We are barely more than a week away from the Steve Jobs keynote address at WWDC at which time I expect that we will see the introduction of the new iPhone, hopefully for sale shortly thereafter. For iPhone enthusiasts such as me (and perhaps you, if you are reading this), it is exciting to think about what we might see at WWDC. I generally stay away from posting rumors on iPhone J.D. because they are so often just made up, so I normally would never post this bizarre rumor from Eric Savitz of Barron's, citing as a source analyst Trip Chosdhry of Global Equities Research, that none other than Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, would join Steve Jobs on stage at WWDC. But I do love this funny response from Microsoft on its official Twitter account: "Steve Ballmer not
speaking at Apple Dev Conf. Nor appearing on Dancing with the Stars. Nor
riding in the Belmont. Just FYI." For the record: I, Jeff Richardson, will also not appear with Steve Jobs on stage at WWDC, but as for Dancing with the Stars all I can say is "no comment." And now to shift from the News of the Weird to the iPhone news of note from the past week:
- John Gruber of Daring Fireball has a great post on the recent Google I/O conference and Google's attempts to challenge the iPhone with the Android operating system.
- For those of you in Louisiana, this weekend is a tax-free weekend for hurricane preparedness supplies, including cell phone batteries and chargers. External batteries for the iPhone are not very expensive anyway, but if you want to buy local and save the 4% state sales tax (you still need to pay the local sales tax) click here for more info from the Louisiana Department of Revenue.
- Attorney Robert Ambrogi discusses Apptorney: IP, an iPhone app "designed to provide easy access to a range of Internet resources commonly used by IP lawyers."
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It is hard for me to believe that pretending that you are an attorney makes for a fun video game, but the Phoenix Wright videogames on the Nintendo DS are very popular and get good reviews. Capcom has now brought the game to the iPhone, and Levi Buchanan of IGN gives the game a good review. I haven't tried the game myself, but if you want to do so, click here to get Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney ($4.99):
- Notwithstanding Phoenix Wright and the tons of other great iPhone games, and dispelling the notion that iPhones are just for fun and games and not for use in business, Larry Dignan of ZDNet reports that AT&T executive Ron Spears revealed that 40% of AT&T's iPhone sales are to enterprise users.
- According to an article in The Oregonian, a man in Gresham, Oregon was in an Apple Store when he witnessed two thieves steal a bunch of iPhones, jump in their car and start to drive away. So he decided to take out his gun and try to shoot out the tires. He missed, the thieves escaped, and he instead got himself arrested for the unlawful use of a weapon, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and unlawful discharge of a firearm. Next time you want to stop iPhone thieves, it may be better to use the MobileMe Find My iPhone feature and involve law enforcement. (Via Gizmodo.)
- Last week, I wrote about the recent suicides at the Foxconn facility that manufactures iPhones and many other consumer electronic devices. According to Reuters, Apple had this to say on the matter: Apple said on Wednesday it was saddened by the apparent suicides, and would continue to inspect all facilities where its products are made. "We are saddened and upset by the recent suicides at Foxconn," the maker of iPhones and iPads said in its first public comment on the deaths."We are in direct contact with Foxconn senior management and we believe they are taking this matter very seriously," Apple said in a statement, adding that its own investigating team were carrying out independent evaluations of what Foxconn was doing to "address these tragic events."
- If you buy music on iTunes for your iPhone, you are not alone. According to Ed Christman of Billboard, iTunes continues to be the largest music distributor in the U.S. with its market share growing from 21.4% in 2008 to 26.7% in 2009.
- Victor Godinez of the Dallas Morning News reviews the iPad 3G, finding that the 3G is slow and that it might be better to just get the Wi-Fi model.
- The Geeky Talky Thinky blog has an interesting post on the numerous niche markets in which the iPad is being used. The post starts with law but discusses a bunch of other specialized uses.
- And finally, I realize that the "Get a Mac" campaign is about Mac vs. PC, not iPhone vs. other phones, but I can't resist talking about them because the campaign has been so funny over the years. The successful ad campaign is now over. Apple ran the last Get a Mac ad last fall and has now removed the ads from its website. AdFreak has a single webpage showing all 66 of the ads from 2006 to 2009, and the One More Thing podcast put together this great YouTube video with highlights of the campaign over the years:
