Click to viewKevin Rose, the Casanovative founder of Digg, is concerned about the effect that all his whizbang gadgets are having on precious Gaia. He proposes that the heavenly father of the Jesusphone, the almighty Steve Jobs, develop an "iPower" system to monitor a home's electrical system. When your iPhone's GPS detects that you've left the house, the AirPort base station would trigger relay switches in power outlets around the house to shut off, saving precious joules from being wasted — something that a number of other companies are already developing, Rose readily admits. That's not a problem: Like all of Rose's ideas, this one involves someone else doing all the work. My only concern? Considering all the fecund females who've been associated with Rose over the years, it's only a matter of time before this dream becomes a reality — and then an awful nightmare. Because what happens when Robot Steve Jobs is given complete control over your home?

In agreeing to sell the iPhone, does Best Buy know what its getting itself into? Steve Jobs is issuing mea culpas about MobileMe, Apple's flaky email-and-synching service. But there are no Jobsian apologies over the iPhone 3G. Sure, sales are fine, $30 million changed hands through iTunes App Store in its first month, and Apple's market cap is now larger than Google's. But InternetNews.com's Andy Patrizio says it's obvious there's something wrong with the device itself.Specifically, the "3G" part of "iPhone 3G." Patrizio writes that "on disabling 3G, service improved immediately. There were no more dropped calls. Audio quality was fine. Battery life was much better." An analyst tells Patrizio a chip inside the phone is the problem: "We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain Infineon is the 3G supplier." Patrizio's three other problems with the iPhone:

Hidden in the math of a Fortune summary of a report from investment bank Piper Jaffray: Apple Store sales only account for 2 of every 5 iPhones sold. AT&T stores sell one in five, and overseas phone stores sell the other 2. Using Piper Jaffray's estimates, you can summarize sales for the upcoming Xmas-gift-driven last quarter of the year as: 2 million through Apple's own stores, 1 million through AT&T, and 2 million elsewhere in the world. Then factor in your Best Buy prediction. What I want to know: What's 2 million times the average wait time in an iPhone line? (Chart by Piper Jaffray)

During today's trading, Apple hit a market capitalization of $159 billion; Google's worth hung at a mere $157 billion. In November, when we predicted Apple would soon be worth more than Google, thanks to the iPhone, we drew scathing remarks from the commenters. One called it "the dumbest thing you've ever written." But the iPhone is an even bigger hit than the most fervent Macheads might have predicted. And the Googlephone, as we noted back then, is still just a set of developer tools. (You might get to preorder an HTC Dream running Google's wireless operating system in September.) What we got wrong: Apple dropped its innovative revenue-sharing scheme in favor of the more straightforward — and highly profitable — business of selling cell phones with a subsidy from carriers. (Screenshot by Digital Daily)

Electronics retailer Best Buy will begin selling Apple's iPhone 3G next month. Until now, only Apple Stores and AT&T outlets carried the phone. Like Apple Store customers, Best Buy shoppers must sign a two-year AT&T contract to leave the store with an iPhone. [WSJ]

Think the iPhone 3G is hot? Check out the clip CBS 5 took of Apple HQ in Cupertino! Firefighters this morning put out a three-alarm fire that burned for three hours last night in a building that houses Apple's finance and HR operations. No one was injured. The roof won't be the same, however. Senior communications dispatcher Rafael Salcedo told the AP the fire was "not very big, but there is going to be a lot of smoke damage." The San Jose Mercury News reported from the scene: " Some Apple employees stopped by to look at the scene and snap pictures on their I-phones." Question for the Merc's copy editors: What's an "I-phone"?

The HTC Dream, the first fruit of Google's foray into mobile phones, will be available for preorder from T-Mobile during a one-week window starting September 17. The artificial time scarcity seems designed to create iPhone-like hype. And perhaps the Dream will succeed at that. At $150 along with a two-year contract and a new, probably more expensive, unlimited data plan, this is the first wireless device I've seen that looks like real iPhone competition. Sure, it has Google's Android operating system, a touch screen and 3G speeds, but it also has a keyboard. And it's from HTC, the Taiwanese handset manufacturer that makes really nice phones — mostly for Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system until now. But just like the iPhone, the don't-call-it-a-Googlephone won't really bust up the carrier-handset-operating-system industrial complex that has long bedeviled the mobile market.I recently purchased the HTC Dash, right before the California Supreme Court struck down as illegal early contract termination fees — otherwise, I might have gone and signed up for an iPhone myself. But I love the Dash since it, too, has real buttons and is slim enough not to disrupt the hang of a jacket. Even at over a year old (which is about 35 in Hollywood actress years), it's still selling well despite two major drawbacks: Windows Mobile and T-Mobile. Similarly, the iPhone is locked to Apple and AT&T. Want an application? You'll have to buy it from the App Store via iTunes. Want a different carrier? Tough noogies. Apple didn't so much break the lock between handset manufacturers and carriers as much as they inserted themselves as a third gatekeeper. While HTC has close ties to Microsoft — its U.S. offices are based in Seattle, and veteran Windows Mobile developers work at the company — the phone maker won't be leaving Microsoft country. It's just applying for dual citizenship in Mountain View. Dream buyers will be locked to buying T-Mobile voice and data plans, regardless. While customers wait, the current release is likely off in Germany somewhere being larded up with crappy default applications from Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile's parent, which clings to a desperate Teutonic hope you might be dumb enough to continue using its T-Zones wireless services, baked into every T-Mobile phone. Google's and Apple's entry into wireless just means that lock-in is getting extended from our phones to the desktop. Getting Windows Mobile to sync with my iTunes on my MacBook and Google Calendar and email was a project that took an entire evening. It still doesn't work over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. My father, who took one look at my phone after losing his own and bought one, had no difficulty synching his Outlook contacts and Hotmail account with his Windows PC. Any bets on how easy it will be to sync a phone running Android with Yahoo Mail or iTunes? So if you dream of buying a handset based on its hardware features, then picking an operating system to run on it, and then choosing a wireless carrier which works well in your neighborhood, keep dreaming. Google would rather join the wireless club, and lock you into its own set of services. The Googlephone promised to set us free, and the Dream looks beautiful — but it's just another cell phone.

Gamasutra writer Christian Nutt, waiting for a flight at New York's JFK airport, hears a call for "passenger Wozniak" to board a flight to San Francisco, continuing on to Tokyo. Was it our Woz, the newly married Apple cofounder — and did he make the plane? Woz sightings always welcome on the tips line.

Dropped calls. Flaky high-speed connections. Short battery life. The San Francisco Chronicle rounds up not one, but two unhappy iPhone users and an analyst who backs them up to prove that this new iPhone thing isn't working as planned. Not to get all Fake Steve on these guys, but look: The problem isn't the iPhone. It's you two. The iPhone is so popular that AT&T's networks can't handle the load. The onboard apps — so easy to install, just go to the store, click, and boom, it's that simple — are so hypnotic that you're running out your batteries playing with them. Pull your pants up and look in the mirror. If you can't handle it that your phone is more popular than you are, maybe it's time you and the iPhone went your separate ways.

Steve Jobs: It's worse when he's not yelling Steve Jobs's hot temper is as notorious as it is well-documented. The Apple CEO parks in handicapped spots. He'll fire employees in a tantrum. But more fearsome yet is Jobs's indifference. Even calm, calculated words can shrivel his underlings' spirits. He's created a cold atmosphere at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, one former employee tells us:

In a post about iPhone apps sales hitting $30 million a month, today's featured commenter Shadowlayer gives a stark prediction:

Looks like I'm a member of the One Percent Club again today — the supposedly tiny proportion of Apple's webmail users who are missing messages. Where's Apple's new MobileMe chief, Eddy Cue?

Nullriver, a software developer, released an iPhone application called NetShare, which enables an iPhone to be used as a portable modem for computers. Despite being a violation of AT&T's terms of service, Nullriver got it onto Apple's iTunes App Store. Over the past week, Apple took it down, reinstated it, and then took it down again. Both companies are now laying the blame at each other's doorsteps, as one blogger realized in his attempt to get a refund for his purchase. Might just want to call your credit card company to get the charge removed. That seems easier.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs says iPhone and iPod Touch users downloaded more than 60 million apps from the iTunes App Store during its first month of business, spending about $1 million per day for a sales total of $30 million. "At the current pace," report the quantitative analysts at the Wall Street Journal, "Apple stands to reap at least $360 million a year in new revenue from the App Store." Said Jobs: "This thing's going to crest a half a billion, soon. Who knows, maybe it will be a $1 billion marketplace at some point in time. I've never seen anything like this in my career for software." Note Jobs's crafty wording!

The first mobile device to hit the market running Google's mobile operating system, Android, will be the HTC Dream and TmoNews.com claims its landed a leaked video of the device in action. We've embedded it below. The Android Guys blog says the device in the video reminds them of the device Google used to demonstrate Android to the BBC back in February. We've embedded that video below as well. Viewing both clips, its obvious both the device and its operating system are pretty slick, but will the companies be able to create an ad campaign that makes us feel like we are both among, apart from, and above the crowd: a new soul in this strange world, come to learn a bit about how to give and take? If yes, then maybe we're interested.The leaked video of HTC's "The Dream":

Turns out you don't need $999.99 to get the "I Am Rich" app for your iPhone after all. Gone from Apple's iTunes App Store, it's available free on Cracked Apps, blog linking to pirated, generic versions of Armin Heinrich's useless widget and other less useless apps too. Haklabs just put Hakstore, which does much the same thing. "As a developer myself," an angry tipster tells us, "I feel outraged and I think media should write about this to force Apple take some legal action." Seems that Apple already has, but as with the music and film industries, policing the piracy won't do much good. "Assholes," taunts the person behind CrackedApps, "Someone reported everyone of my links. Give it a few and I will update all the links :)"

Engineer David Walsh has brought suit against his employer, Apple, alleging that the company misclassified him and others as exempt from overtime pay. The practice is endemic across California, especially at startups. Local labor laws set a high bar for exempting employees from overtime pay, and non-exempt employees can become very expensive for companies which demand workaholic schedules. I was misclassified years ago when working as a Web producer for Williams-Sonoma and got a nice settlement check after a visit from the National Labor Relations Board. The notorious "EA Spouse" blogger helped shake up labor practices across the entire videogame industry. While stuck at your desk missing your legally required meal break, read below to see if you're exempt or non-exempt:

Before Apple succumbed to jealous cries of the hoi polloi and removed his "I Am Rich" application from its iTunes App Store, developer Armein Heinrich sold eight copies of his $999.99 pristinely useless software — six to refined buyers in the United States, one to a collector in Germany and another to one in France. From a technical perspective, all "I Am Rich" did was glow red. Metaphysically, it was known to provide elation only found in the delicate, snow white comfort of a Himalayan white tiger fur coat. Heinreich told the LA Times: "I have no idea why they did it and am not aware of any violation of the rules to sell software on the App Store." SAI performed the gauche math and figures Heinrich profited $6,000 from his work; Apple kept 30 percent of that for "store upkeep."

First Bare Naked Ladies, then Weezer, and now a hip-hop performer calling himself AC have marketed themselves by parodying Internet memes. AC takes on Apple's "New Soul" commercial in the video below. And since three's a trend, we feel obliged to report on it, allowing us to post the video and let it work its magic. Enjoy AC's "New Soul," directed by Steven Tapia during your lunch hour and remember, you're a sucker for these tactics too.

After discovering Armin Heinrich's $999.99 do-nothing "I Am Rich" iPhone widget, Apple iTunes App Store reviewer Lee5279xx claims that he "clicked buy, thinking it was a joke, to see what happened. I forgot my wife had 'iclick' activated on my laptop and it really bought this app for $999." Lee5279xx probably meant Apple's 1-Click feature which overrides Apple's standard "Do you really want to buy this?" dialog box. But that was meant for 99-cent songs, not thousand-dollar timewasters.