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SHIFT: iPhone 2.0 — everything you need to know
My friend Seiji compared his initial reaction to his iPhone to having a new girlfriend — he couldn't keep his hands off of it. But in the first flush of any rose-colored relationship, we tend to overlook our paramour's flaws. He snorts when he laughs. She doesn't get Monty Python. He won't let you tie him up. As time scrubs the blush off the rose, these flaws magnify. In the case of a human relationship, you have three choices: accept your partner for all his (or her) flaws, dump him, or try to convince him you'll immediately cease whipping upon hearing the safe word.
Fortunately, in the tech world, there's a fourth choice: upgrade. In the case of the iPhone, all evidence points to that choice becoming a reality soon. The new, spiffy iPhone is sure to offer plenty of new features to make you fall in love all over again. To find out what kind of sexy curves iPhone 2.0 will throw at us, follow the Continue link.
Before we get to the what, here's the when. Steve Jobs will address a sold out Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, June 9, at 10 a.m., at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, focusing on the next generations of the Mac Leopard OS (v10.5.3) and the iPhone software 2.0. Expect Jobs to then reveal the 3G iPhone.
AT&T sent a memo to its employees denying vacations between June 15 and July 12 to enable full staffing for an "exciting Summer Promotional Launch." AT&T employees got a similar memo last year prior to the original launch on the last Friday in June, the 29th. The last Friday in June this year is the 27th, so…
But, there have been reports that the 3G iPhone would be available in Spain on June 18. It's hard to believe Spanish consumers will get the 3G iPhone before the U.S., so perhaps 3G Day will be even sooner.
Next, we get iPhone software 2.0. Other cellphones enable some third-party application downloads, but none will compare to the flood of inventive applications being cooked up even as we blog. Once downloaded, you'll be able to add a direct access icon on iPhone's home screen. We could see hundreds of third party apps by Christmas, all vetted by Apple and all listed on and accessible from Apple's Web site (as opposed to the unofficial stuff for hacked iPhones that's been circulating since last summer).
- Switchable 3G: That fast Net connection will most certainly tax the new iPhone's battery. To save watts, a settings toggle will enable you to turn off 3G access,
a feature we've never seen in any 3G phone from any carrier(OK, there have been enough comments correcting us on this that we give in completely — the feature clearly exists on certain cellphones, ones we sadly have never had an opportunity to play with). - Thinner, Lighter: iPhone 2.0 will chuck its sturdy aluminum-magnesium shell for a lighter plastic enclosure. This will reduce iPhone's heft by as much as two ounces from its current 4.8-ounce weight. The new enclosure could further flatten the new iPhone by 2.5mm. Lighter is good, but plastic could make the iPhone feel cheap and more breakable.
- HSPA iTunes Downloads: Apple is talking to major labels about allowing consumers to download tracks using the AT&T network rather than limiting iTunes access to Wi-Fi, but the labels want more money per track.
- Real GPS: This would supplement the network-assisted location software iPhone currently uses. This would allow third-party development of voice-assisted turn-by-turn directions.
- Normal, Non-recessed Headphone Jack: 'Nuff said.
- Contact Search, iCal Invite Folder: Both of these will be part of improvements in iPhone's Address Book and iCal compatibility.
- Background Application Support: Third-party apps will run in the background, although it's hard to say how this will manifest itself since we don't know what cool apps may be coming.
- Web Image Save: You'll be able to save Web images from Safari to iPhone's photo album.
My time and space, however, are up for this month. I leave it to you to answer that question. The comment field awaits below.
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By GUNTIS at 7:08 PM ON 05/22/08
"To save watts, a settings toggle will enable you to turn off 3G access, a feature we've never seen in any 3G phone from any carrier."
Actually it is on my Nokia E60, in Network settings. I can turn on and off 3G.
By Complete Prat at 7:23 PM ON 05/22/08
Switichable 3G is also on the Nokia N73's. So i think that Nokia has already seen the benifit in that feature!
By flier at 7:33 PM ON 05/22/08
it's been there since 3g exists... more sad proof that few get the real phones.. mr wolpin, you're excited about the new device because you're never had a good phone before, I tell you. but the iphone is stuffed down your throat by the best bull***t department in the world, Apple's, which is second only to religion. Cheers.
By Chris at 8:29 PM ON 05/22/08
"settings toggle will enable you to turn off 3G access, a feature we've *never* seen in any 3G phone from any carrier."
Then you haven't been looking hard at all. Some of the higher-end Nokia models allow this, and on the budget side, the Helio Ocean (which I own) most certainly allows this.
By sachin at 12:34 AM ON 05/23/08
good collection of facts.
By Fishbate at 5:17 AM ON 05/23/08
About 3G switching:
Every phone from 2007 and a lot of them from late 2006 have this option! You can switch it very easy.
It is sad for a big company like Apple to write something and not check the competition if it is true or not...
By Dan at 5:22 AM ON 05/23/08
My Sony-Ericsson k770i is 3G switchable too.
By website design at 12:17 PM ON 05/23/08
By pbarbier at 12:18 PM ON 05/23/08
On the "Why", two words: User Experience.
By Jared Richardson at 12:18 PM ON 05/23/08
"settings toggle will enable you to turn off 3G access, a feature we've *never* seen in any 3G phone from any carrier."
What? I used to do that with my BlackJack all the time. It's not unique or new.
You should probably hit Google or Yahoo and search for features before claiming they don't exist. ;)
By johan_vm at 12:21 PM ON 05/23/08
Ok, I think the "3G switching" point has been made :-)
By lolwut at 12:23 PM ON 05/23/08
"It is sad for a big company like Apple to write something and not check the competition if it is true or not..."
Apple didn't write anything here, this is some guy's website. Unless it's at apple.com or from an official Apple announcement (also posted on apple.com) it ISN'T from Apple.
By 4rp4n3t at 12:27 PM ON 05/23/08
On the "Why", two *different* words: Mac Fanboi
By minime at 12:33 PM ON 05/23/08
Will it soport adobe Flash web sites?
By Gimmeslack12 at 12:33 PM ON 05/23/08
All of the iPhone knock-offs suck.
By JoeyN at 12:34 PM ON 05/23/08
What about video conferencing? That would be unreal.
By Concept Cars at 12:43 PM ON 05/23/08
great phone for mac users to adopt win area , but flash not seen in it. ?
By ghost at 12:51 PM ON 05/23/08
yes, but will this iphone be offered in Canada?
By Dumb at 12:52 PM ON 05/23/08
Why? Beautiful User Experience. Super easy to use. Quality built product.
I've had other "high end" phones. They all stink. It takes too many steps to complete even the simplest task on them. The iPhone is a dream come true.
As for Flash support? Who cares. Flash is NOT good web design. The only thing Flash is used for anymore are those annoying freakin' ADS! Even if they supported it, I wouldn't install it. I have FlashBlock installed on my browser and constantly have to block whole domains at a time to avoid irritating ADS distracting the page I'm trying to read!
By wholeMap at 12:52 PM ON 05/23/08
What about a camera upgrade? If this version doesn't have 5MP then when will it appear? Late 2009 or early 2010 seems a long time from now.
By Jon at 1:02 PM ON 05/23/08
I can switch off 3g in my Samsung Blackjack
By Adim at 1:02 PM ON 05/23/08
I think Apple explicitly said they are not going to let 3rd party apps run in the background due to power management issues.
By antidumb at 1:06 PM ON 05/23/08
@dumb: the only thing flash is used for is ads? You must really be dumb.
And possibly the only person who hasn't noticed the flash based media players on practically every single video website.
By thissucks at 1:14 PM ON 05/23/08
this article is sh*t
By ijmok at 1:24 PM ON 05/23/08
i can turn 3g off on my k800i
think it requires a reboot though.
By Mr B at 1:33 PM ON 05/23/08
You can turn off 3g on the Nokia N73. It does require you to restart the phone though.
By Brian at 1:34 PM ON 05/23/08
How about decent video recording? it makes sense that they'd throw it in with the new 3g model instead of the one that uses edge since the new network will be able to handle transferring that data.
By 8925 at 2:26 PM ON 05/23/08
My ATT Tilt can turn 3G off and on :)
Granted, it is running a custom cooked ROM
By dogeye at 2:36 PM ON 05/23/08
The 3G iPhone is here for sure! A customs search engine detected a huge spike in shipments of a new product by Apple:
http://digg.com/apple/Customs_Data_Suggests_New_3G_iPhones_Have_Arrived
By hotdamn at 2:48 PM ON 05/23/08
According to part of the developers kit applications are not supposed to run in the background as it puts a constraint on both battery life and processing power. Instead, the applications are supposed to save at the point of quit and then resume when the app is relaunched.
By VW at 3:45 PM ON 05/23/08
I hope that the next version (not the up coming one) will have a OLED screen which is a million times better and uses way less energy so longer battery life
By Malacandra at 3:47 PM ON 05/23/08
I'd love to see voice dialing in the new unit. I got spoiled by good voice dialing on Motorola phones years ago, and have been missing it acutely for the past year on my Helio. This summer a new law goes into effect in California that requires that use of cell phones while driving be "hands free", which would especially add to the utility of voice dialing.
By Reader at 5:12 PM ON 05/23/08
"phgone", fix your spelling.
By dave.ixd at 2:46 AM ON 05/24/08
my killer iphone app; #1 on my list of needs/wants/prayers? ... clipboard. I'd just kill for copy/cut/past. PPPPPLEASE!!!!!
As for why ... the iPhone has all the yuck of every phone I've ever owned, but 10x's the pleasure. So it has baggage like my ex-girlfriend, but DAMN! ... I'll let you fill in the rest of the metaphor.
By mira at 2:54 AM ON 05/24/08
SonyEricsson K610i can to switch between GSM and 3G easily, and that phone has been around for a couple of years.
By Beaupedia at 4:26 AM ON 05/24/08
Thought I'd chime in even though it's been mentioned. The Helio Ocean does allow you to switch between 1X and 3G, allowing you to conserve battery life.
By Njick at 6:59 AM ON 05/24/08
Yep, all SonyEricsson 3G i'v had, strating fro the K750i offered to toggle 3G on/off.
By andz at 7:09 AM ON 05/24/08
"turn off 3G access, a feature we've never seen in any 3G phone"
These are strong comments without basis, you ought to get your facts right.
I own iphone and a couple of windows mobile based phones and they have comm manager to turn off data connectivity or 3G. you can even have scripts to toggle them directly from the today screen.
By stelt at 9:12 AM ON 05/24/08
It's just a SVG animal in your pocket, thanks to the recent WebKit developments. See http://svg.startpagina.nl for more SVG
By tleed at 9:51 AM ON 05/24/08
The one thing I must know: will it run on Verizon's network? I haven't seen anything yet about dual-band capabilities.
By Martin_Australia at 7:46 PM ON 05/24/08
Why bother with iPhone 2.0? The new HTC Diamond has it all and is a much better phone - http://www.youtube.com/htc
I have owned a HTC Touch Dual for the past 10 months with 3.5G, HPDSA Internet access, push email, removable battery and much more. iPhone has had 2G, no push email, no removable battery and more = DUD!
By AaronJ at 2:23 AM ON 05/25/08
The HTC Diamond looks great but there is one problem.... it runs windows mobile. That is my problem with almost all smartphones and PDAs other than the iPhone. I also think thats a very simple reason that people love the iphone.... because it is NOT windows. I have a Samsung blackjack and ive used a number of other windows mobile devices. whether its WM5 WM6 or even WM7 it blows and i wont use it ever again once i have an iphone to use.
By tikoti at 3:37 PM ON 05/25/08
I can turn off the 3G connection, on my Treo 750, by simply tapping the 3G icon on my home screen. It then gives you the option to disconnect or to connect.
By Pepmaster at 2:40 AM ON 05/28/08
"a feature we've never seen in any 3G phone from any carrier" ...it's been said once, but i'll say it again...POINT MADE!!! moving on, i think that the reason why the iphone has been so successful is because it's literally the first of its class...all the other makers have been trying to imitate/duplicate what the iphone is...that's really not going to get you anywhere why go with an imitation when you can have the real thing...also, yes, the iphone is missing many features but i'm sure that over time they will upgrade the device and give it all it needs to be considered the "perfect device"...the iphone being the foundation and key element of the "perfect device" will have such a tremondous leap above the competition that keeping up much less being able to surpass this device, will be almsot impossible...
p.s. i'm a PC user...i've never owned a mac and probably never will but i do have to give credit where credit is due...and the iphone is an amazing device...take it for what it's worth.
By mbdc at 3:30 PM ON 05/28/08
Really?.. Your phones can switch between 3G..WOW that's absolutely fascinating. Could more people posts on here about 3g switching. YAWWWWWWN!!!!
By Rassah at 5:15 PM ON 05/28/08
Will one of the new features be copy/paste? I can't use the iPhone and pretty much am stuck wit Windows Mobile becase I depend on business apps, such as e-mail, spreadsheet, and word processing. I haven't been able to do that with the current version of the iPhone.
By cspills at 9:31 AM ON 06/04/08
another awesome thing about the iphone is the webapps...i love the AP's mobile news network. Download it on ur phone at apnews.com
By Rocco Fanucci at 11:59 AM ON 06/07/08
I still think it will have mobile TV reception, especially A-VSB in the U.S. Don't be surprised if you see DVB-H, DVB-T or DVB-SH reception, or that DMB stuff they got in Korea.
By kensta at 12:02 PM ON 06/09/08
Apple announced iphone, apple, iphone 2, iphone 3g, new iphone complete features visit here
http://iphone2-apple.blogspot.com
By marcos silveira at 10:39 PM ON 10/01/08
i need buy iphone 16gb
By wayne at 1:32 PM ON 11/05/09
I would get one if it wasn't with AT&T they are the worse carriers out there and so pricy. Everyone I know with AT&T can't stand them. If I could use T-mobile I'd buy two of them.
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