Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

There has been some rumours within AT&T that the new iPhone will be launched in June this year which will bring many new features for the iPhone as well as better integration with mobile network’s own services.

Apparently the source is reasonably high up at AT&T and some of the details leaked were:

• New iPhone announcement around mid-June
• New iPhone will be faster and have a more seamless experience unmatched by any device.
• U-Verse iPhone application; will allow control of your home DVR (play, pause, rewind, etc.)
• The annual iPhone launch is “becoming a tradition.”
• Nothing official is being confirmed, but they said that people should prep for an exciting time this summer.
• AT&T is said to be working with Apple to create a unified product with an unparalleled experience across all their products and services.
• Apple’s 3.0 software should tell us where the iPhone platform is going.
• They said customers shouldn’t need to choose from AT&T’s high-end devices because of features, they should choose based on preferences. The gap in capability should be filled with the new iPhone. Ok, bets on slide out QWERTY, autofocus camera, video sharing, blah blah?
• Seems like the higher speed HSDPA (7.2Mbps) is being hinted at too which should confirm the earlier rumours of the new Infineon chipset.
• The $99 3G netbook will start selling this summer, and the first one won’t be a Windows OS.

Via http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/03/23/att-new-iphone-will-be-hot-son/BGR

It is possible that Apple may be preparing an OLED iPhone for release later this year, according to a source at Korean electronics giant LG.

Apple have contacted LG to supply various sizes of OLEDs and an anonymous source has snitched that one of the screens will definitely end up in the next generation of iPhone.

Apple have previously quashed rumours that the next iPhone will be OLED but making the move to OLED would make quite a bit of sense for Apple. Due to the fact that OLEDs do not require a backlight to display the images/videos on the screen it means there an improvement in battery life. OLEDs are also thinner than LCDs as they do not require the backlight source and they also have a better picture quality. So the question really is why wouldn't they go for OLED?

Also the Palm Pre will be out in the next few months which is definitely touted as one of the big competitors to the iPhone and it only uses an LCD screen, so if the next iPhone had an OLED screen they already have one up on Palm

via Smarthouse

It looks like Apple are finally adding some of the much in demand functionality to their iPhone OS. Two of the main features that people have been going on and on about are the ability to Cut, copy and paste and also send MMS.

There seems to be quite a lot of updates which is certainly good news for the Apple Fanboys. However it is not quite all good news. If you are a iPod touch owner you will have to fork our $9.95 and for 1st gen iPhone owners you won’t get A2DP or MMS due to hardware limitations.

A developer beta of OS 3.0 is available today and the full free update will be coming to all iPhone users in the summer.

General functionality

• Cut, copy and paste. You can shake the phone to undo and redo the action, and it works with both text and photos.
• MMS, along with forward and delete for multiple messages.
• A2DP stereo Bluetooth.
• Unlocked Bluetooth functionality on 2G iPod touch.
• Spotlight has been added to a new home screen page to the left of existing pages, allowing for universal search on the phone.
• Tethering is built into 3.0, and Apple will work with carriers on that.
• App Store will be available in 77 countries.
• Parental controls for TV shows, movies and App Store apps.
• Auto-login for WiFi hotspots.

Apple apps

• A new app called Voice Memos which lets you record notes and reminders.
• A revised Stocks app, with news stories and a landscape view.
• Landscape view available for Mail, Text and Notes.
• CalDAV support has been added to Calendar, along with subscriptions support in the .ics format.
• Apple's major apps have all been expanded with search functionality.
• Note syncing to Mac and PC.
• YouTube account support.
• Form auto-fill.
• Phishing protection.
• Shake the shuffle iPod playback.

App and developer functionality

• Peer-to-peer connectivity over Bluetooth for gaming and other info-swapping.
• Paid apps will have the potential to be subscription fee-based, and can include optional paid content that can be bought from right inside the app.
• Developers can now build apps that call out to Google Maps, and can also finally bring Apple-blessed turn-by-turn to the phone.
• Devs can also connect with hardware accessories over in their apps now, such as a blood pressure monitor -- or perhaps a keyboard? Connectivity works through the dock connector or over Bluetooth.
• Long-promised push functionality will at last be included, but apps won't run in the background.
• Developers can add streaming video and audio to their apps, along with in-game voice use.

We previously blogged about how the new iPod Shuffle may have a special hardware authentication chip which is required to control the shuffle.

It has now been confirmed by 3rd parties that the new shuffle earphones do require a authentication chip and Apple will require companies to pay a licence fee to be part of the Made for iPod program.

However apparently the chip isn't encrypted or otherwise locked down in any way, so it's easily cloned by companies who'd rather not pay but this will mean the earphones will not be able to carry the “Made for iPod certification” logo which will probably lead to a loss in sales.

via Engadget

News that's currently unconfirmed by O2, it's said the operator wants to clear stocks before the next, third-gen iPhone launches, rumoured for release in July.

Currently the iPhone 3G 8GB is available from free on £44.05 a month contracts while the 16GB iPhone is free only on a £73.41 a month contract.
Mobile reports that from May the iPhone 3G will be free on £35 a month contracts (or technically £34.26 tariffs due to the VAT cut) while it's suggested the 16GBer will go free on £45 tariffs.

Just two days ahead of time, Kevin Rose at a Diggnation Live show at SXSW mentions some things about what’s coming, and what’s not, with the new iPhone 3.0 software.

Kevin says the iPhone 3.0 will have copy and paste and that the interface is much like the magnifying glass -- you use two fingers to select the text you want, and then you can cut or copy.

However the new OS wont have support for background apps and he has not heard about MMS functionality.

It is believed that Apple is going to try and squeeze some extra money out of companies planning to produce earphones for the new iPod Shuffle. iLounge is reporting that the new iPod shuffle can only be controlled by headphones with a special hardware authentication chip. That means that third parties will have to pay Apple for the privilege of making shuffle-compatible accessories.

Considering the earphones supplied by Apple tend to be pretty crap I am pretty sure I would never consider buying this anymore.

Not exactly earth shattering news but Apple have put a new line up of iMacs, Mac Pros and Mac Minis on the Apple Store. In general it is just bumping up the specs to meet with current hardware.

iMac:

• £949.00/$1199 (only 20″ model) - 2.66 GHz, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, 320GB HD
• £1,199.00 / $1499 (24″) - 2.66 GHz, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, 640GB HD
• £1,499.00 /$1799 (24″) - 2.93 GHz, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120, 640GB HD
• £1,799.00 / $2199 (24″) - 3.06 GHz, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 130, 1TB HD

Mac Mini:

• £499.00/ $599 - 2.0GHz, 1GB 1066 MHz DDRS SDRAM, GeForce 9400M, 120GB HD, 8x SuperDrive, Mini DisplayPort, mini-DVI, 5 USB Ports, FireWire 800 Port
• £649.00 / $799 - 2.0GHz, 2GB 1066 MHz DDRS SDRAM, GeForce 9400M, 320GB HD, 8x SuperDrive, Mini DisplayPort, mini-DVI, 5 USB Ports, FireWire 800 Port

Mac Pro:

• £1,899.00/$2499 - 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 3500 processor, 3GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120, 640GB HD
• £2,499.00$3299 - Dual 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5500 processors, 6GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120, 640GB HD