Gretel in the Podsafe Cafe

Hailing from Boston, the trio that makes up Gretel delivers eclectic Americana-folk music full of instrumental surprises that fit together seamlessly. I love the description of the music off of their website: “Gretel’s songs evince an honesty and directness usually reserved for confessionals and bathroom stalls.” In that directness, their songs lyrics paint beautiful pictures and scenes that seduce you to keep their CD’s on repeat. Their latest release, The Dregs, was released June 2, 2009. Reva, the lead singer talked to us about making of the album, being on the road and finding inspiration.

Each song you perform and record is perfectly arranged with sounds that set the song apart from the others while bringing them all together in your own eclectic sound. How much time do you spend crafting each song and what risks did you take on this record?



Recording is a long and involved process for us. We started the recording process over on each song on this record at least twice (after they were well under way), and most of them didn’t start sounding right until after the third attempt. Even just writing the songs takes me a while. I tend to spend at least twenty hours on a song before it’s ready to play for the band, and then it usually goes through many incarnations before we settle into how we want it to sound as an ensemble–harmonies, instrumentation, dynamic changes, and the like.  

Recording is a really terrifying and exciting thing to do when you’re doing it yourself. All the chances you take will fail or succeed based on your own skill sets and vision. It’s very scary to know that if your record sucks, you can’t just say, “Well, the producer thought…” or “The label said we had to…”  If any of our records suck, it’s my fault.  I’m the producer. We’re our own label. There’s no wizard behind our curtain to blame things on, which makes my knees knock.  At the same time, it’s kind of exhilarating. When you have an idea–no matter how farfetched it seems–you can try it and see if it works.  I just make sure that the players I record with (my bandmates Phil and Melissa fall into this category) are really exceptional at what they do, so that I can make a harebrained suggestion and know pretty quickly if it will work or not.  If the idea is a good one, a good player will be able to do what I ask and it will hit in the way I wanted it to.  If an idea sounds bad when a good player plays it, I know my idea was off.

A good example of a successful, sorta weird idea that worked out (in my opinion) is when the cello comes in during the middle of Renegade.  I told Emily Hope Price, the cellist, that I wanted it to sound like our ship was going to go down and she was the storm that was dragging us to the bottom.  I sound like a crazy person when I say things like that, but when a good player listens closely and tries to put into sounds the things described, the idea takes on a real and valid shape.  Her interpretation of my description really worked because she’s a great player and a good listener.  I can’t make records without people like that.

How is The Dregs different from your last two albums?


The Dregs is darker–in terms of theme and soundscape–than our last two records.  I think it’s the best songwriting I’ve done so far, and the arrangements are much more full.  I’m also a better engineer than I was before, so things just sound better at their fundamental wavelength level. The songs are a lot shorter, and they travel a more appropriate distance within themselves and within the record as a whole.  We’re getting better at making things sound like themselves. We’re getting better at making us sound like ourselves. Overall, I think this is the record that shows the band most accurately.

Where do you find inspiration?


Inspiration from a songwriting perspective is something that I think I just bank and wait on until I have the necessary time required to turn out a song. Life is so full of heartbreak and wonder.  My friends’ lives, the world’s chaos and confusion, my own incompetence at being a human being, good books and poems–these things all lend themselves to song.  I also feel inspired by my friends and the musicians around me–to keep working and to keep the quality of the work high. Some of my friends make records with really inventive arrangements.  Some of my friends put on really great, high energy live shows.  Some of my friends can let loose in a song like they’re possessed by the devil. All these things go into the hopper of what is possible and what can be attempted. Art is a peeling back of a cheap veneer to reveal the true grain beneath, and when I see and hear people doing that, or hear of things in their lives that force that upon them – those things are inspiring. Not inspiring in an uplifting gosh-now-I-feel-better way, but in a way that makes me contend with reality anew. Reality – when it gets really specific – is inspiring.

How have you used social media to connect with new fans and promote your music?


We’re trying to do better with this one.  I work a lot to try to pay for things like making records and going on tour, so the time I could be spending on utilizing facebook or twitter as marketing tools doesn’t happen like it does with some acts. For this last record and release, we had some good friends really throw their energy into online promotion, and it worked really well. It’s still something I’m coming around to because I didn’t start making music in order to spend a lot of time on the computer (or for that matter, to work a ton as a waitress to pay for making music), so the thing that I try to make sure I do enough of and do well is the music–writing, arranging, recording and playing out.  Things stack up and don’t get tended to in ways that I’m sure would really help us out, but I don’t want to forego the music in order to do the marketing.  But yes, we do use online social media outlets on a regular basis and hope to expand into using them more.

The personal touch you take to your music with the Deluxe edition of The Meteorite and the hand stitching on your posters is refreshing. What inspires you to go that extra mile?


I think the things I/we do always go back to trying to answer the question: What do we want to make?  If I’m not interested in the thing itself, I don’t know why other people would be. I don’t like mass produced things very much.  I like one-of-a-kind items–from clothes to coffee mugs. If the packaging of a product is specific and unique and one-of-a-kind, I think it says to a potential owner of that product that the thing (in this case, the music) housed inside that packaging is also specific, unique and one-of-a-kind.



I try to make things to sell (or promote us with) that I would be excited to own. For us, the extra mile isn’t really an extra one–it’s part of the mile we’re already trying to walk. It does take more time, that’s true, but it fits within our overall aesthetic. The reason to sew on every flyer is the same as the reason to change the harmonies at the end of a song, or add an extra measure of silence in the middle of another one–it’s to refresh the eye and ear, pull the audience and ourselves in closer; it’s an aiming for the beautiful for no other reason than that it’s beautiful.  It’s a strike against utilitarianism and against a cost/benefit analysis that would trade good art for bad art if it meant the stack of dollars would be higher.  As individuals, we’re after a high quality of life for ourselves and everyone else–the good, the beautiful, the loving and the true. Our music – what it sounds like and looks like – reflects that.

What are your tricks for being on the road for long periods of time in close quarters? What do you listen to on the road?


We actually spend a lot of time on the road in silence.  We do listen to music together (full albums) and podcasts (our two faves are This American Life and Radio Lab). We’ve found that for us, the trick to being on the road is not doing it for over three weeks at a time without a good break.  People weren’t meant to live in cars or vans.  It can be tough, but playing shows every night for people who love to hear us is amazing.

What are you most looking forward to in the coming months now that the CD is released?


We have no idea what our next steps are, but I’m looking forward to writing a bunch of more songs, getting them into the set, trying to get out on the road again, and making another record.  Being in a band–unless you’re content to be a local band only–is kind of like flipping a coin to figure out your next move.  Except, when you don’t have any funding besides what you provide yourself, you have to hustle like mad to find a coin to flip.  What’s next?  More music.



Kingsfoil interview

It was a cold November day when I decided to sit down with Jordan Davis to talk about his band.  We met in a local Starbucks, and as he walked in, there was no one screaming his name or acting like he was Brad Pitt. He was just an average guy that was in a local, unsigned band. He and his band, Kingsfoil, are based in York, Pennsylvania, and they have quite a fan base.  For having no record label to support them, it is remarkable how many people come out to support them. They are involved in the music because it is their passion.  Though the money would be nice, surely that is not their sole motivation. Comprised of Tristan Martin (vocals, keyboards, guitar), Joe Cipollini (drums), Tim Warren (bass), and Davis (vocals, guitar), Kingsfoil is a force to be reckoned with. As I talked with Davis, it became apparent that they are doing their thing in hopes that more people will find out about them. This is what he had to say about growing up, the music, and life being in a band.


Growing up, what inspired you to get into music? Like, was it always around you?

JD: It was always around. My dad’s a piano tuner, and my parents used to sing to us a lot to us in the car to me and my sister. I would always sing and annoy everyone else. I’d sing all the time and everyone kind of hated it. I would make up my own melodies and just sing to myself. When I was growing up, my parents played a lot of Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and The Beatles, so I really got into that. I love Bonnie Raitt. Also, I had a different growing up experience than most people do, and that affected my writing a little bit. I was home schooled so it was like I had so much time to be in my head like I think the music was different. My early songs kind of reflected that. There was a lot of trying to figure out who I was, but in a different light than someone that might have gone to high school. That’s not to say that I was a geek, well, maybe a little bit.

Fair enough! Who came up with the band name and where did it come from? I actually read this today, but I’ll let you answer it.

Ah yes, it’s from Lord of the Rings. Tristan actually came to me with it and he had found it in there-read it in there and kind of liked the sound of it you know, and I liked the sound of it. And that was before the movies came out a long time ago. I like the feeling that it gives when you say it.

How did the band start? That’s a loaded question, I think.

Tristan was actually in another band. I was in a band with two other guys called Essence, I think. Horrible band name. And that band broke up, and me and Tristan started doing stuff but he was still in this other band. It was actually with Chris Merritt. Tristan used to play drums for him. At that point, he was doing two bands and it was kind of rough for him, so finally, he quit Chris Merritt. Me and him just started playing a lot of acoustic shows, and then from then we added Joe and Darren, our old bass player. That was roughly 3 or 4 years ago. And then Darren left and we added Tim just less than 3 years ago. Something like that. You probably know this better than I do.

How did Joe come into the picture?

Joe was in a band called Squeeze Theorem that was out of Millersville and my sister went to Millersville so we used to play a lot of shows there. When that band broke up, we were like “let’s try it out” and at first didn’t want to play full band because we liked the acoustic thing. It was a really big step for us. It was horrible at first but then it got better.

How did Tim come to be the new bass player?

Tim found our “looking for a bass player” flyer in a music store near him and sent us an email. And he turned out to be the perfect fit. We’re super lucky.

How do you feel about being with a major label, and do you think that it changes bands for better or worse or not at all?

That’s actually a cool question. I think it can definitely change you for the worst if you’re not careful. A good example might be Death Cab for Cutie. They released a lot of CDs on their own label, a small label, and then they released their last CD on a major label and they still were able to keep their creativity and their freedom. So as long as you don’t sell out, or let them dictate how you’re gonna do it and how you’re gonna write, then it’s not a bad thing. But that happens so much and it definitely can affect you in a bad way.

You cater to a younger audience. What do you think the reason is?

I think it’s just Tim’s good looks (laughs). No, I think we’ve always written about stuff that’s accessible to younger crowds. A lot of relationship type stuff and we’ve always been sort of open with our fans and like you know we want to be able to talk to them and be friends with them. As much as they’re our fans they should be our friends. In that way, a lot of young people were kind of drawn to us. We also started out pretty young doing this and we were like 14 or 15 so you know there’s people that age that were there when we were that age. They’ve grown up with us but as we’ve grown we still get younger fans. It’s really awesome that our young fans from long ago are still coming to shows and there are new young fans thrown in there too.

How do you react then to “star struck fans”? Does it bother you when there are a lot of people asking for photos and signatures?

No, it doesn’t bother me at all. It’s flattering obviously and we never want to let it get to our heads. It’s something we’ve always said because there’s always somebody better than you. We just feel lucky that people do like our music, and we try to do whatever we can to help them and make them happy. Make them feel like we gave them some time. So it’s not annoying at all. And I don’t want us to ever come off like we’re too cool for school. We’re gonna try to cater to them because they spent the money and time to come out and appreciate us and listen to us, so the least we can do is talk to them and say thank you.

How far has the band traveled geographically? Who did you tour with?

As far as me and Tristan, we went to the west coast. That was our first tour as a duo. As a full band, though, we went to Florida and back. But the thing with us is that we’re in a good position location-wise with New York, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Baltimore all being so close. We can drive there on the weekend without spending a whole lot on gas, or hotels, or anything else.

You didn’t have a TV as a kid, right? How has that influenced you and your writing and musical ability?

It was just a different childhood. One of the main things is that I ended up reading a lot, I was read to a lot, and I liked reading a lot more than most so that had a big impact one me. I got to read a lot of books and learned a lot from it. You can’t really get that from television. I love television. I still don’t have one though. I think it made me a little more unique basically.

How would you describe the band’s sound?

We’ve always had trouble with that. It’s hard to compare us to people. There’ve been random comparisons like Coldplay. I think we’re just indie rock that likes melody. The melody is important to us. We play indie pop rock. The pop is the melody part, not the pop candy stuff. That’s what we want pop to mean-the melody that someone wants to sing, that we feel good singing.

Why should people give your music a listen?

Besides being awesome? No, it’s genuine and not at all put together or staged or coerced at all. We’re proud of our music and it’s exactly what we want. We don’t cater to anything, and we don’t copy anything. We just play what feels right and it shows. You can tell when bands aren’t being real, and people still listen to them. But, if you’re smart, you’re gonna know. Anyone’s gonna know. You don’t have to have some amazing musical taste to know. You just feel it. When it’s good it’s good and you don’t have to know anything about music. You just know if your heart, you’re like, “this is good.”



The 2009 iProng 50 Awards

Announcing the top fifty accessories on the market for iPhone and iPod!

iProng Magazine #42: Black Eyed Peas interview, the iProng 50 and more

iProng Magazine 42: Black Eyed Peas, iPhone 3.0 and 3GS, iProng 50 and more

iProng Magazine has released its 42nd issue featuring a cover story interview with the Black Eyed Peas along with the iProng 50 Awards, hands-on with iPhone 3.0, and reviews of TweetDeck and ooTunes. Also interviewed: Butterfly Boucher, Davy Knowles, Endless Hallway, Gretel, Kingsfoil and more.

Tap here to read this issue

Michael Jackson dies, rules iTunes

The surprising death of Michael Jackson has sent shockwaves through society on a number of levels. Television news networks were airing his music videos in amongst their live coverage, Twitter quickly crashed, and the surge of search requests to Google News reportedly led the search engine to believe it was under digital attack. But any musician would ostensibly want to remembered first and foremost for his music, and so perhaps the most fitting phenomenon is this one today from the iTunes Store:

The trend of Michael Jackson’s albums climbing the iTunes charts began immediately after news of his death on Thursday afternoon, and by mid-Friday his albums occupied eight of the top ten spots on the overall iTunes sales charts. with only the new Black Eyed Peas album sneaking in at number nine. It’s rare that even as many as two different albums from the same artist would simultaneously appear in the top ten in iTunes sales; the overwhelming chart dominance by Michael Jackson is unprecedented in digital music history.

Shure SE115 for iPod

Last year Shure launched the SE110 earbuds which were respectable but weren’t necessarily anything to write home about. But what a difference a “5” can make, as the company’s new SE115 earbuds offer an expansive audio experience that’s head and shoulders above its predecessor despite the only mildly upgraded model number. In fact the improved audio experience os the SE115 was so immediately noticeable when we first tested it out at Macworld Expo that it ended up being one of our Best of Show winners despite a fairly crowded crop of new earbuds at the show.



In addition to awesome-for-its-price sound quality, the SE115 manages to offer noticeably better isolation of external noise than other competing products in its price range, another aspect which was immediately apparent in the cavernous and chaotic expo hall. As a bonus, the product comes in a choice of colors pictured above, something we don’t see often enough with earbuds of any price point.



The only catch is for iPhone users. While some iPod earbuds also come in a separate (modestly more expensive) model that includes the iPhone mic/button functionality, and other iPod earbuds leave iPhone users out in the cold altogether, Shure attempts to split the difference with a $49 adapter that replaces the bottom half of the SE115’s cable, placing the microphone closer to your waist than your mouth. The whole thing ends up being absurdly bulky and heavy in comparison to competing earbuds that have the mic and button built in. The misguided Frankenstein nature of Shure’s iPhone adapter kit (along with its inflated price) makes the SE115 not really recommendable for iPhone users who care about having a microphone or play/pause button. But that shouldn’t discourage iPod users who don’t plan on upgrading to an iPhone anytime soon, as the SE115 is an absolutely fantastic product for iPod users.


Hands on with the iPhone 3GS

June 19th goes down as a memorable day because it’s the launch day of the third iteration of the iPhone, Apple’s ultra-portable, innovative brainchild. While many 3G users may not be upgrading to the 3G S quite so soon due to upgrade pricing issues, or they may not see the 3G S as enough of an upgrade to the previous generation, there are some people out there that do believe this is a worthy upgrade [for now].

There are no cosmetic changes that set the 3G and 3G S apart. No one will be able to tell that you are holding the latest and greatest, because all the changes are internal. The 3G had a processor of 412mHz and 128mb of RAM. With the 3G S, there is now a 600mHz processor and 256mb of RAM. An improved graphics core generously helps the rendering of 3D graphics from such apps like games.

While most probably won’t notice the difference in speed if they are new iPhone users, there are videos out there that demonstrate how fast the 3G S is compared to the 3G. Apple has made claims that it’s 2x faster than it’s predecessor, and from the looks of the videos on tech blogs, this claim seems to be holding true.

It would take at least a second or two to register the action after tapping various buttons in apps on the 3G. With the 3G S, there is little to no delay in getting the phone to what you want. Everything seems to move quicker and more fluidly, and games get a major boost from the faster processors by loading and looking better than they ever did on the 3G. The 3.0 software feels even snappier than it is on the 3G. Even booting up and shutting down has gotten a speed bump.

The camera is, to me at least, a big improvement over the previous 2 megapixel cameras. It’s now 3 megapixel (not a major difference) but also has autofocus and automatic macro mode (~10 cm). On the previous two versions, you could never take a good pic up close and resulted in a blurry image that doesn’t help anyone.

Autofocus will focus on the center point of the image. But if there’s a part of the photo that you would rather have as the focus point, tapping on it will make it focus on that part instead. And when the camera is about 10 cm from an object, it will go into an “auto macro” mode – but let’s be honest, it’s not exactly the best macro you’ll ever encounter, but that’s a given. For what it’s worth, the camera has been improved much over the previous versions, definitely.

The 3G S also adds video recording to the mini-computer, and it does it very well. You toggle video camera by the button in the lower right when in the Camera app, and then you can do video in either portrait or landscape mode, though portrait videos are sideways when uploaded on a computer. Video taken on the 3G S look fairly decent for VGA quality and may be comparable to Flip Ultra series cams, but there is no HD quality yet for iPhone.

Editing is simply cutting scenes out of the video that you don’t want and keeping the ones you do want in. You select from scenes at the top, and once you select a highlighted segment, hitting the Trim button will throw out everything else. The only drawback of this is that it’s not really like iMovie software, where you can cut out multiple scenes and do transitions and all that fancy video editing. This is very basic “keep only this, throw the rest out” editing.

There’s now one-click publishing to MobileMe or YouTube (beware of the compression of YouTube). You just add a title, description, tags, and category for YouTube, and it will then be compressed and uploaded directly to your YouTube account. Once it’s published, it will give you options to share the link by email or to view it, or do nothing. Publishing to MobileMe is similar – add a title, description, and pick an album to put it in. Once it’s compressed and uploaded, you can view the link or share by email, or nothing.

Video quality is good enough. It’s not outstanding like an HD camcorder, but it doesn’t completely suck either. If you search for videos recorded on an iPhone 3G S, you may actually find some comments that say they would have never thought it was recorded with an iPhone!

Voice Control is another 3G S specific feature. You can use it to call someone, or start playing music from the iPod. It doesn’t work that well in a noisy environment (but really, what phone does?), but in a quiet place, it works rather well. It has picked up on my voice commands pretty well, from calls to playing specific artists from the iPod app. While the iPod is playing, you can bring up voice control again and say a command like “What song is playing?” to get the voiceover feature (like on the iPod Shuffle) to talk to you. You can even say “Play more songs like this” and it will activate the Genius feature with the current song.

The Compass feature works fairly well, showing you which way is North. Since the feature just came out with the new phone, there isn’t that much of use for it yet. But once turn-by-turn GPS apps such as the TomTom become available, I’m sure the integrated Compass feature will become much more useful.

The battery life on the 3G S seems slightly better than that of the 3G. I’ve used it extensively since I got it and it takes a while for the battery to fully drain out, even with gaming during the day. Another feature that the 3G S has over the previous two is that you can also turn on an option to display the remaining battery percentage remaining next to the icon. I find this way better than just having the icon, as I can precisely see how much life remains for the phone.

The screen has gotten a much needed oleophobic coating that makes it more resistant to fingerprints and smudges, and can be cleaned easier than before. I’ve noticed this – just a swipe on my shirt will clear the screen to be crystal clear. Use the phone all day and drag your fingers all over the screen – you’ll see much less smudging and fingerprints than with the 1st gen and 3G. The oleophobic coating is only on the screen though, the rest of the phone doesn’t seem to have it.

These are the major changes that differentiate the 3G S from the 3G. Overall better performance, much improved camera, convenient video and editing, useful digital compass, voice control, better battery life, and cleaner screen! Hard to not want these features, right? I personally feel that the hardware upgrades are worth upgrading to if you can get subsidized or early upgrade pricing.

I’m glad I’m ditching the 3G for the 3G S, and you should too.

Elago Slim Fit for iPhone

Three generations into the iPhone era and Apple still hasn’t offered us any models outside of the grayscale spectrum, so users who want an iPhone in a color of the rainbow (or who are now regretting the choice they originally made between the black and white models) still have to turn to third parties for relief. At the same time, full-on cases for the iPhone have been tricky from the outset, since most of the iPhone’s front surface is a touch screen that has to remain not only visible but easily touchable in order to access all but the most basic of the iPhone’s functionality.



The result is a product like Elago’s Slim Fit Case, a product that bends the definition of the word “case” to include a single piece of hard plastic that covers the iPhone’s rear surface, sides, and corners. Dead simple to snap on and remove, the Slim Fit is a quick and easy solution for those users who are looking to change their iPhone’s color. or to provide some measure of protection without adding too much bulk, or both. It’s not an adequte substitute for those users whose iPhones are subjected to enough wear and tear or daily peril that they need the kind of case that offers a thick layer of impact protection or a lift-up flap over the screen, but it’s supposed to be.



Elago isn’t the only company to bring such a prodcut to market, as companies such as Case-Mate and XGear have offered similar products since at least January. What differentiates Elago’s version is that its $9 price is less than half of the $20 that Case-Mate asks, along with offering significantly more color options than XGear’s $11 offering.



This is probably not the ideal product to take your iPhone camping in the wilderness with, but it’s handy-dandy (and inexpensive) for those users who like to toss their iPhone into their pants pocket and harmlessly carry it around all day. Elago also separately offers a number of variations on iPhone screem film.


Hands-on with iPhone 3.0

On June 17th, Apple released version 3.0 of the iPhone operating system as a free download for all iPhone users (and as a $9.95 download for all iPod touch users). Here’s what you need to know…

First off, the main thing with 3.0 is that the entire phone gets a slight increase in speed. Previous software versions will seem a bit clunky and slightly slower once you start using 3.0. Responsiveness seems to have improved in the new software, and things seem to be snappier.

Another major change in 3.0 is Spotlight. This function is extremely useful and will make you wonder how you ever got by without it. Spotlight will let you search from all the default apps such as Contacts, Mail, Calendar, iPod, and even search for third party apps (but not within those apps). So even though Apple has not integrated an easy way to organize your dozens of apps, Spotlight eliminates the need to flip through your pages of apps. So if you’re tired of having to reorganize all your app icons after restoring (when you get your shiny new 3G S), the Spotlight will become your new best friend.



Copy and Paste – the legendary ‘mistake’ that has been haunting the iPhone since launch, is now here. Did they take their time to implement the feature to perfect it? I would think so, because the way they have it implemented is really quite amazing.

The feature is spread throughout the entire OS, so it’s not just limited to Apple’s stock applications. It works with any text, not just in text-entry fields such as other devices like the Palm Pre. Double-tapping a word will bring up the bubbles over it that show ‘Cut/Copy/Paste’, and you can drag the markers to cover what you want to cut or copy. To paste it somewhere else, just double-tap in a text entry field and a bubble saying ‘Paste’ will appear. Voila, that’s Copy-n-Paste on the iPhone.

While the 3.0 software won’t give your 3G a 3 megapixel camera with autofocus, it does seem to actually improve the current camera on the 3G. From what I’ve noticed, images seem to be a bit crisper and less blurry, and images taken in low-light conditions seem to have improved as well, by not as dark and grainy as before.

Also in the Camera app with 3.0, once you snap a photo, that photo will be placed in a thumbnail view next to the capture button. Tapping this thumbnail of the most recent photo will take you directly to the photo, where you can also access the camera roll. 3.0 simply enhances the current 2 megapixel camera on the 1st gen and 3G models and also adds a convenient and quicker way to access the Camera Roll.

The ability to get landscape keyboard is a plus for everyone that’s been asking for this since Day 1, although it gets quite annoying when the keyboard changes from portrait-to-landscape, and vice versa, when you don’t want it to (laying down is an example). Personally, I am not a fan of the landscape keyboard (it slows me down), but it is nice to see that the feature is now not just limited in Safari. It’s also nice to view your emails and text messages in a wider screen.

It’s a bit disappointing that there is no option to turn the landscape off though, if you’re like me – or just find it frustrating when it changes when you don’t want it to. Also, I’ve noticed that it takes the accelerometer a while to recognize what orientation it should be – for example, it goes in landscape view for my email, and I hold it upright to go back to portrait. Sometimes it will be instant, other times it will take a while, sometimes I just get impatient and exit the app and go back to it. So mileage may vary on constantly switching back and forth between portrait/landscape modes – it can be instant or take a while.

With 3.0, there’s also a minor – but convenient – change to the Contacts app as well. Now when you view a contact, you can simply swipe over a piece of contact info to choose to delete it. No more hassle with having to choose ‘Edit’ then hit the red minus button to delete info – just simply swipe and it’s gone in a matter of seconds.

There’s also the introduction of tighter parental controls that was not present in previous software versions. Restrictions can be applied to Safari, YouTube, iTunes, Installing Apps, Camera, and Location. It also has ‘Allowed Content’, which you can allow In-App Purchases, and control the content that can be on the device determined by its rating. So this may be a step towards allowing ‘objectionable’ content through the App Store with better parental controls, but this is no guarantee – just mere hypothesis.

There are changes to the iTunes app as well as the on-device App Store as well. Now within iTunes, you will be able to download and rent (when available) movies and TV shows. These can all be done via EDGE/3G/Wi-Fi. So this adds more to the making the iPhone an all-in-one multimedia device, with the ability to purchase entire movies and seasons of shows directly from your device.

Safari now can store your login info, which is an added convenience. So if you login to a site once, it will prompt you if you want to save that info for that particular site. Visit that site again and the login fields will be filled out for you already. Also, if you connect to wifi hotspots, the phone will login to those automatically once you put in your login info.

The Voice Memos app that is included in 3.0 is actually pretty decent for a default app, and is about up-to-par with those recorder apps in the App Store (such as iDicto, for example). The ability to trim down your voice memo is pretty neat and you can get rid of stuttering or unwanted audio without having to re-record, unless you made too many mistakes, which it would then be better to just do it over. These voice memos will sync into iTunes whenever you plug your phone in, so if you want something that will sync wirelessly, I would suggest Evernote (it does voice memos).



Dexim MHub for iPhone and iPod

Most iPhone and iPod docks are one-trick ponies: they keep your device upright while it’s charging or syncing so that it won’t get scratched up laying on your desk and so that its screen is visible to you at desk-level. Sometimes a dock comes along that includes an extra feature or two, but Dexim’s MHub offers the proverbial kitchen sink. In addition to connecting your Mac or PC for syncing and charging purposes, the MHub includes three on-board USB ports, effectively doubling as a USB hub. And for good measure it also includes a slot for the SD card from your digital camera.



While the MHub comes with a power plug, I found that I didn’t need to use it even when I simultaneously had my iPhone, an external USB hard drive, a USB headset, and a USB charging cable for an external iPhone battery all plugged into the MHub at once. Your mileage is going to vary, however, depending on the power required by your USB devices and on the power provided by the USB ports on your computer (in my case an early 2009 unibody MacBook Pro). However, if you find that your devices aren’t all being properly powered and you do have to resort to using the power cable, the consolation prize is that the power brick itself provides you with yet another USB port (two actually, but one is for powering the MHub itself).



The footprint of the MHub is relativelty small, with the caveat being that with ports on three sides you’ll have to leave sufficient empty desk space around the hub so you can easily connect and disconnect your devices, but that’s true of any hub. The brushed metal styling and tapered corners are most closely matched in style by a MacBook Air, but the MHub will fit in stylistically with any of Apple’s brushed metal computers, or for that matter just about any silver-themed PC.



The only thing I wish were done differently is with the iPhone/iPod dock itself, which uses a lever system that holds the device firmly in place but would be more elegant if it employed Apple’s universal docking system instead. But in all, the MHub does a great job of replacing an iPhone/iPod dock, USB hub, and SD card reader with a single device that takes up a lot less space without having to pay extra for the privilege.

App review: TweetDeck

TweetDeck is a highly popular desktop Twitter client that has finally made its way to our beloved iPhones and iPod Touches.

The desktop TweetDeck is loved primarily for its ability to let you consume your tweets in a more manageable way – via groups in a column fashion.

The iPhone version of TweetDeck now uses an interface similar to the ‘Cards’ system of the Palm Pre webOS to separate tweets into columns. Users can easily flick between different groups through this UI and when they want to view a particular group, all they have to do is tap it to ‘zoom in’ on it.

Creating new groups on TweetDeck iPhone is easy – when in the ‘Cards’ view of groups, there’s a button in the bottom menu that’s for ‘Add Column’. From there on out, you choose the twitter account you want to set up the new group for (there is multiple account support) and then choose a column type (User Group, Twitter Search, or All Friends, Direct Messages, Mentions, Favorites if you want to add them again).



For User Groups you pick a name for your group and then select users or get from the TweetDeck Server (you’ll need a TweetDeck account, which is different from your Twitter account). Search will let you input a search term and then it will be a new column that will update with the latest tweets from all public profiles with that term.

With the new release of the desktop TweetDeck, you’re now able to sync your groups as well, so everything stays up to date whether you’re on the computer or on the go.

When viewing a selected group in the ‘zoom in’ mode, it’s easy to get out of that and back to the Cards by a simple tap of the bottom center button or top left corner – whichever you prefer.

When viewing tweets in a selected group, tapping on a selected tweet will bring up a screen that shows just that tweet and options for you, which include: Reply, DM, ReTweet, email tweet, or favorite. Tapping on the user info or avatar will pull up the profile and you can Follow/Unfollow, view Following/Followers, send an @ to them, DM, view recent tweets, or block/unblock. Then you have options to add them to your specific Groups.

TweetDeck also implements its own Growl notifications within the app that pop up whenever you have new tweets in their selected groups. Push notifications were mentioned in a blog post, but has not been implemented in version 1.0 yet. Refreshing for new tweets is easy with the Shake to Refresh feature, or simply hitting Refresh. But be careful – constant refreshing will burn out your remaining API Calls displayed on the Cards Column view. Thankfully, there’s also a timer showing how soon your API will be refreshed.

Yfrog images will get a full screen viewer (or as close to full screen as you’re going to get on TweetDeck iPhone), however Twitpic photos won’t – Twitpic photos will be redirected to the site. That’s a bit of a letdown, considering that Twitpic still seems to be the most popular Twitter photo-sharing site.

Overall, the app is a good first release – but there is a lot of room for improvement.

There is no way to delete your tweets or DMs. When viewing recent tweets of a user, you can’t select a tweet and have it go to the screen with just the tweet and the options. You’ll try and select a tweet but it will just light up when you touch it and then do nothing.

A major problem of this release is that you must manually select ‘Mark Seen’ to get rid of any ‘new’ notification counts in the bottom corner. There should be no need for this – it should update automatically as you scroll through new tweets, like many other Twitter apps do. Hopefully this will be fixed in future updates.


While the desktop version has integration with other services such as Facebook and 12seconds, the iPhone version is only Twitter for now. Of course, you can’t always expect such robust features to be in the first release, but hopefully this will also be addressed. Also, you can’t change theme colors like the desktop app, so if you aren’t a fan of the original color scheme, you may wince at the thought of staring at the dark theme. So if you want everything the desktop version has to offer in a mobile package, you may be disappointed.

One last thing about TweetDeck for iPhone – it crashes, and boy does it crash a lot. Upon first launch, it crashed after I set up my Twitter and TweetDeck account info. Then throughout the day, I got sporadic crashes, even though I restarted the phone.

Decent first start, but like all other first releases, a lot needs to be fixed. This is currently far from replacing Tweetie for me as my mobile Twitter app, but I would expect plenty of fixes in updates – if not, TweetDeck does not stand a chance.

Ultimate Ears 700 for iPod

When you consider that you can get yourself an iPod classic ($249), low-end iPod touch ($229), or high-end iPod nano ($199) for about the same cost as the new Ultimate Ears 700 earbuds, those earbuds had better be darn impressive. More than impressive – drool worthy, in fact – since there are plenty of iPod earbuds in the $100 range that adequately fill the “impressive” category. Fortunately for the folks at Ultimate Ears, the 700’s do turn out to be drool-worthy both in their audio quality and their ability to block out external noise.



At this price range you want earbuds to offer so much “how’d they do that?” expansiveness that using them to listen to music leaves you tricked into believing that you’re actually wearing full cup-style headphones. And the 700’s do just that, taking music that sounds great on $100 earbuds and expanding the sound so well that you find you no longer like your $100 earbuds as much once you try to go back to using them. And the 700’s isolate external noise in a manner that’s singularly impressive, more so than any other earbuds I’ve ever tested at any price point, and so much so that I’m tempted to begin using the 700’s on airplanes in place of my current (and comparatively giant) noise-cancelling cup headphones.



So should you really run out and pay $229 for these earbuds? That depends on your budget, I suppose. In rating the 700’s, I ultimately compared them to the best-in-class iPod earbuds at lower price points. Are the 700‘s really twice as good as Shure’s $119 SE115 earbuds? Not quite. Are they three times as good as Scosche’s $79 IDR600? Again, not quite. But if $229 is effectively the top of your earbud budget, then you’ll likely be glad you went for the 700’s instead of less expensive options, as the difference in quality is immediately noticeable. As a bonus, the 700’s come with not only four pairs of various-sized rubber buds, but also a pair of comply foam tips which make these great-sounding earbuds sound even better. Too bad the 700’s don’t come with an iPhone mic/button option, like some of the lesser Ultimate Ears products do.

AT&T gives in on 3GS pricing

After raising the ire of iPhone 3G users across Twitter and Apple-oriented websites by quietly announcing plans to charge current iPhone 3G users two hundred (and according to some reports, four hundred) dollars higher than sticker price for the newly introduced iPhone 3G S if they attempted to purchase one less than twelve months after purchasing their current iPhone 3G, AT&T partially relented today by announcing that anyone (some users? most users? nearly all of them? randomly selected users?) who bought an iPhone 3G in September 2008 or earlier will now receive the samae $199/$299 pricing for the 3G S as other users.

Interestingly, AT&T chose to make the announcement through Facebook.

This still leaves iPhone 3G users staring at $399/$499 pricing for the 3G S if they bought their 3G in October 2008 or more recently. However, this compromise on AT&T’s part will alleviate a significant portion of the surprise and potential chaos that was likely to played out in Apple Stores and AT&T Stores nationwide on Friday, had all current iPhone 3G users been presented with prices $200 higher than advertised after having stood in line all day for the opportunity to purchase one.

Update: several users who purchased their iPhone 3G within the July-September 2008 timeframe are reporting that AT&T’s website is still giving them the same twelve-month-based upgrade date as before, perhaps due to AT&T’s system not yet having been updated to reflect today’s change in policy.

Update 2: while twelve months is the standard length of time required to be eligible for upgrade pricing, some iPhone 3G users have reported that their upgrade length is inexplicably being quoted as eighteen months instead of twelve (which may explain the voluminous legalese used by AT&T in what should have been a two sentence press release at most). It’s still not entirely clear what puts some users in the eighteen month “penalty box” instead of the standard twelve months, so perhaps we’ll see a fair amount of customer outrage and fistfights at Apple Stores this Friday after all. More details coming, if we can get to the bottom of this.

Update 3: according to this multi-page PDF from AT&T uncovered by one of our followers on Twitter, iPhone 3G users who spend less than $99 on their monthly bill are the ones being placed into the eighteen month penalty box instead of twelve months. Other folks on Twitter are reporting that AT&T has informed them that AT&T’s website and SMS-based upgrade pricing quotes for the iPhone 3G S won’t be updated to reflect the new pricing policies until tomorrow.

Editorial side note: a multi-page PDF to explain what the price of an iPhone might be for you? Makes you wonder just how Apple managed to get into bed with such obvious con-men, and why such a company, along with all of the other U.S. based cellphone carriers, are allowed to carry out such practices unchecked. Good luck on Friday, as at this point we’re officially giving up trying to predict what the powers that be might choose to charge you for an iPhone 3G S.

App review: ooTunes Radio 2.1

Most would think that radio is dying out, but on the iPhone, it’s far from it. It’s no longer just traditional radio either – welcome to the age of digital media, which means that the radio has gone to the Internet. ooTunes is an app that brings you thousands of radio stations from all over the world to your fingertips, along with some beefy features.

From the home screen of the app, you have several options: Search all streams, favorites, recent, most played, custom tags, websites, bookmarks, web playlist, and Radio Roolette. When searching for a radio station, you can choose to search all of them at once, by genre, country, or US city. There’s a lot of stations to choose from, so I would recommend narrowing your search down by genre or city, if you know the station’s location.


Once you start listening to a station, you can add it to your favorites, email a link to the station (although it will quit the app and go to Mail), tweet about it, update Facebook status, tag the station, or bookmark the current track. There’s even a feedback button for FAQs, report broken streams, or visit the homepage of selected station. On the Now Playing screen, there’s also buttons for recently played tracks, lyrics, similar, and buy from iTunes. You can even pause stations, and select previous or next tracks when there’s playlists (presumably from the Media Server part of ooTunes).

Radio Roolette is a nifty little feature that will present a screen of songs that are currently playing on some stations. When you select a song to play, it will take you to that station’s stream. This is a pretty handy feature to discover new stations that you may (or not) like. It’s a hit or miss, hence the play on roulette. Either way, you’ll find tons of new music.

ooTunes also has a desktop app that lets you play your entire iTunes library on-the-go. If you’re interested in using this part of the iPhone app as well, you can do so at http://ootunes.com. This Media Server desktop app lets you listen to tracks in the background on the iPhone. This is great if you want to have your entire library on your iPhone and do other stuff at the same time.

Overall, this radio app is great for listening to tons of radio and Internet streams, and integrating social network features like Twitter and Facebook. Sometimes you’ll come across a stream that won’t connect, but that’s mainly on the end of the station (highly popular stations only allow a certain amount of listeners, so connecting depends on how much they can handle). This is a great radio app for the low cost of $3.99 (when compared to others such as WunderRadio, which has a $6.99 price tag) and is a must have for any music-enthusiast.



iProng Magazine #41: Crystal Method, iPhone 3G S, Red Jumpsuit and more

iProng Magazine has released its 41st issue featuring a cover story interview with The Crystal Method along with the new iPhone 3G S and a hands on sub-$100 iPhone earbud shootout. Also interviewed: Erika Jayne, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and Paul Kent of Macworld 2010.

Tap here to read this issue

The Crystal Method interview

There are a number of reasons why The Crystal Method is perhaps the most recognizable name in electronic music over the past decade and a half. While the duo’s studio albums have built a large following within the electronic genre, their cross-genre collaborations over the years have expanded their presence even further, along with their work on everything from movie soundtracks to the original Nike+iPod soundtrack. Having just released their new studio album Divided By Night, I caught up with Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland to talk about Divided By Night and more.

Last I heard you guys were building your own studio so you could make this album, and that was a few years ago. So what took you so long?



Ken: Well two years is actually not bad time for us, you know? (laughs). Up until we got into the new studio we were busy with a lot of other things. We did a soundtrack album, a mix CD, we did a project for Apple and Nike called Drive, and so that kept us pretty busy. And then when we got into the studio we started working for real on the new album.

Divided By Night is a phrase that could apply to a lot of things that have gone on in this decade as far as division and darkness. Is that a worldview statement, or is there something else to the name?

Scott: It was more borne out of this beautiful sunset that we saw flying from one DJ gig to another. We were coming over the city of El Paso at night with the lights on, and above you could see the stars and space and the moon and sort of off on the horizon was this sort of bend of beautiful color and lights that obviously was the sun setting on the west coast. And being from the west, the beauty of it all was something to behold. And then “Divided By Night” just popped into my head. It was more a reflection of there’s my family, my kids, my wife, reflecting on them, you know, probably sitting at the table and eating and sort of wrapping up the day, and here we are at night flying into another city to spend the next four or five hours living this alter ego, these characters of this band that comes in and takes over a club and plays music two or three, and the two different worlds sort of seem to be divided by out late-night personas, if you will. Album titles are difficult. You try not to have, at lease we try not to put too much meaning into them, and kind of feel that that should be left to the consumers or the fans to add their own meaning to that. It does conjure up a bunch of ideas, and I think that’s cool that we can come up with a name that does have little bit of mystery and intrigue behind it.

You guys are no strangers to collaborations over the years, but this album has a ton of guest stars even by your standards. Was that the plan going in, let’s get a bunch of people to work with, or did it just end up happening that way?

Ken: I think it was overall a little bit more of a plan. We wanted to have more song-oriented tracks and a little more vocals. It’s not overwhelmingly more but it is more than we usually have on our albums. A lot of times we’ll try a lot of collaborations and they won’t work out, but only a couple we tried this time didn’t work out, and no one will hear those. But these are the ones that came out really great.

You told me last year that you were really looking forward to working with Peter Hook. You ended up getting him on two tracks on the album. What was the experience like of bringing him into the studio and recording with him?

Ken: It was really great. Some of the collaborations on the album, it was people that had their own studios or people that were not available to Los Angeles, but Peter Hook was in LA for a couple of days. I think it was when he was doing some promotion for the documentary side of the whole Control / Joy Division, you know, the two films that came out. So he was in town and we got him to come by, and he was just a really amazing guy. He was really funny and played well. He’s not afraid to play his signature sound.



The Matisyahu song turned out great. But it’s almost wall to wall vocals and he’s got such a unique identifiable sound. Did you have any thoughts about that when you chose that as the first single, that people are going to think it’s just a Matisyahu single, they’re not going to realize it’s The Crystal Method?

Ken: We still feel like it really feels like a hard-driving Crystal Method track with a lot of electronic elements in it, but yeah, you know, we did pare down the vocals some. But it was going to be our first single, and singles for the most part have vocals. We were pretty comfortable with it.



Scott: Yeah, I had never heard him do a vocal like that. The vocal and the treatment of the vocal and the lyrical direction fit the track really well. Anytime bands that don’t have a lead singer and you use someone that has developed their own sound, you run the risk of that. It was just about putting out a song that we thought sounded good.



You guys have done so many things, soundtracks, collaborations, remixes. What have you not done yet that you still want to do at some point as a Crystal Method project?



Ken: Playing the Super Bowl wouldn’t be bad.



Scott: So many things have happened to us that we’ve been a part of that early on we would have had no idea these thing would have been a possibility. And the reason why that has happened for us is that we’re always in the moment, we’re always sort of focused on where we are at the time.



Macworld Mobile App Showcase

iPhone and iPod touch users will be pleased to know that Macworld 2010 will include the Mobile Application Showcase, a special area of the show floor dedicated to the innovations being brought to market by iPhone and iPod touch developers. iProng Magazine caught up with Paul Kent, General Manager of Macworld Expo, earlier today to talk about what this means for iPhone and iPod touch users and for Macworld 2010 attendees in general.

iProng: First things first – what led you to move Macworld 2010 to February instead of its traditional January date?

Paul Kent: A few things led to this – but the essence of it is customer feedback. And by customers, I mean exhibitors. We’ve heard for many years how difficult it was for developers to get ready for a major tradeshow through the holidays. Getting development done on new products, logistical issues with getting marketing materials and a booth to a show. It’s been an issue we’ve been aware of, but really Macworld had held this spot for so long (25 years) there was a always a feeling of “first week of January is Macworld time.” This year, we are on a quest to reinvent the show to create the most relevant event to the community. Listening to customers is Job 1. Date change was the top of the list of suggestions – we listened, made the change and the response has been fantastic.

iProng: What makes apps so important to the iPhone and iPod touch platform that they deserve their own pavilion at Macworld this year?

Paul Kent: Clearly, much of the excitement and innovation in the area of software development that we’ve seen over the past year has been in the area of mobile apps – apps designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Ever since Apple opened the iPhone and iPod touch up for software development and put the SKD in developers hands – the app market has been roaring. Apple announced there are over 50,000 apps in the store now, and over 1 billion downloads! All this in essentially an 18 month period – it’s amazing. We’ll be capturing that excitement at Macworld by giving users a fun way to discover apps and meet the rockstars who develop them.

iProng: What can attendees expect from the pavilion once they enter it?

Paul Kent: The Mobile App Showcase will be “App Store Live” experience! Attendees will be able to try out hundreds of apps, meet the developers, and talk to other app uses. The App Store, while a good channel of distribution, doesn’t really have great mechanisms for trying before you buy, or for comparing features. The Mobile App Showcase at Macworld 2010 will let attendees get their hands on the latest and most popular apps, and give them an opportunity to discover new ones!

iProng: Macworld 2010 is still eight months away, but can you give us any hints about what kinds of additional new features are on tap for February?

Paul Kent: In addition to the Mobile App Showcase, we’ve also got a Indie Developer Pavilion highlighting all the innovative tools and solutions being created for Mac OS X by the independent developer. There will also be the Macworld Music Studio where we’ll have training and performance on music-related topics done by amazing instructors from the Berklee College of Music, professional musicians, and Mac industry luminaries. Also, plenty of hands on training opportunities – we’re working with the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus to host a bunch of free hands on classes where attendees can learn to put Mac OS X creative tools to work. Also – show specials! Macworld has always been a place where people can discover and purchase great products – this year we will be doing more to bring users and products closer together. These are just a few of the things we’ve got planned -many more announcements will be coming over the months leading up to the show. Attendees should check with website (www.macworldexpo.com), follow us on Facebook and Twitter and keep informed. We’ve been saying – “It’s the Start of a New Era at Macworld” – and all these new and enhanced programs will really make Macworld 2010 a great place for iPhone, iPod and Mac users to come together to get even more enjoyment out of their favorite technology.



Apple launches iPhone “3G S”

WWDC 2009 kicked off with an Apple keynote address at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and it was a much-anticipated keynote that did not disappoint, for the most part. The two hour long keynote with Phil Schiller delivered new updates to the MacBook Pro line, also going over the iPhone OS 3.0 software again (since the March event), and also delivering the next iteration of the iPhone hardware.

Called the ‘3G S’, the next iPhone looks no different from the iPhone 3G on the outside, but will be about 2x quicker with a faster processor and also will support for OpenGL ES 2.0, which will significantly improve 3D graphics. The cosmetic appearance of the iPhone 3GS dismisses all previous rumors of a black bezel and rubberized backing. However, both the 16 GB and 32 GB models of the 3G S will come in either black or white casings.



One of the much-awaited features of the iPhone 3G S hardware is the improved camera. The phone will now feature a 3 megapixel camera with autofocus, and also be able to record video and edit. The Camera application will also be enhanced with the ability to do auto exposure and white balance on photos, increase the low-light sensitivity, and ‘tap to focus’ to change the focus point in a photo. The autofocus also will feature an auto ‘macro’ mode which allows the camera to focus as close as 10 cm. Video will be recorded in 640×480 resolution with 30 fps and audio. There will be basic video editing (trimming of video/audio) and all videos will be saved to the Camera Roll.

The iPhone 3G S will also come with Voice Control, a much requested feature since the first iPhone. This will allow users to simply say ‘dial’ and a contacts name to call them. The feature will also work for the iPod app to control playback. Saying “play more songs like this” will immediately activate the Genius feature of the iPod.

Battery life has always been an issue with the previous iPhones, but the new iPhone 3G S promises to deliver better battery life. Schiller quoted about 9 hours of WiFi, 10 hours for video, 30 hours of audio, 12 hours for 2G talk time, and 5 hours of 3G talk time.

The 16 and 32 GB models of the iPhone 3G S will be priced at $199 and $299, respectively, in the United States, and will go on sale June 19th. Perhaps in a nod to difficult current economic conditions, Apple will continue to offer the existing 8 GB iPhone 3G model for a mere $99. However, iPhone 3G S pricing for existing iPhone 3G users who made their purchase less than twelve months ago will apparently be $599-699 according to AT&T’s website or $399-499 according to Apple’s website, prompting outcry from iPhone 3G users (see the “Apple and AT&T are at war” commentary” in this issue).

The introduction of the finalized version of the iPhone 3.0 operating system yielded few surprises. The new software will be available for all current and previous iPhones for free, and on all iPod touch models for a $9.99 fee. Notable new features will include copy and paste, push notifications, tethering, and MMS messaging, although the latter two will not be immediately available to AT&T iPhone customers. The new software will be released for download on June 17th. Keep an eye on iProng.com for a hands-on iPhone 3.0 report on the 17th.



Read iProng Magazine’s 41st issue featuring The Crystal Method, iPhone earbud shootout and more

The war between Apple and AT&T

We should have known it was all too good to be true. Here was Apple using its WWDC keynote address to roll out a new iPhone “3GS” with improved speed, capacity, photo taking ability, processing speed, and even built-in video functionality, for a very reasonable $199 and $299. The existing iPhone 3G was sticking around for a mere $99. And even Apple’s laptop computers and Mac operating system were receiving substantial price cuts and feature upgrades. Even with the annoying but temporary caveats that tethering and MMS messaging wouldn’t be available on AT&T until later, nothing could change the fact that this past Monday was all set to go down as one of the more beneficial Apple product rollouts in some time.

And then the bombshell dropped.

It started when someone spotted the fine print at the bottom of Apple’s iPhone sales pitch page about “unqualified” iPhone 3G customers having to pay $499, $599, or even $699 for the new iPhone 3GS. But what initially appeared to be an absurd typo was quickly confirmed – sort of – when customers started looking up the upgrade pricing for their individual accounts and found that a 32 GB iPhone 3GS would indeed cost them $699, according to wireless.att.com. Or perhaps $499, if you believe apple.com. No matter. Word simply spread that existing iPhone 3G users were about to fall victim to the screw job of the decade, and those 3G users who’d been following the day’s news on Twitter suddenly shifted their tone from an excited “I can’t wait to upgrade to an iPhone 3GS!” to a cynical “nah, I can live with my iPhone 3G just fine” along with an outraged “when did Apple suddenly decide to let AT&T rape half the iPhone user base?”

The top trending topic on Twitter for the remainder of the day? Not “Apple” despite all of its impressive announcements. And not “iPhone” even though the new model was impressive. Nope, the top trending topic of the day, right at the top of the list, was “AT&T” and suffice it to say that none of the discussion was of the favorable variety. In an instant, AT&T went from being the iPhone’s long-time humorously unimpressive partner, one we’ve all learned to live with, to an anchor chained to the ankle of the iPhone and threatening to drag the whole platform into the depths.

You have to wonder where it all went wrong. Getting raped by cellphone carriers is nothing new for U.S. customers, as almost since the inception of the cellphone industry the carriers have been able to get away with doing more or less anything they’ve wanted to customers, as our government has done nothing to protect us from it over the years. But that’s not the way it’s worked on the iPhone platform, as anyone buying an iPhone 3G last year was going to pay the same price whether they were a new customer or upgrading from an original iPhone. And that’s certainly never the way it’s worked in the eight year history of the iPod, and to this day many if not most iPhone users see their iPhone simply as the latest iPod model that also happens to be a cellphone with a bunch of other features. While this kind of fraudulent pricing has been commonplace on other platforms, it’s been entirely to the iPhone platform – until now.

So just what was Apple thinking when they agreed to this nonsense? It’s been widely documented that AT&T is a mess overall and that its iPhone exclusivity in the U.S. is the only thing that’s been propping it up. And even the least capable of businesspeople knows that when you’re in a position of strength, when you’re the one propping up your sagging partner, when your partner needs you a lot more than you need them, you either leave things they way they are out of benevolence and future goodwill or else you renegotiate things so they’re more slanted in your favor. But Apple has instead managed to end up with the shorter end of the stick this time, left with significantly lower sales of the iPhone 3GS and an upcoming public relations nightmare that will overshadow the half a dozen positive things Apple rolled out this week, wiping out the untold millions in free advertising that the company is typically able to milk the media for in a cycle like this one.

Instead, by the time the iPhone 3GS launches on June 19th, a fair amount of existing iPhone 3G users will have decided to just stay home. But a much larger chunk of them will not have gotten word that they’re about to get screwed, and so a rather large percentage (possibly as many as half) of all the people lined up to buy a 3GS on the 19th will not only go home empty handed, they’ll exit the store screaming and swearing and making the kind of threats that’ll result in mall security having to get involved – and it’ll all play out right there in front of the TV camera crews that always gather outside Apple Stores on iPhone launch days. Because while we’ve come to expect that we’re about to get abused any time we set foot in one of those organized crime headquarters known as AT&T Stores (or any other cellphone carrier store), no one goes to the Apple Store expecting to get raped. And it’ll come as such a shock to the victims that they’ll go out of their minds right there in the store. It’s the kind of scene that’ll only be fun to watch if you’re a tabloid journalist. I don’t know about you, but fistfights between Apple employees and existing iPhone users don’t qualify as entertainment to me.

Even if Apple comes to its senses beforehand and decides to go ahead offer the iPhone 3GS to existing iPhone 3G users at normal prices come launch day, the damage will have already been done. Some existing users will hear through the grapevine that upgrade prices are fraudulent and stay home even if Apple has since rectified it. And in such case the big story of launch day wouldn’t be about how great the 3GS was but instead about how Apple screwed up the pricing and had to fix it due to public pressure.

Either way Apple loses on this one. Which is stunning, considering how they’d seemingly set themselves up for a big win. Even if they do relent on pricing, you have to wonder what made them think they could get away with it in the first place. Like any other cellphone carrier, AT&T is going to go for the short-sighted customer gouge at every opportunity. That makes Apple the only adult in the room, the one that has to prevent these kinds of self-defeating scams from seeing the light of day. And with Apple holding all the cards when it comes to offering the iPhone to additional U.S. carriers when the original exclusivity deal is up, you really have to scratch your head at the notion that Apple appears to think its only recourse is to take subversive potshots at AT&T’s incompetence all throughout the product rollout. That the pricing fraud wasn’t even addressed during the keynote suggests that Apple has no idea how to deal with it, content to cross its fingers and hope no one noticed instead of addressing it head on either by trying to spin it during the rollout or by dropping the hammer on AT&T’s toes behind the scenes beforehand.

The only thing I know for sure at this point is that Apple and AT&T are now officially at war with each other. To publicly trash your exclusive partner is to publicly trash yourself in the eyes of consumers, and Apple knows this. So there’s no way Apple chooses to hurt itself in th short term by hurling those public potshots at AT&T on Monday unless it has no intention of keeping its exclusive arrangement with AT&T one minute longer than it absolutely has to. While that might be good news for U.S. customers on other carriers who eventually want to join the iPhone revolution but haven’t had the wherewithall to migrate to AT&T, it’s bad news for those of us who will be stuck with AT&T contracts for long after the iPhone has presumably made its debut on other carriers.

If ever there was a contract worth buying ones way out of, the ones that existing iPhone customers have with AT&T just might be it once the iPhone can be used with other carriers. Let’s be as clear as possible: all U.S. cellphone carriers are evil. None of them are companies that you would ever want to do business with unless you had to. But count me among the first to jump ship to a theoretical Verizon iPhone the minute one becomes available. The irony is that due both to my yesteryear experiences as a Verizon cellphone customer and to my the recent fiascoes surrounding my current EVDO account, I hate Verizon. But what AT&T is doing here is a significant step beyond the evil we’ve come to expect from cellular companies. Its behavior isn’t merely short-sighted, it’s suicidal. There was only one thing propping AT&T up, and the company just threw that out with the rest of its slimy bathwater. AT&T is a sinking ship, and clearly Apple wants off of it, and so do I. Until the time comes, I’ll just have to limp along on AT&T with the rest of you.

But this leads to a serious question about the bigger picture for Apple. Pundits (including me) have pointed out that the people running Apple seem to have done alright, or even more than alright, in the absence of Steve Jobs. But all that comes under greater scrutiny now that we’ve seen the way in which Steve’s proteges have apparently dealt with AT&T in such a weak-willed “we own your ass and so we’ll give you whatever you want” manner behind the scenes, and in such a cowardly “we hope no one notices” manner when announcing the resulting bad deal to customers. That’s no way to run a company, and it leaves me convinced that the return of Steve Jobs to Apple can’t come soon enough.



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