Seems like the iPhone has acquired quite a following. It has even attracted the intense focus of more than 300 hackers who have gathered last weekend in San Francisco.

The iPhone was released last June 29 and since then has become so popular that a recent survey found it more popular than cars. A device that combines the iPod music player with a mobile phone that allows internet surfing, the iPhone is naturally the source of a lot of people's interests, even those who want to maximize its potential even if they go through unconventional means. Like a weekend camp designed for hacking.

In an effort to get what Apple won't give them, 300 (plus) brave hackers set out to find the limits and capabilities of the iPhone. Organized by Chris Messina, the iPhoneDevCamp was held in a borrowed office complete with its own message board projected on a big screen. The event was not sponsored by Apple and efforts by Adobe to make participants sign nondisclosure agreements were met with a quick boot.

Hackers at the camp have produced a number of unusual and interesting results. One found a way to make iPhones yell out like Chewbacca when dropped. Another figured out how to flip through the top 10 photos on Flickr with the touch of a finger. A useful program also went out to make the iPhone function as a baby monitor. One program that got some hype allowed customized home pages with iPhone icons. "For example, a user can put an icon for the cable station CNN on their home page if they want to go to the site every time they turn the iPhone on."

By the end of the camp, 45 new programs for the iPhone were demonstrated, not including those that the more secretive programmers have chosen to develop by themselves. Perhaps we may yet see more things spark in the future from the endeavors of the 300. We should also see more from the developers of the iPhone themselves and third party developers now that the public has shown so much interest in it.

A recent article on online site Mac Life discussed the everyday life of an Apple Genius - the guy manning the Genius Bar in every Apple Store. Don't get your hopes up too much though, they're not out to create a cure for cancer or bring world peace.

These tech-support guys aren't your factory-trained, straight-off-the-assembly-line kind of people. They have to pass an initial screening and go through a two week Apple certification course training for OS, Desktop, and Portable not to mention to re-certify every year.

In addition to technical knowledge, they are also given lessons on how to deal with customers, something other established companies need to invest in. While the training is all hush-hush, two geniuses gave the low-down on their experiences as Geniuses.

There are stories about weird customers and the tips they give on how to maintain electronics better. They even discussed one of the common problems that most gadget users are guilty of: rough handling.

Not all these guys may be Mensa members or possess really high IQs that modern science would brand them as geniuses. The way they have been trained and the professionalism they bring to their posts, though, is nothing short of, well, genius.

If you want to read more about how it is to be an Apple Genius, click on our Read link to take you the full article.

Some people like older systems better than the new ones and sometimes they're right - there's only so much you can do on new systems, you don't always need that much power to get the job done.

A writer, Ted Hodges, is proud to say that he does his writing on an Apple Lisa. Yes, that Apple Lisa, the machine that, while innovative for its graphics user interface, was priced ridiculously high at US $10,000.

Ted proclaims that there are some benefits of the Lisa that you just can't have on a newer computer system. On the Lisa, you don't have to save from time to time. You can turn off the computer anytime you want, even when there are programs running. It does not crash, and whenever there are power break outs, you don't have to worry about your work not being saved.

Of course, the Lisa has its quirks. It's very slow, it doesn't support color, it can't really use any other software except for the 7/7 suite, and it can't go online. But you can only expect so much from a system that came out during the '80s. Back then, the Lisa was a revolutionary thing, a powerful personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI), targeted towards business consumers.

Some may like working on old systems, some would rather die than use anything else than the latest computer build. But being able to use these machines for real work is really what matters; a thing that Ted Hodges just proved with his beloved Lisa.

We all love South Park for its humor, satire, the vulgar words and the creative ways of saying the word "s**t" as often as possible in a single episode. Did you know that every new South Park episode is delivered right on the day it airs? Other than the sheer creative talent of the South Park production crew, the show credits its hectic production to Apple computers.

JJ Franzen, technical director at South Park Studios says, "We have very complex stuff that needs to be done very fast and we need to know that we can trust the machines to handle whatever we throw at them without crumbling. ThatÂ?s why we use Macs."

It used to be that the Studio used construction paper cutouts to play as Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny and the other characters. Such a method became too time-consuming, however; the Studio then decided to mimic the original look and feel of construction paper puppets using SGI workstations.

The animation crew uses Adobe Photoshop and Maya. They scan the original paper cutouts and backgrounds, and use these as textures in Maya. Using computers in producing episodes cut down the process from 3 months to 6 days. Recently, a new special-effects technique in producing the cartoon has been introduced: Motion, a graphics software from Apple, which allows snow to appear more naturally in South Park, Colorado.

After animation and audio, the editorial department cuts the episode for broadcast using Macs running on Avid. The team has custom-built the studio to include a 120 processor render farm, more than 30 Mac workstations, and almost 10 terabytes of Xserve RAID storage space.

Prior to using Apple, Maya was rendered on Windows workstations. But Maya would crash often, requiring the entire system to be rebooted. When Maya was released for the Mac, the team made the switch, and now, whenever the application crashes, only the application has to be rebooted - not the entire system.

South Park Studio says that their Mac workstations are fast and reliable. They're coupled with a 120-processor (AMD Athlon) Linux render farm, effectively doubling the amount of shots that the team could do. Macs could definitely keep up with the South Park crew's insane production schedule.

Frank Agnone, supervising producer at South Park Studios in Los Angeles, says that Apple's quick-to-master style is very useful. "Apple is known in the industry as being very user friendly and when youÂ?re making a big switchover, that factors in ... With Apple and Mac OS X, in-house production could make the transition easily."

 

Fred Amoroso, the CEO of DRM, electronic licensing e-licensing, and software asset managment provider">Macrovision, the original DRM company, has made a response to Steve Jobs' open letter regarding the role of Digital Rights Management (DRM) in the current electronic content marketplace. In his response, Mr. Amoroso highlights four major points.

First, is that DRM is just broader than music, and that DRM has an impact across many forms of content across different media. Therefore, the discussion should not be limited to just music.

Second, Amoroso asserts that DRM increases, rather than decreases consumer value. He says that without reasonable, consistent, and transparent DRM, there will only be a delay in consumers receiving premium, quality content in their homes in the way they want it.

Third, Amoroso believes that DRM will increase electronic distribution. He says that if owners of high-value content are asked to enter or stay in an environment/platform that offers no protection for their content, there will be no reason for them to enter.

And finally, Amoroso notes that what DRM needs is for it to be interoperable and open. He says that true interoperable DRM will speed the shift to the electronic distribution of content and make it easier for consumers to manage and share content in the home. He adds that it will also enable an open environment where content is portable across a number of devices and not held hostage in just one company's product.

Amoroso expounds:

As an industry, we can overcome the DRM challenges. A commitment to transparent, interoperable and reasonable DRM will effectively bridge the gap between consumers and content owners, eliminate confusion and make it possible for new releases and premium content to enter the digital environment and kick off a new era of entertainment.

We feel that we should have enough self-control to not laugh out loud at the use of words like "enabler" and "not decreases consumer value", and take those points suggested by Mr. Amoroso with reason. We're not sure about you folks though. We'll leave the laughing, nitpicking, and debating for and against DRM to you guys.

Anyway, here's a pseudo-analytical look at this. Jobs' letter said something that implies something like this: "The industry wants something impossible, like a unicorn headed for candy mountain." Macrovision's response is this: "Yeah! Candy Mountain rocks! Let's grow pink wings, turn into unicorns and fly to Candy Mountain!"

Double plus ungood. Read the exec's letter yourselves via our "read" link below.

Way, way back, we reported a rumor about supermodel Gisele Bundchen's plans on appearing on an Apple ad. Well, now the leggy Brazilian supermodel is not walking around with Leo DiCaprio in her arms and is now rumored to be playing sweet music with Fantastic Four's Chris Evans. So much with her personal life, let's get right to that Mac ad.

In another hilarious take on the 'I'm a Mac, I'm a PC' ad, Bundchen appears as a home movie. No, not the Paris Hilton kind, but yup, that's what she is in the ad, plus you get to hear the same ad music. In case you haven't seen it, here's a video for you to find out just what in the world we're talking about.

A college in Dover, UK (South Kent College) has spent over $50,000 to outfit the student body with the iPod Nano. 250 very lucky students will receive the iPods, free of charge, with the expectation that they will use them for handling lectures from their professors- which will of course be in podcast format.

Digital music players are already in use at Georgia college and the State University in Milledgeville (in the US). At many colleges, the use of digital music players, and other similar digital devices that have the ability to record sound, has become an integral part of the coursework.

Surprisingly, some people in Dover have raised objections to the faculty's decision to spend taxpayer's money on what is seen by some as a "bribe" to get students to attend college. Some, like pressure group Campaign for Real Education Chairman Nick Seaton, have even gone so far as to call the program "a scandalous waste of taxpayers' money." Fortunately, others involved with the situation are more circumspect. Mr. Coleman, the principal of the Dover college involved with the case, asserts that the iPods would only be handed out to those teenagers who had completed all their assignments and had full attendance.

He further added legitimacy to the project by adding that the entire project was funded by money the government saved in a business venture and not from a general fund contributed to by taxpayers. Officials at the school maintain that the staff reaction to the plan has been positive.

Lectures surrounding IT, motor vehicle engineering, and childcare will be the first courses that offer podcast formatted lectures with the remainder of the course offerings scheduled to be available as podcasts next year. Although some people reacted negatively to the plan to give iPods to students, the course has already been set.

Technology is an inseparable part of the educational experience. Students who are not acclimated to technology by using it during their coursework each day will be sorely missing out on an important part of the learning experience.

Apple has notified the Security and Exchange Commission that it will miss the deadline for filing the quarterly report detailing its financial figures for the most recent period. Unfortunately, delaying this report might be the most insignificant problem facing the company if the SEC launches an investigation into the recent stock option post-dating scandal that is still unresolved.

Amid rumors of financial irregularities, Apple launched an investigation of its stock option granting practices. Recent allegations suggest that numerous companies (including Apple) have come to rely upon the practice of post-dating stock options for favored executives in order to get them more compensation.

Apple has also admitted that it will have to restate earnings reports for the past 15 quarters and is conducting a probe that might end up causing Apple to restate earnings all the way back to 2002. Speculation at Apple has been that their investigation will uncover substantial discrepancies that will need to be accounted for in the revised earnings statements.

It seems as though many of our corporate leaders are trapped in a pattern of illegal behavior. First it was Enron, using offshore shell companies to hide and accumulate bad debt. After the good folks at Enron got burned, people realized they needed to find a new scam that would fool everyone and allow them to rake in the cash.

This time, Apple and other companies promised massive blocks of stock options (sometimes a large percentage of the company) to top level executives for the excellent work they do every day. The problem is that they allowed these executives to pick the day they wanted the stock purchase orders to go through at the end of the year, when it was simple to look back and choose the day with the lowest price to buy your personal shares.

The folks at Apple had to know better than that, so why did they do it? Apple certainly isn't the only one guilty of trying to jump on the stock option post- dating bandwagon, but many (like myself) imagined Apple to be different than most companies. It is possible that the post dating episode was an oversight and that there was no irregular financial activity going on, but the whole thing just smells bad.

From the Nimble company blog comes the story of an employee that used the Microsoft line of operating systems from the very beginning of his career only to make the switch to OS X after the years of frustration became too much for him to bear.

From DOS 2.1 to Windows XP he continued to suffer through instability, insecurity and lack of functionality. Finally, after losing one too many machines to a build up of malware, he decided to go Mac and not look back!

I may have been exaggerating his suffering (in a poor attempt at humor) but the underlying problems that pushed him away from Windows are real and cannot be ignored. The Nimblogger goes on to detail some of the differences between the two operating systems, along with some of the deficiencies that he found in Windows.

Many of the negative points that he makes about XP are legitimate but, he seems to have developed a permanently hostile stance toward Microsoft that cannot be changed. Although most of his assertions are common knowledge and their validity is not in doubt, some of his assertions simply express his now soured opinion of Microsoft.

The number of viruses floating around in the wild facing XP users, the level of style and design savvy apparent in the machines and the "it just works" factor are but a few of the reasons the author gave for making the switch.

Having been a Mac and a PC owner myself, I can attest to the fact that Macs actually do work out of the box better than PCs, and the Nimblogger seems to agree with me. Either way you look at it, more operating systems would benefit everyone; prices would likely be lower, consumers would have more systems to chose from and the competition would foster advancements in technology.

Regardless of what OS you use, learning about the causes behind an experienced computer users decision to switch operating systems can give you more to think about the next time you need to decide on a platform to use.

I've often thought that "techies" are similar to the priests of the many religions humans have practiced over the centuries - keeper of the sacred knowledge, party to some information we mere laypersons are incapable of understanding.

This has been less true of the Apple, which historically has been the world's most user-friendly computer - and therefore, fixable by most users. Still, there are those technophobes who either don't have the aptitude or the desire to go poking into their Mac's innards. Less frequently, Macs develop problems that should be addressed by trained experts.

In those cases, as a "Mac Genius," your position is tantamount to that of a powerful Mage.

Despite its appeal, this position has its downside.

In a typical Apple Service Center, out of 30 employees, only four of them are actual "Mac Geniuses." They rarely interact with - or even see - the public. They are hidden in the back, seated at their benches, diagnosing, troubleshooting, repairing, replacing - definitely not the job for ADHD individuals, or those who crave social interaction. On the other hand, Mac Genius are occasionally called out of their sanctuaries to calm and reassure an agitated customer - so "people skills" are definitely necessary. And you will be loved. Respected. At least for a time. You also have power. If a customer has a legitimate gripe, and is getting little or no satisfaction - or say, a machine is just barely out of warranty - a Mac Genius can usually get the problem fixed.

Much of this power comes from the fact that true Mac Geniuses are a rare breed. But here's where the hard truth sets in - this is not a career, its a job with little possibility for advancement. The hours are long and often inflexible. At one time, if you were a Mac IT expert, you could expect competitive pay. This has changed, particularly in the past five years as corporations focus less and less on people and quality service and products, and fixate on high profits, bloated CEO salaries and  inflated ROI for shareholders. If the choice is between a seasoned professional who can command a high price and a young novice who can be gotten for a song, they'll go for the novice every time (and sack them just before they're eligible for raises and benefits).

My personal feeling - corporate America, as things stand now, neither appreciates nor deserves genius. If you're really wanting a career in Mac repair, your best bet is to hang out your own shingle - or better yet, offer house-call service in your own local community.

After all, the quest for a better, more just and sustainable world starts in your own neighborhood.