[WelMac] Welmac News & Update 23 Jun 08

WelMac news news at welmac.org.nz
Sun Jun 22 23:00:50 AEST 2008


CONTENTS:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. MEETING UPDATE
2. FREEWARE MAC MAINTENANCE APPLICATIONS
3. QUICKTIME 7.5 ADDRESSES SECURITY CONCERNS, IMOVIE AND IDVD UPDATED
4. MAC OS X SNOW LEOPARD TO FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE, NOT FEATURES
5. APPLE ANNOUNCES IPHONE 3G TO SHIP ON 11-JUL-08
________________________________________________________________________________________________

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 >.

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1. MEETING UPDATES

Wellington Meeting

The next main meeting of the Wellington Macintosh Society Inc. will be  
held on Monday 30 June 2008. This meeting will be held in the Ante  
Room on the ground level of Turnbull House, 11 Bowen Street,  
Wellington from 7.10pm.

The topic for this meeting has been altered and full details will be  
announced in the forthcoming issue of Capital Apple.

As usual, we'll start with our Q&A session followed by a short supper  
before the main presentation.

Kapiti Area Meeting

For those members living at or near the Paraparaumu area, our next  
Kapiti meeting will be held at 7.10 pm on Monday 7th July 2008 (which  
also is Queens Birthday this year). It will be at the Rita King  
Cottage at St Marks Church in Rosetta Road, Raumati. The topic of the  
meeting will be the same as the Wellington meeting, i.e. The Dark Side  
of the Internet.

Mac Basics Meeting

This meeting is an introduction to computing on a Macintosh will be  
held on Monday 14 July 2008 (tonight) starting at 7pm in the Turnbull  
Room on the 1st floor of Turnbull House. This months meeting will look  
at the second topic in our series of three, using basic applications  
such as word processors, spreadsheets and some utility applications.

Applications Special Interest Group

Monday 21 July 2008 starting 7 pm in the Turnbull Room on the 1st  
floor of Turnbull House.

These meetings will take a look at commonly used applications  
(software) and this month will be the second part of three looking at  
the uses and setup of basic databases and how you can make them work  
for you.

****************************************************************************************************

2. FREEWARE MAC MAINTENANCE APPLICATIONS

by Tim Verpoorten

There are a plethora of freeware Mac maintenance applications out  
there in the real world, which is a bit ironic because OSX really  
needs little maintenance beyond what it performs on itself. For  
example, if you leave your Mac on, it will perform all the daily,  
weekly and monthly maintenance scripts that it needs to stay healthy  
and alert. Even when you shut it down, OSX Tiger and Leopard are smart  
enough to realize that it missed running it's scripts while it was  
down, so it will run them as soon as you boot it back up again.

Then there is the matter of defragmenting your hard drive. The Mac HFS  
Plus file system works well to keep your files in one piece and even  
if it does fragment them, the new hard drives run so well that you'll  
hardly notice any difference between a fragmented file or an  
unfragmented file. Then let's not forget that we're told to delete the  
cache files. Cache files were developed to speed up the OS, so when  
you delete them, you're defeating the purpose to begin with. The only  
time to delete cache files is when you're having troubles with OSX,  
then you can repair permissions and delete cache files until your  
heart's content.

So after telling you all of this, why are we going to talk about  
freeware Mac maintenance applications? After producing the  
MacReviewCast podcast for three years, I've discovered that listeners  
want to know about maintenance programs for their Macs before any  
other apps. Also, if you're like me, you'd rather be certain that  
these maintenance tasks were done when you wanted them done. In other  
words, I just sleep better knowing that my Mac is the best that it can  
be. So after that scientific reasoning, let's take a look at the  
freeware programs that take care of your precious Mac.

Let's start with two utilities from Titanium Software.

Maintenance: http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/maintenance.html

OnyX: http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/onyx_leopard.html

Maintenance allows you to run several tasks of system maintenance:  
repair permissions, run periodic scripts, reset Spotlight's Index,  
rebuild the LaunchServices database, delete applications, font and  
system cache, and even check the status of the hard disk. It's a basic  
system maintenance and cleaning application. OnyX is multi-functional,  
they say that it handles maintenance, optimization, and  
personalization. Other then handling the functions that Maintenance  
already handles, OnyX also verifies the start-up disk and the  
structure of its system files, it configures some hidden parameters of  
the Finder, Dock, Dashboard, Exposé, Safari, Log-in window and of some  
of Apple's own applications, it deletes caches, and removes a certain  
number of files and folders that may become overbearing on the overall  
CPU load. There are a few other tweaks that OnyX allows you to play  
with, but it's shining star is still the maintenance jobs that it  
handles. Either Maintenance or OnyX will do a good job for you. I  
personally use OnyX because it does a good job of updating itself and  
allows me to run all the scripts and routines I need it to run and  
them will automatically reboot or shut down my Mac after it's finished.

The next freeware application that seems to be a real favorite is,

MainMenu: http://www.santasw.com

MainMenu does all things that a good maintenance program should do,  
rebuilding your Spotlight library for faster searching, repairing  
permissions, cleaning caches to improve application performance, and  
even more advanced settings - such as enabling and disabling the  
Dashboard. But what makes this such a fan favorite is it's simple, and  
easy to use menu-bar interface. If you want an app that does it's  
stuff and gets out of the way, MainMenu is the one for you.

IceClean: http://www.macdentro.com/MacDentro/Home.html

IceClean is another freeware solution that has a lot of fans, it's new  
Cocoa interface make it as Mac-looking as you can get. IceClean is a  
powerful System Maintenance and Optimization Tool using only UNIX  
built-in System Tasks to help your Mac stay healthy and to keep it  
running smoothly. Besides the basic Unix maintenance tasks, IceClean  
can also monitor your network state and do traceroute. It gives you a  
quick and full CD/DVD erase. IceClean also contains a full system  
profiler. It's also important to note that like the three previous  
options, IceClean will update itself often and automatically to make  
certain your OSX is running safe and sound.

AppleJack: http://applejack.sourceforge.net

If you want to get your hands dirty and you are not using Leopard,  
AppleJack is a great maintenance app to have on your Mac. Using  
AppleJack, you can repair your disk, repair permissions, validate the  
system's preference files, and get rid of possibly corrupted cache  
files. The real asset in using Applejack is that you don't have to  
have access to your GUI to run the app, if your Mac isn't letting you  
log into your account, all you need to do is restart in Single User  
Mode (SUM), by holding down the command and s keys at start-up, and  
then typing applejack, or applejack auto (which will run through all  
the tasks automatically), or Applejack auto restart (which will also  
restart the computer automatically at the end of the process). I  
really wish a new version would be released that would work on a  
Leopard machine. AppleJack should be on all the older Macs, it's a  
great troubleshooter.

There are some other maintenance applications out there that will run  
the normal Unix scripts, but these are the ones that you'll run into  
most often, and between them, you'll have more then enough options to  
choose from. But I didn't want to leave without a few other freeware  
applications that can help keep your Mac and the software on it  
running at it's best.

Battery Health Monitor: http://sonoragraphics.com/batteryhealth.html

Battery Health Monitor is a must have app for any Mac laptop owner.  
BHM monitors virtually every battery parameter and does it in an easy  
to read format. BHM will show you the Original capacity, which is an  
indication of the battery's storage when it was new. The current  
capacity indicates how much that original capacity has changed with  
use. The current charge shows the battery's current charge state while  
Charge Cycles indicates how many complete charge/discharge cycles the  
battery has experienced. The percentage value indicates approximately  
what portion of the number of total recharge cycles the battery has  
left. There are even more details about your battery that you'll find  
when you use Battery Health Monitor. I would say that anyone with a  
laptop should give it a try.

SpeedMail: http://www.1802.it/speedmail.php

When your Apple Mail seems to slow down, most of the time it can be  
contributed to the database. Speedmail is a terminal command that will  
clean up your Apple Mail database and give you a noticeable speed  
increase. It's nothing fancy, but it does the job.

HighLoad: http://www.geniusx.net/highload Finally there's Highload.  
According to their website, HighLoad is comprised of a set of helpful  
processes designed to assist in troubleshooting your Mac. HighLoad  
will systematically begin to launch applications you would use when  
you're running your computer. This will simulate a real world high  
load environment to make sure items such as the virtual memory system,  
window server system, and other integrated processes are being  
utilized to the max. HighLoad will test available physical memory  
using memtest to make sure it is faulty free. No parameters to set or  
complex commands to issue, just one click. Highload will also take  
care of all the maintenance tasks that you need done, permissions,  
caches, pre-bindings and more.

So after you've tried all these programs and repaired permissions and  
cleared caches until the cows came home, what have you really  
accomplished? Probably not a lot more then if you'd never ran any of  
them at all. That may be a point of contention with a lot of Mac  
users, so I say it's better to be safe then sorry and find yourself a  
freeware maintenance program that you can live with and use it  
regularly. After all, your peace of mind is worth more then the cost  
of a single freeware application, right?

****************************************************************************************************

3. QUICKTIME 7.5 ADDRESSES SECURITY CONCERNS, IMOVIE AND IDVD UPDATED

by Jeff Carlson <jeffc at tidbits.com>


While the iPhone 3G and Snow Leopard grabbed everyone's attention at  
the Worldwide Developers Conference last week, Apple also released  
security and bug-fix updates to QuickTime, iMovie '08, and iDVD '08.

QuickTime 7.5 tackles several security issues dealing with maliciously  
crafted media: PICT images, AAC-encoded media, and Indeo video. It  
also changes the behavior of handling URLs by revealing files in the  
Finder or Windows Explorer instead of launching them. (For more  
information on recent QuickTime security issues and how Apple is  
addressing them, see "QuickTime Security Enhanced with Anti- 
Exploitation Technologies," 2007-09-07.)

<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1991> <http://db.tidbits.com/article/ 
9579>

QuickTime 7.5 is available via Software Update or as stand-alone  
downloads for the following operating systems: Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard  
(56 MB), Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (52.8 MB), Mac OS X 10.3 Panther (51.39  
MB), and Windows XP and Vista (22.67 MB).

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime75forleopard.html> <http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime75fortiger.html 
 > <http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime75forpanther.html>  
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime75forwindows.html>

Apple's updates for iMovie and iDVD only state that each addresses  
"general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and  
addresses a number of other minor issues." They're also available via  
Software Update (once QuickTime 7.5, which is required, is installed),  
or as stand-alone downloads: iMovie 7.1.2 (17.9 MB) and iDVD 7.0.2  
(20.27 MB). They also require Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later.

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovie712.html> <http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/idvd702.html 
 >

****************************************************************************************************

4. MAC OS X SNOW LEOPARD TO FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE, NOT FEATURES

by Adam C. Engst <ace at tidbits.com>

At the beginning of the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, Apple  
announced it would provide information about the next version of Mac  
OS X - code-named Snow Leopard - after the keynote. Since all the  
content at WWDC other than the keynote is covered by non-disclosure  
agreements, it seemed that Apple didn't plan to talk in public about  
what we could expect.

However, a press release about Snow Leopard appeared late in the day  
revealing some details. Instead of adding marquee features like Time  
Machine and Spaces, Snow Leopard will instead focus on enhancing  
performance and reliability and lay the foundation for future  
features. In particular, Snow Leopard will be optimized for multi-core  
processors, be able to tap into the computing power of modern graphic  
processing units (GPUs), make it possible to address up to 16 TB of  
RAM, ship with QuickTime X, and provide out-of-the-box support for  
Microsoft Exchange 2007 in Mail, iCal, and Address Book.

<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/06/09snowleopard.html>

A new technology code-named "Grand Central" will make it easier for  
developers to create applications that make the most of multi-core  
Macs, which should let people get more from those 8-core Mac Pros.  
Additional performance gains will come from support for Open Computing  
Language (OpenCL), a new language from Apple that supposedly lets any  
application access the gigaflops of computing power previously  
available only to graphics applications. Apple says that OpenCL is  
based on the C programming language and has been proposed as an open  
standard; the only hints about it up to now came in an interview with  
the Nvidia CEO.

<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-9962117-37.html>

QuickTime X will reportedly optimize support for modern audio and  
video formats for more-efficient media playback. It seems likely that  
QuickTime is due for a major rewrite, given how long it has been  
around. Finally, Safari will receive JavaScript performance  
enhancements that are intended to provide an enhanced user experience  
for Web applications, perhaps due to a new JavaScript engine called  
SquirrelFish that's recently seen the light of day.

<http://webkit.org/blog/189/announcing-squirrelfish>

The press release said that Snow Leopard is slated to ship "in about a  
year," and I'm sure more details will start leaking out as developers  
receive seeds. Overall, my initial reaction is that Snow Leopard is a  
very good move for Apple, because the focus on adding features in  
favor of performance has meant that Mac OS X has become increasingly  
poky for many users. And I suspect that people are no longer  
responding as favorably to long lists of features that they may or may  
not use - although I use them happily, none of the new features in  
Tiger or Leopard have radically changed the way I use my Mac. Apple  
touts Mac OS X as being rock-solid and easy to use (especially  
compared to Windows), so enhancing the engine under Leopard's hood  
could be just what many people are looking for in the next update.

It can be difficult to convince users to pay for better performance  
and more efficient workings under the hood, but perhaps Apple will  
charge less than the usual $129. Or, perhaps Apple will give Snow  
Leopard away for free, in preparation for a Mac App Store that will  
give Apple a cut of every Mac application sold. But that's just crazy  
talk... or is it?

QuickTime 7.5 is available via Software Update or as stand-alone  
downloads for the following operating systems: Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard  
(56 MB), Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (52.8 MB), Mac OS X 10.3 Panther (51.39  
MB), and Windows XP and Vista (22.67 MB).

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime75forleopard.html> <http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime75fortiger.html 
 > <http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime75forpanther.html>  
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime75forwindows.html>

Apple's updates for iMovie and iDVD only state that each addresses  
"general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and  
addresses a number of other minor issues." They're also available via  
Software Update (once QuickTime 7.5, which is required, is installed),  
or as stand-alone downloads: iMovie 7.1.2 (17.9 MB) and iDVD 7.0.2  
(20.27 MB). They also require Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later.

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovie712.html> <http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/idvd702.html 
 >

************************************************************************

5. APPLE ANNOUNCES IPHONE 3G TO SHIP ON 11-JUL-08

by Adam C. Engst <ace at tidbits.com>

Ending months of speculation and rumor, Steve Jobs today announced  
that the first major revision to the iPhone, dubbed the iPhone 3G,  
will ship on 11-Jul-08 for $199 (8 GB) or $299 (16 GB). The iPhone 2.0  
software, which will be a free upgrade for all current iPhone owners,  
will also debut on that date. iPod touch owners will be able to  
upgrade to the new software for $9.95.

<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/06/09iphone.html> <http://www.apple.com/iphone/ 
 >

The iPhone 3G will launch initially in 22 countries, with Apple aiming  
for availability in more than 70 countries by the end of 2008. To  
illustrate the complexity in such a device, Apple said in a briefing  
that the iPhone 3G has 10 radios, 7 of them covering the various  
spectrum slices used around the world.

New Hardware

As you might expect from the name, the iPhone 3G supports third- 
generation cellular data networking that operates over eight times  
faster than the EDGE data support in the first iPhone model. Apple  
claims just a factor of 2 to 3 times faster Web-page loading and email- 
attachment downloading. AT&T's flavor of 3G also makes it possible to  
use data-based services while you're talking on the phone.

The iPhone 3G's enhanced networking capabilities don't come at the  
expense of previous capabilities, and the device can switch among 3G,  
EDGE, and Wi-Fi as needed. The iPhone 3G can be set to use only 2G  
networks when that's necessary, which might be the case in reducing  
roaming charges outside of one's home carrier network.

The other major hardware enhancement in the iPhone 3G is a GPS  
receiver, which enhances the current iPhone's cell tower triangulation  
and nearby Wi-Fi network sniffing to provide more accurate position  
and real-time location mapping and tracking over time. In the keynote,  
Jobs demonstrated a drive the company "recorded" down San Francisco's  
famous curvy Lombard Street, with the Maps application playing back  
the progress over the same time duration, pulsating a ring of blue as  
a blue dot moved.

A GPS receiver can drain power from a mobile device quite rapidly -  
that's why they're often used while plugged in to an automobile. But  
in a briefing, Apple explained that the GPS receiver was engaged only  
while Maps was active, or when a program that called on Core Location  
features in the iPhone 2.0 software was using the GPS. The iPhone will  
ask your permission before allowing an application to use the location  
hardware, too.

It remains to be seen if Apple or another developer will add spoken  
directions. Technically speaking, the iPhone 3G supports Assisted GPS,  
or A-GPS, which increases accuracy and improves performance by  
offloading some processing to a remote server. The GPS capabilities  
also enable photo geotagging, although the iPhone's built-in camera  
remains stuck at a mere 2 megapixels.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGPS>

Less sexy but equally useful is the iPhone 3G's improved battery life  
in standby and talk time. Apple provides the following estimates,  
although our experience with all vendor battery life estimates is that  
they're optimistic and seldom reflect real-world usage (since, for  
instance, you would likely perform a variety of these actions over the  
course of a normal day of iPhone usage).

* Up to 300 hours of standby time * 10 hours of talk time on 2G  
networks * 5 hours of talk time on 3G networks * 5 (3G) or 6 (Wi-Fi)  
hours of Web browsing * Up to 7 hours of video playback * Up to 24  
hours of audio playback

The iPhone 3G uses 3G for talk when connected to 3G networks, and that  
reduces talk time by half, as you can see. With a switch in Settings,  
you can force the iPhone to use 2G networks to extend talk time or  
reduce data roaming bills when you're roaming away from home.

Physically, the iPhone 3G is almost identical to the original iPhone.  
Apple's specs page shows it increasing in depth by .02 inches (.7 mm)  
and decreasing in weight by .1 ounces (2 grams), not something we can  
imagine anyone but a dock manufacturer noticing or caring about.

<http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html>

TidBITS editor Glenn Fleishman spent a few minutes with an iPhone 3G  
during an Apple briefing, and found that despite the tiny changes in  
weight and size that it was noticeably lighter - he compared by  
holding his 2G iPhone in one hand and an iPhone 3G in the other - and  
nicer to hold.

However, the original iPhone's easily scratched chrome back has been  
replaced with plastic - black by default, although there's an option  
for white in the 16 GB model. And the headphone jack is now flush with  
the case, something that garnered big applause from the WWDC audience.  
(The original model's recessed jack meant some third-party headsets  
wouldn't fit without use of an adapter.) Jobs claimed that the iPhone  
3G also boasts dramatically better audio quality thanks to better  
built-in speakers.

<http://images.apple.com/iphone/images/specs_colors20080609.jpg>

iPhone 2.0 Software

Current iPhone and iPod touch owners won't have to buy an iPhone 3G to  
take advantage of other new features, however, since the iPhone 2.0  
software that drives the iPhone 3G is also available to the earlier  
devices. The iPhone 2.0 software will enable users to move and delete  
multiple email messages at once, search for contacts, use a new  
scientific calculator (merely by flipping the iPhone to landscape  
orientation when displaying the current calculator), turn on parental  
controls to restrict specified content, and save images directly from  
a Web page or send them to your iPhone via email (from which they can  
then be transferred back to the Mac).

<http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/> <http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/calculator.html 
 >

Some users will particularly appreciate the capability to view (but  
not edit) email-attached documents from the iWork suite within the  
Mail program: Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, along with Microsoft  
PowerPoint (joining the existing support for Word and Excel  
documents). And, finally, the iPhone's Calendar app now supports  
multiple iCal calendars, instead of grouping every event into one  
calendar.

<http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/calendar.html>

There's a subtle change that Apple discussed in a briefing when asked  
about the ability to enable Wi-Fi and disable cell radios in aircraft,  
since many airlines in the United States will be launching on-board  
Internet access using Wi-Fi in the next few months. An existing  
Airplane Mode in Settings turns off all radios when enabled; Apple  
said that the iPhone 2.0 software would allow Wi-Fi to be switched  
back on after Airplane Mode was engaged. This would also let you  
extend battery life by disabling 9 of the 10 on-board radios if you  
didn't need voice calling. (Like cell radios, GPS receivers are  
illegal to use in flight.)

Of course, we anticipate that the most interesting applications will  
come from third-party developers who have now been using the iPhone  
SDK (software development kit) for three months to create a wide range  
of programs. 250,000 people downloaded the free iPhone SDK, and 25,000  
applied for the paid developer program, but only 4,000 have been  
admitted to the developer program so far.

During the WWDC keynote, Apple brought a number of developers on stage  
to show their applications and make the expected platitudes about how  
wonderful it was to develop for the iPhone. Sega, Pangea Software, and  
Digital Legends Entertainment showed off games that took advantage of  
the built-in accelerometer and gestures; eBay demoed a native  
application for bidding in auctions; two companies presented medical  
applications; the Associated Press and MLB.com showed news-related  
programs; and the social-networking site Loopt used the iPhone 3G's  
location capabilities to show the location of your friends. The  
developer who garnered the most applause, however, was a lone  
developer named Mark Terry from Moo Cow Music, whose Band program lets  
iPhone users mix songs using a variety of instruments.

<http://moocowmusic.com/Band/>

All iPhone applications, free or commercial, will be available via the  
new App Store; see "More iPhone App Store Details  
Revealed" (2008-06-09) for more.

<http://www.apple.com/iphone/appstore/> <http://db.tidbits.com/9646>

Pricing and Availability

Jobs acknowledged that one of the major challenges Apple faced with  
the original iPhone was the price, which started out at $599 for an 8  
GB model. The first price cut dropped that to $399 (see the details at  
the end of "Apple Introduces iPod touch, Wi-Fi iTunes Store, and New  
iPods," 2007-09-10), and Apple has now reduced the price yet again,  
cutting it in half to $199 in the United States, and he said it would  
cost the same or less worldwide. That's for a black 8 GB model; for 16  
GB of RAM, you'll pay $299, and you'll get the choice of a black or  
white back.

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9152>

Although it's hard to argue with Apple dropping the iPhone's price by  
$200, a fact that came out only after the keynote is that 3G service  
plans will increase by $10 per month for personal plans, and $25 per  
month for business plans. That makes the cheapest package $70 per  
month. Historically, Apple has received a share of revenue, but Ars  
Technica is reporting that the revenue-sharing deal hasn't been  
extended to the new model, along with the fact that current iPhone  
users who want to upgrade will be able to do so by starting a new 2- 
year contract, not adding another 2 years on top of the remaining  
contract commitment. Instead of the revenue sharing deal, AT&T is  
subsidizing the price of iPhones, according to the Associated Press, a  
standard cellular-phone pricing arrangement.

<http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/06/09/att-remains-sole-iphone-carrier-in-us-revenue-sharing-axed 
 > <http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hHJEtMffp-_0zKP9QU7QkBMhuOXgD916PAOO5 
 >

(Don't cry for AT&T: with the cheapest personal service plan, they'll  
realize about $500 more in revenue over two years with the higher fee  
and no revenue sharing than they did with the 2G iPhone.)

The iPhone 3G will be available in 22 countries on 11-Jul-08.  
Interestingly, the online Apple Store is not accepting pre-orders; it  
merely points to retail Apple Store and AT&T locations where the  
iPhone will be available.

<http://www.apple.com/iphone/buy/>

What's Next?

This product announcement was perhaps the least-well-kept of Apple's  
secrets since Steve Jobs returned to the company many years ago. Both  
the 3G and GPS additions have been discussed for ages, and Apple  
itself raised the curtain on the iPhone SDK and App Store months ago.  
So in some sense, despite the massive amount of anticipation, there's  
a slight letdown in not being wowed by entirely unanticipated features  
or in Apple not delivering on every rumored feature, such as a forward- 
facing video camera for iChat video chatting. (Damn those rumors for  
raising our hopes!) That does leave room for a third-generation iPhone  
to appear next year, though who knows what Apple will call it, given  
that the _second-generation_ is the iPhone _3G_.

****************************************************************************************************
Some articles above have been reprinted with permission from TidBITS.  
TidBITS has offered more than ten years of thoughtful commentary on  
Macintosh and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access  
to the entire TidBITS archive, visit www.tidbits.com.	

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