AuburnCom Weblog

Everybody has experienced the super long lines at the Bank and the Post Office, these are two lines that you simply have no choice but to wait and be patient, I usually bring a good book or the latest issue of Make Magazine to keep me busy while at the post office.Some lines though you have a choice about, Safeway or Wholefoods or Trader Joes, if you happen to run into one of these for a liter of Organic Milk at the wrong time (5-7pm M-F) you’ll be met with a 20 minute line at the checkouts, Grocery stores can pretty much get away with this as we’re very loyal to our grocers.Technology and impulse buy stores can not afford to have long lines, this is what makes me such a fan of the service and efficiency in the Apple stores, every employee (down to  the Geniuses) seem to have handheld (or for Geniuses desk bound) payment consoles that allow anyone paying with credit or debit cards to pay for their product on the spot, be that in the middle of the floor, buy the door, perhaps even outside the store, I absolutely love this method of paying for purchases, it’s truly convenient and saves you the five minutes of will I won’t I pondering that you have when purchasing a Nintendo Wii at Best Buy.This great checkout system will enable the Apple store to process incredible numbers of sales this Friday when the Apple Store begins selling the iPhone at 6pm, in fact the Apple store using their ‘Swipe’n'Go’ (Registered TM of Auburncom) will probably be able to process fifty transactions in the same time that the AT&T stores process ten.It’ll be a truly great experience and those folks that are a hundred (or five hundred) places back in line at the Apple Store Fifth Avenue will probably be stunned, when they have completed their transaction by 6:30pm (maybe that’s exaggerating), nevertheless, you can bank on the fact that the checkout process for Apples customers on Friday will be as simple, easy, quick and pleasurable as all of Apples range of products and services.

Just found this story on Apple Insider, Best Quote:

“Awaiting the freight at each location on Sunday were armored personnel, who were reportedly hired by Apple through its courier’s ground handling agent and then cleared by the Transportation Security Administration. Armed guards are extremely unusual for freight coming out of the Asian sector, those familiar with the matter explained, and are typically reserved for shipments containing riches such as gold and diamonds.”

You can read the rest of the story here

The website RoughlyDrafted has written a long and detailed article summing up some of the facts regarding the iPhone, who and where it has received hype or criticism from and how these folks fare on a histrorical basis, one of the best parts is this: 

Gizmodo called for an iPhone boycott “for the foreseeable future” as a righteous protest against AT&T, a brand it associates with “Microsoft-style anti-competitive maneuvers and anti-privacy efforts á la RIAA.”  

Interestingly, Gizmodo offered no opinions last fall about boycotting the Zune to protest genuine“Microsoft anti-competitive maneuvers,” or the Zune’s actual connection with the RIAA with its over the top DRM, self destructing media, and the Universal “music theft tax”Microsoft bundled into its price. Why not? 

To continue reading (it’s worthwhile), click here

With the proliferation of Text, Audio and Video Messaging using iChat, Aim, Skype or GTalk. Its very comforting to see that you can encrypt your conversations completely private using encryption.To do this, enable it in your preferences pane of iChat, you’ll need to have .mac to use this feature and thats on more great feature of the .mac service.   

This glorious week began with the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) at the Moscone (or Mascarpone) center in San Francisco, the WWDC is a week long event for Developers of Apple Software to converge in San Francisco, spend their days in very special Workshops headed by actual Apple Engineers. 

Developers get to meet their peers and also internal Apple Developers who can shed new light on new technologies, how to use them, how to write for them.

One of the biggest events throughout the week (if not the biggest) is the Keynote which is now available on Apple’s Website at this address: http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/d7625zs/event/

The keynote is also being discussed thoroughly at various respected podcasts and websites around the Interweb, to catch one of these Podcasts, try my recommended ones first: 

1. Macworld WWDC Roundtable This is the best and most clear discussion of the WWDC keynote that I’ve heard so far, there are however a few alternatives; 

2. Maccast Special EditionThis is a fifteen minute special that Adam recorded in his car and uploaded immediately, its the most concise of all the podcasts covering the Keynote.

3. MacBreak Weekly A lighthearted and opinionated podcast with some renowned Mac Pundits opining on the announcements of Steve Jobs at the WWDC Keynote. 

Apple started showing three nice ads on sunday night TV, which proudly display the usefulness and functionality as well as good looks of the iPhone.
The ads are available for online viewing here:


http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads

The iPhone is going to revolutionize the mobile phone market and also provide easy web and email access for many of us who had been using our iBooks and MacBooks for mobile web access.

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