Today, when talking about iPhone 3G problems, I can't stop but think about the shortages, despite the fact some people are already returning them. Why? Well, there are plenty of reasons to do that, and you can read more about them in the first iPhone 3G problems article I wrote more than a month ago, and in the second one, published earlier this month. If you ask me, I would gladly like to talk about iPhone 3G wallpapers, ringtones, cases, not to mention iPhone 3G software, and we'll surely do that in the weeks to come, but now there's something you have to see...



It gets even worse than the picture above, but I think that's enough. I had a lot of plastic gadgets so far, but only one or two got cracks during their lifetime. If we talk about phones, then I must confess I keep dropping my Nokia phone on the concrete on a regular basis - no destructive intention, it just happens - and it's still in one piece, without any cracks on its back side. Unfortunately, a handful of iPhone 3G owners didn't manage to get lucky, so the back of their beloved smartphone proved to be the weak spot, and... you saw it already, what else can I say?<-125x125 Button - right->

I knew it from the start that a plastic back can't be such a good idea, especially after hearing so many reports from people delighted about the durability of the old iPhone. Anyway, since Apple will replace the cracked iPhones without asking too many questions, things aren't that bad as they seem. Hopefully, these problems will be solved quickly by improving the manufacturing process of the phone's back, or maybe even change that plastic with something better.

If you want to see more images with the iPhone 3G cracks, go ahead and click the link, but be warned - it doesn't happen only to white iPhones, so don't get too happy if you have a black one. Better go buy a case, and keep it safe!

You know what's the funniest thing about Apple, Macs, iPods and iPhones? Don't tell me about the clones, because those are not funny, especially for people that paid almost as much as they would have spent on the originals! While I like most of Apple's products a lot, I am not crazy about their way of handling some things, like continuing to sell DRM-protected media on iTunes or the recent change they made with the iPhone 3G, using a plastic back, instead of aluminum. Anyway, the funny part is that you always hear at least five rumors regarding upcoming products for each official statement coming from Apple, and their statements are not giving away any special details before a certain product is released, exactly as it's happening now with the next-gen Macs...


Before anything else, just my 2 cents - I wouldn't be amazed to see some low price notebooks from Apple, with at least some low quality materials used in their manufacturing, maybe even cheap displays...but let's not go that far! The Apple notebooks are selling pretty well as they are, and it would be a pity to see them going into competition with all those cheap ones. After all, you want quality and outstanding tech support, you have to pay. That's it. Nothing's free, remember that!

Now, why would Apple switch from Intel to NVIDIA for the next-gen Macs? The core of the answer is this - Apple notebooks need more graphics power, and Intel can't provide it right now. According to PC Perspective's Ryan Shrout, Apple could even develop its own integrated graphics solution and chipset(that would surely solve the clones problem!), but "This would take much longer, and require many more resources than I think Apple has in its engineering team. Designing their own core logic and IGP (integrated graphics processor) chipset just isn’t in the equation at this point." For now, this is right, but as Apple's market share continues to grow, it may become the only solution for avoiding the Mac to be turned into a 21st Century "Apple-PC compatible."

<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->While these are only speculations, I don't think NVIDIA is developing a competitor for Montevina with advanced GeForce graphics core incorporated in each variant just hoping they would get a part of the market. They surely have something big in mind, and Apple seems to be the right bet. While supporting the same technologies as Intel's chipsets, NVIDIA's upcoming MCP79 is just a single compact chip, and since Intel's approach uses one northbridge chip and one southbridge chip, I am sure NVIDIA can come up with something cheaper.

At last, it should be noted that NVIDIA covered its plans in the mobile sector in a veil of secrecy, just as Apple does most of the time. Look, even Mr. Shrout said "They have been surprisingly silent for quite some time; there have been no planned media summits or technology days on these well known mobility products. And that fits in with the traditional Apple mentality of keeping their partners silent as long as possible. If an OEM asks you to pull back on promoting a product you have had in development for this long, that OEM had better be as big a name as Apple."

Intel fans shouldn't be disappointed, since Apple will keep using their processors for a long time, I am sure of that...but regarding the rest of the Apple Mac rumors, we surely need to keep our eyes open!

As time goes by, Windows Vista slowly gets new users, but they are usually people buying laptops or desktop computers with it preinstalled. Sooner or later, most of them will probably move to Windows XP, one of the many Linux distros available, or Mac OS X. The problem is not Vista's reliability, and it's not the price either. Microsoft's biggest problem is the very slow adoption in the enterprise and professional market areas, if I can call it "very slow." I am saying this because it seems more of a rejection than a slow adoption, and we're going to see right away exactly why I put it this way...

I know we could talk about this for ages, but if we make a long story short, here's the latest Windows Vista vs Mac OS X news: computer professionals are slowly walking away, leaving Vista behind, and they step in the Apple realm!

According to an article published on Campus Technology, a recent KACE-sponsored survey on Windows Vista shows nothing good for Microsoft. If I would be Steve Ballmer, I would simply let it be as it is, and pour the money thrown away on the new Vista marketing campaign into the cup of the next Windows version, but since I am not him, let's see the results of the poll, shall we?

"This survey found a slip in Windows Vista deployment plans, with 60 percent of respondents saying that they had "no plans to deploy Vista at this time," compared with 53 percent in the 2007 survey." That doesn't sound good at all, but there's even more for Microsoft to worry about...<-180x150 Small Rectangle - right->

"Some respondents (42 percent) said they were considering alternative operating systems to Windows Vista. The Macintosh operating system was the favored alternative by 29 percent of respondents. Linux-based operating systems were also in the running, but trailed. More IT professionals reported challenges managing non-Windows operating systems in this survey, with 65 percent citing a need for expertise vs. 49 percent in 2007."

Obviously, Linux-based systems are a tough challenge in the professional environment, and since Mac OS X is more friendly, a 4 percent market share for Mac vs only 1 percent for Vista is no surprise. Windows XP has an impressive 85 percent of the enterprise OS market, while the remaining part is being filled by the many Linux and Unix based systems, as well as a few others.

In the home operating systems market, the situation is also gray for Microsoft, with Windows XP still having the largest slice of the pie. Anyway, I have no accurate info on that, so we'll leave that topic for another time, but if you want to help, you can drop a comment and share your opinion about Vista, XP, Mac and Linux below. Thank you very much!

A few years ago, when thinking about the future of iPod, most people saw Bluetooth and new colors, while others expected to get features Apple seems to ignore. No matter how good is the sound quality of any iPod out there(no matter what you will say, the iPods have good sound quality, but none of them is the best in its category - anyway, feel free to drop a comment if you think different, lossy music will always suffer from the limitations of its compression format, so support for losless music formats is the first new feature I would like to see in the next generation of iPods. Anyway, until we get there, let's see what rumors we have about the future of iPod, shall we?

First of all, I must tell you I have no idea if they're going to make them hot unpluggable or not and, honestly, I couldn't care less about that. Anyway, there's a reference to a new iPod Touch in the iPhone 2.1 firmware, and now everyone started coming up with suppositions. My guess? 3G support, and a plastic back. After all, the old iPod Touch was, practically, the "iPhone without the phone," so I don't think an "iPod Touch 3G" is something out of this world.<-125x125 Button - right->

Second and last of today's rumors regarding the future of iPod, is an iLounge report about the fact that, according to "multiple sources," the 4th generation iPod nano will follow Microsoft Zune's example, and going against the speculations that future iPod nanos will turn into "mini-touches," with a new 1.5:1 widescreen aspect ratio, just like the iPhone and iPod touch, while old iPod nano and iPod classic only had 1.33:1. Even more, you'll be able to rotate it and watch movies as you wish, just like on the iPod Touch.

These being said, I will only voice again my request, although Apple won't rush in to comply - support for losless formats, please, and you can drop support for DRM audio! DRM cracking is already visible, and it's only a matter of time until the iTunes Store will be forced to follow the others and drop DRM protected tracks.

No matter how things may be looking now when it comes to digital music, but not limited to it, I am sure there will be a future in which quality will go on first place, not quantity, as it happens these days...

I know a lot of people are looking to find out more about digital rights management cracking, and no matter how much I am against piracy, I can't blame them, because DRM makes people that buy music lose their money too often. As an example, look at Yahoo! Music, and this is only the latest example. When we talked about Yahoo! Music, I expected to see pressure starting to build up around Apple's DRM, but I must confess I wasn't even hoping to see it happening so soon, since today I just found out some interesting things about this topic, as we're going to see right away...


Before moving on, let me say it again - you like an artist, buy the album. Get the CD. Feel it in your hands, enjoy reading the booklet info and watching the pictures. If you simply want to listen to various hits, there are plenty of online radio stations to choose from. Buying tracks that depend on the availability of a remote server to be moved around from a computer to another is not a choice, especially since DRM is applied to lossy-compressed tracks, and according to some artists, the entire music industry is going down because of this, because albums are being recorded and mixed using lower standards. After all, most buyers are listening to lossy versions, aren't they? What a shame...<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->

...but since there are a lot of music fans who don't like to compromise, and the situation is favorable, anti-DRM protests are expected to start pretty soon, maybe even as we speak, at Apple stores across the world! Although this is more of a symbolic gesture, it's a good start - the Free Software Foundation has a plan, called Apple Challenge, involving a very simple approach - its supporters will book a Genius Bar appointment, and then ask various questions about Apple's restrictive policies regarding the iPhone source code, protected iTunes music, and others.

While the part regarding DRM of the Apple Challenge may not be as consistent as one would expect, this is one clear sign that digital rights management cracking has begun, and not like in "cracking a protection," but like "a crack in the wall." These being said, all I can hope is that we'll be celebrating the fall of the "DRM wall" as soon as possible. After all, Apple was always pushing this world ahead, and it would be a shame to hold it back, this time!