We now have definitive proof that a business world built on the quarterly earnings report is destined for self-destruction: Apple’s stock fell almost $9 because its partner AT&T “only” managed to activate 146,000 iPhones in its first day and a half on sale. Not that the activation figure directly reflects the number of iPhones sold.

Yes, I’m serious, and I’m totally bewildered. Analysts and investors are pretending that the second quarter, which closed June 30, would be the one that reflects the impact of the iPhone. Which is nice, except that the iPhone went on sale at 6 p.m. on June 29, and AT&T had serious network issues that prevented people from activating their phones until well into the next week. Which means that anyone who couldn’t or chose not to activate their iPhone until after midnight on June 30 got left out of this report.

Which is obviously a clear sign that it’s time to sell all of your shares in AAPL. Obviously. You know how, in movies, we’ve gotten to the point where people talk about the highest opening 5.5-day gross ever by a film released on a Tuesday in a month with a full moon that falls on a Saturday? This is the opposite. This is the smallest 1.5-day activation ever for an incredibly successful product. They chopped off Sunday, for heaven’s sake!

But this is the world that exists. It’s all about the quarterlies. And maybe that means that Apple did AT&T a disservice by not launching a week sooner. It shouldn’t have any impact on the long-term health of either firm. But it’s idiotic. Especially since AT&T experienced — wait for it — 61 percent total revenue growth!

Grrrr. Anyway, don’t read too much into these numbers. Apple will release its sales numbers soon, which are a clearer indication of how well the iPhone did in its first day and a half. Not that a day and a half of sales matters. It’s stupid. Can we talk about this in October?

Image via TechDigest

Watch the video up top. It’s a pretty terrifying video of a totally compromised iPhone through a new exploit of Safari, both on iPhone and likely PCs and Macs. A fix is already in the works, but I have to say I’m not that bothered. Why? Because it, like every other really dangerous exploit of a Mac or Apple product I’ve seen is heavily reliant on social engineering. For your iPhone to freak out and possibly shoot your cats with an iLaserbeam, you first need to go to a website specifically designed to make your iPhone freak out and kill your kittens. And I’m sorry, there’s no amount of protection that can protect people who are dupes for fraud. You can only go so far. This hole needs to close, no doubt, but if people vulnerable to harm on the web don’t know to only go to links they can trust, they probably shouldn’t be using the web at large.

Now, when people can make this happen over WiFi without the use of an exploit-focused website, then I’ll panic. And probably go back to landlines.

Via NY Times.

Looking for an obsessive chronicle of Apple’s products over time? Look no further than Designed in California, a website that takes every product — and every single SKU — Apple has released since Steve Jobs resumed control of Apple in 1997. It’s a million times more detailed than the map I tried to pull together a few weeks ago.

Can you believe that Apple ever routinely released top-of-the-line computers for almost $5,000 without a monitor? Worse, can you believe that the new octocore Mac Pros are $4,000 without a monitor?

An incredible undertaking. Anyone know the story here? According to a whois look-up, the owner is Graham Parks, who also owns Fondant Fancies. I’ve dropped him a note, so stay tuned.

Scott Walker, the assistant managing editor of the Birmingham (Ala.) News, has made a hack for the ages. Taking an old newspaper vending machine, as a base, he fitted a 17″ LCD screen to the front of the box and then rigged a Mac mini running PhotoPresenter to constantly stream the front pages of newspapers from the Newseum. As well as anything from his iTunes library.

It’s a wonder to behold. And all of this on deadline, too!
Via TUAW

Being a Machead can be a disease. We spend too much on Apple stuff, we get embarrassing temporary (and not-so-temporary) tattoos, and our partners tolerate our obsessions out of love and not much more.

I think such bonds are automatically made null and void if anyone comes home with the above item, which is a 6-foot-tall neon Apple logo sign being auctioned by Huntsville, Ala. Mac store MacResource on eBay. And here’s the deal. Despite currently going for $4,350 at auction (the equivalent of more than 7 fully loaded iPhones!), the reserve has not been met.

Pull out your credit cards?!

Via Macenstein

Color customizers extraordinaire Colorware are now offering iPhone paint work. For $150, they’ll take your iPhone and remake its look in your image. They’re also selling pre-colored iPhones for the same premium over stock models. I’m always surprised that Colorware’s work looks so good — color’s such a tricky design element, especially when it’s literally an after-thought — but their work is hot.

That said, it’s not for me. I’m still scraping together the money for an iPhone, so…

Via Infinite Loop

This YouTube compilation was first posted to MacRumors as the interface we might see on a forthcoming OS X iPod. To be honest, the graphics look right, but something here isn’t right. Specifically, the aspect ratio. All of the clips are in 4:3, horizontally oriented, exactly like the existing video iPod. If Apple does roll out a new iPod with an iPhone-like interface, it should get a nice rectangular screen in place for widescreen movies. In fact, it should just look like an iPhone, but with some distinguishing design features.

I wouldn’t be shocked if this clip is legit. I also wouldn’t be stunned to learn it’s a fake.

Via DAPReview

Just a week after claiming that Apple’s iPhone had caused wireless network disruptions on its campus, Duke University’s IT organization now blames the trouble on a Cisco network problem.

Oops. CIO Tracey Futhey’s statement:

Cisco worked closely with Duke and Apple to identify the source of this problem, which was caused by a Cisco-based network issue. Cisco has provided a fix that has been applied to Duke’s network and there have been no recurrences of the problem since. We are working diligently to fully characterize the issue and will have additional information as soon as possible. Earlier reports that this was a problem with the iPhone in particular have proved to be inaccurate.

It’s remarkable how rapidly bad news can spread. This story made headlines in the largest publications in the U.S. without any verification — in large part because the investigation hadn’t been completed. Apple tends to attract such negative stories, in part because the company is riding so high these days. Nothing sexier than the iPhone wreaking havoc.

Because, let’s be honest: Network routers having problems isn’t actually news.

Via Apple 2.0.

We’ve all seen Apple use the New York Times website to demonstrate the iPhone’s tremendous facility on the Internet. But the Times site works so well in part because the newspaper’s web page somewhat mimics the look of a real newspaper front page. What about the hundreds of terrible newspaper web pages that we read for local content?

Enter PressDisplay. The company takes the original layouts of newspapers and turns them into browseable web objects. And it’s now compatible with iPhone.

As you might expect, it’s optimized for crazy zooms, rotations and all of the other interactions that just make iPhone special. It is a commercial service, but it’s free through the end of August, so there’s really no better way to read the Washington Post or the San Francisco Chronicle on the train to work until then!

San Francisco’s Chinatown provides a wealth of cheap goods. While shopping for ridiculous San Francisco mementos for a friend who’s moving away, I spotted this display of clearly fake MANNDigital Mp3 players that mimic exactly the look, size and even packaging of Apple’s clippable iPod shuffles.

I could easily see the casual shopper getting confused here, but a few distinctions stand out to me: 1) The volume and skip track buttons have switched places. 2) This device comes in a few colors Apple shuffles don’t, including black. 3) These have a dedicated mini-USB port, instead of Apple’s remarkable headphone/power/USB port.

All told, an excellent knock-off, and one worthy of a cease & desist letter. So get ’em while they’re hot.

Andy Hargadon, the director of the UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship, related a funny Apple story from his past at his talk on Thursday night. He came to Apple as a product designer in the early 1990s, and his first big project was the Powerbook Duo… power supply. Seriously. And his budget was $1 million.

As he tells the story now, Apple in those days was so opposed to using off-the-shelf solutions that they would over-invest in areas that people didn’t care much about. After all, though the Duo power adapter was pretty great, did the internals need to be developed in-house? Could an existing solution have been integrated into the case, which did incorporate the still-innovative gull wings for cord management?

It’s a great example of the trouble with creating a culture where everything a company does has to be the best, most exciting and most advanced. You end up investing in areas that don’t matter and spend too little time making sure that people actually care about the changes coming.

Apple’s much healthier these days, and appears to be committed to using the best solutions, no matter who creates them, and then spending the rest of their energy on increasing the difference between the off-the-shelf answer and the Apple-branded experience. That’s why the iPod was entirely non-Apple in every regard except the ones that counted: The logo, the user interface and the integration with iLife.

Anyone else have tales of past Apple development excess? I really don’t know if I can think of a crazier one than the million-dollar power supply.

Picture via eBay

BusinessWeek recently put together an interesting run-down of prominent Apple Design alumni and what they’re up to these days. It’s a good list, but far from comprehensive, as is required in any such piece. I did want to highlight a couple of people who didn’t make the cut.

It’s literally two. I promise.

German site Fudder got a lot of attention today for posting a set of concepts that frog design created for Apple in the early 1980s for the Snow White project, including the above “PhoneMac” concept that incorporated communication into a flat-panel Mac – before the first Mac ever shipped.

To augment the fun over at Fudder I’ve pulled all of Apple’s phone-related concepts from the wonderful coffee table book Apple Design. They’re all after the jump, and some of them are more compelling than others, to put it mildly.

Photo by Seth Dillingham

The Sitening blog claims to have unearthed the identity of Fake Steve Jobs — it’s veteran Mac columnist Andy Ihnatko — but the evidence is flimsy at best.

The “proof” is that FSJ’s computer has an IP address in Boston — and Ihnatko lives in Beantown. Ergo sum.

The Sitening blog obtained FSJ’s IP address by sending him a special URL in email. When FSJ visited the special URL, it revealed his IP address: 68.160.21.224, which comes from the Boston area.

But I’m skeptical. Andy’s a humorous writer, but the styles are different. And FSJ is obviously a reporter or editor with a Silicon Valley business publication — Forbes or Fortune, or such like — not a specialist Mac writer. The subject matter on FSJ’s blog ranges too far from Apple — he’s obsessed with Sun and Google as he is with Steve Jobs.

When Wired News first contacted FSJ earlier this year to set up a sponsorship deal, my colleague Kevin Poulsen, the ace hacker, used the headers of FSJ’s emails to track him to a hotel in New York, then a public park or cafe in New York (he was probably using free WiFi), and finally suburban Boston.

We assumed Fake Steve was traveling that day. Maybe he took a business trip to New York to his home in Boston. But who knows? Maybe he works in Boston, or that’s where his girlfriend lives?

The only one who knows FSJ’s identity for sure is my boss, Wired News EIC Evan Hansen, who’s keeping mum.

Apple will bring multitouch technology from the iPhone to the mainstream Mac OS X. That much is a foregone conclusion. The technology is too powerful to restrict to just mobile platforms. The only question becomes what multitouch might look like on a full-size computer compared to on an iPhone.

One initial possibility is shown in a patent filing uncovered yesterday for a backlit trackpad that would light up differently based on how many fingers the user applies to the device. In a lot of ways, this is no more than an enhancement to current MacBook and MB Pro trackpads, which are capable of two-finger scrolling, but by highlighting this functionality, Apple could start to drive adoption of the technology. The more people get used to the idea that they should be ready to deliver a variety of interactions, the more ready they’ll be for a wholesale replacement of the mouse or traditional trackpads.

This is an interesting concept, but I would guess this won’t actually come to market exactly as depicted. Patents usually trail implementation a bit these days, and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a product based directly on one of these patents ship after the patent approval. Typically, it’s at best a good way to learn about the thinking behind a technology after it ships.

Either way, hope for true multitouch on a laptop is keeping me from upgrading right now. This just sustains my hopes.

Via MacRumors.

We’re past the initial shock of the new with the iPhone, as we have the second hardware hack in two days to customize the look of Apple’s already iconic new device. Dan at Uneasy Silence worked with Philip Torrone to laser-etch his new iPhone with some flying toasters. The video above resulted.

Via Digg.

I think we have a new usability standard. The above YouTube clip shows a 2-year-old girl named Anna very fluently flipping through modes on the iPhone before heading to the YouTube tab to watch a favored Coldplay video. Apple’s current ad campaign is working just fine for the time-being, but when they want to go for the jugular, they should call this family up.

Anyone else still have goosebumps?

Via Digg.

Find of the weekend? That would be Hideapod.com, a site devoted to an amazing anti-theft device for iPods: the brown Zune. It’s actually a t-shirt sales, website, but you should poke around. It’s well-executed, and the error code when you make an order is pretty amazing. Also: It’s iPhone-ready!

Stunning.

Via Digg.

The iPhone is beautiful. We all know that. But some have wondered about Apple’s decision to include just a little bit of iPod-esque chrome amid all that gorgeous brushed aluminum and black plastic. Rather than whine. Flickr user D.Ballance broke out the Brillo pads and masking tape and started buffing away at those edges. The result? The all-brushed aluminum iPhone you see before you. It’s an update before Apple releases an update! A sure collector’s item for the whole family.
iPhone Brushed on Flickr
Via Digg.

I’m kind of at a loss for words. Apple obviously didn’t invent the Yin Yang symbol, but Microsoft just flipped the Apple Universal logo horizontally and adjusted the highlights. Maybe the metaphors involved in marketing software are all the same, but this is ridiculous.

Image on Flickr.
Via Digg.

It’s late July. Do you know who Fake Steve is yet? According to buzz on the web today, a new top candidate has emerged as the fake iCEO, and this one’s actually plausible.

Some clever dudes at Sitening created a tracker link to a fairly lame iPhone haiku, trusting that Fake Steve would take the bait. He did, and they traced it to a Boston IP address. That points to Andy Ihnatko so far as the Sitening guys are concerned (and most of the rest of the commenters). It’s also consistent with previous accusations, including one from Fake Steve Ballmer.

What’s my take? Well, it makes sense, if nothing else. I can’t think of many people I would call “Macintosh Humorists,” but Andy is one of them. His old MacWorld columns were a hoot, and I learned many key phrases from him, including “web that smut!”

On the other hand, I don’t actually ever want to know who Fake Steve is – his anonymity makes him powerful, and even leaves open the possibility it’s actually Real Steve (it’s the perfect cover!). Unfortunately, we probably will know, and soon, and the fun will be gone.

This all makes me think of Mac the Knife, the weekly rumor columnist for MacWeek back in the day. No one ever copped to penning the column, which was the best in the business at its time. There’s a prevailing rumor that former editor Matthew Rothenberg was MtK, but it’s never really been proven. And that’s powerful. We’re in a different era now, but it makes me nostalgic for a time when the silent crusader could remain silent.

But Andy, if it’s you? You’ve been doing a great job. Keep up the good work – or get John Mackey to do it for you.

Via Apple 2.0.

It’s just a mock-up, but I’d totally wear it, wouldn’t you? For me, I would want a single pendant with the iPhone Safari logo, nestled against my heart…

Via Geeksugar.

Mastered the iPhone keyboard? Track your speed with a new website testing just that. Digg readers claim they’ve topped 40 words per minute, but then, I used my PowerBook keyboard and got 70, so take it with a grain of salt. If you’re actually an iPhone user, I’d love to know about your best score.

Via Digg.

We’ve officially moved beyond skepticism that Apple would be able to get a foothold into the mobile market to full-on speculation for how the company will follow up the breakout success of the iPhone. According to MSNBC, it will be with the iPhone Nano. Which they make sound like…the iPod Nano. With a phone on it.

Kevin Chang, a JP Morgan analyst based in Taiwan, cited people in the supply channel that he did not name and an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office for his report.

Apple filed a patent application document that refers to a multifunctional handheld device with a circular touch pad control, similar to the Nano’s scroll wheel.

Yeah, I’m sure that will be exactly what Apple does. I’m sorry, there’s no way Apple ever releases a product with a click-wheel. The company has sent clear messages that it considers that to be the iPod interface and the iPod interface alone. The iPhone is about multitouch. You don’t get the name otherwise.

The iPhone will quite obviously eat into iPod sales. That’s kind of the point long-term. It doesn’t mean Apple’s ready to roll out a bad product to replace good ones.

Via Digg.
Image via Information Architects

A bit more than a week into the iPhone launch, we’ve established some certainties:

1. All the iPod functions are awesome
2. Browsing in Safari is surprisingly good
3. No. 2 is only true when connected to WiFi, because EDGE is SLOW

For all of the nit-picking and armchair quarterbacking, the only feature that people are consistently upset about is the lack of high-speed wireless data. Unfortunately, some early adopters are trying to justify their purchases. From the sounds of it, the always-entertaining Robert Cringely is among their ranks:

The question here is whether 3G is already built into the iPhones shipping now or whether it will require a new model? Given that it is coming so soon after the iPhone introduction, I can’t believe that even Steve would make us buy new phones. It is very likely that a firmware upgrade will awaken the 3G within all you iPhone owners.

That’s a different definition of “very likely” than I’ve ever heard. I wish it were true, Bob, but it just ain’t. Many people have gone through the iPhone with a fine-toothed comb, and there is no secret 3G hardware. If there were, Steve Jobs wouldn’t have explicitly complained about the poor battery life of current 3G chipsets, and the many geeks who’ve ripped open their iPhones would have found the chip. The first-gen iPhone is the first-gen iPhone is the first-gen iPhone. Flash and java support can be added. New hardware can’t.

I won’t be surprised at all if Steve gooses iPhone sales with a 3G model in time for Christmas, maybe with 16GB of on-board storage. I will, however, eat a haberdashery worth of hats, if current iPhones get on that high-speed highway.

Via Apple 2.0