The first order of business with my new iPhone is picking up a decent case to keep it from being scratched. I called around town, but unfortunately nobody has any stock for the 3G iPhone cases yet. So basically the only place left to buy one from was on Apple's store.
I originally went over with the intent to buy one case. However, it appears that one case wasn't enough to qualify me for free shipping. Since I like free stuff, I decided to buy a few more things. Since I wasn't sure if I'd like the first case, I bought a second one with a different style. Worst case, I'm sure somebody will probably ...
I've been messing around with the iPhone 3G pretty much non-stop for the last 24 hours. For the most part, it has exceeded my expectations.
First, being able to check your email or surf the web from any location is a pretty awesome feature. For example, today I was at the beach with some friends and we noticed that the tide was slowly creeping up the shore. I quickly fired up Safari, did a Google search for "Vancouver Tide Table", and determined that high tide was in about two hours.
As most people know, the iPhone 2.0 firmware brings with it the iPhone application store. I've already ...
Well, to say that today was a complete clusterfuck would be a gross understatement. I arrived at the Rogers store around 9am, and spent the next five hours watching Roger's employees desperately try and activate my iPhone for me.
I actually ended up at a hold-in-the-wall Rogers store, which was great because there wasn't a huge line-up. Ironically, I ended up right behind my plastic surgeon in line, which was actually pretty cool because I got to spend 90 minutes just chatting with him and getting to know him.
They had 14 units at the store I went to, and only 4 at the Yaletown Rogers store. ...
Yes, today is July 11th, and that means today is the day most of use techno geeks have been waiting for patiently for the last few months. Today Roger's releases the iPhone 3G in Canada.
As most of you know, I've been pretty harsh (justifiable so) against their iPhone rate plans. The last entry I posted basically said that if Rogers didn't cave before Friday, they were going to seriously hurt their credibility, not just amongst their wireless users, but also for the hoards of people that were exposed to the negative press.
The good news is that Rogers finally caved and offered a decent data plan ...
Tonight I was pointed at a link, courtesy of John, that basically detailed a rumour that Apple is diverting iPhone shipments away from Canada next week. The reason for this, according to the rumour, is that Apple is not pleased with the grassroots backlash that Roger's and the iPhone have received in Canada.
The thing is, it really doesn't matter if the rumour is true (and in my mind, I doubt it is -- it's more likely in my mind that they have general manufacturing problems and can't meet the demand) - either way, it's a huge PR nightmare for Rogers. There was one site earlier that posted the ...
As everyone knows, Rogers announced their lackluster iPhone plans not that long ago, and were immediately criticized by most Canadian wireless customers as being far too expensive. In addition, the lack of an unlimited data plan, a feature that Bell and Telus have for some of their phones, is also fairly disappointing give the web-based nature of the device.
In response to the data rates, RuinediPhone set up an online petition asking Rogers to change their data rates. Since going live nearly a week ago, they've amassed nearly 36,000 signatures, and have been featured on several mainstream news ...
Most of us have been waiting patiently for Rogers to finally release their data rates for the iPhone 3G that is coming to Canada on July 11th. The good news is that the wait is finally over -- Rogers just released full information about their plans.
Unfortunately, Rogers completely missed the boat on this one. They had the chance to bring Canada to the forefront of the wireless world, but instead felt compelled to keep us locked up in our draconian past. There are no unlimited data rates for the new plans, and anything approaching 1GB will cost you $100 or more per month (plus, I'm sure, the 9/11 ...
Dave summed up the sentiment behind this post with one of his recent Flickr photos:
While most of Canada is ecstatic for the release of the iPhone in Canada, one company seems rather mute about the whole event. Ironically, that company is Rogers, the only company that has the technology to actually bring the iPhone to Canada. As Dave pointed out, the Apple website has been updated to reflect all the available information regarding the iPhone in Canada. Roger's unfortunate marketing campaign involves what exactly? A simple teaser, like we've all been living in a cave and have absolutely no idea ...
My mom used to always say that somethings in life seem to happen for a reason. Surprisingly, she's been right most of my life, and the strangest things sometimes happen to me that end up pushing me down a path that turns out to be a good one.
While camping this weekend, my Samsung A880 phone went into a spiral of death, and started complaining about not being able to find service. I figured that I maybe forgot to pay my bill or something stupid, and called up Bell Mobility yesterday. After spending two days on the phone with them, they are all of the opinion that my phone has just gone the way ...
I stopped by the new Vancouver Apple store on my way to work to hang out with John Biehler and watch a bit of Steve Job's keynote. Obviously the question on everyones' mind basically revolved around the 3G iPhone that was rumoured to be announced.
The good news is that the release date for the iPhone in Canada has been officially set for July 11th. The bad news is that not only is the jury is still out on just what type of data plans Rogers and Fido are going to be offering with the plan, but also most of the Rogers and Fido people seem completely clueless about the offerings.
The first comment ...
I missed the boat on the first round of Canadian iPhone action last year mainly because I was (quite stupidly) locked into a crazy Bell Mobility contract. The current consensus of the rumour mill is that Apple is gearing up to announce the 3G version of the iPhone on June 9th, which would hopefully put that model into Canadian stores sometime in the near future. I have been patiently awaiting it's arrival so I can call up Bell and tell them where they can shove my phone and my crappy contract.
The only problem is that Roger's has been completely silent on what type of plan will be available for ...
Apple announced the official iPhone developer program a while ago. Unfortunately at the time they also indicated it would only be open to people in the United States at first. I decided to just sign up for it at the time anyways, assuming they would open up to Canada at some point as well.
Turns out they did. I got my official email last night saying I was accepted, so today I went and paid my $99 and can now develop iPhone applications (if I want to). So, maybe I'll mess around with XCode on my vacation for an afternoon and see if I can make anything cool. ...
It's official -- Roger's has made what they call a public statement regarding just that:
TORONTO, April 29 /CNW/ - Ted Rogers, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rogers Communications Inc. today issued the following statement: We're thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year. We can't tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned.
Not very informative, but I guess it dispels the myth that it's not coming. Although, most people thought it would get here eventually. I also read that Rogers is testing out a $20 unlimited data plan ...
Good news is I'm fairly happy with the outcome, especially with the branding part of it. Plus transcoding only took about 3 or 4 minutes. I signed up for a Pro Account on a month by month basis for this upcoming weekend. It gives me priority transcoding and the ability to automatically generate iPod specific versions at the same time.
The only question left is weather to shoot at 320x240 or 640x480. If I were at home, I'd just shoot 640x480, but the files end up rather large, and if I'm limited to a crappy hotel connection, might prefer speed over quality. Plus, 320x240 is basically iPod/iPhone ...
Going through Google reader tonight, I've encountered a lot of shared articles about the Apple iPhone SDK. And for the most part, every one of the articles praises the SDK and Apple's approach with it.
Photo by John Biehler
But in pure Office Space style, I'm going to have to go ahead and, you know, sort of disagree with you all. In particular, I'm going to outline a few points from one specific article and give my take as a cross platform application developer who actually *has* developed software from scratch on the Mac using both Carbon and Cocoa.
First point:
Overall, it is deeply impressive ...
Yesterday Apple released their long-waited for SDK for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. What this means is that if you're interested in developing applications for the iPhone, you can simply download the SDK and get cracking. That is, unless you live in Canada.
That's right, Steve Jobs has limited real development to people with valid US addresses. And even then, it's an application process that costs a minimum of $99 to be a part of. I realize Canada is a really small demographic compared to the United States, but we're not *that* small, and there really are some bright people up here. I had ...
Wow, what can I say. That is a pretty impressive sum of money. I read this before going to bed last night on Digg, but I thought it was fake. Turns out that Microsoft has just extended a 44 billion dollar offer for Yahoo!
To be honest, Google has really handed Yahoo! their hand in search. I personally don't know anyone that uses Yahoo to do search, although I've been told it's still fairly popular in Asia. I have friends over at Yahoo!, and I once showed them my web logs from my blog indicating that something like 98% of all searches originate from Google. They refused to believe they were true, ...
I just read an article that basically alludes to the fact that the iPhone has been hacked. While I'm all in favour of this, there seems to be some question as to whether or not it is actually legal to do so. To that end, I'm a fairly certain it could be argued that the iPhone "lock" is a form of copy protection, in which case it would fall under the DMCA, and hence be illegal to circumvent.
We'll have to see how it all plays out, but I suspect the guys are gonna be in for a few legal headaches.
-- Update
So, the DMCA was updated last year with the following provisions:
Exemptions are ...
Last night Jason and I stopped in briefly at the Apple store here in San Francisco, California, so that we could mess around with a new iPhone. Of course, the store was completely packed, and most people were simply there to do the exact same thing we were doing. Like most Apple stores, the one in San Francisco is currently sold out of iPhones.
After waiting only a few short minutes, I picked up an iPhone and started messing around with it. Right away, I liked how small and comfortable it felt in my hand. The user interface is pretty revolutionary, and it's really intuitive how to use it. At ...