Unveiling the new iPhone and more: WWDC 2008

So after hundreds of rumors and insider stories all over the wonderland (www), here we have the faster & cheaper - 3G iPhone. The new iPhone comes in two colours Black and White.

Here is the quick Specs:

• 3G - Apple claims 3G is faster than Nokia and Treo.
• Same camera - NO improvements
• The 3.5mm headphone jack is normal. So no fussy adapters required. Plugin your favourite earphones freely
• Better battery life
• 8GB version $199 and 16GB version $299
• Weight goes down by 2gms, thicker by 2mm. But thinner edges.

Looks like Apple has been keen on making the iPhone affordable and being powered by iPhone Firmware V 2.0, the loads of software’s and games (official this time!) makes the package much more interesting. Many of thee software are Free. Mobile Blogging Apps, Sega Games (Amazing Graphics) and more have been demoed. Also this time the New iPhone’s will launch in multiple countries simultaneously.

More on the iPhone 2.0:

1. Contacts search now available. So the conventional style of looking up contacts by typing the initial few letters is IN.

2. The new iPhone 2.0 firmware is free for the iPhone and leaves the iPod Touch users with a charge of 9.95$.

3. Ms office is not supported fully by iWork docs.

4. The Apple App Store now in 62 countries (up from 22 earlier)

5. Mobileme service: Syncs all your info across your PC, Mac and the iPhone over the air. keeping all of them up to date and synced. (www.me.com)

Apple iPhone in India - Your Questions on Unlocked iPhones

Want to buy an Apple iPhone in India ? Not sure if unlocked iphone works in India. Read this quick iPhone Guide before you purchase the iPhone from Indian mobile phone dealers.

1. Is the Apple iPhone available in India - Yes. you can easily purchase iPhone phones here.

2. If iPhone is available where can I buy i Phone in India - Apple hasn’t introduced iPhone officially in India but you can grab one from Palika Bazaar of Delhi or Heera Panna shopping complex of Mumbai. Alternatively, some online sites are also selling unlocked iPhone in India. The iPhone was earlier expected to debut in India via Reliance Retail. Most online iPhone suppliers in India do not share their contact address.

3. Will Indian iPhone work with the GSM SIM card of Airtel, Idea, BSNL or Vodafone? Yes but you cannot use the Visual Voicemail feature of iPhone. Also, iPhone is GSM based so it may not work with Tata Indicom or Reliance CDMA network.

4. Can I buy an unlocked iPhone in US and use it in India - Yes, the iPhone bought in US (or UK or Canada) will be compatible in India - you can just buy a local SIM card in India and replace the AT&T SIM. Make sure you read the Apple policies as this may break the warranty.

5. What about HCL and Wipro selling iPhone in India legally? There was a rumor that iPhone may be available in India through a legal route from Wipro and HCL as they were expected to sign a distribution deal soon with Apple for selling iPhone in India. No confirmation still.

6. Does Apple official sell an unlocked iPhone - Yes, they have launched an unlocked iPhone in France and it could soon be available in India. No need to pay mobile phone dealers for unlocking iPhone cell phones.

7. What about Apple Store - The first store will open in Bangalore for selling Macbooks, iPod, Apple TV and other Apple products but they won’t stock iPhone.

8. What is the price of iPhone in India - It varies but the time of writing, the unlocked 4GB iphone was around 20k while the 8GB unlocked iPhone was 30k. (includes shipping and taxes)

9. Should I wait for iPhone or invest in BlackBerry or Nokia N95 ? Read this comparison of smartphones - iPhone vs Blackberry, N95

10. I have bought an iPhone and manage to unlock it. Now what - If you are connecting to iTunes for transferring music, videos and photographs from the computer to the iPhone, iTunes may suggest that you upgrade the iPhone firmware to version 1.1.1 - Cancel and do not allow iTunes to update your iPhone as it will get locked again and become useless. Update: The new unlocked iPhones are shipping in India with firmware version 1.1.1.

11. I bought an iPhone in US and traveling to India on a business trip. How can I save on iPhone international roaming charges while making phone calls in India - Do not use the AT&T call service, instead make phone call over VoIP using the Wi-Fi option of iPhone. You can use Jajah or even Skype to make cheap international calls over the internet.

iPhone is a quad-band GSM mobile phone so it will working internationally in countries outside the US though you’ll have to ask AT&T to turn on international roaming on the iPhone and that the places you’re going offer GSM coverage. If you want to learn more about iPhone, here are iPhone books and iPhone tutorial DVDs that you may buy from Amazon.

iPhone 2 aka 3G iPhone Review

Though we can’t speak much without having the device in hand, there is a lot that we can sense. Using the 1st Gen iPhone for such a long period helps me visualize the changes that are needed. Apple has taken the feedback on its original iPhone quite seriously.

Looks: Great finishing. Apple always steals the show with the looks. To make up for the added weight of the GPS, 3G etc etc, the back of the new iPhone is plastic instead of Aluminum. Result the weight of the new iPhone is 2gms less than the original one.

3G: The obvious and much needed upgrade to the original EDGE iPhone. Add to that the Apple claims of faster loading compared to the Nokia N95 and the Treo.

GPS: A-GPS, this is good. This would drain the battery but then to handle that there is a upgraded battery from Apple. And with all this added the device still manages to remain as slim as the original iPhone.

iPhone 2.0: The 2.0 firmware is awesome. Checkout the cool upcoming games and apps. Many of these would be free!!

Camera: The same camera! This is bad. So wait untill 2009 for the 3rd Gen iPhones. lol

Battery: Wow, Now this is probably the best part. 5hrs 3G internet surfing, 24Hrs Mp3 playback, 7 hrs video playback, 5hrs 3G talktime, 10hrs 2G talk-time.

MobileMe subscription provides seamless integration of all your data between your PC/Mac and the iPhone.

Also not to forget Photo geotagging, iWork supports Ms Office (Word, Excel & Powerpoint), Contacts search and more.

Apple forbids navigation apps on iPhone 3G (except its own)

The Internets are abuzz with the announcement of an all-new iPhone, and with features like 3G data connections, new applications and GPS navigation, we're excited too. If you've been making plans to produce your own navigation app for iPhone 2.0, however, you may not be all that thrilled. A closer look at the iPhone SDK agreement shows that creating software for "real-time route guidance" is forbidden. This may mean that the creative kids at Cupertino aren't going to let anyone compete with the the Google maps solution it's already settled on. If true, companies like Garmin and TomTom, the latter of which has already confirmed that it's created a navigation app, would be unable to create salable navigation software for the popular touch-screen phone. Then again, you also can't do automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other mechanical devices; dispatch or fleet management software; or use the iPhone for emergency or life-saving purposes.

Our friends over at Engadget may be on to something, however, when they note that Apple may just be covering its rear-quarters in the event people start suing for bad directions. Lets hope it's just a liability thing, because competition is always a good thing when it comes to new technology, and we want some TomTom on our new iPhone.

AppleApple MacBook Air, the world's thinnest laptop

Apple has unveiled the MacBook Air ultraportable, the world’s thinnest notebook, at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco.

“The MacBook Air measures an unprecedented 0.16-inches at its thinnest point, while its maximum height of 0.76-inches is less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks,” the company’s press release says.

Along with a “spacious trackpad with multi-touch gesture support so users can pinch, rotate and swipe”, the Apple’s ultraportable has a 13.3-inch (1280×800) LED-backlit widescreen glossy display, a full-size backlit keyboard, an aluminum enclosure, and a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing. The MacBook Air is powered by a 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache, and includes as standard features 2GB of memory, an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive or an optional 64GB solid state drive, 802.11n wireless network support, Bluetooth 2.1 technology, the Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics, a micro-DVI port, and a single USB port. Ethernet LAN port and modem connection are provided via external USB adapters.

The MacBook Air, which weighs 3 pounds, has no built-in optical drive. Instead, users can buy an external DVD burner, called the MacBook Air SuperDrive, for $99. The SuperDrive is powered by MacBook Air’s USB port, eliminating the need to carry a separate power adapter.

According to product specifications, the notebook’s battery provides up to 5 hours of run time.

The new MacBook comes with Mac OS X Leopard operating system and will be shipping in two weeks through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $1,799.

The MacBook Air $1,799 configuration includes:

- 13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with 1280×800 resolution;
- 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache;
- 800 MHz front-side bus;
- 2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM;
- 80GB hard disk drive with Sudden Motion Sensor;
- Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100;
- Micro-DVI port (includes Micro-DVI to VGA and Micro-DVI to DVI Adapters);
- built-in iSight video camera;
- built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
- one USB 2.0 port;
- one headphone port;
- multi-touch TrackPad with support for advanced multi-touch gestures including tap, scroll, pinch, rotate and swipe; and
- 45 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

Build-to-order options and accessories include the ability to upgrade to a 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor; 64GB solid state drive, MacBook Air SuperDrive, Apple USB Ethernet Adapter, Apple USB Modem, Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter, Apple Remote and the AppleCare Protection Plan. Additional build-to-order options also include pre-installed copies of iWork ‘08, Logic Express 8, Final Cut Express 4 and Aperture 1.5.
 

Play Multiplayer Pong with your iPhones

Who said that the iPhone or iPod Touch can’t be great games consoles? As you can see from the picture above, you can play Pong with your friends from your iPhones. Just install the software and go head to head. It’s like playing Air Hockey only cooler as Apple is involved.

I always like to see what people can come up with. Especially when they go and use their smartphones for anything different than what it can already do. Remember the iPhone watering plant device? What about the surveillance iPhone system? Congrats to all those people inventing these “gadgets”.

As for the Pong software we still don’t know when and where it will be available and for what price. But I’d sure like go 2 out of 3 with some of my friends.

3G iPhone ‘Real’ Photos

We have showed you so far a bunch of so called 3G iPhone designs. They were black, they were white, they were slim and curvy. We even had some of AT&T choice menu for the new iPhone 2. All these proved to be misleading rumors or human errors.

That’s why I though I’d show you some more ingenious edited photos. This isn’t the 3G version although that’s what they pretend it its. They say the new iPhone will be available in red, white and black and they try to hint some changes like the camera placement or design. For starters they were showed on a greek iPhone site, which is hardly the place they will be released first.

Moving on then. We have almost two weeks for others to deliver more iPhone 3G designs.

Will Apple Go for Solar Batteries?

Apple filed a patent application on April 24th 2008 with the title “Sollar cells on portable devices”. Is that thinking out of the box or what? Imagine having your iPod, MacBook or your brand new iPhone equipped with such an alternative power means? They would charge as you go giving you extra hours or wireless fun and work.

The application says

Solar cells are typically stacked with other layers made of transparent or semi-transparent materials… Some of these layers may be used for display or input purposes, and some layers may be coated with various materials or they may be etched with product logos or other patterns.

That means that no matter how you hold your Apple device or no matter what weather we have, you would get some energy from the sun. I can’t wait to let you know these batteries are actually used in a device.

TeliaSonera to sell iPhone in the Nordic and Baltic markets

TeliaSonera, the dominant telephone company and mobile network operator in Sweden, Finland, Northern, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Spain, has announced their agreement with Apple to bring the popular Apple device to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia later this year.

TeliaSonera provides telecommunication services in the Nordic and Baltic countries, in Spain and the emerging markets of Eurasia, including Russia and Turkey. Given the wide range of coverage that TeleSonera has, there is no doubt the iPhone will gain worldwide popularity in a few years to come.

MacBook Air Gets a Proper Envelope

Did you buy your first MacBook Air already? How do you like it? Most importantly how do you carry it? Light as a feather, it could go into anything right?

The Guys over at BeyzaCASES have created this envelope created the Thinvelope. It’s made of leather and fits perfectly your MacBook Air. It doesn’t fit all the extra components I would fit it with to make it a truly dependable piece of technology.

For those of you interested in this Thinvelope, its price matches the Air’s. You can have one for $215 should you definitely need one.