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

China’s InfoTimes is reporting via Foxconn(the makers of the iPhone) that Apple will be releasing a Netbook. Its reported to have a 9.7” touchscreen and you should be able to pick one up for $800 in the U.S. What price that would mean for the UK remains to be seen but personally, I can’t see it being more than £800.

This is a surprise really after Steve Jobs slated netbooks and said "As best as we can tell, there's not a lot of them being sold." So why the turn round especially when we also said "one of our entrants into that category if you will is the iPhone, for browsing the internet, and doing email and all the other things that a netbook lets you do".

All this is just strong rumours at the moment so we wont know the full details unless its announced. The main questions whats powerin it and what OS is it running. Will it be good enough for Snow Leopard or will it run an iPhone 3.0 style OS? Who knows?

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.

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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

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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

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.