iPhone News
9 Jun
So typically GFUK are not an Apple friendly guild, mainly because we can’t play real games on Macs. Don’t get me wrong, they are nice looking machines and there are some really powerful ones but at the end of the day, it’s not as simple as using Windows and just getting on with it.
What we can’t deny is how cool and useful the iPhone really is. Before none of us got one because the price was retarded, seems now we have even lost that excuse. Check out the GFUK summary of the iPhone updates from the latest Apple speech at the Development Conference.
What’s new in 3.0…
Seems they added a lot of stuff that maybe should have been in the 1.0 phone but never mind
- Cut, Copy, Paste
- SMS in Landscape
- Picture messaging
- Still O2 only
- iTunes access
- Tethering (Internet connection sharing from MAC or PC, **Contract Only**, I think you wanted this Docta J?)
- Improved Java and HTTP streaming
- Autofill for website user name\passwords
- Track a lost or remotely wipe a stolen phone (Seems this may cost £60 a year though, could be wrong)
- Can also remotely force the phone to make a noise even on silent, if you misplace it around the house
- This, and I promise this is an actual quote “Free apps remain free. In App purchase is only for paid apps”
- Peer-to-Peer connection
- Ability to communicate to 3rd party hardware
- Iceburg, a book buying\viewing app like the Amazon one
- Tom Tom! :D (Can get car holder and lighter charger, want, but will NOT be looking forward to the price of this)
- Another one for Docta – guitar tuner and effects box
And the new phone…
- 2 times faster for all apps, including things like opening SMS
- 3MP auto focus camera, touch screen zoom is nice
- 30 fps video recording
- Voice control (“Call Home” “What song is playing?” “Play songs by Bon Jovi”)
- Built in compass (NOT great but useful with gps to rotate street maps to the way you’re facing)
- Increased battery life
- $200 for 16 gig + $30 a month data (Min 24 months) (£440 inc 12 months data from O2)
- $300 for 32 gig + $30 a month data (Min 24 months) (£540 inc 12 months data from O2)
- 2nd Gen will be $100+ $30 a month data (Min 24 months) (£340 from O2)
- Black and White, No lime green as rumoured :)
- Out by August, might even be in a couple of weeks
So lots of good stuff, I really am convinced now. I will never live this down at work.
Big props to Jesta for writing up the bullets from the Keynotes speech for this one.
Additional note:-
Thanks to engadget.com for their excellent almost live coverage of the 2009 Apple WWDC.
Check out these suppliers as this phone is released in the UK on the 19th June 2009!
| iPhone G3s – O2 Tariff Breakdown (as of 10/06/09) | ||||
| Phone | Phone | Tariff | Wifi\Data | Monthly |
| Cost | Cost | Cost | ||
| 16 Gig – 18 Month – 75 Mins\125 texts | £ 185.00 | £ 540.00 | £ - | £ 40.28 |
| 32 Gig – 18 Month – 75 Mins\125 texts | £ 275.00 | £ 540.00 | £ - | £ 45.28 |
| 16 Gig – 24 Month – 600 Mins\500 texts | £ 87.00 | £ 840.00 | £ - | £ 38.63 |
| 32 Gig – 24 Month – 600 Mins – 500 texts | £ 175.00 | £ 840.00 | £ - | £ 42.29 |
| 16 Gig – Pay and Go (24 months) | £ 440.00 | £ - | £ 120.00 | £ 23.33 |
| 32 Gig – Pay and Go (24 months) | £ 538.00 | £ - | £ 120.00 | £ 27.42 |
So I went into the O2 store today for info.
They know nothing of price or stock levels. All they know is that they are not allowed to take pre-orders and the store opens at 9.02am (No idea why the extra 2 minutes is tacked on!)
Surprisingly, they knew nothing about the price even though it’s on their own website.
I’ll be there at 8.30, I’m not THAT involved with this phone that I need to be there at the crack of dawn (whoever Dawn is :) )
Thanks for costing updates, now i am not as excited, fucking England tax
I’ve added the English prices to the main post
My source in the Americas tells me that the dollar prices mentioned in the main post from the WWDC keynote are for contract phones. This means they’re pretty much the same price. I went on applestore.com to check it out. The $300 is for a two year contract, then an additional $30 a month for data (which is NOT optional). Works out around £26 a month which is in-line with UK prices, not so bad.
Glad that we are not getting too screwed then :) Still a lot of money but £150 for a sat nav so…
Did see this on PAYG contract though
“Downloading data costs £3 a MB in the EU and £6 a MB everywhere else.”
Consider apps are between 1-10 MB that is potentially very expensive. Yeah sure you can download them on your PC and port them to iPhone but what about emails? Someone puts some crappy FW with a 100MB attachment and you are suddenly paying loads out without even realising it or are emails exempt?
Rang O2 cause that’s a dodgy one…
The £3 per MB is within the EU, but mainland UK is free.
I will check that at the store when I purchase ’cause that would lower my desire for an iPhone by the full 100% :)
OK…
I got this from the Bolt on T&C page
The O2 Web & Wi-Fi Bolt On allows you unlimited use of O2 UK’s Edge, GPRS, 3G and HSDPA networks, The Cloud’s UK Wireless LAN network and the BT Openzone UK Wireless LAN network, for personal internet use and email.
Benefits of your O2 Web & Wi-Fi Bolt On apply to use in the UK only.
This info is for the 12 Months of included Web & Wi-Fi for new iPhone Pay & Go customers….
Must be using the dedicated iPhone SIM provided at the time of purchase
Active within 24 hours of the customer first topping up their iPhone. Prior to activation, data usage may incur additional charges.
OK, I feel better :)
Right so it’s unlimited as long as you pay the bolt on and sort it out etc etc.
That’s good.
Yeah, remember the bolt on is free for the first 12 months.