UK iPhone no longer available

Ahead of next month’s all but confirmed 3g iPhone launch, stocks of the current version have now run out in the UK. O2’s web site is showing the image above even though there has been no official announcement of when the replacement will arrive. Speaking of which, there are more images online today claiming to show the next generation. Engadget has them so take a look and make your own mind up. With a (rumoured) month to go until the launch, do Apple have to spend any money on advertising this device?

iPhones and eBooks

eBooks have been around for several years now, and in many respects are seriously behind other forms of media. While music is making the painful transition from DRM to open formats other media such as films and books are still subject to restricted use. This often makes it awkward if not impossible to view these files on your mobile device of choice.

Until last year I used a Palm TX PDA running the palm eReader software. I could buy a fair range of pdb format ebooks from ereader.com, or use the free dropbook for Mac and eReader Pro for Palm to convert and read text files myself. I have a large collection of mainly SF and Fantasy paperbacks that I have read over the past 20 years, and set about finding electronic versions of them to read again. It’s an issue that always gets a lot of attention, but if you have purchased media in one format is it fair to have to buy it again in another? I don’t think it is, especially given the price of some of the eBooks currently available. I’ll get to iPhone options for ebooks a bit later after a look at eBook pricing.

iPhone for $199?

Looks like American iPhone buyers will be in for a treat when the ‘everyone thinks it’s due in June’ 3G iPhone launches. The latest gossip is that AT&T will heavily subsidise the device on a two year plan, bringing the price of an 8Gb 3G version down to $199. The story started at Fortune, so head over there to get all the details.

Other claimed details of the next gen iPhone include it being 2.5mm thinner than the current version, and will have a GPS chip for navigation and other location-based services. While this all sound good, I’m thinking there’s not much chance of us brits getting the 3G iPhone for the equivalent £99.

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New Apple product rumours gain pace

It’s that time of year when anticipation of the Apple WWDC starts to grow. We already know that iPhone firmware V2 will be released in June, and now the much rumoured aluminium refresh of the Macbook has had its credibility boosted. MacRumors.com has some images found on a .Mac web page that show an aluminium Macbook as well as a redesigned Macbook pro. The Macbook looks much more expensive than the current range, so how will Apple separate the two price points in terms of spec? The graphics chip alone doesn’t seem like a big enough difference to justify the price jump so what other treats are in store for the Macbook Pro?

iPhone UK price cut

News sites are buzzing today with the news that O2 is to drop the price of the 8Gb iPhone by £100 to £169 tomorrow. Mobile Today reports that O2 has confirmed the price cut, to be available on all tariffs. Is this a move to clear out slow moving stock of the lower capacity iPhone, or even make way for the 3G version? Lets see what happens tomorrow.

3G iPhone soon?

The rumours about a 3G iPhone are gathering pace. Wall Street journalist Walt Mossberg predicted it would be available within 60 days, then retracted his comments. Now Engadget has the news that the Ziphone team have found code in the latest iPhone beta 2 software that suggests the 3G iPhone will use the successor to Infineon’s S-GOLD2 which powers the current iPhone. Offering 7.2Mbps HSDPA and support for up to 5 megapixel cameras this would certainly up the spec quite a bit. I’m happy at the moment with my iPod touch but a 3G iPhone would certainly be tempting, especially if the ease of jailbreaking and unlocking continues.

iPhone updates

Apple today announced several big updates to the iPhone and iPod Touch platforms. These will be supported in firmware version 2 due for release in late June.

• Direct support for Microsoft Exchange using licensed Activesync technology. This includes push e-mail, push calendaring, push contacts and remote wipe.
• From today the iPhone SDK is available to software developers, apps will downloaded directly to the iPhone/iPod or via iTunes. Free apps will cost nothing to distribute, commercial app writers will receive 70% of the price with Apple taking the other 30%.  There is a $99 fee to join the developer program. The link at developer.apple.com/iphone/program/ is currently not working. Are hundreds of eager programmers hammering the site?
• AOL instant messenger(AIM) is coming to the iPhone/iPod
• SEGA showed a Super Monkey Ball demo that is controlled using the tilt sensor
• Several other medical/financial/entertainment companies are on board with software development already
• The iPhone update is free, iPod Touch owners will have to pay again to get access to apps that Apple take a cut of. The reason given is again the accounting method. “The way we account for the iPhone is with subscription accounting, so we take the revenue over two years. The way that we account for iPods, is more normal accounting. And so because of that, we have to charge a nominal fee, but I don’t see that changing. We’ll set it when we release the software in June. But we don’t look at this as a profit opportunity.”

1.1.4 jailbreak status

General opinion seems to be that 1.1.4 is mostly bug fixes with support for the soon to be released iPhone SDK. The usual groups are still working on their jailbreaks and advising users to not upgrade to 1.1.4 until the new versions are fully tested and safe. Ziphone and iJailbreak are both at the testing stages, and iNdependence 1.4 beta 5 has full support for the 1.1.4 iPhone firmware. I’m waiting to see what get announced at Apple’s next event on 6th March before upgrading. Just remember, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Multiple Apple updates

It’s Tuesday, and that means Apple have some product updates for us. It’s been getting to be a bit of a ritual since Macworld Expo, and this has to be the busiest Tuesday so far. First off is the Macbook update, which seems to have been overlooked on the rumour front, with the focus on the Macbook Pro getting a multi touch mouse pad. So the new models are:

• White 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB ram, 120GB hard drive and Combo drive for £699
• White 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB ram, 160GB hard drive and DL SuperDrive for £829
• Black 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB ram, 250GB hard drive and DL SuperDrive for £949

Nothing different on the design front, just updated processors, memory and hard drives for the same price. The Macbook Pro gets a more substantial update, with the arrival of the much discussed multi touch trackpad and LED backlights. Also new is the Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT with 256Mb or a rather stingy 128Mb. The full updates spec and prices are:

• 15 inch with 1440 x 900 resolution, 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB memory, 200GB hard drive, 8x double-layer SuperDrive, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with 128MB SDRAM for £1,299
• 15 inch with 1440 x 900 resolution, 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB memory, 250GB hard drive, 8x double-layer SuperDrive, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with 256MB SDRAM for £1,599
• 17 inch with 1680 x 1050 resolution, 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB memory, 250GB hard drive, 8x double-layer SuperDrive, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with 256MB SDRAM for £1,799

Today’s final update is the iPhone/iPod Touch 1.1.4 firmware. Reports so far suggest very little new has been added over the recent 1.1.3 firmware, with just a few bugs being fixed. As usual, wait a few days for the jailbreaks to be tested and released before upgrading.

iPhone and iPod touch wallpapers

TUAW has a short article listing some good sources of wallpapers for your iPhone and iTouch. Onlygeeks.com have a nice selection covering lots of categories so well worth a visit. 320by480.com is another site with a large collection, though some don’t look to be optimised for the lock screen. Finally Cloudbase Skylabs have some interesting themes for the lock screen, including themed lock sliders.