #

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Via Flickr

If you see someone whipping out an iPhone at the next table or across the room at your next social gathering, chances are you’re looking at a member of the modern leisure class. When the iPhone made its debut last summer, people camped out in front of Apple stores across the United States to be among the first to experience Apple’s groundbreaking communication device. When Apple updated the phone and released its next gen gadget in more than 20 countries last Friday, again Apple retail stores and cellular provider outlets around the world received hordes of customers clamoring for the new phone — and Apple sold a paper million of them in three days.

Five days into the launch, all models of the phone were sold out in 21 states in the US and people were still lined up, waiting upwards of three hours to buy a phone in markets where they were still available. Steve Jobs called public reception of the new iPhone “stunning.”

Who are these people? A technology analyst for Piper Jaffray, Gene Munster  put out a report this week estimating numbers and interests of the early adopters of iPhone 3G based on a survey done with 280 people waiting in line to buy the phone in New York. Earlier this year, another trends analyst, M Metrics published a report saying iPhone users tend to do more entertaining things on their devices such as watch video and visit social networks than those who own other smartphones. AdMob similarly confirmed that, at the time, iPhone users were still a relatively small part of the overall mobile phone market in the US, though, according to Munster’s research the percentage of iPhone users is growing.

A look at what’s popular on Apple’s iTunes AppStore sheds more light on the pursuits of iPhone users: every single one of the top ten free and paid applications downloaded from the AppStore in its first week in business — more than 10 million, according to Apple — is a game or entertainment/social networking application. That is, except for the free Weather Bug coming in at #8, which, I’ll surmise people may be looking to for confirmation of their plan to spend the day at the beach or somewhere equally leisurely.

Apple has big plans to storm the beachead of Microsoft’s hold on the Enterprise market and sure enough, the Mac moved past Acer into 3rd place among PC makers in the US market during the 2nd quarter of this year. But Apple’s share of the desktop market remains below 10% and the iPhone’s initial integration efforts with Exchange have run into significant headwinds at the Enterprise level.

For now, it seems pretty obvious the iPhone is a darling of those with time to spare.

Just the other day, Boy Genius Report discovered that it had been visited by a few folks whose web browsers identified them as users of a yet-unreleased iPhone OS 2.0.1. Given the timing, it looks pretty clear that Apple will soon push out the update, which should mainly address bugs. Thank heavens — the OS needs it.

It appears that the iPhone software has some big issues to resolve. In addition to the boneheaded syncing scheme Lonnie highlighted a few minutes ago, every one I know who has installed the new OS onto their existing iPhone or iPod touch has noticed significant downgrades in performance and stability. I don’t have a 3G, and all my associates have the previous version or a touch, so I don’t know if these issues plague the new phone or not.

The worst of these problems is that the iPhone now fairly frequently won’t allow users to answer the phone when the screen is locked. When you get a call, the familiar “slide to answer” graphic pops up. But when you actually slide your finger to the right, the button gets stuck, and the phone locks up completely. At that point, the home button does nothing, the Hold button does nothing, and you basically need to perform a hard reset.

And that’s bad. Any time you have a phone that works well at everything but making phone calls? You need to take care of that problem NOW. Anyone else experiencing stability issues?

Via BGR.

Image courtesy Mushroom

The backup/synch process for iPhones takes a really long time and may turn out to be worthless for restoring a bricked device, according to emerging reports.

Blogger Erica Sadun wrote the other day about her frustrations with Apple’s synch and backup protocols in the iPhone 2.0 firmware and wondered why on earth she has to wait for entire applications to backup every time she synchs her phone with iTunes, instead of having iTunes backup only changed Document and Library data.

Writer Rob Griffiths also complains, “I can connect my phone, let it run a full backup and sync, disconnect it, let it sit on the desk for three minutes, then connect it again”¦and get hit with another hour-long backup cycle.”

And what’s worst is the local backup may be useless for restoring an iPhone to its as-configured state after crashing due to application instability or glitches in the 2.0 firmware. If this is a real problem, Apple’s millions of iPhone customers juggling their tens of millions of AppStore downloads will be letting us know quite soon, but as Griffiths writes, “the current implementation of backup in iPhone 2.0 seems very broken.”

In case you missed Pete’s snippet from yesterday, the iPhone’s Mobile Safari web browser looks very capable of bringing the full web on to the iPhone, outranking some popular desktop browsers in critical standards support testing.

In tests devised by the Web Standards Project to help developers ensure their work can reach as wide an audience as possible, Mobile Safari blew IE7 out of the water on compliance with support for CSS and even scored higher than Firefox 3 in testing for components vital to “Web 2.0″³ functionality.

Looks like those faster 3G download speeds could be worth something after all.

Via Paul Beesley

• CG: In light of Apple suing Psystar, Leigh’s “Missing Macintosh” article from April seems more relevant than ever: https://tinyurl.com/5eselw #
• CG: MacRumors reports that Apple has provided MobileMe users with a 30-day extension and an apology. https://tinyurl.com/65osh2 #
• CG: Shiny Development releases Speakapedia, to convert Wikipedia articles to spoken text in iTunes: https://shinydevelopment.com/ #
• PM: Mobile Safari outscores Firefox 3 in Acid 3 test: https://tiny.cc/Bvg4K #

Given that Loopt, the location-based social networking service, was among the blessed few companies allowed to show its iPhone apps at the introduction of the iPhone 3G, a whole lot of iPhone users downloaded the program after the launch last week. And many got upset with its default privacy settings.

But that doesn’t really matter — YouTube user Incruentum has put together a dance mix to “Caramelldansen” that allows us to revel in the spectacle of CEO Sam Altman’s shirt, instead.

Thanks, Antony!

Apple is extending the subscriptions of its current MobileMe customers for 30 days at no charge, according to an email sent by the company today.

“The .Mac to MobileMe transition was a lot rockier than we had hoped but everything is now up and running,” Apple spokesman, Bill Evans, told Macworld. “We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge.”

MobileMe customers should see the extension reflected in their accounts “within the next few weeks,” according to Apple’s email.

Enterprise customers remain largely unimpressed with Apple’s efforts to promote the iPhone as a tool for business. While hordes of consumers worldwide are willing to stand in line for hours to buy one of the touch screen gadgets, business customers are proving a more wary audience. The disconnect could be a crucial indicator to the company’s future direction.

The shortcomings of Apple’s first generation configuration tool for the iPhone bear all the hallmarks of Apple’s long-standing lack of understanding for the needs of enterprise customers, according to eWeek. Problems with security and application delivery call into question the company’s ability to create an effective solution in-house that can serve the needs of its largest customers. As it stands, the iPhone might be effectively integrated into small business environments, but the tools as currently structured lack the security and remote reach large deployments require.

Apple is rumored to be coming out already – possibly this week – with fixes for Exchange support, which has been declared by some a complete mess. A whole host of features Windows Mobile users are used to seem to be missing or inadequate, according to a review in Mobility Today, and even Apple itself has backed away from its original claim that “”Push happens automatically, instantly, and continuously” via MobileMe, which Apple promotes as “Exchange for the rest of us.”

Apple’s simultaneous worldwide release of new hardware, a major firmware update, a complete overhaul of its web services product and a significant effort toward enterprise configuration must be applauded as a swing for the fences. And the fact that everything has not gone smoothly should come as no surprise. As ever, it will be interesting to watch where the company goes from here.

One of the AppStore’s hottest downloads has more than 500 reviews and a 1.5 star average rating, which has to be bad news for someone.

We got a press release yesterday from uLocate Communications touting the succes of its GPS navigation app for the iPhone, WHERE, free software downloaded more than 125,000 times in its first weekend. A quick check on the WHERE product page in iTunes tells a different side of the story.

“Doesn’t work,” Worthless” and “Just keeps crashing” are the kinds of reviews that get a developer working on an update right away, though other users seem to be having no problems and love the application, with one fan reporting, “I feel that I’ve missed too much in life already because Where wasn’t available before.”

As we reported Monday, some developers are pointing the finger at Apple, claiming the 2.0 firmware is unstable and causing their apps to crash. Apple, of course, has little to say on the matter thus far and seems content to let the waves of elation and frustration that have accompanied the AppStore’s big splash settle out on their own.

The good news for users of software such as WHERE, is that at a cost of “free” deciding it’s not worth the hassle costs no more than a little wasted time, something Apple’s early adopters seem to have in abundance.

• CG: Jackass iPhone devs line-cut by exploiting naming conventions. Gizmodo: https://tinyurl.com/6p99yw (via Daring Fireball) #
• CG: Apple on iPhone cut and paste, GPS turn-by-turn and the lack of an iPhone office suite: https://tinyurl.com/67bgph (ExtremeTech) #
• CG: MacRumors reports that Psystar is indeed likely to get a butt-kicking over its Hackintoshes: https://tinyurl.com/5a69qq #

Apple filed suit against Florida-based computer maker Psystar on July 3rd, alleging copyright infringement, inducement of copyright infringement, trademark infringement and other legal claims. It seeks any profits earned by Psystar from sales of its Open Computer, triple damages for willful acts, a permanent injunction against the sale of the product and a recall of units already sold.

Despite a seemingly definitive ruling against Apple clone-makers in a landmark 1983 copyright decision, Psystar has lately continued selling what it calls “open source” computers with copies of OS X, while Psystar owners and managers admitted in public statements their knowledge of the existence of Apple’s software license agreement and its terms, according to the suit.

Legal experts speculate Psystar has almost no credible defense against the suit and believe this may truly be the end of Apple clones after the last major knock-off shop, Franklin Computers, closed its doors in the wake of the 1983 case.

Via CNet.

Photo by Jim Heid

Apple reports being sold out of all models of the iPhone 3G in 117 of its 188 retail outlets in the United States five days after bringing the product to market. The company updates a page on its website after 9pm in each time zone where you can check availability near you, but there have been reports the information is unreliable. Yesterday dozens of people waited in line to buy a phone at the Apple store in Kansas City based on notice the store was fully stocked, but apparently the store’s shipment never arrived and the manager had to begin placating angry customers by 1pm. If you live in many locations along the eastern seaboard, you might consider driving to New York, but there you will encounter the same long lines persisting in front of stores in other major markets such as San Francisco, Chicago and Atlanta.

The Apple website says, “Shipments of iPhone 3G arrive most days and availability is updated nightly,” for each of its stores, but advises to “get there early” because the phones are sold on a first come-first served basis. With wait times exceeding three hours and the sale/activation process continuing to take upwards of half an hour in the store, you’ll invest time as well as money getting a new iPhone anytime soon.

Via Fortune.

Veiosoft plans to release software on July 28 that will unleash more of the computing power inside Apple’s wireless handhelds. The $7 program distributed through the AppStore will allow any Mac, Windows or Linux machine to recognize an iPhone or iPod Touch as a volume when the handheld is registered to the same network, allowing transfer of data files between machines with drag and drop ease.

Using Finder and Bonjour, DataCase makes upload applications and server configuration unnecessary to move files between computers or take important data with you on your handheld. Macs integrate seamlessly with your handheld using Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) connectivity, while Windows and Linux computers are supported through HTTP and FTP.

The program supports up to 16 different volumes on the iPhone or iPod Touch, each configurable with read/write/browse permissions. Those concerned about the security implications of makng data so portable should be pleased to know files can me made invisible and alerts set to require authentication before allowing a connection over the network.

Many have felt the iPhone’s true innovation lies in portable computing and DataCase looks ready to begin delivering on that promise.

• CG: Apple reports that over 10 million applications have been downloaded since the iPhone App Store’s launch. https://tinyurl.com/6xlon8 #
• CG: Apple’s renewed importance and interest in gaming births Touch Arcade, a site dedicated to iPhone gaming. https://toucharcade.com/ #
• CG: Touch Arcade comments on iPhone control issues for Ms. Pac-Man: https://tinyurl.com/5olhvg – not sure swiping would do it for me. #

iBeer is a virtual pint for the iPhone and iPod Touch that is supposed to behave like a real pint of delicious bubbly beer, according to the developers.

Thanks to the iPhone’s accelerometers, it tips, pours and drains like a real pint. It even foams up when you shake the iPhone.

However, the $3 app is getting mixed reviews on the iTunes App Store. Some love it, but many say the fun lasts for about 30 seconds.

“For $3, I can get a real beer,” says one.

Here it is in action on YouTube:

There are still long lines and at least a 3 hour wait to buy the iPhone 2 — four days after the device first went on sale.

I went by the Apple Store near San Francisco’s Union Square on Monday evening. At about 7.30PM there was a long line of about 120 people stretching nearly the entire city block.

The concierge at the front door (pictured above talking to the cop) told me the wait was about 3 hours. The cop told the concierge to call if she needed any help later on. She just laughed. She was about to cut the line off — the store closes at 9PM.

She said the line had been like that all day — a work day for most San Franciscans. A coworker from Wired.com went to the store at lunchtime thinking they could walk right in and pick up a iPhone, and were flabbergasted to see there was still along line.

The problem is the activation procedure, which she said takes an average of 20 to 30 minutes for each customer — even existing AT&T subscribers. Unlike the first iPhone, no one is allowed to leave the store with an inactivated iPhone.

Earlier in the day, my wife went by another San Francisco Apple Store in the Stonestown shopping mall, where there was a line of about 25 or 30 people.

Anyone else seeing long lines?

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Thanks to blogger Cory Bohon at The Unofficial Apple Weblog, we bring you news that Mac Mix has some serious discounting available on bundles of Mac software. You can choose your own mix of titles from a set of 28 productivity, web tools, image & video, system enhancement and entertainment packages. Discounts range from 10% off any single title up to 75% off a bundle of twelve. The 500th purchaser will receive all 28 titles for free.

This might just go down as the nerdiest thing in the history of the iPhone. But it’s also totally sweet. The iPhone-packing groom is Jerad Hill.

Via Digg.

Apple reports over 10 million applications downloaded from the AppStore in its first weekend, according to a press release issued by the company today. There may be discord brewing between the company and developers of the applications being distributed in the AppStore, however, as blogger Bret Terpstra writes for The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

Many applications from the App Store are crashing frequently, according to Terpstra, and some veteran developers are pointing the finger at Apple, claiming crash logs indicate a “growing consensus that Apple has released a highly unstable “final” version of the 2.0 firmware.”

If it seems prices of the latest iPod and iPhone accessories are rising, you may have Apple’s licensing department to thank, according to a story in Popular Mechanics. Though the company is typically reticent to discuss the details of arrangements such as the one that allows some electronics manufacturers to place a “Made for iPod” designation on their products, managers and decision makers for both retailers and manufacturers indicate Apple’s licensing fees and specially made chips that allow gadgets to work with Apple gear can add 10% or more to the price consumers pay for an item.

Last year, Apple introduced a proprietary authentication chip that works like a silicon key to unlock streaming video functionality on iPhones and iPods and generally authorizes the devices to work with approved accessories. The “auth chip” meant third-party companies wanting to produce iPod-compatible gadgets first had to deal with Apple–the only company selling the chip. Previous-generation iPods could output video over a generic $2 iPod video cable, but new phones and iPods require officially licensed Apple cables–and these can cost up to $50, according to the report.

Apple’s contention is that its authentication technology and licensing protocols, which can entail auditors from Cupertino poring over a company’s books and records to ensure that Apple gets paid for every device sold, helps maintain high quality for products associated with the Apple brand. Some manufacturers complain, on the other hand, they must reduce the quality of their wares in order to pay Apple its share and still keep prices at levels that stimulate consumer demand.

Updated below – Apple CEO Steve Jobs pronounced the iPhone 3G’s worldwide reception “stunning,” according to AppleInsider.

Noting the 1 million phones sold in its “opening weekend” (as the lines between commerce and entertainment grow ever more blurred), Jobs trumpeted the fact that “It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start.”

Of course, its availability in more than 20 countries helped iPhone 3G sales, whereas the original phone was first offered only in the United States, but consumers’ embrace of the new model is sure to heat up the smartphone market. The sales numbers are impressive by any measure, especially given widespread activation issues that slowed down the purchase process and caused much grumbling among opening weekend buyers.

Apple’s sales figures are the subject of some debate in the wake of the company’s press releases this morning, according to a post at Fortune‘s Apple blog. While sales at Apple retail outlets are counted at the register, sales to partner carriers such as AT&T are counted by the company when they leave the loading docks in Asia. “In other words, some of those 1 million iPhones recorded as sold by Apple (AAPL) may still be in transit,” says the Fortune report.

Also today, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster put sales at around half the 1 million reported by Apple and said he thinks it will take two weeks or more to hit the 1 million served mark.

Last.fm iPhone Demo from Toby on Vimeo.

I was rather effusive in my enthusiasm for the launch of intelligent music radio application Pandora on iPhone. It symbolized, more than anything, that Apple was perfectly willing to let people listen to music on the device without the company’s blessing — some of the time anyway.

Tonight, Last.fm launched its own iPhone app, and it’s a doozy. The video demo speaks for itself, but I’m quite impressed with the events integration and the detailed information. I’ve been a bigger fan of Last.fm than Pandora for some time, not least for the huge amount of information on bands that it has to offer. Additionally, the social networking features are very cool — being able to e-mail any track to a contact? Genius. It’s available through the App Store now.

Sadly, it won’t Scrobble the tracks you listen to in the main iPod application, except after a sync with iTunes, nor will it keep playing while you browse on Safari, but those are technical impediments on Apple’s part. Altogether, it’s an impressive effort. With Pandora and AOL Radio, it has officially made the iPhone superior in every way to a satellite radio — unless you care about Howard Stern. This is the true future of radio, and it’s finally on the right platform.

Via Digg.

“This is journalism to you?” Exactly. Anyone know who that brave man in the iPhone line was? I would like to give him a prize.

Via Daring Fireball.