All Articles Tagged iphone 3G S

Once again it seems AT&T’s lock down of the iPhone will be paying off in droves. It’s only been a few days yet AT&T has managed to sell each and every single iPhone 3G S that it had stored away for pre-orders. Any unlucky customer who places an order with AT&T after today will sadly have to wait an extra one to two weeks to get their hands on their new iPhone 3G S.

Now keep in mind, if did get your pre-order in on time with AT&T, you will still have to show up at 7:00 am on June 19th to claim your prize. After the pre-orders have been picked up, the remaining stock will go to all of the walk-in customers. Regarding Apple and their supply, there has been no word yet so you can try your luck ordering straight from Apple.

So to all of you who took the pre-order plunge, which route did you travel? AT&T or Apple?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this tip in! Via BGR]

Last Monday, during the WWDC 2009 Keynote, Apple introduced the iPhone 3G S, the “S” referring to the speed (we’re hoping for screaming fast). If the amount of news it’s generated is any indication, we’re all going to have a hard time keeping up. In an effort to help out, here are some highlight of TiPb’s iPhone 3G S coverage:

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Anandtech gives their usual in-depth look at the processors inside Apple’s new iPhone 3G S. First the CPU, the new ARM Cortex A8 and the short of it is — if the iPhone 2G and 3G were old 486 PCs, the iPhone 3G S would be a Pentium:

As for the GPU, the PowerVR SGX — even if it’s clocked down to half-speed, it’s rendering geometry 3.5x faster with a fill rate 25% higher as well:

Their take away? Well, they say the iPhone 3G S packs a similar hardware punch to the new Palm Pre, but while webOS uses some of that power for 3rd party multitasking, Apple’s “highly optimized software stack” will bring the speed.

And that only scratches the surface. For the gritty details, check out the full article.

[Thanks to Damon for the tip!]

So we all know that AT&T, for whatever reason, does not offer insurance for any iPhone. It seems as if Best Buy is now stepping up to the plate to offer it’s customers some iPhone 3G S insurance, Geek Squads Black Tie Protection.

This is great news for some of you but keep in mind it comes at a pretty hefty price. Normal cell phone insurance via Best Buy will cost you anywhere from $7 to $10 a month. Not the case with iPhone 3G S, Best Buy has raised this fee to a cool $15 a month. This premium fee is most likely due to the full retail price of the 3G S being so high at $599 and $699.

Good news is that this insurance will cover all sorts of damage – liquid damage, cracked screens, cracked casing, etc… All you have to do is bring your damaged iPhone into any Best Buy, they will fix it or replace your device on the spot.

So at $15/month is this something you’d be willing to pay for some peace of mind?

[Via Apple Insider]

UPDATE: Looks like and the original post is MIA, so we’re keeping the ship steady, banking left, and redirecting unboxing lovers to iTalkiPhone for the rest of the gallery. (Thanks Taylor!)

ORIGINAL: Looks like someone’s scored the first pictures of an iPhone 3G S, unboxed and in the wild. Pretty much what everyone expected — looks just like the iPhone 3G but has some nifty new software like the Compass App (complete with re-calibration instructions), voice control, etc. but still drool-worthy none the less.

A few more pics after the break, but check out their full gallery for all gadget pr0n goodness!

Jeremy and Chad both gave excellent, compelling reasons for why they ARE SO or ARE NOT upgrading to the iPhone 3G S. For certain, intelligent people will have different yet equally valid reasons for choosing to upgrade, or not to upgrade. For myself?

Apple had me at speed.

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No sooner did we ask (twice) whether the iPhone 3G S will speed up the splitting of the iPhone OS platform than Mobility Today finds the little pop-up alert, above, just chock-a-block full of confirmation.

Not the most elegant or user friendly of solutions, so perhaps this ultimately lies more with how developers handle different hardware options than the existence of the options themselves?

Could a video/camera button not disappear for a current iPod touch, default to launching only the camera for iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G, or launch the camera with a video switch (like Apple’s built in Camera app will have) for iPhone 3G S?

T-Mobile Netherlands (via Wired) has let slip the formerly elusive specs for the iPhone 3G S:

• 256MB of RAM
• 600Mhz CPU

Anandtech (via Macrumors) gives further info:

Although unannounced, the iPhone 3GS uses (again) a Samsung SoC but this time instead of the ARM11 + MBX-Lite combo it’s got a Cortex A8 and PowerVR SGX; just like the [Palm] Pre.

So add that to the fast PowerVR SGX graphics core, and — to quote Steve Jobs — it’s a screamer!

Update: Apple Insider has a great run down of the technology inside the chipsets.

No such thing as a free lunch. You don’t get something for nothing. Yesterday we linked to Gizmodo’s response to iPhone 3G owners “whining” about not getting a second bite at the cheap subsidy pricing for the iPhone 3G S.

Bottom line, you got your discount last year in exchange for a 2 year contract. That contract isn’t done in full yet, so you don’t get a discount in full yet.

But that got me thinking. I asked this on Twitter and am getting mixed reaction, so I’ll ask it here:

What if AT&T offered you full, subsidized pricing anyway ($199/$299) in exchange for another 2 year contract? No, not 2 more years starting now — that still costs them a year — but an additional 2 years after the current contract expires, for 3 years total from iPhone 3G S release.

Here’s the math: 2 year current contract – 1 year completed = 1 year + 2 years new contract = 3 years total.

Sound crazy? Rogers in Canada has all iPhone 3G owners on 3 year contracts already. 3 years are normal in some parts of the world.

However, the idea clearly doesn’t scale, does it? If AT&T offers an iPhone 3G S+ with iPhone 4.0 next year, the same math and model would mean you’d have to sign for a 4 year contract to get subsidy pricing (original 2 years – 1 year + 2 years – 1 year + 2 years = 4 years total).

Sure, it looks nice and linear — matching OS version numbers even — but not it’s not realistic long-term. Who’s going to offer or sign a 6 year contract for iPhone X running 6.0?

Still, for just this year, would you fully re-up it to get the iPhone 3G S at full discount pricing?

The smoke has begun to clear now that the WWDC 2009 keynote is over and we finally know all of the details regarding the iPhone 3GS. So – surprise – this From the Forums is all about WWDC and the new iPhone 3G S.

I’ll admit, as soon as Apple gave me the ability to pre-order the new iPhone 3G S, I broke down and ordered right away. Exactly how many of you out there has pre-ordered the latest iPhone goodness to come out of Cupertino?

This next thread was started by dramos9696, and he wants to know what are the major differences between the iPhone 3G and the 3G S. A lot of people like to claim there are no major differences but if you know me at all, you know I will fight tooth and nail to prove you wrong. But take a look at that thread and add anything you see fit.

Frozen001 started this thread, AT&T Strikes Again. Now we here at TiPb don’t understand why AT&T is lagging behind with MMS and tethering but as far as upgrades are concerned it’s pretty simple – if you don’t have a upgrade available to you, you pay the normal price. That’s just the way it is. No one is forcing you to make the purchase. What are you thoughts?

Our final thread was created by Scott R and it is about the iPhone 3G S’s camera. Does it seem too good to be true Scott wonders? TiPb thinks if it performs as well as it looked during the keynote, color us impressed.

There you have it folks, some of the hottest topics on TiPb forums! To get in on the action be sure to register first.

See you on the forums!