A number of third-party iPhone application developers are unhappy with continuing restrictions imposed under the Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA) they signed when they joined Apple’s Software Developers Program.

Perhaps some innocently assumed once the AppStore launched their iPhone applications into the wild the terms of the NDA would magically disappear. Others may have simply failed to read the document they were signing.

In any event, a few have put together a website to express their frustration. Be aware the link may be NSFW, depending on your place of employ. The argument seems to be that inability to talk freely with one another about their challenges and successes hampers the advancement of the platform, though, we’re guessing Apple’s legal department thought of that one before drawing up the document.

Via TUAW

Via BoingBoing

Perhaps AT&T employees in New York were so overwhelmed by the amount of business they did this week, they went time out of mind, or began speaking in tongues.

Check back last week for more iPhones.

Given that Loopt, the location-based social networking service, was among the blessed few companies allowed to show its iPhone apps at the introduction of the iPhone 3G, a whole lot of iPhone users downloaded the program after the launch last week. And many got upset with its default privacy settings.

But that doesn’t really matter — YouTube user Incruentum has put together a dance mix to “Caramelldansen” that allows us to revel in the spectacle of CEO Sam Altman’s shirt, instead.

Thanks, Antony!

This might just go down as the nerdiest thing in the history of the iPhone. But it’s also totally sweet. The iPhone-packing groom is Jerad Hill.


Via Digg.

“This is journalism to you?” Exactly. Anyone know who that brave man in the iPhone line was? I would like to give him a prize.

Via Daring Fireball.

A little late to the party, I know, but this is the best of all of the MacBook Air parody clips out there. And it’s one enormous envelope. Thank you, Dell.

I had the great fortune to attend an early screening of WALL*E, Pixar’s latest feature film, on Tuesday night. And, like just about every Pixar movie ever, it’s absolutely phenomenal. As much as I love Apple, I have to admit that the output of Steve’s other company is a lot more consistently excellent. Even more wonderfully, WALL*E is filled with references to Apple. It’s a fun bonus in an already great film.

Lots of people have remarked that Apple Design Chief Jonathan Ive was involved in designing EVE, the sleek, white, glossy robot that WALL*E falls in love with. As much as she resembles an older iPod, however, the cleverest thing about EVE is that she appears to have no seams in her surface, though they appear when she lifts her arms. There’s even one scene (pictured) where WALL*E tries to find her hand while it’s in locked position, and he struggles to find the gaps — an obvious reference to the notoriously difficult-to-open iPod or iPhone.

But the Apple references run deeper. Every morning, WALL*E opens up a solar array in order to charge himself up for the workday to come. Hilariously, as soon as he reaches 100 percent power, the classic Mac booting chime goes off. And it’s definitely the older sound — it’s quite tinny. I’d bet they taped it off of a Quadra rather than a current Mac.

One last Apple reference: WALL*E’s favorite way to unwind is to watch an old VHS tape of the Barbra Streisand movie Hello Dolly (it’s OK; it is actually totally weird, if in a sweet way). But that tape then plays through a circa 2006 video iPod, which WALL*E then magnifies with an enormous lens into a projection screen.

WALL*E: Come for the love, stay for the Apple in-jokes. What could be better than that?

Pictures via About.com

Kevin McLaughlin writes for Channel Web, an IT Channel News source, Microsoft’s biggest hiring spree in eleven years has been looking to fill spots in its Mac Business Unit.

In a recent post to the Office for Mac Team blog, Craig Eisler, general manager of the Mac Business Unit, announced the hiring campaign and highlighted the unique place the group occupies within the Microsoft galaxy. “We are the brightest, coolest, and most interesting business unit at Microsoft— if we do say so ourselves,” Eisler said in the blog post.

Office 2008 for Mac has been selling “really well” since its launch in January, according to Sonny Tohan, CEO of Mac Business Solutions, an Apple specialist based in Gaithersburg, Md.

“Microsoft finally started taking advantage of some of the core technologies and user interface features in OS X,” Tohan said, and Apple partners worldwide see the changing landscape in Redmond as evidence of the robust health and continued emergence of their preferred platform.

The addition of support for Exchange in the iPhone and the coming proliferation of 3rd party iPhone apps should keep Microsoft’s Mac Business unit busy for the foreseeable future. “Microsoft needs to compete in a space of growth since the PC market is in a state of decline, and I’m sure they’re looking at writing applications for the iPhone,” according to George Swords, marketing manager at PowerMacPac, an Apple solution provider in Portland, Ore.

BusinessWeek has an interesting but slightly over-the-top story about the misery the iPhone 3G will inflict on the rest of the wireless industry. It’s quite maudlin in its focus on the needs of the establishment wireless service providers. It even seems to mourn threats to the dominance of the existing wireless carriers. Perhaps the only news to glean in between the forecasts of doom is that Palm, once the dominant player in Smart Phones is now too niche to merit a mention in a round-up story like this. Apparently, the hole Palm needs to climb out of is so deep that the iPhone 3G’s coming ubiquity doesn’t even make things worse.

Update: Reader imajoebob has got a really funny response in the comments. Worth a read.

Trying to write this post on a Blackberry has taught me something, this thing’s web browser stinks. Now that the 3G iPhones will be on-sale in July, I’m gonna hafta break-down and get one. That said, only one-question remains: How to hide the purchase from my wife?

After the break, we’ll talk through my strategy, in the hopes that a fellow husband in a similar pickle might benefit from my experience, or maybe even able to help me devise a better strategy.

Read the rest of this entry »

With a new iPhone all but guaranteed to be announced Monday, there’s never been a better time to perform a quick post-mortem on the existing multi-touch devices from Apple. Though the iPhone has been talked nearly to death, one topic that has gone relatively unexplored over the 18 months since the unveiling of the iPhone is the strategy behind its design. People have talked plenty about its design, of course, from the loved-or-hated chrome bezel to the iconic but somewhat-too slippery back edge to the software and the revolutionary touchscreen interface. That’s all fine, but those are all aesthetic and functional choices. At a more fundamental level, the iPhone constituted a strategic move by Apple into the mobile phone market. And it’s here where the look, feel, and positioning of the iPhone are most fascinating. The iPhone was explicitly designed to rapidly drive the adoption of technologies that most people had never even contemplated before, and it’s been an overwhelming success. To learn why and to hear what this might mean for the second iPhone, click through!
Read the rest of this entry »

The greatest tradition of the run-up to a Steve Jobs keynote is the release of John Siracusa’s keynote bingo card. This year’s iteration is a twist on a classic Wired cover, which also got remixed for Leander’s recent cover story. Please read John’s post to get his thinking behind the card and also download the PDF to print out and follow along at home with.

Filed under: probably wishful thinking

It’s WWDC time, only this year something is different. Where’s the wild speculation? If patent applications are any evidence, there are many cool things brewing in Apple’s lab –but all is quiet. Where’s the hype that precedes any Stevenote? Oh sure people are talking, but only about one thing: iPhone v.2.0.

Personally, I think this whole 3G iPhone business is a red herring. Sure, it’ll be announced, and people will love it. But the leaks abound so much. I find myself hoping that it’s part of a disinformation campaign; to keep us distracted so we don’t guess to closely at what new cool products Apple might unveil, and that there will be a terrific surprise for all of us at WWDC.

It’s been nearly a year and a half since the “Jesus-Phone” was announced at last year’s Macworld and since then it’s been: all iPhone, all the time, everywhere. I don’t want to seem to hate on the device; the defense will even go so far as to stipulate, your honor, that the iPhone might be best thing that’s ever been invented. But c’mon! Eighteen months after Prometheus descended from the heavens, I’m pretty sure folks were like: “Uh… yeah… fire… great…”

There is definitely more to talk about. There have been some great things come out of Cupertino this year, heck, there is a MacBook Pro that you can literally give the finger to, and it will respond accordingly. Yet it’s relegated to a footnote in technological history.

Now virtually everyone, including those villagers recently discovered in the Amazon, who have had no previous contact with the modern world, knows that the new iPhone 3G is coming out at WWDC this year. Yet, Steve rarely (if ever) uses the “Just one more thing…” part of the Stevenote to unveil a simple product update especially one so obvious (I know that a 3G iPhone, with GPS, and built in margarita machine is probably considered by some to be more than an update).

So what do you think? Other than a iPhone update, what else do you think Steve will unveil in his Stevenote? I know what I’m hoping for, but like the time I got up the nerve to ask out Sarah Andrews in 10th grade, I’m also steeled for disappointment.

Rahul Sood, the CTO of HP Gaming and founder of Voodoo PC recently celebrated his birthday, and a friend gave the over-clocking king a MacBook Air as a gag gift. Not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth, Sood used the Air as a knife, cutting his birthday cake quite nicely.

<Mock-Serious Voice>No word from Apple yet on why it kept the Air’s cutting features under wraps for so long, but it’s a classic “under-promise, over-deliver” move in the Steve Jobs mold, so I guess we shouldn’t be surprised to find such major functionality down the road.</Serious>

Rahul Sood via Gizmodo

Apple’s alliance with American Idol has caused me some discomfort this year, so I always do my best to mock the entire enterprise. As eagle-eyed reader Scott noticed, the recent iTunes and Idol charity event Idol Gives Back tends to, ahem, “borrow” the design language of a York Peppermint Patty. I’m sure this was Fox’s designers rather than Apple, but still…

My ambivalence toward the MacBook Air is pretty well-known. While I think its basic idea is compelling, Apple’s execution just leaves too much to be desired with just one USB port, terrible iPod hard drive, and no mobile broadband radio. This parody from Lenovo that’s been circulating to its suppliers in China sort of sums up the flaw in Steve’s vision for a truly wireless laptop. I mean, how can you release a machine with one USB port when the iPod and iPhone both need to be synced over USB and not WiFi?

Bonus points for the warbly parody of the MacBook Air song.

YouTube - test Via Fake Steve

Tags: macbookair, lenovo, thinkpad, humor, parody

That’s a MacBook Pro, apparently running Steve Ballmer’s keynote presentation at a media conference in Louvain, Belgium last week. Flickr user Paint.It.Black got the shot, and Choubistar got a picture with both Ballmer and the MacBook Pro together. Allegedly, MacBook Pros were used to drive all presentations for the conference, and there are multiple shots of it. No Photoshop. Glorious.

What laptop does Steve Ballmer use for his presentations? Right… on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Via Gizmodo

UPDATE: Microsoft says this was their attempt to make the worst internal video ever. MMM…yeah. Interesting spin…

I’ve been wrapping up an all-intensive project at work lately, but I have to break my silence for this: “Rocking Our Sales” by Bruce ServicePack and the Vista Street Band. I don’t really know where to begin. I guess I will just say this. I have no idea if Apple makes lame Bruce Springsteen parody music videos to inspire its channel sales teams, but if it does, I have to assume that it uses better lyrics than “Talk up our Microsoft Application Virtualization…See what’s on employee’s laptops with AIS and MDOP!”

EPIC FAIL, MS! And if anyone is actually inspired to sell more Vista based on this, really think about switching your job. I mean, damn.

Via Daring Fireball

Leigh looks over at fellow consultant Pete M., “if this is true, buddy, we’re going to be RICH! RICH beyond our wildest dreams…”

Fake Steve, in a recent story, referred to an article by Dev Corvin, which was breaking news about the forthcoming Windows 7 (which has moved its ship date up to 2009 as a result of the spectacular results Vista has demonstrated in the market…). Found amid the usual Windows blah-blah-blah, which I suffer through so you don’t have to, was this tasty quote:

Dev Corvin, thebetaguy.com :

Windows 7 takes a different approach to the componentization and backwards compatibility issues; in short, it doesn’t think about them at all. Windows 7 will be a from-the-ground-up packaging of the Windows codebase; partially source, but not binary compatible with previous versions of Windows.

Now I didn’t just take FSJ and this Dev guy’s word for it, I employed minimalist “journalistic” research and went ahead and Googled “Windows 7″ “Not Backwards Compatible”, which yeilded some 1.8 million hits.

This has me literally giddy with anticipation, see I am a consultant, which my mom thinks is code for being unemployed, and about 55% of my firm’s business world-wide is Microsoft-related. I have half a mind to switch practices from Strategy and Transformation to MS (though those practitioners do look hostilely at my Blackberry let alone my Macbook Pro).

In short, fixing all that broken .NET code out there in corporate America will be tantamount to the Y2K effort 10 years ago; a license to print money for consultants. From the bottom of my heart, Thank you Bill.

Now why should anybody who reads Cult of Mac care about this, other than some kind of surrogate pleasure to be gained from my anticipated financial success?

Because, friends, Microsoft’s lock on corporate IT has every everything to do with backwards compatibility. Should Redmond choose to proceed with this folly, our ranks (of Mac loyalists) are destined to swell such that I might have to consider something other than my MB Pro to make me cool and hip in the eyes of our college hires (as-if… might I suggest a really expensive (and thus exclusive) accessory, like a tablet. –ed)

As if we needed another piece of evidence that the MacBook Air is the ultimate lust object of the style-conscious intelligentsia, consider this: Charlie Rose, the PBS talk show host known for his deep, probing and often ponderous conversations with celebrities and authors, appeared on his show the other night with a bandage on his eye that he earned diving to the pavement headfirst to protect his Air. Sooner his face - a TV host’s most important asset - than his computer.

I stand corrected. Without any question, Apple has completely reframed the value of a computer. It’s worth more than a career on PBS.

Via GadgetLab