AppleInsider is reporting the some Apple Store employees have noticed a new activation option on their Point of Sale terminals - Home.
The option doesn’t work as yet, but it implies that Apple will soon allow consumers to activate the iPhone themselves, rather than having to perform the activation in-store.
Retailers are also reportinga shortage of iPhone 3G 8GB units. This is reportedly similar to when Apple canceled the 4GB iPhone Classic and has sparked rumours of an new 32GB option to sit alongside the currently top of the line 16GB handset.
Lumme. For once, there were lots of Apple rumours floating round the blogosphere that actually turned out to be true. Apple has doubled the memory of the iPhone to 16GB, although you’ll have to pay for the extra storage - the new model is set to cost £329 in the UK, compared to the 8GB model’s price of £269.
The move will be welcome news to anyone who’s been waiting to buy an iPhone, even if there’s no 3G in the new model. Coming less than three months after the 8GB version’s launch in the UK, though, it’s a bit of a slap in the teeth for early adopters.
Meanwhile, Apple has also doubled the storage in its top-spec iPod Touch to 32GB, with the new model also selling for £329. The Apple and O2 online stores in the UK aren’t showing the new iPhone yet, though, so keep your credit cards firmly in your wallets for now…
If there’s one thing worth grumbling about with the iPhone, it’s the 8GB capacity - particularly as the iPod Touch has double that. However, industry analysts are predicting that the problem may be solved at the Macworld Expo in January, with a new 16GB iPhone.
What’s more, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster reckons the price point may stay the same, which would be a bit frustrating for anyone who bought the 8GB model just before Christmas. What analysts don’t expect at Macworld is the long-rumoured 3G iPhone, which is expected to be launched later in 2008 rather than at the start of the year.
Of course, Apple boss Steve Jobs does love to keep people guessing, so there’s no guarantee that Apple won’t spring a completely different iPhone-related surprise at Macworld. Downloadable games on iTunes? A GPS accessory? A native Facebook application? Watch this space…
(via Bloomberg)
Quite a timely bit of rumour-mongering this one, given that Apple’s just made a series of big iPod/ iPhone-related announcements. By bringing the price of the 8GB iPhone down to $399 (£200) in the US, Apple has cleared the way for a possible 16GB top-end iPhone (matching the storage spec of the new iPod touch).
There have been rumours flying for months about there being a 3G/ HSDPA version of the iPhone in the works for Europe. So this supposed T-Mobile ad for Germany, found via MacBidouille, purporting to show a 16GB, HSDPA iPhone for €499 (£339) slots nicely among the current batch of rumours. But for €59 (£40) we’d expect a damn sight more than 300 mins/ 150 texts; file this for now under maybe, not definitely.
(Via AppleInsider)
