Apple had to build the iPhone to protect its iPod portable media player business. The iPhone was introduced as a three-in-one device; cell phone, internet navigator, portable media player. Christian Zibreg rightly points out that it’s now five devices in one, adding video camera and personal navigation:

Some could argue that the iPhone 3GS has no chance against smartphones with much better cameras capable of DVD-quality recording, like the Nokia N97, but let’s not forget the fact that hardware specs are but a part of a bigger picture called the user experience… if the new iPhone 3GS zooms past rival phones on YouTube just like previous iPhone models did on Flickr, it will be yet another indication that average users prefer the complete experience over mere hardware specs.

That’s the key. Apple removes the hardware specification as an important selling point and replaces it with a better, more complete user experience than rival devices.

One day after announcing stellar financial results, Apple updates the iMac, MacBook, Mac mini, and introduces a new Magic Mouse.

• iMac: featuring brilliant LED-backlit 21.5 and 27-inch widescreen displays in a new edge-to-edge glass design and seamless all aluminum enclosure. The new iMac line, starting at $1,199, is the fastest ever with Intel Core 2 Duo processors starting at 3.06 GHz, and Core i5 and i7 quad-core processors for up to twice the performance.
• MacBook: a new, durable polycarbonate unibody design featuring a brilliant LED-backlit display, a glass Multi-Touch trackpad and Apple’s innovative built-in battery for up to seven hours of battery life.
• Magic Mouse: the first mouse to use Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch technology. Pioneered on iPhone, iPod touch and Mac notebook trackpads, Multi-Touch allows customers to navigate using intuitive finger gestures. Instead of mechanical buttons, scroll wheels or scroll balls, the entire top of the Magic Mouse is a seamless Multi-Touch surface.
• Mac mini: the world’s most energy-efficient desktop computer. When idle, it uses less than 14 watts, something no other desktop can do. Now with a faster processor, more memory, high performance NVIDIA graphics, and built-in 802.11n wireless.

Nice, but evolutionary, not revolutionary.

Robert Scoble on why he might switch from an iPhone to an Android phone, and why it probably won’t happen.

I met the guy who runs the iPhone app team (he asked to remain anonymous) and he told me his team approves hundreds of new apps every day. So, that’s HUNDREDS of new reasons every day that I will remain unreasonable. Sorry to Nokia, Palm, Microsoft, RIM, and all the other players.

Apple is the master of the gilded cage, the velvet rope, golden chains, also known as the lock in. We’re lock in. We love it.

Important files on my Macs are backed up to each, backed up to Time Machine, and backed up to extra external hard disk drives. Online backups have become trendy. Scott Rose looks a five of the best (along with a few recommendations that match my own backup process):

I compared the 5 leading online backup services, and my #1 favorite online backup service is now backblaze.com, because it is totally Mac-like in its simplicity and ease-of-use. You install Backblaze once, it auto-configures itself for backing up your Mac, and you never have to worry about it again. Backblaze just hums along quietly in the background, always keeping your Mac backed up in the cloud.

The problem I have with online backup services is the amount of time it takes for the first backup. Over 200 gigabytes for iTunes, iMovie, and iPhoto files takes freakin’ forever.

I’m a color hound. I own every kind of color utility for the Mac and dozens of bookmarks for sites with color wheels, color schemes, themes, backgrounds, and more. Instant Color Themes creates color schemes in a very unique way. For example, enter ‘city sidewalk’, and get schemes from photos of city sidewalks.

Let Yahoo pick your color scheme! Enter a word or phrase and I’ll grab 5 related images from Yahoo Images, and get the 6 most prominent colors from each.

I entered ‘Steve Jobs.’ The six color schemes were mostly black or gray. I entered ‘Mac’ and the color schemes were silver or blue. ‘Sunset’ and ‘Midnight’ returned predictable results, respectively. You get the idea.