Cuppacafe

Scott Adams, the creator and genius behind the comic strip Dilbert, has a take on the iPhone prototype flap, but the lead time it takes getting into newspapers would make his two quick strips appear dated. Sad.

From Scott Adams' Dilbert blog

I found this story too delicious to resist, but I worried that the story would become stale before my comics would work through the pipeline. I think the soonest I can get something published is in about a month, perhaps a bit sooner, but I've never tested it.

I drew two comics while considering my options. In the end, I thought it wasn't worth the extra friction to push them to the front of the line. And it would be June 18th before they ran in their normal position, which seemed too far in the future. So here now, exclusively for you blog readers, the totally unfinished first drafts of those comics. You will never see these in newspapers.

Read the rest of his entry at his blog
\[via Techmeme]

So here’s the thing. We’ve all had this experience, you have something in you hand (your cell phone, your glasses, Top Secret NORAD codes), you put them down (for just a moment), then you walk on, without pickling the item up again. Suddenly (a few moments to a few hours) later, you realize that you are no longer carrying what you once were.

Like I said, its happened to all of us (some more than others). So you cam imagine the pain felt by the guy who was reviewing the (at the time) the new mac Air, and accidentally threw it out with the recycling. No, really! Well, recently an Apple developer was out drinking with the (still new, and as yet unreleased) Apple G4 iPhone and, well, (apparently) got so tanked up, that he left it behind in a bar. where it was found, and then leaked on Gizmodo.

So, well, you can perhaps forgive co-founder Steve Wozniak who had a little bit of fun at his former company's expense by wearing this t-shirt.

Yea, everybody's a comedian, eh?

Apple engineer Gray Powell is an Apple Engineer, who visited The Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German Beer Garden in Redwood City, California, to celebrate his birthday, and later abandoned the iPhone 4G prototype on bar stool, as he leaves the bar in drunken state. Later, Gizmodo, a technology news blog got hold of it for $5000 and leaked pictures and videos. Police has started the investigation after Apple Inc. approached local police (read the complete story here).

The Perfessor

You remember that classic Superbowl commercial where the Coke driver was drinking Pepsi (or was it a Pepsi driver who drank Coke). Truly it doesn't matter (at least for this post), in that brand loyalty is de rigueur when working for a particular company, in that you should probably use their product while on site that company.

Imagine then being a tech-head working for Microsoft, and showing up to work with an Apple iPhone.

The perils of being an iPhone user at Microsoft were on display last September. At an all- company meeting in a Seattle sports stadium, one hapless employee used his iPhone to snap photos of Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. Mr. Ballmer snatched the iPhone out of the employee's hands, placed it on the ground and pretended to stomp on it in front of thousands of Microsoft workers, according to people present. Mr. Ballmer uses phones from different manufacturers that run on Microsoft's mobile phone software.

In fact, in a discussion about Microsoft employees using iPhones, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once told company executives that when his father worked at the Ford Motor Company, his family always drove Fords. Seems like a pretty clear stance, eh, however, Despite Mr. Ballmer's theatrics, there are apparently plenty of iPhone users operating in in plain sight at the sprawling Microsoft campus in Seattle. In fact, among the top Microsoft executives who use the iPhone is J Allard (who helped create the Xbox game console and is chief experience officer for the entertainment and devices division). Further, there are nearly 10,000 iPhone users were accessing the Microsoft employee email system last year, say at least two people inside the company.

Interestingly enough, Brand loyalty over at Apple, is much stronger, because, in contrast, appear to be more devoted to the company's own mobile phone. Several people who work at the company or deal regularly with employees there say they can't recall seeing Apple workers with mobile phones other than the iPhone in recent memory. Makes you wonder, eh? (In a related item, we recall seeing a story of how Google was giving Google-powered Android phones out as year-end bonuses to their employees at the close of last year.)

Personally, I wouldn't mind what Internet-powered smart-phone that someone wanted to give me. I promise to use it and say nice things about it.

The Perfessor

This just in from The Unofficial Apple WebBlog (TUAW), the newest toy that they are all going to want.

TUAW bloggers Mike Schramm, Dave Caolo, Steve Sande, and David Winograd visited with the oh-so-lucky dudes from Parrot yesterday pre-Macworld, and had a chance to try our hands at flying this incredible little device. No, we don't know what this is going to cost, nor do we know when it will ship other than "in 2010," but if you have your geek on, you're going to want one of these. Watch the above video by our awesome videographer Chad Mumm for the scoop.

As for me, I'm still waiting for my jet pack!

The Perfessor

If only this tactic could work for the rest of us!

During Colbert’s Tip of the Hat/Wag of the Finger segment last night, he gave a tip of the hat to ScareBear Trail Companion, an iPhone app that is intended to ward off bears. As always, Colbert gave a rather funny demonstration of how the app works and how it is intended to be used, but it was his parting statement before a commercial break that really caught my attention.

If you remember, he tried this approach when the iPhone came out, but it didn’t work then. Well, this time he had better luck...

...it seems like after begging for one the entire week, Stephen Colbert just saw his dreams come true.

Tonight at the Grammys, instead of pulling out the “Song of the Year” envelope, he managed to surprise everybody with a shiny Apple iPad.

One can only assume that the iPad needed a boost that the iPhone didn’t.

I’m not saying that I will go out an buy this over-priced, awkward toy, but if Steve Jobs wanted to give one to me as well. Still, some guys have all the luck

The Perfessor

No, really, it’s true. Or, more specifically, AT&T is quietly sandbagging the iPhone sales in NYC because of the overcrowded cellphone towers, and no longer offering iPhones to folks living within the City limits.

AT&T has apparently found a workable solution to the reported data congestion in New York City. They've quietly stopped selling the iPhone to customers in the New York metropolitan area, at least from their web site.

This much was learned from a potential Big Apple customer who went hunting for the phone:

“I was on the AT&T Wireless website trying to get an iPhone. However, when I put in my zip code 11231, the site says the iPhone is unavailable. This seemed a little odd so I started punching in other famous zip codes: 90210, 60609 (spiegel catalog), 02134 (zoom, an old children's show).

For theses cities, LA, Chicago, Boston, iPhone is available. Then I looked up some other zip codes: Dallas, Miami, St. Louis, Philadelphia, San Francisco. All those cities are ok. Then I started putting in more NYC zip codes: midtown, Staten Island, the Bronx...no iPhone available.”

So if you live in NY and already have an iPhone, then you are one of the lucky ones, otherwise, there is always Verizon’s Droid.

The Perfessor