By now it’s pretty well known that ATT iPhones drop as many as a third of all calls, and that even Apple themselves admits that. But how do the Verizon iPhones do in the dropped call department? Does they drop as many calls as their ATT counterparts? According to a new study, the Verizon iPhone does substantially better in the dropped calls department.

Believe it or not, nearly two weeks after the iPad 2 launch (release date was March 11), many Apple stores are still out of the iPad 2! Or, more correctly, they are getting them in in dribs and drabs, with long lines queueing starting at 6:00 a.m. (!), and any new supply of iPad 2s selling out within minutes of the Apple store opening 3 hours later. Here is our experience being in the Apple line, and getting our iPad 2, and our first thoughts and observations on the iPad 2, the “Smart Cover” (hate it!), and the iPad 2 case that we love.

If you are wanting to buy an Apple iPad2, and want to get your new iPad2 from an authorized dealer of the 2nd generation iPad (and avoid paying the extortionist prices that some individuals are charging for a new Apple iPad 2 – we saw one person on Craigslist selling a white iPad 2 for $1800!), then you may be frusted that every single iPad next generation authorized dealer is out of the new iPad 2, and that nobody can tell you when they will get their next shipment (and if you want to order your new iPad 2 from Apple, online, they are quoting a 2-3 week wait). What’s more, nobody will hold one for you. Or, will they? Here’s a nifty little secret to secure yourself a new iPad 2, whether you want a black iPad 2, a white iPad 2, a wifi-only iPad 2, or a 3G AT and T or Verizon iPad 2.

The iPhone 4 was unleashed on the Verizon network earlier this month, and despite some nice extras unavailable on the AT and T iPhone 4, including the ability to use your Verizon iPhone to create and share a wireless mobile hotspot, the sales of the Verizon iPhone have been, by most accounts, underwhelming at best.

You can buy and download games for your click-wheel iPod through the iTunes store – but you have to find them first. Finding iPod games seems nearly impossible; you search and all that comes up is games for the iPhone and iPad, but nothing for your iPod Nano, iPod Video, or iPod Classic clickwheel iPod. That is, unless you know how and where to look in the iTunes store. Here’s what you need to do:

Hugh Hefner announced yesterday that Playboy is coming to the iPad. It may just be a coincidence, but Steve Jobs has always insisted that the the app store and iTunes be squeaky clean, and family friendly, with nothing over what seemed the equivalent of a PG rating, and now the Playboy announcement comes quite literally on the heels of Steve Jobs announcing this week that he will be taking a medical leave of absence.

The wait is over – at least, the wait to learn how long the wait is is over. As we mentioned earlier, today was the big day for Verizon’s announcement of the Verizon iPhone. And Verizon did not disappoint: this morning they announced the Verizon iPhone’s release date, along with a couple of interesting features, some of which that other iPhone doesn’t even have, including, most notably, wireless hotspot capability, allowing you to not only to connect your laptop wirelessly to the Internet through your iPhone, but to share that connection, wirelessly, with four additional people.

The 2011 Verizon iPhone is to be announced tomorrow (Tuesday, January 10th), with a Verizon iPhone release date at the end of the month. At least that is what the overly-pumped up rumour mills are saying, and, it seems, with good reason. Verizon themselves sent out invitations to a special announcement event scheduled to be held in New York City tomorrow morning, at 11:00 a.m. EST. According to sources, Verizon will announce the CDMA iPhone tomorrow, and will start selling it during the last week of the month.

iPhone users around the world are finding (some the hard way) that the change from 2010 to 2011 has caused the alarms on their iPhones to stop working. This primarily is affecting one-time alarms, not repeating alarms, but that doesn’t make it any the less frustrating, especially for those who relied on their alarms to get them up this morning for work, only to find that their iPhone alarm didn’t go off. Fortunately there is a workaround for your broken iPhone alarm.

At this time of year, thoughts often turn to buying a new computer (by which we mean buying a new new computer, not one that is used but “new to you” or one that is already in your grasp but you are making “new” by buying new computer components for it). The first question to ask yourself should be “Should I buy a new computer system?”, or even “Do I really need to buy a new computer?” But assuming the answer to a new computer buy is “yes” (or even if you don’t really need a new computer, but just want in on all the new computer technology), this leads to several more questions people should ask themselves before they buy new computers: “A Microsoft new computer or a new Mac computer?” And if you are going to go Microsoft, then “A new computer with Windows 7, or Vista or, heck, maybe even a new computer with XP?” (Yes, they can still be had.) “Do I really need all the new computer technologies or should I consider some of the cheap new computers?” Ultimately, when purchasing a new computer, the best new computer for you is the one that will gives you the most use, with the least hassle, and the most satisfaction.

Got the dreaded “Time machine has completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you” error message? Frustrating as all get out, isn’t it? (Especially if you have gigs and gigs of data to (re)backup.) Here’s why it’s happening.

Yesterday’s announcement by Apple that the music of the Beatles was finally available on iTunes brought cheers around the world (along with a few “So what?”s, it has to be said). And, it isn’t just a smattering of Beatles tunes – it is all of the Beatles music – every last bit of it. You can buy the albums individually, or in a compilation Box Set. Plus there is an exclusive “iTunes only” video of the Beatles’ very first U.S. concert, Live at the Washington Coliseum, 1964, (which you can watch for free through the end of the year)! Maybe now, at least, we will get that Beatles iPod, which has been rumoured for nearly 4 years.

Apple is fixing to announce a new iPad news service through which newspaper publishers can publish their newspapers on the iPad as iPad newspapers. The newspapers will charge a subscription fee, of which Apple will take a cut. While currently iPad owners can read some newspapers on their iPad by going directly to the newspaper’s web portal or website, the new iPad news service will presumably allow your daily newspaper to be delivered directly to your iPad. We anticipate that this will look like a cross between the newspaper’s web offering, and an RSS feed.

More and more audio files are showing up on the Internet in WMD format, which means that you need to convert those WMD files to listen to them on your Mac or MP3 player. This is particularly true for audio books, which frequently are downloaded as a WMD file. WMD is a format used by Microsoft’s media software, and unless you want to install the Microsoft software on your Mac in order to play your WMD file on a Mac, you are going to have to convert that WMD file in order to listen to it on your Mac. Fortunately, it’s actually really easy to convert a WMD file to listen it on a Mac, and to create MP3s of the file so that you can listen on your iPod, iPad, or other MP3 player.

Here at TIP we are a broadly Mac shop, and we do love our Apple computers. But that doesn’t mean that they never fail, and recently we learned the hard way that there are some known issues with certain repairs – Mac gotchas, if you will – that will get you every time. Such is the case with having your logic board replaced, which will cause problems for you with Time Machine and iTunes, because it changes your computer’s MAC address, on which Time Machine and iTunes rely to authenticate your computer. The biggest issue we see is that Apple knows about this, and doesn’t warn the customer before swapping out the logic board. A simple warning from Apple before replacing a logic board could save Apple customers hours – days even – of stress, heartache, and futile searching and effort; but Apple doesn’t give their customers that warning. So, we are giving you that warning – here’s our word to the wise.