With WWDC just couple of days away, and with growing numbers of rumors pertaining to new products, John Gruber posted on his Daring Fireball site, on why he is quite sure that there WILL be a new iPhone announced at WWDC and be available in July.
WOULD WAGER HEAVILY UPON: A next-generation iPhone to be released in July, with roughly double the CPU horsepower and an improved video-capable camera, with 16 and 32 GB storage capacities.
When he makes such prediction, it is almost always done with sufficient research/insider-knowledge/tips such that he will put them out with the DF logo clearly stamped all over it, with confidence.
I wouldn’t bet against him getting this wrong this time. Read his entry for more details.
On the latest Laptop Hunter ad, the “consumer”, Lauren, looks around for a laptop that has “speed, portability and battery life” that costs below US$1700 and eventually settled for a Dell Studio XPS 13 on sale for $899, which when all things considered, is pretty good a deal.
However, its the way the ad mislead viewers about the costs of Macs that makes me question the validity of their claims.
As seen in the screenshot above (around 20s into the ad), it clearly shows a MacBook (see MacBook as compared to the MacBook Pro – note the extra space besides the keyboard on the MBP for the speakers) but yet Lauren talked about the price of the MacBook Pro, which costs US$1999, putting it above the US$1700 budget.
Given that “Lauren” is to become a law student, it is highly unlikely that she would missed out on the MacBooks, which costs US$1299 (unibody) or US$999 for a slower white MacBook, which more than meets her budget. Conscious Misdirection indeed!
On a related note according to AppleInsider, those Laptop Hunters ads might have swayed consumers’ value perception – the belief that a given brand gives more value for money.
Quoting from a survey of 5,000 people, the result showed a marked increase (from almost 0 to 46.2) in the value perception of Microsoft where as Apple’s value dropped from around 70 to 12.4 at this period (on a scale of -100 to 100 (a score of zero means that people are giving equal amounts of positive and negative feedback about a brand – AdAge.com).
Analysts believed these changes in perception is a result of the success of Microsoft’s latest series of ads. To read more, do pop over to AppleInsider and AdAge for the details.
All I can say is, if spending more than US$300 million on ad campaigns, it better changed some perceptions – even if those “consumers” are ignorant like Lauren and not able to see beyond the added values of getting a Mac besides cost savings (for example – like having software suit iLife included for free with every new purchase).
Just for the fun of it – here’s Jennie, another Laptop Hunter (slightly NSFW)
According to AppleInsider, Apple is still working with telcos worldwide to bring iPhone to more customers.
With just weeks to go before Apple is expected to take the wraps off its new family of touchscreen handsets, the iPhone maker remains engaged in talks with carriers vying to join its expansive fleet of authorized wireless providers.
With SingTel being the sole distributor of iPhone for almost one year, is it time for the other two telcos – StarHub and M1 – to finally deliver the iPhone to their customer?
For many who uses multiple IM services (MSN, AOL, Google Chat, ICQ etc), the one application that I highly recommend is to use Adium. Currently it can support up to 15 different systems. With the latest beta (version 1.4b1), it added Twitter support into its list of supported services.
With this new inclusion, you can combine all your social networking chat tools into one. As the timeline is displayed within the existing Adium chat window, it will display it according to the message style you chose, and some of them might not be suitable for display a long list of twitter updates.
As seen on the image above, they have cleverly placed the common twitter functions (Retweet, Reply, Favorite and URL of the Tweet) within the tweet line with 4 simple icons. In the input field, it will also indicate the character count and will change the background to RED if it goes above the 140 character limit.
This new inclusion will surely be loved by those who have limited desktop real estate and want one less application running, but its interface will take some getting use to, especially in the face of existing apps like Twitterrific and Tweetie, just to name a few.
Included in this update besides Twitter support is also the addition of IRC support. This beta 1.4 however, is only for OS X 10.5 Leopard users (download site). So far, it is quite stable and everything still works well.
For OS 10.4 users, you can get the final (possibly) stable version 1.3.4 (download link).
Do you like the new Twitter support in Adium or are you going to stick with your existing Twitter client?
Inline with the new policy from Apple with regards to water-damaged iPhone, SingTel revealed in the Straits Times Forum about a similar out-of-warranty replacement policy.
Subject to a fee, customers can have a new or refurbished iPhone. At SingTel, the replacement iPhone is sold at $350. SingTel’s replacement policy can be found at home.singtel.com/singtel/iphone/support_iphone.html
The two observable liquid submersion indicators can be seen as indicated in the image above. Refer to this Knowledge Based article for the locations of older iPhones and iPod Touch.
According to iFoAppleStore, this new policy could be a way for Apple to clear existing stocks for upcoming new iPhone models.
The iPhone is equipped with four liquid submersion indicators: one in the headset jack, one in the dock connector, and two on interior surfaces. The indicators have been used by Genius Bar staff to help determine if an owner’s iPhone problem was caused by liquids, which are not covered by Apple’s warranty. The policy change could be related to an easing of Apple’s general repair policy, or as a way of clearing out an inventory of the current iPhone 3G stock ahead of a new model introduction this summer.
Good to know that SingTel is adhering to the new policy but I wonder whether their customers would find out if someone did not bring it up in the ST Forum.
Furthermore, in the US, the fee to pay is US$199 for the replacement set. Yet, even considering the exchange rate with the US of years ago, it wouldn’t come up to S$350. At today’s current rate of exchange, the replacement set shouldn’t cost above S$300. Service fee?
Lastly, as we know Singapore’s weather is quite unpredictable, care should be taken with the handling of your iPhone. Get a case or keep it in a bag and remember putting in your back pocket while it rain, is NOT good for your phone.
Apple posted a note to announce the keynote address at the WWDC 2009. Previously done by Steve Jobs, the keynote address on 8 June 2009 10am (1am SG Time – 9 June) will be delivered by Phil Schiller.
CUPERTINO, California–May 13, 2009–Apple® will kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 8 at 10:00 a.m. A team of Apple executives, led by Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the keynote. WWDC will offer in-depth sessions on both iPhone™ OS 3.0, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, and Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™, an even more powerful and refined version of the world’s best desktop operating system and the foundation for future Mac® innovation.
Again no more Steve Jobs but that’s probably how things will be moving forward. Looks like he will just appear at Apple’s own Special Events where the crowd is smaller but that’s not to say he won’t be there.
