Linked List: June 9, 2009

Tuesday, 9 June 2009

Jesus Diaz on AT&T’s iPhone 3GS Upgrade Pricing ★

Jesus Diaz:

The fact is that the $199/$299 price tag for the iPhone is the result of AT&T’s — or any other carrier, since the situation is the same all around the world — subsidy. Without subsidy — and tying you to a new two year contract — the iPhone is not different from something like the Nokia N97, which is $700 unlocked. Or the contract-free, unsubsidized iPhone 3G itself: The iPhone 3G costs $770 and $877 unlocked for the 8 and 16GB versions.

Asustek Vows to Out-Apple Apple ★

Jonathan Tsang, vice chairman of Asustek:

“Our goal is to provide products that are better than Apple’s.”

Good for them. What’s sad is how many other companies aim so low.

Apple’s Black Box ★

Jason Snell on the lack of any technical specs on the iPhone 3GS’s performance improvements (no word on the CPU or graphics chips, and no word on how much RAM it contains). I’m pretty sure it’s been bumped to 256 MB, but Apple isn’t saying.

iPhone 3GS Guided Tour ★

Apple does such a good job with these — they function both as instructional guides and advertisements.

Why Apple Wins ★

Steve Gillmor on Apple’s slate of announcements yesterday:

Apple’s rigorous march forward and its deep understanding of what the market will want next is not only keeping them ahead of the competition but building the markets they will own tomorrow. They’re like Willie Mays and the basket catch, making the hard stuff look easy.

WWDC iPhone App Wall ★

It really is as cool-looking as it sounds.

iPhone 3GS Display Has Oil-Resistant Coating ★

MacDailyNews picked up this nugget from Apple’s iPhone cleaning page:

If your iPhone has an oleophobic coating on the screen (iPhone 3GS only), simply wipe your iPhone’s screen with a soft, lint-free cloth to remove oil left by your hands and face.