In its February issue, Wired promises "The Untold Story" of the iPhone. But as typical for the magazine, they instead deliver a rehash of things you mostly already know, spread over 3,336 lavish words. Here, instead, are 378 words, in bullet points, containing the truly juicy tidbits Wired writer Fred Vogelstein was able to turn up. My favorite? That when Steve Jobs gets really mad, he doesn't scream. He stares.
David Lynch is disgusted that anyone would watch a movie on a phone. "You will never in a trillion years experience the film...you'll be cheated," he says in this clip from the special edition of Inland Empire. While it's obvious that films like Eraserhead demand something better than 480x320 pixels, is Lynch honestly that horrified that someone might want to watch "Failure to Launch" on the subway?
Bijan Rezvani dropped his iPhone on the subway tracks in New York City. Instead of contacting the transit authorities like a sane person, he braved oncoming trains, the electric third rail, and plague rats to jump down and snatch it. His exuse? "I needed my phone, so... I got it." Even though we call it the Jesusphone, people, it's not going to save your life.
Does this sound right? If you are flirting with someone via text message and you make two spelling errors in two consecutive text messages, especially when the second spelling (actually formatting) error is found in the second text message which is actually a correction of the first, you should immediately cease that flirtation. Because if you can't flirt intelligibly in one-sentence increments correctly, how could you possibly function adequately within the confines of a relationship? Also because then are you supposed to send a third text message correcting the second? That's just silly. Also something that is an issue with flirting via text message on the iPhone is how easily predictive text and clumsy thumbs can render a relatively benign and, in one texter's mind, adorable message completely creepy. For instance, "Spending time with you makes me happy" morphs into the absurd and weird "Spenging time with toe make me happen."
Apple will announce in January that it has sold 5 million iPhones, according to 9 to 5 Mac, an Apple rumor site. At the iPhone's launch, Steve Jobs set a public goal of selling 10 million iPhones — next year. With the iPhone only on sale for six months, that means Apple's already selling its sleek smartphones at 2008 speed. And that means Jobs could be set to beat his goal significantly next year.
Apple is in talks with Japan's top cell-phone company, NTT DoCoMo and with Softbank, the No. 3 carrier in the market. Reuters spoke to a source inside DoCoMo who said "the negotiations are not going smoothly, as Apple's conditions are extremely hard to meet." No surprise there. Apple likely wants similar terms to ones that AT&T and Deutsche Telekom agreed to: a cut of the subscription fees and a hefty markup on the iPhone itself. Apple had similar negotiations in other countries, in which Jobs infamously referred to prospective partners as "girlfriends." One of these companies will end up married to the iPhone, likely for the price that Apple quotes. When it comes to for-richer-or-for-poorer, Apple usually picks "for richer." (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)
iSuppli tore apart the iPod Touch. Turns out it's not just a broken iPhone. WIthout all the phone components to clutter things up, the Touch is thinner and has room for more memory. And, at $147 in parts per device, the iPod Touch costs Apple about $120 less to make. Then again, it doesn't reap the iPhone's service-fee kickbacks.
Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson left his iPhone on during a recent trip to China. Because the device automatically checks for new email every 10 minutes, Anderson rang up more than $2,000 in data charges. AT&T eventually contacted Anderson in China to warn him about his bill. They offered to switch him to a $300-a-month plan. Anderson told MSNBC.com he agreed to the switch, but hasn't heard back from AT&T since. They way we see it, his only remaining option is to pull a Kevin Rose.
When the iPhone went on sale in France in November, French law required Orange, the local iPhone retailer, to sell a "carrier-independent" phone. This "unlocked" phone is priced at €749 instead of the standard €399. iPhone Atlas is reporting that the unlocked phones aren't fully unlocked, but are instead country-locked to French carriers only. I'm not a French lawyer, but this would seem to comply with the "carrier-independent" requirement in a wonderfully perverse and legalistic way, souring the plans of many resellers who wanted to bring back loads of unlocked phones from France. Can any of our French readers confirm this? Oh wait, I know a guy who's in France. I'll give him a call. (Photo by chefranden)
Cranky IT managers, rejoice: Forrester Research has prepared a thoroughly footnoted report that explains why you shouldn't support those pesky iPhones everyone is excitedly bringing into the office. Fortune offers a one-page summary, but warns that Apple is hiring Outlook and Exchange compatibility engineers to make your life more complicated. (Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry)
(Photo/Photoshop courtesy of Engadget)
Former Apple exec Jon Rubinstein, who ushered in the iMac and iBook, was recruited by Palm in mid-July to help pull the company out from under Apple's Birkenstocks and RIM's wingtips. The flailing smartphone maker certainly needs someone to inject something into its product lineup that is, as CEO Ed Colligan concedes, perceived as stale. (Treo, Treo, Treo!) Too bad it didn't happen sooner. Yesterday it was confirmed Palm will have a wave of layoffs, rumored to be in the hundreds, in the next few weeks. Why?
Apple has bumped the limit on iPhone sales from two per customer to five. Likely this is a result of increased supply and demand from holiday shoppers looking to outfit the whole family with Jesusphones — and a sign that it's less worried about resellers cornering the market. No cash accepted, still. Doesn't bother me. I use my credit card so much it's almost translucent. [Epicenter]
Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in an interview with a German paper that Nokia will pursue a cut of subscriber revenues for some future data-based devices. As we've previously noted, Apple has set up a triple whammy with the iPhone: the company gets paid when it sells the phone, gets a kickback from service providers, and gets a cut of content sold through the iTunes store. In October, Nokia rolled out an unimpressive social network and partnered with Universal Music to start its own music store. Apple has shown the rest of the industry that there is money to be made in more than just handsets, and Nokia wants in on the action.
Ventureblogger Fred Wilson is selling his iPhone because he can't unlock it. It is "driving [him] crazy sitting in the box it came in." He started the bidding at $250, but it is up to $375 for a straight purchase or $500 (half for charity) for one enterprising Dutch guy who wants Fred to read his pitch. [A VC]
A research note by RBC Capital says that European iPhone sales are higher than expected. The investment bank's analysts expect Apple to sell 400,000 to 500,000 units by the end of this year, plus 4 million units in the region in 2008. If those numbers are accurate, Apple should have no trouble meeting Steve Jobs's sworn goal of selling 10 million iPhones next year. [Seeking Alpha]
The Internet on the iPhone isn't some fake, watered-down version of the Web. It's going to be an iPhone-optimized Internet, which of course amounts to the same thing. Here's a screenshot of CBS News's image- and video-free efforts. It's so incredibly fast and efficient, I might just start using it on my Mac, too.
