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Our North America brothers up north will finally be receiving their own iPhones. Rogers, a telecommunication company in Canada will be the initial carriers of the iPhone. It has been uncertain as to whether Canada would ever receive the iPhone.

Since the unveiling of the iPhone in the US, Canada has had to sit back and wait for a carrier to use the handset. No details have been given by Rogers, but the expect to have the iPhone available by the end of 08. Rogers was the first Canadian telecom to show interest in the iPhone after the 2007 release. They promised they would sell the handset, but they hadn’t released any progress until now.

It’s either a big coincidence, or a ploy for publicity, but the Toronto Star started a rumor about Rogers selling the iPhone by July. This rumor was started before the official Rogers’ announcement.

As soon as more updates from Rogers comes in, FreeMacBlog will be posting it.

An interesting turn of events has taken place in Apple’s acquisition of P.A. Semi. In an EETimes report, the P.A. Semi deal could effect the DoD’s programs, as they used PWRficient processors in their systems. With the selling of P.A. Semi to Apple, it looks as though these processors will no longer be in production. This brings up an interesting dilenma.

According to the EETimes, over 70,000 of these chips were slated to be used in the next decade. Earlier this Monday, P.A. Semi announced that it was being bought, and could no longer gurantee manufacturing of the chips. So far Apple hasn’t released any details surrounding the buyout. But customers were told by the company, that Apple has no interest in their products, just the intellectual property and workforce.

This is definitely an interesting turn of events for Apple. They now own the company that was responsible for manufacturing processors for the DoD. If the statement about non-interest in P.A. Semi’s products is true, then this could be a huge blow to the DoD. Having to find a new company to rely on, isn’t an easy task to undertake. There’s not much else to discuss, until Apple announces its plans for the company.

What’s your take on this recent news. Would it be in Apple’s interest to continue letting P.A Semi developer their chips. Or is their plans to just own the intellectual rights and services the way to go?

If there’s one thing that Apple prides itself on, it’s keeping all of their product lines “in-house”. It looks to be adding to that ideal by purchasing, PA Semi, a micro-processing chip designer company. Being reported by Forbes, Apple paid around $278 million for PA Semi. So just what is Apple gaining by this latest acquisition?

Their iPhone, and iPod line looks to be the main beneficiary of the buy. With ownership of PA Semi, Apple would be in control of its’ destiny in terms of chips it would use for iPhones and iPods. Another benefit of manufacturing its’ own chips, would be it could help to differentiate themselves from competitors using the same chipsets.

While this purchase looks good for Apple, it leaves Intel hung out to dry, so to speak. They have been trying to get Apple to buy into their “Atom” chips, which is their lower powered chip set.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this purchase in the long run. Hopefully this will help Apple set itself apart even further from its’ competition. It can definitely be said that Apple never does anything from a traditional manner. Which is probably why they have been so successful this past decade.

A few days ago, FreeMacBlog reported on an upstart company called PsyStar. This company was claiming it would release a cheap Mac OS X running PC. The more and more I hear about their company and practices, the more I’m starting to believe that it’s all a hoax.

If you’ve been keeping up with PsyStar news I’d most likely say you agree. For those not in the loop, here has been what’s happening with Psystar. When the PC first came available, PsyStar nearly stopped taking orders, claiming they were moving their physical address. They stated the reason for the move, was due to such a high demand of orders. Psystar then came out, and gave yet another excuse for not taking orders. Their vendor, Powerpay, stopped taking transactions through PsyStar. Louisa Deluca, in a News.com report stated that PsyStar violated their terms of agreement. “She declined to cite specific violations, but said ‘there are plenty of reasons why we shut the account off. We did not know that’s what he was selling, we learned that yesterday.”

All of this is just a huge red flag for anything relating to this company. I just hope that people didn’t actually send this company any money and get caught up in the scam. For anyone who did make the purchase, I’d like to hear back and see if you received the product. And if so does the computer run well at all?

The WWDC Apple Design competition officially began today. According to Apple’s site, “The Apple Design Awards, held at Moscone West during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, recognizes technical excellence, innovation, and outstanding achievement in software development.”

Here is a list of categories that you can submit software for:
-iPhone Developer Showcase
-Best iPhone Web Application
-Best Mac OS X Leopard Application
-Best New Mac OS X Leopard Game
-Best Mac OS X Leopard User Experience
-Best Mac OS X Leopard Graphics and Media Application
-Best Mac OS X Leopard Student Product

Entries for the competition will run from April 15th - 5 PM(PDT) May 12th. Here is a list of prizes, that each Mac OS X Leopard category winner and iPhone category winner will receive:

-Two 15-Inch MacBook Pro laptops
-Two 30-Inch Apple Cinema Displays
-16GB iPod touch
-8GB iPhone
-ADC Premier Membership
-ADC Macworld Expo Exclusive Marketing Package

For more details on the contest, as well as contest submission, visit Apple’s official site.

This is the question that Forbes brought up in a recent article. Its’ resounding answer was, software. According to the Forbe’s article almost all of Apple’s success can be racked up to its’ intuitive, and user friendly software.

In the article, by Brian Caulfield he explains the simplicity of Apple’s software success, “Apple’s best products mix the curb appeal of a Lamborghini with easy-to-drive friendliness of a Honda Accord.”

Another indicator from the article about how Apple’s success stemmed from software, was a look at their hardware. Caulfield explains that the hardware that’s present in Macs isn’t all that different from PCs. He then goes on to talk about how Mac’s OS X is very user friendly, and actually pretty to look at.

I definitely agree that Apple’s software has had a lot to with the recent success. Heck, the two programs I use most on my PC are Apple programs (iTunes and the new version of Safari). But I believe that Apple’s most recent success originated from their success of the iPod. It was this little device that really brought Apple’s offerings to the limelight. Before the iPod, Apple products were deemed the quirky devices used by your eccentric neighbor. While I’ll more than likely be bashed for this view, it’s how I perceived it to happen. So what do you think is the reasons behind Apple’s recent success, feel free to leave your comments below.