Final thought on the iPhone....for now

It's taken me some time to really put my thoughts together on this.

The iPhone is very cool and very next generation. The buzz from this is going to last for five months, the anticipation is going to be huge.

As usual, Apple has thought this out really well. If you really want one, consider the following....

Apple is going to milk the publicity on this one as long as they can. This is going to see the newly christened Apple Inc. through $100 a share and a stock split. Meanwhile OS X and some new Macs will be announced. All thorough those innovations people will be waiting for the glorious day that the phone is released.

You will get your early adopters. Digg and other sites will be full of complaints about scratches, finger "smearing" (dude take a shower) and cracked screens. Most of all, I think that they will complain about the Cingular/ATT service (or lack of it in my case).

The summer will float by as the "year of the genius phone". People will see them everywhere because the early adopters aren't going to be shy while using them. Heading into the '07 Christmas shopping season, people are going to get frustrated. All summer that have seen these TWITS (pun INTENDED) with these phones and they can't have one (because of price or cell provider contract). In desperation (by that time every major film company will have content on iTunes) they will by an iPod so they at least have something similar.

That is the time that I think Apple has planned to strike. The early adopters money and bug fixes will allow Apple to roll out a new high capacity iPod that uses the same technology as the iPhone. The stores will be flooded with people that have a pent up lust for this device.

Think of it as a pyramid. The iPhone will the be ultimate device at the top. The new touch screen iPod will be the middle, and the flash nanos and shuffles will make the base.

This is the direction that I think Apple is pushing us. The iPhone is revolutionary, but the need for a similar, lower cost device, will be the ultimate killer device for 2007. We know that the tech will trickle down through the various products that Apple puts out for at least a few years.

Unless the FCC doesn't approve the iPhone. That would kill the company.

MacWorld 2007 Keynote pt. 3: iPhonehome

iPhone
There is nothing that I can say to describe exactly what this product is or how it's about to change the face of consumer electronics. All I can really say is that it's a video ipod, mp3 player, phone, pda, and wireless internet device. Let's just let Steve talk about it.



The transcript of my chat notes follows.

1142AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: OH CRAP
1142AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Here comes something big
1143AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Whenever there is a "change the world" phrase
1143AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: That's bigger than BOOM
1143AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: CRAP CRAP CRAP
1143AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Widescreen baby
1143AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: My bank account is going to be drained dry
1144AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: ONE DEVICE
1144AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I KNEW IT MOFO
1144AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: (we will forget all those statements saying I was backing off the product releases)
1145AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Now I'm confused
1145AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Must be the video
1146AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Get on with it STEVE
1147AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: the software updates alone are going to kill my bandwidth
1147AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Ohhh feel the touchscreen love
1148AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: NO STYLUS
1148AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Apple's stock is going to the moon
1148AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I hate myself that I bought a blackberry
1150AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: they are calling it the iPhone? Was the other thing a smoke screen?
1150AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: iPhone?
1150AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Cingular... watch
1150AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Hey there you are
1151AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Core animation
1151AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Mini OSX
1151AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: The touchscreen looks hot
1151AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: This is THE device
1151AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: The one that Jamie has been waiting for for two eyars
1151AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: years
1152AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: It's here, and it's what will drain your bank account.
1152AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: That's what I said 100 lines of chat ago
1152AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I want to see this bastard
1152AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Rather than a widescreen (which, is... y'know... what I thought you were talking about)
1152AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Ohhh it's hot
1153AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I see it
1153AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I just peed.
1153AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Everything syncs
1153AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: 160 pixes per inch
1153AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Is that good?
1153AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Hopefully just a little bit.
1153AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Depends... how many inches?
1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: 3.5 inch touchscreen
1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Speaker, mic,
1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Then that's very good!
1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Sim card
1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: SIM CARD
1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Price
1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: $800
1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Give the master time
1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: He's talking
1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: I could get a treo and pay for the cell service for a year
1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: camera
1154AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: 2mp
1155AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Proximity sensor
1155AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: This is a geeks wet dream
1155AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: 2mp is nice... most aren't even there yet.
1155AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: ambient light sensor
1155AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: This thing has to be spendy
1155AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: But they want to keep it low I would think
1156AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: "You can touch your music" via coverflow
1156AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Tilt in portrait vs. landscape
1156AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: What did John Mayer do this time?
1156AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: He just played a video
1156AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: With the Apple TV
1157AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: What is hell is the "one more thing" going to be
1157AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: How can you top this
1157AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: iPhone Pro
1157AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Or a 20% price drop across their entire line of products?
1157AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I want to see this in action
1157AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: That would excite me!
1157AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: BOING
1158AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Sending you a pic
1158AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: Sorry, Adium
1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Me too brother
1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Singular
1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Cingular
1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: You were right
1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: PLAYING BEETLES
1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: That dude's blog was right
1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Partially
1159AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: wasn't me that made the predictions
1200PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: It's going to kill them if they doing go universal
1200PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Sim card should help in the rest of the world
1200PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: SIM card is good
1201PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Gotta leave soon...me no want to
1201PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Screw work
1201PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: No word on price yet, 'eh?
1201PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Still going on about features
1202PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I think the crowd is about ready to storm the stage
1202PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: GET IT OUT STEVE I HAVE TO LEAVE
1202PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I think they are just calling it the iPOD
1202PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Makes sense
1203PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: 11.6 mm
1203PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Two more updates then I have to run
1203PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: CRAP
1203PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: CRAP
1203PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Me no want to
1204PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: The phone interface is revolutionary
1204PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 mrbiotech@mac.com: I can't seem to find a good feed to the events. Looking at MacUser right now. Their site's so full of ads it shold be called MacLuser
1204PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: http://www.macrumorslive.com/
1204PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Not pretty, but funtional
1205PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: WIFI and bluetooth
1205PMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: K, I have to run

Yesterday marked the birth of one of the biggest media companies in the world. That's right, Apple dropped the "Computers" from it's name and renamed itself "Apple Inc." just to show that it's the new big fish in the pond.

Oh and for all you Beetles fans, I'm guessing that enough hints were dropped that the Beetles are going to be on the iTunes music store very soon.

Check out Apple's website for more information.

Overall, Steve was at the hight of his game. It was nice to see after about two years of lackluster keynotes. Now we can understand why. Great job Apple team. It's just a shame that we have to wait until June. I'm guessing that a stripped down version of the plain old iPod will follow in the fall.

Fear not, we have a new OS update and I'm sure several exciting more products are on their way as well.

MacWorld 2007 Keynote pt. 2: Apple TV

...when last we left our hero, he had braved Starbucks Grandmas and bad wifi to get a glimpse of the keynote live blog from Macrumors.

KEYNOTE Apple TV

I have been waiting for the iTV (its code name). This is the one device that I know I can't live without. I watch more video podcasts than I actually watch regular TV. I am so tired to sitting here holding my roasting MacBook Pro on my lap watching podcasts. It's so much nicer to see them on my TV. I want the TV experience and that's what I think Apple TV will do. Let's see the text of my chat when the TV was announced.

1117AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Freekin' wifi networks are down
1117AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Took me this long to get in
1122AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Nothing much
1122AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: So far
1123AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Paramont rumor confirmed
1123AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: (doing this to keep notes for my blog)
1126AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: blah blah blah
1126AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: iTunes up
1126AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Blah blah bha
1126AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: bha
1126AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: hbla
1126AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: ?
1126AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Can't type still!
1127AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Apple TV?
1128AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Looks the same
1128AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: You think someone out there would of thought of that name
1128AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: (myself included)
1129AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: ALL WIFI
1129AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Rulz
1129AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: 40 Gig drive
1129AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: HOT
1130AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Syncing is the right way to go
1130AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: True ipod video
1131AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Pretty much standard otherwise
1131AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: People are going to nipick that 40 Gig drive
1131AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: People will have old 60 gig ipods slaved into it in a second.
1133AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: or external drives? hmmm
1133AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: NO STEVE showed ZOOLANDER
1133AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Ahhhh
1133AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I bet he doesn't even know who Ben Stiller is
1134AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Ahhh Heros...much better
1134AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Great, now my two apple remotes are going to duel each other
1135AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: These "near" realtime pictures are a little slow
1136AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Episode summary is a good thing.
1136AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Bet it would be cheaper than cable if I did the math
1137AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: What the "F" is up with John Mayer.....everyone take a drink
1138AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I bet the streaming was too slow....had to get the hard drive in there
1138AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Only thing that would make sense.
1139AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Why couldn't they make it round like microsoft....?
1139AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I want round.
1139AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Hope Phill doesn't have porn on the Mac
1141AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: $299
1141AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: I'm up for one.
1141AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: That was fast....more coming.
1142AMTuesdayJan 9, 2007 suntagma: Ship FEb

And that's pretty much it.

For those that are "unenlightened" the Apple TV is an iPod for your TV. You can use it to stream content from the computers in your house directly onto your big screen high def TV. It also includes a 40 gigabyte drive to store movies on as well. This is a good thing for people that use the iTunes store to purchase their music/videos or watch podcasts. Now you can watch them at home as they were meant to be. You can also use several third party resources to download your movies so it will work with iTV. In my case, I will (through the help of yet more third party software) be able to pull content off my TIVO and watch it on my Apple TV.

I know there are probably a zillion "experts" out there that are already discounting it. This might not be the solution for everyone, but it's a product that I feel is just going to get more and more innovative. Heck, you paid $12.99 for a movie. You should be able to watch it whereever you want.

We need to break down the walls to our devices. They need to work together. Through the master controller (iTunes) the Apple TV does just that. I links the iPod (portable), the Mac/PC (the productive), and the TV(the time waster).

The Apple TV will ship in Feb. I'll be on the list to pick one up. I'll make sure and grab one hopefully immediately after release. At that time I will do a proper video podcast.

Meanwhile, back at Caribou....

I think I had one sip of my coffee the whole time.

...get ready for the exciting conclusion....the iPhone.

MacWorld 2007 Keynote pt 1: Deadly Designs

The story of my MacWorld keynote experience starts off not with a trip to San Fransisco, but a trip to Starbucks to snag some wifi.

First Maybe I should review Starbucks in Rochester, MN.

I had planed all week to take a two hour lunch (I'm that much of a Mac fanatic). I thought it would be a good idea to walk to my local Starbucks and grab some coffee while I was waiting. I had planned to pull up the live blog from Macrumors.com and follow along (seriously Apple, why not just do it streaming live on the web again?).

I got to Starbucks about 15 minutes before the keynote was scheduled to start. The line was extra large. I waited for about 10 minutes when I finally progressed far enough to see that their credit card machine was refusing to work, probably because it just learned that Starbucks does not give benefits to machines. I looked at my cell phone (B.I. - Before iPhone) and bolted from the line.

I ran to the nearest table, full of bubbling excitement and whipped open my MacBook Pro. Ahh, the sweet Apple boot up tone, the lovely OSX desktop...and no wifi? I looked up to see a sign staring at me saying that they had pulled the wifi from Starbucks. CRAP!

I packed up and dashed out determined to find a place with some decent wifi and a decent credit card machine.

Seriously Starbucks...what's going on? In Utah you were a fun place full of life and people with interesting tattoos and piercings. In Rochester you see your grandma working at Starbucks. Very disturbing indeed. (Even more disturbing if you visualize your grandma with a lip ring and spiked hair).

Caribou Coffee to the Rescue

Finally I found a Caribou Coffee. Caribou is a great coffee house here in the Midwest. The people are friendly and really understand what they are doing. It's like Starbucks used to be before Midwestern grandmas started working in them.

I was able to obtain a vanilla late and a seat in record time.

Finally I could get to the keynote.

*Jamie's saga continues as soon as he stops staring at the apple website......

Apple Mania

Hey Everyone, just wanted to dash off a quick post about what happened at MacWorld yesterday.

I just wanted to let you know what will be coming today in the way of analysis.

1. Review of Steve Jobs Keynote.
2. My take on the iPhone.
3. My take on the iTV.
4. Predictions from last week? How well did I do.

So you can see I'm going to be a bit busy posting today. I was planning to do a lot of this in audio form, but time is just not on my side. I might push out a summary podcast later this week.

For now...let's just stare at the iPhone, shall we?



BTW, if you were playing the mac drinking game....I hope you don't have a hangover today.

MacWorld Drinking Game

For serious Steve Jobs "Cultists" like me.

Via 43 Folders

Really Really Really Random MacWorld Predictions

Give some people some blogging time and they just ham it up...well for good or bad here are the official Mac Fanboy predictions.

snkmchnb says.....

Apple is going to try to DIVE INTO a new market by putting Apple's amazing innovation into the (drum roll please)... iPleasure

ok, that was bad.. now onto the serious stuff.

* i'm really hoping for an iTV which will enable all iTunes content
to be streamed to or stored onto the device and be sent to your
tv.
* iTunes 8 (cough)--not sure what new features if any, just a
thought. Ohhh... just thought of this actually, maybe support for
multiple libraries (do they have this already) and iTV support.

EDITOR'S NOTE: if you are interested in the iPleasure snkmchnb please check out out the ohmibod. We will not be reviewing this product, unless someone wants to do the ULTIMATE random review

mrbiotech says.....

Steve Jobs will do a 2-hour keynote where he introduces Bill Gates as the new head of Apple so the Jobs-ster hisself can retire. To commemorate the occasion, he will don a grey turtle-neck instead of his typical black garb signifying the transition from Jobdalf the Black into Jobdalf the Grey. Before he can do this, however, he must battle for three days straight with a Dell XPC, defeat it triumphantly but die shortly thereafter, his strength expended in frustration from the incessant blue screen of death.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Hey, it's at least as plausible as some of the rumors I've heard around the net.

Really Random Predictions: MacWorld

A lot of things have been said about the upcoming MacWorld in a week. Most of it is sheer speculation. I think that there would be good money in an Apple rumors site that just let people vote on possible products and features. The winner could get an iPod or something.

For now, all we have is about a zillion blog postings filled with mounds of speculation. I thought I could add the zillion + 1 post.

So here are my MacWorld predictions.
1. The iPhone is not talked about (at first). Apple's stock immediately drops $10 a share.

2. The iTV will be called something strange like "iView" and there will be a iTunes 8.0 for compatibility reasons. The resolution of movies and shows will be upped and a whole new generation of iTunes program purchasers will be pissed off.

3. Front Row 2.0 will be available to all Macs as part of a software update.

4. A new 8 core MacPro will be released for the same price as the 4 core...again pissing off people who just bought the tech 2 months ago.

5. Leopard will be previewed for release in March. Some new features will come to light that will fuel a whole new round of speculation (I'm telling you, someone has to get that Apple rumor voting site made).

6. .Mac will get a refresh to 500Gigs for $200 a year. It will automatically back up iTunes purchases and make them available on to any computer you are currently logged on to (provided that it runs iTunes). Stupid people like me that have .Mac will be grandfathered in (yeah right).

7. iWork and iLife will be released with more sucky feature that I really don't need, but will buy anyway.

8. At the very end, we will get an infamous "one more thing". I'm guessing this will be the major announcement. I think that they key here is the new wide screen ipod. The kicker will be that the iPod will turn into the "swiss army knife" of the mac world. You will be able to BUY a phone attachment, make it your media center remote, play music, play video, wifi to other iPods/computers in the area, use it as a PDA etc. Apple stock will immediately go up $10 and will close the day even.


That's my predictions.

Other facts that will be released.
1. iTunes sales were so phenomenal last month that they beat out the last quarter of the year.

2. Mac sales are growing at iPod like numbers.

3. Steve Jobs will reveal himself to be Jesus Christ 2.0 and usher us into a new age of peace and prosperity because everyone will be tied to an iPod or watching their iView.

I kid because I care. I'll post a review of how accurate I am next week as well as a review of the keynote.

I invited some of my other fellow Mac fanatics to send me some of their predictions. I'll post those on the site as soon as they come in.