Apple Phone Show Episode 7
So close we can taste it!
Run Time: 37:51

Host:
Scott Bourne: Podcastgearguy.com, OnlineMediaTips.com and iLifeZone.com

Special Guests:
Chris Breen: MacWorld Magazine and Playlist Magazine
Andy Ihnatko: Colossal Waste of Bandwidth and The Chicago Sun Times

I think I can I think I can I think I can I think I can I... Oh... Hi... Just practicing my chanting in hopes of getting through the last day before the iPhone hits stores :-) Let's get on with the notes...

We're going to have coast to coast coverage folks. Scott will be at the Apple store on Stockton Street, and Vinny will hopefully, if he can get close enough to it, at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. It's going to be amazing!

Now that we're on the cusp of the launch, please hit us up at the e-mail address at the bottom of this post and let us know what you'd like to hear about in future episodes. Up until now, our job has been easy. Speculation, prognostication and even a bit of praying has been the order of the day. Not any more. We want to know what you want to know and what you want us to focus on. Send us some e-mail and let us know.

And now, Andy Ihnatko with a rundown of how to pack everything onto your new iPhone...

Andy says that iPhone hype has gone from absurd to silly. The level of hype is white hot. He's going to see some summer blockbusters just to avoid people waiting for iPhones. Scott points out that even though there's a ton of hype, it's still a lot of people that are going to buy it.

Tip #1: Beat the crowd and sign up for your Yahoo! e-mail account now to ensure you get the address you want.

Tip #2: Since Yahoo! mail is the only "push" e-mail you can get on an iPhone, you may want to have your main desktop client scripted to forward messages to it so as to not have to deal with the delays of waiting for your iPhone to send & receive. Make sure it's working before Friday, folks.

Tip #3: Use a separate e-mail account that you can "cut off" for your iPhone this way if you leave it behind somewhere, your e-mail doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

Tip #4: If you use Gmail, it'll work, but you'll lose the "push" capabilities. Andy points out that you will lose a lot of battery power if you can't use the push capabilities since your phone will be sending and receiving at timed intervals.

Tip #5: If you have a large media library, use Smart Playlists in iTunes. Use it to sort the kind of music, etc., that you want to store on the iPhone, then sync that one playlist. You can even use it to sync a certain amount of music (say 512 megs) that you haven't heard. Good stuff. Each time you plug in your iPhone, it'll remove old stuff and replace it with fresh and tasty stuff. Andy points out that he has a 4 gig Nano, and that unless he wants to go Deep Track, that's the only time he realizes he doesn't have a regular iPod. Secondly, as far as video, don't rip the full gigantic size of DVD's, as that'll be mostly wasted space. Handbrake has an option to make something fit into X number of megabytes, for example.

Tip #6: Scott wants to have a separate album in iPhoto for photos he wants to show off on the iPhone. Make sure you check the "downsize" option so that you don't end up with full resolution photos. If you're on a PC, grab Photoshop Elements so you can do similar image management in preparation for your iPhone.

Tip #7: If you have iTunes manage your iPhone's media, you're going to blow through storage very quickly. Manage your stuff manually.

Tip #8: Keep half a gig of space available for e-mail attachments, etc. You won't want to be stranded and having to rush home to grab an important e-mail attachment.

Scott points out that the software for the iPhone occupies 750 megs of the available memory. Andy points out that it shouldn't be a problem if the iPhone manages internal memory efficiently.

Tip #9: Buy some hand sanitizer so if your friends touch your iPhone with their grubby hands, you won't want to get the ebola virus or something. Andy is going to demo the ease of data entry by handing the iPhone to cute waitresses and encouraging them to try it out. What a sacrifice, Andy. Seriously :-)

Andy's new book, "iPhone Fully Loaded" will be available some time in October, but you can get his current book, "iPod Fully Loaded" right now!

And now Chris Breen with the news...

AT&T has finally released the rate plans and they're quite reasonable, much to everyone's surprise.

If you're an existing customer, you can add the iPhone data plan for a mere $20. That's cool because you'll still pay launch price for the iPhone as if you were a new customer.

Secondly, AT&T & Apple have announced that the iPhone activates just like an iPod or AppleTV. You plug it into iTunes, fill in a form, and you call it a day. Apple posted a video and it's stone cold easy. You can even port your number from your old carrier. Scott was particularly happy that the $20 data plan is proof that AT&T didn't take the opportunity to gouge iPhone users. Chris thinks it's an indication of the deal that Apple made with AT&T. Scott is wondering how good the 200 SMS messages are. Chris thinks it depends on your age. If you're younger, it might be a problem because younger people text more. If you're older, it may not be that big a deal, but you can spend $10 more, you can get 1,500 text messages or $20 more for unlimited texts, so even that isn't too bad. Just for the record, an SMS is 160 characters of text.

Some people are upset that you're giving a social security number to AT&T. Sorry folks, but the whole industry works that way. All carriers ask for SSN's.

Apple says the iPhone will be available in the continental US. In Hawaii, however, you will be able to get it. In Alaska, you may be out of luck due to coverage issues.

Apple Stores will be closing at 2pm, and AT&T stores will be closing at 4:30.

The 5th Avenue Apple Store already has campers! WOW.

We're going to have wall to wall coverage of the launch on Friday and Saturday, so be prepared folks!

If you have ideas for the show, you can tag a story on del.icio.us with applephoneshowideas and we'll check that before each episode.

That's all for now... If you have any questions, comments, concerns, tips, etc., let us know at applephoneshow@gmail.com.



Thanks to Apple Phone Show producer Vincent Ferrari for the shownotes!

New Apple Phone Show theme performed and arranged by Scott Bourne.