Opinions & Editorials

Have you ever wondered how the iPhone and Apple's other devices like the iPod and iMac got the iconic lowercase "i" preceding their name? It all started with the iMac, but why? Who's idea was it? The answer is Ken Segall, and Cult of Mac recently got a chance to sit down with him for an interview about the birth of the "i" and life at working with Apple during the company's rebirth as one of the leaders in consumer gadgetry.

Today Verizon let the world know that it doesn't really care about the iPhone being exclusive to AT&T, stating that "Exclusivity arrangements promote competition and innovation in device development and design." The statement was made in a letter announcing Verizon's plans to allow smaller carriers (with 500,000 customers or less) to get exclusive Verizon phones six months after they're released.

Although Verizon didn't come right out and say it, reading between the lines you get the impression that Verizon would rather hold out for the next "iPhone killer" than take the iPhone from AT&T. Discuss!

Late last night I noticed that quite a few applications with similar features had appeared on the App Store. These applications ("Wide Email", "Sideways", "TouchType", and "Compose") all do the same thing—allow landscape email composition. And while this is a feature that quite a few users would like, these apps didn't sound interesting enough to mention here. However, Arn Kim seems to think that this could indicate that Apple has reconsidered some of its App Store rejection policies and I think he may be right.

In case you haven't been keeping up with the flurry of news today, there are now two companies claiming to have the magical software needed to unlock the iPhone. As good as that sounds, it comes at a price. Neither one of these groups intend to give away the crown jewels for free. No, they're going to make you pay to use the method, which they claim to have developed independently. I'm not too sure about that.