Remember the days when iPods were white? At the time, this seemed sleek, modernist and futuristical, but since Apple replaced them with a black model that’s even more sleek, modernist and futuristical, the lustre of white gadgets has paled somewhat. If white gadgets can pale. Well, you know what I mean.
Anyway, the point is that the latest round of allegedly-leaked spy photos of the 3G iPhone appear to indicate a return to whiteness. However, the credibility of these pics can be gauged by the fact that they turned up on Chinese iPhone forums - a country where there’s no lack of a.) Photoshop experts and b.) companies willing to make iPhone mock-ups to titillate Western Apple fanboys. What do you think? Would a white iPhone be appealing, or should Apple stick with black? Or even another colour?
There’s been widespread speculation that Apple will unveil the 3G iPhone at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. But if you want further proof that the all-new iPhone is on the way next month, check this story on Boy Genius Report.It publishes a leaked email from US operator AT&T to employees advising them not to take any time off between 15th June and 12th July this year, due to “an exciting Summer Promotional Launch” that will cause “heavier than normal customer traffic in our stores”. AT&T did the same thing last year, and that was the original iPhone on-sale date.15th June is the Sunday following the WWDC event (which runs from the 9th to the 13th). Apple likes Friday launches, but Friday 13th might be seen as inauspicious, so it’s all pointing to Friday 20th June, with AT&T staffing up in the days beforehand to cope with (they hope) queues around the block. Possibly.
What’s the connection between Kylie Minogue and Nokia?
No, the Finnish mobile giant hasn’t started wearing hotpants and banging out G.A.Y.-friendly floor fillers, nor has the diminutive diva started transmitting in the 3G spectrum.
No, the real answer is- despite repeated attempts, neither of them can seem to ‘break’ America.
Although the earlier S40 phones do fairly well, US carriers seem wary of the open nature of S60 smartphones, and these have never really taken off, stateside.
Nokia currently has around 40% of global mobile sales, but accounts for only 10% of the US market. In part this is due to the company’s lack of CDMA handsets, a situation that looks likely to improve.
In an interview with Helsinki newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, Nokia designer Alastair Curtis said that the company had been cooperating with several US operators and that “a lot of new products” were in the works, including CDMA handsets and existing models tailored to US carriers.
Hear that sound? It’s the sound of millions of iPhone owners’ brains clacking as they consider whether they’ll get away with giving their handset to their other half as a present, in order to upgrade to the new 3G model when it comes out. It’s a delicate one: a secondhand iPhone comes some way behind diamonds innit.
Anyway, the rumours about the exact date and nature of the 3G iPhone launch are mounting, with TG Daily reporting that it’ll be announced at Apple’s WWDC 2008 conference in June, priced at $399 for an 8GB model, $499 for a 16GB model, and maybe even $599 for a 32GB model. I’d be inclined to think they won’t bother with an 8GB version, though.
Oh, and it’ll apparently be 2.5mm thinner than the first-generation iPhone, with a buffed-up casing and a tweaked accelerometer, but the battery still won’t be removable. For shame. Although we’ve heard inaccurate iPhone battery predictions before - remember all those people claiming the first iPhone would have two of ‘em? - so there’s still hope.
This is a completely unconfirmed rumor from what MacRumors describes as ‘not a typical rumor source’ which for an opening gambit in the blog world is about as cynical as it gets. As such, we suggest that you scrutinize the image to the right of this post with extreme care (bigger version after the jump).
The source, iPodObserver, claims that this glossy black backed device is the 3G iPhone in the flesh. It certainly doesn’t look photoshopped, but that doesn’t rule out a whole bunch of other possible explanations. It could be a custom cased design, which would explain the absence of the brushed nickel back plate but not the absence of the mat plastic bottom shell. Another possibility is that it could be a fan mock up, hewn from a soap case or something.
Real deal or not, this thing looks decidedly cheaper than the current iPhone, not sure if that would be a good or bad thing. More on this as the details emerge folks.
Continue reading ‘3G iPhone pic leaked?’
Looks like it could be a scorching summer for iPhone fans. Industry speculation about when Apple plans to launch the 3G second-generation iPhone is focusing on June, following predictions by Bank of America analyst Scott Craig:
“Our latest channel checks point to a significant production build of a 3G iPhone beginning in the month of June after an initial small build in May.”
Specifically, Craig reckons Apple will build more than three million 3G iPhones in May, then ramp up production on more than eight million during the third quarter of this year. June would also make sense, since Apple’s developer convention, WWDC08, takes place from 9-13 June in San Francisco, providing Steve Jobs with the ideal stage to unveil the 3G iPhone. And, of course, June is also the month when the iPhone App Store is due to launch.
(via Reuters)
Nokia’s released an exclusive ‘adventure pack’ for its brand spanking new N82, just in time for Christmas.
Available only from Nokia’s online store, the ‘adventure pack’ includes a Sim-free N82 (naturally), but also a pre-installed copy of Nokia’s Sports Tracker app and a Salomon backpack, as well as the 2GB microSD card and music headset which come as standard. And all this for only £399.
The phone itself is quite a nifty piece of kit with a five-megapixel camera, built-in GPS and Nokia Maps (in case you get lost while jogging), mobile internet (on 3G and Wi-Fi), plus a music player and FM radio.
The handset, currently available on O2 with a range of mobile retailers is already a pretty hot device, and presumably the ‘adventure pack’ is going to prove pretty attractive for sports enthusiasts.
Woo! Hoo! Britain’s set to get complete 3G/HSDPA coverage from T-Mobile and 3 after they agreed to collaborate on the rollout of their 3G networks.
They reckon that by the end of 2008, they’ll offer almost complete population coverage for 3G in Britain, with noticeable improvements in 3G coverage in urban areas and inside buildings by 2009.
The agreement is the largest of its kind in the world and will speed up the operators’ rollouts of their 3G networks while creating Europe’s most extensive HSDPA network. Aren’t we Brits lucky?
The networks’ 3G licence commitments call for 80% population coverage, which will easily be exceeded by the deal. To handle the logistics and make sure everything runs smoothly, the two operators have also set up a joint venture company called Mobile Broadband Network.
This will run until 2031, so presumably it’ll be handling the rollout of 10G networks or whatever we’ll have by then…
IntoMobile’s reviewed the SE W960i and it’s verdict? Well it’s both good and bad apparently.
Sony Ericsson’s ‘iPhone killer’ sounds like it almost lives up to the billing but doesn’t quite surpass Nokia’s latest NSeries handsets like the N95 8GB, according to Intomobile.
This follows Mobile Review’s recent report on their experience with it, concluding that ‘it doesn’t have much going for it’.
Intomobile says the 3.2-megapixel camera does the job and the phone has a whole wealth of pre-installed applications as well as 3G/Wi-Fi but unfortunately no HSDPA, and the Media Manager software is nice and quick when transferring files.
But despite being ‘the most beautiful UIQ 3 smartphone ever made’ and offering the ‘best out-of-the-box music experience on any UIQ 3 smartphone’ it still has some flaws.
There’s no 3.5mm jack despite being a high-end music handset and only a single speaker built in (although it does have stereo Bluetooth).
However the biggest problem seemed to be the UIQ 3 OS. Like Marmite, UIQ seems to split people in a way Symbian never does - you either love UIQ or hate it. Intomobile were of the opinion that UIQ 3 still isn’t perfect and while current UIQ users will love the device, those coming from a Windows Mobile or Symbian device might struggle to get to grips with the W960i’s menu system.
So that settles it then. The W960i is a great handset… and yet not a great handset. You can read the review for yourself here.
It’s a great life being an analyst: you get to make predictions about upcoming technology products citing your sources in Asian manufacturing plants, and nobody remembers later if you turn out to be wrong. Now that’s a good job. Of course, analysts are often bang on the mark too, which is why us bloggers are so keen to report their every prediction.
So, Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey has been talking about Apple’s plans for 2008, and he reckons the company will actually release two new iPhone models next year. One will be the long-rumoured 3G model, which is likely to have “a similar form factor as the current version although it could have a different look”. However, he predicts it won’t go on sale until the second half of the year, which contradicts previous speculation.
What’s the other new iPhone then? Don’t get too excited: Bailey claims that it’ll be a refresh of the current mode, with more flash memory inside, and that it’ll come out earlier in 2008. 16GB would be just fine - nudging over the tipping point to be able to hold many average users’ entire music collections.
(via Pocket Lint)
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