Hasta La Gadget!

We couldn’t grab hands-on photos of the iPhone 3G S at the WWDC 2009 keynote, so we delved into Apple’s Web site to find out what press shots the company had to offer.

Since the new handset’s design is unchanged from the iPhone 3G we’ll save …

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Since Apple first unveiled the iPhone OS 3.0 last March, we’ve been impatiently awaiting its full release. Yes, we did manage to get a beta version of the update on the CNET iPhone–I even did a preliminary review–but we prefer to wait for the real thing to give our official evaluation.

Fortunately, we got our wish Monday at the WWDC 2009 keynote. During his portion of the presentation, Scott Forstall, Apple’s senior vice president of iPhone software, announced that OS 3.0 will be released to the world June 17. We’ll still have to wait until later this summer for AT&T to activate multimedia messaging and tethering, but all the other new features will go live next Wednesday for iPhone 3G, iPhone Classic, and iPod Touch users. Two days later, the new iPhone 3G S will launch with the full update.

In total, Apple is promising that the update will bring 100 new features, but we’ve barely scratched the surface. Once we fully evaluate OS 3.0, we expect that we’ll find more. We were hoping that OS 3.0 would also include video recording and voice dialing, but those features will be available only on the new iPhone 3G S.

Though we’ve detailed most of the OS 3.0 improvements already, we wanted to revisit them following the keynote. Forstall mostly gave a recap of what we already know, but he provided more detail in a few areas and covered topics that we had not heard before. Here’s what he had to say.

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Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

On Monday, I asked readers to tell me about their experience with the Palm Pre, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Not surprisingly, the Palm WebOS received most of the accolades for its multitasking abilities and integration of contacts and calendars from various accounts. Others mentioned good call quality, fast performance, and sleek user interface, and the list goes on.

It’s been almost a week since I’ve been using the Pre and some of the newness has worn off. Yet, there are still times where I say “wow” and see where the smartphone stands out from the crowd, so I’ve rounded up five of my favorite things about the Pre. These are features that I personally find the most useful. Obviously, everyone has different uses and needs for their smartphone, so I’ll be asking you to share your list at the end of the post but for now, here’s my top five.

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We wouldn’t really say we “have it together” when it comes to remembering where we put our keys / phone / small children, so Apple’s announcement of the Find My iPhone service for MobileMe users came as quite a relief. The service just went live, and with a quick toggle of a preference pane in iPhone OS 3.0 the phone is fully prepared for all sorts of lost and found scenarios — along with acting as an incredibly intuitive (if pricey) stalking mechanism. Find My iPhone works exactly as advertised, giving us a fairly good location estimate from within our lead-lined underground fortress, and sending annoying messages to the phone complete with sound, even when the handset is switched to silent, though unfortunately the sound is a sort of sonar ping that strikes us as incredibly difficult to locate, unless of course our phone is taken by whale. The only other problem is that both the location function and the message service took a couple minutes to track down our iPhone — not a deal breaker, but we don’t know what the hangup could be. After the device is pinged, a confirmation of the event was sent to our MobileMe email address. A live, enthralling video demonstration is after the break.

Continue reading Find My iPhone is live, totally found our iPhone

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Handhelds

Find My iPhone is live, totally found our iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apparently not content to simply build a hybrid vehicle that’s both energy-efficient and luxurious, Mercedes has now gone the extra mile with its new 2009 S-Class ESF concept, which packs more than a dozen different safety features including airbags inside and out. That latter outside-the-car airbag is actually a giant braking bag that deploys under the car when it “senses an imminent crash,” which not only creates some added friction to slow the car down, but lifts the front of the car up about 80mm to compensate for brake dive. Other uncommon safety features include curtain airbags between the seats, airbags in the seatbelts, reflective tires, and “inflatable metal structures” throughout the vehicle, which apparently both saves space and increases crash protection. Unfortunately, there’s no word on any further improvements to the hybrid side of things, but Mercedes’ existing S400 Hybrid isn’t exactly too shabby of a place to begin with.

[Via Autoblog]

Filed under: Transportation

Mercedes debuts airbag-laden S-Class ESF hybrid concept originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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