Excitement mounted at sites like Iphone Alley and Gear Diary. The only problem was…

It wasn’t true. AT&T made a big mistake. According to CNET:

For the second time in less than six months, AT&T mistakenly published a notice on its Web site indicating that Apple iPhone users would get free access to the wireless operator’s more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hot spots around the country.

The notice was on the AT&T website for an hour before it was removed. AT&T issued the statement:

“We have not made any announcement regarding free Wi-Fi and iPhone.  The Web page was posted in error and is being removed.”

OK, here’s the big question: Why did this happen? Again?! (it happened in May, too). Somebody at AT&T obviously typed this announcement and posted it. These things don’t appear on their own. So, that means that somewhere in the deep, dark crevices of AT&T, we either have rouge employees who are practicing wishful thinking or trying to embarrass the company or we have real intentions within AT&T to offer free wifi and somebody just jumped the gun before they were ready to make the official announcement.

Which is it?

One thing is clear: this makes AT&T look REALLY bad. You just don’t pull these kinds of stunts.

Psystar very blatantly entered this market - almost as if they were wishing they’d get sued. They very blatantly poked Apple in the eyes and started selling hackintoshes. The only mystery is what took Apple so long to react.

But, filing a lawsuit isn’t enough. Now Apple is asking Psystar to issue a recall on all the Mac clones they sold since Psystar’s debut in April. “Psystar’s actions have been committed with intent to damage Apple and to confuse and deceive the public,” Apple claims (according to ZDNET). “As a direct and proximate result of Psystar’s infringing conduct, Apple has suffered and will continue to suffer lost sales and profits in an amount not yet fully ascertained in an amount to be proven at trial.”

IT goes to show that Apple is going for the jugular on this one. However, a recall isn’t practical. People paid money for Psystar systems (bonehead move, but they did). Do you really think somebody who purchased a system is going to send it back? So, a recall is likely wishful thinking.

Winning the lawsuit, however, is not. I expect Apple to wipe the floor with Psystar in court.

APPLE!!!!

And that pretty much sums it up.

Check out the image of Techmeme to the right. Apple news pretty much dominates.

Today, we are seeing the official launch of MobileMe and the new version of Itunes which supports the Iphone App Store. This morning, when I sat down at my Mac Pro, I was greeted with a lovely software update notification for MobileMe (see image).

All week, die hard Mac fanatics have been waiting IN LINE for the Iphone 3G (due out tomorrow). Apple stores are opening early tomorrow morning (8 AM) across the country for the launch of the new phone.

Yes, it is a big week for Apple. And, as usual, the world of tech news is all atwitter (no pun intended).

The Impact

This week’s launches from Apple are actually fairly monumental. The Iphone is a truly revolutionary smartphone as evidenced by all the attempts by other manufacturers to come out with something to dethrone it. But, enterprise support and the lack of third-party apps has been a huge sticking point for the phone. Both are solved this week.

The new Iphone not only works with MobileMe, but it will also work in Exchange environments. The App Store now makes third party applications available for the phone and that is going to open it up to all kinds of possibilities. The phone has integrated GPS as well which, when coupled with good apps to take advantage of it, makes possible some truly kick-ass features.

Apple doesn’t own the mobile market, but it sure has succeeded in defining the game.

I pretty publicly switched to the Mac last year. A long time Windows user, I am now using 100% Apple hardware. But, the reaction to many might be: “must be nice to be you. YOU can afford it!”. So, the question is: How can you switch to a Mac without breaking the bank?

Macs Being Expensive

I am a firm believer in the fact that Macs are not overpriced. The Mac, regardless of what many Windows fanboys will say, is a higher end machine than your typical desktop sitting at Best Buy. Obviously, when you build your own box, you have complete and total flexibility in your choice of hardware and it isn’t incredibly hard to beat the out the Mac when it comes to pricing. But, retail PC to retail Mac (which they all are), the pricing of the Mac is on par for what you would pay for a similar quality machine on the Windows side of things.

Where I fault Apple is that they don’t offer enough options. The only tower the company offers is a Mac Pro. The Mac Pro is beyond the budget of most computer users. The IMac is within the price range of a lot more people, but many people prefer to have a tower, not a fully integrated system where little is upgradeable. Apple offers no tower option that is within the price range of the typical consumer.

Tip for Apple: If you put out a tower with similar specs to the IMac, you’d win a lot more market share. I’m just saying.

Is a Mac Clone Worth It?

This one is easy - NO.

Obviously, now that Apple is using Intel in the Mac, there is increasingly little difference between the Mac and the PC when it comes to hardware. So, it goes to say that you should be able to run OS X on a PC, right?

It has been done. Some have managed to hack OS X to a point where it will run on non-Apple hardware. It will work. However, what you’re left with is essentially a crippled pseudo-Mac.

A non-Apple hackintosh is not going to be able to receive updates from Apple. Anything in the OS or in software that expects to see certain system setups will not work because the system will not be recognized by the operating system.

Psystar, a south Florida based company, made huge waves when they very publicly came out and offered “open computers” for sale. Essentially, the “open computer” is a standard, run-of-the-mill PC for which you can choose the operating system. And, yes, OS X Leopard is an option. Reviews of the Psystar hackintosh certainly show that they are no Mac. In fact, they seem like pieces of crap all around.

So, if you want OS X, use a Mac.

Cheap Macs?

If you don’t want a laptop and don’t want to spring for the bad-ass Mac Pro, then your options are the Imac and the Mac Mini.

The IMac starts at $1,199, which is in the ball park of a lot of potential buyers. However, spec to spec, you can get more for your money by going PC and buying a separate monitor. The Imac does have an integrated screen and incredible style, but for the same specs, you probably could buy a similarly equipped PC, a 24″ stand-alone monitor and come in at the same or slightly less money.

The Mac Mini usually doesn’t enter the radar of a computer buyer because it doesn’t really look like a computer. It starts at $599 and does sport an Intel Core 2 Duo with 1 gigabyte of RAM. It is actually a pretty decent little machine. Of course, you don’t get any monitor or even a keyboard and mouse with that. You have to buy everything else separately.

Screw Apple, Go Used

Trying to sell a PC today is practically a lost cause. PCs are a dime-a-dozen and you’d be likely to get only a tiny fraction of what you originally paid for the computer when you sell it - IF you find a buyer at all.

The Mac, on the other hand, has pretty nice resale value. So, that means you can go on the market for a used Mac and often find some pretty good options for much less than you would pay to Apple. Yes, the machine you buy will not always be the most modern, but they still work. Macs also have a habit of working for many years fairly trouble free, so you can buy a used Mac and it will be good to go for some time.

Always check out Ebay for deals on used Macs. In fact, I bought a brand new Mac Mini on Ebay and saved over $150 on what Apple would have charged me.

You can also check out sites that sell used or refurbished Macs, such as:

• Mac Of All Trades
• Low End Mac
• Second Hand Mac
• GainSaver
• MacMart

Buying Used? Consider This

If you are a long time Windows user and simply want to buy a Mac to try it out, use it and see what the fuss is about, you probably take some comfort in the fact that you can run Windows on it as well. This is most certainly true, given one condition: you must be using Intel.

If you buy an older, PowerPC-based Mac, you are not going to be able to run virtualization applications like VMware Fusion or Parallels. You also will not be able to use Boot Camp to dual boot into Windows. So, if you want Windows as a backup plan, you must get an Intel-based Mac.

Apparently, I horrified one of our regular readers. Reese (known as reesethepiece) in our PCMech LIVE chatroom, sent in an email on the topic that I thought was good enough to be a guest post here on PCMech. So, here is that email.

Reese here (reesethepiece on PCMech Live).  I read your iPhone article and was horrified.  Just last Friday, I treated myself to a brand new LG Voyager.  The phone is amazing.  It’s an iPhone with all the holes fixed. When I broke it down, there were four main flaws with the iPhone that were keeping me from canceling my current contract with Verizon and switching to AT&T and getting an iPhone:

1. The iPhone’s battery is shit.  I apologize for the language, but there is simply no other accurate way of putting it.  I was in New York yesterday and decided that I had to go to the huge glass Apple Store there.  I talked to the sales guy about this and he said that the only reason that the iPhone’s battery has such a short life is because it has to send/receive email so often, and that with the iPhone 3G, the server will push email to the phone, lightening it’s load and improving battery.  Well, that’s pretty much a lie.  I guess it might improve, but I use email on my LG Voyager and it does just fine.  Yes, I’m sure that the battery will improve, but it definitely won’t be epic.
2. When people make calls on the iPhone, they accidentally press buttons.  Again, I talked to the salesperson and they said that the keypad locks up when you make a call.  Well, he obviously had no idea what he was talking about, because when you make a call on the iPhone, there are seven buttons that you can press: mute, keypad, volume, add call, hold, contacts, and end call.  Can you imagine accidentally muting a call in the middle of it? Or putting your boss (doesn’t really apply to you) on hold?  It would be awful.  On the LG Voyager, as soon as you place a call, the phone locks up (the Voyager has a “touch to unlock” picture of a lock on the touch screen which is equivalent to the “slide to unlock” feature on the iPhone) and then if you press it–which believe me, you can’t accidentally touch it during a call–you get access to those kinds of options, including the keypad.
3. Typing is hell.  How long did you use the on-screen keyboard on the iPhone in the store?  Did you find it easy?  That thing is possibly one of the worst features of any electronic device I’ve ever used.  On the LG Voyager, the phone flips open to give you another screen (non-touch) plus a full QWERTY keyboard that makes typing a flash.
4. 30 bucks a month? How about half that? You can get the same plan as an iPhone with unlimited data (minus the 300 text messages, but I have 5000 and would have payed for it either way) for only $15 extra per month, unlike the 30 that is required on the iPhone.

I guess that I had better tell you the few things that I do like better about the iPhone, though:

• The touch aspect of the screen is a little more responsive
• It uses WiFi when available
• It has a sleeker UI, but there is actually an iPhone theme for the Voyager

Sure, you could go and put multitouch on there, but I think that this is another one of the clunky features on the iPhone. Zooming in the browser is hard because the surface of the screen is so unslick.

Another one of the awesome things about the Voyager is that I can almost guarantee you that sometime in the near future, the browser will support flash.  You see, the phone actually does support Flash, just not in the browser.  So, I would bet you that somewill will write a plugin or something that will unleash the beaty of the web on the Voyager (I feel like such a nerd now!).

I hope you’ll think it over or at least visit a Verizon store to check out the LG Voyager (or similar Samsung Glyde, but I haven’t used it so I can’t tell you how good it is).  I hate to say it, but neither of those phones are available through Alltel, so you would still have to cancel your contract with them.  However, Verizon does let you “Test Drive The Network” for 30 days, so that might be worth your while.  Also, I just wanted to let you know that there really is no bias here, as it’s coming from a pretty big Apple fan.  And as I said, I was about to get an iPhone myself, but I sure am glad that I didn’t!

Thanks for your time Dave.

He later sent in an addendum, making noting that he may be incorrect on the data plan pricing:

I was walking by a store today and they had an advertisement for a plan that gave you unlimited email and web (like I was talking about) for $30 a month, like the iPhone, not $15. Someone at a store told me that it was 15, but she must have been talking about something else.

So, despite the possible inaccuracy on the plan pricing, the overriding point here is that perhaps the Iphone isn’t the best game in town.

The Iphone certainly has more social buzz behind it than any other phone. This is, no doubt, because of the superb marketing skills of Apple. Yes, the phone is revolutionary in many respects, but Apple’s marketing has no doubt increased (or perhaps created) the furor that surrounds the device.

A lot of companies are coming out with contenders to the Iphone. Many are probably going to surpass the Iphone in features. The Iphone has raised the bar of what people expect from a smartphone.

In the end, it still comes down to preference. At this point, I still prefer to go with the Iphone. I have personally used it (albiet in the Apple store) and I thought it was easy to use. I have not tried speaking on it, so I cannot speak to the suggestion that you accidentally press buttons when talking. Any Iphone users out there, is this true?

I welcome feedback from real Iphone users. I posted Reese’s opinion, but I’m still left pondering the purchase. Can you shed any light?

So, Apple released the Time Capsule. It is an Airport Extreme Base Station coupled with a hard drive. In other words, network attached storage (NAS) with a pretty face.

The package is enticing. The unit is small and compact and could easily fit anywhere in my office. The fact that it would allow for multiple Macs to be backed up on the same drive is convenient.

Ultimately, though, I didn’t buy one and here’s why.

Network Only

The only way to put data on the Time Capsule is over a network. The device supports both Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11N wireless, but there is no support for USB or Firewire. Time Capsule does have a USB port, but it is only for connecting things like an external hard drive or a printer.

No network interface (even Gigabit) is going to do justice to the speed of a hard drive. A thread on the MacWorld forums has feedback from several users of the Time Capsule. One user reports 15 MBps to 16 MBps transfer speeds. Another reported around 80 MBps. Either way, this kind of speed means data transfers are going to take forever. Using wifi rather than Ethernet is just going to be worse.

On the other hand, using USB 2.0 or Firewire is going to get you 400 MBps or higher. Firewire 800 will double that.

The fact that Time Machine puts backup on automatic without ability to customize the schedule would also lead to overwhelm of your home network. Time Machine backs up hourly. That means that, every hour, your network could be tapped out while data is transferred.

I Don’t Need or Want Another Router

Being that Time Capsule is basically an Airport Extreme Base Station, that means it is basically a router with a hard drive. It has a port on the back for connecting your modem, too.

I am on Verizon FIOS. Verizon integrates their router with the modem. I do not want to replace the router and, quite frankly, I’m not even sure if I can and still have FIOS work properly. Now, I’m fairly sure I could put the Time Capsule in tandem with my existing router and have it work fine. However, at the end of the day, I’m still buying a router I don’t need.

Can’t Swap The Drive

Rich and I had a long conversation about this one in instant message. Yes, the drive inside Time Capsule cannot be replaced. The unit is sealed up like a Mac Mini. This means that if or when the drive dies, you also need to replace your entire router.

I’m perfectly willing to grant that this can be seen as an appliance. You use it until it dies and then you replace it. If I buy a $299 or $499 device and it serves me well for 3-4 years, I personally feel as if I got my money’s worth. Rich, on the other hand, stated emphatically that he wouldn’t buy any external hard drive that he couldn’t swap the drive out on.

It does come down to your aims on this one. If you really want the wireless backup, then the Time Capsule is for you. For me, coupling the irreplaceable drive with the larger fact that I’m getting unwanted networking hardware, I decided this device was not for me.

Time Capsule Good For Some, Not For Most

I went out and picked up a 1 terabyte external hard drive for $319 and it connects to my system over Firewire 800. The initial backup took just over an hour whereas it would have taken days on the Time Capsule (most likely). I can also share out the drive over my network and still make it accessible to other Macs.

All in all, I think the Time Capsule is a neat idea, but one that targets a niche audience. If you want more speed, go get a Firewire drive. You’ll save money.

http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/0806wdt546x/event/index.html

Note: You will need the QuickTime Player in order to view it.

This video is all about upcoming technologies and releases with the iPhone. Several games are demonstrated as well as enterprise-level apps and a whole lot more.

This is a long presentation (well over an hour), so if you want to watch it, be sure to have some time.

But, let’s talk about something else. Is Steve Jobs having a health problem?

Here is a picture of him doing the “stevenote”:

Steve looks very thin. I mean pencil thin.

There has been speculation about his health before. Jobs dealt with pancreatic cancer back in 2004. It was a rare form of the cancer which meant he was able to beat it (pancreatic cancer is usually fatal). He spent 9 months searching out holistic therapies and then sought traditional treatments in 2004.

His appearance at WWDC is bringing back memories. People at WWDC were live-blogging the event on Twitter and were commenting on his appearance.

In a case of ironic timing, Rich and I talked briefly today about how well Apple would do without Steve Jobs. It is obvious that Apple would not be where they are without him. At the same time, I think Apple will move forward fine once Steve Jobs leaves Apple. What the company needs is another spokesman other than Jobs.

You can see all the current offers from Apple here.

Here’s the listings that stood out to me as the best values:

Refurbished iMac 20-inch 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Price: $949

The 20-inch is a decent model, it busts the $1000 price tag and it’s better than the Mini all around. More powerful and comes with everything you need. The only drawback is that it only has 1GB of RAM - but everything else is good.

Refurbished iMac 24-inch 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SuperDrive
Price: $1199

At just a hair under $1200 this is a lot of computer for the money. Remember, a 24-inch monitor is huge. The included nVidia 7300GT makes OS X scream. Once again, the only drawback is the 1GB of RAM. Considering this slab cost about $2000 originally, this Mac will stay current for a good long time.

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Price: $1649

This in my opinion is the best deal of the lot. With a wicked fast processor, 2GB RAM on-board, 160GB HDD (which for a laptop is good,) and an nVidia GeForce 8600M GT 256MB video card - for under $1700 this is really, really good. Whether you choose the glossy screen or the non-glossy the price is the same.

One of the questions we get most has to do with antivirus for the Mac. Does it need it? What do I recommend?

Security Confusions for Mac Owners

One thing all Mac owners need to keep in mind is that OS X is not immune to viruses. The overwhelming reason Windows has so much more virus activity is because Windows is so much more popular than OS X. If OS X were as highly used as the Windows platform, OS X would have a much larger virus problem. In fact, I would expect that as the Apple platform gains in popularity, we will see more viruses come into the wild specifically targeting OS X.

That said, much of the talk about virus activity for the Mac is propagated by companies who market antivirus programs for the Mac. These companies will issue press releases laced with scare tactics talking about huge increases in Mac viruses in the wild. In reality, though, there are only around 200 known Mac viruses in the wild, most of which have caused very little in the way of damage. Further, many of those 200 target versions prior to OS X.

It is common knowledge that Windows is barraged with virus attack after virus attack. Windows users, even the newbies, know they need some security on their systems. Mac owners, though, are left in a bit of a conundrum. We care about security, but we don’t really know what we need. Speaking for myself, I don’t have any special security on any of my Macs and have had no problems at all.

Rich Mogull says the following over at TidBits:

Even if Mac OS X is no more secure, we Mac users are currently at a lower level of risk than our Windows counterparts. It’s reasonable to assume that this dynamic could change, but considering the current level of risk, and the resource intensity of most antivirus software, it’s hard to recommend antivirus except under limited circumstances.

And he leads me into the heart of the matter…

Do Mac Owners Need Anti-Virus Or Not?

I will never sit here and tell a Mac owner not to install anti-virus. If you do install something, chances are it is going to impact the performance of your Mac in a negative way. But, you will be safer than if you run nothing.

Personally, though, I choose not to. I don’t want the performance impact. When I weigh out the risks, it isn’t worth it for me. Let’s see, a tiny risk of infection from the small batch of Mac viruses that actually exist, or the 100% chance that my system performance will suffer at the hands of an intrusive anti-virus program. And face it, antivirus programs ARE intrusive. They have to be to do their job.

So, Do Nothing?

On the contrary. As I said, Macs are not immune to security breaches. In fact, as far as pure OS design, I wouldn’t say OS X is really any better in the security department than Windows Vista. I think it is clearly more secure than Windows XP SP2, but Windows Vista (despite it’s annoyances) is a more secure version of Windows. Windows Vista just happens to have a bigger target on it so it appears to be less secure.

Mac owners can enjoy their relative obscurity for now, but don’t rest on your laurels and do nothing. There are some things a Mac owner can do to not invite problems:

1. You DO want anti-virus scanning on your incoming email. The good news here is that most free web-based email services do this for you. I am a Gmail user and they scan all my attachments for me.
2. Don’t surf porn or fringe websites. If you surf websites that would be run by people who like to shirt the usual society ethics standards, you are at higher risk of infection. Period. If you surf these kinds of sites, be aware of the additional risk. If you lay down with dogs, you’ll wake up with fleas. So, you might also want to use Firefox along with the NoScript add-on to shelter you from some of the risk associated with these sites.
3. If you are running an Intel-based Mac and use Windows on your Mac, you want to install anti-virus to your Windows installation. Windows is still Windows, regardless of the machine it is running on. If you install Windows to our Mac, you just installed that big bullseye to your machine.

Mac Anti-Virus Options

While Mac users can take comfort in the fact that they are more or less under the radar for the time being, we have to remember that our Windows friends are front-and-center targets of virus authors. Since we live in a very Windows-centric world, it is important to take into consideration those who do use Windows. If you, as a Mac user, routinely share files and forward emails to friends who use Windows, you might want to consider running anti-virus in order to protect THEM. While your risk is low, their risk is higher so you wouldn’t want to help infect their systems unwittingly.

There are several anti-virus options available for the Mac, if you wanted to run one:

1. Norton AntiVirus. Some have reported issues with Norton on their Macs while others say it runs flawlessly. Norton is and will remain a leader in this field, but my experience is that their products tend to take over the machine.
2. aVast! AntiVirus for Mac.
3. Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac
4. McAfee VirusScan for Mac
5. ClamXav. This is a free, open source antivirus utility that generally gets good marks from those who use it. It supposedly has lower impact on system performance, which is a good thing.

Just run a search on Google for “mac anti-virus” and you’ll find other options available.

Finis

Mac users, we currently enjoy a mostly virus free computing experience. The need for anti-virus programs on our Macs is questionable. At this point, I personally fall on the side that says they do more harm than good at this point. But, Mac users need to not make the mistake of becoming cocky about this. All “Mac versus PC” hype aside, the fact remains that OS X can and has been compromised before. OS X is not immune. For the time being, we will remain under the radar. As Mac sales increase as people defect from Windows, our under-the-radar status might not last forever.

Let’s enjoy it while it lasts.