“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?!
Steve Jobs was asked at “Mum is no longer the word” press event why there was no 3G on the iPhone. His response was telling; it’s important enough that I transcribed the money quote of his response:
“We’ve got to see the battery life for 3G get back up into the five-plus hour range, before it’s really suitable for [the iPhone]. I think we’ll see that hopefully late next year. But right now, you make a really big tradeoff to go to 3G, and that’s really bad battery life.”
I think it’s safe to say that by “late next year,” he doesn’t mean January or something. Some analysts were predicting a 3G iPhone would be announced at today’s UK media event. I bet those same analysts are thinking “Perhaps he’ll announce some new hardware at Apple Expo Paris next week….”
So, after twelve hours of waiting in line, it didn’t take me long to take the iPhone out and start playing around with it. I didn’t get the zip and seal treatment that some folks got at AT&T stores, but then again, the MOA was trying to zip people through as efficiently as possible. Here are my impressions, there will be a full review later with video and pictures.
As much as I’m glad to say that they published the extra numbers for battery life, it sounds like they did the research in the lab, so your mileage may vary; caveat emptor. The word is apparently that the battery lasts about 5 hours for talk time.
It appears that the battery will get more talk time than initially disclosed. Apple now claims 8 hours of talk time, or six hours if you’re browsing via wifi. Not bad, not bad. This may do something to quell the complaints of folks that want to do battery switching. Here’s the updated talk time information with added hours in parentheses:
talk time: 8 hours (+3)
standby: 250 hours (not disclosed)
internet use: 6 hours (+1)
video playback: 7 hrs (+2
audio playback: 24 hrs (+8)
Apple has also replaced the plastic screen cover with a higher quality glass cover, which should mightily improve scratch resistance of the screen. [via]
The iPhone Blog merged with the Phone different site in May of 2008. Both sites were founded on a premise that comes one from one of Apple's old slogans: Think different. The iPhone Blog: for people who dare to phone different.
