3G iPhone

Well Me Jobs what have you pulled out from your bottomless sleeve this year? Well we have a 3G iPhone complete with GPS so instead of going out and buying an inferior Tom Tom just get one of these. So there really isn't much to say but it is going to be about £100 which is much cheaper than the slower and much inferior first generation iPhone.

Furthermore this time round companies providing mobile phone plans will be allowed to subsidise the costs of the phone but this will be accompanied by expensive plans (in the US they are £15 - $30) while here the costs of the plans will probably be double. I have not seen the new iPhone yet but will do soon.

New iPhone...

Well it looks like the time will be upon us soon when the new iPhone will be unveiled and as usual the boss of the Apple Corporation, Steve Jobs, will give one of his enthusiastic demonstrations and show his red hot passion for his new money making device.

In a side note Apple will allow companies selling iPhones to subsidise the cost so that people on a contract for £35 a month will be able to pick up an iPhone from o2 for the small sum of £100. Which in comparison to the first gen iPhone is much cheaper and a step forward.

Continuing on the iPhone vein Apple is going to open up and allow third party applications run on the iPhone. I say it took then long enough but then again it is just a headline grabbing exercise to build up hype for the new iPhone.

Finally the one feature which had been predicted on the day the first gen iPhone was released is (drum roll please): a 3G enabled iPhone.

iPhone arrives UK

Well some people were queuing up well over 24 hours in advance for arguably just a small slab of metal and glass. But making no mistake across the country exactly at 6.02pm all stores nationwide opened to start selling.

I myself made a trip to town, not exclusively to see the iPhone, but to go and get my phone unlocked and pick up some reserved books which had come into the store. Waiting for my phone to be unlocked, I glanced at the O2shop and I couldn't help notice the massive iPhone posters and in the centre there was a block with four iPhones there for testing.

I had fifteen minutes while my phone was being unlocked, all the hype and reviews, I thought why not just have a look. Talking to the assistants who just talked to me about the phones features while I browsed through them. While messaging, my fingers, although not that big did sometimes hit the wrong letter which I thought may have been due to me partly quickly going through the phones features.

The YouTube button on the main screen led me to a list of videos, while watching part of a video I then clicked the button at the bottom to return to the home screen. I do quite like the glassy shades and the overall effect which is given. Overall a very good phone but it is for me (not being part of the cult-of-Mac following) too expensive; coupled with the contract which must be purchased I am standing away from this.

Moving on maybe in a years time when a new version is released, with many more features and capabilities I may purchase. Looking at the price drop which occurred in America just a mere two months after release of the iPhone, I predict that the same step will not be taken so soon in the UK but I do feel that the iPhone will be dropped in price in about four months time, maybe April or May.

iPhone Boss: iSorry

The price of the iPhone has been dropped jaw-droppingly from $599 to a mere $399 just two months after the iPhones initial release. This no doubt has made the blood boil of the iPhones early customers. So therefore Steve Jobs has apologised in an open letter and has chosen to give people who bought the iPhone from either AT&T or directly from Apple will get a $100 store credit which can be used for any product at Apple in-store or online.

To be honest I really am not complaining because the prices is edging rather quickly. For me if after only two months there has been a 33% price drop then in a years time I can foresee the price coming down as fast as a ball rolling down a hill.

Also another point of view from me is that Jobs sales must have dropped after the initial techno-addicted people who just had to have it; so to attract more people he has had to force his hand instead of seeing a period of low sales.

iPhone Hacked

The iPhone has finally after a while been hacked or to rephrase it, unlocked. Looking above at the iPhone in pieces, to its bare and naked cogs and coils. Many iPhone users would have an iHeart Attack before seeing their baby pulled apart like so. But like so many modern mobile phones the protection has hardened and the operation on your perfectly healthy and mobile iPhone could leave it paralysed for life. Building upon my previous sentence the operation, as such, takes two hours to be performed by it's creator so for the inexperienced like you and I this is one best left to the consultants.

Google Introduces Voice-Activated Local Search

Google has recently introduced a beta search application for mobile phones. It offers a on the go alternative to using the Google Maps service on laptop or on your computer.

By dialling 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any mobile phone in the United States will enable the mobile phone user to talk in and then get the info they need. If you prefer to have the information at your fingertips in text form, Google also offers users to the option to have the information sent to a mobile phone as an SMS message. Users will be charged normal text message and airtime rates by their mobile carriers if they choose this option.

Apple iPhone to cost £595-£660?

Well with all things said and done the iPhone at the moment looks not just to leave a small hole in your pocket but indeed a crater because the 4GB model will come in at a slice under £600 while the 8GB could be as much as £660 according to some early, pre-order prices on Amazon Germany. This compares to approximately £255 and £306 in the US.

So just like Bill Gates, Steven Jobs has demonstrated that like most successful mega-companies he doesn't know how to do currency conversions correctly. I know that there is some talk of inflation among the Sterling but come on Jobs that's really pushing it. Imagine if Jobs was our Chancellor of the Exchequer; what would his proposal be 20% tax for the super rich like Roman Abramovich and Lakshmi Mittal and only charge a meagre 75% for those on the lowest incomes!

Ok so enough of the small talk check the following facts:

- The iPhone will be 3G when it arrives in Europe but it will not arrive for a year – not the end of 2007 as expected.

- It will be a closed device and will only run software released by Apple.

- It will use Apple’s DRM software FairPlay which, ironically, no one thinks is fair, at all. This will help tie people into bought music from iTunes, unless they opt to play DRM-free MP3s.

- Apple could win the right to use the iPhone name in Europe, thanks to a loophole says Outlaw.com.

“Trade mark specialist Lee Curtis of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, has found a legal loophole, though, which could strip Cisco of its European rights. He told technology law podcast OUT-LAW Radio that in Europe a person can lodge a revocation application against a trade mark registration if the trade mark has not been used for the past five years.” Read more about that here.

Now obviously many weren't expecting the phone to be the same price as in the US but talk about milking it. If I did currency conversions like this in Maths then God help me.

Nokia E90 Communicator

This is the good-looking Nokia E90 Communicator which got its official launch today at 3GSM. And it’s as good looking an ‘all-in one’ business device as you’ll get.

Key features include Quad band, GSM, HSDPA and WiFi. It sports a 3.2MP camera with auto-focus and flash as well as a second VGA camera on the inside for video calls. The big display is also a plus by allowing you to view the full width of Web pages and the keypad looks like it can be used by people with fingers larger than a 4-year old.

There’s also an FM radio, video player and MP3 functionality, a handy mini-USB slot for easier hook-ups and don’t forget Nokia Maps for making sure corporate jet-setters can find their way safely from the hotel to the lap-dancing bar and back. Due out in Q2.

The unsubsidised price is around £500 which is quite a bombshell but I expect there will be an influx of demand for these on contract. My uncle who is a driving instructor bases his business around the Communicator 9500 which is vital for his self run business thanks to the organiser feature and video playing capabilities; so there is no doubt that this sounds a cut even above that.

Nokia 5700

For those of you not obsessed with anorexic phones, Nokia thinks it has just the answer with the musically inclined 5700 XpressMusic and its twisty bottom.

It’s 3G with quad-band GSM and Bluetooth and, widescreen display which has a resolution of 240x320 for viewing videos and photos. The camera stays the same at 2MP.

The twisting base offer access to the four key functions: music player, camera, video call and smartphone. Memory can be expanded up to 2GB using microSD cards. The downside seems to be that there’s no mention of an FM radio and internal memory is a measly 35Mb.

The price will be around £240 before taxes etc.