• Search (Palm circa late ’90s was awesome)
• Copy and paste (from the people who brought you Ctrl-X, -C and -V…anything daring to call itself a computer has had this since the dawn of time)
• MMS (granted, the iPhone MMS app has contact and location attachment, but 99% of phone have had this feature for six years or so, albeit with the main not-have being smartphones)
• Reading and composing e-mails in landscape, and having a landscape keyboard standard in all Apple apps (really, was it that hard?)
• A2DP Stereo Bluetooth (wireless headphone support, something every $50-with-a-contract phone, and 99.9% of smartphones, have supported since the iPhone came out)

There are some features of the iPhone that are the wave of the future, to be sure, and Apple’s leadsership brought in an era of truly usable smartphones and truly high-end feature phones. I’m also happy to see these rather glaring omissions added to the docket of iPhone features. However I’m still left scratching my head at how Apple leaves out obvious features on their products, putting them in only after a revision or two that may just be in software.

This also distances the iPhone from the iPod touch, which is a good thing for the iPhone…but I’m still not paying $70 + texts + tax per month for an iPhone plan, even if it means I won’t have MMS and A2DP due to my model being the older one. Speaking of which, if you want to pay $400 over contract price, you can now get an iPhone 3G contract free, albeit only if you’re already an AT&T subscriber. You can then unlock the iPhone and use it on T-Mobile with non-3G service, but what fun is that when you just erased the price difference between your plan and AT&T’s by paying through the nose for your handset?

Then again, if the iPhone 3G had a CDMA version for that price…I’d probably still get a Palm Pre :p.

For deelopers, there are some nifty features, albeit ones that, in some cases, have beena round other platforms for ages…then again, Apple is very picky about how its app developers make its platform look, so you coul dmake the argument that some features are poorly implemented on other platforms:

• In-application purchases (so you can actually get a single “reader” program, then buy books for it; all other platforms have no problem with this, and my jailbroken iPhone has an excellent reader app where you could download books and have them right ther eto read)
• Push notifications (so you can actually use stuff like IM on your phone…background processes have been hard to handle on low-powered devices like phones, but taking this long for Apple to get an alternative out must be annoying for devs)
• Accessory access, via dock connector and Bluetooth (good deal, though it was in Apple’s interest to get the dock work out sooner, since they make a cut of all accessory purchases…wonder if this means you could use your iPhone as an offload for digital cameras…you know, real ones)
• Peer to peer wireless connectivity over Bluetooth (Nintendo DS has WiFi, Palm products have had infrared forever, and have done very well with it, and Pocket PCs have had infrared as well…plus newer Palms and Pocket PCs have had Bluetooth)
• Maps access (this also includs turn-by-turn navigation, albeit with your own maps…funny how Apple didn’t like that before due to battery concerns…but normal maps can be Google’s, which is nice for many applications)
• iPod Library Access (alternate music players? Probably not, but it’s nice to be able to play music on an iPod touch + phone)

Maybe I’m being a bit cynical, but many features that Apple will soon implement on the iPhone simply bring things that everyone else has had for years to the table, so buying the device isn’t such a dilemna. Unless of course you actually want to use the phone with a plan, and don’t want to pay $100 per month for base serice that, I hear, doesn’t work in big cities due to network overlod (SXSW, anyone?). This is a problem, since you can only get the iPhone on that one carrier, who apparently can’t grasp that their subscirbers would actually use the network.

If you have an iPhone, rejoice. If you have an iphone 3G, rejoice some more. You may still be called a tool, but at least the geeky kids won’t make fun of you much longer for having a phone you can’t copy and paste with…that you paid $200 plus a thirty-dollar data plan for.

The Backberry Bold , the feature-rich 3G device from Research In Motion (RIM) will be released on AT&T’s network on November 4th. The price will be $299 with contract. Unlike the Verizon Blackberry Storm, this phone will have a keyboard and, I’m pretty sure, no touch screen.So basically you’re looking at a modern version of your typical Blackberry, which is a good thing.

A few days ago, Apple announced in its earnings call that it has sold over 10 million iPhones this year alone, surpassing RIM to become the 3rd biggest phone manufacturer in the world, by measure of revenue. That’s a lot of iPhones.

In other phone introduction news, Sprint is releasing the HTC Touch Pro on the 26th at Best Buy stores, and the 2nd at all other outlets, including online.The phone, successor to the HTC Mogul Pocket PC phone (on which I’m typing this article) has a slide-out keyboard, high-speed data access and a 3 megapixel camera. It runs Windows Mobile 6.1 plus some HTC enhancements, and will be prices at $300 after a rebate and with a new contract, which will have to include a data plan in order to get the phone. I’ll be upgrading sooner or later, though it may not be for a bit…my next phone upgrade is due late next semester. This is despite the operating system, which has been compared with a Soviet-era tank in the face of the iPhone.

Microsoft’s The Ultimate Steal promotion is back. In one of the few useful ads on the current oredigger.net site, I saw that Microsoft was offering the deal again, and it’s worth looking at for sure. Office 2007 Ultimate Edition is a mere $60, 91% off of retail,Visio 2007 (for flowcharts and such) is $56, and Windows Vista Ultimate, normally around $200, is available for $65. Windows Vista, granted, is an upgrade version, but all you have to do is install it twice, once with no license key entered, then once with the key entered…and you’ve got a legit Windows install for cheap (trust me, I’ve done it before).

Watch out! If you’re playing Oregon Trail, be warned that, sometime in the near future, your app will be replaced without a trace …by Speed Date!?! Unless you’re into that sort of thing, get out while your profile is untainted by such weirdness…

Water-cooled computers are so three years ago…cool your computer with non-nonconducting oil for the latest in ultimate gaming performance. No, seriously…submerge your components in the techno-magical potion for crazy cooling.

Comcast has rolled out its new, higher speeds, based on the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) 3.0 standard. The problem: those speeds aren’t available anywhere around here, and won’t be for awile considering the competitive situation. Currently rollout is in the northeast, as well as in the Twin Cities (MN) market, formerly a test bed for the tech. With the upgrade, customers on the standard tier get their internet speeds doubled for free, and everyone with the higher service tier gets speeds set at 16 megabits per second down, 2 Mbps up (double the download speed in most cases, no change on uploads). In addition, with rental (or eventually purchase) of a new DOCSIS 3 modem, two new tiers are available: a 22 Mbps download, 5 Mbps upload “Ultra” tier for $63 per month, and a 50 Mbps download, 10 Mbps upload “Extreme 50″ package for a whopping $140. The prices on these new tiers seems to be for cable users; expect something higher if you don’t bundle in cable, or if you want business-class service, which will also get the new tiers (the current 16/2 $89-per-month business plan won’t change). Another problem: it sounds like the 250GB residential cap is staying around even with the new, ostensibly more network-congestion-friendly tiers, which spread downloads over multiple channels on the highest-speed offerings. Theoretically this “burden sharing” would allow for less network congestion and thus higher caps, but in reality all the current “channel bonding” technology used in these setups does is restrict single-connection, single-file downloads to as low as one-third the connection’s full bandwidth. In short, when the new tiers do come, heavy users may want to seriously consider upgrading to the $59 “basic” business tier, which will boasts 12/2 download/upload speeds and no usage caps for a price lower than what people are paying now for 8/2, capped, residential service.

The open-source media player Boxee now supports Hulu and CBS videos. The significance? The social media player can be hacked onto an Apple TV, among other platforms.

Time to be more selective on your six-packs, beer-drinkers (I’m assuming you’re legal). Researchers have genetically engineered a brew with ingredients that combat cancer. Plus it’s anti-aging, even when the beer goggles come off. Best. Drinking. Excuse. Ever.

Just because you’re a gamer doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an antisocial nerd (though one can’t rule out the possibility, unfortunately). I’m not the one saying this: a study is. Check it out.

That’s all for now! Check back a week from now for more News Bits, or between now and then for more substantial, topical, articles…I have some good ones coming! Also, check out the new Mines website! It’s now online at www.mines.edu and it looks great!