The Inquisitr » wwdc

AT&T: Working hard to ruin your iPhone experience

Kim LaCapria — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:30:05 +0000

The iPhone- is there anything it can’t do? A whole hell of a lot, thanks to AT&T.

Swiftly following WWDC coverage, particularly surrounding the iPhone 3gS, came an outpouring of unfettered rage in the blogosphere. The iPhone seems poised to remain the most buzzed about, sought after phone on the market, even with the Palm Pre’s attempts to cut in on market share. But will AT&T ever stop holding the iPhone back?

First up in a laundry list of grievances is cost-related. AT&T noobs can buy in on a 3G at $99. 3GS phones will set new customers and upgrade eligible customers back $199-299. Already sprung for an iPhone? Expect to be rewarded for your loyalty with an additional $200 penalty to get your grubby mitts on the shiny new models. Did I mention they’re faster and have slightly improved battery life?

Next on the list comes tethering- using your iPhone as a modem. Expect to see this feature delayed indefinitely until AT&T decides just how much they can wring out of us for it before we decide driving around for an open-WiFi connection at 2:30am is worth the hassle.

Another sore spot- MMS messaging. iPhone users have been deprived the privilege- nay, right- to ping-pong drunken kegstand pics about the airwaves as iPhones don’t support the ultra-basic function of picture messaging. AT&T gave users a target date of “sometime in late summer” but no solid information on when this will be available.

In a statement, AT&T said:

Based on independent market research, twice as many smartphone users have chosen AT&T over any other U.S. carrier.

I’m no business advisor, but I think they might want to look into ways to keep that whole momentum thing going.

Apple yanks umbilical chord, fanboys get all jizzy

Steven Hodson — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:12:06 +0000

For those of you who haven’t placed themselves under some rock somewhere it is kind of hard to escape the fact that Apple hosted its World Wide Developer Conference today that saw line-ups around a whole city block. As usual the rumors and prognostications have been going strong leading up to this morning’s keynote speech and as expected primed up the troops for their dose of Apple goodness.

So I guess it’s kind of cool that they rebranded the current iPhone as … the iPhone but with a kill the Pre buzz price of $99.00. This of course opened up the way for the announcement every iPhone fan was waiting for – well at least some of what they had been hoping for. Video, Voice Control, Auto focus, and of course the holy grail of the one feature to rule them all – cut and paste. all this goodness that has existed on other smartphones for years for the price of $199 (16GB) or $299 (32GB).

Not to mention that for everywhere else except the US iPhone 3GS (S for speed WooHoo!) users would have MMS and tethering capabilities at some point after the 19th of June. For the AT&T ~~suckers~~ customers – well you’ll just have to wait for some undeclared future point in time.

Now the real interesting point for me was the announcement of Snow Leopard being available for $29.00. For those not familiar with this new release of OS X it is an upgrade to the existing Leopard release of the Apple operating system. For anyone else who is having to get it for the first time it’ll still cost you $149.00 (plus the cost of the Mac computer).

In other words they are issuing a service pack that has some enhancements included and you get to pay for the privilege – wow. I can just image the uproar if Microsoft started charging for their service packs, but then of course everyone knows how evil Microsoft is by selling an operating system that can run on just about any computer configuration on the market.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Twitter love-fest and other such useful real-time ego puffing.

[picture courtesy of Digital Daily]

iPhone 3G To Start At $199

JR — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:15:05 +0000

It’s official: The new iPhone 3G is on the way and will start as low as $199. Steve Jobs revealed the news at Monday’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The iPhone 3G will be released July 11 in 22 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the United States. The black 8GB model will be marketed at $199, while the 16GB version — to be made available in either black or white — will go for $299.

The new phone will be a smaller and sleeker design with solid metal buttons and the same large display. The added 3G support will mean data downloads almost three times faster than EDGE speeds, Jobs said. The iPhone 3G is also 36 percent faster than other comparable phones like the Nokia N95 and Treo 750, according to Apple. It will also add integrated GPS support, which will allow for “tracking” — a moving dot on a real-time Google map showing your location.

The updated model is said to have 300 hours of standby battery life and double the amount of talk-time as its predecessor, with five full hours. It will offer five to six hours of high-speed browsing, seven hours of video, or 24 hours of audio without the need to recharge.

Jobs said the updated phone will include fully built-in enterprise support, third-party application support, as well as support for more countries than ever — now 70 total — thanks to the many added features in the upcoming iPhone 2.0 software package, also announced Monday along with a slew of new third-party applications.

Apple is hanging onto its goal of 10 million iPhone sales by the end of 2008 — a mark that will no doubt be made easier once the new phones hit store shelves.

Countdown To iPhone 2.0

JR — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:23:02 +0000

Steve Jobs is expected to announce an amped-up new iPhone later today.

Jobs’ keynote address at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, at 10 a.m. PDT, is widely anticipated to contain the news of the new 3G-capable phone. Rumor has it the cost will drop down to $199, too, and could be available as soon as the summer.

We’ll be watching and will bring you the developments as they happen right here.