Along with all the general rumours over the release date of the 3G iPhone, it appears some websites are claiming that the new 3G iPhone will contain a GPS Broadcom chip, providing built in GPS functionality. We’ve no idea if this is true or not, but hopefully we’ll find out in the next few months…
As from today, the iPhone should be £100 cheaper, ie it now costs £169 plus a contract. This should apply to both Carphone Warehouse and to O2 shops. Although stocks have been limited over the last few weeks, this seems to support those theories that stocks are being finally cleared out for the 3G iPhone to appear in June…
For those who have bought an iPhone in the last 30 days from a Carphone Warehouse store, even better news; “Launched 10 years ago and already responsible for customers receiving millions of pounds, the Ultimate Price Promise means The Carphone Warehouse will automatically give vouchers to the value of £100 to anyone who has purchased an iPhone from the store in the last 30 days.”
Here’s an interesting rumour we’ve picked up on via the internet. It appears that Nokia might be trying to beat Apple to the launch of the first 3G touchscreen smartphone, by announcing the 5800 Tube in advance of the iPhone announcement in June. Although they’ve both been beaten to touchscreen mobiles (like the LG Viewty), it would be an interesting turn of events if Nokia beat Apple to this crown. It’s unlikely, but an interesting rumour nonetheless…
In rumours and news that does not surprise many, it appears we are likely to see an announcement (and possible actual release) of the 3G iPhone within the next few months. The exact date is likely to be the June Developers Conference, and the launch of third party applications using the SDK.
In the last few weeks, there have been all sorts of agreements over various technologies on mobile devices, so we thought we would summarise them all…
It’s nice to see the main competitors supporting each other’s technology, and not limiting us users, and ensuring each technology has a future irrespective of your chosen mobile device.
As we (and others) predicted, the Apple Airport Express has been released, although it is not currently listed in the Apple UK Store. In the US, the price has remained the same as the elder unit, so we expect to see similar pricing when it does come to the UK.
There are rumours that Apple is about to announce an 802.11n version of the Apple Airport Express, which may arrive as early as tomorrow. The only known difference though, is the wireless support. More news as and when we get it.
The iPhone Dev Team have announced they have already managed to jailbreak (allow running of additional programs) and successfully SIM unlocked (allowing use of other SIMs) the new iPhone v2.0 firmware, which was only released as a beta (as part of the SDK beta) last week. This bodes well for the formal release in June.
Combining the skills of the user development community with the possibility of Sun releasing JME for the iPhone and you start to wonder how long Apple will be able to continue to really control the iPhone applications we can install.
Story and picture courtesy of Engadget.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could walk into a pub, club, or restaurant and be able to recharge your mobile phone / iPod / mp3 player? Well, Juice Jack have that vision, and have produced the Jack to achieve this. It has 9 connectors for charging a large portion of phones (both Nokia connectors, Apple, Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung, and standard micro and mini USB connectors). Not just that, but the device has a built in Li-Ion battery (although it’s more likely people will connect the device direct to the mains).
Even better, the price is only £25, and they are willing to sell single devices to consumers, as well as selling in volumes to larger companies.
We like the idea, although unless there was one on every table in a pub, we would be nervous leaving our phone on charge in a public place out of our sight / reach.
Although it’s mainly just a rumour right now, it’s believed Sun is working on a version of Java Mobile Edition for the iPhone, using the now released SDK. It’s likely to be released in June or July, not long after the SDK itself is fully released. This should open up a whole range of applications for immediate access on the iPhone, and if available, may limit Apple’s control over what applications are available for the iPhone.
Amid all the Apple announcements yesterday, the BBC updated their website so that they now have iPhone support for their iPlayer. This will allow UK iPhone users the ability to watch selected BBC TV programmes again for up to 7 days after broadcast.
Story courtesy of Berble.com.
Last night, Apple announced that the SDK would be available in June, including an iPhone simulator than runs on Mac devices. A Beta is available now, and some large Enterprise customers will even get access to the new v2 iPhone Beta firmware too. The new firmware brings a number of new, key features for corporate customers:
Developers will generally be happy with the SDK and the sales model Apple have selected for people buying applications from iTunes or the new App Store option on the iPhone. Basically the developer sets the price the user should pay for the software and Apple will simply take 30% of the revenue as and when it occurs - if the developer sells nothing for months on end, Apple will not charge. Should the developer go one step further and offer the application for free, Apple will not charge anything at all to distribute that application.
Apple have indicated certain types of applications will not be allowed; unlocking tools, illegal items (eg hacking tools, malicious software, pornography).
EA Games, Salesforce.com, and AOL’s AIM were example applications at the launch.
As with the previous enhancement announcement, the new firmware will be provided for free on the iPhone, although there will be a small charge for the same new functions on the iPod Touch.
Some information courtesy of Engadget.
NavNGo have announced plans to release their iGO MyWay 8 SatNav software for the iPhone. It was either use the gomite LogoGPS hardware module to provide the GPS data, or will use their WiFi GPS unit, which allows the iPhone to pick up the location information via WiFi (allowing the GPS unit to be hidden and hardwired into a car, for example). NavNGo already provide a similar solution as part of the Sony PSP solution, so are well used to working on a variety of platforms. Although this has been announced in advance of the iPhone SDK (rumoured for announcement later today), it’s likely to be using the SDK, and may even feature as an example of an approved 3rd party application in Apple’s presentation.
There’s a short YouTube video about this solution here.
The picture is a mockup of what the software may look like, courtesy of Engadget.
Well, with the Apple event (to show the iPhone SDK and Roadmap) due on Thursday, what are the main snippets of information that are likely to be announced…
We’ll know more for sure on Thursday…
Business Week (in the US) has reported that the release of the iPhone SDK, and Apple’s support of third party applications will now not happen in February as first expected, but is still likely to occur in March.
[Via Engadget]
As part of announcing the 2Gb iPod Shuffle, Apple have now reduced the price of the 1Gb version down to £32, although the 2Gb model (which should sell around the £49 the 1Gb model was priced at) is still not available, although it has been announced.
Although not yet listed in the UK Apple Store, Apple have released a larger capacity iPod Shuffle in the US, with 2Gb of storage, and have reduced the price of the 1Gb model. We expect similar changes in the UK to come at some point in the near future. The new 2Gb model will go on sale later this month in the US.
Although it’s not yet made it to the UK Apple Store, the US Apple Store is now listing a 16Gb iPhone for sale. We expect this will be available in the UK too in the very near future.
Also, just announced, a 32Gb iPod Touch is available now too.
The IBM Lotus Notes support for the iPhone we mentioned here has been delayed by IBM (ie it wasn’t launched at LotusSphere). It’s not clear if the decision was from IBM, or forced on them by Apple, but we expect it should be announced in the next month or two alongside the Apple iPhone SDK.
IBM are apparently soon to launch a Lotus Notes solution for the iPhone (and iPod Touch). Many large corporates are Notes users, and this will allow greater business usage of these devices throughout these companies. Apple and IBM have been working together on this solution, and there are rumours that IBM have had earlier access to the SDK due for release next month. More details are not likely before IBM’s LotusSphere, which starts over the weekend, although it is likely the software will be free.