Oh and there's this too.

The franchise expands!

Macworld 2011 Cometh

You know it's Macworld when...

Your email inbox gets flooded with press calls, interview requests and product advances (about 150 so far).  The main macro trends are, naturally, cloud-based: synchronization of iTunes content, media and data and hardware protection.  And, of course, come the flurry of custom protective covers, skins and hardware protectors. I'll pick through the best and report back!

Compiling all of the email blasts together and churning them through wordle produced this:

iPhone 4 Ordering: Please wait while we process your request over & over again...

Around 130am PST the Apple Store shifted from the "we'll be right back" to being alive again but only this time with the ability to order the iPhone 4.  Yes, only black is available in 16 and 32 GB ($199 and $299 respectively) with the white forthcoming.

AT&T and Apple's systems must be overwhelmed or ill-equipped.  First, I had a $0.41 balance that I cleared out on AT&T.  AT&T's site did NOT have the ability to buy the iPhone 4 yet.  With that done, I kept getting (and am still getting) the dreaded "timed out" message and the "please wait" messages.  Only time will tell, let's hope this works.

Incidentally, Apple's site will ask your number, your billing zipcode and then the last 4 of your social security number.  Then, the prompt will inform you that the phone is ready and that my monthly plan will now be $139 per line per phone.  But this is as far as I've got so far as I wait yet again (this time for 5+ minutes) hoping not to have made some mistake barring me from getting an iPhone 4 as soon as I possibly can!

UPDATE: 30 mins later - GOT IT!  7am Apple Store June 24, here I come!

Sweet Jesus It's About Time! iPhone 4!

The waiting for my next new iPhone is almost over and the spy photos were right.  Also, the features appear to be great, with a great price point.   My current 3G is so very slow with a slugging battery that holds a charge for just a few hours now, very sluggish touch screen response, slow texting, slow everything.   So to me, today's WWDC proved even more exciting for me as the 3GS proved to be a lackluster model upgrade before something really new and good came out.  Worth the wait, I think.

Now, that the form factor is different, how will iPhone case makers evolve? Will there be insurance widely available from AT&T or do we keep using mainstream personal effects policies like those from State Farm? Time will tell.

Big thanks to Gdgt and MacRumors for giving this fan boy a real-time view of it all.  June 15 (and/or 24) here I come....

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

June 2010 can't come soon enough.  Most agree that the WWDC will also coincide with the 4G iPhone.  None too soon.  My 3G can't even hold a charge for more than 4 hours and doing any kind of game playing, texting or (heaven forbid) calling for more than 20 minutes will summon up the dreaded 20 percent warning.  That and whichever OS we're at is piss-poor.  Crashes either come from the OS or the device simply getting old: I mean look at what happens when I try to update!  

Confessions of an iPhone iPad-less Early Adopter

Today is the day everyone and their sister flew to Europe to get one early, waited in line for hours or worked some magic to get an iPad.  Mind you the Wi-Fi version only.  The version I'd get, the 3G, comes out later this month.  But the long lines and the giddyness remind me of how I was so excited when the first iPhone came out.  Don't you remember that too? But because I have a new Macbook Pro 15, a (gasping-for-air/on-its-last-leg) 3G iPhone and a Kindle I have chosen to wait.  I keep telling myself, tethering, tethering...

And, depsite my earlier "what is this thing" attitude, hats off to Apple's marketing to changing my mind (and those of millions of others too, right)

There's a Case for That...

The most common theme at MacWorld this year was the burgeoning (if not flourishing) cottage industry of iPhone cases. But unlike the typical run-of-the mill Incase selection at your local Apple Store (how did they get that contract anyway?) there is actually a huge variety of cases out there. The best cases I found were more individualized and higher-quality, and they're from Trexta - a Turkish company.  Note:  most are not yet available at stores.  Question:  Why did it take so long to have nice cases?

Trexta's high quality cases...

and a customizable version for those who want more.