All Articles Tagged 3g

Current iPhone user on UK’s O2 network eager to get your hands on the hot new iPhone 3G, yeah? Ready to act fast, are you? Willing to sign up for O2’s premium £45 or £75 per month plans, eh? If so — and for a limited time only — you could qualify for a free iPhone 3G 8GB or 16GB respectively. Cracking deal, innit?

Bargain hunters looking for the £35 plan will have to fork over £99 or £159 for their handsets, as will any newcomers to the platform. Doesn’t seem cricket, does it?

Chins up, though, unlike AT&T in the States, O2 will be offering Pay & Go options, though no details have been provided yet.

Take a right little look at the read link for more on O2’s iPhone 3G rates and plans…

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With WWDC only a weekend away, is it any surprise the rumors are flying faster than ever?

First up is Forbe’s Brian Caulfield [who kindly corrected a blunder and provided a direct link to his story with tons o'pics-- many thanks!] with word of yet more mysterious boxes, this time at supposed current iPhone manufacturer Quanta. While some are labeled “iMac”, 20 others are in plain brown wrappers (no jokes!), with employees either unavailable or unwilling to dish the dirt. Of course, they could be anything… or they could be iPhone 3G’s or iTablets!

Next up we have the Flickr posted WWDC banners, which show the newly re-named iPhone OS X, which means either it’s the latest addition to everyone’s favorite band of mutant superheroes, or its been rebranded to match it’s big desktop banner (bannered no longer as Mac OS X, but as OS X Leopard… for now…)

Lastly is iDealsChina (also via Apple Insider), who previously leaked the Griffin “iPhone 3G” molds, now claiming Apple has made some last minute case changes making the next generation device 2mm (0.08 inches) shorter and 0.5mm (0.02 inches) thinner than the leaks previously showed. Anyone need a ton of suddenly scrap plastic?

“Inside Steve’s Brain” author Leander Kahney of Wired magazine is reporting a programmer source inside a major software house has revealed that the next generation iPhone 3G will thinner — we’re talking Paris Hilton thinner — by a whopping 22%.

Not only that, it will sport better battery life than the already impressive 8 hours talk time of the first gen model, and twice the NAND flash capacity, topping out at 32GB. (Paving the way for 64GB iPod Touch’s?)

Still not enough, echoing Kevin Rose (historically not the most reliable of iPhone prognosticators), Kahney thinks the phone may be heavily carrier subsidized — down to the $200 level in some cases — in an effort to put the hurt on Blackberry.

Okay, fess up, who left the rumor mill jacked up to max?!

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Just prior to the original iPhone’s release, AT&T’s operation “Fine Edge” brought faster, stronger, better 2.5 / 2.75G speed to the GSM masses. This year, in a strangely reminiscent move, reports are coming in that AT&T is showing their 3G HSPA network the same type of love:

For the past few months we’ve been seeing average download speeds between 500 - 800 kbps with a spike here and there. This morning’s tests however, are yielding between 1400 - 1500 kbps.

Gee, could another iPhone release be on the horizon?

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If you hadn’t noticed, TiPb’s theme of the week is currently “Fixing the iPhone”. Rene offered you an extremely thoughtful and well-researched look into what the iPhone can learn from the competition. I reviewed a native app that added a much needed ‘Today’ Screen. And I’m back again giving you 10 Things Apple Should Fix in the iPhone. We don’t always crack jokes about Crackberry and mock iClones here do we?

Okay, to provide a quick disclaimer for this list: Understand that I’m completely ignoring the issues that are ‘mainstream problems’ with the iPhone. I’m not going to go off on the lack of a physical keyboard. I’m not worrying about 3G & GPS. Copy & Paste is a well-known pitfall of the iPhone. Natively saving images, likewise. Removable Battery? Recessed headphone jack? Push E-Mail? MMS? (Wow, that’s a lot)

As big a concern those previously mentioned issues are—many of them will likely become a moot point once the 3G iPhone comes out (Now somebody go tell Sprint that). This list suggests minor tweaks and fixes in the iPhone that may have been swept under the rug or just plain old forgotten. But fear not, I will happily remind Apple of the iPhone’s shortcomings and offer a solution on how to fix them. As great as the iPhone is, it isn’t without its faults.

[Comment on this Wait-a-Thon post to qualify to win a $100 iTunes Gift Card]

Read on for the rest of the article!

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[Updated following Phone Different Podcast #19, see below!]

Way back in February, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook said:

“We’re not married to any business model.”

At the time — and it’s scary how long ago it seems already — the iPhone was only available in the US, UK, Germany, and France, with rumors of Ireland and Austria waiting in the wings. What’s more, these were all exclusive deals, with Apple doing their best to lock the iPhone down to single carriers in each territory in exchange for lucrative — and unprecedented — revenue-sharing deals that some have estimated could be netting Apple up to $15 per month, per subscriber.

So, with a potential billion dollars on the table, while they weren’t married to it, they no doubt felt more than a little lusty.

But in true Apple fashion, invoking perhaps the pirate mantra of old, and embracing the same mindset that has them run iTunes as a near-loss leader, price-cut the iPhone a scant few months in, and offer cheap family upgrade options on their OS and iApps, it looks like Tim Cook was serious.

Read on to find out just how serious he was…

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Crikey! Add 3G speed to the list of beer-brewing, croc-hunting, and bum-booting that Australians claim to do better, stronger, and faster than just about everyone else in the world. Or so an anonymous Telstra exec would have us believe:

“We know what is coming we have seen the new device and it will be available on our network as soon as it is launched in the USA. By Christmas this phone will be capable of 42Mbps which will make it faster than a lot of broadband offerings and the fastest iPhone on any network in the world.”

Hard to believe anyone outside the Jobspod has seen the actual device (remember AT&T hadn’t even seen the first gen model until Macworld 2007), so this one sounds fishy from the get-go.

Also, 42Mbps is jaw-dropping, face-smacking fast, and would pretty much require the next-next gen, tippity-top end HSDPA technology, known as HSDPA+ or HSDPA Evolution. Right now Telstra maxes out at around 14.4 and while they reportedly claimed they will reach 21 by the end of 2008, that’s a far cry from delivering twice that in half the time, which is what making the rumored June iPhone 3G launch would require.

I’m calling shenanigans. What do you think?

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One of the hottest and most persistent rumors for the next generation iPhone is GPS, either built in or via BlueTooth hardware module (the former favored by techies, the latter by battery-lifers). One of the most constant and most rewarding (at least sometimes…) factors of the 2.0 firmware beta is developers raking through the code to find every new string and buried screen setting.

Put them together and what do we get? According to some “private” updates delivered to “select developers” (check out the screen shots), we get Geo Tagging!

For the non-world traveling cameraphiles among us, Geo Tagging involves adding location-specific metadata to your photographs. For example, snap a pic of the Eiffel Tower, and the camera records not only time, date, camera, lens, etc. but the longitude and latitude of precisely where you were standing when you decided to take the 297 billionth shot of that ginormous mechano cliche…

Why’s that important? Well, it saves you the effort of manually recording where you were when you took each and every snapshot, it allows social services like Flickr to search and sort images based on location information, and it enables freaky-cool next gen image manipulation and compositing technologies like Microsoft’s Photosynth to positively blow our minds.

Now, reports don’t actually indicate anything about GPS, only location-based services (like the current gen’s Google cell tower mapping and Skyhook Wi-Fi router mapping), but these can sometimes only narrow location down to an area roughly the size of a town — not always very useful. For real Geo Tagging, GPS (which gets down to under 20 feet) seems a must.

Of course, this also rather nicely dangles the question of what type of camera will the iPhone 3G sport? 2 megapixels like before? 3? 5?

Apple is hiring photo techs, after all…

What do you think?

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Kinda.

Seems the strings to set 3G preferences exist in the code of iPhone 2.0 Beta 5, but the GUI screen that was rumored to surface it was a mock-up, a photoshop, a con-job, a bamboozle.

The process used to determine that the screen was less “shot” and more “not” is rather involved and — quite frankly — convoluted but the bottom line remains:

We’re getting a 3G iPhone. That 3G iPhone will have settings. We, as yet, have no idea what form those settings will take.

Now bring on the next rumor!

Adding further fuel to the fire that Apple Inc. will drop the 3G bomb on June 9th, during CEO Steve Jobs’ Keynote address, InfoSyncWorld is claiming that, once announced, the 2nd generation iPhone will be made available via AT&T roughly 10 days later, on approximately the 18th or 19th.

InfoSyncWorld further speculates on HSDPA, GPS, Mobile TV, and other oft-cited iPhone 3G rumors.

And with the time left before WWDC growing shorter and shorter, when it comes to speculation and rumors, no doubt we ain’t seen nothing yet!

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I’m not going to get off on another Rogers rant here. Suffice it to say, when it comes to Canadian telcos, I’m the rat who, having learned helplessness, now lies face down on the hot plate.

However, not content to let me lie there and wither in peace, now comes this report, determined to kick poor downed me with some hope:

Sources from inside Rogers claim that the device should be available the same month as an expected US release of an updated, 3G-capable model [...] currency values are likely to place the cost of the phone itself closer to the eventual US figure. [...] The sources claim that the iPhone will qualify for Rogers’ $7 on-device browsing plan, which currently allows all phones offered by Rogers (excepting BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices) to access the web as much as they like through the carrier’s officially-sanctioned browser. Whether Rogers will allow YouTube, the App Store, and other official but non-web devices to fall into the unlimited plan is unknown, though unlike with other phones Rogers will not have the choice of installing or customizing the web browser or other applications.

We’ll see (or more likely, we won’t see). The best indicator of future behavior being prior behavior, I figure the iPhone data plan will cost $100/month for 1GB. Prove me wrong, Rogers!

What do you think?

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Despite the iPhone’s Mobile Safari browser rendering pages faster on Edge than many “competing” devices can on lesser browsers with faster connections, the race to speed the feeds continues, and AT&T has not only taken an early lead, but is positively driving towards the 3G finish-line.

Amazing what a little technology (and a billion dollars) can do.

WMExperts.com cites a recent survey where AT&T’s HSDPA trounced EVDO Rev A., averaging 755kbps with bursts peaking at 1.6mbps(!)

In Apple-parlance: It’s a screamer.

But wait, there’s more: AT&T intends to increase its network speed by a factor of 5 by next year. That’s a quintuple screamer right there, never mind the upcoming switch to 4G LTE speeds…

I see a 3G iPhone and it will be painted black
No more aluminum just plastic on the back
How do I know and why will El Jobso certainly freak?
Cause AT&T has once again gone and sprung a leak

Cat’s out of the bag and there’s no going back
Published on their website something called the iPhone Black
So 2.0 is coming and it’ll be on one of them
While others struggle to iClone Apple’s gone to the next gen

3G, business, gaming, and App Store fully packed
I look to June and I want my iPhone Black!

[To the tune of, and with profound apologies to, the Rolling Stones: Painted Black]

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Another day, another iPhone International rumor, this one from Ars Technica (via astel.be) pegging the iPhone 3G to arrive in Belgium sometime between May and June.

Quick check of the scorecard, should this be true:

Says Ars:

The report indicates that Belgian carriers Proximus, Mobistar and BASE are putting together special iPhone data packages which should include compatibility with the Visual Voicemail feature as well as unlimited data transfer. It’s also noted that an exclusive deal like the one Apple has with AT&T in the US would violate trade laws in Belgium.

And a quick recap, as the lineup continues to grow with Italy, India, Singapore, the Netherlands and Mexico, and Australia also in the running for the next great iPhone release.

Who’s your money on?

Engadget, via typically credible Italian newspaper La Repubblica, reports that a 3G iPhone will be coming soon to Telecom Italia, and what’s more: without carrier or contract lock-in.

Ch-ch-ch-che?

First, a quick look at our scoreboard, if this be true:

Next, Apple Insider brings some details:

[A] formal agreement on the matter was signed last week when Franco Bernabè, chief executive officer of TIM’s parent company Telecom Italia, met with Steve Jobs at Apple’s Cupertino-based headquarters. Under the terms of the deal, TIM will reportedly receive a several month exclusive on sales of a 3G iPhone through its retail shops [...] Apple is also reported to have agreed to terms by which the new iPhone will be sold at a higher price than in other European countries, but without a carrier lock and two-year service agreement.

Apple Insider further notes that, given the high percentage of pay-as-you-go plans in Italy, this unprecedented arrangement would give both the carrier and customers multo-flexibility in selling units and either using them on TIM, or with other providers, with plans or with pre-purchased bundles/minutes.

No comment, of course, from either Cupertino or Roma, but we’ve repeatedly repeated Apple COO Tim Cook’s comments on being open to other business models, and this particular one is very intriguing to say the least.

How does the idea of a contract-free 3G iPhone coming soon (albeit to Italy) grab you?