What are you doing today that will get you closer to a better tomorrow?

Here's what you've missed this week:

• Hackers Allegedly Leak 1 Million Apple Device IDs - The AntiSec hacker group claims it has in its possession more than 12 million Apple iOS Unique Device IDs, as well as other personal info from device owners. Click here to learn how to check if your UDID has been comprised.
• iPhone 5 Confirmed - Apple sent out invitations to the media regarding their September 12 event and although the words iPhone 5 where no where to be seen the accompanying image does not lie!
• LinkedIn Adds Notifications - LinkedIn now notifies you in real-time when someone likes what you’ve shared on LinkedIn, views your profile, accepts your invitation, and much more.
• No iPhone for T-Mobile - This T-Mobile training link pretty much confirms the iPhone 5 is a no-go for the carrier.
• Pinterest Now Sending More Traffic Than Yahoo - According to Shareaholic, Yahoo’s decline continues with recent news that Pinterest is now sending more traffic to publishers than organic Yahoo search results.
• Facebook Has No Plans to Launch in China Anytime Soon - Don’t hold your breath for Facebook to break into China’s market anytime soon.
• Twitter Offers New Features to Advertisers - In March, Twitter announced self-service advertising, giving small businesses an easy way to use Promoted Accounts and Promoted Tweets. Now they're releasing two new enhancements: follower growth reporting and manual Promoted Tweet selection.

It's time for us die-hard T-Mo customers to face the music and move on if we ever dream about owning a fully functional iPhone. According to this leaked T-Mobile employee training memo, it looks as though the phone carrier will not be graced with the new iPhone 5.


T-Mobile is training its employees to "sell against the iPhone" with special emphasis on the date of September 21, which has been the rumored release date of the long-awaited iPhone 5 (does T-Mo have inside information or are they just speculating like the rest of us?). This doesn't actually come as a surprise to any one, however those of us who have still stuck with T-Mobile were hoping for a miracle.

For quite some time now T-Mobile has offered its customers the ability to use an unlocked iPhone and it looks as though they will continue to provide the microSIM cards needed to support T-Mo service according to TmoNews.

Is the effort to compete against the iPhone a little too late? Shouldn't T-Mobile focus on what they CAN offer their customers rather than what they CAN'T? No one is going to go into a T-Mobile store wanting an iPhone and expecting someone to sway them in another direction... especially on the day of the (expected) launch of the iPhone 5. T-Mobile has some great phones and (I can't believe I'm saying this) there are other great phones besides the iPhone, so why are they so hung up on this one?

I do have to admit that I have been using a factory unlocked iPhone 4 for over a year on the T-Mobile network and I am less than satisfied. Despite not being able to send picture text messages to anyone that doesn't have an iPhone, not having visual voicemail, and only being able to access the 2G network, I am still the happiest I have ever been with T-Mobile in the 8 years I've had service with them. It's this realization that has lead me to believe that is was not T-Mobile that caused me to fight with them weekly over the entire duration of my contract, it was the phones that caused me to be unhappy.

I went to T-Mobile 8 years ago to live out the Sidekick dream, I moved from one crappy SK model to the next, until some T-Mo rep in shining armor told me about a wondrous land called Android where I could run free with a cute little green fellow to lead the way. I tried several models and was still unhappy. Androids are great, I just don't have the patience for them. My life is complicated enough and I just wanted something simple. Straight forward. At any cost!. I'd loathed iPhone users out of pure envy until I finally realized I could have one too!

I am waiting for my contract with T-Mobile to expire so I can move on to greener pastures... pastures that include the highly anticipated iPhone 5. I thought there might be a chance they were able to get a deal with Apple for the new device, however this training memo crushes any hope of that. I'm thankful T-Mobile has been so accommodating to those of us who have iPhones on their network now but it's time to live the dream.

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I recently hit up Downtown Detroit Days with some of my girl friends in support of Detroit's new shopping scene, pioneered by Somerset Collection's CityLoft. Downtown Detroit Days (DDD) runs a few weekends throughout the summer (there's no more scheduled this year) and has been a Detroit tradition since the 1950s. DDD transforms an empty lot, once home to J.L. Hudson's, an outdoor marketplace featuring the best Detroit and Michigan based brands, local artists and entertainers. We shopped and had a great time all while taking in the sights of downtown and the heart of Woodward.

For awhile now I had been in search of the perfect bamboo iPhone case so I was pleasantly surprised to find one at DDD in the Eye Zig Zag booth. And since there was a "buy two" deal going on and I wanted to support a local startup, I figured this would be a great "Back to School" giveaway!

The real bamboo brings balance to your high-paced tech life with its natural grain and texture and it also makes for a perfect autumn accessory! The hand-made case slides apart into two pieces for easy application and features a felt internal panel to keep from scratching the backside of your phone. Cutouts in the wood allow for access to all the phone's components.

As everyone gears up for school and mourns the end of summer, I thought my followers might need this back-to-school, fall-is-upon-us pick-me-up!

To enter this contest: Use the widget below to win. Your options include leaving a blog comment, becoming a follower of katelynshelby.me on Blogger, tweeting the giveaway link and mention me (@katelynshelby) in the tweet, and/or entering the mailing list. Contestants may enter more than once for this contest. The winner will be announced Friday, September 15, 2012 at midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What new features are you expecting to see in this new iPhone model? Let me know in the comments...

Other posts on this blog about the iPhone 5:

• Rumors & Concepts Roundup (May 2012)
• New iPhone Concepts (June 2012)

The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs told a graduating class at Stanford:

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Make the most of your week... year... life! Do you deserve a change?

Here's what you've missed in the world of social media, tech, and the internet at large:

• Apple identifies which Samsung products it will try to ban in US - With the trial stage just completed Friday afternoon, Apple wasted no time filing a notice with the court identifying which Samsung products it will now seek to have banned in the US.
• Sony to Shut Down Optical Drive Business - Sony is planning to close its optical drive division Optiarc, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reports.
• IBM Takes on Salesforce With $1.3 Billion Acquisition - IBM is acquiring Kenexa, maker of cloud-based recruiting and talent management software, for $1.3 billion in cash, the company announced Monday morning.
• Prince Harry Leaves Facebook - After his naked Las Vegas party pictures publicly leaked last week, he’s decided to take a break from using Facebook.
• Twitter Apps No Longer Let You See Where Tweets Came From - Not being able to identify the source of tweets might sound like a small issue, but taken in the context of Twitter’s other changes, it doesn’t bode well for the developer community.
• Google Puts First Animated Ad on Homepage - It’s only been six weeks since Marissa Mayer left Google for Yahoo, and already the company is violating some of the tenets she established there.
• A Blue-Collar Michigan Town Goes Green - I live in Wyandotte, a city featured this week in Bloomberg's BusinessWeek celebrated for generating 30 percent of their energy from renewable resources. 
• Zuckerberg’s No Longer a Top 10 Tech Billionaire - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seeing tough times as his company’s stock continues to plummet and now he has dropped out of the top 10 tech billionaires list.
• Kindle Fire Sells Out — Just in Time for Kindle Fire 2? - Amazon dropped another hint that it’s planning to introduce the next-generation Kindle Fire at its press event next week: The company said Thursday morning that the original Kindle Fire has “sold out” on its website.
• Twitter’s Promoted Tweets Are Now Targeted Based on Your Interests - The move allows those with Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts to set a list of interests that those accounts and tweets specifically target.