The G3 iPhone Has Finally Arrived
Today at the WWDC conference Steve Jobs officially announced the launch of the long expected G3 iPhone. I don't think there was a doubt in anyones minds that the G3 iPhone wouldn't be announced today. Apple doesn't seem to be surprising anyone these days with their announcements. Buying out and silencing AppleInsider.com did them a lot of good. Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I will definitely be upgrading to the G3 iPhone.
There are two models being launched on July 11th, the 8GB and 16GB models. The cost of the 8GB model is eye-opening to say the least, $200. Albeit, you need to sign up for a new 2 year contract with AT&T to qualify for the low price being advertised. Current customers will receive a different price based upon the length of time they have had their original iPhone and service plan. The word is that the data plan will be an extra $30 per month for the 3G support.
One of the best features that will now be a part of the 3G iPhone is GPS. There have definitely been times that I could have used GPS on my iPhone. With the introduction of 3rd party applications launching as well, there will also be many other undetermined uses and cool tricks that incorporate GPS I am sure.
Apple also announced a re-branding and update to their popular .Mac network and technology, which is now called MobileMe. The coolest thing about the technology is that it automatically updates all your information such as phonebooks and calender that can be accessed from your phone, computer and any web browser. The updates are instant and when changed on one device the new information is available on all devices. I know my sister had a hard time letting go of her Treo because she needed a software application outside her phone to access her address book and calender, if her company doesn't block her access on www.Me.com then she might have found a new phone that is definitely better than the Treo.
One of the other announcements today that has miffed everyone is the new and improved battery life of the iPhone. The hours of use announced were staggering such as 24 hours of music playing hours and 5 hours of regular G3 use. They haven't announced how they were able to do this but I am certainly excited. There was also talk of improved audio in the new iPhone but they didn't really demonstrate that in the presentation and it remains to be seen what that means.
All in all, I am very excited and plan to hand my current iPhone down to my dad and make the upgrade immediately at launch. This is clearly what the iPhone needed to become even after the initial launch of the now inferior version. Most of the changes were well known wishes and complaints of Fanboys this past year and as usual there are of course complaints that there were no other...