Today was the day that all the rumour-mongering ended and Apple unveiled the long-awaited, and I mean looong-awaited, 3G iPhone. So was that wait worthwhile - here are a few bits and pieces on the sucker

* 3G HSDPA connectivity
* Seamless connectivity with Wi-fi when available
* UMTS, HSDPA, GSM, Wi-Fi, EDGE, GPS, and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
* GPS functionality
* Ambient light sensor
* Proximity sensor
* 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm
* 133 g
* 3.5 inch widescreen 480 x 320 res display
* 8 GB or 16 GB flavours
* Audio support for AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 1, 2, and 3), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
* Video support for m4v, mp4 and mov file formats
* 2.0 Mp camera
* 5 hours talktime on 3G, 10 on 2G
* 300 hours standby
* Plays nicely with Mac OS X v10.4.10 or later, Windows Vista, XP Pro or Home with SP2 or later

But here’s the killer punch, price tags of US$200 for the 8 GB model and US$300 for the 16. Not bad Apple, however the tags come with the usual plan shackles, but still not bad it has to be said.

The 3G iPhone will undoubtedly sell like the proverbial hot cakes and fanboys just about all over the planet will be camping out for one of these suckers come July 11th. As for us, well, we’ll be checking it out for sure but as for purchasing, we’ve already got mp3 players and cellphones thank you very much ;)

Source: Apple

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With the Macworld Expo in full swing, Apple have unleashed their latest notebook, the MacBook Air, on an unexpecting world. The ultra slimline notebook measures a mere 0.76 inches thick or a unbelievable 19.4 mm for the metrically minded. The unit sports a 13.3 inch display as well as a multi-touch trackpad enabling similar two finger action as on your iPhone. Other specs include

* 1.8 inch 80 GB HDD (64 GB of SSD storage is available at what we shall call a significant extra cost)
* 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
* 1280 x 800 res display
* mono sound output
* Micro DVI to DVI and micro DVI to VGA adapters (S-Video and composite will cost extra)
* 19.4 x 325 x 227 mm
* 1.36 kg
* 5 hr battery
* Optical Drive? Yeah that’s right an extra US$99 will get you a DVD drive, yes, really

In fact we not sure what you get if you don’t choose any optional extras? Seriously though Apple have obviously stripped all the bells and whistles off the unit to slim it down and thereby create a selling point. Quite good marketing really. Anyway I’m sure these suckers will sell like iPhones hot cakes and every Mac FanBoy will be queuing up for one. The basic model will set you back US$1,799 when it’s out and about in two weeks time.

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Although there’s no official word from Apple as yet, in Walt Mossberg’s column at the Wall Street Journal he states

Also, some early iPod Touch units have had defective screens, where images appeared too dark. Apple says this problem affected a small number of units and is being remedied. My two test units displayed beautiful images.

during his review of the Apple iPod touch. Elsewhere there are many complaints regarding the iPods screen not displaying dark images and videos very well, the view is that they appear as if you are looking at the screen from an acute angle when in fact you are viewing it face on.

In fact the issue was highlighted over at iLounge in their own review and according to them some customers are being charged up to US$40 when attempting to return defective units along with the usual store staff attempts to blame the problem on customer high expectation or poor video encoding by the customer! Oh how I pine for the days when the customer was always right.

Come on Apple, sort this fiasco out, it was only a couple of weeks ago that you slashed the iPhone price by 33% in the US and had to placate the early-adopters with a $100 credit. Now you are trying to charge customers to get a faulty unit working. What’s the story?

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According to the rumour mill on September 18th O2 will be announced as the official carrier for the Apple iPhone in the UK, whilst T-Mobile and Orange win the German and French deals respectively. Apparently at 10am BST there will be an Apple event in London probably announcing these much rumoured deals for European carriers.

The deals have come with a hefty price tag - it’s believed that Apple will receive 40% of iPhone revenue from each carrier, that’s right, revenue not profit. Nice!

So what about all the old Vodafone rumours floating around not so long ago. Well I reckon that the 40% revenue share was just too much to swallow for some carriers and they will take their chances with other mobile manufacturers. O2 and the others have obviously decided that the iPhone branding will reap other financial rewards at some stage as a 40% revenue share must surely spell ‘loss-making venture’?

The only people smiling right now are the Apple execs who dreamt up this plan of dominance business plan. Oh and of course European mobile users who can now find out what all the fuss was about ‘over the pond’ a few months ago.

Source: Electronista

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Having been labelled as ‘unbelievably arrogant’ by European operators, rumour now has it that Apple have influenced AT&T, their iPhone carrier in the US, to downgrade the functionality of the ‘rival’ Blackberry 8820. The downgrade would limit the GPS functionality of the 8820 to the subscription only service TeleNav and with the iPhone boasting the Google Maps functionality the belief is the iPhone would appear ’superior’ and more appealing to the consumer.

As pointed out on several blogs the iPhone and 8820 are aimed at different market sectors, yet AT&T seem oblivious to this fact in promoting the iPhone over its other products.

Of course this is all rumour and there is no indication that Apple have asked AT&T to impose the downgrade of the 8820, but given Apple’s ‘arrogant’ labelling by some European carriers, it would be no surprise if this move was Apple instigated.

Personally, I’m neither a big Blackberry fan nor iPhone zealot, but the real concern here is that AT&T or Apple are forcing their will on RIM. Ultimately the loser in this is YOU not RIM, these kind of corporate moves directly affect the consumer through lack of choice and inflated prices. It is this kind of corporate greed that is repulsive and abhorrent in my opinion, the downside of capitalism no less - anyone else want to weigh in with their thoughts?

Source: BlackBerry Cool

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According to an article on Reuters, Vodafone are concerned that the Apple iPhone does not operate on 3G networks. Vodafone’s CEO Arun Sarin said

It’s clearly a good, software-driven device, but we’re concerned about wideband area coverage so that 3G (third-generation) or HSDPA (upgraded 3G) connectivity with the iPhone is something that we look forward to.

Vodafone would obviously love to add the iPhone to the range of mobile devices on their network but do not seem to be prepared to bend over backwards (unlike AT&T) to strike a deal with Apple. Dare I say, the customer comes first in this instance - unfortunately probably more of a power play by Vodafone.

Also quotes like that from Vodafone’s CEO just fuel the rumours that the second generation iPhone is imminent, whether the new version has 3G or not is still unsure. Some sources report that the next version of the iPhone will be some sort of iPhone Nano, smaller in price and presumably functionality. However Apple must be keen to release their pride and joy into the European market, so hopefully a deal is brokered sooner rather than later.

Source: Reuters

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Whilst the US Apple fans gear up for the release of the iPhone on Friday, their compatriots in Europe are still twiddling their thumbs and wondering when they’ll be able to get their grubby little mits on the new toy. Well Apple have still to announce a distributor for the iPhone in Europe but the favourite is currently British firm Vodafone.

According to Reuters both companies are deep in conference on an agreement, but Apple require a guaranteed sales volume for the iPhone and Vodafone want to have control of its price.

Deutsche Telecom and Orange have also been touted as possible partners for the iPhone but Vodafone would be an obvious choice for Apple. Watch this space for an announcement soon!

Source: Reuters

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