iPhone Mania Continues

Even though I didn't post last night, it really doesn't matter. Every other article out there is for the iPhone anyhow! I don't have much time to post right now, so I'm going to run through them real quick here. Engadget has not only an extremely informative video walkthrough of the iPhone, but also a full-length review. The verdict? Surprisingly optimistic. They don't hold any punches, but it's definitely better than I would've expected from the boys at Engadget. Despite its many flaws, I believe it has more strong points than 99% of the smartphone market. I guess that's not saying much, but it goes against the people hating on the iPhone because it's the iPhone. Oh, and Apple was smart about supplying it: it didn't really sell out on Friday. It sold well, but stores were well-stocked. Of course, the servers were slammed with activation requests, but that was to be expected. Oh, and it looks like a 2 year contract isn't required. For those complaining about its little bugs (apparently, it crashes when listening to music and doing other stuff) will be happy to hear rumors that a host of updates, including iChat, are to be released before the advent of Leopard. I've heard that adding 3G is just a software update, too, so I don't know if 3G is a software thing in and of itself or if the iPhone just has the hardware lying dormant. We do know that it's running on an old-school ARM processor though. Probably a good call given how impressive reports have been on its battery life (including in that Engadget review), and that 8-stage pipeline sounds sexy.

Rumors broke today that UMG is not going to be renewing its digital music contract with iTunes, which would just mean that they'd probably pen a shorter-term contract. Still, that gives them more power to pressure Apple into variable pricing and such with the threat of not-renewing for good, and should prove quite interesting. I wonder if that caused the 0.78 point drop in Apple's stock today.

Lastly, the DVD CCA has decided to allow commercial digital movie distribution sites, like iTunes and CinemaNow, provide download-to-DVD functionality given that the user has a compatible burner and disc with CSS. So it's not perfect, but it's a huge step in the right direction.



I may have stopped watching The Simpsons years ago, when it started sucking, but how cool is that? A real life Squishee machine! There are Kwik-E-Marts in a few select cities as part of a big marketing stunt, and I think it's a great idea. I'm going to try to get a shot of the Seattle one for you guys on Sunday when I go to church.

Oh, and in the box office, Ratatouille took top honors at a respectable $47.2 million. It sounds like it was well-deserved, and I'm sure that it's considered a "disappointment", but I think it'll still garner a lot of money in the weeks to come. Even though Live Free or Die Hard took second at under $34 million, I'm sure it still will make a lot of money in the weeks to come (I'd guess $80 million in the next month). This weekend sees the release of Transformers though, so you can bet your money that I'm going to try clawing my way into that.

No time for meme, gotta get to bed early tonight. I'm hanging out with my parents tomorrow night (they're flying in), but I'll try to post if possible. If not, have a great 4th of July everyone!