If you're planning on waiting in line for an iPhone, be sure to do your homework and bring all the necessary items with you. Or, watch Wednesday's edition of the Daily Debrief where I talk to CNET News' Tom Krazit about the lines and the purchase process. Apple has finally disclosed that stores will start selling the phones at 8 a.m. The company has also said it will let customers into the stores in groups of 30. This part of the system sounds similar to last year, but this year's big unknown is what the activation process will be like. Simple and easy in 10 minutes? Or mired in paperwork and chaos to the tune of 30 minutes?
Some critics have already gotten their hands on the phone and have written largely positive reviews. But, for those of you abstaining from the Apple Kool-Aid, one of our CNET News colleagues, Marguerite Reardon, takes a look at seven other smartphones that rival the iPhone.
In Friday's edition of the Daily Debrief, CNET News.com's Tom Krazit and I talk about the July 11 release of the iPhone 3G. Apple has been notoriously tight-lipped about the details, but Tom says there are a few known factors. For one, every customer will have to sign a two-year contract with AT&T and will have to activate the phone upon purchase in the store. Secondly--and this comes as no surprise--the lines are going to be crazy!
That said, there's a lot we still don't know. There has been great speculation over what time the phone will go on sale. Last year, it was a coordinated release at 6 p.m. in each of the United States' time zones. This year, however, given the time needed to activate the phone and the worldwide release, there's speculation they'll go on sale earlier in the day. Also unknown is how many iPhones have been manufactured and how many each customer will be able to purchase. Stay tuned!
CrunchGear has a spread on what appears to be the new 3G iPhone. Matt Hickey wrote in CrunchGear:
It's thinner than the current model, for sure, with a more MacBook Air-like bezeling. It's got stereo speakers on the back and what appears to be the same screen as the current generation. But the real news here isn't the Exchange support, but the front facing camera for iChat AV.
According to CrunchGear the new iPhone will come in red, supporting the Product Red campaign.
Stay tuned for CNET News.com's Tom Krazit's live coverage from Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference and CEO Steve Jobs' unveiling of the iPhone that will be coveted by every current iPhone user.
Monday could be the day that iPhone fans have been waiting for. According to News.com reporter Tom Krazit, who I interviewed for Thursday's Daily Debrief video, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will most likely announce big news on the second iteration of the phone at Monday's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Updates could possibly include, but are not limited to, the inclusion of GPS, a slimmer body, and the ability to connect to the 3G network.
Traditionally, Jobs has used the WWDC to discuss changes to the Mac and OS X. This year, Krazit expects less sexy news on the Mac OS front, perhaps surrounding security and privacy issues. Another source of speculation has been what big cat the OS X 10.6 will be named after. Snow Leopard seems unlikely since Leopard was used last time, but what's left? LOLCat? The Cougar?
Last week, my wife's Dell Inspiron decided to stop printing to our wireless HP all-in-one. It was apparently a problem with the spooler, whatever that is. At that point, I had two choices: leave it alone and hope for a miracle, or fix it and perform some upgrades I'd been putting off.
Let me back up and explain something. I hate working on my wife's computer. Whatever I do inevitably screws something up, it takes way longer than I would like, and well, let's just say, my wife is impatient when it comes to technology.
It's OK for a doctor or dentist to poke and prod her, but when I poke or prod her computer, she acts as if I do it for the pure sadistic enjoyment of screwing up her peaceful existence. ... Read more
At Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Thursday, the company officially launched the iPhone software development kit, which lets other companies create applications for the device. Here are a few videos from the event, courtesy of ZDNet.
Steve Jobs unveils iPhone App Store, where third parties can sell their iPhoneware.
Electronic Arts demos its new 'Spore' game on the iPhone.
Salesforce.com brings analytics, business intelligence apps to the iPhone.
iPhone update integrates AOL instant messaging.
Apple TV's updated functionality provides access to movie rentals and HD content
(Credit: Apple)Update: Check out three related videos with more info on the forthcoming Apple TV upgrade: Steve Jobs comments during his keynote address; the video guided tour on Apple's Web site; and a summary from CNET's Donald Bell. This post has also been updated since its original publication with additional information.
The Apple TV just got a whole lot more useful.
Steve Jobs unveiled a major feature update to the Apple TV today during his Macworld keynote address in San Francisco that aims to transform the device from a TV-based iTunes media viewer to a more full-featured media-on-demand device. The hardware will remain the same, with the entry-level 40GB model dropping from $300 to $230, but a free software upgrade--available in two weeks--will add the following functionality:
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... Read more
Sprint Nextel is preparing to cut thousands of jobs, according to the The Wall Street Journal.
The company's new CEO, Dan Hesse, is supposedly trying to show investors that he is serious about cutting costs, the newspaper's Web site reported late on Monday. A Sprint representative declined to comment on the story.
Exactly how many people could lose their jobs is not yet known. Last year the company cut about 5,000 jobs. At the end of the last quarter Sprint reported it had roughly 60,000 employees.
Sprint is the third-largest cell phone company in the U.S. behind AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Investors have been unhappy with Sprint's performance for sometime, which actually led to the company's previous CEO, Gary Forsee being forced out in October. Hesse took over as CEO in December.
One of the biggest problems Sprint has faced is retaining customers. Quarter after quarter Sprint has seen customers, especially those from the old Nextel network, leave its service. Hesse who was CEO of Embarq, a spin-off from Sprint, said when he took over that he'd work on improving lingering issues associated with the 2005 acquisition of Nextel Communications.
This could be the first big move the CEO is taking to get the company back on track.
The Journal also reported that Sprint might also consolidate its headquarters in Overland Park, Kan., to "streamline decision making." Right now, Sprint uses Nextel's old headquarters in Reston, Va., as home base with about 4,500 employees there. The bulk of the company's employees--about 13,000 --work in Kansas.
But simply getting more executives under one roof won't solve all of Sprint's problems. The company also faces big questions about what it will do about the WiMax mobile broadband network it's building. The new network, which is costing Sprint $5 billion, is expected to launch in its first cities in April. Before Hesse took over as CEO, the company said it was still committed to building the WiMax network. But now new questions have been raised about how committed the company will be.
Apparently, Apple is willing to make concessions to the film industry to bolster iTunes' lackluster movie offerings.
BusinessWeek is reporting that Apple is close to signing distribution deals with most of the top movie studios that would give Apple access to newly released films.
The Financial Times reported last month that Apple has already signed an agreement with Twentieth Century Fox. BusinessWeek now says the company is nearing deals with Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, and Lionsgate. The magazine suggested that some of the deals may be announced at the Macworld conference, which starts January 14.
While Apple has dominated music, it's been slow going in video.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has had to overcome fears in Hollywood that the movie industry could end up like the music industry: handing over too much control to Jobs. Perhaps the best known example of this is the music industry's inability to get Jobs to allow flexible pricing for songs.
But according to BusinessWeek, Jobs is winning over the studios by sweetening the pot. Jobs once capped the price he was willing to pay for each movie sold through iTunes at $14, the magazine reported. He has now agreed to pay closer to the $17 wholesale price that Wal-Mart and other physical retailers pay.
Up until this point, iTunes hasn't offered iPod owners, with the video-equipped devices, much in the way of newly released moves. On iTunes, one can find new releases from Disney for $14.99 and older titles from other studios for $9.99. BusinessWeek is also reporting that Apple plans to charge $3.99 for 24-hour rentals.
In addition to the trouble with movie studios, at least one major TV network has also balked selling through iTunes. Late last year, NBC Universal announced that it would stop offering digital downloads via the iTunes store.
