Well, probably not the horse. But even if nothing about the iPhone changes other than the addition of 3G, I’ll be rushing out to buy one immediately – although by “rushing” I mean “waiting until it comes to the UK and trying to magically summon money out of thin air so I can afford to buy one.” For all its flaws, it really is a superb, game-changing bit of kit and the one gadget I’d really hate to be without.
A lot of the tech blogs are full of crap about version 2 – hint: if Engadget has already exposed the “leaked photos” as fakes before you post them, then you’re really not trying hard enough – but there are enough apparently credible leaks to suggest that in addition to the stuff already expected (3G! 3G! 3G!) you’ll get more storage, a plastic case to improve reception, aGPS (which firms such as Nokia use; it’s better than the current Google Maps “where the hell am I?” offering in the current iPhone that made a certain baldy hack walk 300 miles around London when it turns out his hotel was 3 feet away from his starting point, but if you don’t have a phone signal you don’t have GPS) and a proper headphone socket. Videoconferencing? I don’t see it, because even when sprinkled with a bit of Apple magic it’s the answer to a question nobody’s asking. Video recording and MMS? Nobody’s sure. But I hope this rumour, courtesy of MacWorld, is true:
[on O2] Existing iPhone customers will be offered the chance to upgrade their mobile to the new model without charge – though they will be obliged to sign-up to another 18-month contract.
If not, I’ll be selling Baby Bigmouth on eBay.
Comments
0 responses to “iPhone 2.0. 3G, GPS and a free horse”
I doubt the free upgrade will happen. I’ll be very, very surprised.
o2 won’t talk about it openly (I asked them!) but they did say this “I’m unable to tell you that you’ll be able to upgrade to the new version of the iPhone (if lunched) on your existing contract….When the 16Gb iPhone was lunched, our customers who purchased the 8Gb iPhone were allowed to upgrade their account to the new version of the iPhone on their existing contract. ”
I’m not sure when the lunch(sic) is due (o2 sources have said december!) but UK firms just don’t let you upgrade free in the middle of a contract. At the end, yes, but not the middle.
Yeah, you’re probably right. It all depends on whether the carriers are going to be subsidising it or not. If they are, I can see a free upgrade provided you go for a pricier plan. I doubt you’d be offered a free upgrade on the base plan – unless O2 no longer has an exclusive, which would be a surprise.
If it was about £100, I’d probably go for it.
I think there are too many stories about subsidy for it not to be relatively cheap – latest is USA Today, predicting a starting price of $199 compared to $399/$499 for the current model.
I’m more surprised about a subsidy in the states since they’ve not got the same business model as here. Selling the iphone without subsidy was madness here. If it had the same subsidy levels as all other phones then it would probably be the biggest selling phone of all time. Everyone I know that’s played with my phone has wanted one but has still gone for the viewty or N95 instead as they just can’t justify the cost.
3g, gps, cheaper. Nice. O2 prices tba tomorrow.
I hope that the free upgrade rumour is true. Otherwise I’m not allowed one. :-(
Shame they didn’t upgrade any of the hardware though. 2mp camera is still shite and no stereo bluetooth.
Hi Gary, is this “iPhone 2.0. 3G, GPS” a cell phone + GPS, like this one? – http://www.selectagps.com/BlackBerry-Curve-8310-d_B000WPDI2K.html. There is also a GPS in the device.
Technically they do the same things. The iphone does it prettier.
yep. IMO the crucial difference is the software rather than the hardware. My previous smartphone was a blackberry, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I enjoy using the iPhone.
It’s always the software that matters. I don’t actually much care for Apple hardware at the moment — all that white plastic really shows the dirt, and there are two minor bits of my Macbook’s casing cracked off due to what I regard as a design fault — but I’m still happy to pay more for a Mac ’cause it runs OSX instead of Windows. It’s really no competition.
Someone or other made a good point about phones’ user interfaces (though they were comparing the Blackberry to the E90, but much the same point would apply to the Iphone): if your mum asks to use your phone and you hand her your Blackberry, she won’t be able to figure out how to make a call on it.