Get ready for a new round of iPhone early-adopter whining. Apple has just posted details for how it will go about distributing $100 in Apple Store credit to people who purchased the iPhone between its release at the end of June and the company's announcement, on Sept. 5, of a $200 price cut.
In the fine print of its rebate offer, you find this detail: "Customers may not redeem their store credit ... at any iTunes Store in the United States or elsewhere." Yes, you waited all day in line for the best iPod Apple's ever made, but don't expect free music for the thing, too!
Apple says that customers can redeem their credits on just about everything else the company sells. Well, except an Apple Store Gift Card. And as long as you plan to make your purchases in the United States. Oh, and provided that you activated your phone with AT&T -- if you're one of those folks who hacked it to go to another carrier, no $100 for you!
Please, iPhone early-adopters, redeem your credit and get yourself a nice Shuffle or wireless keyboard or something and refrain, I beg you, from clogging the Web with your rantings about how it's patently unfair that you can't buy the Arcade Fire oeuvre and how you're very disappointed in Steve Jobs, etc., etc. You got $100 for free, for no reason at all, so just spend it and be happy. Thanks.
To get your credit, follow the steps at www.apple.com/iphone/storecredit/.
The world in the iPod
The microchip that runs Apple's popular music player is made in India, Taiwan, China and Silicon Valley. Is this an example of how globalization works to everyone's benefit -- or a sign that the world economy is about to roll over America?
By Andrew Leonard, Salon
iLove it or iHate it
Is Apple's new blue bombshell a hit or a dud?
By Janelle Brown and Scott Rosenberg, Salon
An end to the Apple turnover
Steve Jobs accepts the inevitable -- and embraces the CEO title.
By Lydia Lee, Salon
Steve Jobs' iTunes dance
Now the Apple CEO says he would gladly sell songs without digital restrictions, if the record companies let him. That's hardly a brave defiance, and besides, I don't believe him.
By Cory Doctorow, Salon
Apple's iTunes sells 5 billion songs, but you don't own them
Why DRM means your music isn't really yours.
By Farhad Manjoo, Salon
Steve Jobs’ 2009 letter to the community about his health.
Terse and obfuscatory, this thing is Jobs all over.
Apple's obsession with secrecy grows stronger
Apple’s decision to limit communication with the media, shareholders and the public is at odds with the approach of other companies, which are embracing online outlets like blogs and Twitter.
By Brad Stone and Ashlee Vance, The New York Times
The Untold Story: How the iPhone blew Up the wireless industry
This 4.8-ounce sliver of glass and aluminum is an explosive device that has forever changed the mobile-phone business.
By Fred Vogelstein, Wired
A list of Steve Jobs' best quotes
An example: "The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament."
By Owen Linzmayer, Wired
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs
Fake Steve Jobs tells all in this hilarious and often informative act of fraudulent auto-blography.
Apple Announces New iPhone OS 3.1 at Keynote
Good Vibrations Sold Everywhere