New iPhone info annoucend today

[bewitched]

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

I think the iPhone becomes a very expensive paper weight if it's unlocked and then updated.

Up through the iPhone's 2nd gen latest update, you can buy software for around $25 that either prevents it from relocking and/or restores/reunlocks your phone afterwards (while keeping the upgrade). Most of these are included in the programs that allow you to unlock an iPhone yourself. (Which is especially nice if you have a friend who is upgrading to the new iPhone and will give you their phone or sell it to you cheaply).

Oh, and I forgot to say before that an unlocked, unrecognized smartphone using the cheap, non-smartphone data package DOES automatically run on the 3G network.

I also forgot to add that an unlocked iPhone opens up some features that are restricted for att's locked version users. (I believe tethering may be one of them.)

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by bewitched

I also forgot to add that an unlocked iPhone opens up some features that are restricted for att's locked version users. (I believe tethering may be one of them.)

What about MMS? It would be interesting to know if someone got around ATT's reticence to make this feature available.

[bewitched]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

What about MMS? It would be interesting to know if someone got around ATT's reticence to make this feature available.

I doubt it since I don't think MMS was available anywhere as a feature. Features that appear on the unlocked phone are features that are available to users in, say, the UK, but are locked or restricted in the U.S..

How to tether an unlocked iPhone:

jailbroken iPhones and iPhone 3Gs have an alternative tethering option that’s just as easy as NetShare. PDA Net makes it as simple as connecting your iPhone and your laptop via an ad-hoc WiFi network and enabling PDA Net’s WiFi router feature. Find PDA Net here.

Here is a good site answering questions and giving updates on unlocked iPhones.

Of interest to some people considering the Palm Pre:

We had reported yesterday that the iPhone Dev team had warned users who want to jailbreak their iPhone to avoid upgrading to iTunes 8.2 as it breaks their QuickPwn and PwnageTool tools and iPhone tunneling suite (ssh over USB) required for jailbreaking.

They have just published a post which provides more details on why it breaks jailbreaking and their plans to address the issue. They have also reported that yesterday's iTunes update might also break the hack used by Palm to sync music from iTunes to Palm Pre.

[lindyhop]

I went to the Apple Store yesterday and they gave me a $100 credit without even blinking. I love those guys.

And I did I mention I love my phone? I love my phone.

[Kevy Baby]

From MacRumors.com:

The early reviews for the iPhone 3G S are in and the conclusions seem pretty common across the board. As advertised, the new iPhone 3G S offers a faster experience, better camera, and impressive video recording. All reviewers felt that the upgrade from 3G was more evolutionary than revolutionary and the core phone remains very much the same as the existing 3G.

Here are a summary of key impressions from the early reviews that have hit the web.

Walt Mossberg / AllThingsD
- Speed: "the new model proved dramatically snappier in every way than my iPhone 3G. "
- Battery: "the new model did much better [than the iPhone 3G], never hitting the red zone and rarely requiring interim charging at the office or in the car, even though, because I was testing it, I was pounding it much harder than usual"
- Camera: "didn’t think the pictures it took were dramatically better than those on the old model"
- Conclusion: "Both the new iPhone and iPhone OS are packed with features that make a great product even better. But, for many users, the software may be enough of a boost to keep them from buying the new model."

Sun Times / Andy Ihnatko
- Speed: "Everything feels faster. Safari on the iPhone 3G S seems as interactive as a desktop browser."
- Gaming: "Gaming has been kicked up a notch; intensive 3D games are elevated from 'Wow, that’s a great frame rate for a phone!' to simply 'Wow.'"
- Battery: "The 3G S has enough juice for a full day of normal use, but if you’re going to rely on it heavily throughout the day it’s still best to have an external battery."
- Video: "The video quality is impressively smooth and natural given the source, and the sound quality is practically astonishing"
- Voice: "Voice control is a tough feature to successfully pull off on any device. No, the iPhone doesn’t pull it off."
- Flickr set of photos taken with the iPhone 3G S.

Engadget
- Game Performance: "If you're an avid gamer looking for the device with more power, the difference will be crystal clear: the 3G S obviously flexes in this department."
- Olephobic screen: - "The most surprising thing about the tech is that it actually does what the company says it will: namely, it resists new smudges and wipes almost entirely clean with a single swipe on a pant leg."
- Camera: "We do have some complaints about exposure, which seems to be permanently cranked to "blinding," and while the shutter speed is faster than on the 3G, it's still not quite snappy enough for our taste."
- Video: "Video recording on the iPhone 3G S is really quite impressive"
- Compass: "Once the compass picks up your bearing, it rotates the map to reflect. This may not sound like much, but if you've ever tried to walk a new city using just maps and geolocation, you'll understand quickly. "
- Conclusion: "For current users, we have this to say: the iPhone 3G S is a solid spec bump to a phone you already own... but it is, at its core, a phone you already own. "

Gizmodo
- Olephobic coating: "Surprisingly, the coating actually works in preventing a good deal of fingerprints and face grease, and it allows the phone to still be smooth and usable even if there are fingerprints on the surface."
- Speed: " Safari, Email, Camera all load noticeably faster than on the iPhone 3G (both running 3.0 software). Even booting the phone takes about half the time. "
- Video: "Even if it's not quite 30FPS at all times, the video is smooth as hell. Recording still isn't great in low light since it's a physical limitation of cameras in general, but at least it's fluid."
- 7.2Mbpz data speed: "on average the 3GS scored about 50% higher than the 3G, occasionally, in individual runs, it could have ranged anywhere from twice as fast to about the same speeds."
- Battery: "What's also surprising about the 3GS is that you wouldn't expect battery life to be improved, but it is."
- Conclusion: "The only issue with the iPhone 3GS, if you already have the 3G, is that it's not all that different of an experience." ... "as a whole, the iPhone 3GS is the best all-around smartphone available"

CNet
- Voice: "In our tests, the voice dialing performed well."
- Accessibility: "Visually impaired people can use Apple's Voice Over to navigate the handset's menus and type messages and e-mails. "
- Camera; "good, but far from great, with decent photo quality, but no editing features."
- Video: "you can trim only in a linear format--meaning you can't cut out something in the middle and stitch the remaining two ends of the video together."
- Speed: "For example, Bejewled 2, which can take up to 12 seconds to load on the iPhone 3G, started in just 5 seconds on the 3G S. Even better, Pocket God went from opening in almost 30 seconds to starting in just 11. The iPhone also started up much quicker than the iPhone 3G--we were up and running in 26 seconds instead of 50 seconds."
- Conclusion: "If you don't own an iPhone yet, and you've been waiting for the right model, now is the time to go for it. .... But, if you're a current iPhone 3G owner, the answer isn't so clear."

[innerSpaceman]

Help! Do I need an iPhone?

If I traveled a lot, sure. Even if I ate out a lot, and were looking for new restaurants all the time, yeah I could see that. Gaming, um no. Videoing, nope. Even accessing the internet when I'm out and about in the world is something I can see myself doing 2wce per week or so.

I feel like a dork with a cell phone, but I'm beginning to think - at more than doubling my monthly service costs - maybe just iPhone envy is not reason enough to have one.


Yet everyone who has one raves about them, and likely can't imagine how they ever lived without one.


Any (serious) advice???

[Ghoulish Delight]

It's one of those things that if you don't have it you don't need it. But once you have it, the conveniences that come with it quickly become hard to imagine living without. So no, it's not likely to fulfill any of your currently identified needs that aren't met by a regular cell phone. But it's great at what it does and you'd likely be very happy with what it does for you once you figure out what that is.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Help! Do I need an iPhone?

Yes

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Any (serious) advice???

No

[Ghoulish Delight]

Things I'm grateful to have my smartphone for:

* "What do you mean you can't find my reservation?! Here, let me pull up the email with the confirmation #"

* Google maps. anywhere, any time.

* ability to read twitter easily. wouldn't be much of a killer app for me if so many of my friends didn't often use it as a semi-substitute for text messaging.

* viewing images people send me on the go. sharing photos with people on the go

* passable web browsing that allows me to look up info on whatever my next destination happens to be in a pinch.

* The fact that all those little parts, while nothing earth shattering on paper, seem to work together to make spontaneous decisions while out and about more practical.

Again, save for google maps maybe, all things that were not an active draw for me before having it, but now that I've gotten used to it I sorely miss.

[innerSpaceman]

Sigh, my life just got a whole lot less out-and-about.


Maybe I'll get one in the hopes that out-and-aboutness returns (ahem, in a different form).