Objectified is a film about industrial design, from Gary Hustwit, the same guy who did Helvetica. Here’s a clip from the new film, in which Apple’s Jonathan Ive discusses the MacBook Air and Apple’s unibody construction process.
It makes me happy he carries a white iPhone. When people ask me why I didn’t buy the more popular black version, I’m going to start referencing this clip.
The Motorola DROID is the second-best smartphone available today, second only to the iPhone 3GS. In fact, I’d go so far to say to those of you who are with Verizon and on the fence about leaving to get an iPhone, you should try a DROID first. If you are an iPhone owner who is fed up with AT&T to the point where you want to leave, consider Verizon, because the DROID is just that good. Sure, we pointed out some negatives, but we can do that with any device, but at the end of the day, this is one fantastic, well-thought out mobile device.
Google has purposely broken compatibility with Java ME to introduce Android’s Dalvik alternative as a new development platform that leverages all the developer experience and familiarity of Java, without allowing or intending Android software to run on BlackBerry or Symbian phones. The hope is that Android’s single, standardized implementation of Java technology will do what Sun’s broadly licensed Java ME failed to do: deliver a viable mobile software market across hardware vendors’ offerings.
The gist of the tip is this: if you’d like to hide or eliminate scratches on your iPhone’s bezel, or you just want to sport a different look, then find ye a two-sided sponge and tape up your iPhone all kidnapped-like, leaving only the bezel exposed. Take the rough side of the sponge and start buffing the chrome in long, straight swipes. The whole process takes about 10 minutes, but your iPhone will come out looking just just a little sharper than it used to. It’s a subtle change, but the buffed bezel is not as prone to fingerprints and just looks a lot more hi-tech overall. I like it!
Andy Ihnatko has posted a collection of photos pitting the Droid’s camera against the one in the 3GS.
Spoiler Alert: the iPhone 3GS beats the Droid in almost every way.
Suffice it to say, someone from Apple called me this afternoon and insists this is all a misunderstanding. (On their part.) Resubmitting.
And a few hours later:
I am happy to report that “Macworld’s iPhone and iPod Touch Superguide”-actual name!-is now in the App Store.
That was fast. Too bad it takes Apple days — if not weeks — to get such issues resolved for independent developers who don’t have their own Mac-based magazine and website.
‘EasyPay’ is Apple’s handheld point-of-sale system in their retail stores. In the past, the system ran on Windows Mobile and was unreliable.
Seems like that has changed. AppleInsider:
Those who have seen the system for processing credit card, debit card and cash purchases, dubbed “EasyPay touch,” said it combines iPod touch features with a magnetic stripe reader, advanced barcode scanner and Apple-written software to speed plastic and cash transactions.
Perhaps more significantly, the change to an iPod touch and Apple software will bring the entire point-of-sale (POS) system under Apple’s control. In addition, the system will have the added benefit of advertising the usefulness of the iPod touch to customers who see it being used right in front of them.
If you have a personal account or family plan, your data will cost $30/month. It doesn’t matter if you’re using Microsoft Exchange, Facebook, Gmail, or whatever - it’s $30. This is the same for all Verizon Windows Mobile and Android phones.
Data on business accounts - “corporate liable,” multiple lines, purchased through business sales, usually mediated by an IT department - costs $45/month. Once again, this is the same for every Windows Mobile and Android phone.
AT&T Inc is suing Verizon Wireless in an effort to stop its bigger mobile rival from using “misleading” coverage maps in advertisements that AT&T says are causing it to lose “incalculable market share.”
According to the lawsuit which AT&T filed in Atlanta federal court, a recently launched ad campaign shows maps with white spaces that mislead consumers into thinking AT&T has no network coverage outside of areas where it offers high-speed mobile services, known as third-generation or 3G.
From Gizmodo’s Droid review:
Droid is a champion of possibilities: for Motorola, for Verizon, for Android 2.0. It exists to show you what each of them can really do. You can kind of think of it like a Super G1, laying out what it means to be an Android 2.0 phone, with powerful new processors and delicious new displays with sky-high resolutions. If Droid is merely the first in a new wave, we have a lot to be excited about.
Robert Enderle over at tgdaily.com:
…last week VMware servers were brought to their knees as a result of downloads for Fusion 3.0 a product that is used to run Windows on Mac hardware. This would suggest that an incredibly large number of recent Apple customers are putting Windows 7 on their Macs anyway and not waiting for Apple to license the product from Microsoft.
If Mac customers were so interested in using Windows full-time, they would have bought PCs. A surge in VMware downloads just means there are a lot of Mac owners who also need to run Windows. Which is good for Apple — the company’s OS is so compelling, people would rather run it most of the time, and just fire up Windows on an as-needed basis.