3G iPhone 2.0 Officially Offical, Officially Cheap(er)

Sunisa 06-10-2008

The 3G iPhone launches July 11 around the world.

I know it can’t hold a candle to the Cuisinart Ice-Cream Maker with Sprinkle Dispenser, but another little rumor that was confirmed on Monday was the release of the 3G iPhone 2.0. It’s been hyped for months and ultimately the specs on the 3G iPhone come as no big surprise, except for the price… The 8 gig version is only $200 with a contract from AT&T. Doubling the storage to 16 gigs will run you an extra $100, and the 16 gig version comes in black and white. That’s right, white is now the new black which was the new white.


What it has:

-3G connectivity. It’s nearly 3x faster than EDGE, and is getting pretty darn close to full blown WiFi speed. This is the serious, it’s-a-big-deal upgrade and the reason that you’re going to start seeing the now old and busted first gen iPhones cropping up on eBay for a nickel.
-For real GPS, enhanced with cell tower triangulation, that’ll geotag pictures. This is the other big upgrade.
-Simultaneous voice and data communication, so you can stalk people on Facebook while you talk to them.
-Smaller size without shrinking the 3.5″ (480×320) screen.
-Much better battery life: 10 hours 2G talk time, 5 hours 3G talk time or web browsing, 7 hours of video, 24 hours of audio.
-Access to an online 3rd party applications store where you can buy all kinds of software to waste your time with.
-A $200 price tag that means you may actually be able to rationalize purchasing one based on its features rather than the just the fact that it’s a new Apple product and if you don’t buy one society will shun you.

What it doesn’t have:

-Integrated Flash (the software kind, not the bright light kind, although it doesn’t have that either).
-A decent camera, the kind that can take video. Or one it the front to let you video chat.
-Stereo Bluetooth, or the ability to act as a Bluetooth modem, which is wicked super lame.
-A way to activate it without going in person to an AT&T store.
-A cheaper pricetag (my current AT&T contract doesn’t expire until December, so I’m allowed to complain about it… I don’t know what the non-contract unit price is going to be, but my guess is that it won’t be pretty).

I’m absolutely not an Apple fanboi, but I have to admit, I’m sorely tempted by this phone. According to Apple, 56% of people that wanted an original iPhone but didn’t get one say it was due to the price, and Apple seems to have taken that to heart and made 2.0 better and cheaper at the same time. What a concept. Despite my vague distrust of the Apple culture, I’m not too jaded to recognize a good product when I see one, and I’m pretty sure that the 3G iPhone qualifies.

hugo281

hell yeah when I heard the price dropped for the iPhone I definitely want to get one now lol, especially when I'm always on the go

Raven

Well I can definitely say its alot better then the first one and with such a better price but still not taunting me to get one, but atleast they doing better about it. Much better.

hugo281

hehehe, but Raven what if the price doesn't drop more than what it is going to be, and also you never know maybe if they do drop the price more and add more features to it you think you might want one then or would you feel the same?

Lauren

Besides he better barry life for the there's nothing about the phone that is a big improvement that would be useful for me.

hugo281

true but for me though the features it has are useful when I travel to other places and I need info on the spot and also to keep up with other techs that work with me

Hsoolien

Hey look they are finally releasing the specs of what it was supposed to be originally. Well I'm not surprised at lack of BT modem compatibility (it's a new and not very efficent addition to the BT repertoire), I am however surprised with the popularity of BT head sets the lack of stereo headset support.

the rest, well as long as AT&T holds exclusivity there is not much to be done.

Hmm the battery life is intersting. My phone (Razr 3c) always goes 3g unless it's not available, might be why I get such piss poor battery life to my American or other network counterparts...

hugo281

yeah but guess what I just saw on the news last night, AT&T maybe be dropping the price on the iPhone but they are going to increase the monthly service fee from 40 to 60 bucks a month to compensate for the price dropping so they won't loose money I was like aww man that sucks, so it may be cheaper to get now but the monthly fee is going up too

Hsoolien

There is always profit made somehow, even when you're system is sold at a loss to make sales in software sales.

LatinStar13

Old phone is still at a higher price so can we say contract agreement trick. I still like the fake iphones compare to the real ones.

hugo281

true they do look cool

orange

what i find stupid is that 3G isn't exactly "new" as technology chronology goes.. its been around since at least 2003 in the US.. and it took them a while to put it on the iPhone, why?

shouldn't it have been there from the beginning?! it took them a year to consider putting the current STANDARD format into quite a nice piece of hardware...

now, 4G network is lookin like its around the corner (predictions say about 2012).. so is it gonna take them till 2013 or 2015 before they decide to make a 4G iPhone? i doubt they will, but with their current rate...

Hsoolien

the iPhone was supposed to be 3G compliant in original specs, I think it was cost overruns that made them basically lose the features they felt they could lose.

hugo281

yeah but the iPhone still runs a little slow but it does have awesome features on it like map quest, google and other stuff plus I like the way the touch screen keyboard pops up when you write text messages, its quicker than my old phone and the letters are a little bigger too