End User: Bites from the Apple: How Soon Is Now?

Apple's been on a roll the last couple weeks with a string of announcments that have dominated the gadgetosphere. And this week was the biggest with its reveal of what's coming up in the iPhone 3.0 software upgrade--something I am looking forward to with great excitement (while my wife approaches it with trepidation, as she knows, deep down, this will bring new iPhone hardware to our home), though the open-ended wait to a release sometime this summer is going to be killer. So lets get down to the myriad bits and bites of (mostly) Apple-y goodness:

Engadget stacks iPhone 3.0 up against the other major smartphone platforms in a compare-and-contrast shootout.
Check out a load of screenshots from iPhone 3.0 over at CNet's Crave and Gizmodo.
Ars Technica rounds up some of the things that Apple didn't announce in conjunction with iPhone 3.0, including better app organization, video recording, unified messaging (bringing SMS text and email messages together) and, of course, support for Flash.
Though iPhone 3.0 is still in its early beta stages, it's already been cracked for jailbreakers.
For a long review of the long and winding road from Apple's Newton to the PalmPilot to the Handspring Treo to the iPhone 3.0, check out this Roughly Drafted article, which includes this opinion on why we've waited so long for functionality that should have been there from the get-go:
Had it attempted to run before it had mastered walking by rolling out a massively ambitious iPhone 1.0, we’d have observed another grandly massive undertaking like the Newton collapsing under its own weight without ever being finished, much like everything else Apple did in the early 90s, from PowerTalk to QuickDraw GX. The iPhone needed progressive packaging that released technology according to a strategy, not to fill a marketing checklist assembled by the sales people who ran the old Apple, and who now run Microsoft and Sony and LG and Nokia.
IT World considers some of the new functionality in the new world of iPhone 3.0 and sees obsolescence for notes and voice recording apps.
Web Worker Daily provides its overview of the iPhone 3.0 reveal and is excited about the new MMS possibilities for sending contact information in standardized .vcf format, which other phones, like the Blackberry, will recognize (and yet another app genre that will likely start to disappear).
Rumor Revue: LG has potentially let the cat out of the bag by claiming that its OLED-based touchscreen technology is heading for an Apple touchscreen netbook. According to iLounge, LG has been "working on a new outer layer of covering for the screens to reduce the appearance of finger marks on the screen, left by accumulating body oils and sweat (below is a delicious fanboy tablet via Slippery Brick to whet your appetite). However, Engadget reminds us that this rumor comes from a source who isn't always so reputable.

Ars Technica also reports that the new iPhone 3.0 code seems to indicate that that Apple has some new iPhone and iPod touch models coming down the pike. And Electronista reports that the next version of the iPhone might have a "significantly faster" connection--possibly support for speed-doubled 7.2Mbps 3G.
A reminder that Apple sometimes fizzles in the design department--today's the 22nd anniversary of the Twentieth Anniversary Mac (seen at right; via TUAW).
As Tom reported yesterday, Apple has now unleashed HD goodness for everyone with high-def movie rentals and purchases via iTunes (previously, HD rentals were only available to the few and proud Apple TV owners, like myself). However, much like the HDCP copy protection kerfuffle that came up last year, Gizmodo reports that you still need to have an HDCP-compliant external display in order to view the new HD movies (be they purchases or rentals). And as Giz further notes about Apple's DVI/DisplayPort video output:
Of course, the irony is, if they just supported HDMI like every other computer company in the world, there'd be more than one external monitor you could use, since HDMI supports HDCP natively.
Before the iPhone 3.0 software dropped and whiplashed everyone's attention, Apple was getting some heat for the discovery that the new iPod shuffle had a mystery chip in it that some worried was for DRM authentication (reported initially by Boing Boing Gadgets and iLounge). However, it turns out that the chip provides authentification for third-party accessories that comply with the Made for iPod official certification.
Two great tastes that taste great together: Boxee and your iPhone. Now you can control Boxee on your Mac or on your hacked Apple TV using the new, free Boxee Remote app for iPhone/iPod touch over a Wi-Fi connection. This should be especially handy for Apple TV Boxee users, as it makes typing out titles much less painful (via Lifehacker).
Another functionality mash-up comes courtesy of Bare Bones software (maker of the BBEdit text editor, of which I'm a grateful everyday user), which introduced WeatherCal this week (hat tip to TUAW and my pal Jeff Carlson for alerting me). It's installed as a preference pane and then allows you to add weather information for specific locales to your iCal calendar. It even shows up on your iPhone after syncing. I've also become a fan of iCalViewer, which displays your iCal calendars on your desktop or as a screensaver, and the combination of WeatherCal and iCalViewer has been quite helpful in determining the outlook for outdoor activities with our toddler.
Time Machine hogging your system resources? Get more control of it with the free TimeMachineEditor, which enables you to set backups intervals based on hours between backups or choose to set only daily or weekly backups. Additionally, you can stop Time Machine from backing up when you first wake up your Mac (via Ars Technica).
Steve Balmer's economic advice for the week: "Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment--same piece of hardware--paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that’s a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be." I wonder to whom he might be referring?
And finally... Woz lives to dance another week after vanquishing Belinda Carlisle on ABC's Dancing with the Stars (hard choice between my high school crush and a Mac-head hero).