Hasta La Gadget!

The Star Trek communicator was arguably the original cellphone, and clearly the model for Motorola’s Startac (even the name was a thinly disguised homage). The iPhone, in turn, is obviously the closest thing us 21st century humans have to the technology of the future. It fits, then, that there should be an application which turns your iPhone into its future counterpart.

And of course, there is. The $0.99 application looks just like the prop from the original series, and consists of the same useless flashing lights. The sounds are pretty much dead on, and the very best part, guaranteed to make you smile, is that you can “open” the “lid” with a flick of your wrist. If you’re running this on an iPhone, you can actually dial numbers from within the app using a custom, retro dial-pad (the iPod Touch, obviously, can’t do this).

Beam me up, Scotty!

Product page [iTunes]

One of the additions to be brought to the new iPhone (and any existing iPhone when update to the v3.0 software) will finally make MobileMe useful. The iDisk application will let you remotely access any files you might have on your iDisk and view most of them right there on the iPhone.

This is a neat solution to the problem of remembering to actually put documents on the iPhone. The usual solution is to shuffle the files across to the phone using a third party application, usually over the local Wi-Fi network. IDisk means that all you have to do is remember to put the files on your iDisk when at your computer. The blurb says that you’ll also be able to “e-mail” those big files to other people — you select a video file, say, and the app will mail a download link to the recipient.

It looks like you’ll be able to grab this free app even if you don’t have a MobileMe subscription, so you can access other people’s iDisks. Of course, there’s a free option available to those not wishing to pony up $100 per year. DropBox gives you 5GB of cloud-space and also has an iPhone friendly web interface.

Product page [Apple]

A teardown of the Palm Pre, just hours after its nationwide launch, has revealed an ultra-fast processor and a solid build but a touchscreen module that could become a trouble spot for some buyers.

“It’s a good design with components that, while not quite at the bleeding edge, are at the forefront of their competition,” says Aaron Vronko, CEO of Rapid Repair, the company which dissected the phone told Wired.com. Technicians took about an hour-and-half to slice through the device.

Palm launched the Pre exclusively on the Sprint network Saturday. Reviews of the Pre have praised the phone’s design, its completely rebuilt operating system and its ability to multitask. But they have also pointed out drawbacks such as the device’s cramped keyboard and poor battery life. The Pre will cost $200, after a $100 mail-in rebate, on a two-year contract.

Vronko and his team’s repair toolkit for the Pre included a small Philips screwdriver, a flat head screwdriver, a razor blade, pliers and a solder iron. Removing the back panel was easy since, unlike the iPhone, the battery on the Pre can be replaced.

“We found the overall construction of the Pre to be typical of slider phones,” says Vronko who rates the difficulty of taking the device apart a seven out of ten and comparable to the iPhone.

The Pre’s system board has a Texas Instruments CPU (TWL5030B/ 94A20PW C), an Elpida memory chip and 8GB NAND memory chip from Samsung.

“The processor on the Pre is almost 50 percent faster than the iPhone,” says Vronko. “One reason could be that Apple may have clocked down the speed on its iPhone processor to reduce power consumption and heat generation.”

The Pre stumbles when it comes to its touchscreen says Vronko. In the Pre, the LCD and capacitive touchscreen are permanently glued together. It’s similar to how the first generation iPhone was built. But the subsequent iPhone 3G has the two screens as separate modules. The advantage for users is that in case of a problem with the screen it is easier to repair if they are different modules, says Vronko.

“If the screen is damaged, it’s almost twice as expensive to repair and replace it if they are glued than if the two are discrete components,” he says.

Another likely trouble spot for the Pre is the slider mechanism that could wear out over time, warns Vronko. Still, he rates the Pre a “solid build”. “The phone is in pretty good shape,” he says.

See more photos from the Pre teardown

Palm Pre with its back panel removed

Palm Pre’s front panel exposed

Palm Pre’s front panel board view

For step-by-step view of the Pre disassembly, check out Rapid Repair’s site

Photos: Rapid Repair

Check back here 10 a.m. Monday for Wired.com’s live coverage of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2009. Yours truly will be liveblogging the keynote, accompanied by staff writer Priya Ganapati and photographer Jon Snyder.

Prefer your news through Twitter? Priya will be tweeting juicy bits of the keynote on the Gadget Lab Twitter account. What are you waiting for? Follow us now!

Meanwhile, keep up with all our WWDC-related news. We’re anticipating an exciting Monday, aren’t you?

Photo: Adam Jackson/Flickr

The iPhone 3.0 operating system is tantalizingly close to completion — but don’t plan on lining up at the Apple Store for a new phone just yet. That’s because it’s unlikely the OS will be ready for consumers to download by next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which Apple is hosting. And without the promised software, Apple is unlikely to release new phone hardware to go with it.

Based on conversations with developers and Apple’s past product launches, Wired.com expects Apple to announce the final iPhone 3.0 roadmap to developers at WWDC, and the software and next-gen handset will likely follow within three to four weeks, or by early July.

Although developers contacted by Wired.com agreed that many features of the iPhone 3.0 OS are almost fully-baked, Apple still has not distributed a crucial piece of the software to developers for beta testing: in-app commerce. The feature, demonstrated at Apple’s iPhone 3.0 SDK event in March, will create a new revenue stream for developers wishing to sell additional items and features (such as song titles, or even weapons in shooter games) within their iPhone applications. But the feature isn’t actually working yet, a major iPhone developer told Wired.com.

“They’re building the catalog system for selling within your app,” said the developer, who chose to remain anonymous because of Apple’s non-disclosure agreement. “Based on that fact they haven’t announced the final roadmap … we’re guessing end of June to early July is the soonest [iPhone 3.0] will become available.”

That would also suggest Apple’s next-generation iPhone will not be landing in stores next week, either, since the new handset will probably ship with the 3.0 operating system — similar to the way Apple announced the current iPhone 3G in June 2008 and officially released the iPhone 3G concurrently with the iPhone 2.0 software a month later. Therefore, at WWDC, Apple will most likely announce the release dates of the new handset and 3.0 OS, requiring consumers to wait a few weeks to get their hands on them.

Although Apple has shared plenty of details about its iPhone 3.0 software, the company has not made any official announcements about a hardware upgrade for the popular iPhone. However, evidence including screenshots, leaked photos and even a sentence in tech columnist Walt Mossberg’s review of the Palm Pre suggests a hardware upgrade is imminent. Mossberg’s review hints that the hardware upgrade may be revealed at WWDC next week.

There is a small possibility that Apple will release iPhone 3.0 at WWDC without in-app commerce capability and add that feature later. Some developers polled by Wired.com said they expected Apple to release the OS next week. Kai Yu has been developing his instant-messaging app BeeJive to work with iPhone 3.0’s new push-notification feature, and he strongly believes the OS will be ready for download by WWDC.

“3.0 is pretty stable at this point, so I would be surprised if it didn’t come out next week, especially since WWDC is becoming Apple’s big event, like Macworld of the past,” Yu said.

However, it would be uncharacteristic for Apple to release iPhone 3.0 until it’s been fully tested, and in-app downloads is a key addition. Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous, who develops Tap Tap Revenge, said he is doubtful Apple will release the OS next week.

“This is a big launch, and in the iPhone context typically [Apple has] given developers a final-stretch timeline of three or four weeks to prepare,” Decrem said.

The good news is, not much later. Apple did, after all, recently release iTunes 8.2, which includes compatibility with iPhone 3.0, indicating that the OS is close to completion.

WWDC kicks off Monday, and Wired.com will be reporting live from the event. Keep up with our WWDC coverage right here on Gadget Lab.

See Also:

• What to Expect From Apple at WWDC 2009
• Rumor: Next-Gen iPhone Will Be a Snoozer Upgrade
• Easter Eggs Give Clues to Next-Gen iPhone
• Next-Gen iPhone Will Contain a Compass
• Screenshot Hints at Video Recorder in iPhone 3.0
• Apple’s Next iPhone Will Rule at Gaming
• Leaked Photos: Is This the Next iPhone?
• Next Gen iPhone Specs Revealed?

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com