As soon as the WWDC ended, eBay was flooded, and everyone I knew started planning on how to sell the “old” iPhone to earn money for the “newly priced” Jesus phone. Unfortunately, the 1st iPhone design is already viewed as futile. The fact is, anyone who has an unlocked/jailbroken iPhone should cherish their iPhone like a treasure.

The recent announcement for the July release was very expected, but also very exciting. Although, there is a ton of things to consider when it comes to the new 3G IPhone, Especially for people without AT&T service (which is most of us):

The Contract

- You CANNOT buy the iPhone without signing your life away for 2 years with AT&T. This has changed drastically since the first release. So to acquire that shiny new black or white iPhone get ready to have the crappiest service known to man.

- Signing the contract does not necessarily mean you will get it at the $199 price tag. You will have to qualify for the special price, so if you have crappy credit, get ready to spend a stupid amount of money for the upgrade.

- No go-Phone purchase… AT&T and Apple have surely done their homework on how to keep people from staying away from the AT&T chains.

The Phone

- Lets face it, the newest design has 0% change in the phones interface and workability. No upgraded camera, buttons….nothing except for the headphone jack.

- It might not even be worth the $200 price tag. Using the plastic backing makes it look fresh, new and Apple-like, but its merely a way to make phones on the CHEAP. It probably cost less than $100 to make each new iPhone.

Overall it is going to be an amazing device, with 3G and new color, but to me this does not kick out the prior iPhone model, but will actually make the PRICELESS! Think about it. There will not be unlocked 3G iPhones in the wild for quite a while (with new purchase procedures), and even with that, do you think these cats that acquire the phone and unlock it are going to sell it for $199?  The design is now out of production. This alone makes your matte aluminum backed iPhone that much better. Oh and you can use your “old” iPhone with ANY GSM service these days. The software, storage, and usability will be the same as the 3G iPhone minus the 3G of course. I Guarantee the iPhone 3G will be the new Moto Razr. Every dude-bro, half-wit and their moms will have the glossy plastic AT&T-only device…. Hang on to your old iPhone non AT&T people, you wont regret it. By the way, The price of the 1st gen iPhone will are and will continue to sky rocket in value, as oppose to drop dead.

-Jake

On my daily excursion to Engadget this morning i could not have help but be intrigued at some findings on this weeks WWDC keynote. What was it? Screen shots of what looked to be a front-mounted camera on a demo 3G iPhone. I watched this video over and over and it was quite exciting to think of the possibility. Then I glanced at my iPhone. I noticed that i have the same “camera!” This being a clumsy mistake on putting on my screen protector. Photos are blurry but you can get the idea.

note: I have privacy film with my iSkin Revo, so there are just top and bottom pieces on the phone, thats why it looks like crap.

-Jake

My iPhone

Phil Schiller’s iPhone @ WWDC

There were a bunch of cool things announced in San Francisco today for the new iPhone:

-awesome SDK stuff including PUSH service for things like IM, gaming, the APP Store

-GPS

-Enterprise Support

-MobileME

Surely I do not need to get into any information about the acutal 3G iPhone that was released today. There are a ton of Blog posts about that. So we need to analyze a couple of things that took away from the excitement of the WWDC 2008. It pretty much boils down to one thing. iPhone software 2.0.

Lets take a look at what the new “features of this will be”

- Contact Search - this should have been implemented from day one

- iWork and Microsoft Office Doc support- This is a plus

- Bulk Delete mail, and save attachments- finally, overall good

- Scientific Calculator- Who cares

- Parental controls - If you are a parent in need of Parental controls, your kid probably does not deserve an iPhone.

-NEW LANGUAGES!!- OH MY GOSH, WHO GIVES A CRAP!

Free for iPhone users/ $9.99 for Touch users

I think the only we were really looking for was AppStore and GPS, but what about the others!? Here is what we expected and didn’t see with Firmware 2.0 and 3G iPhone:

-iChat (will probably show up later)

-VIDEO SUPPORT

-improved camera/front mounted camera/flash

-landscape text

-improved storage

-MMS

-COPY/PASTE

The list goes on and on. If I saw at least MMS, I would be a bit happier but at the moment I am a bit steamed. The new iPhone is gorgeous, which i hope to get in white, but new features will not have me going the extra mile to get it.

-Jake

Click for live coverage with Gizmodo 06/09/08

10am PST / 1pm EST

A good day for all.

-Jake

(New 3G iPhone Dimensions)

The first question I get asked when i comes to the new iPhone is: “are you going to get it right away or wait it out to see if its worth it?”  We all know the newly hyped iPhone will not come cheap, and jumping into the new wave of Apple’s iPhone is something in which I have to personally think about, long and hard (thats what she said). Not because I don’t think its going to be amazing, but because I’m just not rich and cant be spending money on technology the way I would like to.

(normal iPhone dimensions)

New photos were discovered today by way of MacRumors.com of a prototype of a rubberized skin, Made by XSKN, for the new 3G iPhone. Now the only reason i can get remotely excited for this is because before the iPhone came out, over a year ago, the same thing happened. I believe Macally or iSkin released photos of their prototype, with dimensions, and it was 99% accurate. This new “leak” gives the iPhone a Blackberry-like ‘girth’ to it with a rounded back. I am quite positive the screen will be a bit bigger, and not like the original “1st Gen” shown in the photo. One of the only things that intrigues me very much is that the camera on the rear seems to be much bigger (hinting at a higher quality shot), thus leading to the much needed Video capability. Also, looking at the front, it seems as though there is space left on the front for non other than a Front-mounted VGA camera, possibly incorporating, video in a newly released iChat application? I’m just throwing it out there.

Via MacRumors

-Jake

UPDATE: The site currently holding the 3G iPhone case is down. Maybe they f-ed up

The day is nearing when the new iPhone will be announced! Most likely June 9th during the Apples WWDC. Although what do we have to look forward to? There had been a lot of talk and speculation ever since the SDK was released so, Lets explore that shall we?

First off, we can obviously check off 3G support because that has already been confirmed. Surprisingly enough not only is the public ready for it, but so is T-Mobile!! Kind of strange how they just so happen to roll out 3G when we are among word of the hi-speed iPhone. Coincidence? Probably, but after speaking with a T-Mobile rep (fixing up some internet issues) it seems the iPhone is an everyday set-up for them. T-Mobile knows a lot of their service is supporting the AT&T exclusive device so why not take it up a notch with 3G. To also clear up any speculation about T-Mobile’s 3G, it was stated by blogs that it will be voice support only, when in fact T-Mobile’s press release leaves open the possibility of voice and data service.

Everything from here on out people can only guess and use their sources to their capacity. Kevin Rose had made a prediction a while back saying there will be 3G, ichat, video support, and front mounted video for video chat. With the recent unveiling of Video Recorder, 3rd part app that gives your iphone video capability, it makes the possibility seem more likely. The reason i think it may NOT happen is because I feel there i not going to be a major change in hardware. It’s just like a Blackberry. They do not add all of those extras, and in doing so sales hardly suffer. Plus with confirmation of the new $199 price tag, i doubt you will get a whole bunch more than the 1st generation iPhone.

This leads to the re-design of the iPhone. There was a whole bunch of rumors that the Phone would turn out to be an all BLACK design, which was supported with photos. This turned out to e some 3rd party Japanese housing you can buy online. Then Gizmodo gives us a story, from iLounge, which details specs for the “new” iPhone from peripheral manufacturers. These new specs show a new sensor arrangement, which could bring us back to the possibility of a front mounted camera, and a whole new color scheme (White, Red, or Black). This is probably the most influential source of material i have received thus far.

The fact of the matter is, there is not any one person that knows more that 3G for sure. For all we know we may be seeing a completely revamped, better working iPhone that will make the first gen obsolete, or the “new and improved” iPhone will pretty much be the same, saving all of us early adopters the time of putting them on eBay to upgrade.

Photos via Gizmodo and Engadget.

-Jake

I believe many many people can agree, that the Apple iPhone is a developmental achievement within itself. It was a first in so many aspects, and from day one there are people who are 100% devoted to the magnificent device, including myself. Lately, it seems like it’s just not enough though. First off, I already get mad taking care of the $500 (early adopter) piece of awesomeness because no matter hoe careful you are, you cannot win, and it will get scratched and dented. Second, is the software.

Now I have had every kind of smartphone known to man. Lately I feel Nokia may be coming around the corner, with their “iPhone Killer” using their s60 Touch Interface. It is already bad enough that i am thinking of getting a Nokia N95, because really..what CAN’T you do with it, but now Nokia will bring the delight of all touch interface with their ever so popular OS. With this, it is confirmed that the new Nokia, along with existing Nokias (N95) support, flash embedded video, any third part chat app, wi-fi, divx support… etc. just those reasons alone make me want to throw my iPhone back at Steve Jobs, while telling him to get out of the 1-OS mentality and embrace open source and 3rd party support!

Well all i know is there have been a lot of advertised “iPhone Killers” all have come and gone, and none have succeeded. Why? because it is amazing. But like most things, the hype cannot last forever. One of two things will happen within this year: Either Apple is going to completely wow us and give any tech junkie what they want with iPhone 2.0, leaving the iPhone at #1. Or Nokia is going to slap Apple across its face, tell them to shut up, and make sure their next-gen smartphones leave em in the dust…which is quite possible.

s60 Touch Interface in action below

-Jake

When i saw this video on TUAW, the mere hope for the existence of gamig on an iPhone/iPod touch was suddenly resurrected from grave in which it was buried after seeing ZERO development for this. The closest that I have seen to a first person shooter on these devices worthy of mentioning is Yeti3D, released not too long ago, via installer app. But even with the advancement of Yeti3d’s workflow, I felt there is still lots and lots of work that needs to be done before we can really start “gaming” on our iPhones. As you can see in this video, we are not only now dealing with a FPS in portable format, but a named FPS, Quake 3. Now if you think it cannot get any better than that the video (below) shows the ever so awesome quake playing in full, graphics, no lag, and 100% multiplayer!!! This LAN demo will show the realtime fragging from one iPod to the next. This is nothing short of amazing, and what tops it off is the fact is the controls are all accelerometer based! People are going to say that this video may be fake, but this would have to be a 100% sync, which i don’t think is possible. Look out for news about this, and hopefully a revolution will begin shortly…

-Jake
via TUAW

There has been quite a bit of controversy in the last couple of days dealing with everybodys favorite iPhone-Dev Team. If you recall the stories from before they were the FIRST to successfully do a full hack of Apples upcoming 2.0 firmware for the iPhone. The eidence was proven with some great youtube videos demonstrating their claim to fame. However, yesterday they said they WILL release the Pwnage hack software today for the community. In an interesting turn of events the release was delayed due to some “legal” disruptions. At the end of the workday today their site has only a white page with the following text (via a png file pasted to the main page):

My money says that is it an April Fools joke and the site will be up on the 2nd with the most anticipated Pwange hack.

see video of pwnage in action after the jump

via iphone-dev.org

-Jake

Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a simple yet exciting story off the press. BGR (The Boy Genius Report), who is rarely misleading states that, the new iphone firmware 2.0 will embed youtube flash video straight from youtube.com via Safari. The native youtube app is already quite convenient, and with tools like MxTube it it already unnecessary. However this is great news for embedded video support on the iPhone thus taking on step closer to perfection.

via gizmodo

-Jake