Apple last night confirmed months of rumours by announcing a new iPhone as well as a release date for the iPhone OS 3.0 software update. The announcements seem to be getting a mixed reaction, with most people seemingly impressed by the software update, but not so much by the new iPhone.
iPhone 3G S
The new iPhone is really a refresh of the current one, rather than something completely new. Rumours of an iPhone Mini and iPhone Pro have been around for months, but as with most Apple rumours, they were just that. The name of the new phone is unusual too, with the ‘S’ referring to Speed – the iPhone 3G S is noticeably faster than its predecessor.
The iPhone 3G S is the same shape & style as the current iPhone 3G, but with a number of changes internally – the main changes are with the Camera, Processor, Storage and Battery, and a couple of new software features not available to the iPhone 3G. The iPhone 3G S will be available on O2 and is due for release in the UK on the 19th of June
iPhone 3G S Features:
3.2 MP Camera with Touch Focus
Video Recording and Editing
Digital Compass for improved mapping
Voice Control for calls and iPod
16GB & 32 GB Models
iPhone OS 3.0
iPhone 3G S - No Cosmetic Changes
For a more detailed walk through on the new iPhone 3G S head over to the Stuff.tv website where they give it a full run through.
iPhone OS 3.0
Previously announced back in March, iPhone OS 3.0 hasn’t really changed much from the version that we reviewed recently. A few additional features have been added to the line up, including the option to download Movies, TV Shows and audio books direct to your phone over a 3G network. Internet tethering has been confirmed for the UK too – this is where you can connect your iPhone to your PC using Bluetooth or USB and use it as a modem to connect to the internet (in the same way as a mobile broadband dongle). iPhone tethering rates on O2 are £14.68 per month for 3GB of data, and £29.36 for 10GB of data. More information on iPhone tethering. iPhone OS 3.0 will be released on the 17th of June and will be a free upgrade to iPhone users and there will be a small charge (amount not confirmed) for iPod Touch users.
Landscape Typing in iPhone OS 3.0
iPhone OS 3.0 Features
Cut, Copy & Paste
MMS
Search
Movies, TV and Books in iTunes store
Internet Tethering
Shake to Shuffle Music
Stereo Bluetooth
Find my iPhone and Remote Wipe (MobileMe users only)
It’s finally here! It might have taken 2 years, but there is finally an official Sat Nav Application for the iPhone.
TomTom demonstrated the software at last nights WWDC conference in America and have said that it will be available soon in the app store. As well as the Sat Nav application, TomTom also revealed the iPhone car kit – a charging cradle that takes advantage of the new iPhone 3.0 software, and uses a GPS receiver in the cradle to boost the GPS Signal being received by the phone for greater accuracy. The cradle is an optional extra and the sat nav will work perfectly fine with out it. TomTom software will be compatible with iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S.
Updated Cradle Specs:
GPS Receiver built in to enhance Internal GPS (might also work on iPod Touch but not confirmed)
Charges iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S
Built in loud speaker for turn by turn directions
External microphone for calls
Built in FM Transmitter for playing music through car stereo
Can be used in landscape or portrait mode
Mini USB Charger connection
More details can be found on the TomTom website, although they’re staying tight lipped about pricing and a possible release date.
Update: Sat Nav manufacturer Garmin have confirmed that they are not working on an iPhone solution as this could do damage to their upcoming Nuivfone, However Navigon & TeleNav will be releasing applications.
TomTom posted this video on their YouTube channel as a teaser for what’s to come.
We’ve got a busy few months coming up for handset releases as head into the summer. Some of the biggest handset releases of 2009 will take place in the next few months. Nokia finally release the highly anticipated Nokia N97 and their first 8MP camera phone, the Nokia N86. HTC release the stunning Touch Pro2 and the Sony Ericsson Satio ( Idou ) goes head to head with the Samsung Omnia HD and the Pixon12. If you don’t need an all singing, all dancing mobile, then you won’t be feeling left out either, as Nokia will be releasing the replacement for the ‘old faithful’ 6300 – the Nokia 6700.
To save you time searching the internet for release dates, we’ve complied a list of the latest handsets and their approximate release dates. If there is a particular handset that you’re after, leave a comment below and we’ll look into it for you.
It’s been a busy few days for the guys over at Sony Ericsson, with not 1, but 3 handsets being officially launced. The first – Satio, is the official name for the 12MP touchscreen ‘Idou’ that was announced back in February and is covered on a separate post.
The Idou certainly attracted a lot of attention at the Mobile World Congress, and the Aino & Yari will no doubt turn a few heads too.
First up then is the Sony Ericsson Yari. The name is unusual, especially as Sony Ericsson are known for using model numbers with letter prefix to determine the range the handset belongs to ( think W for Walkman, C for Cyber-Shot etc..), but as Sony Ericsson are moving towards a new ‘Entertainment Unlimited’ range, I suppose the naming rules had to change too. Anyway, back to the phone. The Yari is a Slide handset that is a strong all round multimedia handset, with a 5MP camera, HSDPA for faster Internet, GPS, 2.4" screen and support for 16GB memory cards.
The one feature though that makes this phone stand out though is something new called gesture gaming. I say new, gesture gaming has been around for a while, since the introduction of accelerometers anyway, but the Yari takes this a step further. As well as being able to detect movement and translate this into game controls, the Yari can use its camera to detect movement and translate them in to game moves too (similar concept to eyetoy for the Playstation 2). Add this to multiplayer support, and you’ve got a whole new gaming experience on a mobile phone. Sony Ericsson have tried to launch a gesture gaming phone before, the F305, but this had limited success, as most other features on the phone were quite low spec. Hopefully with the Yari having a better camera, more storage and faster internet, this will have more success.
The Menu system on the Yari has been given an upgrade too, you can now view your geo-tagged photos on a map on the phone using Google Maps and you can send your images directly to Flickr & Picasa. In a first, the Yari also has a fully featured Walkman music player, despite the handset not being branded as a walkman device, the camera too has most of the features that you would normally only find on a Cyber-Shot branded phone.
The Sony Ericsson Yari is expected to go on sale around September 2009, Register your interest for priority stock availability.
Next up is Aino, a touch screen Multimedia phone with a twist & baby brother the Satio.
The Aino has been designed act as a streaming media player when connected to a PS3 Console, so once you are connected to your Wi-Fi network, you’ll be able to access and control any music, pictures and video stored on your PS3 on your handset. The Aino also supports DLNA for watching back your media on networked TV’s and PC’s (What is DLNA).
The Aino has some pretty impressive features: 3" Touch screen display with Numerica Keypad, 8MP Camera, Support for 16GB memory cards, GPS, HSDPA & Wi-Fi for faster internet browsing. The Aino is though to include a desktop charging stand matching Bluetooth Headset.
The Menu system is the same as is found on nearly all Sony Ericsson handsets, the only real difference is that parts of it are now touch controlled. The camera, the FM radio, the gallery, the Walkman and the video player are enabled for touch control, with the rest of the phone being controlled using the traditional D-pad.
As with the Yari, the Aino has a fully featured Walkman Player and Camera. The camera on the Aino though has a touch based interface and is capable of recording video at near DVD quality. You can also sync your content to the phone using Wi-Fi, rather than USB.
The Aino also has Wayfinder navigation software preinstalled, along with Google Maps.
Sony Ericsson were the first to announce a 12MP camera phone back in February and I didn’t think it would be long before we started to see 12MP camera phones from Samsung and LG. Well here we are just 3 months later and Samsung have just revealed the Pixon12 – their first 12MP touchscreen camera phone.
As well as an increase in the resolution, the Pixon12 will also feature a 28mm wide angle lens, a Xenon flash, a Power LED flash and support D1 Video Recording. (D1 is full TV quality, 720×480 resolution) as well as the range of features already on the Pixon.
The Pixon12 (M8910) has more going for it though than just an improved camera. It has an AMOLED display, which will help improve battery life and give a much crisper, clearer display as well as Wi-Fi – an addition that was missing in the original Pixon.
As with the current model, the Pixon12 won’t be a smartphone, and will run on the same ‘TouchWiz’ interface as the Pixon.
The Samsung Pixon12 is due to be release in June – ahead of the Sony Ericsson Satio (Idou).
While there aren’t many real surprises here, Sony Ericsson have confirmed that the phone will run on the same operating system as the Nokia 5800 and the Samsung Omnia HD, making the this first S60 handset from Sony Ericsson. The other feature that was previously unmentioned is that the camera will have touch focus. This allows you to focus on an object in your photo by pressing the screen – a feature first seen on the G900 last summer.
Most of the features remain unchanged from those revealed in February, and the phone is still the most impressive handset to be announced by Sony Ericsson for quite a few years. Confirmed features on the phone include:
The newly announced HTC Snap is due for release in July, and is available now to pre order.
The Snap runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and features a QWERTY keyboard, 2MP camera, WiFi, 3G and Bluetooth. Unlike most other HTC devices, the Snap is not a touchscreen device and resembles the popular BlackBerry range of handsets.
For pricing information, or to order yours now – head over to the HTC Snap product page.
Considering they only do one phone, the amount of attention drawn to the Apple iPhone is quite surprising, and at this time of year the Apple rumour mill kicks into overdrive. Apple are well known for introducing yearly updates for most of its products. The iPod for example has been updated around September almost every year since its introduction. It seems as though Apple are keen to follow in the iPod’s footsteps by announcing a new iPhone around June/July. We had the first generation iPhone announced in July 2007, and the current iPhone 3G was announced last June at their annual Developers Conference (WWDC).
Apple have just announced that this years Developers Conference is scheduled for the 8th June, and its already been discovered in the code of the new iPhone 3.0 operating system that there could be 2 new iPhones and 2 new iPod Touch models being announced. So what are we likely to see?
It looks like Nokia have finally managed to keep a handset under wraps until its official launch!
UPDATE: Well, we spoke to soon! It turns out that the N97 was featured on the on the Nokia roadmap a few weeks ago!
Earlier this morning Nokia unveiled their next flagship device the N97 – a full touchscreen handset with slide out QWERTY keypad (think Xperia X1).
In terms of spec, the handset sits close to the N96, but with quite a few extras. The slide out QWERTY keypad is a first for Nokia, although this format has been around for many years, Nokia have always stayed away from it. Given the current popularity of smartphones and the increased number of phones with full keyboards, it was only a matter of time until Nokia introduced it. The display is an impressive 3.5" touchscreen – its a bigger display than that of the 5800 XpressMusic and the same as the Apple iPhone 3G. (The biggest screen is still the HTC Touch HD at 3.8")
Although similar to Nokia communicators of old, the N97 is clearly a social phone rather than a business users device, although there’s nothing stopping it from being a powerful business tool. It has a heavy focus on social networking and entertainment. A new customisable home screen allows you to add custom widgets to show live updates from sites such as facebook, myspace etc..
For all the music and video that you’ll no doubt want to be downloading and carrying around with you, the N97 has 32GB of internal memory, which can be expanded (upto 48GB) with a MicroSD card. The battery life on the N97 is promised as providing upto 37 hours of music playback and upto 4.5 hours of video.
Key Features:
5MP camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens
Dual LED flash
GPS
HSDPA
Wi-Fi
USB 2.0
Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)
3.5mm headphone jack
More details will be available as we get closer to its launch, which is expected to be the first half of 2009. Click on the images below to view larger images.
It’s finally here! It might have taken 2 years, but there is finally an official Sat Nav Application for the iPhone.
Sony Ericsson were the first to announce a 12MP camera phone back in February and I didn’t think it would be long before we started to see 12MP camera phones from Samsung and LG. Well here we are just 3 months later and Samsung have just revealed the 
Earlier this morning Nokia unveiled their next flagship device the N97 – a full touchscreen handset with slide out QWERTY keypad (think Xperia X1).
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