The Verizon iPhone!

The mere prospect of an upcoming Verizon iPhone launch seems to be getting more press than all of this year's CES events combined. Tech pundits all over the web are "confirming" the launch based on their "unnamed sources close to the situation." Really? I just don't see it happening. At least not yet.
I can't imagine Apple, being the innovative company that it is, would invest that much time and money at this stage in the game to develop a CDMA iPhone. It just doesn't make sense. Regardless of how dissatisfied they are with AT&T as a partner, I can't see them heavily investing their resources in an aging technology, especially given the speed limitations of EV-DO rev A.
Instead, I envision Apple releasing an iPhone mid-2011 (exclusively on AT&T) that will be an incremental upgrade on the iPhone 4, much like the 3GS was to the 3G. Next year, however, will be the big year where everything changes. The iPhone will be due for a major upgrade, which I believe will be LTE. The LTE iPhone will probably be available on Verizon and AT&T as both companies have committed to using it as their 4G standard.
Now, it's no secret that Verizon is scheduled to hold a press conference next week so I may be eating my words in a few days, but we'll see. In the meantime, what do you think? Is a Verizon iPhone headed our way soon?

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: The Beatles are now on iTunes!

Yeah... that didn't really wow me either. You know what would have been really cool? If Apple came out and said they were collaborating with Nintendo to deliver an integrated entertainment platform. I have long thought the two organizations could benefit from such a partnership. I'm thinking of a system that combined the best features of the Apple TV and Wii with a highly intuitive interface, perhaps making use of the accelerometer in the iPhone or iPod touch. Imagine, for example, two players going head-to-head in Mario Kart, one on a TV and the other on an iPad! It could happen, right?

Obligatory Hawaii Five-0 Post

I am probably the last blogger in the state to write about Hawaii Five-0. I missed the Sunset on the Beach premiere and I don't have TV so my only option was to stream it from IMDB tonight. A quick Google or Twitter search will reveal a plethora of blog posts related to the new series. Ryan Ozawa (@Hawaii) blogged about it here and Catherine Toth (@thedailydish) of Nonstop Honolulu wrote a post that has already garnered more than 50 comments. I also enjoyed reading John Garcia's (@JohnGarcia) design breakdown of the opening sequence. I agree with everyone that it was actually A LOT better than anticipated (once you get past the geography and pidgin). So what's left to write about? Well, being the geek that I am, I'm going to blog about the show's mobile tech.

During the first scene, McGarrett (played by Alex O'Loughlin), whips out this dinosaur. I was thinking to myself, "What the heck is that? It sorta' looks like a 6100 series Nokia." Anyone know what the actual model is? I had a similar phone when T-Mobile was still VoiceStream. That may very well have been my last monochromatic phone. EVER.


When he arrives in Honolulu, he must have been eligible for an upgrade (or maybe he changed carriers from T-Mobile to AT&T) because in the next scene, you see him rocking an iPhone 3GS. Someone should have told him to hold out for an iPhone 4. The iPhone 4's 5-megapixel camera and LED flash is much better suited for taking pictures of a poorly lit crime scene.




I was just scratching my head on this one. During this conversation, McGarrett's iPhone makes an audible beep when he picks it up and when he ends the call. My iPhone doesn't beep when I take a call and neither does my wife's. Is there some unknown feature I'm missing out on here?


Even the bad guys have iPhones and they get better reception than I do >:(


In addition to iPhones, our heroes are decked out with unibody MacBook Pros, 'cause you know, crime fighting is so much cooler with a Mac ;)


Incidentally, if you are a fan of the new series, Kukui High School is now on Twitter. Follow them @kukuihigh.

My AT&T iPhone Upgrade Conspiracy Theory

In Monday's WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs mentioned that anyone who is eligible for an upgrade in 2010 through AT&T can get a new iPhone 4 at launch. Initially, that made me very excited because I would be able to purchase two phones (currently, my wife and I are on alternating contracts so one of us can always have the latest and greatest). The more I thought about it, however, the more I began to wonder... there must be more to this seemingly benevolent offer. After all, the deal seems just a little too good to be true. So, the wheels started turning and I came up with this conspiracy theory: I suspect that Apple is already working on an LTE (4G) iPhone and that phone will be made available to Verizon customers sometime in 2011. It's no secret that Verizon is aggressively rolling out its LTE network over the next several months and that could be in anticipation of a future relationship with Apple. This is probably making AT&T nervous and cause for them to try to get as many customers as possible to lock in to another 2-year agreement with the newly imposed $325 early termination fee. What better way than with a shiny new iPhone? We'll see how it all pans out.
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Incidentally, I came across this cool little trick. If you dial *639# on your phone, AT&T will send you a text message indicating what your eligibility status is. Both of my iPhones are currently displaying this message: