Canadians will finally be able to get their hands on an iPhone, just over a year after Apple Inc. launched its advanced smart phone. The popular touch screen phone officially arrives on July 11, even though it’s estimated upward of 100,000 have already been brought into the country and unlocked.
Yet while Apple fans may cheer its arrival and the fact the latest generation will not only be more powerful but half the price of the first iPhone, the launch sets the stage for a summer showdown between Apple and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd., which is preparing its own 3G device – the BlackBerry Bold – for launch this year.
Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive officer, said yesterday the new 3G iPhone will run on the fastest available wireless networks, allowing users to browse the Internet at speeds comparable to a WiFi connection, and will be half the price of existing models, with Apple dropping the price of the eight-gigabyte version to $199 (U.S.) from $399.
Analysts said that despite its faster Internet speeds and new software designed for businesses – including Microsoft Corp.’s Exchange push e-mail technology – the new iPhone will still have trouble eating into RIM’s market share lead for corporate clients.
“Apple will continue to penetrate the small and medium business market much more heavily and aggressively than it has been able to do so previously with this Exchange integration, but as far as larger enterprise, we still see RIM as the standard,” said Mike Abramsky, an analyst with RBC Dominion Securities.
When Mr. Jobs first announced the iPhone at the Macworld Conference in January, 2007, he made specific references to RIM and how Apple’s new device would eventually top its rival’s BlackBerry devices.
Yesterday, however, when Mr. Jobs talked about the downloading speeds of the upgraded iPhone, he compared them to Nokia Corp.’s N95 and Palm Inc.’s Treo devices; there was no mention of the BlackBerry Bold.

theglobeandmail.com

The Green Apple Festival’s Earth Day message will be spread by the Neville Brothers,the Benevento/Russo Duo, Rose Hill Drive and the Heyday Sunday at City Park with a free show. Visit greenapplemusicfestival.com for more local venues and bands taking part in the national eight-city festival.
Yeasayer continues to bolster Brooklyn’s rep as a painfully hip epicenter of new music by looking back to the ’70s/’80s yacht rock scourge. Trust that they rock harder live. Saturday at the Bluebird Theater with Man Man.
Kimya Dawson’s critical drubbing smacks of more than a little misogyny when paired with the backlash to last year’s “Juno,” a movie heavy with her music. Dawson has never pretended to write anything but simple, melodic acoustic tunes. Tuesday at the Bluebird Theater with Angelo Spencer and L’Orchidee D’Hawai.
Ladyhawk’s animalistic approach is more Wolf Parade than Crazy Horse, but bits of both exist in the Vancouver band’s trembling, guitar-centric musings. Wednesday at the Hi-Dive with Neva Dinova and Vampire Hands.
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com

denverpost.com

While investigating the story behind the photo of a Mac-using David Simon that I posted on the blog last week, I e-mailed Greg Spence, the man responsible for the post-production of Simon’s next project, an HBO mini-series called “Generation Kill.”
Rather than discuss what one would expect – his possible use of high-end Macs equipped with Final Cut Pro and other high-end Apple video tools – Spence instead described how he and his colleagues depend on Apple’s consumer products.
In particular Spence said iChat is an integral part of his daily work, serving in multiple capacities.
“We use iChat religiously in our cutting rooms, as do most sound and picture editors and assistants,” Spence wrote in his e-mail. “Sometimes it is as short-range as a person in an intense screening or editorial meeting sending messages to someone just outside the door, or it can be as distant as across the globe.”
But I was surprised to learn that iChat is more than just a great communicator; it also can play a role in the production process, at least on some projects.
“On lower budget pictures we use iChat to record ADR [additional dialogue recording] from actors around the world,” Spence said.
“We sign on iChat, set up cameras, the director talks to the talent, they record the line… after each line the recordist simply drops it into the iChat window and we pull it down in Los Angeles. Lots of low-budget shows do this now and save up to $1,200 per hour. It isn’t super fast, but for a few lines it works great.”
Yet Spence has another use for iChat he considers the more vital than any other. In the middle of a five-month stay in London to work on the “Generation Kill” project, he is 5,500 miles away from his family in Santa Monica, Calif.

weblogs.baltimoresun.com