TiPb just received a tip from inside one of Apple’s carrier partners on the memo reproduced below. We can’t verify it but are running it just in case anyone notices any problems and comes looking for potential causes.
Our tipster thought Apple might be using the downtime to prep for some iPhone 3.0 and next-generation iPhone hardware goodness. We have no way of verifying that either, of course, but with under 10 days to WWDC 2009, nothing — fact or fiction — surprises us anymore…
On Sunday evening May 31 / Monday June 1, in some time zones Apple will perform maintenance on the servers responsible for all iPhone activations.
This is a planned maintenance that begins at 8:00 p.m. and ends at 11:00 p.m., United States Pacific time.
During the scheduled downtime, attempts to activate a new iPhone will result in iTunes displaying a message that says activations are currently unavailable.
The short of this one is that you plus your DSLR camera (Canon currently, Nikon in development) into your computer), run a server on your computer, and then run DSLR Remote on your iPhone and — Boom! — you can get the live preview right from the camera lens on your iPhone, adjust all sorts of settings like white balance, ISO, etc. and “fire” pictures off when you’ve got it set up, and set on, just exactly what you want.
The long of this is, with iPhone 3.0 coming and it’s APIs for peripheral connection via dock and Bluetooth, we ain’t seen nothing yet. It’s not hard to imagine more and more gadgets (and even appliances) suddenly taking advantage of what could be one of the most flexible and powerful “remote controls” on the market.
If iPhone 1.0 was multi-touch and the interface, 2.0 was App Store, 3.0 is still looking to be all about the accessories.
Following last week’s crazy screen rumor that iPhone 3.0 would add movie and TV show direct, on-device downloads to the current music and audio and video podcast downloads, Apple Insider reports that they have:
…learned from people familiar with Apple’s training program that new self-guided training materials being distributed to familiarize AppleCare agents with the features of iPhone 3.0 software “definitely covered” the ability to directly download movies and TV shows on the device itself, rather than just syncing video content through iTunes.
And points out that “Apple never puts out product training this far ahead of a product launch.”
So what’s going on with that? We figure it’ll be Wi-Fi only, but could there be anything else going on here?
The winning entry, courtesy of llofte, is embedded above, and be sure to check out some of our other favorites from Alli, sil3ntrid3r11, iLoveiPhones, and Bela, below the fold!
Apple is gearing up their 2009 university student-targeted promotion, and it turns out this year is a lot like last year:
A Mac has everything university students need for school. And now it includes something extra special. When university students buy a qualifying Mac, they’ll get a free iPod touch after mail-in rebate. And they save even more with Apple education pricing. This offer is for a limited time and is available only at the Apple Online Store, Apple Retail Stores, and Apple Authorized Campus Stores.
Rumor was we’d see an iPhone option this year, but no such luck. Let jokes about mail-in rebate success levels begin!
Daring Fireball has posted a bitingly satirical look at Apple’s iPhone App Store review process which, like the best of comedy, is firmly rooted in both tragedy and truth. That Apple hasn’t posted clear guidelines for developers is frustrating enough. That they apparently haven’t imposed them on their own internal staff raises the flabbergast bar to dizzying new heights.
With 35,000+ apps and a billion downloads Apple is well on their way towards building that next great platform. Until they fix the app approval process, however, that building is a house of cards.
Enough of the choir preaching. Here’s Gruber bringing the painful funny:
MONDAY MAY 18: The dude who wrote that game with the iPhone icon seems very upset. Says that the iPhone image is used to explain that the user must tilt the device in order to play the game, and so how can he show this visually without using an image of an iPhone. And he has a list of other apps already in the Store which use similar graphics. I reply with the exact same message as last week, word for word. Spend the rest of the day playing Flight Control.
Read the entire Excerpts From the Diary of an App Store Reviewer via Daring Fireball…
nanocr.eu (via MacRumors) has a theory on how the Palm Pre is managing to sync so seamlessly with iTunes. Read the full post for details, but their conclusion is a tad concerning:
When you select “Media Sync” on the Pre, it will switch its USB interface to use Apple’s Vendor Id and the Product Id for a specific iPod model
The Pre exposes a filesystem through Mass Storage Class that mimics the structure of an iPod
The Pre responds to Apple’s custom USB command and returns XML info about the device
They warn — like we have — that this will be pretty simple for Apple to intentionally prevent, uncaringly break, or accidentally bug up (they’ve done all three to jailbreakers in the past, after all, and expecting Apple to devote time and engineers to maintaining compatibility for unlicensed devices is just this side of silly).
Their advice? Anticipate Palm Pre iTunes sync to go the way of the dodo and fast. Then get a copy of DVD Jon’s DoubleTwist and sync your hearts out that way…
After some digging around in AT&T’s myWireless application, we have found yet another dose of legalese from AT&T that states they can and will change your data plan and charge you accordingly if you are currently using an iPhone with any data plan other than the iPhone data plan.
While this is nothing earth shattering, we figured we would pass it along so, if AT&T started following up on the warnings, our readers wouldn’t be caught by surprise.
Switch to the appropriate data plan or possibly end up with a larger than normal bill? We know iPhone data use is hammering AT&T’s network, but is this the best way for them to go about things?
As Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak paid rapt attention (via Engadget), Palm’s new dynamic duo, Jon Rubinstein and Roger McNamee took turns amazing, informing, and stupefying the crowd at All-Things Digital’s D7 conference. Our sibling site, PreCentral.net has complete coverage, but from an iPhone perspective there were a few things worth drawing attention to…
Looks like some of those super-crazy iPhone 2,1 rumors might not have been so crazy after all. Or, at least, aren’t alone in their craziness. After some additional black-bezel rumors yesterday, today CrunchGear gives us a companion to the glowing Apple Logo rumor:
A tipster has seen the new matte iPhone and the bugger has a light-up Apple. That’s right: it lights the freak up.
Alrighty then. We go back to asking if it will multitask as a camera flash or notification light?
