UK iPhone Launch Special Report

Whilst over at the Podcast Expo, I was happy to help out at the Prong booth demo'ing some iPods and iPhones. iProng Radio is a podcast/website/magazine run by Bill Palmer. Bill contacted me a few days ago and asked if I'd be interested in writing a short piece on the UK iPhone launch. Always happy to oblige, so I sent it off today and he's published it on his website. It will also appear in a new magazine he is launching in December. You can check it out here: UK iPhone Launch Special Report A quick shout out to the MacBites crew who I met in the line outside the Apple store, especially Elaine who is a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member as well as participating in the MacBites podcast. Elaine graciously agreed to let me use some of her photos for the article. Thanks Elaine!

Click to read more ...

UK iPhone Launch

Well, I went and did it and bought a new UK iPhone along with an 18 month O2 contract! I've never had a phone contract before prefering a PAYG as to be honest, I don't really use the phone that much. But after trying the US iPhone with a PAYG SIM it rapidly becomes apparent that the unlimited data in the O2 contract (especially as it is now truly unlimited) is worth the money so I've bitten the bullet. In addition, having a 1.0.2 iPhone meant I've been locked out of upgrading the phone and the new iPhone puts me back on the straight and narrow. I'll miss the third party apps but at least come February we'll see the official SDK for the iPhone and surely new apps won't be too far away. No major differences between the UK and US versions other than the International aspects and I'm loving the double clicking on the home button. However, I did notice that the UK screen looks better, the colours appear richer and deeper. I'll be checking out any further differences over the next few days so if I find anything significant, I'll post them here.

Click to read more ...

Some Changes......

Just spent a couple of days rejigging things here at the ScreenCastsOnline studio :-) I've always wanted to have a play with OSX Server and with the advent of the new Leopard OSX Server with all its extra goodies, I decided now was the time. So rather than shell out the $499 for a copy of OSX server, I ended up joinng the Apple Developers Connection as a Select level member. This cost me $499 but includes:

• ADC Software Seeding Program
• Mac OS X and Xcode Tools
• 1 ADC Hardware Discount
• 2 Technical Support Incidents
• ADC Monthly Mailing
• ADC Compatibility Labs Access
• ADC Business and Marketing Programs

Included in all that is a full copy of OSX Server for development and testing. Just be aware that it looks like the licence key for the server does need renewing in December so I assume I'll have to renew next year but that's OK. Also included in the Select membership is a hardware discount (not sure how much) but it may come in handy if I make a major purchase next year, like when the next rev of the Octo Mac Pros come out :-) Plus, A rather cool T-shirt has just arrived in the post with a copy of Leopard (Doh! I already bought a family pack) plus a developers DVD of extra stuff. So the changes I've made are to move from my G5 as my main machine to the MacBook Pro. The G5 is now installed with OSX Server and will act as the new central machine serving the other macs on the network. It already had the eSata card and a Sonnet RAID array attached so this is a good role for the machine. My MacBook Pro is now my workhorse and I've attached the big Dell Monitor to it. I eventually decided to do a complete erase and install on the MBP and have been manually re-installing applications as I need them. Damm, I didn't realise I used so many apps! OSX Server looks to be a serious beast and I'm looking forward to having a look at some of the more advanced features of using OSX in a business or Enterprise environment. Would anyone like any Leopard OSX server screencasts?

Click to read more ...

Kudos to The Omni Group

Nice page on the Omni Groups website consolidating the current "Leopard" status of all their applications. Makes it nice and easy to upgrade where necessary! And while you're on the OmniGroup website, you might want to check out some information they're sharing with the developer community - a update on Leopard adoption based on stats they are retrieving - thanks for sharing OmniGroup! (spotted by Fraser Spiers via Twitter) Any bets on how many weeks before the Leopard and Tiger lines cross over - I'll say 8 weeks!

Click to read more ...

FON Update

You may remember I did a post a couple of weeks ago about the FON wi-fi sharing scheme. The FON router has arrived but I've not had much chance to play with it yet. It looks like it has piqued Apples interest too (I wonder if he reads this blog ;-)) and MacWorld are reporting that Steve Jobs has had a meeting with the FON top man. I wonder if we'll see FON functionality built into the Airport Extreme anytime soon!

Technorati Tags: Apple, FON, Steve Jobs

Click to read more ...