On a regular basis I check my upgrade eligibility at AT&T Wireless.  For the last 16 months that date has been September 30, 2011.  As noted below from a screen shot I took a few months back.

Yesterday upon checking the date of eligibility the date changed to 9/29/11. For those tracking at home this is the last Thursday in September. Here is that screen shot.

Apple stated in its earnings call that a "new product that [it] [couldn't] discuss" would lower gross margins in September, iOS 5 is due in the fall and well there wasn't a new iPhone in June like each year since 2008. On that exact day of the earnings call I discover my upgrade date rolls back a day. Or it could just be the system correcting what 18 months in AT&T's world actually means.

I have been thinking lately why I choose the iPhone over an Android Phone. I mean these Android phones are every bit advanced as the iPhone and in the end complete the task originally assigned, accept and receive calls.  So I decided to make one of those lists that compared iOS to Android.

The Lists

The easiest was the applications, but as I began to dig I come with a list of 10 of my most used 3rd party applications:

• Twitter for iPhone
• Facebook for iPhone
• The Weather Channel App
• Reeder for iPhone
• Camera+
• Flixster
• FCC Test
• Sol Free
• Stitcher Radio

Now there are a few more applications, but the 10 above are the most used that I would miss. Of the 10, only 2 were not available in the Android Market Place, but that didn’t seem to be a compelling reason for why I chose the iPhone.

I then looked at items such as cases, Android Phones offered, cellular network and so forth. I still concluded that neither was more important than the next. Granted I learned the T-Mobile data speeds were much faster than that of AT&T on 3G, but again concluded that it was just a matter of time before that was no longer an issue.

The Revelation

Then after reading the 37 Signals article, Ten Apps is All I Need, a great point was made by the author Niall Larkin regarding iPhone.

“It’s my favorite piece of technology and has been for years. Do you know why? Because Apple nailed the basics. Safari, Camera, iPod, Clock, Weather, Photos, Messages, Mail, and Maps are the apps that I use 95% of the time. Those are the ones that made me buy the phone and stick with it.”

I had to agree with this comment, but what separates the iPhone from Android for me is the iPod function. Sure Safari, Mail, Maps, and etc are great, but they don’t function any better than their Android counter parts. The iPod is what makes the iPhone stand out from Android.

It’s an iPod, a Phone and Internet Communicator

Before the iPhone, the iPod was Apple’s dominate product. Let’s face it without iPod the iPhone may never have come to be. I use my iPod App each and every day. I use it when I come to work, I use it at work and I use it coming home from work. On the weekends I have it connected to my iLuv or my stereo.

Though only 8GB in capacity I am able to enjoy my full collection of iTunes while at home via iTunes Home Share and on the 3G network with applications such as the PogoPlug App. The icing on the cake is that it provides me cell phone and access to the Internet.

But Android Can Play Music Too

Android may have a music player, but in my world without access to iTunes it simply is not worth the headache just as having a typical MP3 player is not worth the headache. When I connect my iPhone to my iMac all my music is synced, my pictures can be imported to iPhoto, a backup is made and I am on my way. No mounting of device, no dragging & dropping, and no lost data like with Android. In the immortal words of Steve Jobs “It just works.”

The experience will become even better once iCloud and iOS 5 are launched this fall. With Music Match I will have all my music in the cloud and will be able to retrieve it at any moment, without having to go through the trouble of uploading it to services like Amazon Cloud and Google Music Beta.

In the end the reason I wanted the iPhone in the first place is the same reason I will continue with the device, it is my iPhone, the one device for music, Internet and apps

I am sitting in the local Fuddruckers setting up for the monthly Boise Mac User Group meeting when the waitress delivers my chocolate shake.  She asks if we were the “Apple” people.  I respond yes.  She presents me with her iPhone asking why a photo she tried to upload to Facebook keeps presenting her with an error message. 

Being “Apple” people I begin to troubleshoot.  My first thought is to close down the Facebook App and start over.  It is here I discovered running on this iPhone were close to 50 applications.  I ask if she had ever closed out of an Application.  The response, “you can do that?”

This is a common response to this question.  So when Apple made all of the new announcements this past WWDC 2011, I wondered for whom the announcements were attended.  Better yet, how many end users will understand 1/10th of the changes heading their way this fall with the release of iCloud and iOS 5? 

More Cloud

On June 6, 2011 Apple presented iCloud to the world, declaring it a replacement for MobileMe, admitting it was “not our finest hour”.  Apple developers were treated to a list of new features amongst them were iTunes in the Cloud and Photo Stream.

With iTunes in the Cloud users can access each and every song purchased from iTunes for free.  For an extra $24.99 annually, users were provided Music Match.  Using an iOS 5 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation), iPad, or iPad 2, or a Mac computer with OS X Lion or a PC with Windows Vista or Windows 7 Apple will provide a Music Match subscriber access to songs not purchased via iTunes in 256k quality.  The service itself limits a subscriber to 25,000 songs, but iTunes purchases do not count against the limit. 

Missing from the service was an iCloud player to compete with Amazon Cloud player and Google Music Beta, both providing Android Apps to play music.  However, with the release of iCloud coming in the fall Apple has plenty of time to make changes.  In the meantime Apple updated both iOS and OS iTunes applications to allow the push of purchases to all devices.  It should be pointed out this does require the user to activate the feature within iTunes, something maybe my Fuddruckers waitress won’t know she can do. 

Photo stream is another new/change feature.  Photo Stream holds your last 1000 photos, with the option to create albums.  All the photos coming through Photo Stream are kept on your PC or Mac.  This makes a ton of sense considering my recent purchase of a new iMac with 2TB of storage along with an external hard drive making me very happy. 

Essentially Photo Stream replaces MobileMe Gallery, well sort of.  I am not sure how Apple will provide users to share their photo with family and friends as they do currently.  One thought I have is with the use of Facebook and Flickr, Apple may have simply given up on this service.  The keynote addressed the number of photos taken by an iOS device currently Flickr’s service, which is an admission that Galleries is not that popular.

Remains of the Day

iCloud will continue to store your contacts, bookmarks, email, calendar and documents.  It will just do it in a different way.  It will cost the user nothing.  Additionally, iCloud will backup items and iTunes will allow you to download your purchased apps and music a not additional charge.  The user will also receive 5GB of storage.  

Are these iCloud features going to better than the current free services offered by the likes of Google, Yahoo or Microsoft?    With Gmail I get 10GB of storage.  I can set up Google Drive for my documents and of course can set up contacts and calendars.  Nothing to big hear but it is enough of change MobileMe subscribers will notice, but is it enough to bring new customers?  With no ads, please sign me up for some new accounts.

Less Me

Lost in the announcement regarding moving from MobileMe to iCloud was what will happen to iDisk, iWeb and the price for extra (if any) storage.  Currently for my $99 I am given 20GB of online storage for my email, bookmarks, iCal, file uploads and web space.   

As mentioned before iCloud will be free with 5GB of storage.  There was no mention of some useful features such as iWeb website hosting.  This past Monday came word from Steve Job’s iPhone that indeed iWeb was going away based on the emailed question.  I would point out that Steve said “Yep” to the number of questions.    Users of iWeb can upload their site via FTP to a web host, but it comes with a cost of another service, however considering the cost of hosting to a MobileMe yearly subscription one could save.

The other useful information not mentioned was the possibility of additional storage.  I would be surprised if come this fall that Apple isn’t selling additional iCloud storage.  How could they sell stockholders on the idea that “we stopped selling MobileMe for $99 a year to offer its main features and then some for free?”   I suspect that Apple will find a way to continue collecting the $99, while also collecting even more from iCloud.

Add iOS 5 to the Mix

Getting back to my waitress from Fuddruckers.  Adding iCloud to the mix with iOS 5 may on the outside appear very simple to those in attendance and us Apple Fan Boys and Girls.   I do wonder what this means to the typical "I only have an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad" user. 

Listening to my list of Podcasts this week leads me to get excited about the announcements, but at the same time think wow did Apple complicate things?  There are enough changes in iOS 5 that will cause a lot of users eyes to become glazed over.  There is an interesting article from MacRumor that over 50% of iPhone users visiting the Genius Bar have never connected their device to a computer.  There is the PC free idea for iOS 5 combined with iCloud connecting to a PC isn’t needed, but if you think about the fact that people weren’t smart enough to connect to a PC to begin with, what else will the not do?  It is clear to me the new features are aimed at the Fuddruckers’ waitress to make things easier.  However, I am sure you will continue to hear “you can do that?”

In my opinion Other World Computing is making a mountain out of a mole hill regarding upgrading an iMac hard drive and here is why.

• Opening the case voids your warranty unless performed by a representative of Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider and with Apple's consent**.
• A new drive would not be covered by AppleCare.
• As an interested third party OWC will stand to lose sales as a result of this issue.
• I have purchased a new iMac and have AppleCare on the machine and will likely sell it before the warranty expires, meaning any time the iMac needs to be fixed it will go to Apple each and every time.
• Thunderbolt, FireWire 800, 4 USB ports. All of these allow for external drives to be connected if space becomes limited.
• The largest consumer drive I could find online is 3TB at New Egg, with the lowest price of $139.99. Note OWC did not have an internal drive of that size listed on its website. You can upgrade to a 2TB drive upon order via the Apple Store Website for $150.00.

There is no denying OWC claim that Apple changed things up just enough to thwart 3rd parties from upgrading the drive on the new early 2011 iMacs. Though I would love to be able to upgrade my iMac myself I learned back in 2006 when I purchased my first Mac that I now was at the mercy of Apple for repairs and upgrades. In 5 years since I have owned 2 iMacs and have never had them in for repair and have come accustomed to living with this model of repair and upgrade. I use external drives for my iPhoto, iMovie and iTunes content, with back ups of all content.

OWC has been outspoken in the past few days regarding this issue. They have every right to do so. I also believe that they may be fighting a battle that based on the above is seemingly pointless and in the end feels more like a publicity stunt.

**This warranty does not apply: (a) to consumable parts, such as batteries, unless damage has occurred due to a defect in materials or workmanship; (b) to cosmetic damage, including but not limited to scratches, dents and broken plastic on ports; (c) to damage caused by use with non-Apple products; (d) to damage caused by accident, abuse, misuse, liquid contact, fire, earthquake or other external causes; (e) to damage caused by operating the product outside the permitted or intended uses described by Apple; (f) to damage caused by service (including upgrades and expansions) performed by anyone who is not a representative of Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (“AASP”); (g) to a product or part that has been modified to alter functionality or capability without the written permission of Apple; (h) to defects caused by normal wear and tear or otherwise due to the normal aging of the product or (i) if any Apple serial number has been removed or defaced.

I am sure sales staff at the Boise Towne Square Mall Apple Store wanted me to make a purchase, but they didn’t want to earn it. I spent a while before writing this in order to present my experience in a calm way. I also spent a while trying to decide how to begin this article, but know I am writing it not on a new iMac that I drove an hour out of my way to purchase tonight. Before I get into my experience at the Apple Store this evening, let me take you back to Tuesday May 3rd, 2011.

That Tuesday the new iMac Quad-Core machines hit the shelves. I spent a little time Tuesday night going over all the specs and decided that I wanted to purchase with my hard earned dollars. That night I put my mid 2009 model 24” iMac up on Craigslist. I received many offers and ended up with a buyer, however the buyer seemed flaky as I could narrow down a time to complete the sale. Finally today (May 5th, 2011) I completed the sale after many phone calls and text messages. Bottom line it was stressful selling the iMac and not the best of times to sell anything on Craigslist.

Fast forward to a 25 minute drive from my home to the BTSM Apple Store. I arrive excited to purchase the new iMac. It should also be noted my last few experiences in the BTSM Apple Store have been far from stellar. Both were purchases of an iPad, which saw the Apple Store employees being aggressive in not honoring my employee discount. It is a discount from a major US Company and it has been a quite the teeth pulling exercise for the BTSM store to honor the discount.

I digress. Here I am going through what I want with the Apple Sales Person on a floor model and “he says ok, hit add to cart”. I look at him as he was kidding and he was not. The reason given what the Apple Store only carries the base 1TB model. I was really, you don’t carry 2TB models. His answer is still no, not “no I am sorry and some explanation”, but just a plain no. I tell him that I had called earlier and asked if the store had 2TB models and the answer was yes. I repeated  to the Apple Store employee, so you carry 1 and 2 TB models. The answer yes we do.

As I wanted a new machine tonight, I decided to sacrifice the 2 TB model and upgrade the memory. It should be noted that the Apple Store can upgrade the memory with no issues. As I head up to pay the sales person hands me a Track Pad that I had requested. As I am waiting for the iMac I begin commenting that Apple is smart not to include either the Magic Mouse or Trackpad in the box and having the choice was great.

The sales person then responds to me something to the affect that oh you will have to buy the Trackpad separately as the iMacs come pre-stocked with the Magic Mouse. I tell him that is not how the Apple Store states it on the Apple website. It should be noted that the BTSM Apple Store employee was unaware of the option to choose. He had to be educated by another employee and myself. It is at this point I dropped the need to purchase at the store that evening. I drove home purchased a new 21.5”, 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 4GB of RAM and a 2TB Serial ATA Drive. I received my employee discount with no problem and it is due to arrive sometime in a week.

I know many will say that this is normal. I call bunk. Boise has had an Apple Store since September of 2010 and I have had the luxury of having a Genius Bar to fix an iPhone and iPod Touch since that time. However, purchasing items the local Apple Store has been a huge disappointment in my opinion. The request I had was not much. I wanted a 2TB model and upgraded processor, with a Magic Track Pad and I am still not sure how I didn’t walk out of the Apple Store with a new iMac.

I won’t bother you with what I think Apple should do, since many of us know Apple doesn’t really do much of what the customer wants but rather what they want. It is stupid in my opinion that Apple is not as flexible with buyers. It is also astonishing to me that I have had such terrible service the last few times I have made or attempted to make purchases.

To me having a local store is not an improvement on the prior situation facing local Boise Apple Product buyers previously. At least with the reseller one could have more of an option in what was purchased, well of course that was after a few weeks wait for its stock to arrive. Bottom line the waste of time and gas makes buying at the local BTSM pointless, when I am not going to receive the level of customer service and product I want. In the end the BTSM store wanted my money, but had no way of earning it and it likely will not any time soon. Oh, and writing this on a Windows Machine makes me feel dirty.

According to MacRumors an AT&T customer called regarding his iPhone upgrade date being changed.

(The) customer noticed his eligibility date for a subsidized upgrade had been pushed back by over five months.

The AT&T representative proceeded to explain that Apple had informed AT&T that there would be no new hardware for June or July. I was of course skeptical of this particular story as it was an AT&T rep as the source. Considering the number of times a Verizon representative told me the iPhone was coming to Verizon Wireless you can understand why.

I decided to look up my account eligibility upgrade via AT&T and something did change. Though my date of upgrade has always been 9-30-11, a new presentation of when I was eligible for upgrade was given. Note that I was given the AT&T upgrade information as well as the iPhone eligibility.

It would seem AT&T went out of their way to let me know I was not eligible for an iPhone upgrade. I am not sure what this all means, but it would appear on the surface AT&T trying to make it clear to its customers when they are or are not eligible for an iPhone update. It also may be yet another signal Apple is pushing back the launch the next iPhone.

The new iMacs hit Apple's website today.  The site claims to offer a model at a price point of $1,199, yet I am unable to find said iMac at this price point.

Update:  Guess Apple has fixed their website, as now the $1,199 iMacs are appearing. 

A few weeks back my I completed a restore on my iPhone 3GS. In doing so I restored it to the factory default, which results in a loss of installed apps, music, email and other defaults. As a result the ability to choose from a list of MobileMe aliases was lost.

I am not sure why this was the case. My web search resulted in little information that was useful in getting this “feature” back. Short of restoring my iPhone from the last known backup, I was now without the ability to use aliases within MobileMe account setup on my iPhone. In my searches I discovered a work around that in the end I found to be not only a fix but also a better way of managing aliases.

I also discovered after implementing the change I didn't have to fumble around to make sure the email was originating from the correct alias account.  This of course being the main reason I set up the alias in the first place.

The steps to set up a separate MobileMe alias on an iPhone are quite easy.

Step 1: Go To Settings on your iPhone and choose Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

Step 2: Select Add Account…

Step 3: Select “Other”

Step 4: Enter the alias account information in the “Address” and “Password” Fields

Step 5:  Select “IMAP” and enter in the alias MobileMe account address and password. This is needed to get MobileMe to respond correctly to the alias.

In the “Incoming Server” area type in mail.me.com for the Host Name, followed by your main MobileMe Username and Password.  

In the outgoing server enter smtp.mail.com in the host field, followed by your main MobileMe Username and Password.

The iPhone will now ask you to turn Mail and Notes on or off. Since you have come this far I suggest leaving Mail on, while leaving Notes on or off is up to you. After few moments your MobileMe alias will be up and running. No more choosing which email address you to reply with, now you can open any email and know it is coming from the alias you want it to.

I participated in my first Apple product launch on March 11th, 2011.  The day began with me at work as normal, but I left at noon and headed down to the Boise Town Square Mall (BTSM) Apple Store iPad 2 launch.  A family member had been waiting in line since about 9:30AM.  She was 7th in line and I was in 8th in line.  I later found out that the BTSM opened at 5:30AM for mall walkers.  Two gentleman arrived within minutes around 6:30.

 

The line started to grow as the day progressed. At around 2:00PM the line had grown from 18 to 40 people. I walked around the way to notice that people had moved mall furniture up against the wall for a comfy spot to wait. I started to poll people on which capacity and color they were looking to pick up. Many said black, but I was surprised at the number of those that were looking to pick the new white model.

The day progressed and I carried on many conversations with those standing in line with me. As the time drew closer to launch we began to yell out how many hours were left until launch. At 2:00PM mall security informed us that if it happened again we would be escorted out of the mall. We informed the manager of the store what had been told to us and he was visibly upset and began to have a lengthy "discussion" with the security team assigned to the event. We were later informed that we could yell and get as excited as we pleased as Apple was in charge of the event and was allowed to have said events.

Right about 3:00PM the Apple Store began to close in preparation for the event. Many people continued to walk by asking what was going on and why was the store closing. One individual had traveled a great distance and was visibly upset the store was closed and proceeded to argue with the Apple Employee chosen to handle questions.  The individual stated that the store was being unreasonable in not allowing her to purchase the device considering the great distance driven to purchase. For the record it was an iPod Nano, available most anywhere, which was the advice given to by the Apple Employee.

As 5:00PM approached the store employees began to ask us which model we were looking to purchase and how many. They went through the line and comments I overheard were that the white model is in limited supply and there were no guaranties.  We received a ticket after giving out our choice and that choice was entered in to what could be described as an inventory application on an iPod Touch.

The anticipation began to build.  We were asked to remove our chairs and other items as the area that was being referred to as the "staging area" for each waive of customers.  The manager once again graced us with his presence carrying on conversation with us first 18 in line.  The big moment finally arrived and the some 300 people in line began to crank up the volume.

After 4 and half hours I was welcomed into the store to purchase my 32GB and 64GB White iPad 2 WiFi models. I had the Apple employee setup my iPad 2, as I wanted to ensure that it indeed was in working order before I had left. After all I didn't want to get home after standing in line and not have the thing power up.

My observation from the launch was that Apple went out of its way to create buzz for a product that didn't need much hype. Apple went out of its way to make those of us in line comfortable by offering coffee, tea, and water, while also receiving a black blanket for our troubles. The other mall stores were offering us in line many different discounts on iPad related items. In the end I walked out of the store with what I came for and had a great time doing so and yes it was worth the wait.

If you have ever used the Cosmos Screen Saver on OS 10.6 there are some pretty nice shots of the cosmos.  These photos are easily avalable.  

After a little hunting I found the location of the photos in the /System/Library/Screen Savers folders.  After getting to the folder simply either Control Click or Right Click on the Cosmos.slideSaver file and choose "Show Package Contents".  Next open the Contents then open the Resources file and you will find all those photos.  Enjoy.