So, off to the Apple Store in Stanford I went. Great service as always. Booked my appointment online, was met, and the back of the phone was replaced within 10 minutes – no charge. One shiny new back. “Why don’t you make the glass lens cover out of Gorilla Glass?” I asked.

“Not sure” was the answer. “Something about the clarity of the glass, and the amount of light that Gorilla Glass allows into the lens.”

Anyway the cover replacement did the job. The iPhone has a new lease of life with very clear and crisp photos. The left of the photo is now crisp and sharp once again.

However, this has got to be a design flaw, it’s a widely known issue. If you trawl the web, there are lots of people reporting this.

I would suggest going to an Apple store and getting this done, rather than the option of ordering a part and doing it yourself like this!

When?

Looking at all the information out there, it seems that Apple will announce the new iPhone in September (the 7th to be precise as that’s when a mystery customer has booked the Yerba Buena Center in San Fran), with customers able to pre-order from September 30, and get their hands on the shiny new device from October 7. It seems that there have been some supply and manufacturing issues, so the October 7 date may push out to the 14th. This is for US customers, I can’t confirm other markets. However, an AT&T veep has confirmed this.

There are also rumours that a cheaper, more affordable iPhone might be released. To produce a cheaper unit, the majority of the storage memory would be removed and content would be stored in the cloud. I’ve heard a lot about this, but am doubtful. I think there’s a diminishing return in doing this – and the battery power required to keep pulling and pushing offline would make the phone unworkable in a few hours.

Technology

Obviously, no-one knows for sure. But here’s the theory:

• NFC (near field communications). I think this is a long shot – but the ability to make purchases simply by swiping the phone could be a possibility
• Better camera, possibly a 8 megapixel one. I hope the new version pushes the flash away from the lens a little as this causes picture problems – Apple might even look at adopting a dual flash. I also hope Apple look to do something with the lens cover. This gets badly scratched over time and leads to fuzzy pictures. You heard me Apple – fix it! Apple have placed a large order with Sony for a camera of this spec – so I think it’s certain.
• Flatter, thinner, larger screen – probably curvier rather than chiseled sides as per the iPhone 4
• Faster processor. The new A5 chip, dual processor – i.e. much faster
• A world phone, or a 4G phone. Apparently, this unit has been tested around the Bay Area on the 4G LTE network, also this equipment is being setup in Apple stores. It will have a dual GSM/CDMA chip that works on both Verizon and AT&T networks in ths US
• The new iPhone is also expected to have an improved antenna (no more “deathgrip” issues) design
• iOS5. Everyone know this new software is coming, and I’ve been using the beta for a while – which is a vast improvement. There’s lots to fix before general availability. However, I bet there will be more announcements around functionality before the release date – such as enhanced voice controls after Apple purchased Siri some time ago. The code name for the iOS5 release is Telluride, which will probably bring around 200 new features to the iPhone
• I’m going to put my neck on the line and say, you’ll be able to charge your iPhone 5 via inductive charging. i.e. not via a wire plugged into the device.

Looks

No one knows. Wild speculation as usual. It could be a small tweak on the iPhone 4. However, there are many articles that the big cheeses at Apple are tired of the iPhone 4 look and want something completely different. Someone recently spotted what could be an Apple tester on a local CalTrain using the iPhone 5. It doesn’t show much, but it seems the device is more rounded, and possibly tapered at the bottom of the device.

Another spot in the wild, looks similar.

Shape

The iPhone will be thinner and lighter – of course. It will probably look similar to the iPhone 4, but the edges will be tapered, and looking at pre-production cases, the screen will be wider. Also, something is funky with the traditional button area. Perhaps no button at all? Touch only? Some space either side of the button for extra swipe features?

Specifications

This is a best guess…

As for the iPad 3

No big news there, apart from a launch date in early 2012 and will be faster with a slightly larger, retina display. The iPad 3 retina display will be similar to the iPhone 4, which shows images at 326 dpi (dots per inch). Any dpi of 300 or greater is said to be so dense that pixels are indistinguishable to the human eye at a distance of 10 to 12 inches.

Apple Inc. is working with component suppliers and its assembler in Asia for the trial production of its next generation iPad from October, people familiar with the situation say, as it looks to stay ahead of the competition in the fast-growing tablet computer market. The next generation iPad is expected to feature a high resolution display – 2048 by 1536 compared with 1024 by 768 in the iPad 2 – and Apple’s suppliers have already shipped small quantities of components for the sampling of the iPad 3. Suppliers said Apple has placed orders for a 9.7-inch screen device.

A new report claims that Apple will unveil a refresh to its MacBook Pro lineup ‘shortly after’ an Intel press event to formally launch the chipmaker’s new Light Peak technology, which will reportedly be marketed as Thunderbolt, at 10am PST on Thursday.

Why do you care? It’s worth noting that right now, you don’t. If you go out today and try to buy a Light Peak peripheral, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. They simply don’t exist on the consumer market just yet. You will care, though, when they are…

Light Peak, or Thunderbolt, will be screamingly fast. As an example it could mean that you could transfer a 4 GB file (the size of a 1080p HD movie) in roughly four seconds. It is incredibly, mind-blowingly fast even by today’s standards.

The sound produced for such a small device is incredible, and very strong across all ranges – even bass. Connection to my iPad was very straight forward, the Jambox has no display – but speaks to you – and the battery lasts for ages. Pop the button on the top and it will tell you how long the battery has got to go. If you sync with an iPhone 4, an icon will appear on the iPhone indicated how long is left.

The device charges via a USB lead and charges quickly. The device will also act as a conference call device with your iPhone.

What I like about it most is that it will never get out-of-date as you can update the software to the latest firmwire via the Jawbone website – and also add new voices and apps. All in all, a very cool device – and I’ve not stopped using it since I got it.

From the Jawbone Jambox website:

JAMBOX delivers stunning hi-fi audio in a portable wireless speaker so compact you won’t believe it when you hear it. It’s loud. With an output capacity of 85 decibels, JAMBOX fills even the largest rooms. Unlike other portable speakers, JAMBOX is powered by a pair of proprietary, highly sophisticated acoustic drivers, unmatched in their ability to produce extreme high (tweeter) and low (woofer) frequencies from a single, ultra-small dome speaker. They work in concert with an innovative moving-wall passive bass radiator and airtight enclosure to deliver shimmering highs and thumping lows that you can literally feel – the richest sound all in the palm of your hand.

If this is true, it would be cool. But I don’t think it’s the real deal. I have a feeling that the next iPhone may do away with the iconic button – and move to just a screen – with new gestures to simulate the key press. The new versions of iOS use a pinching motion with 3-4 fingers to simulate the button press. We’ll see if it moves onto the next device and removes the physical button.

I always like to speculate, so let me do so – and then I can mark myself points when the new handset appears – probably in June/July! I’m sure I’ll do badly!

• Apple will use a new chipset and include more memory on its flagship device. Obviously it will be faster. The iPhone 4 features a custom A4 processor, and Apple may kick its custom chip creation up a notch with a new custom processor called the A8
• I’d like to think it would be a full screen device, by using new gestures it will help you to navigate the device – however, according to multiple sources, it could just have a larger screen around 4″
• As the chipset gets more economical in sucking the battery dry – it may become thinner. However, the current iPhone 4, to me, is the right thickness – so Apple may keep the thickness – and demonstrate longer battery life
• A physical keyboard? Again, another rumour doing the rounds (apparently a prototype has been seen) – but seems to be grabbing a lot of column inches on the web right now. However, Jobs hates keys
• Music in the cloud, streaming, sharing images in the cloud. The acquisition of companies by Apple that specialize in voice recognition, music and video streaming might bring new functionality. Companies purchased such as Siri and Lala.com add to the speculation
• Face recognition: again, with acquisitions, perhaps we’ll see functionality around unlocking your device with your face via the camera…
• Camera upgrade. I believe this is one of the most likely things. The resolution might change from 5 to 8 megapixels on the back facing camera – the new chipset will allow 1080p video at 30fps if the new Omnivision chip is used. True HD video recording in your pocket – 8MP pictures
• We may see the arrival of the iPhone nano, voice controlled, cheaper – with no contract. All information stored in the cloud rather than on the device
• Not iPhone 5 specific, but possibly MobileMe becomes free – again adding credibility that all content will now be in the cloud, whether it’s phone numbers, contacts, video or music
• One of the most exciting rumours is that your iPhone will become your digital wallet using near-field technology – in theory you just swipe your iPhone near a device to make a payment without cash or a credit card to hand. It would allow iPhone 5 users to choose between multiple bank or credit card accounts on the fly, and then make payments at stores instantly.
• We may see an upgrade in the networks the iPhone 5 can use – perhaps it will support LTE, a 4G like network in the US. That would make the iPhone 5 a 4G phone, er… confusing…
• I would love to think a flashing Blackberry-esk LED was somewhere there to show when there’s new email in your inbox – but I doubt it

Overall, after all the speculation, I believe the iPhone 5 will be just an internal upgrade (like the move from iPhone 3G to iPhone 3GS…!)

We’ll wait and see!

The sources pointed out that the iPad 2 will ship as soon as the end of February in 2011. Apple originally planned to start mass production in January, but because the device’s firmware is currently still in testing, Apple has been postponing the schedule. Since Foxconn’s new plants in Chengdu are still in pilot production, iPad 2 will be mainly supplied by its Shenzhen plants, while the company’s upstream component partners have all been notified of the shipments schedule.

A February launch would be consistent with rumours pegging the iPad revision in the first part of 2011. Other rumoured features include a FaceTime camera, gyroscope, faster processor, thinner form factor, retina display and a USB connector – possibly thinner.

Here’s my summary of what happened at WWDC and the announcements made today. This is all draft and I’ll add some meat to the bones later:

• 2 million iPads sold since launch = one sold every three seconds
• New iBook app launching today, which also will display PDFs
• 15,000 apps submitted to Apple each week, 95% apps approved within seven days
• Reed Hastings CEO of Netflix announced they’re coming to iPhone in the summer. Wifi and 3G
• Apple have just passed the five billion apps download mark, 70% of revenue goes to the developer – and Apple have just hit the $1billion payout mark
• US Smartphone market share RIM 35%, iPhone 28%, Windows 19%, Android 9%, Other 9%
• Steve Jobs “In 2008 we added 3G and the App Store, in 2009 the 3GS was twice as fast, and we added some other cool features like video… in 2010 we’re going to take the biggest leap since the original iPhone.”

iPhone 4

• 24% thinner than the iPhone 3GS
• Front facing camera
• LED flash
• Noise cancellation mic
• Antenna built into the side panels to improve strength
• Glass front and back to improve scratch resistance
• Stainless steel fro strength
• 326 PPI, 960×640 display, 800:1 contract resolution, 4x better than the 3GS, IPS technology
• Phone powered by the Apple A4 chip
• Battery life 40% more talk time, 3G talk 7 hours, 10 hours of Wifi, 10 hours of video, 40 hours music, 300 hours standby
• Wireless 802.11n
• GPS + Accelerometer
• Now, the iPhone 4 will have a gyroscope for 6 axis motion sensing. A Jenga game demo was very impressive
• A whole new camera system built into iPhone 4, 5 megapixel camera, backside illuminated sensor, 5x digital zoom, LED flash
• Video! 720p at 30fps, HD video, edit on phone
• iMovie for iPhone, fantastic, transitions, timelines, library, geolocation, five themes, export – not free $4.99

iPhone OS 4

• iPhone OS 4 becomes iOS 4
• Multitasking, folders
• Threaded email, integrated inbox
• Adding Bing to the options to search
• Close to selling the 100 millionth iOS (iPad, iPod touches, iPhone) device
• iBooks to the iPhone, same book purchase once and then use on all your devices, iBooks automatically syncs your place, bookmarks and notes
• Oh, and iAds. These are some of the companies advertising: Nissan, Citi, Unilever, AT&T, Chanel, GE, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Geico, Campbells, Sears, JC Penny, Target, Best Buy, Direct TV, TBS, and Disney
• Oh, and video calling with wifi only in 2010 – called Facetime

When?

• Two colours, black and white
• $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB
• If you’re with AT&T and your contract ends anytime in 2010 you can upgrade. You can get it six months early
• The iPhone 4 arrives on June 24th, you can pre-order from June 15th
• Shipping to 5 countries: US, France, Germany, UK, Japan

iPhone HD/4G

As timing suggests, this WWDC should be no exception for a new iPhone to be announced. Everything points to a new model. AT&T have cancelled vacation for staff, have changed their dataplans (effective 7 June), etc – so that’s pretty locked in. I’m wondering if the new phone will go on sale instantly straight after Job’s announcement.

If the rumours are correct, this phone promises to shape up quite nicely:

• Larger, extended life battery. 5.25 watt-hours, which apparently is 17% increase from the iPhone 3GS battery
• Screen resolution a whopping 960×640 which might just look as good as a high-end glossy magazine, and that would be incredible
• Forward facing camera for video iChat. Not sure if this can be used on the cellphone network, it might be constricted to wifi only
• Rear facing camera. I would expect the camera should be fairly high spec if the iPhone has a high quality screen. I think 5 megapixels or above. There will be a high intensity LED flash in there too. Some people are predicting 720p video recording
• Not really new news, but the iPhone will take a MicroSIM
• The new look is sleek. It seems to have a more glass-like back. This is good for signal reception, but maybe less durable. Apple did put a patent in a while back for a ceramic/glass-like material
• I don’t think an iPhone for another US network will be announced at this time

iPhone OS 4.0

This new OS has been finely tuned and will offer many benefits for the newer iPhones such as:

• Multitasking
• The iAd mobile advertising system for developers
• Perhaps Facebook built into the OS or a social networking platform
• A gaming store or network similar to XBox Live or Playstation Network
• Many OS improvements such as integrated Mail and folders
• For AT&T US users, for the first time tethering will be available

iTunes in the cloud

Jobs said this week that Apple are ‘working on this’ – so I doubt the availability will be announced on the 7th. However, I believe at some point Apple will be offering music streaming from iTunes.com and you’ll be able to access your music or other purchased content via any Apple device. Apple recently purchased the streaming site Lala – and then shut it down.

• Multitasking
• The iAd mobile advertising system for developers
• Perhaps Facebook built into the OS or a social networking platform
• A gaming store or network similar to XBox Live or Playstation Network
• Many OS improvements such as integrated Mail and folders
• For AT&T US users, for the first time tethering will be available

Recently, I purchased a Roku box which allows me to stream video from Netflix to my television at the back of the house, and now I hear the exciting announcement that Netflix will provision the Playstation to stream Netflix content by the end of the year.

So many choices, but the technology is converging.

To get these speeds, I had to upgrade my modem to be compatible with the new DOCSIS 3.0 format. You can find out more about Comcast DOCSIS 3.0 here.

Comcast have an approved modem list. I went with the Motorola SB6120. These are available to purchase (rather than lease from Comcast) from Amazon, Best Buy and Frys.

The speed is now blistering. To give you a real example, I downloaded the HD 1080p 154Mb Harry Potter trailer from Apple’s Quicktime site in 75 seconds. Now that’s fast.

I started looking for alternatives – and I have a solution even better than I originally expected. Netflix + a Roku box.

Everyone is aware that Netflix allows you to rent DVDs that are mailed to your house, no timelimit – and then you return them when ready. However, they also have a streaming video service. To access this, you need a $100 Roku box. This Roku box, which cannot be purchased in stores, has to be ordered direct from the Roku site. There’s a 30 day, no-risk return policy, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’ve been blown away.

I subscribed to the lowest Netflix monthly rate, $8.99. This allows you to rent one DVD at a time, but also have access to thousands of online movies to either stream via your PC or Mac, or via a box connected to your TV, which in turn is connected to your home network.

The box arrived today. It’s cool, it’s quiet and the user interface is great. I had concerns about picture quality, but they have been alleviated.

I have the box connected wirelessly to a wireless router which is around around 80ft away. I have hooked up the box to the wireless network and it has a medium signal strength. This is more than enough to enjoy fast start speeds, high quality pictures and HD.

I switched on the box, hooked it into my TV’s HDMI connection – all the available sockets to connect are on the back of the Roku box. The startup was easy. After a quick firmware check, the upgrade was done – and I was ready to go. The box gave me a code I had to punch into the Netflix.com site to authorise – and I was away. The only problem now is that I have around 90+ movies in my queue.

It gets very addictive just searching and adding to your list… I highly recommend this box and I expect more video and OnDemand suppliers will start to leverage this easy-to-use technology soon.

You can buy the box now, through Amazon at my store by clicking here.

For those of you who don’t know, Vonage supply you with a box, and this box hooks up to your broadband router. Instead of you plugging your home phone into the wall, you plug it into this box and you use the phone in exactly the same way as your traditional method ? but with many extra features besides.

Personally, I always had a mental block about moving away from this traditional type of phone line. This is crazy as I love technology, gadgets and always want to embrace new things. However, having a line fixed to the wall was something hard to get away from.

I’m so far glad I did.

Because we phone outside the USA often – mainly to mainland UK, our phone bill with an international tariff was around $80 a month, $960 a year. Vonage has a flat rate, free unlimited calls tariff anywhere in the USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, Italy, France, Spain, UK and Ireland for $24.99 with the first month free. That’s $274 for the first year. Which, I calculate will save us around $680 a year. It became a ‘no-brainer’ to me.

I simply ordered online and Vonage arranged the porting of our home AT&T number to the Vonage service, sent me the box by express UPS and within around five days it was a ?go?. The number transferred on a pre-determined day and Vonage cancelled our service with AT&T. Seamless. The setup is simplicity itself.

I?ve been very impressed with the new service. Call quality is superb. The extra features all controlled via your online account are equally impressive. The ability to get your voicemails sent to you immediately by email is my favourite feature. If something goes wrong with your network connection or your box, you can program an alternative number (such as your cell phone) as backup. You can make a call ring many different numbers at once such as home, cell, work. You can setup schedules to determine when you want to be bothered ? or send callers direct to voicemail and you can block anonymous callers. There really is a fair bit of functionality that I?ve yet to explore.

Basically, though, nothing changes, apart from the cost. You pick up the phone and make and receive calls at home in the normal way. You can make it as simple or complicated as you like,

I’ll unashamedly plug the service. If you sign up by clicking this banner, we?ll both get a month?s extra free service.

Update 26 January: Just called Vonage to give a referral from a friend. Both my friend and I got a credit of $49.98 – two months free. That brings my annual saving for my home phone to around $730.

I called AT&T several times during the same day and got the usual stock responses: restart, take out your battery and wait 30 seconds etc. I don’t presume to be a Blackberry expert, but I have had several Blackberries over six years. It seemed I knew more than the operators and it became very exhausting.

AT&T were stumped. In the end they said it was my IT department’s problem as I was on BES. It was only after three hours with our Desktop Team and a conference call directly with RIM a hardware failure was diagnosed.

AT&T advised me to return the unit to a store for a straight swap and put a note on my account that I was going to do that the same day. OK I thought, I’ll do it on the way home.

I went to my local store and they refused to swap it as it was over four weeks old. OK, you have policies AT&T, but my Blackberry is my lifeline when it comes to work, I bought a brand new Bold from you five weeks ago, you sell the Bold as true business tool, and, by the way, this phone isn’t that inexpensive. The two assistants stood there, leaning on their workstation with their arms folded in a ‘not my problem’ stance. They even refused to look at my account on their PC when I told them a note had been placed on the system.

The store told me to go through their warranty exchange programme. Therefore, I was without my Blackberry over the Christmas season – which is just when I needed it if there was a major incident at work while I was out on vacation.

The AT&T store should have said, sorry Mr Burden, we cannot believe your $500+ unit we bill as the ultimate business tool has failed in five weeks, here’s a new one. No questions asked.

Am I wrong?

I have a trusty original Sling box from a few years ago and credit to Sling, they still support and maintain it. In fact, I’ve just downloaded some new firmware.

The application itself for the Blackberry is a little on the large size at around 1.5MB. If you haven’t got a newer type of Blackberry, you should even go there. Once I installed, I was using it quite quickly. I had one hitch in that you have to use the Windows version of SlingPlayer to configure mobile viewing – you can’t do this with the Mac. So, I had to go and drag out my trusty laptop running Vista! Once I had configured the software, the Slingbox and my Blackberry – I was nearly there! A quick tweak of my router to allow the correct port through for remote viewing and I was there.

Sling make this really easy for you with great FAQs, online help, video – and specific walkthroughs for various routers. The application itself works like a dream over wifi – and also over 3G. It can even at a push with a full signal scrape by on EDGE/GPRS – but not well.

I’m extremely pleased with this and it was well worth the wait – I’m just waiting to see how long it is before mobile operators start getting grumpy about bandwidth…

I first had to pick my avatar. I was tempted to make it look dashing and cool, but my conscience got the better of me and I tried to keep it as true to life as possible.

Once in, I arrived at my private sea-side?apartment. Very relaxing overlooking the quay. I then ventured into the town, hit the stores, played pool, had a go at bowling, then looked at some of the art work.

It seemed pretty busy in the virtual world this evening and it looks to be very popular.

Here I am sat on a bench in the plaza watching the world go by… (if anyone is looking for me my handle is NMANSA)

You can find out more about Playstation Home here. Below there’s a short video clip of me in the Plaza for the first time having a boogie with some other randoms…!

This little wonder is out officially tomorrow, but I got a sneak peak.

Firstly, I was really impressed with the shape and how it fits in your hand. I was not originally a fan of the bent bottom, but the way it moulds into your palm for calls is excellent. Within minutes I found the whole interface very intuitive.

The screen flips out very easily to reveal a perfectly functioning keyboard with great responsiveness. I was navigating so easily with the keyboard and buttons, I forgot about the touch-screen!

The applications are too many to mention, but even Google Maps has a nice twist to it. Run it, it’ll find your location, and with the built in e-compass as you turn the street view changes to actually reflect a 360 view. Very strange, but clever and cool.

I’m told the battery life is good, even with 3G on all day with average use. The iPhone 3G’s battery from experience isn’t too good for an average user and won’t last the day.

The camera is a powerful 3.2 megapixel one, with autofocus. Even down to a macro-level I was impressed with the quality. A neat application I saw was a bar code scanner linked to the camera. Scan a bar code in a shop, and instantly it brings up the details – and even links to Amazon to see what they’re selling it for – and buy it there and then. Clever.

The whole look-and-feel, UI and navigation has been given much thought. Again, after a short time, I was moving around the screen and applications like a pro.

I don’t think it’s a serious contender in the corporate space yet, but as soon as the applications appear similar to ActiveSync and security is proven, it’ll be a winner for sure. These will still fly off the shelf tomorrow without a doubt.

I wanted to upgrade as, (a) I’m impatient, and (b) the upgrade brings massively improved functionality – the main ones being, better media player, video recorder, HTML email, better user interface, availability search for calendar invites.

So how did I do it? Here’s how. And please, do not contact me if you have problems. I don’t recommend this unless you think you know what you’re doing!

These instructions are only for owners with a Blackberry 8310. I am on the AT&T network in the USA. This method has not been tested by me on any other network or anywhere else in the world. Also, to get the full functionality of things such as HTML email, your BIS service must be running BIS 2.5 – but I believe they all are now.

This process may remove any applications you have installed and may remove your corporate policy if you have one. Be warned.

Also, start to finish, this process can take an hour or more. Once you start, you can’t stop, so make the time.

1. Ensure you have the latest Blackberry Desktop software installed. You can get it here: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/desktop/

2. Install the Blackberry Desktop software.

3. Download the latest OS firmware from here, the only place to offer it right now – the Germany Vodafone site. (By the way, the official release by US operators is looking to be released around September if you can wait that long)

4. Install the OS firmware download.

5. Plug in your Blackberry, your device will be identified and the upgrade process should begin. The process, as I’ve said already, can take a long, long time. Lots of rebooting and white screens are normal. Be patient.

If you end up with a white screen with small icons and the number 507/543, simply connect to Desktop Manager again and run the application loader once again.

Good luck and enjoy! I’m certainly loving the new look.

I made an appointment with a personal shopper in the Stanford Apple store. Fantastic service, the guy really knew his stuff. I even got really into the deep technical questions and threw some curve balls around PC and Mac wireless networking, filesharing and DNLA, but nothing seemed to phase him.

I walked out with a shiny new 24″ iMac with the following:

• 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 4GB memory
• 1TB hard drive
• 8x double-layer SuperDrive
• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS with 512MB memory
• Microsoft Mac:Office 2008

Took it home, the setup was straight forward and even though the Apple Store offered to do it for me, I now begin the long road of transferring all my files from PC to Mac. I thought I might as well throw myself in at the deep end. Watch this space.

Other key takeaways:

• 35% of the Fortune 500 have participated in the iPhone 2.0 beta program. The top 5 banks, top 5 security firms, 6 or 7 top airlines, 8 of 10 top pharmaceuticals and 8 of 10 of the top entertainment companies
• Great mobile applications and games to come
• Apple will release a unified push notification service. It preserves battery life and maintains iPhone performance. It all works over the air over wifi and cellular – and it’ll be available in September
• There will be document support for all Microsoft Office files, addition of many new languages, bulk delete and move of email, ability to save files and pictures, new scientific calculator and parental controls
• Enterprise application distribution
• MobileMe, platform agnostic application suite; all applications looking like Apple native applications – looks nice. MobileMe is branded as Exchange for the rest of us – with proper ‘push’ functionality. Users of .Mac will be automatically upgraded, it will be available for $99 a year with 20GB of storage. Free trial for 60 days with iPhone 2.0
• iPhone sold 6m before running out, customer satisfaction 90%
• Need to make iPhone more affordable and allow sales in more countries
• iPhone 3G announced, black back, thinner at the edges, full plastic back, solid metal buttons, camera, flush headphone jack, improved audio
• With 3G, iPhone 36% faster than the Nokia N95 and Treo 750
• GPS included
• Full Exchange support, secure VPN
• Want to expand access to iPhones across the world, larger market, 70 countries in the next few months. iPhone will be sold for $199 for an 8GB – heavily subsidised. $299 for a white 16GB model