iPhone launch fanboys pining for the official deets from the proverbial horses mouth: Listen up. Apple issued some of the final details regarding Friday's launch. Anyone looking for some eBay profiteering will be limited to two phones per person, but they can go pick up those phones till Midnight. Once you pick up your two iPhones, Apple stores will have trainers available at the Genius Bar so you can figure out how to use your $500 combination of plastic and metal.
The week is half over, and that means only 48 hours till the iPhone can be yours. In today's iHype, Apple continues to wet fanboy appetites with more video of the device in action, plus we get confirmation on what buyers remorse will cost you. Click read more to get the full info.
It's no surprise to us that Apple heads would start lining up the day before the iPhone goes on sale, but in the most densely populated city in the US, there are bound to be one or two crazy folks who decided to start standing in line for the iPhone today. Seriously, we're not joking. The two dudes pictured on the right are in line 100+ hours before the multi-touch wonder graces any of our fingertips. We're inclined to cite sheer craziness as the reason, but somehow the guys don't want to be left without an iPhone and figure 100+ of their arch rival fanboys will show up at 7PM, a full four days before the launch.
Hey, ya gotta be best at something. We'll give these two guys the title of best "Apple Fanboy Line Waiters (of doom.)" Way to be first.
Regardless of whether the iPhone supports "true" third-party applications or not, some enterprising development-types are planning a meetup to help develop applications specifically for the device. The meetup takes place in a "BarCamp" style event, where there aren't any specific presenters, but rather people volunteer to help lead sessions. The whole thing is being sponsored by Adobe, and happens in their San Francisco offices. We'd love to see some proper iPhone hacks come out of this event, and who knows, maybe they'll even figure out some extra internal knowledge of the device. If you want to participate, they've set up a wiki where you can find out more information.
We actually took a stroll out of the office today to see what all the hubub was about, headed down to the CambridgeSide Galleria and hit up the Apple store with our trusty video camera in tow. It's no dramatic chimpmunk, but check out the video for three minutes of iPhone mania.
LG'sChocolate is a pretty successful device in the US, and it looks like LG's design team is going pull a MotoRAZR on us and implement the design cues in a variety of devices. LG's KU850 hits Europe today with a bit wider form-factor. The phone embraces some extra width and loses some depth (we're talking size wise, not feature wise) and puts an interesting twist on the Chocolate design framework. The "fatty Chocolate," as cell phone geeks are dubbing the phone, sports Bluetooth 2.0, a 2 megapixel cam, a forward facing cam for video conferencing action, MicroSD and requisite HSDPA. Sounds pricey, but fun.
We've heard many-a Chocolate owner decry the touch sensitive send/end buttons on the face of the device, and looks like LG didn't listen for the KU850, but if some spy pics posted over at Engadget Mobile for the VX8550 are any indication, future implementations of the Chocolate look should move the send/end buttons into a less accident-prone place.
The iPhone hype (and counter-hype) is getting to an almost unbearable level, but there is still interesting news coming out about the device. The developer of GasApp revealed some iPhone specs by combing through server logs looking for visits by non-standard devices. He did find an iPhone entry detailing some of the iPhone's specs. The iPhone reported a resolution of 320 x 396, and as we reported earlier, doesn't support Flash.
More iPhone specs get out, and the anticipation builds, but the spec that really counts? 9. That's how many days left till your grubby little hands can grace the glass exterior.
Looks like YouTube is indeed headed to the iPhone, as Apple officially confirmed YouTube's presence as the twelfth bundled application. The player uses the support originally intended for Apple.TV (to our knowledge, anyway) using h.264 streaming support. YouTube has converted about 10,000 videos over for today's launch of YouTube on the AppleTV, and YouTube says they're planning to continue to convert videos to h.264 till their entire library plays on the AppleTV and iPhone, which should be complete in the fall.
Uh oh... European airline passengers' dreams of flying the quiet skies might be on their way out as AirBus just received approval for an on-board mobile phone system from the EASA, the European Aircraft Safety Agency (think FAA for Europe.) Apparently, the crew on each flight can set the system to only accept data transmissions (aka "Quiet mode") and everyone will just have to listen to thumb-board clicking, as opposed to the outright yapping of current public transit. Right now the system is only being rolled out in smaller aircraft designed for short-haul flights, so only an hour of annoyance instead of six.
We've heard some rumblings of a new fashion phone from Nokia, and the rumored 7900 looks like it might fit the rumored bill. The phone, yet to be confirmed, is rumored to be a quad-band GSM phone with HSDPA support likely. A German Nokia fanboy site has the scoop, and says to expect a QVGA screen (320x240) with 1GB of internal storage and a 1.3MP camera. Other than the absolutely unacceptable resolution of the camera, the camera doesn't sound too shabby under the hood, and it sure is a looker. The keypad is, if nothing else, a unique take on traditional mobile phone keypads. US readers, don't get too excited; our spider senses tell us this phone probably won't be hitting US shores anytime soon (if ever.)
While the GSM version of Motorola's Q won't be hitting stores for a few months, one has shown up on eBay. If that weren't enough, a GSM version of the yet-to-be announced Q9H also has made an appearance on the auction site.
The site lists the Q9h specs as a quad-band phone supporting HSDPA, a two megapixel camera, A2DP, MicroSD slot and the seller throws in a 512mb SD card. The hardest spec to swallow? The $750 pricetag. However, since the phone hasn't hit store shelves yet, one would expect to drop a significant premium on such an illusive device.
The other unreleased device, the GSM Q, doesn't see any major spec changes from it's CDMA cousin (other than EDGE data, which is expected,) but it's still a quad band phone with 128 MB of internal memory, Bluetooth, 2.4" screen and other standard specs for a phone that's essentially a year old. The phone is the black version, sans branding from anyone, and the sellers say the phone is unlocked. The price? This one will run you $500, which costs as much as some other hotly anticipated phone available in 10 days.
With the Pearl seeing widespread success (including a place in my pocket) the newly leaked specs of the Pearl 2 look to improve upon what the Pearl started, and if true, improve well. The rumored specs include many media centric features, like a 3.5mm headphone jack, A2DP support (for Stereo Bluetooth headphones,) support for WMA DRM (no word on PlaysForSure, but we'll assume) external MicroSD slot and support for streaming media. Beyond the media highlights, the device is rumored to sport a 3.2 megapixel camera, improved flash and come in some new colors (like the pictured blue, which we think is a render.) BGR reports RIM is planning a huge marketing campaign for the device, but something tells us that if they deliver on these rumored specs, we'll be sold (again) with or without marketing. Keep in mind this is contrary from the specs we heard earlier, but we're fans of fixing the major shortcomings of a device before promising a major overhaul, so no biggie.
Helio won't be the only company with some MySpace action for the kids for long, as the Boy Genius Report uncovered an FAQ document revealing T-Mobile's Sidekick will get its own MySpace application. Current SK3 and SK ID users should be able to install it in the near future from the Sidekick catalog, and BGR says the app should come pre-installed on the next-gen Sidekick Zante.
The app gives MySpace addicts a BlackBerry-esque approach to the social networking behemoth's system, allowing for instant notification of new comments, friend requests, messages and photo comments. Doesn't look like the app shows off those painfully ugly custom profiles, since it's merely extracting profile information, but users will be able to see how many of their friends are online, add photos and otherwise participate in the MySpace community. No word on exactly when the app will hit the Sidekick catalog, but seeing how the FAQ is already on T-Mo's site, it should be fairly soon.
Worried that their "up to five hours" of talk time claim during January's iPhone reveal announcement wasn't enough, Apple put out a press release stating the iPhone would get eight hours of talk time, six hours of internet use, seven hours of video playback or 24 hours of audio playback plus ten days of standby time. Apple also says that instead of plastic, the front of the iPhone will flaunt glass, in order to stop scratches and improve optical clarity.
That's great and all from the manufacturer, but instead of taking their word for it come back to our site on June 29th. We'll have a real-life battery test going on from the second it gets fully charged in our labs till the second it dies. That, and scads of other iPhone coverage coming at you in just 11 days.
This week's nudie pics come from the recently released BlackBerry 8830 world-phone on Verizon. The phone is basically the same as it's 8800 brethren, 'cept this model sports both CDMA (for the US) and GSM world bands. Check out the pics after the break for both Qualcomm CDMA chips AND a GSM SIM-card under the hood.
Just in case you've been waiting with baited breath like we have for the iPhone launch plan, apparently Boy Genius once again grabbed the early word. His typically reliable sources are saying the store will be open normally, then close at 4:30pm. During the 4:30 to 6:00 window, the phones should be delivered as well as displays set out during that time. His sources also report the stores should stay open as late as midnight to account for the rush.
We'll see more when it happens on June 29th, and trust us, we'll be first in line to get our hands on the phone.
We've been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for some extra details on Sony Ericsson's new phone lineup, and finally they're official. Of course, there's the K850 (pictured, third from left) we wrote about earlier, but there's also some information on the two new Walkman phones to the party, the W910 and W960.
The W960 rocks a full 8GB of onboard storage (like some other music-phone we keep hearing about,) a 3.2 megapixel camera and a touchscreen. The W910 (pictured, first from left) doesn't have any crazy onboard storage, but does have a two megapixel cam, requisite A2DP support and will come in both black and red colors.
All three phones feature the aforementioned Gracenote technology for song identification, ala Verizon's VCast implementation for which you might be seeing ads. Sony Ericsson also announced two phones that won't be crawling onto US shores, the K530 (fourth from left,) a less interesting 3G candybar phone, and the uber low-end Z250 flip phone (pictured second from left.) All of the phones and watches from Sony Ericsson will be released toward the end of 2007.
Sure, the dude is wearing white headphones, but is that truly an iPhone in his hands? Flickr user Chasingfun popped off this shot on his Treo 755p, and while we can't be sure, the zoomed in photo sure looks like an iPhone (click "Read More" to read it.) Now, Apple fanboys the world 'round will head to San Francisco to ride random CalTrains in hopes of spotting the legendary device.
Breathe fanboys, you've only got a little over two weeks left.
LG and the GSMA are teaming to move 3G phone usage into the hands of mere mortals. The "3G for All" program features LG's KU250, a bargain basement priced handset with standard 3g mainstays like video and audio downloads, the ability to make video calls (although without a forward facing camera, not too much use for that quite yet) and some MP3 and WMA playback action. If you live in the US as we do, unfortunately the "3G for All" is a bit of a misnomer, since the phone will be available in Europe, Asia, Middle Asia and Africa later this month, but since of the rest of the world doesn't dig EV-DO as much as we do (not to mention the patent disputes,) and since our HSDPA implementation is lacking at best, looks like 3G for All won't be for us for a while.
Gionee isn't the most famous name in cell phones, but we're pretty sure half of our office wouldn't mind dropping some dough on a phone that plays NESroms. The S20 slider allows you to get your late 80's game on with a two-megapixel camera and some sort of media playback functions, but best of all? TV-Out so you can play your NES roms on your TV. Oh yeah, it's a phone too. Granted, Windows Mobile users have had the functionality to install third-party emulators for a while, but we've never seen a phone specifically targeted toward NES roms. Look at the B/A buttons, they're just begging to be played.
They say Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Engadget'sKeepin' it real fake series has flattered 59 different devices with their imitating counterparts. Typically, the devices are Chinese knock offs that you might see near Canal St., as in the case of the "E-PDA." This device sets it sights high, aspiring to be the $750 NokiaN95. Rather than plunk down the cash for the real thing, the E-PDA flaunts a three-inch QVGA touchsreen, three-megapixel camera (instead of the N95's five,) Bluetooth, multimedia player and more cheese than Chuck. No pricing or availability as of yet, but head to your local sketchy electronics retailer with a horrible return policy, and we're sure you'll find this or some other poor quality ripoff you'll like.
Looks like Sprint is going to be picking up the Blackberry 8830 next month. Verizon has already had the handset for awhile now. The 8830 brings world roaming to the CDMA carriers as it supports both CDMA bands in the United States as well as global GSM bands. Engadget picked up what look like internal documents with an expected launch in July of 2007. Check out our in depth review of the Blackberry 8800 to get an idea of what the 8830 might have in store for you.
A crafty forum poster has some info on some new handsets Sony Ericsson will be announcing on June 14th. The Sofia, which would be their new flagship Cybershot handset, features a 5MP camera, xenon flash (goodbye LEDs!) and HSDPA (including the US 850MHz band.)
The Shinobu could be Walkman's cream of the crop, a slider again with HSDPA, but interestingly features some motion control. Tilt the phone forward, the music skips forward. Tilt it back, the music skips back. Shake the handset, and the phone skips to a random track. It's not a new feature though, since the W580 also has the feature.
The forum poster also claims to have info on two other handsets, albeit less info. The tipster says the Anastasia will rock a 1.3 MP camera, probably for the budget crowd. The Mool, however, could be a little more interesting walkman phone, potentially featuring 8GB of flash memory and the tipster says the unit includes a stereo Bluetooth headset in the box.
We'll be waiting till June 14th to see what's really announced but hopefully the forum poster is dead on. Cybershots have the reputation of being toward the high end of the cameraphone spectrum, so a five megapixel shooter will be one we definitely want to get our hands on, especially since Samsung and LG already have their own five megapixel shooters.
UPDATE: On some additional searching, we found the spy shots that have been floating around for a few months of both the Shinobu and the Sofia (aka'd as the K850i, which looks to have one of the worst keypads we've ever seen.) Oh, and to be clear, the Xenon flash is nothing new, but we're always excited when "proper" cameraphones have "proper" flashes.
Nokia's 6500 slider is scheduled to hit Europe in Q3 of this year, and Mobilvillag.hu has some live shots of the phone. The industrial design looks akin to some brushed metal action, perhaps akin the iPod Mini of old, but looking at the black "butt" of the phone, it looks like it could slide up where the black meets the metal, leaving the D-pad and the send and end buttons toward the bottom, with two soft keys sliding to the top. Instead, we get a full face slide, which doesn't look bad, but a little boring compared to what Nokia could have tried. Regardless of the "traditional" slide, the camera on the back sports 3.2 megapixels with Carl Zeiss optics, which isn't too shabby at all. We'll be waiting for Nokia to send one our way despite US consumers probably not seeing the device for a while, and Europeans picking it up for around €370.
We've also got some press shots of the device after the break, if you're salivating over the slider.
We'll give Sharp a few awards with their latest QWERTY handset, but these are the kind of awards you don't really like too much. Chief among them: the award for longest phone, but coming up a close second is The award for longest name (Advanced/W-ZERO3 [es].) Granted, we haven't seen the phone up close and in person yet, so we can't have a real perspective for how long it truly is... but some of us are from the school of thought that if the phone hangs off your face, it's probably too long.
Dubious awards aside, tit looks like a pretty solid Windows Mobile handset running a custom version of Smartphone, Japanese edition. Japanese consumers might dig the three inch wide LCD at 480x800 res, 520 MHz processor, WiFi and MicroSD, but without Bluetooth support, it won't be the top of the pack. It doesn't look like there's a camera on there either, but perhaps smartphone users in Japan won't miss that either.
Bottom line? Smartphone geeks might dig the form factor, but no Bluetooth nor camera equals no dice for us.
We all think the iPhone will hit the ground running, and the inevitable supply shortages will follow, but according to BusinessWeek, Apple will be well prepared for launch, with an astounding three million phones available from day one. Apple won't officially comment on the BusinessWeek story, nor give any sort of launch number (surprise!) but if they realize the hype and have what they feel is a solid device free of major defect, three million devices could pacify some of the demand. Maybe Apple has really figured out the proper way to manufacture, and we'll avoid the shortage situation that has plauged some consumer electronics companies, like the Nintendo Wii for example, for months.
Other than that 3000-LB gorilla phone coming out, we've had our eye on the next version of the RAZR since its announcement. Ryan Block at Engadget got to play with the phone for a bit and has a plethora of pics up over at Engadget Mobile. So far? The phone looks pretty nice, but we'll let you decide that for yourself.
We'll always respect a good slider and Samsung's latest phone to hit Korea looks like it'll hold its own. The SPH-W2400 looks like a solid HSDPA slider that also rotates to better accommodate video. Other than the always interesting slide-to-rotate form factor, the phone features TV-Out, although not too sure when we'd truly like to see cell-phone quality video on a larger screen. It sports a two megapixel camera, MP3 playback, Bluetooth and Micro SD. Naturally, no plans to see the phone in the US as of yet, but if you import one it should work on US GSM networks.
We've got some more pics after the break, if you want to see the full slide-and-rotate action. (click Read More)
Could the iPhone support prepaid / pay-as-you-go plans from AT&T? Erica over at TUAW gathered the Apple fanboy community together and noticed that the prior "requires minimum 2-year activation" text is gone from the bottom of the ads." We're not certain on why they pulled the text, and since Apple is known for its loud mouth (/ sarcasm) we'll really have to wait till June 29th to see why the text is absent.
Also on the iPhone tip, AppleHound, AKA a site for too much obsession, has already gathered a list of supposed "bugs" found in January's Jobs-note featuring the iPhone. The writer says, "My thought was this -- on the slim chance that I stumble upon something that Apple has overlooked and they fix it, we all get a better iPhone." Sounds crazy, but want a taste? The poster points out that in January's Jobs-note, Stevie J was listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers when he gets a call from Phil Schiller where the music fades out and the call comes through. After he hangs up on Phil, the phone switches to Visual Voicemail. Jobs then switches back to the iPod app quickly. The poster presumes by Jobs' quick response it should have properly switched back to the iPod.
The thought is nice and all, but seriously? We're shocked anyone would pour over a presentation enough times to actually feel like they've identified potential product flaws before they've actually physically seen a device in person, but now that the Messiah-phone is only three weeks away, we'll all find out whether it really lives up to the hype. Here's a hint, it probably can't just because of the enormity of the hype. We're not saying it's not worth waiting for, nor are we saying we think it'll be horrible, but we are saying it is the most hyped product in consumer electronics history and posts like preemptively finding bugs in a yet-to-be released device have got to stop.
Fanboys and girls, you're creating a bad environment for the iPhone. Stop.
AT&T dropped their latest flip and candybar from Samsung, the A717 and A727. The flip variety, the A717, sports a two megapixel camera, $150 price tag (with contract) and the lovely HSDPA we've all come to dream about. The A727 is similar in its HSDPA leanings, but sports a 1.3 megapixel camera with a $100 (with contract) price. Both phones also support protected music from Napster, Yahoo and any other PlaysForSure provider you can dream of. Pretty standard faire, but we always appreciate some slim staple phones. Both are available right this second.
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It's no surprise to us that Apple heads would start lining up the day before the iPhone goes on sale, but in the most densely populated city in the US, there are bound to be one or two crazy folks who decided to start standing in line for the iPhone today. Seriously, we're not joking. The two dudes pictured on the right are in line 100+ hours before the multi-touch wonder graces any of our fingertips. We're inclined to cite sheer craziness as the reason, but somehow the guys don't want to be left without an iPhone and figure 100+ of their arch rival fanboys will show up at 7PM, a full four days before the launch.
Regardless of whether the 
The iPhone hype (and counter-hype) is getting to an almost unbearable level, but there is still interesting news coming out about the device. The developer of GasApp 
Looks like YouTube is indeed headed to the iPhone, as Apple 
Uh oh... European airline passengers' dreams of flying the quiet skies might be on their way out as AirBus just 
While the GSM version of 
With the 
Helio
This week's nudie pics come from the recently released BlackBerry 8830 world-phone on Verizon. The phone is basically the same as it's 8800 brethren, 'cept this model sports both CDMA (for the US) and GSM world bands. Check out the pics after the break for both Qualcomm CDMA chips AND a GSM SIM-card under the hood.
LG
Gionee isn't the most famous name in cell phones, but we're pretty sure half of our office wouldn't mind dropping some dough on a phone that plays 
They say Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and 
A crafty 
Nokia
We'll give 
Other than that 
We'll always respect a good slider and 
AT&T