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Sep 27

$199 8GB iPhone 3G with GPS Launches July 11th

Posted in: Gadgets, iPhone, Today's Chili

This article was written on June 09, 2008 by CyberNet.

3G iPhone.png As expected, Apple just got unveiling the new iPhone 3G today at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference going on in San Francisco. It took FOREVER for them to cut-to-the-chase and outline all of the details. We’ll start with the iPhone first and then go back to fill you in on some of the smaller details.

iPhone 3G with GPS on July 11th

Steve Jobs called the iPhone the phone that has changed phones forever and said that they currently have 90% customer satisfaction with the device which is astounding. He talked about how 6 million iPhones have been sold, but they still have a few challenges to address like introducing a 3G network, enterprise support, 3rd party apps, availability (more countries), and a more affordable price. With that he introduced the iPhone 3G with the following features:

Flush headphone jack (something minor but makes a difference)
Improved audio
Thinner at the edges
“Amazingly Zippy”
Faster data
Battery Life improved- 300 hours of standby, 10 hours of 2G talk time and 5 hours of 3G talk time, 5-6 hours of browsing time, 7 hours video time and 24 hours of audio
GPS

And of course we know enterprise support and 3rd party apps will be available as well.

When Jobs said they needed to make the phones more affordable, he was serious. The 8GB model will be sold for $199 while the 16GB model will be available for $299. The 16 gig model will also be available in white (not just black).

Even more impressive is that over the next several months, it will be available in 70 countries. July 11th is the big day for 22 countries including the United States.

Other WWDC Info

.Mac is now MobileMe

Another rumor that has turned out to be true is that Apple is replacing .Mac with MobileMe. MobileMe looks pretty impressive with push email, contacts and calendars. Data gets synched automatically between all of your devices, both ways including PC’s, Mac’s, iPhones, etc. The new location for this is found at me.com. A subscription fee of $99 will be charged and users will get 20 GB of online storage.

Applications for the iPhone

The beginning part of WWDC was all about applications for the iPhone. They invited several app developers on stage to explain the work that they had done. First was Sega who built Super Monkey Ball with 110 stages in just three months. Once the app store launches in July, it’ll be priced at $9.99.

Other applications that we saw include:

Auctions – from eBay for buyers and sellers (free)
Loopt – a location-aware social network that displays a map with pins representing where your friends are (free)
TypePad – blogging while on your iPhone – (free)
Associated Press – The Mobile News Network will be available so that users can keep up on the latest news. Local news will also be displayed. Watch news videos and get involved with reporting by sending images and text immediately from your iPhone (free)
Pangea – has designed two games. One game is Enigmo – a physics based puzzle game while the other is Cro-Mag Rally, a 3D caveman raving game. Both games will be $9.99 each
Band (developed by a solo developer out of England) – lets people make music on the iPhone
At Bat – from MLB, shows games, stats, live game info. No price was mentioned, but our guess is that there will be some type of subscription fee
Epocrates – has designed two medical related applications
Digital Legends – 3D fantasy adventure game

iPhone 2.0 Firmware…

They mentioned that developers have requested background support and so it will be available in September as an update to the SDK.

New features we can expect wit the firmware update:

Contact search
iWork support
Support for Office documents as well including PowerPoint
Bulk delete emails
Ability to save images to your photo library
Scientific calculator
Parental controls
Asian language support

This firmware update will come early July (likely with the launch of iPhone 3G) and will be free for iPhone users and will cost $9.95 (cheaper than the previous $19.95) for iPod Touch users.

The app store will be available on every iPhone as a way for developers to reach every single user. When there is an update available, you will be notified so that you’ll always have the latest. If the app is 10MB or less, users can download it over the cellular network. If it’s larger than that, users will have to get it via Wi-Fi or iTunes. For enterprises, they can create their apps and make them available only to their employes via company intranet. There is also Ad-hoc support to distribute apps.