Bill Gates bans progeny from iPhone Nation
Via: TheRegister.co.uk
Our hearts go out to little Jennifer, Rory, and Phoebe Gates. Their mom and dad won't let them have an iPod or iPhone. But before you iPhone haters start cheering, we're talking about choice. Shouldn't Bill and Melinda's kids have a say in what digital-music player or texting-about-that-cute-new-kid-in-class device they use? Apparently not.
In an effusive article about mommy Gates, Vogue quotes Melinda as saying: "There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household...But iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our kids." The article goes on to opine: "Harsh, perhaps, but understandable. After all, it's hard to walk around tethered to merchandise made by your father’s most famous competitor."
But you know she's conflicted when she goes on to say: "Every now and then I look at my friends and say, 'Ooh, I wouldn’t mind having that iPhone.'". C'mon, Bill, lighten up. You once gave the iPhone a backhanded compliment yourself, when you told BusinessWeek: "If there's anything good about the iPhone, it's software."
Make your wife happy. Spare your kids the embarrassment of having to listen to High School Musical on a Zune. Shower a little Apple bling on their lives. After all, you have a clearer view of reality than Steve Ballmer, who famously told USA Today that "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance." And who famously laughed at it during a CES interview.
Swallow your pride, Bill, and get your little ones an iPod Nano apiece - and let them pick out whatever color they'd like and buy Melinda that iPhone she's evidently lusting for. You can afford it. May we suggest the white 16GB model? It'd go oh-so-well with the "luminous chestnut hair that falls freely to her shoulders" that Vogue fawns over.
Amazon Releases Kindle for IPhone
Source: PCWorld.com
Amazon.com released Kindle for iPhone late Tuesday night, providing iPhone users with the ability to read more than 240,000 Kindle-formatted books from Amazon's e-book library. It's a free download from the App Store.
Here's what Kindle for iPhone does: You can access all the Kindle e-books in your Amazon account, downloading and storing them on your iPhone or iPod Touch for later reading. (Just enter in your Amazon user name and password to link your iPhone to your Kindle account.) The Kindle app will also sync your place to Amazon's servers, allowing you to switch between the iPhone and Kindle hardware without losing track of where you are.
There are some catches, however: According to Amazon, Kindle for iPhone supports only books, not newspaper or magazine subscriptions. You also can't buy books directly from the app, but must use Amazon's Web site or the Kindle hardware (recently updated to Kindle2).
Still, for avid book readers without a Kindle, this new app will vastly increase the number of books commercially available on the iPhone. And Kindle users will appreciate the ability to read their books (but not periodicals) on the go, even if the Kindle isn't available.
Finally..Get your FREE iPhone!
