dustin33finger's blog: "iphone"

Many Web sites offer a resource library for visitors?an area filled with articles covering relevant topics to the industry with which the site is connected. The articles may cover how to do something, or they may define an aspect of the industry, but they do not usually directly sell the company's products or services.

Benefits of a Resource Library

While it's true that a resource library, on the surface, exists to benefit site visitors, it doesn't end there; it also provides benefits that can have a direct impact on any business.

First, they spread goodwill among a business's prospect base?and its non-prospect base. Visitors see the site as offering free information about important subject matter, and that makes it a more attractive site to return to in the future, when a purchase will be made or a service established.

Second, with a solid resource library, the site puts itself in a great position to organically attract important inbound links. Outside sites will notice the offerings of important and unbiased information and link to individual articles or to the resource library as a whole?boosting traffic and rankings overall.

Third, if the articles in the section are optimized properly, they will also boost rankings for popular and competitive keyphrases, driving additional targeted traffic to the site. The traffic may enter the site at the articles, but visitors are then likely to click for further information about the site itself.

A Common Objection

The most common objection a search engine optimization company hears when recommending that a site add a resource library is "I want to sell my product, not educate." However, that is shortsighted.

It is important to reach buyers at all stages of the sales cycle. For example, if someone is just starting to investigate a product or service, a site with an appropriate informational article will reach him or her at this critical early stage. The prospect will then likely remember the experience when he or she is ready to buy and will return to the site.

In addition, a site with a resource library can help a salesperson save valuable time. With quality articles freely available on the site, the salesperson will no longer need to take the time to explain the basics to a prospect?the site will have already taken care of that. Instead, the salesperson can focus on speaking to the people who are ready to make a purchase.

Examples of Successful Resource Libraries

Several sites serve as great examples of this approach. Let's look at three of them?Bed Bath & Beyond; Lowe's; and Step Two Designs (an Australian consulting firm).

Bed Bath & Beyond opens its resource library with a friendly "Need help shopping?" and follows it up by telling visitors that they can "browse through the sections below for helpful shopping hints on a variety of topics." There is no mention of specific sales at any point on this page.

Taking a deeper look, one will find that the targeted phrase "window treatments" brings up Bed Bath & Beyond's guide on the subject on the first page of Google. This phrase has the impressive monthly search estimate (using data from WordTracker) of 55,304. Note that this page, which is an unbiased article offering tips on choosing different types of window treatments?and not a retail sales page?is what achieves the rankings.

Home-improvement chain Lowe's actually has several resource libraries on its site, from buying guides to an extensive how-to library. Its buying guide page notes, "Work Smarter: We'll help you find the right equipment and tools you need for all of your projects." And the company's article on choosing floor tiles appears on the first page of Google for the targeted phrase "tile floor," which has a monthly search estimate of 2,046. Again, it's an informational page, and not a product page, that gets the great rankings.

Both of the above examples are great, but you don't need to be selling a product online?or even in the retail business at all?to use a resource library to your benefit. Step Two Designs is a consulting firm that offers a resource library of whitepapers on its site. Its "How to Evaluate a Content Management System" article, for example, establishes its usefulness right at the top, stating that "No vendors or products are mentioned in this article: this is not a survey of current commercial solutions. Instead, it provides tools to assist you to conduct a review of suitable products."

This article appears on the first page of Google for the targeted phrase "content management systems," which has a monthly search estimate of 2,356. While this may be a lower number than the Bed Bath & Beyond example, a consulting firm's average sale will likely be greater than that of a single purchase from a retail outlet, and so these visitors are potentially more valuable. Even in this type of business, a resource library will quickly prove its value.

Conclusion

Resource libraries clearly offer something of value for everyone involved. Prospects appreciate their existence, search engines reward sites that have them, and salespeople are relieved of the burden of explaining basic concepts to early prospects.

You can create your articles in-house or, if you're not sure where to start, hire a search engine optimization company to help you with everything from idea generation to writing. In either case, with just a little bit of effort, your site can realize the benefits of establishing this type of section.

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Scott Buresh is managing partner of Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing (www.mediumblue.com).

Today's the day you'll finally be able to plunk down way too much cash for a cell phone with an Apple logo on it. I'm doing what I can to resist the urge to call it iDay . . .

If you are one of the first to acquire the Object of Your Desire, we want to hear from you. After you activate your iPhone and play with it for a bit this evening, leave a comment in this entry with a quick review. If you do so early enough -- say, before 9 p.m. CDT -- your comments may make Saturday's print edition of the Chronicle. Please include your real name and e-mail address in the comment form (your e-mail address won't be public).

If you're in line in the Houston heat this afternoon and would like to send us some photos of your vigil, e-mail them from your lame-duck non-iPhone to newspix@chron.com. They'll show up in our Breaking News photo gallery. And if you want to take photos of your iPhone after you get it set up and working, you can upload them to our Geek Gear gallery.

As always, check back often for new items, which will be added to the top of the list.

Steve Ueckert : Chronicle Brian Hesterberg waited 13 1/2 hours for this.

? I just got back from the start of iPhone sales at the AT&T Experience store on the Southwest Freeway. About 75 people were waiting outside when the doors finally opened at 6 p.m.

The store's employees applauded as Brian Hesterberg, a 19-year-old University of St. Thomas student, was first through the door after having waited in line since 7:30 a.m. today. Sunburned and with bloodshot eyes, he walked to the counter and plunked down hard, cold cash for the $600 version of Object of Your Desire and a $20 case for it.

Total with tax: $670.06.

I asked as he was paying which felt better -- finally getting his hands on an iPhone, or getting indoors to some air conditioning.

"Boy, that's a tough question to answer right now," he said.

Customers were brought into the store a few at a time, where they were greeted and their names were taken. When a cashier was available to help them, their names were called.

Once the transaction was completed, a clerk went to the back with the receipt and came out with an iPhone box, which is small and black, with a picture of the phone on the outside. Hesterberg stopped long enough to talk to the horde of reporters, then fled back out into the heat and presumably home to activate the Object of Your Desire.

? Not everyone wants the Object of Your Desire. Take Clinton Shelvin, for instance. He's a 22-year-old District Manager for Blockbuster, and he left the Galleria after purchasing a new MacBook.

"This is complete madness and foolishness,'' he told Chronicle reporter Ashley Harris. "I'm not waiting in line all day, when I have a life to live. My Treo 700p is the bomb.com. It does everything I need without all of the fuss.

"Half of these people are going to get drunk and sit on it anyway. At least with this I don't have to stress and worry the face of my phone is going to get cracked. In three to four months the price is going to go down. People are paying for the fad, not the phone.''

? At 2 p.m., Houston-area Apple stores closed. Marc Nathan was waiting in line at the Galleria and reported via Twitter:

they just closed the doors to the Apple store and we can see them pulling out banners

The AT&T stores will close at 4:30 p.m. for similar setup efforts. Both chains open again at 6 p.m.

? The mayor of Philadelphia, apparently not having anything better to do, decided he'd wait in line at an AT&T store to buy an iPhone -- but not for long. From the Associated Press:

Mayor John F. Street abruptly ended his wait in line for an iPhone Friday after a passer-by asked him about the city's murder rate.

Street, who showed up outside an AT&T store at 3:30 a.m., left shortly after a 22-year-old sporting a mohawk asked him, "How can you sit here with 200 murders in the city already?" The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on its Web site.

Street told the man: "I'm doing my job," the newspaper said.

He's apparently coming and going, with minions taking his place in line as needed.

? Chronicle business reporter Purva Patel hit some southwest AT&T stores around noon today and found . . . . well, not much.

Don't want to wait in line? The AT&T store in The Fountains shopping center in Stafford seems like the place to be. There are festive balloons and chains to keep the masses in line, but about noon there no masses to control -- as in, zero.

Another AT&T at Sugar Land Town Center had three waiting. At the front of that line was Megan Burleson, who was there because her boss bet her $150 she wouldn't be able to stay in line long enough to buy an iPhone for him.

"I'm here to prove him wrong, '' said Burleson, who got to the store late Thursday.

Meanwhile, AT&T's Dan Feldstein says 80 percent of the store managers in the Houston area say they've got folks waiting in line for the iPhone.

? Version 7.3 of iTunes for Windows or Macintosh -- which is what you'll need to activate the Object of Your Desire in the comfort of your home -- is now available. (Mac users can get it by running Software Update.) For users of Apple TV, it also allows you to show photos on your television from any PC or Mac on your home network.

? At the Galleria, another three dozen were in line around 10 a.m., the queue wrapped around the clear plexiglass balustrade across from the Apple Store on the mall's second level. The first to arrive, 24-year-old D.J. Lewis, told Kevin Moran he'd gotten there about 4:30 a.m., and had to wait until 8 a.m. to get into the mall.

Kevin Moran : Chronicle The faithful await the Object of Your Desire at the Galleria Apple Store.

Lewis told Moran that, when it comes to gadgetry, he's gotta have it all on Day One.

"Every electronic gadget, I have tried to get it the first day it comes out," Lewis said. "I normally get a new phone about every six months."

The iPhone, he said, "will complete my collection."

The scene at both Memorial City Mall and the Galleria was placid, which is a lot different from that of the PlayStation 3 launch late last year. Lewis said he was at the Sony Style Store in the Galleria and "it was chaos."

As was the case at Memorial City, there's a visible security presence. Moran's description: "Man, this place is guarded like Fort Knox."

? Around 8:30 a.m. today there were about three dozen iPhone hopefuls lined up inside Memorial City Mall, some of whom had been camped out since early Thursday evening. Reporter Kevin Moran said Darlene Dakus and her 14-year-old son Daniel were first in line, arriving about 7 p.m. Mall security wouldn't let them sleep overnight in air-conditioned comfort, so they spent the night outside and were finally let in around 5:30 a.m. today.

Daniel, an eighth-grader at Spillane Middle School in Cy-Fair ISD, is the buyer, and he plans to snag one of the pricier, $599, 8-gigabyte models, as well as some accessories for it. He told Moran he earned the money himself, umpiring for a children's baseball league, and has spent four months researching the phone.

Also in line at Memorial City -- 19-year-old college students David Carr, Alan Seunsom and Brian Ngo, all of whom have a more mercenary goal. They want to buy the phones today and sell them at a premium to others who have more money than time to spend in line.

The campers at Memorial City aren't being allowed to wait near the Apple Store there, but instead are being corralled by stanchions at the mall doors closest to the store, between Target and Macy's. A couple of security guards are keeping a watchful eye on them, in case they get to, um, euphoric.

Kevin Moran : Chronicle Daniel Dakus peeks around his mom, Darlene, while waiting for an iPhone at Memorial City Mall.

Update: AT&T says there are now some folks waiting at the AT&T Experience store on U.S. 59 South, between Weslayan and Buffalo Speedway. And a couple of people were spotted sitting out in front of the AT&T store on North Main Street at McKinney -- though whether they are waiting or just cooling their heels is unclear.

AT&T is also now telling us about lines in Pearland and Lake Jackson. Spokesman Feldstein says that "it's pretty safe to assume there are lines at many stores now."

? Still a mystery: Whether Apple really has licensed ActiveSync from Microsoft so the Object of Your Desire can get push-style e-mail from an Exchange server. Walt Mossberg mentioned in his review that this is possible "if your IT department cooperates by enabling a setting on the server." That likely means the switching on of IMAP, an older e-mail protocol, which Exchange can handle. But if Apple has licensed ActiveSync, there's no tweakage necessary from typically surly mail administrators, and it puts the iPhone's e-mail capabilities on an par with those of competing Windows Mobile devices. ThinkSecret has some iPhone screen shots that show an Exchange tab, but as Wired's Gadget Lab points out, the shots still show Cingular as the carrier.

Update: Looks like Microsoft has released a patch for the Exchange 2007 software, which will make it work better with IMAP4. That's the protocol used by the Mail program on Apple's Mac OS X, and, according to someone who knows the software, what will be used on the iPhone.

The update is expected to address the many issues Exchange 2007 users have been having, including with Mac Mail and the fact that when they access their mailboxes on a Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 server, certain IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) clients cannot open the bodies of the e-mail messages, which triggers an error message.

This fix is important as the iPhone will work with Exchange Server via IMAP4, Keith McCall, chief technology officer of Azaleos and a former Exchange executive, told eWEEK.

? Chronicle reporter Kevin Moran cruised by some AT&T stores in the Houston area early this morning in search of iPhone campers and found . . . only AT&T executives!

Ken Fisher, AT&T vice president for sales in Houston, said as of 6:30 a.m. there were no lines reported outside AT&T stores in the metropolitan area. Some exceptions included people gathered outside a store in Tomball and one person outside a Pasadena .

Fisher said he does not have the number of iPhones that will be available at the 3773 Southwest Freeway stores or other area s. "I do forecast we will sell out," Fisher said. "But the inventory will be replaced each and every week."

If people come into a store, and there are no phones immediately available, AT&T will ship one directly to their homes. "You're not going to have to wait a long time to get it," said AT&T spokesman Dan Feldstein. Phone service will also need to be activated through iTunes, Fisher said.

Feldstein also said there are reports of lines at stores in San Antonio, El Paso, Addison, Grapevine, College Station and Pasadena.

Moran's now checking at some area Apple stores.

? AT&T's EDGE network, which the iPhone uses to access the Internet when Wi-Fi isn't available, has taken some hard knocks over its pokiness by iPhone reviewers. But last night, reports began filtering in from AT&T subscribers that the dog-slow network was now noticeably faster. Gizmodo reported earlier this month that AT&T had a project called Operation Fine EDGE that was aimed at increasing speeds. EDGE normally gets around 40 Kbps -- less than a 56K modem -- but in tests last night, Engadget found speeds of over 200 Kbps.

? In fact, the EDGE network's lame performance was the topic of discussion during interviews yesterday with Apple CEO Steve Jobs and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal ($$$) and USA Today all had sit-downs with the pair, and in each one, the subject came up. Jobs took up the defense, as in this snippet from the WSJ:

You know every (AT&T) Blackberry gets its mail over EDGE. It turns out EDGE is great for mail, and it works well for maps and a whole bunch of other stuff. Where you wish you had faster speed is...on a Web browser. It's good enough, but you wish it was a little faster. That's where sandwiching EDGE with Wi-Fi really makes sense because Wi-Fi is much faster than any 3G network.

What we've done with the iPhone is we've made it so that it will automatically switch to a known Wi-Fi network whenever it finds it. So you don't have to go hunting around, resetting the phone, flipping a switch or doing anything. Most of us have Wi-Fi networks around us most of the time at home and at work. There's often times a Wi-Fi network that you can join whether you're sitting in a coffee shop or even walking along the street piggybacking on somebody's home Wi-Fi network. What we found is the combination is working really well.

When we looked at 3G, the chipsets are not quite mature, in the sense that they're not low-enough power for what we were looking for. They were not integrated enough, so they took up too much physical space. We cared a lot about battery life and we cared a lot about physical size. Down the road, I'm sure some of those tradeoffs will become more favorable towards 3G but as of now we think we made a pretty good doggone decision.

? Jobs also said that iPhone supply may not meet the demand. Ya think, Steve?

? Stephen Colbert is not happy that Walt Mossberg, Ed Baig and David Pogue got iPhones to review, and he did not. So, the Comedy Central fake-news anchor reviewed it anyway.

You have to feel a little sorry for the Free Software Foundation, which launched the first overhaul of its General Public License (GPL) in 16 years on the same day that Apple's iPhone launch hogged the spotlight.

Future GPL 3 violator?

(Credit: Apple)

But the foundation, like everybody and his brother, couldn't resist looking for a piece of the iPhone action. It used the launch as an opportunity to preach the merits of its new license and raise the specter that Apple's iPhone will violate it.

"We know that Apple has built its operating system, OS X, and its Web browser, Safari, using GPL-covered work--it will be interesting to see to what extent the iPhone uses GPLed software," said Peter Brown, executive director of the foundation, in a statement on Thursday.

That sounded a little vague, so I asked the foundation for some follow-up. Joshua Gay said he doesn't know what software is in the iPhone, but said, "If it's true that Apple can upgrade the software on the phone, but users can't, then distributing GPL 3 software on the iPhone would be a violation of the license."

Even if the iPhone uses GPL software, it's not clear whether Apple will employ GPL 3 versions of it at some point. What is clear is the foundation's loathing for what the iPhone represents.

Free software--that which grants anyone the freedom to see, modify and redistribute its underlying source code--is "radically reshaping the industry and threatening the proprietary technology model represented by the iPhone," the foundation said. On Friday, "Steve Jobs and Apple release a product crippled with proprietary software and digital restrictions: crippled, because a device that isn't under the control of its owner works against the interests of its owner."

Specifically, the foundation decries what it calls "TiVo-ization"--the incorporation of GPL software into a device, such as a TiVo's personal video recorder, that stops working if its software is modified.

The GPL 3 attempts to block such behavior, though Linus Torvalds, leader of the Linux kernel project, objects to it vehemently as overreaching.

Source: CNET News.com - Business Tech

Just one more day until the iPhone's launch day, and I don't know about you, but I've definitely got iPhone fatigue. The Object of Your Desire is now the Cause of Your Exhaustion.

Tuesday's glut of official information seems to have calmed things down on Wednesday. Now that iPhone iFans know more about the device, they were less prone to grasp at straws and even -- dare I say it? -- make stuff up.

Having four detailed reviews didn't hurt, either -- particularly ones that were glowingly positive. A fellow tech columnist noted that three of the four reviewers have written books about Apple products, and the fourth is an admitted fan of the company. Given that they have huge audiences, are well-respected and veterans of tech coverage with a sense of perspective, it was deft review-unit placement by Apple.

Our iPhone Watch marches on. As always, come back often during the day for new items appearing at the top of the list. Just two more days, kids, and it'll all be over.

? The Boy Genius Report scores once again with what appear to be official AT&T training documents for those manning the stores on Friday. Among the tidbits those docs reveal:

? Store clerks will try to get you to consent to a credit check, and if you pass, give you a code to put into iTunes. If you refuse the check in the store, you'll have do one as part of the iTunes activation process. If the credit check requires you to put up a deposit, you'll have to return to the store to make that payment -- you can't do it through iTunes.

? There are prepaid options available -- but only if you've got credit issues. You won't be offered those in the stores, only through iTunes.

? There will be quite a few accessories available Friday as well, including:

Apple's Bluetooth headset will be in stock tomorrow (14 day return policy as opposed to the normal 30 days for accessories) as well as extra docks, travel chargers, headphones, USB cables, and a host of 3rd party solutions which you can find below in the document.

? Defective phones will have to be sent back to Apple -- you can't return them to the AT&T store.

You can download the entire 65-page training guide here. (PDF)

? Oh, one other supergroovy tidbit from the Real Steve address to Apple employees: Everyone who's been with the company at least a year gets a free iPhone. Does that mean Apple pays their AT&T bill, too?

? On the eve of the iPhone's launch, Real Steve Jobs spoke to Apple employees today in a rare company-wide meeting. Ars Technica's Infinite Loop blog has details, saying that Jobs sought to put the iPhone into context for Apple:

He then talked about iPhone in relation to the rest of Apple's business. Steve described it as trying to put the third leg onto a chair with only two legs. The first leg is the Mac business, which Steve addressed by saying that they have the "best Macs" in the new product pipeline ever right now, and that the stuff coming out in the next year is "off the charts." Wow, sounds juicy.

He said that the second leg is the iPod and iTunes marketplace, which we all know has been wildly successful. The third leg of the chair, Steve hopes, will be the iPhone business, which he hopes to grow into something as strong as the iPod. He added that he hopes for the fourth leg to become the Apple TV, but focus is on the iPhone for now. This reiterates previous reports that Steve Jobs viewed the Apple TV as more of an experiment than a total dive into the set-top space.

? Fake Steve Jobs is having big fun with the whole standing-in-line thing. He's got reports of mothers giving up their kids for a spot in line and is running a caption contest featuring Robert Scoble. Oh, and he points to this iPhone-line photo gallery where, so far, the two guys in Tomball have yet to make the cut. I keep waiting for Fake Steve to coin the term "linetards".

? We have our first sighting of an iPhone line in the Houston area! AT&T spokesman Dan Feldstein said two people are now camped out in front of the AT&T store at Tomball Crossing in Tomball, northwest of Houston. Here's a question for the group: Do two people count as a line? Or are they just, you know, a coupla guys hanging out? And has anyone told them they can buy the Object of Your Desire online?

? You know that not everyone who's scarfing every tidbit of detail about the Object of Your Desire isn't actually going to buy one. The big question for Friday is: How many will try to do so? MacNN points to a new Harris Interactive Poll that says "of more than 10,400 people between the ages of 13 and 64, 15 percent are at least somewhat likely to buy an iPhone, within which one percent is absolutely certain they will be buying." That 1 percent are the impulsive ones. Here's some data about the smart ones:

However, while four percent of the "somewhat likely" group wants to buy as soon as they can, 55 percent is willing to wait for a price cut, and an overlapping 49 percent wants to know how good the product is in practice.

? An interesting, lengthy article in Business Week probes Apple's success as a trendsetter, and what it's like for partners to work with the company. Apparently Apple's penchant for perfectionism can drive its vendors to distraction:

But if the Apple orchard is growing, it is still no Eden. For those partners that make the cut, Apple enforces a brutal perfectionism. "The stereotype is that they're this loosey-goosey California company, but nothing could be further from the truth," says Gary Johnson, the former CEO of chipmaker PortalPlayer, which roared to prosperity by providing the electronic brains of the first generations of iPods. Johnson says that whenever a project fell off track or a part fell short of Apple's needs, its engineers were demanding "root cause analysis" and explanations within 12 hours. "You could pacify other customers by putting 10 engineers on a plane to see them. Not Apple."

? The iPhone not only means dollars for Apple, but also the Web sites that write about it. Business 2.0 says the gadget blogs are having a traffic field day:

Whether the $500 gadget actually sells out at Apple stores on Friday remains to be seen. But the blogs that have been fanning iPhone Fever since January can already declare a healthy windfall: Millions of extra dollars in ad-generated income have already flowed into bloggers' pockets, thanks to record pageviews, according to estimates. And the best may be yet to come.

Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer at Nielsen BuzzMetrics, told me today that the traffic generated by the phone is "higher than any product launch we've monitored." That includes the Nintendo Wii, the surprise hit in the console wars last November, he said, which was also huge but "nowhere close to this." Blackshaw said that an astounding 1.5% of ALL blog posts made in the week following Steve Jobs' unveiling of the product, at Macworld in January, mentioned the phone.

? Engadget spots information about how iPhone sales will work at Apple's stores. There's a two-phone-per-person, first-come/first-served rule. Online sales at Apple's site will indeed start Friday, at 6 p.m. PDT (or 8 p.m. locally, for the time-zone-challenged), so if you can wait for the free-shipping delivery, you can avoid lines altogether. There's also a link to an availability checker, to see if a given Apple store has the Object of Your Desire. The official news release is here.

? Also on Engadget: Has Apple created an online RSS reader just for the iPhone? So it would appear . . .

? The New York Times' David Pogue -- whose iPhone video remains a must-see -- has crafted a nice iFAQ for the iPhone. His Often-Asked iPhone Questions is thorough and interesting to read, even if you don't plan on buying the device. Some are even entertaining:

How snappy is the real iPhone, compared with Apple's ads? It's identical, with one exception: Apple never shows the iPhone when it's on AT&T's cellular network. That would just be embarrassing.

? ThinkSecret is still talking to "sources" who've handled the Object of Your Desire, and has come up with some tidbits you haven't yet heard. They include the fact that custom ringtones won't be available at launch; other AT&T SIM cards can be used in it (also mentioned in Pogue's FAQ); the phone's operating system takes up 300 MB; and the iPhone's antenna is located on the bottom part of its back.

? Apple's approach to marketing the iPhone has been extraordinary. It has created buzz by not saying anything. The Law of Human Nature decrees that, when there's an information vacuum, people will fill it with whatever they can, be it real or rumor. Ãœberblogger Robert Scoble notes that Apple's success in marketing the iPhone has got Microsofties talking about how to retool its own sales strategies:

You can say a lot of things about Microsoft but one thing I came away with after my three years inside there is that it's a learning company. I'm sure right now they are arguing out all sorts of things about the iPhone launch and thinking about how they will apply the lessons from this period in time to Microsoft.

I'm hearing from my friends on the Windows team that Steven Sinofsky and his team (Steven runs the Windows team) has made it clear he doesn't want anyone talking about the next version of Windows. Hey, Steven is learning from Steve.

Steve Jobs is MANUFACTURING great PR by keeping everyone's mouth shut. Heck, I've met some people I KNEW had an iPhone and they were so scared of retribution or consequences that they wouldn't answer a single question.

Have you noticed that no one has started talking about the next version of Windows? I have. That's on purpose. They learned their lesson and realized that letting you see inside the meat factory is a little too messy for this new world of PR. Rather keep all that mess behind corporate walls and come out when something is actually finished.

Mac fanboys, feel free to insert your own "Microsoft steals from Apple yet again" jokes here.

? Do you work in an Apple store? You may be asked to spend the night in a security-related sleepover. From AppleInsider:

At most average size stores, the slumber party will reportedly consist of just two employees -- a store manager and one other staffer willing to bank some extra hours while snoozing.

As of publication time, retail management had not conveyed to the employees why they were being asked to spend the night inside the stores, though some speculated it's a security measure due to expectations of enhanced activity outside the s during the early morning hours.

? PC World has a roundup of the iPhone's top competitors. Granted, they lack the Object of Your Desire's cool factor -- and in most cases, it's oversized price tag -- but they're got the latest/greatest cell tech and get the job done. (Note: at the moment, the above link just bounces you back to PC World's home page. But you can see the other phones via this slideshow.)