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In case you hadn’t heard, Steve Jobs got downright conversational last night at D8, riffing on questions from Walt, Kara, and the attending audience of elites. You can hit up the entire liveblog for a timestamped play by play, or browse through some of the highlights below.
Gallery: Steve Jobs live from D8
We put some extra scintillating quotes after the break to shield the eyes of your children. Just a note, however: all of these are paraphrased quotes typed live as Steve was speaking, and not to be construed as the verbatim Word of Steve Jobs, though the gist is certainly there.
Continue reading Steve Jobs at D8: Foxconn, iPhone prototype, TVs, and more
Steve Jobs at D8: Foxconn, iPhone prototype, TVs, and more originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’re sort of loving the fact that Apple’s next-gen iPhone is already being KIRFed up, and although we’ve already seen a couple clumsy attempts at beating Apple to market with a clone of its own product, this lovely GPS-PHONE raises the bar by adding in a telescopic antenna. What’s it for? We have no idea. We just know we want one.
iPhone 4 gets KIRFy with an antenna originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 10:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
AT&T has announced new data plans for the iPhone, iPad and other smartphones on its network. In addition, the iPhone will get data-tethering when the iPhone OS4 update hits this summer.
The new plans are rather simple. DataPlus gives you 200 MB of data per month for $15 (and you can add an extra 200 MB for another $15). DataPro cuts you from the 5-GB “unlimited” plan to 2 GB and it will cost $25. Get an additional 1 GB for another $10.
To tether your phone and share its data connection with other devices, you’ll need to buy the $20 Tethering plan on top of DataPro.
AT&T is also killing off the $30-per-month (truly) unlimited data plan for the iPad, replacing it with the $25, 2-GB DataPro option.
Before you panic too hard, these new plans, coming into effect June 7th, are for new subscribers only (although you can opt in without renewing your contract). From the press release:
Existing iPad customers who have the $29.99 per month unlimited plan can keep that plan or switch to the new $25 per month plan with 2 GB of data.
If you are a heavy data user, this clearly sucks, and it appears that there is no way you can pay extra for an unlimited plan. [UPDATE: AT&T just e-mailed me to make clear that you can add “as many buckets of 1 GB/$10 as you need beyond the plan’s included 2 GB.” That’s not unlimited, but $10 per GB isn’t a bad rate.]
On the other hand, AT&T says that 98 percent of its smartphone customers average less than 2 GB per month. In this case, the caps may actually improve the accessibility and speed of AT&T’s beleaguered network for the majority of users. The cheaper entry-level prices will also let more people get mobile internet.
To help manage your usage, you’ll get a text message when you “reach 65 percent, 90 percent and 100 percent of the threshold,” and AT&T has apps for Blackberry, iPhone and Android to track consumption.
The real losers here are the content providers. Were you wondering when Hulu would finally get around to making an iPad app? Well, quit worrying. With 2 GB data, you won’t be able to watch more than a few hours a month, anyway.
One more thing. That June 7 launch date is the same day that Steve Jobs makes his keynote address at the 2010 WWDC. Coincidence? I doubt it.
Illustration: Charlie Sorrel
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You might think that AT&T would hold off for a national HSPA+ deployment or a full-on LTE launch before tweaking its data pricing strategy, but not so much — the carrier is coming out swinging today with some significant changes that should benefit the overwhelming majority of its smartphone users (and could stand to harm a select few). Let’s break down the major points:
Everything launches on June 7, except for iPhone tethering — it’ll launch when OS 4 does. In the meantime, we’re told users can sign up for the $30 plans both on their phones and iPads if they’d like to be grandfathered in. Follow the break for more details along with AT&T’s full press release.
Continue reading AT&T makes sweeping changes to data plans, iPhone tethering coming at OS 4 launch
AT&T makes sweeping changes to data plans, iPhone tethering coming at OS 4 launch originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 03:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sure, you read our liveblog of Steve Jobs’ D8 conference — and believe us, it’s heavily quotable — but don’t you want to see and hear the Apple CEO claim HyperCard was huge in its day? Or perhaps you’re more interested in his thoughts on Flash, market cap, and the iPad origins — either way, videos are after the break, with presumably more to come from All Things D.
Update: Four new videos have been added!
Continue reading Steve Jobs’ D8 interview: the video highlights
Steve Jobs’ D8 interview: the video highlights originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 02:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
One of the more interesting devices that Intel Executive Vice President David Perlmutter showed off running Atom yesterday at Computex 2010 was a MeeGo-based tablet computer. The on-stage demo was brief, but I was able to grab some shaky-cam footage. The tablet uses 1.5GHz Moorestown CPU, features a 10-inch screen, and has a touch-and-swipe interface that looks a lot like the Apple iPad or even Android. Physically, the device looks pretty much like the iPad and every other tablet computer on the market, so it will be hard to judge just how big an impact it could have until we get some hands-on with the software.
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Well, Steve Jobs just dropped a little nugget of history on us during his chat with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the All Things D conference. When asked by Walt why they originally put their new OS on a phone and not a tablet, Steve said, “I’ll tell you a secret. It began with the tablet.” After working on the tablet OS which had a glass display and multitouch, another idea occurred to Jobs. “My God, I said, this would make a great phone … so we shelved the tablet and built the iPhone.” And there you have it.
Steve Jobs: iPhone OS ‘started on a tablet’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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At Steve Jobs’ conversation with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at D8 this evening, the Apple boss just threw out this weighty little gem when asked whether there’d be advantages to deploying the iPhone on two American carriers: “there might be.” Naturally, you can interpret that any way you like, but it’s interesting that he failed to say no to the concept of taking the phone beyond its usual AT&T playground.
Speaking of AT&T, Jobs says that his company meets with the carrier once per quarter to get briefed on network improvements, and while he notes that they’ve got the fastest 3G around, he says “I wish they were improving faster” — while also qualifying that any network receiving the iPhone back in ’07 probably would’ve suffered the same kinds of problems AT&T has. When pressed on whether we’d see the iPhone on another carrier in the near future, Jobs hit them up with the expected “no comment” before turning to other subjects, so make of it what you will. Follow the break for another interesting snippet from the Q&A session at D8 where Steve muses on AT&T’s network improvements.
Continue reading Steve Jobs: ‘there might be’ advantages to two iPhone carriers in US
Steve Jobs: ‘there might be’ advantages to two iPhone carriers in US originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Said Steve: “We are on top of this. We look at everything at these companies. I can tell you a few things that we know. And we are all over this. Foxconn is not a sweatshop. It’s a factory — but my gosh, they have restaurants and movie theaters… but it’s a factory. But they’ve had some suicides and attempted suicides — and they have 400,000 people there. The rate is under what the US rate is, but it’s still troubling.” Steve also said that Apple’s “got people” over at Foxconn currently trying to figure out what’s going on — we figured as much but it’s always good to hear it straight from them.
Steve Jobs on Foxconn: ‘We’re all over this’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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