The article linked below is actually titled, “How Bandwidth Caps Hurt Your Mac & What Apple Can Do About It,” but I don’t see how this isn’t as much of a threat to any computer user, regardless of computer brand or operating system. Bandwidth caps, especially really really low caps that some of these Internet Service Providers are forcing and enforcing (3GB/month?!?!? I’ve got thumb drives that filling them up would hit that cap!)

I am not in that industry whatsover, so I don’t know what real costs are involved in delivering bandwidth to the end user once the network is up and running, but from the outside, it really seems to be price gouging and cable companies protecting their own content, rather than trying to recoup costs of maintenance and delivery of bandwidth to users. In this day and age of 720p and 1080p streaming, video podcasts, high resolution photo sharing, video conferencing, VOIP and hundreds of other applications and data streams, such low (or really any) caps on your broadband connections seem ludicrous and bordering on price gouging.

I do understand the author saying Apple should be at the forefront of battling these caps, but in no way, shape or form, think cause you’re on a Dell, that this isn’t just as much of an issue.

How Bandwidth Caps Hurt Your Mac & What Apple Can Do About It

So I said I wasn’t going to do the whole early adoption thing [much] anymore, nor would I camp out for new tech, but I will be hitting Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh bright and early to get my black 16GB 3GS (couldn’t justify 100 bucks extra for a 32GB when I’m operating with an 8GB now). I’d also like to head to my old stomping grounds (and former part-time employer) over to the original North Carolina Apple Store at Southpoint in Durham, but I’m closer to the Raleigh store for heading to work after getting my new phone. It’d be nice to take it home to sync all my apps, etc., but unless it’s super quick getting through the line, I’ll have to head right into work.

Anyway, looking forward to my new phone, and hoping the process is efficient and the line is short and smooth first thing in the morning.

So just two days before the iPhone 3GS officially is released, Apple released the 3.0 software for the 3G and Edge versions of the iPhone. Is it me, or are is 3.0 a little bit ado about nothing? I mean, I’m glad that Apple has seen fit to continue to develop and improve the iPhone software for the two year old and one year old phones respectively, but I’m feeling like a lot of this third version of the software is really stuff that should have been included already.

Cut, copy and paste, and landscape keyboards are both great, but fall into the category of things that should have been there already. But as a developer, I totally can relate to features not always being as simple to include as they may appear to be on the surface. Both of those features will get a fair amount of use on my iPhone.

Pretty much everything else in the release, I could really care less. I’m thinking when I pick up my iPhone 3GS, that may excite me a little bit more.

Apple releases iPhone Software 3.0

It’s funny, I had similar thoughts about what was going on with the MacBook nomenclature. By moving all the unibodies to the Macbook Pro name/brand, it really seems to be a big hint and suggestion that a new full line of something called MacBook is around the corner. My thoughts were more along the lines of the article linked below’s second more liberal hypothesis— that the MacBook brand is to be transformed into the netbook of the Apple portable lineup and the source of Apple’s order of larger touch screens. I’ve got nothing to base that on at all, other than my gut. It’s nothing more than an uneducated guess, but it’d be nice to see it come true.

Why MacBook Is About to Mean Something Else Entirely

So the big news of the day was the much anticipated third generation iPhone being announced at the WWDC Keynote. Most of the rumor sites got it right on — faster processor, better camera (3 megapixels with autofocus), video recording capabilities, longer battery life, etc.

With the announcement, also came a price drop and continued availability of the current iPhone 3G at $99.

Gizmodo has a nice comparison chart of the 3G versus the new 3GS. It took several times through the Apple’s iPhone store site to successfully get one reserved for next Friday. I’ll finally be saying goodbye to my Edge cracked-screen original iPhone. Woo hoo!

iPhone 3GS vs iPhone 3G Feature Chart Comparison

So, thanks to LifeHacker.com, I’ve got a lighter wallet today, utilizing an idea I’ve had since first getting my iPhone several years back — consolidating all those rewards cards and accounts into once place.

My original idea was to scan in all those reward cards and just have a photo album of rewards cards so they were always all on your person, as long as you had your iPhone — which for me is an almost certainty. I even have my iPhone on me on bike rides.

Anyway, Lifehacker featured an iPhone app that’s one better than my idea that never got off the ground. The little app, called CardStar translates all those reward cards account numbers into barcodes. I’ve yet to get a chance to try it out at any retail outlet, but in just a few minutes, I’ve got the barcodes of every store I’ve currently got a card for — from AAA to The Vitamin Shoppe.

Reviews on the iPhone App store are mixed, saying some people can’t get them to scan, but I’m going to still give it a shot. Worst case scenario leaves my wallet lighter and has cashiers keying in account numbers (or looking it up via a phone number).

I love all these rumors about the third iPhone as June nears. I really hope the vast majority of them come true — significantly faster processor, more storage, more memory, a better quality camera (with auto focus and video capabilities).

This new phone can’t come soon enough for me, as my original Edge iPhone limps along with its cracked screen and a faulty headphone “sensor.” Please Apple, make this new one available soon, though it sounds like the announcement is right around the corner, but the availability date isn’t likely to be until July.

The Next iPhone: Warp Speed, Mr. Sulu

I’ve had this article in my drafts folder to blog about since the article came out, and am just now getting around to composing it. MacTech did an in-depth comparison of Parallels Desktop versus VMware Fusion. I’ve only used Parallels Desktop, but based on the benchmarks and comparisons, I’m using the right one.

Head-to-Head: Parallels Desktop for Mac vs. VMware Fusion