Apple Archive

Last night I received an email from Dell about a back-to-school special. Rather than just promote their laptops, Dell decided to compare their top student laptops and the Apple laptops with the same specs. The comparisons include the Macbook 15 and 17 inch versus the Studio 15 and 17 inch models.

I’ve never been a fan of Apple-Dell “comparison wars” because the systems (and cultures) are so different. Dell versus IBM, Toshiba, etc. makes more sense because of the identical operating systems. Most customers who want a Mac aren’t going to switch because of price. Everyone knows PC-based laptops are less expensive than their Mac-based counterparts.

I took a look on the Apple Student Store and couldn’t seem to figure out how Dell came to the pricing they list in the image below. I got a total of $2,102 for the Apple Macbook Pro 15 with the same items listed. The Apple price includes an 8gb iPod Touch for free.

Dell ends their promo email by letting us know that with the $1,000+ savings over a Mac, you can go buy an iPod Touch.

After walking past the Moscone Center where the Apple WWDC is being held, I noticed the sign below outside a coffee shop. It is from Symbian – they are having a “hackathon” in San Francisco this afternoon. They are pushing hard to get iPhone developers to switch to Symbian. It appears if you show up you get a free Nokia phone. In addition, they are offering free food and video games — what more could a developer want?

This morning as I left my hotel, I saw a line of people outside — but I thought to myself, “if they are going to the Apple WWDC keynote, they are going the wrong way!” It turns out the line was so long to get in, that the line wrapped completely around the block. Here’s a photo of where I picked up the line and where it wrapped around the block:

From my basic algebra class, it seemed like there were several thousand people on the WWDC keynote line. And this assumes that most people were already inside! Here’s a video to give you home gamers an idea of just how long the line was.

I didn’t see one startup out there handing out stuff to the line – this was a great opportunity with a captive audience!

This month we announced a giveaway for an Apple iPod Shuffle. We just picked the winner and they have been notified. Apologies if you didn’t receive a winning email but thanks for sending in all of the links to other blogs you read and enjoy.

I’ve put together a list of some of the submitted blogs – I hope you find some new blogs to enjoy - I know I have.

• Hookedonwords
• demogirl
• Chip Chick
• Vintage Indie
• Crooks and Liars
• Right Wing News
• Dumb Little Man
• hilife 2b
• Gear Patrol
• LoHud Yankees Blog
• Springwise
• PSFK
• SpicyTasty
• Debt Free Adventures
• Boston Dirt Dogs
• very short list
• pretty much amazing
• Pop Candy
• Food Wishes
• Not Always Right
• About Harvest
• Accidental Mommies
• Cider Press Hill
• The Wander Girl
• Joystiq
• Workin on my Fitness
• Gotham Gal
• I Heart Talk Radio
• Let’s Be Friends
• Recipe Star
• Carrie Jones
• Bad PR Pitches
• The Energy Collective
• CollegeWeb Guy
• Sandruck Family Blog
• Bank Deals
• Dark Roasted Blend
• Girl on the Brink
• Appon’s Thai Food
• Wormtown Taxi
• foodgawker
• Advertolog
• Positivity Blog
• Dumb Little Man

*update* Only one more day to enter! *update*

This morning I participated in a feedback session and the company gave me a new iPod Shuffle — 4GB model. This thing is tiny – seriously tiny - like 3 chicklets are bigger than this iPod. This is the one that talks but does it listen? I already have an iPod Nano so I have no need for this device. I thought maybe I could use it to “woo” a potential Mrs. Stern, but so far it hasn’t worked. So my loss is your gain!

I am going to give away the iPod Shuffle to one lucky CN reader. Many companies and bloggers require you to spam the freak out of your friends on Twitter, post all over the net about how great they are just so you can get an entry. We will have none of that here! No sir!

To enter: send an email to (”myfirstname” – at – centernetworks.com) note the iPod Shuffle Giveaway and include two blogs you enjoy reading outside the tech sector. They can be food blogs, cat blogs, transit blogs, bacon blogs..whatever you enjoy. I will create a master list of the blogs and post it on CN. I love checking out new blogs outside the tech sector and I hope you will as well.

The winner will be selected in a random drawing on May 15th. Note that anyone listed on the Twitter default list is not eligible to participate. Thanks for reading CN, I appreciate it!

As I use my iPhone 3G more and more, I notice more and more things that frustrate me about it. Please don’t get me wrong; I am not complaining about the iPhone; I am simply positing ideas as to what I would like to see added. As a Web developer, there are quite a few things I would love to see added to the device. If you know of any iPhone apps available that perform any of these tasks or actions, please let me know.

Let me make this clear, however: I will not be jailbreaking my iPhone. Even if the phone was not owned by the government (which it is), I would still have no interest in jailbreaking it.

Saving E-mail Attachments

Aside from photos (which you can save to your Camera Roll by holding your finger on the picture while viewing the e-mail message), there is no way to save attachments. Ultimately, my ideal situation would be to be able to save a Word, Excel or PDF document attached to an e-mail message, then upload it to my Web server.

Read the rest of this entry »

This story comes out of Berlin, Germany. A 21-year old Web developer created an iPhone application that uses the GPS in the iPhone to help you find the nearest public transportation U-Bahn and S-Bahn (subway) stations. If you are onboard a train you could watch the transit map move live. The application has been downloaded over 20,000 times to-date.

The German BVG agency which is responsible for public transportation, had the application removed from the iPhone App Store. BVG spokeswoman Petra Reetz said that they want "but only the best for passengers". In speaking with one of my German contacts, he believes the fear for the BVG is that if the app data is wrong, German citizens may sue BVG. So rather than deal with that potential issue, they had the app shut down.

This type of mobile application would be awesome for many cities around the world. While it would only work where there’s mobile coverage, it could be a huge help in getting more people to take mass transit. 

You can read the full story (in German) on Heise Online.

Update from madam3181 via Twitter: "The iPhone app "Fahr-Info Berlin" is still available from the iTunes store however the current version has the maps removed"