Filed under: Apple Lauren and I were chatting with Megan over on iChat today and trying to figure out how to set up her gift registry for her upcoming nuptials with her hawt Astrophysicist boyfriend. Of course, Megan is dying for one of those awesome iPhone remote dodads but we thought that we’d just go for more of a general Apple Store registry thing. I gave my local Apple Store a call to ask how we could get it established. The gentleman at the other end of the phone was polite. Perplexed but polite. “Um…A gift registry? I don’t think we’ve ever been asked THAT before,” he said. “We don’t have one. We’re kind of a specialized store, you know.” Yes, we do know. And it’s the kind of specialization that we like. But even Home Depot has a gift registry service, so what’s the hold-up Apple? Don’t you realize that geeks get married and have babies too? Sadly, it looks like Megan must rely on word of mouth instead

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Apple Stores have no gift registries. Bummer.

Do you remember the notion we used to have that multiple carriers selling the iPhone in the same territory seemed like a golden ticket to more options, lower prices and altogether more competitive deals for customers? Well, forget it. Ain’t gonna happen. Not if the UK’s mobile market is anything to go by. Vodafone UK has today announced the launch date of the iPhone on their network (it’s January 14, by the way) but once you’ve picked your way through their online pricing minefield, it’s hardly anything to write home about. According to the Financial Times, Guy Laurence of Vodafone UK said the carrier has been busy preparing their network for the iPhone for the last twelve months; We started preparing our network over a year ago so that iPhone customers will really feel the advantage of being with Vodafone. We will offer an outstanding iPhone experience wherever our customers live, work and travel, delivering speed and reliability – something our customers have told us they really value. Yeah.

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Vodafone UK Announces iPhone Launch Date

In my day job, helping people with computers, I see many failed hard drives. If the computer is under warranty, I’ll always try to get the system manufacturer to replace the drive rather than order a new one for the customer. Recently, two clients came in, one right after another, and it really illustrated the differences between Apple and everyone else when it comes to hardware support. “ Lauren ” bought a sub-$1000 PC, but didn’t consider the support costs and time involved. If she had, she might have second thoughts about her decision to buy a PC. The Dell Experience Client #1 comes in because Windows won’t boot. The minute she turns on the PC, I know the problem. It’s that horrible high-pitched clicking noise that is worse than nails on a chalkboard to any technician. It’s obvious the drive has failed and the solution is to replace it. I booted off a test CD and verified the hard drive failure. Fortunately the computer is under warranty. No big deal, Dell should replace the hard drive. I call Dell

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A Tale of Two Hard Drives: Apple’s Secret Weapon?

It was perhaps the greatest gamble of Steve Jobs’ career. Barely 18 months into his second tour of duty with the company he founded, Apple’s interim CEO gathered a cadre of reporters at Cupertino’s Flynt Auditorium on May 6, 1998, to showcase the newest member Mac family: a funny-looking, rebellious sibling with a flashy attitude and a remarkable sense of style. Dressed in blue plastic and built to harness the power of the Internet, the iMac was the first PC that actually felt personal. And it would forever change Apple, the industry, and virtually everyone who came into contact with it. iMac G3 Legend has it that Steve didn’t warm to the iMac name until after it rolled off the assembly line, but it’s hard to imagine it being called anything else. With no less than five meanings attached to its little prefix–internet, individual, instruct, inform, inspire–the original Bondi Blue iMac was the personification of Apple’s think different campaign, an ingenious, incomparable, inimitable all-in-one machine designed to combine "the excitement of the Internet with the simplicity of Macintosh." While not quite the screamer it was billed to be, the first iMac was no slouch: $1,299 bought you a 233MHz G3 processor, 512MB L2 cache, 32MB RAM, ATI Rage IIc graphics, 4GB hard drive, tray-loading CD-ROM drive, 2 USB ports, stereo speakers, a funky mouse, garish keyboard and, of course, a 15-inch CRT display all built around a semi-translucent blue shell. Consumers immediately responded by ditching the boring, beige alternative, and soon iMacs were brightening desktops everywhere. But Bondi Blue didn’t appeal to everyone, and in 1999 (following a minor graphics refresh to accommodate OS 8.5), Steve took the iMac to "a whole new level." Determined to let users "express themselves in a new way," the iMac picked up five fruit-inspired colors (Strawberry, Blueberry, Lime, Grape and Tangerine ) for its first major revision. To sweeten the deal, Apple added 33 extra megahertz and trimmed $100 off the price tag–and in April, a 333MHz processor sped things up even more–but it was the array of colors that consistently stole the show. (If you’re feeling nostalgic–or just looking for a unique aquarium–they can be had today for as cheap as a bag of fruit.) Steve didn’t let the iMac rest on its palette, however. In October, the iMac DV brought the machine’s first FireWire ports, wireless support, slot-loading DVD-ROM drive and 400MHz processor, and added a RAM-stuffed, high-capacity special edition in the same Graphite color as its big brother Power Mac. At Macworld New York in July 2000, four new models made their appearance in an array of new colors, running up to 500MHz and ranging from $799 to $1,499: iMac (Indigo), iMac DV (Indigo, Ruby), iMac DV+ (Indigo, Ruby, Sage) and iMac DV SE (Graphite and Snow)

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The Complete iMac History — Bondi to Aluminum

  It’s been framed as a fight for freedom but Net Neutrality is really a battle of business models. The outcome will almost certainly affect We The People’s wallets or/and Internet experience so we’d best keep a wary eye on everyone who is trying to “help” us. The latest skirmish began last Thursday when the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to begin work on formalizing a set of rules that would, among other things, bar (PDF link) Internet service providers from blocking legal content or altering the delivery speed of content based on who owns it, who created it or who wants to access it. The FCC has stated that Thursday’s vote simply opens the subject for official discussion, with the goal of codifying principles that have been applied on a case by case basis over recent years. Many, many months of discussion are expected before anything becomes law. But the battle lines have been drawn. ISPs argue that they own the infrastructure that delivers the bandwidth, they have to maintain it and support their customers and therefore should be able to manage the services they provide in order to reduce network congestion and maximize profits. Internet Application companies, businesses who offer services and content via the Internet, are usually in favor of Net Neutrality because they want to get their stuff to customers without having to pay more to do so. One of the ways an ISP could ramp up profits is to make deals with Internet Application companies who would pay more to provide consumers with an optimum experience. If, say, your company streams video you could pay an ISP to ensure that viewers can access your service at the best possible speeds. So the people watching your videos will be happily munching popcorn while your competitor’s viewers are throwing their popcorn at their computer’s screen in frustration.

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Net Neutrality: Follow the Money

Are you as tired as we are of seeing Microsoft commercials that talk about how expensive Apple laptops are? Well, Apple is apparently just as annoyed, as their legal department recently called Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner, who claimed that it was the "greatest single phone call" he’s ever had. read more

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Apple Demands Change in Microsoft Ads

Section: iPod + iTunes , iPod touch , iPhone , iPhone , iPhone SDK & Apps , Reviews Category: Music Developer: iMeem Minimum Requirements: iPhone OS 3.0 Compatibility: iPhone and iPod touch File Size: 0.6 MB Price: Free Availability: Now Version Reviewed: 2.0.1 I really can’t figure out why iMeem hasn’t been sued into oblivion. The website allows registered users to upload their music, and other registered users to listen to the whole song. Sure, they offer links to buy the songs from iTunes or other services, and if you’re not registered (which is free), you can only hear a 30 second sample of songs. Still, it is essentially a streaming music service you don’t have to pay for. iMeem Mobile for iPhone and iPod touch is not the same thing: for one thing, you’re limited in what you’re allowed to search for from other users. It’s more like Pandora radio , where you can choose a band (rather than, say, a specific song like you can on the iMeem site), and it’ll pick a random song by that band as well as songs by artists like that group. You can skip past songs you don’t like (“A Wonderful Christmastime?” No, thanks.), but you only get six skips an hour. If you’re in the mood for that, it does feature some of iMeem’s more weird and obscure songs, like, say, Peter Sellers singing “Hard Day’s Night” as if he was Laurence Olivier in Richard III . iMeem mobile has several “featured stations,” which are your typical fare: Spotlight of new and notable artists, the weekly Top 100, and Summertime Jams, which for me misses the entire point of iMeem—pushing stuff you could find on FM radio rather than user playlists. One nice feature is that you have complete access to the music you upload to iMeem: up to 20,000 songs, they say

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Appletell reviews iMeem Mobile for iPhone, iPod touch

After so brazenly bragging about Apple’s legal department’s request that one of Microsoft’s ads be pulled last week, Redmond has quietly made changes to the ad in question to make sure that it accurately reflects reality, which is what Apple wanted in the first place. Kind of puts a damper on Microsoft COO Kevin Turner’s bubbly enthusiasm, I’d imagine. Last week, he basically did a little dance for joy when he received the call from Apple legal, and trumpeted the news to the masses to make sure everyone knew that Microsoft had indeed scored a direct hit, even going so far as to call it “the greatest single phone call” he’s ever taken. The ads in question are the Laptop Hunter series, in which Microsoft gives random people a sum of money and challenges them to find their perfect laptop, at which point they get it for free. The ads were created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky. The specific ad Apple took issue with is the “Lauren” ad (not that “Lauren” ad , the other one ), in which Lauren and her mother are shopping for a computer under $1,700. At one point, they comment on the MacBook Pro’s $2,000 price tag, asking “Why would you pay twice the price?” As of the latest notebook lineup refresh, Apple’s top-of-the-line MacBook Pro no longer costs $2,000, coming in instead at a much easier to swallow $1,700. Which, coincidentally, is actually within Lauren and mom’s budget. Microsoft, for its part, is saying the minor change doesn’t change “the focus of the campaign,” according to AdAge.com , so it’s clearly still counting this as a win. I’m willing to bet Microsoft’s legal department has been in contact with Apple on quite a few occasions, yet COO Tim Cook doesn’t break out the noisemakers and party hat every time that goes down.

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Microsoft Backs Down After Apple Legal Threats, Changes Ad

Allow me to set the scene. It’s January 2007. The iPhone has just been announced and the tech world is going crazy. CNBC interviews Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. CNBC: “Let me ask you about the iPhone What was your first reaction when you saw that?” Ballmer (laughs): “Five hundred dollars?!! Fully subsidized?!! With a plan?!! I said if that isn’t the most expensive phone in the world… and it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine. Now, it may sell very well…” And sell very well it did — the estimated total is now 37 million and counting. OK, so Ballmer was never going to clap his hands and rave about the iPhone, but while laughing dismissively might have irked Apple enthusiasts, it likely reassured Microsoft’s shareholders. Ballmer, after all, must answer to them . Culture In another interview, this time with USA Today in April 2007, Ballmer said, of becoming CEO of Microsoft: “…the CEO in a lot of ways becomes the icon for many things in the business. The CEO establishes culture.” This from the man who heaved himself , sweating and scarlet-faced, across a stage screaming with unbridled joy over Microsoft.

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Ballmer: How Wrong Can One Man Be?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion , Retail , Apple Microsoft’s announcement that the company will open stores near the locations of existing Apple retail outlets came as no surprise to many people. After all, why not try to get a little overflow traffic from Apple Stores and sell a few Zunes in the process? Perhaps they’ll have charming and pleasant retail employees like Lauren or Sheila from the “laptop hunter” ads… TechFlash is reporting that the company has hired George Blankenship, former Apple real estate chief, to consult on securing prime locations for the Microsoft stores. Blankenship moved to Apple from The Gap, and he joins former Wal-Mart executive David Porter, who is now Microsoft’s corporate VP of retail stores. By consulting for Microsoft rather than being a direct hire, Blankenship can skirt many of the issues brought on by the NCA (non-competitive agreement) that all Apple executives sign. The demographic information that Blankenship might use to pinpoint Microsoft store locations is available publicly, and the techniques used by Apple to successfully open retail locations have been widely discussed since the first Apple Store opened in 2001. While the locations, products carried, and general look and feel of the Microsoft retail outlets are still under wraps, the first stores are expected to open prior to the October 22nd launch date for Windows 7. [via ifoAppleStore ] Microsoft hires ex-Apple real estate chief to consult on retail outlets originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST.

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Microsoft hires ex-Apple real estate chief to consult on retail outlets