Leopard ready to pounce (and other overused cat phrases): People get ready! Think Secret is reporting that Leopard is on track to ship this month -- they're calling "on or around" October 26. But if you're ready to buy a Mac now, you might want to hold off another week or so until the Leopard release date is officially announced, in case Apple continues its tradition of offering low-cost upgrades to machines purchased between the date of the announcement and the date of the actual release. Also in Mac news, owners of the newest 24-inch iMacs are reporting some screen lockup problems.
Amazon MP3: Amazon.com's MP3 store has been live for a little while, and early reports are pretty positive, saying the values are great (songs sell for less than at the iTunes Store), although the selection and navigation could stand to be improved. (Commenters: Have you tried it yet? Will it replace the iTunes Store for your digital music purchases?)
XOXO: David Pogue writes about the XO, the low-cost laptop designed by the One Laptop Per Child project. He applauds its technological breakthroughs (including battery life, mesh networking, easy-to-use software, and more), but hopes it can overcome the human barriers to success.
Today's obligatory iPhone news: An insider claims that the iPhone will debut in Canada by mid October. Stateside, Piper Jaffray believes that 10 percent of iPhones sold in September were bought by teams planning to unlock and resell them. Overall sales are up 56 percent since the price drop last month. 9to5 Mac reports that trusted third-party developers "with strict confidentiality agreements" are already developing Apple-approved iPhone apps. And another bloggers wonders if the reason there's no "official" iPhone SDK (that we know of), perhaps there will be after Leopard comes out.
iPhone sours some on the whole Apple: Is the iPhone's locked system a sign that Apple's "geek affair" is over? Do you agree that Apple's decision to cut the price, and then brick unlocked phones with the iPhone 1.1.1 update, means that the company is getting "a little cocky for its own good"? Commenters: What do you think? (Oh, and sorry for the iPhone stories, but hey...free pizza?)
Ron
October 05, 2007 at 12:21pm
If and when the I-Phone comes to Canada it will be interesting to see which mobility carrier will either be choosen by Apple or is there going to be a bidding war for the exclusive rights?
As for now the Blackberry is very cheap and good, so the I-Phone is going to need to be priced properly in order to compete.
Anonymous
October 10, 2007 at 11:44am
The only ones that could possibly carry the iPhone cross-Canada are Rogers and Fido, which Rogers owns.
Anonymous
October 05, 2007 at 10:29am
Let's be real here. Apple offered AT&T some exclusive period over which they would have access to the iPhone. That is quite simply the only way you get a network to co-invest in the launch.
So given that, what would your reaction be to a company, with whom you had signed a contract with, allowing their customers to implicitly break that exclusivity. Simple, you tell Apple to enforce the contract.
Stephen
October 04, 2007 at 11:17pm
On a lot of comment pages at online newspapers, blogs and other sites, I have strong doubts about the 'mac faithful' that declare they are selling all their apple stuff because of the price drop, or they are switching due to some big hoopla, or they somehow have lost trust. Of the mac faithful that I know, they stuck through a lot of things much bigger in the past 10 years of Jobs' reign than a price drop and we are incredibly appreciative of his great work. My take on them, they are trolls in disguise.
As for the Apple geeks, I bet they'll stick around because now the club is evermore exclusive.
Anonymous
October 04, 2007 at 7:30pm
iPhone coming to Canada, through Holt Renfrew? I guess Apple and Rogers Communications weren't interested in bringing it out then.
Anonymous
October 04, 2007 at 6:05pm
Yes, I've gone over and purchased one DRM free higher quality song for 40 cents less than iTunes charges. Was I pleased? Yes. A lot easier than I thought, however if you like to transfer purchased songs via your iPod, that's a no-go.
Anonymous
October 04, 2007 at 7:35pm
As the article points out, lack of education is a big factor contributing to lack of food and clean water. Consider just water for instance. Many developing countries don't have enough clean water available because they lack the engineering resources required to effectively develop and manage their water resources. Why do they lack the required engineering resources? Lack of engineers. Why don't they have enough skilled workers such as engineers? Lack of education.
Education is expensive, but the XO just made it a whole lot cheaper.
Anonymous
October 04, 2007 at 5:13pm
Does anyone else think the XO is a solution in search of a problem? It seems to me that food and clean water trump emailing your friends anyday (unless your friend knows where the food and water are). I think $188 would be better spent donated to a recognized charity. That being said, it is a nifty piece of tech.
FutureDreamz
October 04, 2007 at 1:23pm
If it comes here, then I'll do a side-by-side comparison of it and the BlackBerrys, and see if the UI and everything outweighs my sense of nationality.
