Earlier this morning, Steve Jobs announced that the 3G iPhone will be available on July 11th. Since then, hundreds of Apple nerds have been hunched over their keyboards, inviting repetitive stress injury as they dutifully re-word Apple’s marketing copy.
In the meantime, let’s examine the lesser tidbits that accompanied this announcement.
Requirements
The 3G iPhone page notes that iTunes 7.7 is required for iPhone software 2.0, undoubtedly to accommodate the App Store (as of this writing, 7.6.2 is the current version).
Data plan pricing
A call to my local AT&T store (no Apple Stores in my area) revealed that data plan pricing will not change.
Warranty
Phone comes with up to two years of tech support as long as your wireless agreement is active. Also, the iPhone, its battery, and all included accessories are covered against defects for one year from the purchase date. So, no change from the original warranty.
SIM ejector tool
For the first time, Apple is shipping phones with a SIM card ejector tool. No more Official Apple Paperclips in the mail.
Overall look
That darn chrome edging is gone! I’ve always disliked the band of chrome that separates the original iPhone’s screen from the rest of its body. The iPod touch is much more attractive without it. The 3G iPhone sports a black edging, which is much nicer.
Plus, the back panel is black plastic. It’s less distinctive that way. The sliver backing and black antenna area of the original design identifies the device as an iPhone from across a room. I’ll wait to see a 3G model in person before I make a final judgment.
Today, Steve Jobs will deliver his keynote address at WWDC ’08. Here’s what’s going on. The most recent update will appear at the top of this post.
IPHONE 3G SPECIFICS
3G officially announced. GPS officially announced. Flush headphone jack, improved audio. Black rear panel (plastic).
Pricing:
- $199 for an 8GB 3G iPhone.
- 16GB model is available for $299 “…for that model we have a white one.”
- Top-of-the-line is $399.
That price is standard across the world. On sale July 11.
Steve rolls a new ad, requests a round of applause for the iPhone devs.
11:41 AM: Additional country support. 70 new countries in the next several months, including most of South America… Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Czech, Switzerland, Leigch, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Malta, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Greece, Turkey.
Steve: “These deals are all signed, sealed and delivered.” Roll out in all of these countries simultaneously.
11:33 AM: Why 3G? Speed while browsing! Demo of 3G vs. EDGE, loading a complex website. The 3G phone smokes it — 21 seconds on the 3G iPhone … 59 seconds on EDGE. 3G is 2.8x faster. Approaching Wi-Fi speeds.
Email attachments pop up quickly in Steve’s demo — 5 second download vs. 18 on EDGE. That’s 3.6x faster on the 3G iPhone.
Battery life: 5 hours talk time (industry leader); browsing – 5-6 hours; video- 7 hours; audio – 24 hours; 300 hours stand by.
11:29 AM: Steve: “This is the phone that changes phones for ever … 90% customer satisfaction … 98% are mobile browsing … 80% are using 10 or more features.” Sold 6 million.
MOBILE ME
11:13 AM: Phil Shiller talks about Mobile Me. Here we go! “It’s like Exchange for the rest of us.” We all get push email, contacts and calendars. They store user info “up in the cloud.” Push info up and down, on the fly. EmaIl gets sent to my Mobile Me acct., and is immediately pushed to all my devices — computer, iPhone. Same with calendar event, contact info, etc. Works over the air automatically.
Works directly with Mail, iCal, Address Book, etc. Even PC users. Also features a NEW suite of Web 2.0 applications. Hosted at me.com. “Feels like a desktop application.”
Photos also work over the air with an iPhone. Take a picture, send it to Mobile Me gallery over the air. Put right into an album via the web interface.
iDisk now has a complete online interface. Clicking “Share” gives others a link to large files stored on iDisk.
Service available for $99/year, 20GB of storage. 60-day free trial. Available early July. Mobile Me replaces .Mac. You may be able to continue to use your .Mac addresses. .Mac subscribers will receive automatic upgrade.
APP STORE SPECIFICS
11:11 AM: Ad-hoc distribution of iPhone apps. You can get certified and register up to 100 iPhones for local distribution of your apps via iTunes.
11:11 AM: Enterprise distribution of iPhone apps. They can authorize a set of iPhones, and create apps that only run on those iPhones, distributed on their own networks. Can be accessed via iTunes from a private business network.
11:09: The App Store. Automatic notification of app updates. Developers set price of apps, keep 70% of revenues. No fees to sell an app. They can give apps away for free with no charges from Apple to do so. It will be available in 22 countrries. Distribution — 10MB or less, Wi-Fi, network or iTunes download. Greater than 10MB, Wi-Fi or iTunes only
IPHONE 2.0 SOFTWARE CHANGES AND AVAILABILILTY
11:08 AM: iPhone 2.0 software will be out in early July. Free for all iPhone owners, $9.95 for iPod Touch.
11:05 AM: Steve back on stage with new goodies. Contact search. Full iWork document support. MS Office support. Save images right to your photo library. Scientific calculator (landscape mode elicits sci calc), parenting controls, additional language support, include Japanese (two forms) and Chinese (two forms).
PUSH NOTIFICATION FOR ALL DEVELOPERS
10:59 AM: How to let an application alert the user of changes when it isn’t being used? Background application? No. “We’ll provide a push notification service to all developers … we’ll maintain a push IP notification to the phone.” Three options: Badges, custom alert sound or custom textural alerts. Works over Wi-Fi and network. Available in September. That concludes update of the SDK.
SDK UPDATES
10:54 AM: Medical imaging application. CT scan and PET scan overlays create a multi-plane reconstruction. Observe from all viewing angles. They had a prototype up in one week. Pinch, double-tap and pan. Swipe to transition between volumes. “The iPhone has created a new world for our profession.” Look for them at the launch of the App Store.
10:51 AM: Demo of an educational application for medical students. Hundreds of anatomical images. “Imagine doing this on any other mobile device.” Audience member laughs audibly. A student told the developer, “I learned five new brain terms today while waiting in line for my latte.” They’ll have a dozen similar applications available within a week of the App Store’s launch.
10:48 AM: Demo from MLB.com, official website of pro baseball. New application. All live games on top. Who’s on base, batting pitching … updates live. Live video updates as they happen. This will be in the App Store when it launches. Man, it had better launch today.
10:46 AM: Demo from indie developer, a collection of virtual instruments. Gotta say, it’s pretty freaking cool.
10:41 AM: Demo from Pangea. Two games. First, Enigmo. Get water droplets into a container. “This version of Pangea is better than the original.” Second game: Cro-Mag Rally, a “caveman racing game.” Up and running — playable — in three days. “The iPhone itself is the steering wheel … adding accelerometer-based steering took five minutes.” Both games will sell for $9.99US in the App Store.
10:39 AM: Native application from the Associated Press is being demonstrated, called “The Mobile News Network.” Add all the locations you want. Automatically retrieve local news. Show off beautiful AP photos. Watch videos from the AP news network. Users can send their own breaking news reports or photos to the AP from their iPhones. This will be a free download from the App Store.
10:36 AM: Representative from Typepad is talking about mobile applications development for the iPhone. Take a photo and send it directly to a Typepad blog. Select any of your Typepad blogs to update. Pretty cool, but I still don’t want to type an entire blog post on an iPhone. This will be available for free in the App Store.
10:33 AM: Demo of Loop, a location-aware application. It will be available for free when the App Store launches.
10:30 AM: Ken Sun of Ebay demonstrates what they’ve done for the iPhone, specifically auctions on the iPhone. The Ebay app will be available for free when the App Store launches.
10:27 AM: Scott invites Sega to the stage to demo how they’ve improved Monkey Ball since building it with the original SDK beta with a demo of the last level of the game, Space Case. It will be available at the launch of the App Store for $9.99 US.
10:25 AM: Scott is reading praise for the SDK from developers. “I have coded fairly extensively for … Boost Mobile and Blackberry. The iPhone SDK blows it away.” Tom Yeager, Info Desk
10:20 AM: Scott Forstall offers a demo of Inteface Builder and the iPhone SDK.
