Apple iPhone: Too much hype!

From CNET REVIEW: "The good: The Apple iPhone has a stunning display, a sleek design, and an innovative multitouch user interface. Its Safari browser makes for a superb Web surfing experience, and it offers easy-to-use apps. As an iPod, it shines.

The bad: The Apple iPhone has variable call quality and lacks some basic features found in many cell phones, including stereo Bluetooth support and 3G compatibility. Integrated memory is stingy for an iPod, and you have to sync the iPhone to manage music content.

The bottom line: Despite some important missing features, a slow data network, and call quality that doesn't always deliver, the Apple iPhone sets a new benchmark for an integrated cell phone and MP3 player. "

wired.com: IPhone First Impressions: Not Worth The Money

"The camera isn’t bad either and even does reasonably well in low light situations, though the images are only two megapixels so I wouldn’t expect to them to look all that great when enlarged.

The other small widgets all work just as you’d expect, weather, stocks, maps and more are all easy to navigate and work quite quickly so long as you have a wireless connection.

Turn off the wifi and revert to AT&T’s Edge network and you’ll find yourself seized with an uncontrollable desire to do this.

Final verdict: There’s no denying the wow factor, but overall the iPhone isn’t worth the money. For $300 I’d give it the thumbs up, but at $600 you’re better off with something else for half the price."

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/06/iphone-first-im.html

VentureBeat » iPhone is phooey..shoo

VentureBeat » iPhone reviews are out — NYT says hype is merited: "Then there’s the small matter of typing. Tapping the skinny little virtual keys on the screen is frustrating, especially at first…The BlackBerry won’t be going away anytime soon."

Don't buy the iphone!

"We have been testing the iPhone for two weeks, in multiple usage scenarios, in cities across the country. Our verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer. Its software, especially, sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry, and its clever finger-touch interface, which dispenses with a stylus and most buttons, works well, though it sometimes adds steps to common functions."

CNN: iPhone plans start below $60

"Service plans for the iPhone, the much-anticipated creation of Apple and AT&T Inc. slated for release at the crack of dawn Friday, will start at $59.99 per month, the companies announced Tuesday.
The three plans covering the Apple iPhone each will include unlimited data, 200 SMS text messages, rollover minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling, as well as the first-ever unveiling of visual voicemail."

Goople: Will Google Eventually Buy Apple?

"There’s a very long, worthwhile piece by the author John Heilemann on Apple (AAPL) in the latest issue of New York magazine. Among other things, Heilemann looks at the growing competition for Apple in the digital music business, and considers whether or not the iPhone will be a success. It also quotes an unnamed person asserting that - get this - Jobs might want to sell Apple to another very large company with which you are familiar.
“I think Google (GOOG) is going to buy Apple,” the unidentified person says. “It would be a victory for Apple; they’d get major-league partners, money and engineers. And it would be a victory for Steve - a huge win that lets him leave the stage.”
Heileman thinks, though, that in such a combination, Jobs would end up as CEO, or at least chairman."



http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2007/06/18/will-google-eventually-buy-apple/

Pollstar: The iPhone Cometh

"That's the day the world changes. The day the mute will talk, the deaf will hear and the lame will walk. It will be Christmas in June, New Year's in summer and Valentine's Day all rolled into one.
It's the day Apple's iPhone hits the streets."

News::Child Orders Apple Juice, Is Served Margarita

News::Child Orders Apple Juice, Is Served Margarita: "The two-year-old was supposed to get apple juice to wash down his food at an Applebee's. Instead he was served a margarita. The child grew drowsy and started throwing up a few hours after drinking the cocktail.

Applebee's says it keeps the apple juice and margarita mix in identical plastic bottles -- leading to the mistake.



The child's mother says she 'wasn't going to make a big deal about it' until the child had to be rushed to the hospital. ACT Policing are testing the contents of the drink a popular sparkling apple juice to determine whether it contained a caustic substance.

They are also investigating the circumstances of the incident.
The toddler is fine now, and the company plans to reimburse the family's medical expenses."

Is iPhone out of business?

"Jobs tells developers that for them, iPhone is purely a portable browser. Microsoft, Nokia, and RIM rejoice.

At Macworld Expo in January 2007, Steve Jobs told the crowd that Apple's upcoming mobile device, iPhone, runs OS X. I think that it's an easy and reasonable leap from that statement to the expectation that iPhone will be open to custom applications, an expectation that I held and which I'm sure many developers shared. A Unix phone with Apple's UI panache? Touch, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile phone in one device? I was ready to take a three month sabbatical from InfoWorld just to spelunk around inside iPhone's APIs and its OS X core."

iLounge updates "everything iPod" guide, now with Apple TV and iPhone

"With less than 24 hours to go before Steve Jobs (hopefully) regales us all with more details on Apple's newest and most expensive iPod, it's worth remembering that there are still iPods out there that only play music and video, for pete's sake. In fact, some of them don't even play video. How are you supposed to keep on top of which model does what? "

MacDailyNews - Accessories makers prep for Apple iPhone launch

"Accessories makers are placing big bets on the iPhone [and] their payoff could be relatively huge, if the $1 billion a year spent on Apple iPod accessories is any indication," Ben Charny reports for MarketWatch.

"Yet despite their importance, Marware and other accessories makers say they began crafting iPhone items without the benefit of actually seeing the device. Apple, however, did release some basic specs about the iPhone in February, which made the process a bit easier," Charny reports.

"The accessories makers, for the most part, operate independently of Apple, which raises their risk even more. Apple only requires that accessories with the phrase 'works with iPhone' on the packaging first be approved by Apple. But in order to speed their goods to market, several accessories makers say they will go without the "'works with iPhone' on their packaging," Charny reports."

IBD: iPod's Been Mostly Virus-Free, But Hackers Might Be Lurking

"One downside to developing a successful electronics product such as the Apple (AAPL) iPod is that it often becomes a bull's-eye that hackers try to hit.
'Hackers have big egos and their main goal is to get their work into the newspaper,' said Peter Lindstrom, an analyst at market research firm the Burton Group.
Newspapers are attracted by firsts, and in April security supplier Kaspersky Lab discovered the first virus designed to infect Apple's iPod portable media players. The virus, named Podloso, was more of a proof-of-concept program than malware, or malicious software, designed to bounce rapidly from device to device."

Is iPhone Just a Widescreen iPod That Makes Calls? - PMP Today

"Even to diehard Apple fans, Steve Job’s 10 million iPhones in 2008 or one per cent of the entire mobile phone market is a i needed holds on my team or more good startingh pitchers. he's got great obp. someone gethim

if u have a good starting pitch i'll trade u either of my 2 bench playrs.wynn or mark reynolds (having an amazing yrs ambitious as it gets. Even if ten million people in the world can afford to put up $500 for an iPhone, there’s the AT&T exclusivity, which brings 56 million AT&T subscribers into the Apple iPhone market. But imagining even a tenth of a provider’s clients going over to one phone brand and one phone model is difficult. My own prediction? Why buy a product no matter how attractive when every other person on the street already has one."