There has been tremendous chatter and debate surrounding Phil Schiller’s latest interviews with the WSJ and Reuters in which Apple’s VP of Marketing points out the inherent flaws and inferiority of Android. Headlines such as “In Rare Move” or “Apple Goes on the Defensive” reenforce to me just how out of touch the main stream media is with Apple as a company.

If we all take a short trip down memory lane, we may remember another rather outspoken individual at Apple (carrying the initials SJ), who found much enjoyment and purpose out of emphasizing the deficiencies of competitor products in contrast to Apple’s own products.

As many have correctly observed, the news cycle has been overtaken with negative press and glass half full type coverage of Apple as of late, having come to the realization that artificial predictions of Apple’s doom and demise tend to result in more page views when compared to honest yet perhaps monotonous reporting of Apple’s ongoing and continued record breaking success.

Steve had little tolerance for this kind of crap and it is my belief that Phil is simply resurrecting this spirit and vocality for Apple, in order to try and course correct some of the collateral damage being potentially done to consumer perception while Apple has remained quiet and less assertive these past few months.

Personally speaking, it’s nice to see Apple unafraid to put the gloves back on and take a stand.

There isn’t a review, video or photo of the iPhone 5 that does it justice. Apple’s best product yet. Get it!

Macrumors:

The results show an iPhone5,2 device running iOS 6 with a Dual-Core 1.02GHz ARMv7 processor and 1GB of RAM.

The total Geekbench 2 score comes in at 1601. Poole notes that the average score for the iPhone 4S is 629 and the average score for the iPad 3 is 766.

Simply put, this is really exciting. Not only does the iPhone 5 more than double the performance of the iPad 3, it leap frogs ahead of the entire Android market. These scores coupled with iOS’s inherently tight integration with the hardware, means the iPhone 5 is going to be an absolute screamer.

Interesting comparison charts below via HackerNews:

After 5 long patient years as an AT&T customer, I finally made the plunge to another carrier as of last night’s preorder (Sprint in my case). AT&T has proven over the last few years to be a company focused on anything but great services and customer focus. Looking back it’s a shame to see how much we’ve regressed over the last 5 years (summary below), when we could be so much further ahead.

Summary (approximate dates):

• Jun 2010 – AT&T pulls the plug on it’s unlimited data plans
• Jun 2010 – Forces users on unlimited plan who want to take advantage of data tethering to switch to a capped plan and lose their unlimited data entirely
• Jan 2011 – Elimination of $5 dollar texting plan option, forcing new customers to the $10 minimum plan regardless of texting needs
• Jul 2011 – Announces throttling data users on their “grandfathered” Unlimited Data plan beginning October 1
• Aug 2011 – AT&T announces elimination of $10 texting plan, forcing new customers to the $20 unlimited plan regardless of texting needs
• Mar 2012 – It is learned that AT&T will not allow mobile hotspot support on the new iPad
• May 2012 – Raises international data plan minimum fee along with overage charges
• Aug 2012 – Announces they will restrict the use of FaceTime over cellular, only to allow access to users paying for their premium mobile share plan

More important than the minutia of it all, 5 years later I have less service for more money. I’ve grown exhausted with it all and last night decided to vote with my wallet.

I think the image below sums it up quite nicely.

For more details, jump over to The Verge.

Another hilarious run through of tomorrow’s events from the folks at Joy of Tech.

Yerba Buenos Gardens now decorated in preparation for Wednesday’s iPhone 5 event with stretched app icons subliminally hinting at an all new elongated iPhone.

Countdown commences!

Image Source: Macrumors

The Loop:

Apple on Tuesday sent out invites for an upcoming event happening in San Francisco on September 12, 2012. The invitation I received says the event will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts at 10:00 am.

It is widely expected that Apple will announce its next generation iPhone at the event.

The “5″ in the invitation seems to be a clear indication that the next iPhone will indeed be named the iPhone 5.

This will come as a bit of a surprise to me ^1. seeing as though this will be Apple’s 6th iteration of the iPhone and the “5″ has always seemed to me to be a misattribution used by the media over the past year for the rumored device, that hasn’t had much meaning other than what could have been last year if Apple hadn’t decided to go with the 4S designation.

1. Unless Apple truly perceives the 4S as a 4.5 device, and only major redesigns necessitate the whole number designation?

I am now wanting to rethink my own office design. David has us all beat.