Tag Archives | Apple. iPhone

Microsoft Subsidizes iPhone 3G S

Posted by David Worthington on June 19, 2009 at 6:28 pm

File this one under “irony”‘ Microsoft’s is providing an incentive to purchase Apple’s iPhone though its Bing marketing campaign. In an attempt to entice users to try its Bing search engine, the company is offering 35% discount for AT&T’s online store, which sells iPhones.

When Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that Apple’s iPhone had “no chance” of gaining significant market share, no one would have expected that Microsoft would lend a hand one day.

The discount is valid for both existing and new customers. However, it is not immediately deducted from the purchase price for AT&T customers. Happy shopping. Could I also interest you in some Bing merchandise?

15 comments

iPhone Activation Meltdown: Not Again, Please

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 19, 2009 at 1:30 pm

On a scale of 1 to 10, my experience buying a new iPhone 3G S this morning was a 9.5 (well, except for the part about showing up at 3:15am). I was in and out of the Apple Store in less than ten minutes with a working phone. It was a vast improvement on my buying encounter last year, when the store’s Windows CE-powered wireless terminals kept crashing and I spent close to an hour in the store–and left with an iPhone 3G that still didn’t work until I activated it at home.

But AppleInsider is reporting that some people are discovering that their phones aren’t activating, and that iTunes is telling them that it could take 48 hours before they’re all set. (I don’t think the “Waiting for Activation: This May Take Some Time” message mentioned by AI is a sign of trouble–I got that message too, and in my case, the “some time” was around twenty seconds.) Let’s hope that the 48-hour figure is an absurd worst-case scenario, not a likely experience.

I don’t know how widespread the issues reported by AppleInsider are, but a Twitter search for “iPhone activation” returns more tweets by people worrying about activation glitches than by those actually experiencing them. I choose to take that as a sign that things are going smoothly for most folks.

7 comments

iLine Report #3: First in Line, First With an iPhone 3G S

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 19, 2009 at 8:34 am

iLineI didn’t set out to be the first person in line to buy an iPhone 3G S at the Stonestown Galleria Apple Store. I merely wanted to get my hands on said phone early so I could begin to write about it for Technologizer. And I figured there might be some fun in blogging about the experience.

After weighing all my options, I decided that preordering from an Apple Store and picking up the phone in person was likely to be the safest strategy for getting a phone early. And it worked. They let the first people in the AT&T line into the mall a few minutes before we Apple customers were ushered in, so it’s possible one or two AT&T buyers got a phone before I did. But at 7:09am, I was walking out of the mall with my 32GB iPhone 3G S in hand. (It’s white, not black–I figured that if Apple wasn’t going to change the iPhone’s case, I needed a different color as a crutch.)

A few photos from the morning’s events after the jump.

Continue Reading →

6 comments

iLine Report #2: Nothing to See Here

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 19, 2009 at 5:47 am

iLineHey, the sun just came up–which makes it a lot easier to type on a laptop without a light-up keyboard. I felt the need to check in here, but have nothing of consequence to report. There are about eight of us waiting to get into the Apple Store, and maybe three over at the AT&T line. Everyone’s being perfectly pleasant, but there’s not much chatter going on. Maybe we’re too sleepy.

People keep going up to the mall’s front doors and rattling them, as if they might mysteriously turn out to be unlocked, allowing us to go inside and ransack the place. Nope. If we’re lucky, we might get to go inside the mall before the Apple Store opens at 7am, but I don’t see that happening until at least 6:15am.

This is clearly the first year when the release of a new iPhone prompted only a mild iFrenzy, not the all-out iMadness we saw in 2007 and 2008. I wonder when the first year will be when there simply isn’t anyone frantic enough to show up at the crack of dawn at all? iPods seem to sell pretty darn well, but as far as I know, even the most fanatic iPod fan doesn’t rearrange his or her sleeping schedule to buy one.

And while I’m randomly musing: One of the earliest examples of people being so anxious to buy a tech product that they showed up in the wee hours was the release of Windows 95, with its famous midnight lines at CompUSA. It’s been a while since a version of Windows was a big enough deal to merit a shopping extravaganza, but Windows 7 is a substantial upgrade that a lot of people are looking forward to. Will there be midnight openings at Best Buy or Staples? I dunno–one relatively recent development with software is widespread public betas. If you’re super-excited about Windows 7, you’re probably running the release candidate already, and may well sleep in on October 22nd.

More updates later, but if you don’t hear from me, it’s probably good news–I may be making progress in becoming an iPhone 3G S owner.

No comments

iLine Report #1: No iMadness Just Yet

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 19, 2009 at 3:42 am

iLineDecades from now, when I’m reflecting on a long and happy life, I may pause to take pleasure in having been the first person in line to buy an iPhone 3G S. Or, at least, the first person in line for the Apple Store at the Stonestown mall in San Francisco. When I arrived at 3:15am, I found a velvet rope and nothing else. So I parked myself on a bench. And here I am.

I may be the first person in line, but within ten minutes I had company: There are four of us now. My compatriots are a sociable group, which is a relief-last year, when I waited here for an iPhone 3G, I found the wee-hours crowd a tad feral. The second guy in line confused me by asking if I was here to buy one of the new Macs (which were released last week, and which have inspired no frenzied shopping) but also pointed out that there’s another line set up on the opposite side of the mall entrance. That one’s for an AT&T Store–which the fourth person in line explained to us wasn’t here last year–and it’s actually two lines. One’s for people who reserved a phone in advance; one’s for newcomers. Apple, by contrast, will apparently make us all queue up together. But neither has anyone in it so far.

Other notes on the wait so far:

A) There’s a security car parked here, but as far as I know, there’s nobody in it. If this year’s experience mirrors last year’s, we won’t see any sign of mall or Apple employees for quite awhile.

B) The fourth guy in line is on his third iPhone already; he had one that would get red-hot and burn his ear when he tried to use it.

C) I made the mistake of running out of the house without having had a hearty breakfast. There’s an Olive Garden here awash in neon, and it’s making me hungry.

D) The fifth guy in line (who was just joined by a sixth guy) has started an ugly rumor that the Apple Store decided to delay its planned opening from 7am to 8am.

E) The only people here besides us iLiners are truckers. One’s trying to figure out how to deliver something to the Starbucks inside the mall.

F) Update: A couple of skateboarders have just shown up.

G) It’s cold.

More reports as events warrant…

iLine

7 comments

iPhone 3.0 is a Giant Security Rollup

Posted by David Worthington on June 18, 2009 at 8:07 pm

In the countdown to iPhone 3.0, users were not just waiting for the ability to cut and paste: Apple was sitting on a slew of critical security fixes. CNET is reporting that the iPhone 3.0 software update fixes 46 security vulnerabilities, and I’m not the least bit surprised.

While some teams at Apple may have security expertise, the company lacks a holistic company-wide approach to secure development. The company practices security through obscurity, hoping that hackers will not exploit bugs if that do not know about them, which is not security at all.

Earlier this month, Security expert Rich Mogull sharply criticized Apple for falling short on protecting its customers. He recommended that Apple adopt a security development life cycle (SDL) process that a handful of companies, including Microsoft, implemented several years ago, and share with third party developers.

The number of security vulnerabilities found in Microsoft’s product have dropped markedly, because it changed how it makes its software. No code can be shipped out of Redmond unless it has gone through the SDL process. Apple is another story.

If left unpatched, the iPhone is as exposed as the broad side of a mountain. Twelve iPhone components are exploitable ranging from its Mail application and Safari browser down to lower level graphics and telephony stacks.

Apple’s saving grace is that it controls the iPhone’s application ecosystem, and it’s harder for malware to reach users . It has said that it evaluates apps against security criteria, but I wonder how comprehensive that process is in light of its disjointed vetting process. Maybe it has just been lucky.

In March I called for Apple to assist its developers to write secure Apps for the iPhone. I repeat that call, and am upping the ante by challenging Apple to share its internal processes for secure development (if those processes are even mature enough to share).

I love my iPhone, and own several Apple computers, but I’m not in love with Apple’s halfhearted approach to security.

3 comments

Come Wait in Line for an iPhone With Me!

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 18, 2009 at 1:52 pm

iLineWaiting in line for an iPhone is a wonderful experience. You get to be one of the first people on the planet to own a hot new toy. You meet your fellow gadget enthusiasts. Apple has been known to dole out free Starbucks and bottled water, and even the occasional T-shirt. Did I mention the fresh air and opportunity to see the sun rise?

Of course there are some downsides: You may need to wake up before some people go to bed. Sitting on the pavement isn’t exactly comfy. Random strangers may mock you. And it’s hard to do anything else while you’re in line (including visiting the restroom).

All of which is by way of inviting you to join me tomorrow morning as I wait in line at my local Apple Store to buy an iPhone 3G S in what I’ve come to think of as the iLine. I’ll do the standing around, and will report on anything interesting that happens; you can read about it and look at any photos I take from the comfort of your own home.

The Apple Store opens at 7am PT. It’s hard to say just how crazy the lines will be–in theory, they may not be that bad for a third-generation phone, but I plan to err on the side of expecting the worst. So I’ll show up at the store at 3am or thereabouts just to see what’s going on. (It’s five minutes from here, so I can always go home and catch some additional ZZZs if there’s nobody there.)

If by chance you plan to be in line at your local Apple Store or AT&T shop, lemme know–I’d love to hear reports from around the country.

(Update: Here’s my first report.)

3 comments

Find My iPhone: Cool Idea, Some Quirks

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 17, 2009 at 5:41 pm

iPhone MissingI’ve never lost an iPhone, but I still wince when I think of the StarTac phone that disappeared on me at Spring COMDEX (back when there was such as thing as COMDEX) and the Palm Tungsten PDA that was stolen from my car about a week after I’d bought it. And I do misplace my iPhone around the house all the time. So  I was immediately intrigued by Find My iPhone, one of iPhone 3.0’s 100 new features. Part of Apple’s $99 MobileMe service, FMI lets you locate your iPhone on a map, send it messages (in hopes they’ll be read by some honest soul who found your phone), play a tone (even if the phone is in vibrate mode), and–if all else fails–remotely wipe the phone of all its data.

With today’s release of the iPhone 3.0 update, I’ve been playing with Find My iPhone–and it’s been a somewhat confusing experience. For one thing, Apple buried the setting that lets you turn Find My iPhone on in an un-Apple-ish way: It’s in the Mail, Calendar, Contacts section of Settings (even though it has nothing to do with mail, calendars, or contacts) under the settings in Accounts for your MobileMe account (which, in my case, only remind me that they’re for MobileMe when I click all the way through).

Continue Reading →

7 comments