iPhone Savior

Google Enters Netbook Race With "Chrome" OS

Google has officially announced their full throttle entry into the race for netbook superiority with their Google Chrome Operating System. Expected to be ready for serious web junkies in the second half of 2010, the key aspects of Google Chrome OS will be speed, simplicity and security. Unlike Microsoft, Google is convinced that "computers need to get better" and they plan to design their OS with the proper horse power required to make that impossible dream a reality.

"Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems."

"The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web." 

The netbook category offers a huge opportunity and Google hopes to get into the race early enough to establish themselves as the dominant leader of internet browsing on devices with tiny keyboards and minuscule memory. It's clear from the press release that the search engine giant also intends to target cloud computing as a key feature.

Fake Steve Jobs Serves Up Roasted Rubinstein For Breakfast

 

For those of you who've been sleep navigating the interwebs lately, you may not have noticed that Fake Steve Jobs has reclaimed his blogging throne and he's back with a vengeance. His latest skewering is trademark brilliance entitled, "Jon Rubinstein now says he'll get a new liver, too". The great fake one mercilessly lampoons Palm's CEO in classic Jobsian style while reducing the Pre device to a polished turd.

"Jon Rubinstein, is planning to receive a liver transplant. No official date -- they just say it will happen sometime in the next 12 to 18 months. Palm says Rubinstein's liver will have features that my liver lacks, though they won't say what those features are." The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs

El Jobso goes on to congratulate Rubinstein's team of ex-Apple traitors with a huge bat as he freely serves up laugh outloud, backhanded compliments about the Pre like breath mints at Gilroy's annual garlic festival. Lavishing on the device the kind of copy-cat praise it truly deserves.

First Look At Apple Schwag for WWDC 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - While hundreds of Mac faithful have started checking in at WWDC 2009, Karl Baron called time out to upload photos of the branded schwag Apple has included for each attendee this year. Beyond the regulation entrance badge in lime green, Apple has included a black WWDC 2009 tee shirt and black vinyl backpack. The whole black on black thing is so Evil Empire.

It's the kind of signature gear that instantly tells the local riffraff, "Hey bro! Rob me!" I'm an Apple fanatic.

The Starbucks nearest to Moscone West has jumped into the party with two left feet by welcoming developers with impromptu window art, drawn up in chalk with the Apple logo proudly displayed ass-backwards. FAIL! It was actually designed to give developers a brain hemorrhage.

The Starbucks on (833 Mission Street) is open from 5:00 am to 9:00 pm Monday through Friday (415) 284-0579.

 

[Schwag photos by Karl Baron]    [Starbucks photo by Melody McC]

Original iPhone Launch Versus The Palm Pre

NEW YORK - Witness the harsh reality of a less than epic Palm Pre Launch captured outside Sprint's New York "flagship" store in the Flatiron Building. Appropriately compared to Apple's original iPhone launch on June 29, 2007 outside their 5th Avenue flagship store. It appears the rampant Palm Pre launch hype whipped up by the media may have been a tad pre-mature.

In two days Apple will wipe any memory of Pre's launch off the planet. FAIL!

[Cult of Mac]   [Created by Peter Yan]

Google Goes All Tetris For 25th Anniversary

If you haven't already noticed, Google has transformed their logo to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the the epic release of Tetris. The building block video puzzle game was originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov, created on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow.

The game quickly rose to cult classic status when Game Boy launched in 1989, establishing Tetris as one of the most popular video games ever. Alexey Pajitnov derived the the name from the Greek numerical prefix "tetra- (all of the game's pieces, known as Tetrominoes, contain four segments) and tennis, Pajitnov's favorite sport.

Tetris for iPhone is available in the App Store for $4.99 from Electronic Arts, though I prefer my legendary copy of "Tris", the Tetris clone app created by Noah Witherspoon. The wildly popular Tris for iPhone which originally launched with the App Store on July 11, 2008 was later yanked down for copyright infringement issues.

All hail Tetris!

Get Tetris for iPhone

Apple iFountain Makes Water Taste Mac-Tastic

You know those cool little Apple logo decals that come packaged with every new Mac? Rather than wasting them on the rear window of your Chevy Geo, why not transform the water dispenser at your college into a fantastical Apple iFountain?

The iFountain pictured above was discovered in the art gallery building at the University of Denver. Offering students that same feeling of smug superiority experienced by every Apple fanatic, each time they guzzle down a Mac-Tastic mouthful of joy.

This simple do-it-yourself kind of Apple branding instantly turns any ordinary drinking fountain into a memorable piece of modern design. It's amazing how much equity is added just by applying the Apple logo. Trigger iTunes music to play every time the flow of water starts and Apple may just have a practical new iProduct for the masses.

Bottled water from the school cafeteria one dollar.

Drinking from an Apple iFountain... priceless!

[Photo by Eric Brow]  

Trent Reznor Reveals Obsessive iPhone Man Love

Not long after a recent update to the app "Nine Inch Nails: access" was rejected by Apple for objectionable content, the band's outspoken frontman Trent Reznor, took to the NIN forum in order to throw a proper rock star tantrum in text form.

The content in question turned out to be the NIN song "The Downward Spiral" which can be accessed online through the app though the song does not actually reside on the iPhone app itself. After several paragraphs of fist pounding and whining with grand expletives, Reznor calms down long enough to express his deeply felt man love for Apple and iPhone while carving up the competition into bite size bits.

"Everyone - let me be clear. I love Apple products and as goofy and out-of-touch as their app approval process / policy is, I will still use them because they work 1000X better than the competition. This is not a debate, it's a fact," Reznor wrote on the NIN forum.

Best Buy Customer Finds Large 'Brick' Inside New MacBook Pro Box

TEXAS - Months before the 2009 MacWorld Expo, rumors began to run wild about Apple developing a new device code named "The Brick". That rumor may be true! It appears Apple made only one such brick and a man in Texas uncovered it hiding inside the box of his new MacBook Pro purchased at a Best Buy store. The box was supposedly sealed, making it Apple's problem according to Best Buy. This fantastical story comes to us from The Consumerist website.

"When I got home I opened the box and found a paving stone packed with bubble wrap, instead of the MacBook Pro," said Ryan, a Best Buy customer, "I returned to the store and the manager, "Keith", was not too willing to help me out. He kept falling back on the line "Apple seals the boxes, not us. Take it up with Apple."

I'm just not not buying into this sketchy tale. Ryan reportedly sent an email to Best Buy corporate and immediately contacted his credit card company who indicated they could do little to help until his $2164.89 charge was processed. If Ryan had called Apple tech support they would've asked him; "Is your brick plugged into a power outlet?"

Some days it sucks to shop for Apple gear at Best Buy. Now it just sucks to be Ryan!

[The Consumerist]

Jesus Joins Twitter and He Uses An iPhone

My Saturday night was otherwise uneventful until I received an email from Twitter that had me tripping hard. "Hi, (iPhoneSavior). Jesus (iphoneJesus) is now following your updates on Twitter." the email said.

That's quite a shocker having been the iPhone Savior myself for just short of two years. Now this guy shows up! Once Oprah elbowed her way in, I guess seeing Jesus on Twitter was inevitable.

It turns out that my own personal iPhone Jesus, now a devout follower of mine, joined Twitter just a day earlier on April 24. His Bio is simple, it reads; "I'm Jesus. I use an iPhone. It's pretty cool." He must have enjoyed the whole "Jesus Phone" thing.

iPhone Jesus is already following over 1,400 people including the likes of Jimmy Fallon, Alyssa Milano, Lily Allen and The Office on NBC. The wild thing is that Jesus has some 850 Twitter faithful following him in less than a day. I've been on Twitter a month and I have only 115 followers.

One of my favorite tweets from Jesus is this one; "Today, I was sitting in heaven, really craving a smoothie. So... if anyone says they saw Jesus at the Smoothie Factory...they were right."

And his most recent tweet, a response to one user creeped out by Jesus following him, "I'm kind of scared that he's following me..." Theang said, to which iPhone Jesus responded;

"Don't be scared, my child, I will only bless you and keep you safe. And retweet your interesting links."

This proves it... you never know when or where Jesus will show up. How will you respond when iPhone Jesus starts following you? "Block" is always an option. This would be a perfect place to say; "follow me", but I won't!

iPhone Jesus on The Web

AT&T Planning To Double 3G Capacity

AT&T is working to double the capacity of its 3G network, effectively boosting  bandwidth through software enhancements before it begins a full migration over to downlink speeds of 21 Mbps. The current 3G downlink capacity on its high-speed packet access (HSPA) is 3.6 megabits per second with an expected boost to 7.2 Mbps ahead of the release of Apple's next-gen iPhone. Many cult of iPhone faithful would argue that they're far from experiencing the claimed 3.6 Mbps speeds in some metropolitan cities.

"AT&T is increasing the downlink capacity on its high-speed packet access (HSPA) from 3.6 megabits per second to 7.2 Mb/s through software upgrades at the base station," said Scott McElroy, AT&T Mobility vice president of technology realization "AT&T currently has the enhanced networks running in two test markets but plans to extend those capabilities to its entire network." Source: Teleyhony Online

Reports indicate that AT&T plans to start migrating its 3G networks to evolved-HSPA (or HSPA+), which would triple peak speeds to 21 Mbps, an upgrade the company is planning for later this year. AT&T's next  evolution is expected to be the 4G LTE network aimed at 2011.

"AT&T isn't just adding capacity through upgrades; it's also adding HSPA carriers at many cellsites. "It's being done on a market-by-market basis," McElroy said. "We're adding second and even third carriers according to demand."