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WWDC 2008 coverage roundup: the iPhone 3G has landed

Ryan Block — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:56:00 -0400

Holy crap, that's a lot of iPhone news. We've collected every meaningful detail below, and now we're pretty stoked to have our site back. Game on!

iPhone 3G

iPhone service stuff and AT&T

More after the break!

Filed under: Handsets, Apple, Mobile

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WWDC 2008 coverage roundup: the iPhone 3G has landed

Ryan Block — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:56:00 -0400

Holy crap, that's a lot of iPhone news. We've collected every meaningful detail below, and now we're pretty stoked to have our site back. Game on!

iPhone 3G

iPhone service stuff and AT&T

More after the break!

Filed under: Cellphones

Comments

WWDC 2008 keynote video now online

Ryan Block — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:45:00 -0400

As usual, Apple's capped off the day's news by posting the video of the keynote. Just in case you missed the action in today's liveblog (or you want to relive the moment where Steve says "3G" and the audience spontaneously combusts), hit the link below. Us? We'll be taking a breather.

For those on Apple overload: don't worry, a little more will be trickling out but it's almost over.

Filed under: Cellphones

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TomTom already has iPhone navigation software ready to roll

Darren Murph — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:27:00 -0400

That sound you hear is the not-yet-released nüvifone trembling in fear, as TomTom has just announced that an iPhone-ready version of its famed navigation software is practically ready to rock 'n roll. More specifically, a TomTom spokesman was quoted as saying that its "navigation system runs on the iPhone already," and he made the statement hot on the heels of the iPhone 3G announcement. Sadly, he wouldn't disclose an estimated release date for the software, but it's safe to say that the TomTom touch could make Apple's darling a formidable nüvifone opponent.

[Via GPSReview]

Filed under: Handsets, Software, ATT, GSM, EDGE, UMTS, Apple, iPhone OS, Mobile

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TomTom already has iPhone navigation software ready to roll

Darren Murph — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:27:00 -0400

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS

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iPhone 3G from AT&T: unlimited data for $30

Chris Ziegler — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:51:00 -0400

We still don't have a clear answer from AT&T on whether messaging is included, but if not, the data pricing of $30 per month for unlimited 3G when tied to the iPhone 3G represents a $10 bump from what folks were paying for the 2.5G model. Business owners -- presumably expected to consume considerably more bits over the course of a month -- will be paying $45. Meanwhile, voice plan pricing will start from $39.95, and we're told more details will be available on exactly how it all breaks down when the device actually goes on sale.

Filed under: ATT, Apple, Mobile

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iPhone 3G hands-on

Ryan Block — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:36:00 -0400

Sorry, we don't have pictures but Apple took us into a dramatically lit back-room to check out the new iPhone 3G. Here's what you need to know:

We did a quick data test -- at our location we went from 104Kbps on the EDGE iPhone to 215Kbps on the 3G model. 2x ain't bad, yo.
The enable/disable 3G setting is real, and buried a few menus deep. There is no automatic switching, Apple just assumes you'll leave 3G on, and that the iPhone has the juice to support that usage.
It's tri-band 3G, as we reported the other day. This same phone will ship worldwide.
WiFi is still 802.11b/g, no support for n yet.
Yes, that GPS is A-GPS, just as we mentioned.
Geotagging photos is a thumbs-up. We were deep indoors though, so native GPS wasn't working and we couldn't get a clear idea of satellite acquisition time.
The screen looks exactly the same -- maybe a tiny bit brighter, but the unit was new, so it'd be negligible.
The camera is identical to the first -- 2 megapixels. No front-facing camera (of course).
It's certainly thicker feeling, but they rocked it Treo-style and really tapered those edges, so it just doesn't feel that different. But because of that curved back, it'll dance around on your table a little more than your completely-flat original iPhone.
The plastic back didn't feel too cheap. In fact, it felt pretty solid. It's very glossy, so it'll pick up fingerprints just as well as the glass up front (yay).
It comes with a ridiculously, absurdly small power adapter. It basically looks like a tiny square with a USB port on one side, and power prongs on the other. It will power any other iDevice (iPod touch, 1st gen iPhone, etc.), and sell separately for those that want a smaller adapter.
The dock (now sold separately) and adapter (if you want an extra) will both go for something like $29, although that price is not yet confirmed.
No mention was made of copy/paste, MMS, etc.
It doesn't look like this thing is going to fit in your old dock. The new dock does look smaller and more sculpted to the new iPhone's curves.
The headphone jack is flush, as mentioned. It's still 3.5mm, so if you don't like the out of box phones (which won't stay in our ears), bring your own, no problem -- and no adapter needed!
Yes, original iPhones are totally gone, you won't be seeing those made anymore. Long live the aluminum back!

It looks like they took an amazing device and made it significantly better. If the battery life is as good as they claim, we think this will steamroll the competition in the enterprise space. And even if it doesn't, at $199 it's going to be extremely hard for people to resist.

Update: Laptop managed to sneak a couple photos of the white one -- yep, that's what it looks like.

Filed under: Cellphones

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Apple previews OS X Snow Leopard: scheduled to ship "in about a year"

Darren Murph — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:21:00 -0400

The next iteration of OS X was mentioned early on during today's WWDC 2008 keynote, but little was said afterwards. Thankfully, Apple hasn't left us completely out to dry, as a recent release gives a few clues as to what Snow Leopard has in store. First and foremost, the OS isn't expected to ship until about this time next year, and just as predicted, it will be more evolutionary than revolutionary. Specifically, it will "enhance the performance of OS X and set a new standard for quality... rather than focusing primarily on new features." Still, we do know that it'll play nice with Microsoft Exchange 2007 from the get-go, provide "unrivaled support for multi-core processors" with a new technology dubbed Grand Central, extend support "for modern hardware with Open Computing Language (OpenCL)," and raise the software limit on system memory up to a theoretical 16TB of RAM. Heck, you'll even find QuickTime X in there. Yeah, we love those new features, but we can honestly say we're looking forward to a nice round of polishing.

Update: Looks like some more solid info has been posted to Apple's page. Head here for more on Snow Leopard desktop and Snow Leopard server (which will include iCal Server 2, 128-bit ZFS support, Podcast Producer 2, the first version of their Address Book server based on CardDAV, and more).

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

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iPhone 3G is finally official, starts at $199, available July 11th

Paul Miller — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:48:00 -0400

It's been a long, leak-filled wait, but Apple finally took the wraps off its 3G iPhone. Thinner edges, full plastic back, flush headphone jack, and the iPhone 2.0 firmware -- Apple's taking a lot of the criticisms to heart from the first time around. Obviously 3G is at the forefront, but they're also making sure it's available all over internationally, works with enterprises, runs 3rd party apps... and does it all for cheaper. Apple claims its 3G speeds trounce the competition, with pageloads 36% faster than the N95 and Treo 750 -- and of course it completely trounces the old EDGE data speeds.

Battery life isn't getting put out to pasture though, with 300 hours of standby, 8-10 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 7 hours of video and 24 hours of audio. GPS is also a go. Apple is using A-GPS, which supplements regular satellite GPS data with info from cellular towers for faster location. (WiFi data is also worked into the mix, which should give users a pretty solid lock on where the heck they are on this planet.) Unfortunately, as expected there's no front-facing cam, and while its edges are thinner than before it's still about a millimeter thicker at the center (12.3mm over 11.6mm before). Apple hopes to launch in 70 countries this year, with the black 8GB going for $199 and 16GB for $299 in black or white. (Both price points require a contract, of course.) Apple will be hitting the 22 biggest markets, including the US, on July 11th. More info after the break.

Update: Just bought an iPhone? Listen up: "Customers who purchased a 2.5G iPhone on or after May 27 and want to swap it out for a new iPhone will be able to do so without incurring an additional handset charge for the new device. They will of course need to turn in their 2.5G iPhone." And for the rest of you, AT&T says there's no way to buy it without agreeing to a contract. So sorry. More details here.

We've got our hands-on impressions right here.

Get the full roundup of iPhone 3G coverage here!

Our full iPhone 3G review can be found here!

Gallery: iPhone 3G is finally official, starts at $199, available July 11th

Gallery: iPhone 3G - liveblog pictures

Filed under: Cellphones

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The Lucky 22: countries receiving iPhone 3G on July 11th

Thomas Ricker — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:58:00 -0400

While it's a given that the iPhone 3G is hitting the US on the 11th, the rest of our global readership was left scratching their collective heads wondering if they were part of the 22 "biggest markets" mentioned in the keynote. So here you go, the 22 countries scheduled to go live with the iPhone 3G on July 11th:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US.

$199 for 8G and $299 for the 16GB model... in the US at least and with a 2-year contract. The remaining 48 countries listed after the break will get theirs "later this year."

Filed under: Apple, Mobile

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The Lucky 22: countries receiving iPhone 3G on July 11th

Thomas Ricker — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:58:00 -0400

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US.

$199 for 8G and $299 for the 16GB model... in the US at least and with a 2-year contract. The remaining 48 countries listed after the break will get theirs "later this year."

Filed under: Cellphones

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Sizing it up: iPhone 3G vs. the rest

Thomas Ricker — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:57:00 -0400

We thought you'd like to see how the new iPhone 3G stacks up against the ol' EDGE-based iPhone, Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1, and HTC Touch Diamond and Touch Pro handsets. To QWERTY or not to QWERTY, that is the QWEstion.

Filed under: HTC, Sony Ericsson, Apple, Mobile

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Sizing it up: iPhone 3G vs. the rest

Thomas Ricker — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:57:00 -0400

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio/Video, Portable Video

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Steve Jobs keynote live from WWDC 2008

Ryan Block — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:51:00 -0400

So today's the day. We'll have all the live Jobsnote WWDC coverage as it commences -- everything's posted after the break!

Note: Updates are being posted from bottom to top (top newest). Updates are now top to bottom.

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc

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iPhone 3G is finally official, starts at $199, available July 11th

Paul Miller — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:30:00 -0400

It's a teensy bit thicker.
A SIM ejector comes in the box, at last.
There's no dock included, just a USB power adapter.

Gallery: iPhone 3G is finally official, starts at $199, available July 11th

Gallery: iPhone 3G - liveblog pictures

Filed under: Handsets, ATT, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, Apple, iPhone OS, Mobile

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iPhone 2.0 free in early July for all iPhone owners, $9.95 for iPod touch

Nilay Patel — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:07:00 -0400

Steve just ran through a bunch of features of iPhone 2.0, and while we saw most of them back in March, some of them were new, like being able to draw in Chinese characters. There's also new support for iWork documents and better Office doc support, as well as new abilities to save images from email to the photo library, and new contact search functions. There's also finally bulk delete and edit of email / SMS, and the App Store will be making it to 62 countries, up from 22 in March.

Looking through the gallery now live on Apple's site, there are some other changes as well: the Maps app now has a slightly different "peel back" icon, there's a new 3G icon (obviously), and the calendar app has been redesigned, probably to work better with MobileMe.

Firmware 2.0 will hit in July free for iPhone owners (we'd say July 11, when the 3G iPhone launches, is a good bet) and the price has dropped to $9.95 for iPod touch owners -- still high, but better than the $19.95 we heard in March.

Filed under: Handsets, Apple, Mobile

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iPhone 2.0 free in early July for all iPhone owners, $9.95 for iPod touch

Nilay Patel — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:07:00 -0400

Filed under: Cellphones

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iPhone push notification service for devs announced

Donald Melanson — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:05:00 -0400

Apple's just announced a push notification service for the iPhone that it'll provide to all developers. It'll maintain a persistent IP connection to the phone and let a 3rd party server ping Apple's notification service in order to push out notifications your device, which can be in the form of badges, sounds or custom textual alerts. According to Apple, the service will preserve battery life and maintain performance, not to mention work over WiFi or cellular. Look for it to roll out in September, with seeding to developers starting next month.

Filed under: Cellphones

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eBay, TypePad, others showcase iPhone apps at WWDC

Chris Ziegler — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:42:00 -0400

Now that developers have had a fair crack at the iPhone SDK for a few months, plenty of companies were ready today to showcase their wares alongside Stevie. Among them:

eBay. Pretty much everything you'd need to do from a desktop browser can be done through eBay's iPhone app: bidding, searching for items, My eBay (so you can see how the sale of your old iPhone's going), watching items, and the like. It's free, but since you're giving eBay money every time you make a transaction, we'd expect it to be.
Loopt. Already a staple on a couple carriers, Loopt's location-based services allow friends to keep tabs on one another. It'll be free at the launch of the App Store.
TypePad. Following some of Six Apart's other moblogging efforts, the iPhone version of its TypePad client will allow realtime uploading of photos taken with the iPhone's cam. It'll also be free.
Associated Press. It seems the AP wants to turn us all into unpaid correspondents, offering an app that will allow users to upload footage.
Band. A collection of virtual instruments for creating music from scratch right on the iPhone. Probably not the most effective platform for creating songs if we had to guess, but hey, cool nonetheless!
MLB.com. Video baseball highlights, real-times stats and scores.

Filed under: Software, Apple, iPhone OS, Mobile

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eBay, TypePad, others showcase iPhone apps at WWDC

Chris Ziegler — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:30:00 -0400

Now that developers have had a fair crack at the iPhone SDK for a few months, plenty of companies were ready today to showcase their wares alongside Stevie. Among them:

eBay. Pretty much everything you'd need to do from a desktop browser can be done through eBay's iPhone app: bidding, searching for items, My eBay (so you can see how the sale of your old iPhone's going), watching items, and the like. It's free, but since you're giving eBay money every time you make a transaction, we'd expect it to be.
Loopt. Already a staple on a couple carriers, Loopt's location-based services allow friends to keep tabs on one another. It'll be free at the launch of the App Store.
TypePad. Following some of Six Apart's other moblogging efforts, the iPhone version of its TypePad client will allow realtime uploading of photos taken with the iPhone's cam. It'll also be free.
Associated Press. It seems the AP wants to turn us all into unpaid correspondents, offering an app that will allow users to upload footage.
Band. A collection of virtual instruments for creating music from scratch right on the iPhone. Probably not the most effective platform for creating songs if we had to guess, but hey, cool nonetheless! Available in a "few weeks' time."
MLB.com. Video baseball highlights, real-times stats and scores.

Filed under: Cellphones

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Sega, Pangea, Digital Legends show off $9.99 iPhone games

Nilay Patel — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:28:00 -0400

We saw an early demo of Sega's Super Monkey Ball back at the iPhone SDK event in March, but it looks like the real thing is ready for WWDC, with some 110 stages and all four classic monkeys, including Baby. We just caught a quick run-through during the keynote, but the graphics look unbelievable compared to anything we've seen on a cellphone before -- easily DS-quality graphics.

Also demoing games was Pangea, whose Brian Greenstone showed off Enigmo and Cro-Mag Rally, a racing game that uses the iPhone itself as the steering wheel, via the accelerometer. Again, the graphics were high-quality, and gameplay was described as "totally playable" with just a minimum of porting effort -- three days for each game.

Finally, Digital Legends Entertainment demoed a God of War-type game that they had developed in only two weeks that featured graphics somewhere between the DS and PSP. It'll be ready sometime in September.

Pricing for all three games was set at $9.99 to start -- high for a cellphone game, sure, but super competitive with other portables.

Filed under: Handsets, Apple, Mobile

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Sega, Pangea, Digital Legends show off $9.99 iPhone games

Nilay Patel — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:28:00 -0400

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming

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Next version of OS X will be called Snow Leopard

Darren Murph — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:10:00 -0400

You heard right -- the next iteration of Apple's OS X operating system will indeed be dubbed Snow Leopard. As we'd heard just days ago, the next major installment of OS X will be getting all dressed in powder, and we'll be seeing a sneak peek of what's to come right here at WWDC.

Update: Apple has revealed initial details -- check it out here!

Filed under: Desktops

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Engadget's WWDC 2008 predictions

Joshua Topolsky — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:58:00 -0400

Yes, it's almost that time -- WWDC 2008. By now you're well acquainted with the rumors circling Apple's next big event. Will the 3G iPhone make an appearance? Will Jobsy bust out a multitouch Newton tablet? Will Snow Leopard come in from the cold? It's anyone's guess, but the editors here at Engadget have a few hunches that you can pretty much bank on. Of course, you can see the real thing happen during our live coverage of the keynote set to start at 10:00AM PT / 1:00 PM ET.

Josh T: "Hillary Clinton named president... of AppleCare division. Finally, Universal AppleCare."
Ryan: "Apple announces acquisition of Sharper Image's remaining assets; rebadges flagship product line iOnic Breeze."
Thomas: "iPods, iMacs renamed EeePods and EeeMacs; iPhone launched which is somehow both bigger and smaller than the current model."
Chris: "iPhone Capsule is introduced to thunderous applause, allowing consumers to effortlessly go 'back in time' to retrieve their obsoleted iPhone models."
Josh F: "In a surprise move, Steve Jobs says 'But wait: There's more!' instead of his signature 'Just one more thing,' then proceeds to throw in a Shamwow and two Infinity Razors if you order in the next 30 minutes."
Paul: "Jobs in a white wife-beater tucked into Levi's 501 cutoffs."

[Okay, that last one is more a wish from Paul than a prediction.]

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Handhelds

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WWDC 2008 is tomorrow: 10:00AM PT / 1:00PM ET, be there

Ryan Block — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:46:00 -0400

Yep, Apple's big developer conference kicks off in under 24 hours. We know some of you won't sleep well tonight, but you've got some time to kill, so why not take a moment to make your original iPhone feel appreciated one last time -- before you kick it to the curb in favor of the new 3G model His Steveness will be announcing. Everything you need to know is below, and don't forget to bookmark the keynote page. There there, original iPhone, it'll be okay.

Where you need to be:
Steve Jobs WWDC 2008 keynote - live coverage
All WWDC 2008 coverage [RSS] [Twitter]

Time zones:
Local times posted here

En Español
El WWDC empieza este lunes 9 de junio a las 10:00 PST USA... ¡prepárate!

Filed under: Announcements

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