iPhone 3G coming on July 11

by billso on Monday, 9 June 2008

Apple has unveiled the iPhone 3G, which I had been calling iPhone 2.0.

The new iPhone will support 3G data connections, which should provide faster service when users cannot access a WiFi network. Om Malik thinks that some carriers, including AT&T, may not be ready, which I find hard to believe.
11 July 2008 is the first day of sale in the US and several other countries, with availability in 70 countries by 2009.
The new iPhone is slightly thinner, so it should fit inside current cases and accessories.
The back of the phone is black plastic. Bye-bye, aluminum metal back.
The headphone jack is no longer recessed, so almost any standard headphone should work.
The US price has been lowered to $199 for 8GB, $299 for 16GB of RAM. There must be some factories in China that are humming with activity this summer.
The new iPhone firmware supports Chinese character recognition.
The new iPhone will have true GPS features.
Enterprises will be apple to authorize iPhones and to write enterprise applications that are restricted to company phones.
The iPhone 3G will work with Microsoft Exchange 2003 and 2007 servers.
The .mac email and file sharing service has been renamed to MobileMe, and given better compatibility with Windows machines
Steve Jobs claims the iPhone 3G will have decent battery life, with 300 hours of standby time, 10 hours of 2G voice, 5 hours of 3G voice, and about 6 hours of web browsing.

Engadget has a live transcript of the announcement. I enjoyed reading BoingBoing’s satirical version, written as a Greek drama.

Om Malik has a recap that focuses on the entertainment and social networking apps and sites for the new iPhone.

billso

Interesting news about an iPhone ebook reader, courtesy of James Kendrick.
billso

This explainer from Gizmodo is the best I've seen this week. Good resource if you've got questions about the iPhone 3G, features, or the sales process.