Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few days, you’ve probably heard that Apple has released iTunes 7.7 bringing with it the much anticipated App Store as well as the 2.0 software update for the iPhone and iPod touch. This also happs to be the day that the iPhone 3G is released. Pretty big day for Apple.

I’m in the process of updating my phone right now. It’s take about 20 minutes so far, and looks like it has another 20 or so to go. It did warn that it’d take a while. Word of warning, some people are experiencing issue with the update turning their precious iPhone into an iBrick because they couldn’t connect to the App Store (down due to traffic). I was able to browse the App Store, so I figured things should be safe now… we’ll see.

Aside from all the new games and applications, my favorite thing with this update is the ability to sync Google Contacts from GMail to iTunes. This is one of the things I’ve hated not being able to do since pretty much all of my email travels through GMail.

Here’s a roundup of iPhone related news for the past few days…

- How the iPhone App Store Will Kill iPhone Web Apps
- Battle of the iPhone Apps: MySpace vs Facebook
- iPhone App Store Is Live. So, What’s On The Menu?
- The Native iPhone 3G Apps We’ll See This Week (and Some We Won’t)
- Before the App Store “Opens”, it has already made Apple $55,000
- WordPress and TypePad Spawn Mobile Blogging
- That Didn’t Take Long…iPhone 2.0 OS Unlocked
- iPhone App Store: The Early List of Top Downloads
- iPhone Application Overview And Demo Videos

Enjoy the links!

It’s official, HD-DVD is dead, which sadly means that Sony’s Blu-Ray format has won the war. I wasn’t a fan of Blu-Ray for the simple fact that I don’t like Sony. None-the-less, this is good news for the consumers as now there is only one high definition disk format.

Of course many still believe that HD downloads will triumph over physical media. You know, they might be right. Look at the success iTunes, Napster, and other services have had with downloadable music. Only recently have I jumped on the iTunes bandwagon. I’ve always been a fan of having the physical CD and book, but why? iTunes now offers the same book in a PDF format.

Digital storage space is so cheap these days, and once you’ve purchased several hundred DVDs, CDs, and other disks you’ll probably end up in a predicament like me. Where to put everything. With digital space, I can just add more. That’s a bit harder to do for physical media, unless I want to add on to my house.

So yes, I’d have to side with digital downloads. It looks like the way things are headed.

Last month NBC pulled their library of shows from iTunes, and had some not-so-nice things to say about Apple. Why? Basically NBC got greedy, and wanted to jack the price up for NBC content that was offered over iTunes. Now, it looks like NBC is singing a different song.

Earlier today Steve Jobs game his keynote address at MacWorld. There was some cool things announced, including a new MacBook called MacBook Air. While the new MacBook Air is pretty cool, there was another product that I was more interested in. The Time Capsule. This sucker is about the size of the Apple TV and is a wireless NAS system. You use it with Leopard’s Time Machine feature to create point in time backups of all your files. It’s wireless (802.11n) and comes in 500 GB and 1 TB sizes. What really amazed me though was Apple has it listed for only $299 and $499, which is reasonable compared to similar wired devices.

Remember the bit about the Time Capsule having 802.11n built in? It is it’s own access point. You can connect it up to your broadband modem and use it to share your network, or use it to extend an Apple Air-Port based network. So, you’ve got a wireless router and a NAS system all in one. Pretty dang nice.

Of course there was more that came out of MacWorld. Continue reading »

Apple came out today and slammed the market with a number of big news items. I’m sure the arch-enemies in Redmond, WA are pretty pissed right now. Here is Apple’s hot news… Continue reading »

I don’t have an “Apple Computers” category, and don’t feel like making one, so I’m throwing this under “Hardware”. It’s close enough.

The big news is that Apple has come out with a new iPod, this one dubbed the iPod Nano. It is available in 2GB or 4GB versions, and apparently has a memory stick in it rather than a hard drive.

Next up in the Apple world is the announcement of an iTunes Mobile Phone. The phone is exclusively available from Cingular right now and has a price tag of about $250.

Apple has also released iTunes 5.0 for those of you who use it. Personally, I think there are better services out there if you want digital music, but hey, if you’re part of the group that loves the iPod, don’t guess you have much of a choice, do ya?

And do not let my wife know about it, but Apple has also released a Harry Potter version of the iPod. If that wasn’t bad enough, you can download the Harry Potter audio books from iTunes. Woohoo.

Ok, ok…. I’m kidding. The Harry Potter stuff isn’t that bad.