When the original iPhone was release, it took Apple 74 days to sell a million copies of the then AT&T only device. 74 days. A scant few years later and Apple’s wildly popular phone manages to sell 3 million units in three weeks, creating a worldwide stampede in the process. With it’s recent release of the iPhone 4s, now in two colors (black and white) on three different carriers (AT&T, Verizon and Sprint), it took apple a single weekend to sell more than 4 million iPhone 4s phones. One weekend; 4 million phones.

Still on the fence about where to get your iPhone 4s? Well, PC Magazine has done a very nice comparison of iPhone service plans.

The newcomer, Sprint, seems to be the leader in this race, but it would take a lot to pry my unlimited AT&T plan away. Anyone trying Sprint or switching around their carrier?

geek

Apple iPhone 4s releases to great fanfare and typical Apple success . What has your experience been like?

In what has almost become a right of passage for new cell phones, ifixit.com has started their iPhone 4s teardown. Not much of a surprise, as rumors were running rampant, the new phone apparently only includes the same 512MB of RAM that the previous iPhone 4 included.

They identify all the core pieces and it appears that just what you might already expect is in there. Nice to see, of course, the quality of Apple’s design, and equally amazing how much stuff they have crammed in there. Stop on over to the iFixit site and check out what they’re doing!

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Bloomberg is reporting today that all three US based wireless carriers have sold out on their initial allotment of iPhone 4s phones. Apple, Verizon and newcomer, Sprint are all showing that launch-day availability of smartphones is no longer available. Most of the sites that were visited are showing up to three weeks for delivery and even Apple is quoting 1-2 weeks before people get their phone.

On an up note, if you’re willing to start sitting outside your local Apple retail store it’s likely that they will have a bit of inventory on hand for those of you not wanting to pre-order their phone.

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iOS 5 was released a few weeks ago as one of the most stable beta releases that I have seen in recent years and the improvements over previous software were significant. The notifications functionality is outstanding and well worth the price of admission – which n the iPhone 4 was what appeared to be a slight lag from time to time. This afternoon, Apple released iOS 5 beta 2 (9A5248d) to developers, and an updated version of iTunes 10.5 beta 2.

While I’m sure Apple is doing the best they can to make this an easy upgrade process for developers, it’s frustrating, to say the least that after installing the new release of iTunes you will be unable to sync your beta 1 iOS 5 device until you have upgraded it to iOS beta 2. As those are ~750+MB downloads, it’s a bit frustrating. To resume syncing, connect you idevice and follow the upgrade process as you did when originally installing iOS 5; it will work successfully.

Some other highlights culled from notes and the internet:

• iTunes 10.5b2 can’t sync iOS 5 Beta 1 devices
• iOS5 Beta 1 devices can’t iMessage iOS5 Beta 2 devices and vice-versa
• WiFI Sync works with OSX Computers only (has to be enabled in iTunes 10.5 beta 2) – Sorry Windows users
• Over-the-Air (OTA) updates have been released – none current available
• General speed improvements (thank goodness) and bug fixes

That’s it for now – I will add more as I get it.

~geek

As if all the exciting iPad 2 announcements weren’t enough Apple for the day, Apple has released iOS 4.3.1. Fire up iTunes and download the hefty 666.0 MB upgrade.

Some of the highlights:

• Fixes an occasional graphics glitch on the iPod Touch (4th generation)
• Resolves bugs related to connecting and activating on some cellular networks
• Fixes image flickering with Apple’s new Digital AV Adapter
• Resolves an issue authenticating with some enterprise web services

Curious to hear if you find anything else, but there you have it for today’s excitement.

geek

I made the trek – not too far mind you – to MacWorld 2011 and found myself wondering whether MacWorld can survive another year and more importantly, after so many came back from CES disappointed, whether the technology trade-show itself can survive. Seriously, how many different iPhone cases does that average trade-show attendee really want to see? Considering how many Blackberry and Droid phones I saw, my inclination would be far fewer then were really there.

Of the products that were there, many seemed to be “coming soon,” and far less than ever before was really available to buy at the show. Overall, I walked away most of the cash that I came with, a couple of stickers, and a feeling of disappointment. I told my wife via text message that MacWorld was a lot like going to Fry’s, same size as the store, a lot of stuff that you would never buy, and shelf space showing stickers for stuff that you really wish you could buy.

Not that it matters with the amount that I haven’t [sic] been posting lately, but I’m off to MacWorld for the opening day. I won’t be taking in anything but the Expos, but I am still really excited to see what’s coming out for the iPad and how mature the iPhone market has become. Hopefully there will be some good products out there and maybe even a few fun ones, too.

If there’s enough good stuff, I will even add more to this post later on.

~geek

Hewlett-Packard has announced a $1.2 billion deal with Palm, Inc. that would allow HP, the highly successful technology mega-company to expand further into the smartphone market.