WWDC 2008 Keynote: iPhone 3G, 2.0 Firmware, SDK, Mobile Me, 10.6 Hints

[djellison]

Lighter, slimmer

2g lighter. You wouldn't be able to pick them apart blindfolded. And despite Jobs' obsession with 'thin' - he failed to tell you that it's taller AND wider.

New one is 88,222 cubic mm
Old one was 81,734 cubix mm

The new phone is BIGGER. Fully 7.9% BIGGER.

BUT - Joy of frickin joys - it looks like O2 have finally seen the light - they will be doing it on a PAYG model.

Doug

 

[DMann]

2g lighter. You wouldn't be able to pick them apart blindfolded. And despite Jobs' obsession with 'thin' - he failed to tell you that it's taller AND wider.

New one is 88,222 cubic mm
Old one was 81,734 cubix mm

The new phone is BIGGER. Fully 7.9% BIGGER.

Doug

Which is all the more reason to use lighter plastic in place of heavier, more obstructive aluminum. Overall, a small compromise for better reception, GPS functionality, and improved battery life.

Pay to go? Now we're talking.

 

[queshy]

Lighter, slimmer, and better overall reception>Metal. Lower price = subsidy through AT&T, not necessarily lower build quality.



There will likely be a preference utility developed to do just that soon.

Agreed, but I'm talking about the design and not the performance. The new iPhone will no doubt look "cheaper" than its predecessor. I still think it looks great, all I'm saying is that the previous metal backing looks cooler.

 

[WellRedd]

What I want to know is how much a Pay & Go iPhone is going to cost in the UK, and how much calls/texts/data is going to cost. I don't like contracts for mobile phones, but I might change my mind.

I'm slightly disappointed with some of the specs, no 802.11n for a start (I've been thinking about upgrading my LAN to all "n", but there's no incentive to do that if the iPhone will make my AEBS jump back into b/g compatible mode), camera would've been a lot better if they'd doubled the megapixel count, and 16GB of music is a bit tight, although I can live with these gripes. The price is excellent though, I can see the iPhone being a market leader, everyone is going to want one at this price. Very clever Apple, now wait until they all switch over to Mac computers.

 

[vancexxx]

Mb, Mbp

hey what about all those rumors bout new MB and MBPs? do you think there's still chance that steve will show us some new laptops or the tablet at this WWDC?

 

[Cloudane]

God, that was boring. App... after app... after app... after app... after app... then for about 10 minutes the 3G iPhone finally gets some attention! Definitely not one of the most entertaining keynotes, and tired as I am this morning I wish I hadn't sat up until 1.30am watching it just for that!

Cool stuff though. I'm a little worried about the plastic back (scratch magnet?) and whether I get it depends on 3G coverage. If I can only get EDGE coverage most places anyway then it'd be a downgrade to a cheaper build with no advantage. However assuming the coverage is there, it should be awesome.

 

[CrossedBearings]

Back to Base

Yeah, yeah, ok - the so entirely anticipated iPhone came out. BFD - no surprises, other than price.

Now can we stop the little fuss, every body go back to the real world and focus on what really matters. When are they going to beat intel over the head and release the redesigned MB, MBP's ??

Sigh! The wait !

 

[phuong]

hello. can somebody tell me, besides the GPS, what are other differences between a 3G iphone and a normal iphone with 2.0 firmware?

 

[baslotto]

hello. can somebody tell me, besides the GPS, what are other differences between a 3G iphone and a normal iphone with 2.0 firmware?

The data transfer will be almost 3 times faster (i.e.: emails, surfing the internet when you are not near a wireless modem).

By the way,

https://www.macrumors.com/2008/06/07/possible-photos-of-3g-iphone/

the iChat mockup gave me such a great vibe when it came out. It was exactly what I was expecting.
I believe that's the third generation but I don't know if I want to wait...

Actually now that I think of it... it could be the iPhone Nano that they are rumoring, so maybe without GPS and with a smaller screen. Knowing Apple they are always doing a little less then expected. It's understandable since they have a business to run.

 

[happydude]

software update

since we don't get to see the new iphone OS until july, is there any chance they just haven't announced ichat, picture texting, copy paste . . . things every other smartphone is able to do?

i'm super excited about exchange, 3G and GPS, but common, [almost] every blackberry out there can already do that plus the things mentioned above.

maybe i'm just grasping at straws, but i wanted an iphone that can do what most smart phones have been doing for several years

 

[phuong]

all i need to know is if iphone 1G now have 802.11x, EAP support ... etc?
because it yes, then i'm keeping it.

 

[PAKing]

What A Huge Disappointment!

What A Huge Disappointment! Waiting all this time, all the hype and this is the best they can do? This is what LACKING!

• Multimedia messaging - Almost every other cell phone in the market has the ability to send images to other cell phones via multimedia messaging, or MMS. Yes you can still e-mail those photos, but MMS is such a basic feature that it should've been in the iPhone from the start.,

• Copy and paste - Again, this is such a basic feature. Having copy and paste makes it easier to type out text messages and e-mails.,
• Video recording - In the world of mobile video, Qik, and YouTube, it's a shame the iPhone doesn't have video-recording capabilities. Yes the quality wouldn't be that great, but it should be an option anyway.,

• Voice command - For a touch-screen phone, we think voice command and voice dialing would've been a great feature add-on for the iPhone. Perhaps this will be added via a third-party app, but we would really prefer this to be a native setting.,

• Bluetooth flexibility - Right now, all you can use Bluetooth on the iPhone for are headset voice calls, and that's it. This is sufficient for most people, sure, but we would like for Apple and AT&T to open up the Bluetooth profiles for the iPhone. This means we would like stereo Bluetooth and A2DP for streaming music wirelessly, Bluetooth tethering so we can use the iPhone as a modem, and finally we would like to have Bluetooth file-transfer protocol so we can transfer files to and fro the iPhone.

These are just a few omissions we could think of. The iPhone 3G did not meet my expectations, I would need a few more features.

• Flash for the camera
• Turn by turn voice GPS
• Being able to swoop out my own dead battery
• Would love to see 3.1 or higher mega pixel for the camera

The probability of me getting the New 3G iPhone is 98% sure I won't be buying into the hype. Every one has their own need, for me being able to change my own battery is important. I don't trust people to do the right thing when handing over a problem non working iPhone for a replacement. With today identity Theft problem on an up raise each and every day. I'm suppose to hand over an iPhone with my PERSONAL information to God know who, maybe a disgruntle employee. Trust that they will erase my personal information for me, with out taking a peek and maybe writing it down for his or her personal gain. Like we never seen this done before. It's only been done almost EVERY day in any given work environment. I use voice dialing all the time while driving, for obvious safety reason of cause. Plus in NYC it's the LAW to do so. So for this basic function to not be available in the iPhone is a bummer for me. Cause all the el cheapo free phone have this basic function, so not the iPhone?

 

[turtlebud]

Thoughts on Mobileme

As a current .mac subscriber, I welcome any enhancements to the .mac (aka .me) service. I mainly subscribed to have that permanent .mac address (which I will be able to keep apparently) and the integration with my mac(s).

Now, this mobileme thing seems pretty cool - cloud computing seems like the way to go so I'm excited about using it, but can someone tell me how this is better (aside from maybe the polished UI) than google apps like calendar & mail?

Gmail - Since gmail is IMAP, isn't it essentially the same as having your email & it being sync'd up no matter where you're checking it from? And can't you even set it up in the mail application from the iphone as another mail account? (I don't have an iphone, but from what I've seen, that seems to be the case)

Google Calendar - Similarly, can you access your google calendar anywhere you have an internet connection and make changes to it (and those changes will get reflected no matter where you're checking - ie, computer, iphone, etc.)? In addition, there sharing/collaborative functionality is very nice - my wife & I use it to keep track of our schedules & our kids schedules.

The gallery feature seems cool, similar to how the .mac gallery was cool vs. other photo sharing sites, but that's probably the only place that it really shines vs. google apps. On top of that, google is free, where .me is $99/year. While I don't mind paying the $99/year (well, more like $60/year cause I look to buy it at a discount), in order for my wife to take advantage of utilizing say, the calendar feature in .me, we'd have to pony up for a second .me account or more likely, a family account. To me, it just doesn't seem worth it to do that since the .mac/.me address doesn't really do much good for her since she predominately uses gmail, the calendar feature would be just something new for her to get comfortable with, since she's already familiar with google calendar & likes it, and she's not really into sharing pictures online.

Am I missing something or do the google services actually stack up pretty nicely against mobileme/.me?

 

[Cecco]

Mobile Me service too expensive for Europeans

Concerning Mobile Me:

Apple still doesn't understand, that most people in Europe accessing the internet via a broadband connection, already pay a monthly fee in the range of 5 - 50 € for their connection and that often includes some kind of personal website with your own domain including some storage. So they hesitate to pay for another service, that overlaps with their current services to some extent.

If there is no dramatic change in accessibility/speed of the new service in compare to Dot Mac, European users prefer services on servers located in Europe - they simply offer better performance. It is no fun, if you access your Dot Mac gallery over a 30 MBit connection and watch the pictures slowly building up one after another.

Even as a long time Mac addict, I have a hard time to rectify the $99 annual fee - which translates into a 79 € fee in Europe.

A free lifetime account with every new Mac or iPhone and a small annual fee up to 20 € for users of older Macs + better performance outside of the US with distributed servers, would earn Apple much more in revenues from Mac and iPhone sales, than the few European customers that are indeed willing to pay the 79 € for an account now.

So far a lot of the work Apple's engineers put into really elegant and seamless interaction between Macs/iPhones over Dot Mac and soon over Mobile Me, doesn't reach the targeted customers due to this shortsighted Mac Mobile pricing schema.

Cecco

 

[BillyBobBongo]

I registered the following on hearing the me.com rumor the other week

stopscreaming
quitlooking
stoppointing
laughwithmelaugh
areyoustaring
pleaselook

So a choice of cool email addresses to choose from. Sure someone would pay for one of those- will try ebay to see what happens

I'd imagine that Apple will be 'cleaning house' when it moves over to remove all those old addys that are not being used. Everyone seems so adamant on stockpiling names that I'm sure it's got their attention and they'll deal with it in due time.