Line forms at NYC Apple Store

Activists (TheWhoFarmers) and now Waiting for Apples saying they hope to break a Guinness record for most time waiting in line to buy a product.

waitingforapples.com

Also reports of early lines forming in New Zealand and Japan. Maybe other locations as well.

No iPhones at Apple Stores outside the US

If you plan to buy an iPhone outside the US you will need to avoid the Apple Store

Earlier in the week blogger Daniel Smith claimed he had sources who claimed Apple was diverting shipments of iPhones from Canada to the UK as a protest against Rogers high rate plans.

Incidentally (according to ) Rogers just announced a limited time offer where if you activate by Aug. 31st you can get a 6Gb/ mo. data package added to any any in-market voice plan for CAN$30 with a 3 year contract. This can be added to any voice/data offerings (not just the iPhone plans) and existing customers can keep their current plans and just add the data package.

What is true is that Apple Stores outside the US will not be carrying the iPhone 3G, you will need to visit a carrier store or authorized retail location in your respective country. You can get details on where to buy from Apple's web site.

Preparing for the iPhone launch

iPhone 3G will go on sale at 8:00 AM on July 11th. New Zealand should be 1st in the world with a 12:01AM iPhone 3G launch, prompting rumors that the App Store may be on-line on the 10th to accommodate the NZ launch.

Apple has posted several videos and sent emails to get customers ready for launch day.

What you need to bring to the store: Credit card, Social security number, Valid government-issued photo ID, Current wireless account number and password or PIN (if you’re new to AT&T).

If you already own an iPhone, remember to sync it with iTunes one last time before you get your new iPhone 3G.

AT&T also has their own get "iReady" videos. Very corny, but some valuable information in them

Go in to your local store now and get your credit check done.

What to do if you plan to hand down your old phone.

O2 offered pre-orders, but quickly sold out.

Macworld UK reports that O2 claims the system buckled when at some times orders reached 13,000 per second.

I had reports of many customers who couldn't access the site to put in their order only to find out when they finally could get in that were all gone and told to check back on the 10th.

Apple is getting ready in store as well

Using the slogan "Get ready, get set, go..."

They will have EasyPay handhelds ready to process orders on the floor and additional staff is being added

Will need a credit card and a US ID.

Activation looks like it will happen while attached to a Mac running a modified version of iTunes and seems similar to the original at home activation process with AT&T and Apple employees being told (warned) not to proceed past the "Set Up Your iPhone" screen which syncs data, contacts, etc. How many will mess this up?

As for time in a Bloomberg.com interview Apple's retail chief, Ron Johnson said, "Apple stores will handle about 30 customers at a time. While the company will make sure the activation process is quick,".

Stating that activating an iPhone 3G will take around 15 minutes, including credit check and activation. That means a store staffed with 15 people selling iPhone could process 60 customers per hour.

If you were hoping to post the first unboxing pics you are already too late. The images were posted on iPhonePortugal, not sure how the guy got the iPhone, but I would assume he works at a Vodaphone store.

iPhone 3G Unboxing

Early iPhone 3G reviews are in

Reviews in from Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, David Pogue of the New York Times, and USA Today's Edward Baig.

They generally liked the new features, but knocked the device for battery issues and the higher rate plans.

Goods

Browsing speed at 3-5 times faster if you can get on 3G

In 16 states, only three cities or fewer are covered; 10 states have no coverage at all

Games and apps!

GPS (see bads)

Bads

No copy-paste, MMS photo support, or instant messaging built-in.

You can have both personal and Exchange email accounts on the new iPhone, if you synchronize with Exchange calendars and contacts, your personal calendar and contacts are erased

Pouge says that, according to Apple, the iPhone’s G.P.S. antenna is much too small to emulate the turn-by-turn navigation of a G.P.S. unit for a vehicle

Segway exec scoots over to Apple

Segway CTO and Engineering team leader Doug Field will be scooting his way over to Apple's campus.

Field will join Apple as a vice president of product design likely working closely with Jonathan Ive and the rest of Apple's design team.

Apple Insider points out a funny quote from Steve Jobs in 2003 when asked about the design of the original Segway, ""I think it sucks, Its shape is not innovative, it's not elegant and it doesn't feel anthropomorphic."

10,000 new switchers in Europe

Citing a Fortune piece, The Mac Observer reports that one of Europe's largest newspapers, Axel Springer AG, will move 10,000 of it's employees in 30 countries over to Macs over the next 5 years

In a YouTube video Axel CEO, Mathias Döpfner cited several reason for the switch

Most of the company's layout work was already being done on Macs

Macs are more user friendly than other computers

Apple creates the most elegant computers

Macs are cheaper to buy and easier to maintain than they were in the past

This is a nice boost for Apple's enterprise Mac profile and will make Axel Apple's 2nd largest customer after Google.

Mobile Me makes it's appearance

By the time you hear this chances are Mobile Me will be live and ticking

Apple sent out notices to .Mac subscribers that the service would be unavailable from 6:00 PM to midnight Pacific time on July 9th while they rolled out the new service.

Existing subscribers will get a new .me email address, but can also keep their old .mac email.

Macbook Pro case redesign rumor

Apple Insider claims to have confirmed images of a new 15" Macbook Pro case which surfaced on a Taiwanese blog.

Still AL but taking some design cues from the Air being thinner and having more tapered edges. It's also speculated that it will get the larger multi-touch trackpad.

The battery will be narrower, but take up the full length of the case on the rear long edge.

Under the battery compartment will be access to the memory and the hard drive.

Launch dates are unknown and its also expected that the MacBook will get an AL case redesign sometime soon as well.

3G iPhone what we aren't talking about

The software update? What is that experience going to be like? Will there be any hiccups with the App Store?

The flood of iPhone apps. I am seeing tons of PR. Will our home screens be overwhelmed?

1 iPhoto Library multiple user caveats

Tip on how to move the iPhoto library to the Shared directory and connect multiple user accounts to it.

Wesson points out that 2 instances of iPhoto won't be able to access the Library at the same time. Like if you use Fast user switching.

Gary points out that iPod/IPhone syncing to more than one device is hampered. Especially if you want to sync different Albums on different iPods or iPhones.

Don't disconnect Super Duper drive in middle of backing up

Play story and warning from Douglas

Super Duper from Shirtpocket

shirtpocket.om

/Volumes has placeholder directories with names of mounted volumes. These directories are called "mountpoints", and are created "on-the-fly" by Apple's autodiskmount utility.

A little protection (power-wise) goes a long way

Listener Dave Z accounts on his block a harrowing tale of a narrow escape from death of a bunch of Apple gear including an Apple MacBook Pro, a MacBook,a LaCie external hard drive , and an Apple TV among a Wii and other home electronics as well.

zaikos.com

The source of this destruction a severe storm and resulting power surge.

All gear was saved thanks to adequate APC surge protectors. They have a nice selector to help you determine which products meet your needs.

In Dave's case they also replaced one of the damaged protectors.

Belkin also has some nicely designed ones.

belkin.com

Firmware, it's not just for Macs

Many devices these days have firmware. Software built-in (embedded) in the device. Occasionally this too need to be updated.

Robert has a Canon MX700 multifunction printer that advertises Mac support. All features were working except the built-in card reader.

Canon's web site lists a new firmware listed on 6/23/2008. Also updated CUPS print drivers.

CUPS is the standard printing system used on MacOS X and most Linux distributions

www.cups.org

Access the web interface on you Mac by going to http://localhost:631/

Review: NewerTech NuPower Replacement iPod Battery

One option is to have Apple replace it, USD$65. Play Greg's comment about the experience.

cornfedtech.com

Or you can opt for the Newer Tech NuPower which will give you up to 114% more capacity depending on your model.

macsales.com

My 5th Gen 30Gb iPod no longer would hold a charge.

The battery for my model was just $19.99 and comes with the tools and instructional videos are on their site. Obviously not for the faint at heart and they recommend their $39.99 installation service for 5th gens. I used that option.

Service was amazing. Turned around in less than 72 hours. And they covered to and from shipping and provided packaging.

The unit was perfect, even my Invisible Shield was left in tact. Also I don't think it's guaranteed, but my data was all left in tact too.

Performance is great an as advertised. For $60 bucks put new life back in my old iPod.

They also handle proper recycling and disposal of the old battery.

Lost iTunes files in Media Library

Listener John was attempting to make a slideshow in iPhoto and couldn't access his Music from the Media Library.

The Media Library/Browser can be accessed many Cocoa Apps and gives you a view of Photos, Music, or Movies with thumbnails, etc.

Side tip: Many apps will have this in the 'Open...' dialog box, Look for the Media section in the left column of the open dialog box.

John's was broken and he knew he had had an iTunes crash that caused iTunes to rebuild it's Library. Which creates a second "iTunes (damaged)" library.

He already tried zapping the PRAM and running repair permissions'

I suggested he go in iTunes to the General Preferences and make sure 'Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized' and Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library' were both checked. Close the preferences. Then go under the Advanced menu and choose Consolidate library....

Also use a tool like Onyx or Cocktail to clear the system and user caches.

Change the mouse cursor in OS X

Listener Mitchell was wonder if there was a way to customize the mouse cursor in OS X.

Mighty Mouse from Unsanity, but it uses APE, which I hate, and it is not Leopard compatible.

unsanity.com/mightymouse

Can increase the size using Universal Access

Open System Preferences, then open the Universal Access pane, and
click on the Mouse [& Trackpad] tab. Then adjust the Cursor size
slider.

Also some great apps for focusing emphasis on the pointer

OmniDazzle, pixie dust, sonar, bulls-eye, scribble,etc.

omnigroup.com/omnidazzle

Mouseposé, spotlight and show key strokes

boinx.com/mousepose