The second-gen iPhone: 3G, GPS, only slightly thicker
By Ryan Block 
posted April 25th 2008 3:26PM
posted April 25th 2008 3:26PM
So we've got it on authority that the second-gen iPhone is already well into testing, and numerous units are floating around in super secret pockets. A trusted source got a chance to check one out, here's what we've heard.
- The first thing people will notice: the 2nd gen iPhone will be about the same size and shape as the first gen.
- It will, of course, have 3G. And proper GPS!
- The most noticeable physical difference is back of the phone is no longer metal -- the whole thing is glossy black, from top to bottom. The volume buttons are now chrome.
- Because it's got a little less metal to deal with, it doesn't have quite as many angular edges. The battery is (still) not removable.
- The phone itself will be slightly thicker than the first gen device.
- The headphone jack will no longer be recessed, and will finally be flush with the body.
- The device itself uses roughly the same size and resolution screen as the first generation product.
- No solid word on battery life or storage capacity.
P.S. -Image via iPod Observer, MacRumors points out it's probably just a case (which we'd likely agree with); we're not by any means claiming the image above is the new iPhone, just an example of what it could look like given the info we received.
CDMA? why would they? the rest of the world uses GSM.. Its way more functional, easier to travel with (you dont get nailed with roaming charges since you can just swap out your chip for a local one for about $15 which generally includes $15 worth of calling credit when you purchase it. CDMA restricts you to CDMA carriers, which are few and far between, and virtually nonexistent off the North American Continent. Then again for those that refuse to leave the borders, CDMA may be fine for you.. However sales of GSM unit phones far outpace any CDMA or TDMA devices.
Spelt = a type of grain
spelled = spelled
dumbfucks
Ben = Grammar Police = Asshole
Do you still think we are likely to see GPS in the next iphone still?
After seeing this..maybe its not going to be included which will be a shame....
What do you think guys?
Still likely to have a GPS module?
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=488094
Im just wondering. im wanting to buy an Iphone 16gb. I have ablackberry curve. Im getting anxious about buying this that I dontknow if I want to wait until the new 3gphone comes out or just getthe other. Whats really the difference other than the look and GPS. Ialready have GPS. I'm wanting others opinion. If Im correct in saying,My Curver is able to be 3g but I dont have that type of service whereI live, so wouldnt this defeat the purpose of the new phone. Please advise
Im just wondering. im wanting to buy an Iphone 16gb. I haveablackberry curve. Im getting anxious about buying this that Idontknow if I want to wait until the new 3gphone comes out or justgetthe other. Whats really the difference other than the look andGPS. Ialready have GPS. I'm wanting others opinion. If Im correct insaying,My Curver is able to be 3g but I dont have that type ofservice whereI live, so wouldnt this defeat the purpose of the newphone. Please advise
Just to be aware, any iPhones now or for the next 4 years will NOT be CDMA compatible for SPRINT or VERIZON! Apple & AT&T have a bidning contract of 5 years with each other to not realease it to any other carrier. Sorry to burst you bubble but don't misunderstand WCDMA for CDMA, there are HUGE differences between the two. Mainly the fact that WCDMA is 4G and CDMA is still on 3G and the other fact that WCDMA is supported currently only in Japan and Korea. So that means supposedly Japanese and Korean markets will be able to use the phone in their countries.
Also just to let you know, even though AT&T may not be quite as good as Verizon in coverage, but they are close and a recent report states that we have the BEST 3G data coverage in the country, AT&T will have both the fastest upload and download data speeds in the country, even over Verizon. AT&T will be the ONLY carrier that will support both HSDPA and HSUPA. Obviously one is for uploads and one for downloads. No other carrier supports both at this time. I worked for Verizon and now AT&T so I know the differences from the inside of both companies and I can tell you the honest truth about both.
Oops I meant binding on the last post, sorry I was typing in a rush. Also just to let you know that most likely even if GPS is included in the new iPhone, the chances are great that it will be a paid feature just like ALL the other GPS capable phones on AT&T. The current price for GPS is $9.99 and the iPhone data plan is required to work so you won't have to worry about adding anything else extra to make it work.
The only sad part is that because the iPhone is Mac OS based, if it will support 3rd party GPS software like Garmin, TomTom, etc like any Window Mobile phones. That is a great way to get free GPS but the software is a few hundred dollars or so, so it's a tradeoff depending on your finacial situation.
I know youre skeptical over whether or not thats the new iphone, but it doesnt look like a case. It has the iphone storage capacity and what looks to be serial numbers on the back.
The back cover mod here: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/bye_o-silver/turn-iphones-back-all+black-with-back-cover-replacement-kit-280416.php looks similar to that, but does not have that info on it.
So I think theres a very good chance that this really is the next iphone.
@ Ace
Thx ace... but unfourtunatly when an jackass fanboy sits down on something, you can beat the jackass to death... but they're still a jackass fanboy bent on what they have made their minds up on.
as far as the iphone is concerned... sorry but i do enjoy those pictures of my girlfriends ta tas she sends me, and since her phone is not e-mail capable... im stuck with palm...lol
I see people talking about various htc and other win mobile phones and how they stack up against the iPhone.
I'm considering buying some kind of mobile device (probably not an iPhone, I haven't had much luck with apple stuff, and I'm not in the US) ... but...
I'm curious: what win mobile phone would people suggest that:
Has a screen size comparable to the iPhone (3.5")...3+ might satisfy me.
similar resolution (320×480 or better)
Is similarly priced
Isn't a piece of shit
I don't hate the iPhone, or even Apple specificaly. I just hate how smug and self righteous Apple users can be. This forum is a perfect example.
From what I've seen, it's a two-way street. It doesn't take much to have the other side of the fence say things like Mac users are too stupid to use complex gizmos, are spend-happy tools that buy pretty useless things or something to that effect (any snarky comments regarding my previous statement would only prove my point). Some Mac users certainly are smug assholes, but some of them are only responding to the mindless vitriol of people who hate the products so much, yet [some] may even go on to say how they're so proud to have never owned any of it.
We're all on Steve's cock.
We all live in shiny white plastic houses.
We have no lives and no jobs and are hipster doofuses, despite the contradiction of being accused of being tools that like to buy lots of "overpriced" gadgets somehow.
Cor blimey, some of you don't half get angry about these mobile phones!
There's nothing wrong with getting passionate about something you like, but I've always found it's easier to get your point across when you focus on the positive things you like about your gadget of choice, rather than ragging on somebody else's tech. Don't forget, somebody has already invested time and money into this sort of thing, so when you dismiss it, you are insulting their quality of choice. I have been using Apple stuff (alongside my Windows work machines) since they got rid of OS 9 and started to make really superior products, but would drop them in an instant if somebody brought something better on the market.
That said, I have long been a user of WinMob (since the days of the first CE devices) and have to say that they have been pretty stagnant since they kicked Palm out of the game. In common with much of Microsoft output, this platform was originally designed to be used by commercial power users, wall-gardened by enterprise systems and guarded and maintained by I.T. Managers. It has been kind of 'shoehorned' into the consumer market and it shows. WM is still something I have to use by necessity, but wouldn't dream of recommending to a friend to use as a private mobile.
One of you mentioned that the iPhone is not a smartphone. That is an interesting point, because in general everyday use, it does not behave like a traditional smartphone. When the SDK update is applied, however, it is quite possible (though not yet a given) that the iPhone will bear comparison to smartphone platforms AND consumer options (Nokia, Samsung etc), something that WM is simply not capable of offering at present. I suspect that it will handle these 3rd party apps well, but there might be a few teething problems.
One of the downsides of iPhone is that you are limited to the hardware that Apple provides for you to run the OS on, with its present lack of 3G, GPS etc, but this is also a strength in that the entire system can be more easily monitored and any kinks straightened out a lot faster than WM (not very difficult).
As far as the battery goes, it would be far more useful (though not as pretty!) to have a removable cell. The web browser, music player, SMS messaging (popular here in the UK), calendar and video player are all in a completely different league to WM, I'm sorry. The contacts management leaves a lot to be desired, and the lack of 3rd party multitasking is a disappointment, but the camera, crap as it may be, is still much better than my WM equivalent. The only software I desperately miss at the moment is SlingPlayer, but I suspect that this will be released some time this year.
Funnily enough, the one thing that nearly stopped me buying the iPhone was its lack of 3G, but this is not as straightforward as it may seem. Yes 3G would be nice, but only as a comparison to the iPhone itself. By that I mean, if you do a straight comparison of browsing to a web page from the home screen of your device, the iPhone beats my Nokia 6120c (HSDPA theoretical 3.8 mbps) and my XDA Exec (3G theoretical 384 kbps) hands down on EDGE. Why? Because the OS is a lot faster and better thought out. It has loaded half the web page before the other two have even opened the browser, located the page, decided whether the area is GPRS, 3G or 3.5G and started loading. I'm not saying that I don't want 3G, but the present speeds are OK and the battery life is excellent.
If nothing else, WM users should be rooting for the iPhone because it has given the WM market a boot up the arse. Already these devices have started to improve their hardware and offer alternative front end OS to the horrible default Microsoft home screens. And WM will always be a far more tweakable platform than OSXM.
Dave, you sound like a naive Windows fanboy, and frankly, a but of a biased Anti-Apple prat from your earlier posts, with little or no justification. Face it, the iPhone is leagues ahead of any other mobile phone in the world right now. It's the truth.
Clak v. Dave - EPIC flamewar.
The glory of the iPhone/iPod Touch is that it does a lot of things marginally well and presents them in one of the most intuitive UIs possible. They've successfully applied the ease-of-use from OSX to a mobile device. It's as simple as that.
Will people still get up in arms and declare their Windows Mobile device is more powerful and robust? Sure - and in a lot of cases they'd be right.
Problem is, the iPhone is a far different device from, say, the Blackberry. Their target markets are different and the people buying either of them are never gonna see eye-to-eye.
Let's all just agree to disagree.
@Dave
"Wait, I thought you said we should be arguing about the present? Oh, that's right, not when it doesn't help with your argument."
Apple has already made these things. They are not GOING to make them, they have already made them, but now people have to wait for them to come out because Apple has to produce all these. You were saying things like "WinMo will be coming out with so and so..." I'm not trying to bash you, I'm just showing you how your argument and Clak's are different.
Personally, I think iPhone is better than WinMo. iPhone is actually user-friendly, whereas WinMo you have to get used to and know how to work it. I know because I've used both. The Treo 650 I've used, the touchscreen sucked. iPhone's was great. Although it does get annoying and tedious to type extensively on the touchscreen keyboard.
Overall, the iPhone is much easier to use and looks better. The WinMo DOES most, if not all, the things the iPhone does, but you need to know how to use it for it to work effectively. I prefer the iPhone because I don't need all the junk that either phones comes with, so I prefer the user-friendliness of the iPhone over the WinMo that strictly gets the job done when you know how to use it.
Thank God for Nokia!
FUCK YEAH!
...
Err, as in they're better than HTC and Apple.
*Puts on flame retardant suit*
I change cell phones every 90 days or so... what can I say, I'm a phone geek.
I'ved had them all, WinMo, Symb. etc. EXCEPT the iPhone as I hate Phones without buttons.
Someone gave me an iTouch (not a phone) as a gift... after several weeks, I love it! Everything works just perfect! Im now waiting for a GSM iPhone... I'll give it a try, even without buttons :)
so pretty much the same chit as before but just a little bit different..sounds like apple alright
I think that this no longer forms part of the "iphone revolution" as second versions are never as good as the first one, I mean, by impact, not that the thing is going to be worse than the first one but will not be as revolutionary as the first release and due to the raising variety of touch candies nowadays
ahhhh,
Riveting stuff. All i have to say here is that anyone who doesnt think that the iphone is the way forward is like the people 10 years ago who opted to use Motorolas and Erricsons instead of Nokia siting that they were'easier to use'. These ppl have issues and like to complicate life!
As a developer who has worked with cocoa and with Visual studio and .net . I wouldn't buy anything else than an iPhone, I really like cocoa for developing , and Apple at least has a great API design , ( in contrast to windows mobile, windows XP, Windows Vista ETC ) , so YES it's EASY for third party windows mobile developers to slow down the damn thing when they are using WIN16 instructions and OLD functions, at least apple deprecates a lot of stuff ( for real ) , and moves on in favor of us the developers.
Cheers.
@Clak and @Dave
As a WinMo developer on the earlier HTC handsets in the UK (M2000, XDA Exec etc) I used to get frustrated with trying to call/sms people with the phone managing 1 ring before cutting off so went off WinMo.
On the other hand there were some cool apps like Crazy Golf :o)
I love the look of the iPhone and now working for an Apple reseller I am looking forward to getting my free 2nd gen one soon (and no I wont tell you when).
At the moment I carry a dumb phone, with my past why I hear you ask. Well thats simple, nice shiny toys like XDA's and iPhones I tend to drop, lose, leave on the bar in the pub, get pushed in my swimming pool with them in my pocket....... oh how the list goes on.
Anyway, gonna get one soon (with insurance!!!!) and having a background of both WinMo and Apple I will give you my unbiased opinion.
Have a nice day :o)
Has it every occured to anyone that there is no "perfect" cell/smartphone? I've used Treos, Blackberrys, WinMo Phones, and I currently use an iPhone. There are things I really like about all of them but they all have their problems. I really like my iPhone, but I don't love my iPhone. I really wish it had MMS, video recording and an instant messenger program. But if the 3G iphone has all that and GPS and larger capacity, I'll get one. The virtual keyboard and EDGE really aren't that bad. I really don't need an open OS or file system.
And for everyone making the price argument, don't knock the phone because it's too expensive for you. It's like saying a BMW doesn't make sense because it gets you from A to B like a Civic does for $25,000 less.
@ Chris, while you are somewhat neutral in your post...
Yes it is exactly like comparing BMWs and Civics, except it makes more sense to buy a Civic than BMW. Every young MTV idiot is going to run and buy an iphone with their meager earnings or on their parents' over-extended credit, and for what just for some lame eye candy, bells, and whistles.
That iphone money should be used to buy a laptop, and if you already own a laptop then...here is a concept...SAVE IT.
The iphone sucks as a phone, try being on the receiving end of an iphone call. ATT sucks as a provider, most dropped calls ever regardless of phone. Apple excels at marketing, and if you find yourself being sucked into the marketing strategy of repackaging existing technology and charging through the nose for it, then you probably already own a lot of infomercial crap. I'm sorry but comparing the iphone to a BMW would be accurate if you couldn't open the trunk without taking it to the dealer because BMW decided trunks are unnecessary. Cost/feature ratio is relevant, owners defend the iphone becuase they spent so much for it.
@ Clack
"NO MORE synching problems with Outlook since I stopped using Windows altogether"
Actually, try upgrading to the latest version of iTunes, with a jailbroken iPhone and the thing will quit synching. (At least mine has.) I am about to restore to an earlier date via Time machine. I tried to do just the application, but Apple won't let me.
I have an Apple TV, Linux running on my PS3, Media extender Xbox 360, a Sonos Music system connected to Rhapsody, my wife and I both have an iPhone and I have many windows mobile devices.
While the iPhone is evolutionary, it still borrowed many from Windows Mobile and RIM and took them to the consumer.
Most people including Microsoft don't understand that the reason why Apple is so successful is their products are designed strictly for consumer needs, not the needs of a fortune 500.
Debating which technologies are better is useless. All great products are flawed if they are not FLOSS enabled.
Damn everyone needs to chill out. We will all be using Android-powered phones by next year anyway.
whatever apple does they do well
if you havnt noticed they outshine everything
there are so many iphone wannabes trying to take a little nibble of the iphones success like companys like samsung and LG
but theyve failed
and they failed because apple pays attention to details
like the HTC phones they get boring and are super slow and are hard to use
thats why the iphone is better
because it has funcunality that none other has.
I'd rather use a Blackberry Bold until I get my hands on a good Android alternative.
Did anyone notice the "8GB" stamp on this "iPhone"? That's total BS. It's got to be either 16GB minimum and 32GB max (like the iPod Touch).
Can't wait till tomorrow.
engadget you are so wrong. It is SO thinner.
Almost spot-on
this actually might have been a real picture!
No way this was the real photo cuz this one has plastic side buttons and the new one has metal ones. so this was just a colorwared mod or even a photoshoped photo of a regular iphone.
I had been hoping this post was incorrect. Sad to say it basically hit the nail on the head. Where is my video? My MMS? My front facing camera? My copy-freakin-paste?!
Looks like this leak was right!!!!
On and actual spec is slightly thicker, but feels thinner cause of the angled edges.
Now we know the truth.. black is back
Will the new iphone play MP3s, or just itunes?
Thanks
Lol @ WinMo nazis coming in and trying to ruin everyone else's fun.
good source....u nailed the 3g iphone :-D
@ clak. You're the man! your comments make alot of sense,makes me feel sorry for the other guys.
i just want to ask a general all round question about the iphone software 2.0 obviously for the touch as well but does anyone know that if you update to 2.0 without having updated the ipod touch for eg that you'll also get the other previous features (i.e mail weather notes etc) ?
The iphone sucks as a phone, sucks as a camera, but is really good at finding a coffee house and making animated popcorn. Total waste of money.
It's surprising that I was actually looking at a REAL leaked photo of the 3G iPhone when I thought it was just a case.
Good thing I didn't see the white one early though cause then I still got a kickass surprise :D
The funny thing about the fanboy (iPhone & WinMo) comments (flamewars) is that the iPhone was directed at Average Consumers by Apple, and contrary to what phone carriers say all Windows Mobile PDA phones and Smartphones are directed at Professional/Business Consumers and Bleeding Edge Adopters, media capabilities are currently a convienience or handled by 3rd parties and hardware manufacturers!
Microsoft has not focused on the average consumer or media capability and will not until 09 at the earliest (they have been stating this for 5 years now!).
That said, I have been running WinMo phones since 04, and have rarely had any more big problems than I did with my old Moto flip phones.
And since late 05 early 06 I have been able to SMS MMS Call Surf the web (EV-DO since 07, 2.0 since early 08), Email (push now included), tether to my pc for mobile broadband on laptop, store listen and watch large quantities of music and movies, custom ringers.
In other words, if you are not as worried about media capabilities (it is a phone after all), my iPod stores more media than the iPhone, my phone has infinite amouts of memory in card form, I am not tied to AT&T and their crappy servive and network, and my phone works damn well for what it is, A PHONE & PERSONAL DATA ASSISTANT!
Dave is one of those people who cant afford an iPhone, so he buys what he can and defends it and says its so great and then flames against the iPhone because he couldnt afford it.
So Dave, dont come on the updates about iPhone and talk shit about it when it hasnt done anything to you, ok?
Actually the battery is removable, just a bastard of a job to do, not like a normal phone. If your battery gets old and the life gets shorter you'd be able to replace the battery, but having a charged spare and swapping on the go is probably not an option.