iPhone Upgraded Already

Chardee MacDennis

poseted this over at on the Mac forum but thought it mught be of interest here.

www.tuaw.com wrote:

Talk about last minute upgrades: In a press release today, Apple has revealed a number of significant upgrades to both the iPhone's battery life and touch screen. Instead of what I believe was around 5 hours of video/talk and 16 hours of audio playback, Apple has updated the iPhone's battery life rating to the following numbers: up to 8 hours talk time, a whopping 250 hours of standby (over 10 days), 6 hours of internet use, 7 hours of video playback and 24 hours of audio playback. Of course, just like any other mobile phone, these numbers can vary depending on various factors like intermittent use and network configuration (whether features like Wi-Fi or the speakerphone are enabled, etc.).

In addition, Apple has changed the spec of the original 3.5" plastic surface of the iPhone to "optical-quality" glass, which should bring some smiles to those who were concerned about the durability of the phone's primary feature and user interface.

This is quite the update to drop on anxious customers less than two weeks from launch. I can only wonder what other tricks and unknown or upgraded features (PUSH email? HSPDA instead of EDGE?) Apple could be waiting to announce.

Update: Interestingly, this latest press release also mentions the iPhone's pricing - again at $499 and $599 for 4GB and 8GB, respectively - but makes no mention of contracts being involved with those prices. Since Apple dropped the "2-year activation required" language from their ads after originally airing them, this might offer more hope to those who aren't able to renew a contract just yet to get the discounts.

A Random Walk

Oddly enough despite what that comparison says my N95 has Wifi, full Internet Access, excellent video capabilities and transforms itself into an MP3 player. Maybe mine is special or are the special Apple blinkers being brought into play?

godskitchen

24Hrs of audio playback? Sounds impressive but not too sure if i believe it, maybe its possible if you just leave it sitting there playing non stop..............I would prefer real world timings. This is not just something Apple are guilty of though.

Still this thing will sell like hot cakes, it doesnt matter that the touch screen will be crap (IMO) most people looking to get this phone wont care that it takes 20 minutes to send a text..............they will rave about it and think anyone using a tactile keypad is living in the stone age.

And as for full internet.......................great when you are in a WiFi hotspot, this thing is two years behind at least, no 3G is a crime.

Chardee MacDennis

no apple blinkers, tables are from Gizmodo. all apple have released is the press release.

god's toy

I sure as hell won't be getting one...

Akula

Full internet could be ok on a network like meteor using edge on their 10 gig plan.... could also make for a reasonable tethered modem.... or perhaps o2 will come out with something decent.

copacetic

Call_me_al wrote:

no apple blinkers, tables are from Gizmodo. all apple have released is the press release.

afraid it is apple blinkers, the table is direct from apple and they have already released a corrected version with n95 wifi feature noted.
besides wifi is nowhere near as important as 3G which the iphone is missing for the moment. It should be the feature with big flashing lights beside it saying the iphone doesn't have it. Which it would be if that wasn't an apple marketing table.

godtabh

Can you see any of the Irish networks picking this up? Its gona be so expensive it would be out of rach for the pay as go market.

I think I'd like to get though

Chardee MacDennis

copacetic wrote:

afraid it is apple blinkers, the table is direct from apple and they have already released a corrected version with n95 wifi feature noted.
besides wifi is nowhere near as important as 3G which the iphone is missing for the moment. It should be the feature with big flashing lights beside it saying the iphone doesn't have it. Which it would be if that wasn't an apple marketing table.

sorry didnt see that!

kearnsr wrote:

Can you see any of the Irish networks picking this up? Its gona be so expensive it would be out of rach for the pay as go market.

I think I'd like to get though

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/06/15/apple_struggling_to_reach_iphone_deal_with_european_carriers.html

doesnt look good for Europe - talk that it will be sold sim free - only feature we would lose would be the video voicemail which i dont personally care about.

mkennedy

specswise the iphone looks a little bit dated at this stage tbh.
I like the 4-8gb storage capacity though.

I suspect limited 3rd party app compatability- although that may change eventually.
probably won't matter too much to regular consumers who aren't interested in customization I suppose.

btw about its celebrated touchscreen- how does it differ from traditional pda/pda-phone touchscreens? it's touted as innovative - what can one do with it that makes it innovative? (not a rhetorical question btw, I'd really like to know).

Tree

i think the touch screen will be based on the same tech as the buttons onthe front of hte lg chocolate (which are hideous to use)

JNive

also i am not entirely sure, but i think it does not have a flash viewer and has a special deal with youtube to only play its flash files, in addition to not having java support due to their insistance that java is old technology.

Now i might be thinking of another apple product, not sure

JNive

also i am not entirely sure, but i think it does not have a flash viewer and has a special deal with youtube to only play its flash files, in addition to not having java support due to their insistance that java is old technology.

Now i might be thinking of another apple product, not sure

Chardee MacDennis

youtube are moving away from flash for the apple tv and the iphone. afaik. no 3rd party apps at the moment the 'sdk' is webkit with Safari - which is why safari was released on windows. so its just really ajax websites at the moment. this may change though.

check ouy www.apple.com/iphone to see what the fuss is about with the touchscreen - something like the Micrososft Surface touchscreen.

quintron

<< aside >>
You Tube have finally gone mobile with .3GP clips available for viewing on phone. m.youtube.com
make sure you have a good data package.... :-)

Mitch Connor

think i'll be looking at the N82 from Nokia, or either the W960 or K850i from Sony, as opposed to the iPhone.

dulpit

I would think that this 1st version of the iphoene will quite possibly look the business but be lacking in features/reliability etc. While it does look cool and all, i'd hang on until a second generation version comes out, probably with better features etc. (that is provided of course that Apple listen to their customers...)

GUIGuy

Funnily enough 3G stores have the iPhone in their brochure under the coming soon section. Of course I asked... but they admitted that they hadn't a clue if or when or who would carry it.

flogen

Glad to see they've taken the screen-material into consideration as the soft plastic used on iPods gets bad scuffs from as little as a skew-eyed stare... not sure how much better the glass will be though, or how brittle it'll be (especially when you consider it covers the entire device and isn't just a small section of it, surrounded by more durable material)

JNive

i also heard that the iPhone wont have any sms or mms, cause according to jobs, similar to java, sure nobody uses those anymore, only email. lol

Chardee MacDennis

it does have sms - no mms though.

art

That extra battery life is a very significant improvement - makes me more interested though, as an earlier poster said, I'd still be inclined to wait for the second generation phone which will mostly likely offer even more significant improvements. Still, it's a very nice device, very much a sort of "treat" buy, and coming out just before Christmas I imagine it will sell voraciously.

JNive

when the built-in battery starts wearing out also, what is the process for getting a new one put in. Does it rule out your ability to bring a second battery for ultimate mobility ? Once the capacity shortens like normal batteries, do you need to ship it off to apple to get it replaced etc, or do you need to buy a new iPhone lol

anyways, its going to be very interesting to see how it goes in the US, as the LG Prada is due out here pretty soon after :-)

Chardee MacDennis

battery will not be swapable similar to ipod

more details about euro launch - looks like it wont be picked up by a network but will be sol sim free and un subsidised

http://uk.gizmodo.com/2007/01/15/apple_iphone_to_cost_595660_1.html

JNive

yup, just as i thought lol, which is why i hate apple hardware :-) amonsgst other reasons

Solair

the European version (and the Japanese and other Far Eastern Versions) will have to have 3G, if not 3.5G (HSPDA 'mobile broadband'). Launching a smart phone without it in Europe or Japan at this stage would be unacceptable to any of the network operators.


EDGE is used in the states in a big way because of their relatively retarded rollout of 3G/3.5G due to an FCC mess up with frequency allocations (again!)
Initially, the FCC tried to force 3G services to share the 1900mhz band with 2G/2.75G GSM and CDMA!!

From Wiki:
The specific frequency bands originally defined by the UMTS '3GSM' standard are 1885-2025 MHz for uplink and 2110-2200 MHz for downlink. In the US, the 1700 MHz band will be used instead of 1900 MHz - which is already in use - for the uplink by many UMTS operators. Additionally, UMTS is commonly run on 850 MHz and 1900 MHz (independently, for both the uplink and downlink) in some countries, notably in the US by Cingular Wireless.


Basically : DO NOT buy a 3G phone in the US and expect it to work here Nor, would I suggest buying a 3G iPhone in Europe and trying to use it in the USA/Canada.

Chardee MacDennis

according to article i posted above it will have 3g potentially UMTS.

rinnin

dont forget that the iPhone has OS X and the FULL version of Safari web browser so whatever works on Safari will be able to run on your iPhone.

JNive wrote:

also i am not entirely sure, but i think it does not have a flash viewer and has a special deal with youtube to only play its flash files, in addition to not having java support due to their insistance that java is old technology.

Now i might be thinking of another apple product, not sure

Chardee MacDennis

rinnin wrote:

dont forget that the iPhone has OS X and the FULL version of Safari web browser so whatever works on Safari will be able to run on your iPhone.

rinnin it doesnt support Java but does JavaScript and Flash hasnt been confirmed yet - the question was apparently dodged during the WWDC Keynote.

Vidoes on youtube will be h.264

JNive

it runs on a mobile-based version of OSX, not same as a fll desktop, same with the safari browser, a phone is an embedded/portable device remember.

Also as mentioned, no java, no 3rd party apps at all ( only safari plugins etc ), no MMS, likely to have no flash viewer ( outside of specific deals with sites like youtube ), no 3G or HSPDA ( not counting the speculation on future european version, cause by then we will be in 7.2mbps territory ), non-removable battery.

I mean how much more restrictive can you make a device lol, and if the exact same phone was made by Alcatel or Sagem, i dont think people would be so eager to get it, even if the specs were identical