To be honest, I am tired of all those rumors surrounding the upcoming events involving Apple. The 3G iPhone will arrive, but nobody knows when, there are going to be new Macs, Mac OS X Leopard will get updated, and so on... that's it! I can't tell you exactly what and when, but at least we got some official information regarding what's going to happen at the WWDC 2008, so let's see...

Here's what Apple promises for this year's WWDC: "Immerse yourself with over 150 information-rich sessions and labs where Apple engineers go in-depth on the innovative technologies that power iPhone OS, Leopard, and Leopard Server. Get all the details, including sessions for the first-ever iPhone track, that will take you deep into the technologies that offer you infinite possibilities."

OK, I know you want to hear about Steve Jobs' speech and the iPhone, right? To get into all the details announced by Apple, feel free to visit the official WWDC page on Apple.com, because now I will tell you about the best things to happen there...

The conference will start with a keynote address from a team of Apple executives, led by CEO Steve Jobs, beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, June 9, 2008 at San Francisco's Moscone West. Needless to say what Steve Jobs is expected to announce, I am sure this is obvious for everyone!

Other than the above, you will get hands-on sessions, technology labs, as well as special events including the Welcome Reception, Apple Design Awards, Lunchtime Speakers and Stump the Experts, and this is only a small part of what's expected to happen between the 9th and 13th of June in what is expected to be the largest WWDC so far.

At last, you have to see this - "Response to this year's WWDC has been off the charts and we are delighted with the show of enthusiasm and support from the developer community for the new iPhone SDK. The conference is now sold out. For those unable to attend WWDC, session videos will be available to purchase on iTunes shortly after the conference."

The "Saving Machine" doesn't have anything to do with your souls, and it's not a typo either. After all, a "shaving machine" shouldn't have any link with Apple, as long as it wouldn't use some kind of Mac OS X for working properly, which is not the case here. What I am trying to say is that Leopard's builtin backup solution, known as Time Machine, will finally provide its users with a power saving feature!


<-234x60 Half Banner - left->If you didn't have the chance to use the Time Machine software so far, then it's enough to say this program keeps all your precious data safe on an external device, such as FireWire or USB drives, as well as on networked storage devices, like Apple's own Time Capsule. For now, the features of this program are rather limited, because you can only backup every hour, and backups are not automatically stopped when the battery is low, so data corruption can occur.

The good part is that, according to the latest inside news (nothing official, of course), Mac OS X 10.5.3 is going to improve Time Machine a lot. The latest Mac OS X Leopard build seeded to developers, labeled 10.5.3 (9D29), comes with an updated Time Machine version, which finally allows laptop users to stop background hourly backups when on battery power.

Apart from the above, the improved Time Machine software is expected to come with a lot of bug fixes, end it should reduce battery loss caused by backups performed over a Wi-Fi connection. Sounds good to me, but I guess we should wait for a while to see how the public update will fulfill all these expectations.

Until now, I saw a lot of products claiming to be their competitors' "killers," but in most cases, they ended up only with "killer features," and disappointing behaviour in real life. This time, we're talking about an "iPhone killer." Another one? Well, this is not just "another iPhone killer" because, by the looks of it, it may just be "THE iPhone killer" a lot of people were waiting for, except those from Apple, of course. Today, it's not about technical specifications, it's about a head to head race, and the competitors are Apple's current iPhone, and Samsung's brand new "Instinct." Are you ready for the ride?


<-120x240 Vertical Banner - left->Before moving on with the article, I would like to thank the Marketing/Publicity team at M80 in Los Angeles for contacting us and providing the information we used for this article, namely the video comparison between the iPhone and the Sprint Samsung Instinct. Obviously, you can look at the movies and be amazed as I was, but I think some things need to be added, before ending our little chat here.

No matter how much some would like to see the iPhone buried, we should all be aware that the Sprint Samsung Instinct was announced about a month ago, while the iPhone as we know it could be already considered an "old" product. Considering the above, I think a comparison between the Samsung Instinct and the upcoming 3G iPhone would be more suitable, but I really don't know if Apple will manage to speed it up that much. Again, just look at the video comparison, saying anything else is pointless!

Anyway, nothing is perfect, and one of Instinct's weak points may be the storage capacity - only up to 8GB for now, but I am sure this can be solved pretty easy in the coming months with a minor product update, just as it happened with the iPhone.

If you didn't pay close attention to all the movies, then let me add that the feature list of Samsung's smart phone includes the now common touchscreen interface, 2.0MP camera with 2X zoom and camcorder, visual voicemail, GPS navigation and search, as well as advanced customization possibilities. Obviously, this is only the top of the iceberg...

Ladies and gentlemen, here you have it - the Sprint Samsung Instinct, a real iPhone killer! If it will also manage to be a "3G iPhone killer," that remains to be seen. Anyway, for now, we have no idea on pricing or availability, so you could do exactly the same thing as we do - keep your eyes on the Samsung Instinct official site, waiting for the pricing information to appear!

As far as it concerns Northern America, the iPhone is officially available everywhere, but in other areas of the world, it's still impossible to get one from the "white market." We're not talking about the upcoming 3G iPhone here, but the good old "classics," the 8GB and 16GB iPhones. So, why did I get to such an "ancient" subject? Well, after the latest announcements, there are no less than 35 countries where the iPhone is available via Apple's stores or its official partners, as we're going to see right away...


According to Channel News Asia, Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), Bharti Airtel, Globe Telecom and Optus announced on Monday they signed agreements with Apple to bring the iPhone to the following countries: Singapore, India, the Philippines and Australia. As you can see in the map above, the largest areas still without any official means to get an iPhone are Africa and Asia. While Asia has a lot of iPhone clones selling all over the place, it's obvious most African countries won't see Apple's smart phone in the near future, and the main reason is the price and the poverty of those areas.

For now, there are about 35 countries having the iPhone or expecting it to arrive in the coming months, but only 13 carriers chosen by Apple to provide their services for the smart phone. Anyway, I am sure this may slightly change in the coming year, because if Apple wants to conquer more markets, it needs to show flexibility, and allowing iPhone's users to choose their own carrier is "a must."

A few years ago, I stumbled into a very interesting product, called Schmap Player. To be more accurate, this was happening in mid-2006, when Schmap Player was only in its Beta stage, but I found it to be very interesting for a "1.0 Beta" software. Anyway, today it's not about Schmap Player, but about one of its followers - Schmap for iPhone, a very interesting solution for all those iPhone users that need to know their location and more than just that, an application which today is moving into the public Beta stage.


Before saying anything else, I would like to thank Donald McMillan for letting us know about the Schmap for iPhone a few days ago, just in time to give us a chance to play with the application before anyone else. Thanks a lot, Donald!

To find out more about Schmap for iPhone, you could visit the official page I just linked to, but until then, let me give you a few quick hints on what to expect from this program, all right?

As long as you keep your iPhone in a vertical position while running the program, you get a scrollable list of hot places around, but once you rotate the iPhone, you get to see those places right on the map! Even more, you can still scroll through the list, and the map will be automatically updated!


Next, you should know there are over 100 cities available worldwide, and the number will surely increase in the future. Once you have chosen your city, you can browse reviews and photos of all major sights, hotels, restaurants, galleries, parks, and so on. Obviously, the City Guides feature also works hand in hand with the "Rotate 'n Map" capability described above.

At last, there's a feature one can't live without - search. The Local Search feature of the Schmap software allows you to find anything in a certain area, and even call with a single click. From now on, being in a new city won't be a problem at all, because no matter the time and place, you'll always have a reliable source of information with you!

To enjoy all these features, just go to Schmap.com using your iPhone or iPod touch(I didn't mention it so far, but this application also works on the iPod touch...but you'll miss the one-click capability, of course!), and find new places in your city, or simply go on a virtual trip around the world. "Bon Voyage!"