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Sam Costello
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Just a quick Monday morning, post-Super Bowl reminder (I didn't see a lot of the game, but am glad that Packers came out on top) that the poll asking whether you care about the white iPhone 4 (most voters so far don't care at all) is still running. If you haven't already done so, cast your vote, won't you?

The Week's New Content - Jan. 31, 2011

Saturday February 5, 2011

New articles added to the site this week include:

Articles substantially updated this week include:

Top 5 iPhone Super Bowl Apps

iPod Minis: Verizon iPhone Reviews, In-App Purchasing Changes

Friday February 4, 2011

The Verizon iPhone doesn't go on sale until next Friday (though pre-orders have already sold out; if you want one, buy online on the 9th or in-person on the 10th), but the early reviews are in--and they're positive:
- John Gruber: "Verizon's network has wider, more consistent coverage, and noticeably superior voice quality."
- Walt Mossberg/Wall St. Journal: "Yes, there are some major benefits to having your iPhone on Verizon, but, as with all good things, there are also trade-offs."
- David Pogue/NY Times: "Verizon iPhone is nearly the same as AT&T's iPhone 4 -- but it doesn't drop calls."
- Engadget: "It does kind of feel like Apple and Verizon did the impossible: they made the best smartphone in America just a little bit better."
I figured I'd be sticking with AT&T, but these reviews are tempting, especially the promise of better call quality and reliability.
Verizon's expecting big sales at launch--they're asking employees to wait to buy their iPhones.
That said, it looks like Verizon is planning to throttle the bandwidth of the top 5% of iPhone data users, as well as compress images and video coming to them. That hasn't been given much attention, but it doesn't sound good to me.
In the week's other big news, Apple has changed (or begun enforcing, depending on who you believe) its rules about in-app purchasing, forcing apps that sell content outside the app to also sell it inside, where Apple gets a cut of the money. From Apple's perspective, it makes sense (especially since it means that they get a share of every eBook Amazon sells for the iOS Kindle app, for instance), but it's definitely a hard-ball play. Apple's no stranger to those, and it often wins in those situations, but this is one of those instances where Apple's desire for control feels a little uncomfortable.
The Daily, News Corp.'s iPad-only daily newspaper, has launched. It will cost US$0.99/week or $39.99/year.
Samsung's Galaxy Tab has been touted as one of the iPad's major competitors. Well, maybe not. In Samsung's quarterly earnings call, the following emerged:
- The Galaxy Tab has a 16% return rate vs. the iPad's 2% rate
- When discussing sales, Samsung has been referring to shipments of the device to retailers and resellers, not to actual paying customers. On that front, a Samsung exec. was reported to have said that the sales to customers were "quite small." Samsung later clarified that comment, contending he'd actually said "quite smooth." One of those seems more likely than the other to me, though.

iPhone Pre-Orders for Verizon Customers Start Today

Thursday February 3, 2011

If you're a current Verizon customer aching to get an iPhone (that's 35% of you, according to my recent poll), today's the day you can place your pre-order. You won't be able to actually put your hands on the phone until Friday, Feb. 10, but a pre-order today should ensure that you get a phone next week.

If you're not a Verizon customer, no pre-orders for you. Sorry. You'll just have to wait until next Friday and get in line.

How many of you are planning to pre-order today?

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