About this episode: Should you upgrade to the iPhone 3G?

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Today’s Show: Quake, iTunes, and more!

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In the video above you’ll get a look at the office that I work from. It doubles as the “set” for AGTV…I’ve packed a lot into this small space.

Click Through to the Blip.tv site will give you a much higher quality video. You can see it here.

AGTV premieres May 19th, 2008.

So, you can imagine, I was please to see this new stand, Crabble, from Seskimo. The stand fits in your wallet, but can hold an iPhone or iPod touch in either portrait or landscape mode, and has an adjutable angle to 45 degrees.

That’s pretty cool.

Here’s the best part…the thing only costs $4.99. That’s CHEAP…or in this case, INEXPENSIVE might be more appropriate. Because if it works as well as it does in that video, cheap would be an inaccurate word to describe it.

Find out more here.

I know, really riveting stuff.

You can read the full press release after the jump.

CUPERTINO, Calif., April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today filed an amendment to correct the Form 10-Q it submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, April 23. Last week’s filing incorrectly reported the voting percentages for shareholder-submitted proposals because abstentions were counted as “No” votes. Very shortly after the original filing, the company learned that these votes had been incorrectly tallied and an internal investigation confirmed the mistake was due to human error, which Apple regrets. Today’s amendment correctly reports the voting results.

As a result of the corrected vote count, Shareholder Proposal No. 5 Regarding Advisory Vote on Compensation, known as “Say on Pay,” was approved with a majority of votes cast. The Compensation Committee of Apple’s Board of Directors has been closely following the Say on Pay issue, and anticipates that new laws or regulations will require some form of Say on Pay vote at all public companies in the near future. Even if that does not occur, Apple is committed to implementing an advisory Say on Pay vote next year.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

© 2009 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Here’s the full press release…

Apple’s Revolutionary App Store Downloads Top One Billion in Just Nine Months

CUPERTINO, Calif., April 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today announced that customers have downloaded one billion applications from its revolutionary App Store, the largest applications store in the world. The one billionth app, Bump created by Bump Technologies, was downloaded by Connor Mulcahey, age 13, of Weston, CT. As the grand prize winner of Apple’s one billion app countdown contest, Connor will receive a $10,000 iTunes® gift card, an iPod® touch, a Time Capsule® and a MacBook® Pro.

“The revolutionary App Store has been a phenomenal hit with iPhone and iPod touch users around the world, and we’d like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve the astonishing milestone of one billion apps downloaded,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “In nine months, the App Store has completely revolutionized the mobile industry and this is only the beginning.”

Today, the groundbreaking App Store has more than 35,000 applications available to consumers in 77 countries, allowing developers to reach tens of millions of iPhoneâ„¢ and iPod touch users around the world. This summer the iPhone OS 3.0 software update will provide developers with over 1,000 new developer APIs enabling In-App Purchases, Peer-to-Peer connections, App control of accessories, and Push Notifications. The iPhone OS 3.0 release will also add over 100 customer features including cut, copy and paste; Spotlightâ„¢ search; landscape keyboard and view for all key iPhone apps; MMS* support; and expanded parental controls for apps, TV shows, and movies from the App Store.

*MMS messaging is available only on iPhone 3G; fees may apply. MMS may not be available in all areas.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

© 2009 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, iTunes, iPod, Time Capsule, MacBook, iPhone and Spotlight are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Apple has been quick to respond to the “Laptop Hunter” ads by Microsoft. The new series of ads (4 in all) mostly take shots at PCs. From their many viruses in “Biohazard Suit”, to how the only way to say that a PC works right is to include a full screen of legal jargon in “Legal Copy”. My favorite, though, is the one above. “Time Traveler” has PC making a voyage to the future to see if PCs will ever work right…of course…when he gets their the PC of the future freezes up before he can answer the question as to whether they will ever work like they’re supposed to.

The final of the four ads reveals some of the new features of “iPhoto”. It looks like this campaign was already up and going, then stopped mid-stream to turn into attack ads…I say that only because of the balance of attack vs. non-attack ads in the mix.

The back and forth advertising is amusing. Both companies are doing a bang-up job distorting the truth. It’s only going to get crazier from here.

Easy enough, right?

Sure it is.

Along the way, you will see little red marks with the names of other players who have been playing recently, showing you how far they have progressed.

It has become my most recent life goal to make it onto the Top 100 High Scores for this game. So far about 30k points is as high as I can get…so I still have a ways to go…but I’m going to get there.

This game invokes some of the greatest of the old school arcade game style play. The main character reminds me of Q*bert, and the game play actually reminds me quite a bit of Donkey Kong…but the game itself is totally original…more FEELING like those old classics than actually knocking them off.

The game is $0.99. What the heck are you waiting for?

Get it now.

This parody video from Landline.tv is slightly NSFW, so keep that in mind before you do (there is a bull crap, and a few slight swears in it…so don’t get yourself in trouble on my account), but is BY FAR, the best and most accurate “Laptop Hunters” video yet.

Enjoy.

Last week CNBC had a panel discussing stocks and how they were performing in the recession. The video clip above is from their discussion on Apple, which seems to be invincible right now as it has grown 40% so far this year. While they may have a hard time understanding what makes it “untouchable” I think we all know the potential weaknesses in the stock price.

Right now, health issues with Steve Jobs could easily play Kryptonite to the stock. Disappointment over the next version of the iPhone could also be a factor, and if the most amazing thing in the world isn’t announced at WWDC (and probably even if it is) the stock will take at least a temporary plunge.

All that aside, though, if you’re looking for a stock that seems to have some ironclad protection in these tough economic times, Apple might be the way to go. If any of the things I mentioned above DO happen – they’ll only be temporary setbacks.

Apple is dangerously close to hitting 1 billion App Store downloads in less than a year. That’s absolutely astounding when you think about it. The App Store has truly changed the digital landscape, and other services have yet to catch up, even if the App Store isn’t without its flaws.

To celebrate the achievement, Apple is having a contest where you can win $10,000US iTunes gift card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule and a MacBook Pro. To enter you can simply download an App in the App Store (either FREE or PAID…might I suggest some digital comics? ) or you can fill out this form (up to 25 times a day) to enter for free.

The suppliers intend to reach about 2-3 million units per quarter, and readying for a “June launch”. The most notable of these components is a 3.2 megapixel still/video CMOS camera.

For more info check out the Engadget article here.

The apps are called “Itchy” (embedded above), “Office”, and “Student”. You can see all three of them on Apple’s official site right here.

I like the App approach that Apple has been taking in promoting the iPhone recently, and enjoy discovering new apps in the commercials. The Office Apps are particularly interesting to me, but I still use my iPhone mostly for games and comics.

How about you?

Apple issued a press release early this morning announcing that an update to Xserve is now available that delivers “up to twice” the performance of the previous system.

Using Intel “Nehalem” Xeon processors and a next generation system architecture, the 1U rack-optimized Xserve delivers up to an 89 percent improvement in performance per watt.** Xserve is available with up to two 2.93 GHz Intel Xeon processors and industry-leading storage options that include a low-power solid state drive (SSD) and up to 3TB of internal storage. Starting at $2,999, Xserve includes an unlimited client license for Mac OS X Server version 10.5 Leopard.

View the rest of the press release after the jump

Apple Updates Xserve with Twice the Performance

Features Next Generation Architecture and Intel ‘Nehalem’ Xeon Processors

CUPERTINO, Calif., April 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today announced an updated Xserve® that delivers up to twice the performance of the previous system.* Using Intel “Nehalem” Xeon processors and a next generation system architecture, the 1U rack-optimized Xserve delivers up to an 89 percent improvement in performance per watt.** Xserve is available with up to two 2.93 GHz Intel Xeon processors and industry-leading storage options that include a low-power solid state drive (SSD) and up to 3TB of internal storage. Starting at $2,999, Xserve includes an unlimited client license for Mac OS® X Server version 10.5 Leopard®.

“The Xserve is the best workgroup server for our education, business and creative customers,” said David Moody, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Mac Product Marketing. “With up to twice the performance, better power efficiency and an innovative SSD drive option, this is the best Xserve we’ve ever made.”

The new Xserve includes Intel Xeon processors running at speeds up to 2.93 GHz, each with an integrated memory controller with three channels of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC memory that delivers up to 2.4 times the memory bandwidth while cutting memory latency up to 40 percent.*** Using high-efficiency power supplies and intelligent thermal management, Xserve delivers a 19 percent reduction in idle power use.

Xserve’s industry-leading storage capabilities include a 128GB SSD boot-drive option that requires a fraction of the power of a hard disk and delivers up to 48 times faster random access times without occupying a drive bay. Xserve’s three 3.5 inch drive bays support both 7200 rpm SATA and 15,000 rpm SAS drives and can be configured with up to 3TB of internal storage. Two PCI Express 2.0 x16 expansion slots provide massive I/O bandwidth to support the latest high-bandwidth expansion cards. The Xserve RAID card option now delivers improved performance up to 497MB/s**** and supports RAID levels 0, 1 and 5 with 512MB of cache without using a valuable PCI Express expansion slot. A 72-hour backup battery is included for enhanced data protection.

Every Xserve ships with an unlimited client edition of Leopard Server, offering support for Mac®, Linux and Windows clients without the added cost of client-access licenses. Leopard Server extends Apple’s legendary ease of use with Server Assistant and Server Preferences, which allow even nontechnical users to quickly manage users and groups on the server and easily set up key services. Leopard Server includes Podcast Producer, the ideal way to automatically publish podcasts to iTunes® or the web; Wiki Server, allowing people to collaboratively create and modify their shared websites with just a few clicks; and iCal® Server, the world’s first commercial CalDAV standard-based calendar server. Leopard Server is fully UNIX compliant and LDAP and Active Directory support allows Xserve to fit right in to existing IT environments.

The new Xserve joins Apple’s latest hardware products in setting new standards for environmentally friendly design. Xserve uses PVC-free internal cables and components, contains no brominated flame retardants and features a power supply with an average energy efficiency of 89 percent.

Pricing & Availability

The new Xserve is immediately available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com) and Apple Authorized Resellers.

The Xserve standard configuration, with a suggested retail price of $2,999 (US), includes:

· a single 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Xeon 5500 series processor with 8MB of fully shared L3 cache;

· 3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC RAM;

· a single 160GB 7200 rpm SATA Apple Drive Module;

· dual Gigabit Ethernet on-board;

· two PCI Express 2.0 x16 expansion slots;

· Bonjour®-enabled Lights-Out Management processor and Server Monitor Software;

· internal graphics with Mini DisplayPort output;

· two FireWire® 800 and three USB 2.0 ports; and

· an unlimited client license for Mac OS X Server version 10.5 Leopard.

Build-to-order options and accessories for Xserve include: dual 2.26 GHz, 2.66 GHz or 2.93 GHz Intel Xeon processors; 160GB and 1TB 7200 rpm SATA Apple Drive Modules; 450GB 15,000 rpm SAS drives (third party option); internal Xserve RAID card; Gigabit Ethernet, 4Gb Fibre Channel cards and a 750W redundant power supply.

*Testing conducted by Apple in February 2009 using a preproduction 2.93 GHz 8-core Xserve (2 chips, 8 cores, 4 cores per chip, 2.93 GHz; SPECjbb2005 bops = 203,439, SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM = 50,860) and a shipping 3.0 GHz 8-core Xserve (2 chips, 8 cores, 4 cores per chip, 3.0 GHz; SPECjbb2005 bops = 103,387, SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM = 25,847). SPEC® and SPECjbb2005® are trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC); see www.spec.org for more information. Competitive benchmark results stated above reflect internal Apple testing and were submitted to SPEC in February 2009. For the latest SPECjbb2005 benchmark results, visit www.spec.org/osg/jbb2005. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Xserve.

**Testing conducted by Apple in February 2009 using a preproduction 2.93 GHz 8-core Xserve (SPECpower_ssj™2008 result of 464 overall ssj_ops/watt; 173W at Active Idle; 227,974 ssj_ops and 334W at 100 percent target load) and a shipping 3.0GHz 8-core Xserve (SPECpower_ssj™2008 result of 245 overall ssj_ops/watt; 213W at Active Idle; 141,739 ssj_ops and 353W at 100 percent target load). All units were configured for optimal memory performance (18GB for 2.93 GHz 8-core units and 16GB for 3.0 GHz 8-core units). SPEC® and the benchmark name SPECpower_ssj™ are trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC); see www.spec.org for more information. Competitive benchmark results stated here reflect internal Apple testing and were submitted to SPEC in March 2009. For the latest SPECpower_ssj2008 benchmark results, visit www.spec.org/power_ssj2008. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Xserve.

***Testing conducted by Apple in February 2009 using preproduction 2.93GHz 8-core Xserve units and shipping 3.0 GHz 8-core Xserve units. All units were configured for optimal memory performance (18GB for 8-core 2.93 GHz units, 12GB for 4-core 2.26 GHz units, and 16GB for 8-core 3.0 GHz units). Results are based on the STREAM v. 5.8 benchmark (http://www.cs.virginia.edu/stream/ref.html) using OMP support for multiprocessor-compiled builds. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Xserve. Memory latency data provided by Intel.

****Testing conducted by Apple in February 2009 using preproduction 2.93 GHz 8-core Xeon-based Xserve units configured with Xserve RAID Card. Testing conducted using Iometer 2006.07.27 with a 30-second ramp-up, five-minute run duration, 512KB request size, four outstanding IOs, and using non-OS-cached reads and writes. System configured with the operating system on Xserve SSD drive. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Xserve RAID Card. Drive average read latency data from manufacturer’s published data sheets.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

© 2009 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, Xserve, Leopard, iTunes, iCal, Apple Store, Bonjour and FireWire are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

For those of you that may not be familiar with it, Quake was the 3rd FPS franchise created by ID Software. First there was Wolfenstein 3D, then the DOOM series, but when Quake hit, it was everything I ever wanted in a FPS game.

It was a huge hit at our high school too – so much so that we spent hours and hours of class time playing multiplayer in the computer lab. Sometimes as much as 3 hours a day (and yes, I do realize that classes were 1 hour each…we did A LOT of Quake playing).

So, I decided to do a quick Google search and find Quake for Mac. It was easy enough. You can get the shareware version of the original Quake right here.

I installed it, and ran the game at 1920×1200 – and it looks beautiful. The game is still awesome, and well worth pulling out of the moth balls.

There’s even a link to an active shareware multiplayer server…anyone up for a game?

Jetlag can do that…make you restless, I mean. So in an attempt to give myself something to focus on other than the fact that I couldn’t go to sleep (which seems like a really counter productive thing to focus on) I cranked up an App that I’d had on my phone for a little while, but I hadn’t really used….Sleepmaker: Rain.

This app was created by a listener of Apple Gazette Daily, and he sent me a very nice email about it when it launched. Even giving me a little credit in the creation of the app because I made him aware of MacTenta.com – the same place I met my current development partner.

Putting its creation aside for a second, though, as I was trying to go to sleep last night, I wasn’t really thinking about any of that, or what kind of review to give the app…I was just trying to go to sleep.

Much to my surprise after a few minutes of focusing on the rain – I was out. I woke up this morning kind of surprised…I haven’t fallen asleep that quickly in a long time.

What makes Sleepmaker sound so good, and so soothing, is the fact that these rain sounds are real. They aren’t synthesized on a computer. All the audio in the app was recorded between Jan – Feb 2009 in the World Heritage Listed Forests in Tasmania, Australia.

So that’s about as authentic as nature sounds are going to get. There are no animal sounds to give it atmosphere or background music or anything like that….it’s just rain…and it’s great.

You can actually try out Sleepmaker: Rain for free by getting the lite version right here. If you’re ready to jump in drop $1.99 on substantially more audio, you can grab the full version here. If you’d prefer the natural sounds of a full-blown storm, you can also download SleepMaker: Storms.

I’ve tried several of these “nature sounds” apps in the App Store, and Sleepmaker: Rain is exactly what I want out of one of these Applications. I highly recommend it.

For me, it changes every few weeks, at minimum. So it’s fun for me to occasionally take a look at my own personal Top 5 for the moment. Right now I’m really enjoying some of the iPhone game offerings, so this list is my Top 5 iPhone games of the moment…

5) Word Scramble by Zynga

This free Boggle-like game is nice looking and fun to play. There are a lot of negative reviews for it in iTunes because of its level of difficulty, and I would agree that the word bank could use an update…but I really do enjoy this game, and how its played.

4) iDracula – Undead Awakening

Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, and other cool monsters come at you in an onslaught that reminds me of an old arcade favorite “Smash TV”. The game looks fantastic, it’s fun, and it’s easy to pick up and put down. I find myself playing it far too much.

3) Tower Bloxx Deluxe 3D

Tower Bloxx Deluxe 3D is one of, if not the, most beautiful games on the iPhone. This thing looks fantastic, and its deceptively simple gameplay quickly becomes challenging as you progress through building your own cities.

This one hasn’t been getting the love it deserves in the App Store Top 100 – but I definitely think you should check it out. Highly recommended.

2) Sway

I love games that think of new an interesting ways to work on the iPhone, and Sway is a great example of that. This game is fun, feature rich, and easy to pick up…but harder to put down. It’s addicting, and the simple finger swinging game mechanics are inspired.

It’s another graphical winner – and well worth your money.

1) Wolfenstein 3D

I know, I know…the graphics are dated, the game play is simple, and stereotypical…and I don’t give a rat’s ass. This game is perfectly brought to the iPhone, and looks fantastic for what it is.

Wolfenstein 3D is a genre defining classic and it has been expertly brought to this new platform….and it leaves me wanting QUAKE for iPhone so bad I don’t know what to do with myself.

I’ve played this thing more than any other game since getting the iPhone, and I’ve loved every minute of it. Well worth the cash…now ID – get to work on Doom, and Quake!!!

Running a business is hard, and you should look everywhere you can for tips and advice…especially when you’re starting out.

If you’re an established business, but thinking about moving to a new platform, that can be a little scary as well…and you’ll want to do your research.

Thankfully, the fine folks at Apple have decided to help with that, by posting new Accounting and Enterprise Resource Planning seminars online.

You can find these, and many more seminars online for free – right here.

Currently there are 1376 reviews for the App on iTunes, and 416 of those are 1 star reviews. That’s a pretty good chunk of people having trouble. In contrast, there are 647 5 star reviews.

So it’s working fantastically well for the people that aren’t having crashing issues.

Point being – if you are having crashing problems, you’re not alone. I can’t give it a fair test on my iPhone right now, so I’m not sure how it is functioning first hand.

Hopefully Skype will get proactive on the bugs, and we’ll get a (mostly) flawless app soon.

The question of if Macworld can survive without Apple is still up in the air, but IDG is making some changes to Macworld 2010 in an effort to drum up interest in the show…and that’s a good thing.

IDG chief executive Mary Dolaher said “As we began the planning process, attendees and exhibitors made it clear that February in San Francisco was the time and location that worked best, so we listened.”

If IDG has any chance of making an Apple-less Macworld work, they’re going to have to do exactly that…listen to attendees and exhibitors.

I don’t know if this is going to work for them or not. I know that I don’t have a tremendous amount of interest in attending next year…but we’ll see. I haven’t completely written it off yet, either.

What do you think? Are you interested in Macworld 2010?

You know what I’ve decided I don’t have time in my life for anymore?

The Mac vs. PC debate.

Honestly, the Internet can kill the fun in just about anything, and it has officially killed the fun of this back and forth for me. This new Ad from Microsoft is really what takes the cake. Not the ad itself – I think that ad (as an advertisement and nothing more) is well done, and effective.

I also think it makes Microsoft look incredibly frightened of Apple in ways that I didn’t realize.

Apple’s been taking jabs at MS for years, so I certainly don’t have a problem with them fighting back. It’s just the constant bitter back and forth from the different fanboy factions that I can’t stand.

It’s a debate that will never end – and I seriously doubt anyone is ever swayed by the back and forth. Anyway, nice ad on Microsoft’s part…much better than Seinfeld/Gates – but I don’t think it’s going to change the world.

Will he be back at the show? I doubt it, but I’m sure it will be the lead speculation until the presentation itself.

Snow Leopard is the next thing on the agenda, and that would, of course, make sense – but the WWDC graphic that was supplied shows a clear focus on the iPhone.

One thing Apple can expect is a decent amount of developer frustration and anger when it comes to the iPhone. I don’t know a developer that isn’t frustrated by the process…but Apple made it pretty clear at the iPhone 3.0 event that they have no plans to change.

Now, I’m very much against this kind of thing mainly because I think it’s setting people up for trouble.

Giving someone a full blown computer, where they have the speed and power to stream HD video, download movies and podcasts, play games online, and so forth — then tying them to a two year contract on a data plan that has a low monthly data cap (5Gb in most cases) seems kind of like handing a 16 year old the keys to a Porsche, then telling them to drive 20 miles an hour everywhere they go.

I think people are going to get REALLY screwed on these deals, because if you’re not keenly aware of how much data you’re transmitting back and forth, you could easily find yourself over the data cap and paying by the kilobyte in a matter of days….and no one is going to call you or send you an alert to let you know you’ve done this.

Seriously, with a 5GB cap, you could download 2 HD movies from iTunes – and already be over your monthly limit.

If that happens, people are going to be getting bills from At&t for 5 and 10k. It’s already happened to a few people, and I expect it will become more common as these things are adopted.

Now, granted, you can easily say that these people “deserve what they get” if they do this – but we all know that sales people can be lying thieves (I know, I used to be a salesman…and I was never very good at it because I refused to lie to people about stuff they were buying), and I expect more than one parent or grand parent is going to get burned by this.

So – I’m obviously not on board with it. I am curious, though, as to what you think about.

Do you think it’s a good idea? Do you want something like this?

Today’s Show: OnLive, Apple Rumors and More

You can subscribe via iTunes, or by RSS feed, or…

you can listen to the episode right here: right here

In addition to that, you can also download the Apple Gazette Daily Widget and listen to every episode of the show right on your Dashboard. Click Here to download.