Reports have been streaming in across the internet that Apple’s new iPhone 3G has been developing case cracks already, particularly in the 16GB white model.  Lengthy discussions are ongoing over at MacRumors as well as Apple’s own discussion forums.

Photo courtesy of MacRumors.com

Apple made the choice in the new iPhone 3G to move away from the metal case to a plastic back body in both black and white versions.  There has been speculation that the body is not a typical plastic, but a new ceramic material, as seen in this patent filing from Apple.

I don’t have an iPhone, however the news is troubling as it seems in recent years that Apple’s quality control might be slipping due to it’s growth, as seen in the recent MacBook case cracks.  Now while Apple has never officially come out and admitted the MacBook case cracking was a problem or defect, reports in forums have been positive from users who have been able to get their top cases replaced at an Apple Genius Bar with no questions asked.  If the iPhone case cracking is a defect, I hope Apple does the right thing and takes care of any users with the problem.

Gartner reports on Worldwide and U.S. PC sales markets and the reports show that Apple continues to increase it’s market share in the U.S.  For the second quarter of 2008, Apple has moved into 3rd place for U.S. shipments ahead of the Taiwanese Acer with an 8.5% Market Share.

Table 2
Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q08 (Thousands of Units)

Note: Data includes desk-based PCs, mobile PCs and X86 servers. Acer data includes Gateway’s consumer shipments and Packard Bell shipments.
Source: Gartner (July 2008)

IDC reports similar numbers placing Apple in 4th place just behind Acer in a virtual tie with a market share of 7.8%.

Top 5 Vendors, United States PC Shipments*, Second Quarter 2008 (Preliminary) (Units Shipments are in thousands)

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, July 16, 2008

Apple continues to lag behind in the Worldwide markets, not breaking into the top 5 from either reporting agency.  U.S. growth for Apple continues to surge with growth rates  of 38% and 31% for the second quarter of 2008.

This continues to be good news for Apple in the U.S. market and with new models expected for both the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines in the 3rd quarter, I expect this number to continue increase.

Blog posts across the internet are starting to emerge discussing Apple’s decision to add a MobileMe Preference option to the Windows XP and Windows Vista Control Panels.  Most stories are reminiscent of the debate on Apple’s previous decision to “sneak” it’s Safari web browser to Windows machines running Apple’s Software Update.

While I personally don’t think Apple is doing anything malicious here, I’m sure the debate will rage on as to whether this option is Apple trying to push it’s way into the Windows world and whether it’s tactics of installing software on users machines is right way to do things.  They did take steps to improve the Apple Software Update after the Safari mess to make it more clear to the user that it’s offering New Software if they choose to install it.

Apple does clearly state in the MobileMe requirements that iTunes 7.7 is required for both Macs and Windows PCs.  Apple also states on it’s MobileMe on your PC Features page that:

“Easy setup with the Windows Control Panel. Setting up MobileMe to sync with your PC is simple. Just install the latest version of iTunes, and a MobileMe Preferences application is added to your Windows Control Panel. Sign in with your MobileMe member name and password and all of your settings are right there.”

However, the issue isn’t as much of the requirements, but as to why it’s being installed without the users knowledge.

I personally just upgraded to iTunes 7.7 on my Windows XP machine and sure enough, in the Control Panel are the MobileMe preferences.  Now, being a MobileMe subscriber, I think this integration with Windows is kind of cool on Apple’s part, however, I do see where some people might be upset that it was “slipped” into the Control Panel without their knowledge.

However after glancing through my Control Panel on my XP machine, I noticed the following items that where installed by 3rd Party software without my knowledge that they were adding a Control Panel item:

• Adobe Gamma (from Photoshop)
• Java (from Sun Microsystems)
• NVIDIA Control Panel (from NVIDIA)
• NVIDIA nView Desktop Manager (from NVIDIA)
• Sound Effect Manager (from ASUS)

I think Apple is just trying to make it easy for those that are MobileMe members to access the new features and preferences for the service, and clearly other vendors are using the same technique to install their own Control Panel items.

Personally I would have preferred that Apple only install the MobileMe Control Panel item if I was a MobileMe member and if I told iTunes to do so, otherwise, keep the item bundled within iTunes until needed.  Maybe they should have offered the option from within iTunes to install/uninstall the Control Panel item.  Who knows, much like the fuss from the Safari updates, maybe at some point enough people will complain and that’s just what Apple will do.  For me this doesn’t go just for Apple, but all 3rd party developers.  Give the option to the user as to what you put on my machine.

What are your thoughts?

Information Week has posted an interesting story about Microsoft admitting to Windows Vista mistakes, and about a new ad campaign to target a “pretty noisy competitor”.  In case you’ve been living under a rock (or have the 30 second skip enabled on your TiVo) that competitor would be Apple.

The details come from Brad Brooks, VP of Windows Vista consumer marketing, and he had quite a bit to say at a recent Microsoft Partner Conference.  In his statements, he admits to Microsoft breaking a lot of things, and causing a lot of pain.  He goes on to say that Microsoft will be starting a huge advertising campaign in the coming weeks to months.  The best part was the following quote from Brad Brooks,

“We’ve got a pretty noisy competitor out there,” Brooks said of Apple whose “I’m a Mac… and I’m a PC,” commercials criticize Windows Vista. “You know it. I know it. It’s caused some impact. We’re going to start countering it. They tell us it’s the iWay or the highway. We think that’s a sad message. Software out there is made to be compatible with your whole life.”

So Mr. Brooks, you interpret “it’s the iWay or the highway” as what Apple is doing with it’s iLife applications as a bad thing?  What part of creating user friendly, intuitive applications that work and are seamlessly integrated into the entire Mac experience is a bad thing for consumers?  Has Microsoft been able to accomplish this yet with the likes of Windows Photo Gallery or Windows Movie Maker…I think not.

As for those Mac vs. PC ads, many of us within the die-hard Mac community are hoping that Apple changes gears and focus with the ads.  While we do continue to enjoy the Mac vs. PC commercials, we would like to have Apple start to change the tone of the commercials away from just bashing Vista, and instead to touting the superior features of OS X Leopard.  We have seen Apple take this approach with some of these type ads such as the Time Machine ad (link opens to a Quicktime movie), showing off the new automatic backup feature built directly into Leopard, and the Apple Genius Bar ad (link opens to a Quicktime movie), showing the benefits of the tech support you receive at your local Apple retail store.

Apple is clearly riding this ad campaign and the Vista bashing as long as possible, and why not, so far it seems to be working as the overall Mac market share continues to rise.  I’m actually hoping that Microsoft can come out with some interesting ads, to keep Apple on their toes so that they have to create new innovative ads to counter what Microsoft might show (however let’s hope it’s not the same marketing team that came up with the classic Microsoft internal Vista music video….yeah, sure it was a spoof, but man was it bad.)

Truth be told, in a lot of cases, Vista isn’t as bad as most ads and tech talk make it out to be.  I know people who are happily using Vista today with little problem (not many people, but a few).  However, from a pure user experience, after dealing with and using both Vista and Leopard, there is no doubt in my mind that Apple comes out ahead, far ahead.  And with Apple turning it’s focus to Snow Leopard, I think they have a head start on Microsoft and the Windows 7 team.  If both Snow Leopard and Windows 7 are to be fine tuned versions of their predecessors, Apple has a much better product in Leopard to start with than what Microsoft has in Vista.

Good luck Microsoft, I think they’ll need it, both in their operating systems and their marketing campaigns.

As many Apple/Mac loyalists are aware, Steve Jobs announced at WWDC on June 9, 2008, that the next version of Mac OS X will be called Snow Leopard, and it is scheduled to ship in “about a year”.  We can only assume at this point that Snow Leopard will be version 10.6 as the current version (Leopard) is 10.5.

So why Snow Leopard?  Isn’t that close in name to the current OS X version Leopard?  What is Apple thinking?  As it turns out Apple is doing something rather drastic, but something that makes a lot of sense, they are putting the brakes on adding lots of new features to Snow Leopard, instead focusing on improving what they claim is the “world’s most advanced operating system” … a claim I personally happen to agree with.  Why would Apple do this?  Why not come out with more features, more toys, more whiz-bang graphical elements?  I think Apple is realizing what most educated users know…the more features and toys you put into an operating system, the more likely it is over time to get bloated, slow, and buggy.  Take a look at what Microsoft has done with Windows Vista.  They have taken a relatively stable operating system in Windows XP, and instead of improving upon it, they chose to get in way over their heads with adding lots of flashy new elements, a new bloated user interface, confusing driver requirements and lots and lots of problems.  I do give Microsoft some credit with Vista, they did enhance it from a security standpoint, which in my mind is very important, although I still have to ask, “who exactly works in the Microsoft User Interface department”?

So if there are no new features, why would Apple do this, and why would anyone want it?  The no new features is not to be taken literally of course.  I’m sure we will see some new features, however, the changes that will take place in Snow Leopard will primarily be under the hood, at the core level of the OS.

So far Apple has announced that Snow Leopard will include:

• A dramatically reduced footprint
• Microsoft Exchange Support
• Multicore
• 64-bit
• Media and Internet
• OpenCL

What does all this mean to the average user, or even the power user?  Let’s take a look at each one individually.

Read the rest of this entry »

Recently my Mom had an odd problem with Apple Mail in Leopard and adding an attachment.  She opened a new mail message, addressed it, added a subject, then wanted to just simply add an image into the body of the message.  She chose the image she wanted to send, however, every time she went to insert the image in the message body, it wouldn’t insert.

Turns out, my Mom had the option Always Insert Attachments at End of Message selected.  Seems that if this option is selected (it’s located under the Edit -> Attachments menu) and there is no text in the message body, Apple mail will not add the attachment.

If you want to have this option selected, the simple fix is to add at least a single character to the message body.

Not sure if this is a bug or not, but it certainly doesn’t seem very Apple to me.