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

Orange have confirmed today that their network will be selling the iPhone to its customers sometime before the year is out, ending the exclusivity that O2 have selflishly claimed for so long. “reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3G and 3GS to Orange UK customers later this year.” was the quote to have come from the network provider and Apple have also confirmed this.

Making it available in 28 countries worldwide, Orange will be selling it through all of its businesses, shops, online and over the phone. They have also stated it will be available through its “high street partners”. Prices and availability are  unclear at the moment but at least we will be getting more options to snap it up.

They are already allowing customers to register an interest at www.orange.co.uk/iphone

Oh dear, seems a few people are suffering burnt body parts from hot iPhones. A lot of complaints are being made about some serious heat issues. You’d think with the new all singing and dancing iPhone only being out a fortnight this issue might just be a firmware bug but it seems its quite a big problem, to which Apple has responded.

If your phone is exceeding “normal operating temperatures” Apple says it can affect phone charging, display brightness and signal strength. If your iPhone gets too hot Apple recommends you 1) don’t leave it in parked car , 2) don’t leave it in direct sunlight and 3) don’t use processor-intensive Apps in hot conditions (ie using the ipod feature in the sun, or using GPS in a hot car)

If the white iPhone discolouration complaint continues (for those who may not know, people have been reporting that the white backed iPhones when getting extremely hot have discoloured the white plastic to a pink colour) may lead Apple to recall its “Jesus” of smartphones.

Source : T3

No doubt trying to steal some of Palms thunder WildCharge have announced a wireless charging solution for the iPhone.

Starting today, iPhone (3G and 3GS included) and iPod touch users can order up a WildCharge Skin along with a WildCharger Pad in order to bring wire-free charging to their Smartphone.

The phone will require a skin and this is then placed on a charging pad.

The cost? A not to obscene $34.99 for the skin, or $79.99 for the skin and pad.

With the conference been and gone, we gave you some snippets of news. The lower priced MacBook excited me personally, but with so much going on we’ll give you a summary of everything else.

Read the rest of this entry »

Well the first day of WWDC is over and as expected there has been a new iPhone announced, the iPhone 3G S.

This announcement will come under mixed views as the 3G S isn’t so much of a new phone more just an upgrade.

The phone looks pretty much exactly the same however the processor has been upgraded, it is now 3.5G (7.2Mbps HSDPA), the camera is now a 3 megapixel unit with tap-to-autofocus and auto white balance with support for 30fps VGA video recording with editing features. The battery has also been improved with 5 hours of 3G talk time and 9 hours of WiFi internet use.

Finally there is the improved storage of 16GB and 32GB which should be priced as $199 and $299 respectively.

It will go on sale in the US on June 18th and 80 more countries in August. Interestingly this sounds like the new iPhone will beat the Pre on international release.

They are all obviously welcome additions, though I personally think some of them should of been there from the start i.e. 7.2Mbps HSDPA and video recording.

I do think it is perhaps a bit of a lazy release, it seems each iteration of the iPhone is very incremental to keep maintain a certain level of demand for each year. Personally I would of liked to see an OLED screen, Xenon Flash and better graphics capability as well as full flash support.

Hit the jump for a side by side comparison of the iPhone 3G & 3G S

Read the rest of this entry »

According to Kotaku which claims sources close to Apple are reporting, the new model iPhone will contain a number of hardware changes from current iPhones and is rumoured to be hitting American Shelves around July 17th.

The new SKU will include a built-in 3D graphics chip offering better performance and speed for games and apps. Improved Bluetooth support is also a feature, increasing reliability and performance of wireless connections perhaps for future compatibility to wireless keyboards, games controllers and other third-party bluetooth devices

This obviously shows Apple’s appetite to improve their handheld platform with more rumours of Apple buying into game developers and bringing more “in-house” game development. Another rumour is that the AppStore will get a makeover to accommodate the games content.

The WWD conference next week will confirm whether or not these rumours are true.

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