This is it. We’re in the home stretch. 99 meters down and 1 left to go, all or nothing, and Steve Jobs has just tapped into the speed force. Tomorrow we find out if Apple crosses the finish line first, the two-peat for greatest smartphone (even gadget) in the world, or if they trip themselves up with their mostly evolutionary, not so much revolutionary, next generation handset.

Saturday we mentioned one big change: the fast 3G data chip. Sunday it was GPS. Monday we tackled the 2.0 Firmware update. Tuesday we detailed the rebirth of .Mac: MobileMe. Wednesday we hit the mother load, App Store. Today we pull it all together and look at the iPhone 3G, the next great computing platform.

Why am I calling it that? Read on to find out!

Woz and Steve Jobs gave us the first home CLI (Command Line Interface) with the Apple II. Jobs followed that up with the first consumer GUI (Graphical User Interface) in the Mac. Interlude: the first viable portable digital music device, maybe you’ve heard of the iPod? And now we have multi-touch mobile for the masses with the iPhone.

Hype? If so, it’s deserved. Think about it: UNIX in your pocket. We’re talking the Mach kernal, BSD networking, OpenGL and OpenAL, WiFi and 3G connectivity, layered location awareness culminating with GPS, direction aware, “push” updates, capable of gaming, business, reference, education, collaboration, socialization, and did we mention in your pocket, always on, all the time?

Sure, there have been “smart” phone before. The iPhone isn’t that. (Dieter was right!). It’s something else. It’s what’s next.

The concept has been approached before. Taken in parts, stripped down to this or that feature, there are other manufacturers and development houses that have got parts of it. But never the whole package. Call it a confluence of time and capability. The power wasn’t there before. The infrastructure wasn’t there before. The OS’s certainly weren’t there before. And the engineering wasn’t there before. Few companies make the whole widget anymore, and it takes a whole widget approach to create a new paradigm (and I can’t even imagine what it takes to do it for the third time).

When you put 3G together with GPS, the interface and software behind 2.0, the coming cloud-based shift that’s embraced by MobileMe and ActiveSync, and the flexibility and potential of the App Store, and you wrap it up in a single, highly portable, never mind drop-dead gorgeous package, it’s a game changer.

This doesn’t only replace cell phones, smartphones, mp3 players, GPS devices, handheld gaming consoles, and even laptops for a few — it creates something entirely new: a mobile computing platform.

Pick up your iPhone 3G, check your mail, follow a link in full browser, tap over to the latest viral video, call your lawyer to have him DMCA it, preview the demand letter PDF, get a location alert that your spouse has just entered the 1 mile radius, find directions to the coffee house you’re supposed to meet at, update your shared “push” calendar to make it seem like s/he showed up a day early, head the other way and start playing Super Monkey Ball, sending his/her angry calls straight to easily sorted-and-ignored Visual Voice Mail while your RSS App’s alert badge silently updates with 2 new posts from theiphoneblog.com.

And that’s just a regular day. Imagine what James Bond Tony Stark could do with it…

It’s the next big thing. I know I’m not going to miss out on it. I’ll be standing in line somewhere in Montreal (wherever they have stock! C’mon Rogers, help a blogger out!). What about you? Where are you lining up?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3G: 1 Day and Counting Down to the Next Great Computing Platform!

This is it. We’re in the home stretch. Golden goal, all or nothing, and Steve Jobs kicking it high and to the side. In 2 days we find out if Apple gets the world cup, the two-peat for smartphone (even gadget) championship, or if they send it flying over the post with their mostly evolutionary, not so much revolutionary, next generation handset.

Saturday we mentioned one big change: the fast 3G data chip. Sunday it was GPS. Monday we tackled the 2.0 Firmware update. Tuesday we detailed the rebirth of .Mac: MobileMe. Today we’re looking at the mother load, App Store.

Why should you want Apps? Of course you want Apps, read on to find out just how much!

One of the biggest complaints about the original iPhone was its lack of 3rd party applications. Some iphoneblog editors who shall not be named went so far as to say that, absent 3rd party apps, “it’s not a smartphone!” In fact, people wanted 3rd party apps so badly that even without any sanction or support from Apple, they jailbroke (hacked) the iPhone and developed them themselves.

Fast forward 8 months and Steve Jobs announces the iPhone SDK — a way for official developers to officially develop. At the iPhone SDK Roadmap Event in March, Apple showed the SDK was complete with Xcode, Cocoa Touch, and emulator, and a highly polished set of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) making it, in the opinion of many, one of the fastest and easiest platforms to develop for. And they even sweetened the pot by getting venture capitalists to chip in $100,000,000 in iFund incentives, and creating a one-stop App Store shop with an overhead-free 70/30 developer/Apple split, and free hosting for free apps.

But that’s all geeky coder inside-baseball stuff. Bottom-line for users, Apple did for 3rd party apps what they’d done for music and media: made them easy. Bye bye barrier of entry!

Like the purple iTunes WiFi Music Store before (and now next to) it, the bondi-bluer App Store icon sits right on the home screen of every iPhone in every supported country. Tap it and you’re immediately whisked away to an iTunes-like interface where you can search for apps — free and at a price. Under 10MB, you can download them directly over the 3G network. Over 10MB and you can download them via WiFi, or to iTunes and sync them over.

But that’s the how. We’re much more interested in the what!

First, some iPhone apps will be free, some will have a price tag. Some may have free “lite” or “demo” versions and for-pay “pro” or “full” versions. It’s up to the developer. Big companies like AOL or Ebay may give away apps that help them make money in other ways (as loss leaders). Smaller developers will want to pay their bills and feed their children, so will charge a reasonable fee for their hard work and effort (most of us don’t work for free, do we?). I expect to get some free apps I like, but will also pay for, and support, really good apps that appeal to me as well. Like what?

Games. That’s right. With power that rivals the Sony PSP and innovative control mechanics akin to the Nintendo DS’ touchscreen and the Wii’s motion sensitivity, and 3G/WiFi networking and GPS all its own, the iPhone is poised to revolutionized mobile gaming. Super Monkey Ball, as drool-inducing-ly demoed at the iPhone SDK Event is only the beginning. Racing games are in the works, and we’ve all seen demos of physics-based puzzle games, 3D polygon action games, and Tap Tap Revenge! (Most of these seem priced at $9.99 for now.)

But to afford all these games, we’re going to have to work. And the iPhone is catering directly to the enterprise crowd with support for private, company-only app development (where employees download from a restricted site, rather than the public App Store). SalesForce already demonstrated their mobile app, as did several medical/pharmaceutical focused companies. Paradigm shift-worthy stuff, much of it.

Educational institutions, in addition to getting a dream mobile, multi-touch reference platform, will be able to take advantage of Ad-Hoc distribution of up to 100 copies of any app. Got your course outline ready?

And for those who just want to communicate, get ready for more instant messengers and microblogging apps than you can shake your own immanent Twitter client at. The App Store has all the big development houses psyched (even Microsoft, Adobe, Sun, and RIM, according to rumor!), not to mention the usual suspects from your favorite former smartphone devices. (Office Apps a’plenty soon?)

Sure, App Store has a few drawbacks. Instead of full on multitasking, to protect the integrity of the device (and I say this as someone whose Treo’s crashed multiple times a day, and who got rapidly sick of task-managing WinMob), Apple will be providing a Notification Service that will collect and “push” out alerts (visual badges, sounds, etc.) when a non-running app wants to get your attention (e.g., Instant Message has just arrived). Single point of potential failure — so we’ll have to see how reliable the server proves to be — but an interesting compromise for now.

Second, no plugins (sorry Flash), no code-interpreters (sorry Java), no turn-by-turn GPS (sorry TomTom), no pr0n (sorry ginormous interweb empire, you’re stuck with WebApps), no VoIP for EDGE/3G (sorry Skype), no unlocking (sorry Ryan Block), no iPod access (sorry Real — no, wait, good!), no dock port access (there’s a separate dock partner program for that), and no nebulous category of anything Apple deems bad (sorry… who knows who?). So, basically, that animated JVM social stripper network finder app that will run on any Euro-network using music volume to indicate proximity and direction while spitting out singles is a non-starter, b’okay?

Lastly, just like iTunes video (and still some music — thanks for nothing, recording industry), Apple’s FairPlay DRM will wrap all App Store content and lock it to your iTunes account. This might create some problems for people who try to sell their iPhones with apps on them, as new owners would require the sellers iTunes account login to authenticate the apps. (As happened to some with the January iPod Touch upgrade). We’ll have to see how that plays out for now.

All in all, however, the App Store seems like a game changer. I can’t wait. What App(s) do you want most?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3G: 2 Days and Counting Down to App Store!

This is it. We’re in the home stretch. Games in overtime, the shot clock is almost done, and Steve Jobs is soaring from mid-court looking for the slam dunk. In 3 days we find out if Apple brings down the net, the two-peat for smartphone (even gadget) championship, or if they bounce it off the rim (pun sorta intended) with their mostly evolutionary, not so much revolutionary, next generation handset.

Saturday we mentioned one big change: the fast 3G data chip. Sunday it was GPS. Monday we tackled the 2.0 Firmware update. Today we’re looking at the rebirth of .Mac: MobileMe.

Note: .Mac users have been able to send to username@me.com for a few days already, and as of yesterday, July 7, could both send and receive using me.com. (Just tried it out and it works!)

Now word comes that, to accommodate New Zealand, which due to their time zone gets the iPhone 3G way before anyone else, Apple has announced that it’s really not 3 days to MobileMe — just one! That’s right, MobileMe goes live on Wednesday, July 9 between 6pm and 12am PST. Mark your calendars, then get ready to “push” sync them!

Why should you want to? Read on after the break!

iTools made its debut at Macworld 2000, way before the iPhone, and before OS X as well. Originally free, it became the subscription based .Mac in 2002. The first version of .Mac included IMAP email, web hosting, iDisk, Backup, and… er… iCards. Small tweaks were made over the years, including increases to iDisk storage (currently starting at 10GB), syncing Mac applications like Mail, Address Book, iCal, Safari bookmarks, Keychain passwords, Dock, Dashboard Widgets, etc. between multiple Macs, an AJAX web 2.0 interface for .Mac Mail, Galleries with iPhoto/Aperture photo and iMovie video integration, and Back to My Mac for easy remote file and screen sharing between laptops and desktops, work, home, and travel.

While the $99 price tag (discounted if you bought it with a new Mac, or from online retailers like Amazon) was stiff for some, there were arguable benefits for people with multiple Mac, but not much for iPhone users aside from an email account they could get for free form Yahoo!, Google, and many others. Indeed, the industry in general felt .Mac had fallen badly behind the times. Even Steve Jobs conceded the service had been neglected, and promised to do better.

And do better they have! (Well, except for the name…) At WWDC 2008, Apple VP of Marketing, Phil Schiller announced the all new, all better, .Mac replacement: MobileMe, and dubbed it “Exchange for the Rest of Us.”

Exchange, of course, is Microsoft’s business solution, which the iPhone also supports via ActiveSync. Exchange, through proprietary technology’s requiring an Exchange Sever, “pushes” updates to email, contact lists, and calendar events to desktop clients like Outlook on Windows and Entourage on the Mac, and to scads of mobile devices, including Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Palm Treo, etc.

Unlike traditional services, which “pull” data at user-definable intervals (i.e., manual, every 5 min. every 10 min., every hour, etc.) and are only updated during those server checks, “push” immediately sends anything arriving on the server. So, if you “pull” email at 12:00, an email arrives at 12:03, and you only “pull” that email again at 12:10, you only receive that email at 12:10 (7 minutes after it arrives). With “push”, you wouldn’t check the server at all, the email would arrive at 12:03 and instantly alert you it was there. (Whether you need precise, per second email, and whether you want to be alerted constantly, on demand, without pause or respite, is up to you).

MobileMe provides this very same service to any subscriber. Push email. Push contacts. Push calendar. Someone sends you an email, it pops right up on your iPhone. Change a contact on your iPhone, the MobileMe website will instantly update it as well. Delete an appointment on your PC, it will immediately be removed from your iPhone. All your data, synced instantly, all the time.

Add to that some SproutCore powered eye candy in the form of lush, desktop-class but web-based online applications (similar to how Google Gmail, gCal, etc. work), integrated with the same Gallery photo and video features of .Mac, and topped off with a web-accessible iDisk, all available not only to Windows users but Mac users as well (even Linux/Unix/etc. users via Web standard browsers), with the same special multiple-Mac sync and Back to My Mac bonuses for Apple faithful, and you have one tremendously powerful offering fully on par with the best of Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft. (Albeit at the same $99 price!)

Still curious about how it looks and how it drives? Check out Apple’s online Guided Tour.

I’m a .Mac user, so I’ll be getting MobileMe for sure. What about you?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3G: 3 Days and Counting Down to MobileMe!

This is it. We’re in the home stretch. 5th round, time’s almost up, and Steve Jobs is slapping on the arm bar. In 4 days we find out if Apple scores the submission, the two-peat for smartphone (even gadget) undisputed heavyweight title, or if they gas out with their mostly evolutionary, not so much revolutionary, next generation handset.

Saturday we mentioned one big change: the fast 3G data chip. Yesterday it was GPS. Today we’re tackling the 2.0 Firmware update.

What is this and why should you want it? Read on after the break!

The original iPhone shipped with firmware 1.0, but was rapidly updated a number of times, topping out at 1.1.4. Many times there were significant features added with these updates, such as customizable home pages, Google Maps location services, the WiFi Music Store, and many more.

But we ain’t seen anything like 2.0. The big news?

Enterprise functionality, including Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, 802.1x secure WiFi networking, Cisco VPN, remote wipe, and other big business demanded features have been baked right in (which will also benefit other large institutions like Universities).

MobileMe integration across iPhone, Windows, and Mac, for “Exchange for the Rest of Us”.

New settings, like enabling/disabling 3G, choosing push vs. manual data sync, parental controls, secure erase, and others will increase the amount control we have over our devices.

The built-in applications are getting tweaked as well. Mail will be getting mass-move and mass-delete, and PowerPoint and iWork previews. You’ll be able to geo-tag your photos and save images from email and the web.

And last but the opposite of least: the App Store, where everything from games, to business productivity tools, to educational references, to even Jobs-doesn’t-know-what will be available right from the iPhone’s home screen (more on the App Store as we continue counting down).

And the best news? On July 11th, the 2.0 firmware will not only be available on the iPhone 3G, but as a free download to all original iPhone (2G) owners as well!

If you don’t mind getting your drool on, Apple has a Guided Tour flaunting showing off all the 2.0 “what’s new” goodness. Check it out!

I know I can’t wait. What new feature are you most looking forward to?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3G: 4 Days and Counting Down to Firmware 2.0!

This is it. We’re in the home stretch. Third period power play, clock’s all but run out, and Steve Jobs is cranking back for the slap shot. In 5 days we find out if Apple scores the go-ahead goal, the two-peat for smartphone (even gadget) of the year, or if they bounce it off the goal post with their mostly evolutionary, not so much revolutionary, next generation handset.

Yesterday we mentioned one big change: the fast 3G data chip. The other big change? GPS. (Global Positioning System).

What is this and why should it matter to you? Read on after the break!

The original iPhone (now dubbed iPhone 2G) launched without any location aware services. While it might or might not have known where it was, it didn’t share that information with you. When firmware 1.1.3 was released, however, that all changed.

Using Google’s cell tower mapping (where Google is recording the GPS positions of cell phone towers — AT&T, Verizon, Bell, etc. in North America and increasingly around the world), and Skyhook’s WiFi router mapping (where Skyhook drove down your street and wrote down the position and unique ID of your wireless router), this let the Google Maps app in the iPhone 2G kinda-sorta get a fuzzy idea of where it was. Drawbacks? It was about as precise as a few city blocks, and if for example, you were in New York but the closest router had just been shipped there from LA, you’d just as likely show up as being in the router’s last-recorded location, LA. In other words it ranged from good enough to potentially equal parts comical or disastrous. Also, since transmitting the map graphics required an EDGE connection, it wasn’t exactly speedy.

With the iPhone 3G, location becomes as precise as a few feet. Using an array of some three dozen satellites constantly beaming their signals down to us, the iPhone 3G trilaterates (i.e. figures out) exactly where we are based on which satellite’s signals it receives and the distance of each of those signals. (Typically four or more signals are required, as unlike triangulation, it needs to calculate the timing of the signals as well). Geeky much? There’s more.

GPS isn’t all roses. It can often take considerable time and can burn a lot of power. It’s another radio to leave running, and depending on signal strength, it can take minutes — sometimes a lot of them — to acquire satellites. Then its got to spend more time and power to crunch all the numbers.

To help compensate for this, the iPhone 3G uses aGPS (assisted GPS). With aGPS, cell phone towers handle acquiring the satellite signals and pre-crunch down the location information. Since cell phone towers, unlike tiny handsets, can host very large radios and much more computational power, they can receive more and better signals and they can keep track of location much faster. This means, when your iPhone 3G GPS goes active, a lot of the heavy lifting has already been done by the nearby cell towers, and it can just fetch the data and do the final, specific to its own location, calculations. This consumes less power and requires much less overhead than the iPhone 3G having to do all the work itself.

Speaking of consuming less power, the iPhone (and Apps via the SDK), is also able to leverage all three of its location-based technologies in an elegant, escalating manner, using only what it needs and only when it needs it. If you only require location within a few blocks, cell and wifi are enough and there’s no need to waste power spinning up the GPS. Need something spot on? GPS is there, passed on the information, and then powers down again when it’s no longer needed.

Another drawback? So far, no turn-by-turn audible driving directions, but that may change.

Not everyone will need full aGPS. For some, the less they know about where they are, the better. But if you want to know exactly where you are, the iPhone 3G’s aGPS will definitely appeal to you.

I know I want it. What about you?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3G: 5 Days and Counting Down to GPS!

This is it. We’re in the home stretch. Bottom of the 9th, basebands loaded with 3G, and Steve Jobs is at bat. In 7 days we find out if Apple scores a home run, the two-peat for smartphone (even gadget) of the year, or if they strike out with their mostly evolutionary, not so much revolutionary, next generation handset.

What’s the difference? The big one — at least this time around — is in the name. 3G, which stands for 3rd generation, but not for the device itself — for the 3rd generation cellular technology that powers it.

Read on after the break to find out just why 3G will make a big difference to you!

The original iPhone is limited to 2.5G/2.75G mobile data technology, better known as EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution), which is analogous to a dial-up internet: SLOW. Even with their “fine edge” boost in anticipation of the original iPhone, AT&T’s speeds topped out at a crawl. Another drawback is that EDGE did not allow for simultaneous voice and data connections. You couldn’t talk on the phone and surf the web over EDGE at the same time. And while theoretically your iPhone should have elegantly quit surfing, for example, to take a call, all too often it would simply dump incoming calls to voice mail rather than switch.

The iPhone 3G, thanks to its In uses the 3G HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) technology, both HSPDA (Downlink) and HSPUA (Uplink), which is much closer to low-end broadband DSL speeds. While not yet as common or widespread as EDGE, AT&T (and other carriers around the world, especially in more advanced and populated areas like Europe) are rapidly building out their networks, and these speeds are, well… like a power walk. (We’ll have to wait for 4G LTE in several years before we can get our run on). And the bonus? HSPA can handle simultaneous voice and data. So with the iPhone 3G, you can chat with your friend, hit up a webpage for an image, save it to your camera roll, and then mail it to the same friend before you even finish talking. That’s next generation!

The drawback to 3G? It consumes more battery life. Using 3G, your iPhone is rated at only 5 hours talk time. Switch it off and degrade back to 2G and you get double — 10 hours.

Not everyone will have a choice, of course. Many areas in North America don’t have 3G coverage yet, but if yours does, and you value multi-tasking communications, the iPhone and its 3G power will definitely appeal to you.

I know I want it. What about you?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3G: 6 Days and Counting Down to Faster 3G Speed!