iPhone 3GS: Apple's codename for tomorrow's unveiling?

It's pretty much the eve of Apple's big WWDC press conference, and Daring Fireball's John Gruber is back at the eleventh hour to chime in some more on his previous (and perhaps well-informed) iPhone predictions. He sticks to his previous wagers -- twice the CPU speed, twice the RAM, a heavy emphasis on a new video camera (no word on if there's an additional front-facing one), and $199 / $299 for the 16GB and 32GB models, respectively -- but additionally chimes in that the new device's codename is... drumroll, please... the iPhone 3GS, which he surmises is probably going to be the final product name, as well. Kind of a yawner, if you ask us, but it'd sell like gangbusters no matter what it was called. As for that lowered-tiered iPhone, he's expecting it to be the current 3G model with a price drop to $99. Also on the table is iPhone tethering, which we already know was built into OS 3.0, likely for a fee chosen by each carrier. Teasing farther into the future, he suggests "Marble," codename for an OS X visual overhaul, and the tablet are very much real projects but that there's little to no chance it'll be at WWDC. No clue what the "S" stands for (speed, perhaps?), but at this point we're pretty much counting the minutes to tomorrow's keynote, and our clocks can't tick much faster.

[qwack @ Jun 7th 2009 6:20PM]

first!!!!

To think 3GS sounds a bit plain.

[ekim1093 @ Jun 7th 2009 6:23PM]

i would just like to go on the record as having UP-voted qwack

[JohnTitor @ Jun 7th 2009 6:24PM]

there will be a high end 3GTX

[How_P @ Jun 7th 2009 6:25PM]

That picture is a proven fake:
http://www.iphonegold.org/iphone-v3-picture-article-149.html

[STi @ Jun 7th 2009 6:41PM]

Still the same old boring design. Same shitty ui. Same shitty and overpriced At&t network.

[GnuGeek @ Jun 7th 2009 6:39PM]

Classic case of Apple going Nvidia

[telepheedian @ Jun 7th 2009 6:52PM]

Honestly, I thought IIgs when I heard it.

[Jeremy K. @ Jun 7th 2009 6:59PM]

You're the fanboy Ryan...

[Jeremy K. @ Jun 7th 2009 7:04PM]

You're the fanboy Ryan...

[PedoJokerBear (aka Deeznuts) @ Jun 7th 2009 7:09PM]

jeez, its like u told him his mother was ugly or something.

[iphonerulez @ Jun 7th 2009 7:10PM]

GS=Good Stuff. The die is already cast and the rest of the handset industry is quaking in their boots. Apparently they can't come up with anything new until the next iPhone is revealed. They'll take hundreds of photos and run back to their R&D labs and tell the designers to put together something that resembles and works like the latest iPhone. The designers will tell them that they can make it look and almost work like an iPhone, but they can't make it sell like one because they'd get sued for putting an Apple logo on it. Plus where would they get 50,000 apps to keep users interested in owning a knock-off.

So, once the iPhone Video is announced, people will start dumping their recently bought handsets just to get to use the iPhone Video so they can spend hours video chatting with hundreds of new-found friends they met at the Apple retail store. Needless to say, Apple will sell millions of iPhones in the first month and mobile handset history will be rewritten by Apple for a third year in a row.

[DCheat @ Jun 7th 2009 7:50PM]

You're the fanboy Ryan...

[ShirkPower @ Jun 7th 2009 7:14PM]

Shitty UI...?
hahah
I guess thats why everyone on the business is copying it then.
Use one before you troll.

[patriotsn1 @ Jun 7th 2009 7:25PM]

the UI is kinda shitty... it's just a bunch of icons, nothing great.. My home screen shows the current weather, streaming stock prices, power usage meter and is completely customizable... If I just wanted a bunch of icons, I guess I could do that too, but it's nothing special for sure..

and iphonerulez.. you do this for EVERY post, a long story spewing out shit that we've all heard 1000 times, do you have any life at all?

[ShirkPower @ Jun 7th 2009 7:28PM]

@patriotsn1

Yeah... but you like having your home screen full of stuff you might not have necessary asked for or be wanting at that moment...?

The iphone screen is uncluttered and allows YOU to chose what you want to do.

Its pretty much unanimous that the iPhone has the best UI on the market..

[patriotsn1 @ Jun 7th 2009 7:35PM]

shrink you are ignorant if you think the iphone REALLY lets you "choose what you want to do". It's got icons, that's it. I CHOSE to show current weather, stock prices, a BIG digital clock, my girlfriend's contact, and the power meter.... and that's just on my home panel, I swipe left to get to all the games (I CHOSE to put my games over there) and I swipe right to get to all my fav. applications. It's TRULY customizable. The iphone doesn't really let you choose what to do with it, and as far as I know, only shows the information on the homescreen that Apple decided was important. I mean, seriously, is the date even on there if your phone isn't in "swipe to unlock" mode?

http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/

^ enjoy true freedom

[reefrmad @ Jun 7th 2009 8:16PM]

GS = Graphics and Sound. Maybe Steven Jobs is finally admitting that he killed the //gs out of spite for the severely underpowered Mac that he birthed and is making amends by created the first iPhone he will also kill out of spite...

[ShirkPower @ Jun 7th 2009 8:21PM]

Alright dude, i give up.

Yoir preferred phone > Some other phone.

You are truly a genius.

[patriotsn1 @ Jun 7th 2009 8:43PM]

Thank you.

(oh and btw, next time you sarcastically call someone a genius, you should probably avoid putting an "i" in the word "your"... I know it's your favorite letter, but that's a little embarrassing.)

[STi @ Jun 7th 2009 8:47PM]

Yes, I have an iPhone. Whats so special about a glorified app launcher?????
Swipe left, swipe right... boring. Safari is a piece of crap, crashes daily.

[m3tric @ Jun 7th 2009 10:37PM]

It's not worth your time guys. Shirk and iphonedouche think that a revolutionary UI includes having multiple icons to load your fart applications with one touch.

[Brandon @ Jun 7th 2009 6:20PM]

Front facing camera remains the big question it seems.

[Charlie @ Jun 7th 2009 6:53PM]

What about support for new 7mbps 3G deployments? Has that been resolved one way or another? What about running apps in the background?

[cmsb55 @ Jun 7th 2009 8:40PM]

Well the current iPhone supports up to 7 mbps or so...

[UK31337 @ Jun 7th 2009 6:21PM]

Kind of looking forward to this, a UK newspaper yesterday had a rumour that a new, cheaper model was in the works which could cost as little as £100 for the handset. If that's true or if this new model is reasonably priced then I might just go for it, and it would eliminate the need for me to buy an iPod Touch which was also a possibility for me.

Also, what does "tomrorow" mean? "tomrorow's keynote"? :P

[Lando Calrissian @ Jun 7th 2009 6:25PM]

Well the rest of the internets had that rumor a while ago.

[jon @ Jun 7th 2009 6:25PM]

Rut Roh, Shaggy

[Greg K @ Jun 7th 2009 6:27PM]

Yeah, liveblogged here tomorrow at 6pm GMT, be there or be square!

...

[Tim @ Jun 7th 2009 6:53PM]

I don't know why people bother quoting these 'prices' for the phone. It's not like you can actually buy it for that much *without* a £35/month contract.

The only real price is the PAYG one. The current 8/16GB iPhones are £342 and £391 respectively. That's $550 and $625. No-way are the new phones actually going to cost $199/$299. Use your heads people!

[Jim @ Jun 7th 2009 6:21PM]

Without a reduction in plan pricing, I still won't be biting.

[RandyFD @ Jun 7th 2009 6:32PM]

My thoughts exacly. I have been holding out for a smartphone for a while now, and I really like the iPhone, but those plans are expensive!

Hopefully they will get a little cheaper, if not its a Pre for me :P (and yes, I know that the plan for the Pre is the same $$, but you get more features)

[Watcher @ Jun 10th 2009 12:37PM]

Before you do review this brief list of problems already...

Hardware
Slider is jolty
battery life reported as bad.
Keyboard awful
Ringer volume low
speaker volume low

Software
No custom alert tones (ie. custom one for alarms, SMS, and email)
Universal search not universal (just apps and contacts, no email or calendar)
Copy / paste -- currently only EDITABLE text (so SMS or emails or pictures in emails directly cant be copied, have to reply to the email to be able to copy paste it!). From http://forums.precentral.net/palm-pre/182854-copy-paste-you-kidding-me.html
Exchange mail server issues related to SSL
Reports are slow OS responsiveness
Texting issues: (http://forums.precentral.net/palm-pre/183078-texting-you-got-kidding.html)
Doesn't FWD basic txt messages
Doesn't have a page where one can see txt mess. inbox/sent/draft/etc..
can't change ringtone for txt messages
No "Delete All" / "Delete only Outgoing"/ etc...
no quick-text
no timestamp on each message sent and received (just a vague timestamp at the beginning of an exchange)
Doesn't FWD basic txt messages
Pre doesn't allow downloads from the web browser
can't type special characters into web browser fields

[RandyFD @ Jun 7th 2009 6:50PM]

@ Watcher

Consider me PREwarned :P

[jay jay @ Jun 7th 2009 6:52PM]

at watcher
problems with the iphone
no keyboard
no running apps in the background
speaker volume low
ringing volume low

problems with software
annoying notification system (those stupid pop-ups)
no copy and paste
no mms
doesn't allow multi-tasking

Things watcher is nit-picking about l:
Doesn't have a page where one can see txt mess. inbox/sent/draft/etc.. (it does)
can't change ringtone for txt messages (who needs that a simply ring is goog enough)
No "Delete All" / "Delete only Outgoing"/ etc...
no quick-text
no timestamp on each message sent and received (can be found in an sub menu)
can't type special characters into web browser fields(Really how many websites you know with @#$%^&* in its web address)

whatever i didn't address means there genuine problems. but the pre's problems are less than the iphone (and im not even a pre fanboy ANDROID ALL THE WAY!!!!!)

[Jeremy K. @ Jun 7th 2009 6:53PM]

Did you really spend all that time to compile that list, Watcher? Sheesh... Most of them are only half true or subject to personal opinion anyway. I felt like I was reading an article someone wrote to try to convert me to another religion.

[Dima Kovalev @ Jun 7th 2009 7:03PM]

@Watcher and @jay jay you sirs are idiots.

Slider is jolty? what part of it "jolty"
battery life wil lget you through the day, unless youre on the phone every second
keyboard is the best thing ive ever typed on, i type faster then i do on a blackberry (own both)
ringer volume is fine, idk what phone youve been using
i use speaker in the car, and no one has complained yet

you can set custom tones for alarms, just has to be a rington
unversal search searches everything in 3.0 (clearly you havent used it)
copy and paste...you can copy sms, and emails, and pictures, and emails, dont have to directly reply
slow os? how so?
you can forward text messages, or copy them
you dont have an inbox.outbox, but you have full conversations
you can change the ringtone for texts
you can clear all texts, maybe you were talking about email?
quick text for what?
agree on the time stamp
yes you can fwd text messages
and you can save pictures, and listen to mp3's from the web. and open doc, excel files etc. so what exactly cant you download?


you clearly havent used 3.0, so before you start your pre-loving iphone basking, get the facts

[Sam @ Jun 7th 2009 8:06PM]

Ive gotta say though.. Ive never forwarded a text message. mainly because the person on the receiving end doesnt know its a forward so they get confused, unless you send "hey read this from *insert name here*" first

[Sam @ Jun 7th 2009 8:34PM]

@Dima Kovalev:
He was talking about the PRE not the iPhone.. The second guy was talking about the iPhone but the things he said were actually true.

But thanks for pointing out the misconceptions about iPhone from idiots who haven't used 3.0! :D

[superdoppler @ Jun 7th 2009 6:21PM]

I can't wait to pick up the new one. My old and busted gen 1 iPhone is so damn slow due to the Edge network. I need the new hotness!

[Bkram1 @ Jun 7th 2009 6:24PM]

Is the text aligned correctly with the picture? I can't wait till tomorrow :)

[bibhnarp @ Jun 7th 2009 6:23PM]

wonder if it'll be released next week or next month.

Interesting to see how Palm and Apple go head to head in sales over the next 12 months.

[Jeremy K. @ Jun 7th 2009 6:23PM]

S stands for sucks.

[wibblewobble @ Jun 7th 2009 6:26PM]

or socks!

[Felix Fdot @ Jun 7th 2009 6:32PM]

or sighs

[KezMondo @ Jun 7th 2009 6:47PM]

or Shut the fuck up.

[Jeremy K. @ Jun 7th 2009 6:50PM]

or sarcasm...

[Wonderkid @ Jun 7th 2009 6:50PM]

Steve?

[Darkroom @ Jun 7th 2009 6:54PM]

or Sexting (with that new camera)

[Kehyu @ Jun 7th 2009 7:16PM]

Sawesomeness...
u just got iPwned!

[Applefur @ Jun 7th 2009 7:11PM]

Or syphilis!