In recent weeks, the Senate Commerce Committee has been holding hearings about handset exclusivity. That’s when a phone maker (like Apple) offers a particular model (like the iPhone) to a carrier (like AT&T) exclusively for a period of time (like five years).

Come to think about it, that example — the iPhone — is pretty much the only one anybody cares about. These aren’t handset-exclusivity hearings; they’re “Why can’t we have the iPhone on Verizon?” hearings.

As always, I’m just so glad that we’ve obviously solved all the SERIOUS problems facing our nation.  Why else would the senate be wasting time with this nonsense?  And maybe nonsense is a bit too strong a word, but you’ve got to admit that cellphone exclusivity has to be, or at the very least should be, so far down the list of important issues currently facing our nation that only the most technology-centric blogs would devote ANY time it, no?

[via TL]

My original iPhone has now become an “enhanced” iPod Touch for my son, but it’s not only still kicking it’s still going strong.  Love my iPhones!

Crap!  While I was assuming that I wouldn’t be able to activate my new iPhone until Friday even if it was delivered on Thursday, I was hoping to be able to wake up early Friday to get it activated and be able to bring it to work with me… oh well!

Saul Hansell, writing in the New York Times Bits Blog, gets it:

What’s most interesting is how iPhone users are willing to spend money in ways that Web users are not.

I’ve criticized Apple from time to time for not having a coherent approach to delivering free content with advertising. But in some ways, the development of a market for paid content is a bigger and less expected achievement.

Why has this happened? Apple has created an environment that makes buying digital goods easy and common. With an infrastructure that supports one-click purchases of songs and videos, it was easy to add applications in the same paradigm. Paying for software, especially games, is not new to Apple customers. So when you see the iPhone manual or the Frommer’s Paris guidebook, it feels natural to click. (And of course, your credit card is already on file with Apple.)

It all goes back to Steve Jobs’ original theory regarding music and music downloads: people will gladly pay to download content legally, if the price is reasonable and it’s easy to do.

First and foremost, please understand that you should trust neither the Apple/iTunes brand nor the retailer selling the gift card.  Save your receipt! For, while the iTunes Gift Card system could have been created with safeguards to protect the consumer, it has not been. The problem lies in the fact that when you purchase an iTunes Gift Card it is worthless until the retailer transmits information to the iTunes Store indicating that the card has been properly purchased. This, apparently, is the point at which the retailer becomes liable to Apple for the cost of the gift card.

Understandably, Apple needs to verify that the card in question has been properly purchased and that they will be paid by the retailer. And don’t get me wrong, this is the case for any company issuing gift cards. I mean, if a shipment of gift cards was lost or stolen, the company issuing the cards doesn’t want someone to be able to make purchases with stolen cards: that’s easy to understand. The difference, however, is that most companies sell their gift cards only in their own stores, so the consumer can take comfort in the knowledge that the company’s own computer system has verified that the card is valid and that the card has been properly activated at the time of sale. When you purchase a Best Buy gift card, for instance, you can leave the store with a very high level of comfort that the person to whom you give the gift will have no trouble using it to pay for a purchase at Best Buy.

The problem with iTunes Gift Cards–at least with those purchased from third party retailers–is that the consumer cannot leave the third party retailer’s store with the same high level of comfort, for the consumer–who has already paid the third party retailer–is still at the mercy of the third party retailer to accurately report the sale to Apple. This problem is one that is readily apparent upon reflection, but probably isn’t readily apparent to most consumers at the time of purchase.

The solution, of course, is to save your receipt. But this very requirement removes most of the convenience factors in giving a gift card in the first place! If I have to save the receipt, then it’s not as good as cash, is it? But that’s exactly why people buy gift cards. Apple’s own web site refers to iTunes Gift Cards thustly:

Gift Cards.
Take the guess work out of gift-giving.
Give music, movies, and more with iTunes Gift Cards.

iTunes Gift Cards
Prepaid iTunes Gift Cards are available from the Apple Online Store, Apple Retail Stores, and thousands of other U.S. retailers in denominations of $15, $25, and $50. They’re good toward any purchase on the iTunes Store.

Now, I know that Apple isn’t in the business of advertising problems with their products or resellers, but the iTunes Gift Card didn’t exactly remove “the guess work” for me. In fact, if I have to save the receipt, isn’t that the same as explicitly telling me that there is, in fact, substantial “guess work” involved! And, in fact, the last two $25 iTunes Gift Cards that I purchased at one of the “thousands of other U.S. retailers” weren’t “good toward any purchase on the iTunes Store.”

Consequently, the last two iTunes Gift Cards that I purchased are the last iTunes Gift Cards that I will purchase, from any store.

My wife purchased two $25 iTunes Gift Cards for our kids, a couple days before Christmas. She was at the grocery store and it was an impulse buy–a last minute addition to the “stocking stuffers”. The next day, I plugged the receipt into Quicken, as is my practice, and shredded the receipt–I didn’t know she had purchased the iTunes Gift Cards, and truthfully, probably wouldn’t have saved the receipt if I had. Who saves a receipt from a grocery store? And yes, we save receipts when we buy the kids gifts, until the gift has been opened and we know it won’t need to be exchanged or returned, but a gift card is as good as cash, right? Certainly Apple wouldn’t put their name on a product or system that didn’t work well, MobileMe notwithstanding. Nor did the third party retailer mention, as they often do, that we should save the receipt in case of a problem with the gift cards.

Well, you may be thinking that Xmas was some time ago, and you’re right. The fact of the matter is that my son’s birthday is the week after Xmas and he received as a gift from a friend, another iTunes Gift Card that activated without problem via the iTunes Store. He happened to use that gift card first when making music purchases over the last weeks.

So, this past week we get around to redeeming the gift card that my wife had purchased and iTunes tells me this:

The Gift Certificate or Prepaid Card code you entered has not been activated. Please return to the original point of purchase for assistance.

Now, that’s odd, so I thought I’d better go ahead and check my daughters gift card: same message.

No problem, or so I thought, this must happen all the time. I had my wife return to the grocery store with the two iTunes Gift Cards and explain the situation to the Customer Service clerk. The clerk asked for her receipt and so she explained that it had been shredded several weeks earlier after I had entered it into Quicken, whereupon she was told that without a receipt the store had no way of knowing that the card had been purchased there. Which is when I realized that the third party retailer doesn’t pay Apple until the retailer sells the card, at which point the card should have been “activated” (by the retailer sending information to iTunes).

So, I contacted Apple and was told, understandably, that they have no way of identifying the card as having been sold to me by the third party retailer and suggesting that I have the retailer reprint a receipt. Well, it’s a grocery store: they tell me that they can’t reprint receipts. So, we’re screwed. And no, it’s not possible to go buy two other iTunes Gift Cards from the grocery store and then “return” these two as not being activated.

We’re screwed out of $50 and, for that matter, so is Apple.

Now, in all fairness, I don’t know that this same situation would be true if the iTunes Gift Cards had been purchased in an Apple Store or online in the iTunes store. I just don’t know. We’ve only purchased about four iTunes Gift Cards ever, having given them a couple times as gifts to friends of our kids for birthdays.

But this I do know: I won’t be buying any more iTunes Gift Cards. There is just too much “guess work” involved. And the one thing of which I’m convinced, is that this situation occurs far more often than either Apple or the third party retailer are willing to admit.

“Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone… What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong. If it’s smart it will call the iPhone a ‘reference design’ and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else’s marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures… Otherwise I’d advise people to cover their eyes. You are not going to like what you’ll see.” – John C. Dvorak, Bloated Gas Bag, March 28, 2007

“I’m more convinced than ever that, after an initial frenzy of publicity and sales to early adopters, iPhone sales will be unspectacular… iPhone may well become Apple’s next Newton.” – David Haskin, Computerworld, February 26, 2007

“I can’t believe the hype being given to iPhone… I just have to wonder who will want one of these things (other than the religious faithful)… So please mark this post and come back in two years to see the results of my prediction: I predict they will not sell anywhere near the 10M Jobs predicts for 2008.” – Richard Sprague, Microsoft Senior Marketing Director, January 18, 2007

“The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks. In terms of its impact on the industry, the iPhone is less relevant… Apple is unlikely to make much of an impact on this market… Apple will sell a few to its fans, but the iPhone won’t make a long-term mark on the industry.” – Matthew Lynn, Bloomberg, January 15, 2007

…people love showing off their iPhones.

Yeah, what is up with that?! My god, people! Get a phone you’re embarrassed of! Tuck it away in the closet! Bury it in a mason jar under your porch!

NEVER SPEAK OF IT AGAIN.

Well said.

Now the iPhone, the tech symbol of the “in” crowd, is on the verge of crossing the line into AIG-like excess and arrogance.

Hey, everyone! We’re getting a bailout and a taxpayer-funded trip to a spa! Whoo-hoo!

Ok, these are the two big things I hear from haters — the “in” crowd comment and the “show off” comment. Always makes me feel like I’m talking to one of my children, although at 11 years old, they don’t really use the “show off” phrase any more. They are really just two sides of the same coin. Let’s be clear, what people are complaining about when they make these wild accusations, is that they don’t love their device as much as iPhone users love their device, but they wish they did. It’s that simple.

For my part — and I can only speak from my own personal experience — I have noticed two things, with respect to the haters: (1) they tend to be almost exclusively Blackberry users; and (2) they all own iPods. Take that observation for what it’s worth.

Chief Administrative Office (CAO), which oversees the communications systems for the House, has begun testing a small number of iPhones within its ranks to see if they are compatible with the working needs of lawmakers and staff.

Oh, and big brother iPhone outsold the RIM/Blackberry last quarter. Apple, who has surpassed it’s goal of selling 10 million iPhones in 2008, is now the third largest — by revenue — mobile phone supplier, after Nokia and Samsung.

Well, the bad news is that I’ve finished re-listening to every second of every show.  The good news is that if you don’t have every show to listen to, the fine folks at PennFans.net created a new iTunes Podcast feed of the shows they have and they have damn near all of them.

As Penn said to close his last show, “It frightens me, the awful truth of how sweet life can be”, quoting, of course, Bob Dylan’s “Up to Me”.

Me?  No problems to speak of.  But then, I’m not one to overreact, too much.  I mean, yeah, there was a period of about two hours when I couldn’t reach the iTunes servers, but hey, with half the planet either trying to upgrade or activate at the same time, what do you expect?  I had problems downloading Firefox 3 a few weeks ago, too…

Still, it seems like something that Apple should’ve been able to better anticipate.  God, I guess Apple really does suck.  And, a company that sucks can’t possible make a superior product.  Well, I’m willing to admit that there may just be a flaw in that “logic.”

Check out the new ad!

How’s that for “breaking news?”

I predict:

* That I’ll be totally ecstatic and awed during the Keynote Address,

Yep. Nailed that one. I was riveted–in fact, I was giggly happy–during the whole Keynote. So, I’ll count that as one correct prediction.

* That I’ll be following along with no fewer than four (4) browser tabs tuned to my favorite of the various liveblogging sites,

Yes and no. I did follow along to four (4) of my favorite liveblogging sites: MacRumorsLive, MacObserver Live Coverage, Engadget and Gizmodo. However, the MacObserver feed stopped automatically refreshing for me only a few minutes in, and nothing I tried could get updates from their site. So, I gave up on them and went with only the other three (3). I’ll count this one as half-right and half-wrong.

So far, I’m at 1.5 out of 2, so that’s not terrible… The results of the other two predictions won’t be in until at least tomorrow morning…

So, it’s time for my never-annual predictions. So, without further ado, let my grab my crystal ball… and, I predict:

• That I’ll be totally ecstatic and awed during the Keynote Address,
• That I’ll be following along with no fewer than four (4) browser tabs tuned to my favorite of the various liveblogging sites,
• That I’ll watch the Keynote Address tonight at home and be even more ecstatic and awed than I was following along with the livebloggers,
• That when the Keynote Address is available for download as a podcast, I’ll watch it yet again.

Well, those are my predictions concerning the WWDC08 Keynote Address. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens to know how accurate my predictions are this time around.

As Wilson writes, it boggles the mind that Sprint is hanging a $100 million dollar advertising campaign on two features — GPS and EVDO networking — that the iPhone is widely-rumored to be picking up in its next-generation hardware. Worse, side-by-side, even in commercials commissioned by Sprint, the Instinct looks like crap next to an iPhone — the screen is way smaller and way less bright.

What’s clear is that Sprint is run by MBA-trained executives who see everything as a general “business” problem. In their minds, the same things apply to selling phones as toothpaste. How about this idea: Take $100 million and use it to design a better phone?

Apt, as always.

Apple said Thursday consumer surveys conducted by market research firm The NPD Group show iTunes’ music sales surpassed those of the discount retailing giant in January and February.

ITunes has sold more than 4 billion tracks since its launch in 2003, thanks in part to the popularity of its line of iPod portable music players.

The survey excludes wireless transactions.

[via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)]

Sprint Nextel Corp. on Tuesday said it is betting heavily on a touch-screen phone that appears to be the closest thing the U.S. market has seen to Apple Inc.’s vaunted iPhone.

The Samsung Instinct will be available in June for a yet undetermined price, Sprint announced at CTIA Wireless, a cell-phone industry trade show in Las Vegas. Executives hinted that the price would be substantially lower than the $399 for the cheapest iPhone.

The Instinct will have a few features the iPhone lacks. For one, it will be the first consumer phone in the U.S. to use EV-DO Rev. A, the fastest cellular broadband technology available on the Sprint and Verizon Wireless networks.

The Instinct won’t be able to take input from more than one finger at a time: The iPhone’s characteristic “pinch to zoom out, spread to zoom in” feature won’t work. Sprint compensates for this by using the phone’s motion sensor. In a demonstration of a prototype, tilting the phone while holding a button made a Web page scroll.

Good for Sprint! They deserve to have a phone that in TV commercials will look like it’s nearly as good as the iPhone, just like Verizon has with their LG Voyager! Of course, to put this in mathematical terms, it sound to me like the Instinct will be to the 3G iPhone (also rumored to be out around June) as the Zune (or maybe the Zen) is to the iPod…

[via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)]

What’s the catch?  Prices remain the same on existing models and the new models are $100 bucks more…

I don’t know about you, but I’m really not having the capacity issues I thought I would with my 8GB iPhone.  Back on June 29th of last year, I was convinced that my shiny new 8GB iPhone would simply never support my capacity needs.  But, half a year later, I haven’t had any real capacity problems…  Of course, I have to sync more often than I did with my big HDD-based iPod, but that’s to be expected…

I love the Macalope’s take on this:

It’s amazing how future Microsoft products beat current Apple products time and time again, isn’t it? You’d think Apple would have just given up by now.

Point well taken.

[via The Macalope]

So much for PC World’s assertion that the iPhone is one of the 15 Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2007!

[via Apple Hot News]

NBC is moving forward with its NBC Direct service, which is fine, unless you are a Mac user–the service is Winder-only. Oh, but a Mac version is “planned” for 2008…

(via AppleInsider)

Buying another piece of software from Ambrosia was a no-brainer: I already own SnapzProX and WireTapPro and both are top-notch. So, there was no fear about the quality of iToner. And, sure enough, it’s great–works exactly as advertised.

I just pull my audio (or video) file into Garageband, trim to the selection I want, add some fades via the “master track” (if necessary), export the track to iTunes and add it to my RingTones playlist and sync iToner. Simple.