If your new to the Mac and have come to love Outooks three-column view or you just know you’ll love having that as a long-time Mac user, well, you don’t have to wait for Entourage 2008 to get it. You can have it for your Mail.app now.
Letterbox is a Mail.app add-on that grew from a thread on Ars Technica. Aaron Harnly took upon himself to resolve the conversation and please for three-columns and made the add-on for all to gleefully download and use.
Mr. Jobs,
I am an enthusiastic switcher that has brought many friends, colleges, and clients to Macintosh platform. I love Apple products and the experience associated with it. While I understand one company can not be all things to all its customers, I would think healthy competition would be something Apple to welcome. However, based on recent reports of the App Store refusing applications such as Podcaster and now the Opera Mini browser, I would seem to think Apple is actually scared of it. This surprises me coming from a company that defied all odds in the late 90s to which Michael Dell suggested that Apple close down and pay off its stock holders. Yet here we are a decade later with Apple worth more than the company named after Michael to hear it saying, ‘No!’ to apps that are “similar to other iPhone applications’.
I guess your true intent for the iPhone is drive its overwhelming success into the ground much like you did with the original Macintosh in 1986. Make it a close system and you become the gatekeeper. Prevent competition and hold the keys tightly. Steve, what if AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and all the other carriers had told you years ago when you brought the iPhone to them, “No, your phone is too similar to other devices we carry”? You would have fought tooth and nail to have one of them open their network to Apple. But here you are, closing your network. Why? What possible reason could you have that would be justifiable? Your company just recently threw its support to a controversial proposition with a statement saying marriage shouldn’t be held back from any one. Then Apple turns around and tells its customers that they do not have the right to choose what browser or podcatcher they want. Have you knocked at the door of Hypocrisy this Halloween, Steve?
Don’t kill a great platform with your anti-competitive practices, Steve. Stop tricking us into thinking Apple rocks when it just keeps ruining our treats with such foul offerings in our bag. Do the right thing, Steve. Do the right thing.
I don’t get how Apple gets people will pay $80 for a cradle for the 3G iPhone. Stupid, stupid, stupid! BUT, if you’re desperate, ya, then you’ll do it. But guess what? You don’t have to be. There is a choice!
Wireless Ground sent us a cradle that is only $23 (fall sale)! We used it, abused it, and loved it. It’s an easy job and it doesn’t have to cost and arm and a leg to make happen, folks.
Take a look at the full review on this cradle and then nab it before the sale ends!
Apple made a lot right moves with the revamp of its notebook line today, yet it missed a tremendous opportunity to steal Christmas away from Dell, HP, and Toshiba. While $100 off the previous MacBook is nice, it’s not good enough. In a slow economy, cutting-edge and quality take a backseat to affordable and usability. Windows machines will win that race come this gift-buying season. Unfortunately, Apple has made a miscalculation with its price point and it won’t be enough to have just three figures on the price tag to lure in new customers. No, buyers will see the sea of laptops at Costco, Wal-mart, and Best Buy selling PCs loaded with Windows Vista at reduced prices. Consumers in general usually won’t pay a premium for a superior product and with the slow down in the economy, $100 off an Apple laptop isn’t going to change anyones mind from a PC to a Mac.
I hear the same argument daily from my clients that “Macs are too expensive” and how they can buy 2 laptops at Costco for the price of one Mac. Even when I educate them that the cost of ownership will be much greater with the PC, they don’t care and don’t listen. This mentality will continue in this lackluster economy even more so than ever.
While the MacBook is a great piece of hardware with some incredible features, it missed the prime feature of all: a great price point. It’s not to say that the MacBook won’t do good, its sales will be good if not strong; however, it won’t be spreading like a Southern California wild fire like it could have.
The iPhone 3G from Apple is one of the more multi-talented Smartphones and boasts a huge range of skills from the very basic to the rather special. Whether you are simply making calls or navigating yourself around a new city, the Apple iPhone 3G allows you do all this and much more. It doesn’t look half bad either.
Proporta have designed the Perfora Case with the iPhone 3G specifically in mind. This stylish case not only enhances the aesthetic of the device (even if we do say so ourselves), but will also keep your iPhone 3G fully protected from all of life’s little nasties.
Made from high quality, durable leather, the physical design of The Perfora Case or the iPhone 3G provides surrounding protection. The secure closure mechanism ensures that your iPhone 3G will be as snug as a bug in a rug and the matching belt clip also makes this case ideal for use on the move.
Proporta know that screen protection is vital at the best of times, but with a touch screen you really shouldn’t be without their Advanced Screen Protector (Apple iPhone 3G series). They’ve managed to increase the thickness without impairing screen brightness or clarity. Clever eh?
Today equinux has released Stationery Pack 2, a comprehensive collection of high-quality, interactive e-mail designs for Mac OS X Leopard Mail. Stationery Pack 2 contains over 660 e-mail designs, that can be generated from a total of 122 templates with a simple mouse click.
“We are proud that Stationery Pack 2 expands Mac OS X Leopard with a new feature: interactive e-mail designs,” said equinux CEO Till Schadde. “Particularly MobileMe users, who used to send greeting cards with .Mac, find Stationery Pack, with its wealth of e-mail choices, an ideal successor with even more possibilities.”
Many e-mail templates in Stationery Pack 2 change their designs: A click on the background alters color, themes and photos. A total of 122 high-class templates are thereby transformed into more than 660 possible e-mail designs for nearly every occasion: congratulations, invitations, holidays greetings and much more.
Stationery Pack 2 templates contain dynamic text fields, which adapt to the length of your message. To turn your own photos into a virtual postcard with a personal touch, you can insert photos from iPhoto, Aperture and any other picture folder in Mac OS X. Through sophisticated drop zones and clever combinations of place holders for pictures, you’re able to create exciting e-mails for unforgettable moments.
For an overview of the vast array of different e-mail designs, equinux delivers Stationery Pack 2 with useful software. The display surface is similar to iTunes and divides the template collection into seven categories. It also sorts according to key words and filters templates with the help of a text search. To give you a better idea of each template, an enlarged preview of each is also provided along with all its design variations.
Stationery Pack 2 is now available in the equinux online store at www.equinux.com/store from $49.95. The software appearing in a high-quality box is coming soon to Apple retailers.
Next up, 2.1. The rumors have cut-n-paste and MMS as new features as well as the push-notification API available for third-party vendors for use with such programs as Instant Messaging.
Apple took a leap into the enterprise market last Friday with the release of the iPhone firmware 2.0, a free downloadable upgrade for current first-generation users and pre-loaded on the 3G iPhone. The vault was the inclusion of full native support for Microsoft’s heavily used corporate email server, Exchange. Now, business men and women around the globe would be able to get their email on their iPhone in real-time. In other words, when new email appeared in their Inbox on their Mac or PC at the office, it would also be on the iPhone. This method is termed “push” as in pushing email to your phone rather than the phone checking for new email every 15, 30, or 60 minutes per user defined settings.
Push email has its advantages, like being constantly up to date with your email, but it also has some nasty cons. Users that see a large influx of email coming in throughout the day will find heavy battery usage due to the constant pushing of messages. Instead of holding off at a minimum of every 15 minutes to get your email, now your messages are filling up your iPhone every minute a new message is sent to you. If you receive 10 messages in 15 minutes, your iPhone will have 10 active sessions with your Exchange server within those 15 minutes. Multiple this by the hours in your day of heavy traffic and you’ll notice a red battery on your iPhones screen real fast. Add the 3G iPhone to the mix and it may be at 20% by the end of lunch. Not that this problem isn’t reserved just for Exchange users, but also Apple’s new MobileMe is effected by this issue as well. Anytime high traffic email is pushed to your iPhone, your phone will be draining its battery very quickly.
There are ways around this battery dump for your iPhone. In the Settings section, you will find the third icon labeled “Fetch New Data”. Tapping this brings up various settings. The first is “Push” which lets you turn it on or off. If you have more than one push account, say your Exchange server at work and your personal MobileMe, you can tap the “Advanced” selection on the bottom of the screen and then individually disable push for each account to allow you to retain, say your work email to be pushed and not your personal mail.
Push technology is not a new problem for batteries and it’s one Apple needs to actively find a solution to. Other manufactures such a Research In Motion (BlackBerry) have made great strives in keeping the battery juiced throughout the day while still receiving lots of email. If Apple wishes to overtake the millions of BlackBerrys in the enterprise, it needs to get this battery drain plugged.
James Tagg, Truphone’s CEO, said: “What Truphone for the iPhone does is really simple but absolutely sensational: it gives people low-priced international calls, whether they want to phone someone abroad or avoid roaming charges when making calls from abroad.
“With just a few clicks to download and install Truphone, anyone can afford to take their iPhone on holiday this summer – or call their friends and family abroad,” he added.
Truphone enables an iPhone to make calls to any number over the internet instead of over GSM, at Truphone’s fabulous internet rates. The rates are especially competitive for international calls, including landlines in 40 countries at GBP0.03 [USD0.06] per minute and mobiles at just GBP0.15 [USD0.30] per minute. To Canada, the USA and China, even calls to mobiles are just GBP0.03 [USD0.06] per minute.
Making a call using Truphone is exactly like making any other call on the iPhone: a single touch to bring the dialler up on the touch screen, touch-dial the number or choose from the iPhone’s own address book, and a touch to start the call. [Visit www.truphone.com/iphone to see a preview video of Truphone on the iPhone.]
Truphone for the iPhone is available to download from Apple’s new App Store for free. There are no monthly subscriptions or other charges. Visit www.truphone.com/iphone for more information.
Truphone pricing
Wi-Fi calls to countries in the Tru Zone always cost the same amazing flat rate, from anywhere in the world. This means a Truphone call on your iPhone to Sydney or London or Moscow or Rio always costs just 3p/6c per minute to landlines and 15p/30c per minute to mobiles. The majority of the world’s mobile users are in the Tru Zone – it includes the UK, Brazil, Australia, Thailand, Japan, Russia, Hong Kong, almost all of Europe, and loads more countries besides. Calls to USA, Canada and China are even lower still: a flat 3p/min to call landlines and mobiles. Customers receive free credit worth GBP2.00 [USD4.00] when they first sign up for Truphone.
SvenOnTech has already told you about this fun loving group of guys and gals that believe there is an under estimated market in first-generation iPhones and now we’re telling you about its crazy ways with the newest Super Phone. Rapid Repair has fully dismantled a new 3G iPhone and completely documented it on its web site. With only hours of the release of the follow up to Apple’s widely successful smartphone, Rapid Repair has yanked its new treasure apart. For us! The great thing about Rapid Repair is that it doesn’t want all the glory for itself and is giving away instructions with needed tools on how to take apart your very own shinny new black or white iPhone. If your sense of adventure is high, or your pocket book with green stuff, then you may want to travel this road less traveled and give it a shot!
If you’re looking to upgrade your current iPhone to the 3G and desire to keep the new one in one piece but would like a discount on it, check out Rapid Repairs buy-back program. You could get up to $150 for your iPhone!