So after all the excitement of yesterdays iPhone announcements, O2 the exclusive Apple partner for the iPhone in the UK has destroyed the buzz for all current iPhone 3G subscribers. To upgrade my iPhone 3G to the new iPhone 3GS I have to pay the remaining 6 months of my contract off then sign a new 18 month contract and pay a minimum of £175.00 for the 32GB flavour.
So lets do the maths, 6 x £45.00 + £175.00 would give a cost to upgrade of £ 445.00 or at today’s exchange rate $717.00.
I understand that a contract was signed for 18 months but as a loyal O2 customer they could offer a little sweetener to help the early adopters, twitter is awash with complaints aimed squarely at O2’s twitter presence and so far they have patronised us with poor responses.
I have now made my decision and it has been hard to come to, I will not be upgrading to the iPhone 3GS it’s just not worth the money and I cannot bring myself to commit any more of my hard earned money to a network that obviously does not understand it’s customers or the old adage that a new customer costs 3 times more to win than to keep an existing one.
And don’t even get me started on tethering charges, £14.68 for 3 Gig or £29.36 per month for 10 Gig, not bad when your already paying for unlimited data as part of your iPhone contract.
So the iPhone killer never appeared as hardware but actually from one of it’s supposed allies #02Fail
We first saw the original LG Viewty over 18 months ago and surprisingly that handset remains popular today and is still offered by many of the mobile networks both on-contract and on PAYG.
The new LG Viewty Smart (LG GC900)
When LG announced the new version of the device, the LG Viewty Smart, I’m sure that a large number of Viewty owners were pleased with the news and will be looking to upgrade. The new handset offers a larger and higher res touchscreen display as well as an improved 8 megapixel camera, TV output (with additional cable), AGPS, photo geotagging, Google maps, etc.
Naturally we’ll have a full review for you within the next week or so but until then you can check out my LG Viewty Smart unboxing video below.
LG Viewty Smart unboxing video
LG GC900 Viewty Smart – Smart Photography. Take pictures with razor sharp detail, thanks to the 8 mega-pixel camera, autofocus and high quality Schneider-Kreuznah lens. The high ISO 1600 sensitivity and included LED flash lets you take images even in poor lighting conditions. Face detection, smile shutter and a host of other advanced camera options makes sure your photos always look their best. On-board AGPS geo tags your photographs, letting you see where and when your photos were taken. LG GC900 Viewty Smart – Smart Video. Not just for stunning still images, experience exceptional video with the LG Viewty Smart. Record video in DVD quality or choose slow motion video for fast moving objections. Support for a wide selection of movie formats, like DivX, lets you simply drag and drop your movies to watch. LG GC900 Viewty Smart – Smart Display. See things different with the LG Viewty Smart. The large 3" high resolution WVGA display brings your photographs and movies to life. Wide-screen support lets you see your movies in wide-screen, view complete web pages or just view photographs in pin sharp detail. LG GC900 Viewty Smart – Smart Interface. Make using the LG Viewty Smart easy, thanks to the innovative S-Class interface. Use simple gestures to access common features and options. Rotate your finger while taking a picture to zoom, double tap to expand web pages, or simply swipe your across the screen to move through your photographs. LG GC900 Viewty Smart – Smart Information. Support for widgets, brings information to you, see the weather or news as easily as checking for missed calls. A built in web browser brings the internet directly to you hand while haptic feedback provides subtle vibrations to confirm on-screen actions.
Unless you have been living under a rock you’ll probably be aware that Apple are due to launch a new version of the popular iPhone some time this month. It’s possibly one of the worst-kept Apple secrets. So Apple have finally made the announcement official and have introduced the new iPhone 3GS. Not a radical change from the existing iPhone 3G and possibly a little disappointing that it doesn’t go further, however O2 have been quick to confirm that they will be carrying said handset here in the UK.
O2 to launch iPhone 3G S in the UK on 19 June
O2 today confirmed two exciting iPhone developments. Firstly, the launch of two new iPhones, the iPhone 3G S 16GB and iPhone 3G S 32GB. Both will be available in the UK exclusively on the O2 network on 19 June. The second announcement is confirmation that the release of iPhone OS 3.0 software will also be available to download through iTunes on 17 June and is free to all existing iPhone customers, offering over 100 new features.
The new iPhone 3G S will be free on selected O2 consumer and business tariffs and also available to Pay & Go customers.
iPhone 3G S combines all the revolutionary features of iPhone 3G, O2’s fastest selling handset, with improved battery life, a higher resolution 3MP autofocus camera and a new built-in digital compass for instant navigation. From 19 June all iPhone 3G handsets with the latest iPhone OS 3.0 software will feature the hotly demanded Picture Messaging (MMS), as well as an Internet tethering option*** to connect your PC or Mac to the Internet using the iPhone 3G as a modem.
iPhone 3G S will be available in the UK through O2, Carphone Warehouse and Apple sales channels. It can be purchased online from 19 June by visiting o2.co.uk/iPhone.
All customers will continue to receive unlimited browsing on their iPhone over O2’s HSDPA network** and unlimited access to over 7,500 Wi-Fi hotspots through both The Cloud and now BT Openzone.
Both the 16GB and 32GB iPhone 3G S will also be available to Pay & Go customers at the following prices:
· iPhone 3G 8GB – £342.50
· iPhone 3G S 16GB – £440.40
· iPhone 3G S 32GB – £538.30
iPhone 3G S 16GB and 32GB models will also be available on a number of O2 business tariffs on a 24 or 36?month contract.
Peter-Frans Pauwels, TomTom’s co-founder and CTO, demonstrated TomTom’s navigation software in combination with a specially designed car kit on the iPhone- during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 8th, 2009.
The TomTom solution combines two new TomTom products to provide users with state of the art in-car navigation on their iPhone 3G:
The TomTom navigation application for iPhone; an Apple version of TomTom’s award-winning turn-by-turn navigation software, including IQ Routes and latest maps from Tele Atlas;
The TomTom car kit for iPhone; a specially developed car kit for secure docking, enhanced GPS performance, clear voice instructions, hands-free calling and in-car charging.
The TomTom navigation application for iPhone will be available via the Apple iTunes App Store, following the release of Apple’s OS 3.0 operating system. Details regarding pricing and availability for both the application and the TomTom car kit for iPhone will be made available in advance of the products’ launch later this summer. Marketing Video after the break.
Physically the new iPhone 3GS is the same size as the previous iPhone 3G which is a good thing if your planning an upgrade, but it has had a few updates, nothing that mind blowing to be honest but we now have the addition of an auto focus 3.0 megapixel camera with tap to focus, video recording, VGA up to 30 fps with audio, digital compass, data speeds up to 7.2mbps, voice control and increased battery life. Full specifications after the break.
And its not very good, especially if you are a current iPhone 3G subscriber your going to get stung. Basically there is no upgrade path and to upgrade you have to pay off the remainder of your current contract before you can upgrade. Then you have to sign up for a further 18 or 24 month contract and pay again for the iPhone 3GS, not a great deal.
Pay as you go pricing comes in at £342.50 for the original iPhone 3G 8Gig, £440.40 for the 16 Gig 3GS and a whopping £538.30 for the 32 Gig.
SAN FRANCISCO—June 8, 2009—Apple® today introduced the new iPhone™ 3G S, the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet, packed with incredible new features including improved speed and performance—up to twice as fast as iPhone 3G—with longer battery life, a high-quality 3 megapixel autofocus camera, easy to use video recording and hands free voice control. iPhone 3G S includes the new iPhone OS 3.0, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 100 new features such as Cut, Copy and Paste, MMS*, Spotlight Search, landscape keyboard and more. iPhone 3G S customers get access to more than 50,000 applications from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, the largest application store in the world where customers have already downloaded over one billion apps. iPhone 3G S offers twice the capacity for the same price with a 16GB model for just $199 and a new 32GB model for just $299.** And beginning today, iPhone 3G is available at the breakthrough price of just $99 for the 8GB model—a huge milestone for the high end smartphone market.
Well today is the day that 3 million new iPhones will be announced, well that is if you believe the ridiculous amount of rumours flying around at the moment, but seriously WWDC kicks off in a matter of hours now and all will be revealed, will we get OS 3.0 today, a new iPhone with video or should that be the iPhone 3GS, come and join us in the iPhone Docked chat room at 10am PST to discuss everything as it happens. See you there.
You can also follow the keynote events at any of the following sites who will be live blogging all the details:-
We have heard a few rumours that HTC were developing a version of TouchFlo 3D for their Android handsets and it looks like they were true. Phandroid have uncovered some screenshots of this new UI which is named Rosie and it all points to this being a big part of the HTC announcement on the 24th June.
You can drag your finger along an arc at the bottom of the screen in a similar fashion to TouchFlo 3d. If you look at the images you can see the arc at the bottom with phone in the centre. You will also notice a small button on top which you use to drag to a different screen. Of course you can just swipe as well. The contacts app is almost exactly the same. You can see the contacts emails and sms messages etc. Take a look over at Phandroid for loads more screenshots and thanks to Macs for the info.
Opera Mobile 9.7 beta is now available for download. We first showed Opera Mobile 9.7 at CTIA in late march, but we needed some time to stabilize and test the new Opera Presto 2.2 core version. The big news in this release is Opera Turbo. Opera Turbo is a server-side compression technology that compresses data up to 80% before it is sent to the mobile phone. Opera Turbo speeds up your browsing experience significantly when you are on a low bandwidth network (like EDGE). You will however not notice such a big effect when you’re connected through WiFi or a high-speed mobile network. You can turn on Opera Turbo in the advanced section in the browser settings. Opera Turbo for Opera Mobile is still a preview feature, and we appreciate all feedback.
So after all the excitement of yesterdays iPhone announcements, O2 the exclusive Apple partner for the iPhone in the UK has destroyed the buzz for all current iPhone 3G subscribers. To upgrade my iPhone 3G to the new iPhone 3GS I have to pay the remaining 6 months of my contract off then sign a new 18 month contract and pay a minimum of £175.00 for the 32GB flavour.
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