Existing MobileMe customers will be happy to find out that Apple is giving them access to the 20GB iCloud storage plan until June 30, 2012. The total allotted storage comes to 25GB, but the plethora of storage plans I expected to appear didn’t. Instead Apple is only offering three storage plans.
A few magazines have begun to populate Apple’s Newsstand app on the eve of the October 12th release of iOS 5. Right now the only two magazines that I could add to Newsstand were Wired and Popular Science. They only showed up on an iPad I wasn’t able to find anything for the iPhone.
Although the iPhone 4S just went on sale this past Friday the first wave of iPhone 4S shipments from China have started with a delivery date of October 14th. The carrier in my case is UPS.
I received my shipping notification this morning and other reports are cropping up about customers receiving their shipping notices from Carriers like Sprint and AT&T. I haven’t heard if Verizon models have shipped yet from either Apple or any of the carriers.
Have you received your shipping notification? Let us know if your iPhone 4S has shipped, from where and what the estimated delivery date is in the comments.
This might be a record folks since iPhone 4S ship times have hit the one to two-week waiting period in less than 24 hours after going on sale October 7th. As you can see from the picture above all models from all three carriers have sold out for pre-order launch day delivery.
If you want an iPhone 4S of any type at this point your only option, if you want one on launch day October 14th, is to stand in line at your local Apple Store or other iPhone retailer. However, if history repeats itself we all know that the best place to find stock will be at the local Apple Stores.
It looks like Apple has yet another iPhone hit on their hands and I’m anxious to see what happens next year when LTE service becomes more widely available.
In the aftermath of todays iPhone 4S ordering frenzy Apple’s order status system has gone down. If you’ve ordered an iPhone 4S today rest assured that your order has been placed if you receive the order acknowledgement email from the Apple Store online.
There isn’t any need to check your order status after receiving that email until next week. Here are a few tips on how you can track your order later.
Best Buy is offering its customers the option to pre-order the iPhone 4S with delivery on October 14th. The email that I received points out some advantages to shopping at Best Buy. The most eye-catching is the Phone Trade-in program for a $300 Best Buy gift card. That isn’t bad, but the cash I’m getting from Gazelle for mine can be spent in more places.
I’ve taken what amounts to naps all night long and something woke me up again — maybe it was a little voice, but who knows. So I decided to get up and I tried my order again.
Bam! It worked this time since it seems that Apple and AT&T ordered more hamsters to keep their servers powered up and processing orders. It will even be delivered on October 14th which tells me they still have a good first supply of the new iPhone 4S to ship. I’m not sure how long this will last since there are unconfirmed rumors about supply shortages, which will just drum up more sales.
The surprise was that I even got to keep my unlimited data plan, but I’m not to sure how valuable that is these days considering I still cannot tether with it unless I cheat some how. Maybe someday AT&T will adopt Sprint’s model — an unlimited data plan with an alleged 5GB cap on tethering. Anyhow I’m mumbling and still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes the most important thing is that the ordering system is back up.
So if you haven’t gotten your order placed yet it might not be to late so go go go!
A number of AT&T customers are reporting that it seems that the order processing via Apple’s online store is failing at the point where it tries to contact AT&T for information related to eligibility for iPhone 4S upgrades, orders, or other account information.
The real error message gradually changed as I attempted to work through the process of ordering an upgrade until it finally read as follows and it initially started at a two-minute timer. Now it clearly places the blame on AT&T at this point in the process.
Steve Jobs was no doubt a visionary and leader. People like this come along once in a lifetime, and to say that he changed the world woud be an understatement. In remembrance, I’ve put together this video. Thank you Steve.
Here’s a collection of tweeted reactions we found (when we could access Twitter — it’s intermittently crashing, probably due to a massive spike in traffic) to Steve Jobs’ death — including a Foursquare post from Woz. We’ll update the post with more as we find them
Tim Cook’s email to Apple employees regarding the passing of Steve Jobs is below:
Team,
I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.
Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.
We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.
No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.
Tim
Apple has announced that Steve Jobs the co-founder of Apple, has died. He was 56 years old. Apple made the announcement this afternoon and we’ll have more updates on this breaking news throughout the evening.
If you would like to share your thoughts, memories, and condolences, please email rememberingsteve@apple.com
Today an AT&T customer service representative (CSR) lays the blame for the current upgrade pricing squarely on Apple, inc. According to the AT&T CSR we spoke to this morning upgrade eligibility dates and the pricing models are all dictated by Apple, Inc. and they cannot be changed.
If you’ve had an iPhone long enough you’ll recall a similar customer service fiasco a couple of years ago with the iPhone 3GS. If you missed the last time early adopters weren’t able to upgrade and extend their contracts take a look at Apple and AT&T Royally Screw Loyal iPhone 3G Customers it wasn’t pretty.
If you stood in line last year to buy an iPhone 4, the year before that for an iPhone 3GS, etc., and count yourself a loyal Apple customer? Well, we’re all idiots, because Apple and AT&T just screwed us royally and now it looks like history is repeating itself.
Apple’s issued the call to all Mac OS X Lion Developers to submit their iCloud enabled OS X Lion apps today. Shortly after this first request went out Apple also asked iOS developers to submit their iOS 5 apps today.
This is it, folks, we’re here: the future. Remember Dave talking to HAL back in Kubrick’s lethargic masterpiece? It’s real.
Apple has posted an online tool that you can use to check your iPhone eligibility for an upgrade. Basically it tells you if you are allowed to buy an iPhone 4S at full retail price or at a subsidized price.
Get ready for a shock that will piss you off folks. A number of readers are reporting that so far no eligibility dates are being updated to make it easy to get that annual iPhone upgrade that we’ve all been used to in the past.
Hailed as a “kiosk killer” back when it was announced in June at WWDC, there are a few more details available now on the Newsstand app, available Oct. 12 with iOS5.
Despite Apple’s squabbles with publishers who were complaining about selling subscriptions to digital versions on iTunes, many top titles are will be available including The New York Times, GQ, Wired, The New Yorker, Popular Science, National Geographic and Esquire.
This is a pretty nice spread of titles to start with from the dozens of global publishers who signed up for Newsstand — Hearst Corporation, Conde Nast, Disney Worldwide, Europe’s Sanoma Media and the New York Times Corp.
Confused by the whirlwind of Apple news from today’s Let’s Talk iPhone event? Don’t worry. We got a quick break down of all the new stuff Apple released today, including details on the iPhone 4S, Siri, iPod Nano and the highly anticipated Cards app.
iPhone 4S – Looks just like the iPhone 4 but the guts have been revamped for speed. The new A5 chip (Same chip in the iPad 2), has a dual-core CPU making it 2x as fast at CPU tasks. Graphic performance on the iPhone 4S will be Up to 7x faster in the previous iPhone. 8 hours of 3G talk time, 14 hours of 2G talk time, 6 hours on 3G browsing. Also of note, the wireless system in the phone has been updated to include two separate antenna. iPhone 4S can intelligently switch between antennas to transmit and receive. This will lead to improved call quality and 2X faster download speeds (Apple was calling it 4G speeds, but we’ll save you the debate on what is and isn’t true 4G).
If you still haven’t heard the news, last week we launched our new “Deals” hub for Cult of Mac. We’re bringing Apple fans the best deals in cutting-edge software and apps. Right now we have the amazing email-app, Sparrow, on sale for $6. With only two days remaining on this deal, users need to act now before our discount is over. Also, we’re hosting a giveaway for five free copies of Sparrow. The contest ends today at 5PM, so sign up while you still can.
We’ll be offering all kinds of deals: free app codes; 72-hour sales on premium packages; and bundles of the best apps — all at savings of 30% to 90% off retail. Teaming up with StackSocial allows us to bring special expertise to Deals.CultofMac.com We will be using our knowledge of what Mac users want to create highly relevant offers designed to cater specifically to the demands of Cult of Mac’s core readership, the Apple enthusiast. We hope you keep checking out deal.cultofmac.com to join the experience.
I wish I never sold my original iPhone. Being seen around town using an iPhone with a brushed aluminum back would make others jealous of my uniqueness. The iPhone 4? Dude, that was so 2010. My original iPhone can’t even create folders or multitask, but no one else has one so it makes me like fifty times more awesome than anyone using an iPhone 3GS.
You’re probably snickering at this ridiculous idea that a unique design completely trumps functionality. I don’t blame you. However, a lot of Apple fans are falling into the trap of this same ideology that claims the looks of the new iPhone are more important than the functionality it will bring with it. Many claim that if Apple “only” releases an iPhone 4S it will be a huge disappointment to fans. “We’ve waited 16 months for a new iPhone and all they’re giving us is a minor spec bump? This is crap!”
What some Apple fanboys don’t understand is the iPhone 4S isn’t “just a spec bump.” The new iPhone, regardless of its physical appearance, will be a significant improvement to the greatest phone ever made.
Of course no one wants to be stuck with an ugly phone that looks five years behind the curve, but before rising up in revolt against the iPhone 4S, let’s consider the current state of technology and where the iPhone 4 currently ranks.
Ho-hum. Another iPhone. Tuesday’s Apple event is going to be boooo-ring, right?
Well, not so fast. I think that from a milestone perspective, Tuesday’s announcement may be among the most important Apple has ever made.
Let’s be honest, typical email clients (like your old corporate buddy Mr. Outlook) are about as fun as a bag full of dead butterflies. When was the last time you got excited to use Entourage or Lotus Notes? Probably never.
Luckily, Sparrow glided into the app-scene with a singular goal to make emailing fun. It’s lightweight so its zippy, yet packed with features no other email app has. The love and energy the Sparrow team put into their app has changed emailing from a dreaded chore into something that is pleasurable and fun.
Yesterday, with great excitement, Cult of Mac launched a new software hub called deals.cultofmac.com. Teaming up with the guys at StackSocial, this new feature will bring Apple fans the best deals on cutting-edge Mac Apps at a price you won’t be able to find on the Mac App Store. We’re starting things off by offering Sparrow, the best mail-app for OS X, for only $6.
To celebrate the launch, we’re giving away 5 copies of Sparrow for free to our readers via a giveaway contest on Facebook. Entering the giveaway is simple, but you gotta play to win.
Here’s how to enter:
If you didn’t hear the news, Cult of Mac hit 100,000 Twitter followers last week. To celebrate, we hosted a huge giveaway yesterday on Twitter. Because some people were sad that they didn’t come away with a prize, we’ve decided to extend the celebration farther into the week and give readers a few more chances to win. Today we’re giving away a Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard for Mac. It’s one of the coolest new keyboards we’ve seen because you don’t have to keep spare batteries on hand anymore. If you want a shot at winning this beautiful thing here are the rules for today’s contest:
If you didn’t hear the news yesterday, Cult of Mac is hosting a huge giveaway on Twitter to celebrate our 100,000 Twitter followers. You can join the fun and win tons of prizes today at 5pm EDT. We’re giving away headphones, iOS games, iPad cases, and some other cool gizmos. For more info on how you can win, click here.
On Thursday Cult of Mac’s Twitterfeed gained its 100,000th follower. We know we couldn’t have hit this big milestone without so many passionate readers who motivate us to provide the best Apple news content on the web. In order to celebrate we want to give back to all our Twitter followers who have supported us, so we’re giving away a treasure trove of goodies as our way to say thanks. We will be hosting a Twitter Trivia Giveaway on Tuesday, September 27th at 5pm EDT. If you’re not going to be available for the Twitter Trivia Giveaway you can still win some prizes by leaving your Twitter handle in a comment on this article and we’ll enter you in some of our random drawings.
Here’s what you can win:
