iPhone 3GS is confirmed - Launches June 18th in US
 

Well it has been confirmed, but to be honest I am totally underwhelmed by the specifications. OS 3.0 looks to give much more to current users imo. [thumbdown]

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget....3gs-pr-005.jpg

Specs:

7.2Mbps HSDPA
3MP Camera - No freaking flash!
Video Recording up to 30fps- Jailbreak anyone?
Built-in compass
Nike + Support
New battery that offers 5 hours of 3G talk time and 9 hours of WiFi internet use
New voice control interface that lets you do everything from make calls to control iTunes
Fingerprint resistive coating
16gb and 32gb versions


New contract pricing as follows:

$199 - 16gb
$299 - 32gb

Upgrades / mid term contract:

$299 - 3G
$399 - 3GS 16gb
$499 - 3GS 32gb

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/08/i...3gs-announced/

First advert here:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/08/v...ts-not-really/

Got some information for UK users:

O2 are confirmed as the sole contractors for the new iPhone. They will support tethering and MMS from 19th June, for a premium.

Tethering Bolt On - £14.98 for 3gb and £29.36 for 10GB - Jailbreak anyone?
Upgrades - Up to £184.98 for 16gb and £274.23 for 32gb depending on contract.
Tariff prices are much cheaper - £29.38 and £34.26 on 18 months, so no 2 year deals.

Best thing about the iPhone 3GS is that the 3G will now sell for $99. That's amazing.

I have been using iPhone OS 3.0 since Beta 1, and I do not think it is release-ready.

Please note that the latest Beta (Beta 5) was released May 6th, so I'd hope that -with over of month of development- the public release will be much better than Beta 5.

I've been waiting specifically for the details for the new iphone. Now I wish I just got it a couple of months ago, cause this isn't nothing major imo.

I suppose the 3G will be cheaper. How much do you think in the UK?

Not sure about the 3G, but I just updated main post for upgrade information. [thumbup]

You forgot to mention the faster CPU and new GPU w/ OpenGL 2.0 support and also twice the RAM. Plus with the 32GB of storage how can you not be impressed? OS 3.0 has a lot of new features too I watched some of the demos of WWDC and they were sweet. Opening up the USB port/Bluetooth for 3rd party devices is awesome. We can now finally get keyboards, game controllers, more accuarte external GPS(or a GPS for iphone 2g), external sensors like shown at WWDC, Nike+ support, and better car /stereo controllers, etc. On top of that all for the same price as the 16GB 3G costed a week ago. Plus the autofocus camera is implemented better than any other phone that I know of. What would you have added to the hardware spec to be so impressed? A higher mp camera, probably an OLED screen and what else?

I'm not blown away like I was expecting. I thought I would be compelled to spend whatever O2 wanted to upgrade me straight away when it came out but I think I will just stick with my 3G until the contract ends unless performance differences really are that massive. I doubt it though.

I already have tethering through jaulbreaking. Buggered if I am paying £15 a month. That's even more expensive than their standalone mobile broadband for god's sake.

I was gleaming information as it came through. In terms of speed I have an iPod Touch which is faster than a 3G. My flatmate has a 3G and it seems fast enough to me, OS 3.0 will make it better. More ram is a waste of time if it can't multi-task. It needed to multi-task and have a decent camera with flash for me to want one.

Oh and I played on a N97 at the Nokia Flagship store, it comes with camera flash and excellent screen, multi tasking and also browser flash support. Not to mention a hardware keyboard and symbian which means lots and lots of applications. Only thing is game support, but my iTouch covers that,

I never think ram is a waste. The iPhone OS crashes apps all the time because it needs more ram. The CPU is also a newer version of arm11 or cortex which adds multimedia features which the iphone2g/3g/touch couldn't touch. With the improved GPU/CPU/RAM combo we will be seeing apps that just run on the 3G-Speed (epecially with the newer OpenGL support). With iPhone now having 50,000 apps I think that is plenty of apps and is growing faster than any other smartphone library. Plus I knew you were just a N97 fanboy that's why you keep dissing the iphone. The Nokia's N97 OS is getting long in the tooth and far from a dream phone and reminds me a lot of the Tilt or Sony's new Xperia. It will remain just a boutique phone that is way too expensive. $700 phone vs $299 or even very comparable to the 3G $99.

Funny how Symbian is long in the tooth but has been capable of things the iPhone has yet to achieve as of... Oh... 5 years ago. The very first S60 phone ever made was capable of multitasking - this is a supercritical feature. The iPhone's fine and all, but the way I use my phone I could never do without the ability to have applications running in the background and the ability to switch between them.

In terms of price, you're comparing subsidized prices to unsubsidized prices.

This looks like a nominal release, but my current phone contract only expires in 2011 so I can't wait to see what iPhone Apple has then. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/cool1.gif

If it does have the ARM cortex a8(imap) I dont really see the point. People making these apps are looking to make money. To me that means they will write their applications for the lowest common system so that all Iphones are able to use the software and they can make the largest profit.

I have the 3g and honestly the games suck., The lack of any real controls on the iphone really hurt this unit a lot. Also the I agree with Inept that the OS is missing lots of features that have been around forever. I think the Cortex CPU will come to max use when the pandora arrives(if ever).

The prices on the O2 site are just crazy, who would pay £450 for a iphone on pay as you go http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/blink1.gif

Its still almost £200 for an 18 month contract even....

Its nice to see the UK are getting ripped off again [rolleyes], USA prices make much more sense though.

http://shop.o2.co.uk/update/iphone.html

Over 80% of the apps are garbage... and you have to pay. My WinMo phone has far more useful apps for free. I'm buying an HTC Magic too once I find one locally. Android/WinMo > OS 3.0
plain and simple the iPhone is an iPod touch with a phone. they should stop calling it a "smart phone".
I sold my iPhone 3g to a co-worker who hated as much as I did. He ended up selling it too. Worst phone I have ever had. Jailbreaking it was the best thing I ever did to that phone.

80% of the apps on the app store are useless and the rest are all copies of one another in that they offer the same product but slightly diff feature. The app store app number is inflated... its counting both free, trial, and paid programs together and its also including programs that do the same things but from diff developers. In the end its an inflated number. Not saying there are no useful programs.. that would be stupid... But Apple is being sneaky by claiming 50k+ apps. They did the same thing when the iPhone was announced... iPhone does this and that and that.. Heck the way apple advertises then laptops can do over 1000 different things. It's all smoke and mirrors and over hype

It's funny how you had the exact same experience as I did, except the complete opposite. Personally, I find WinMo to be the worst mobile browser ever created. It's incredibly inefficient, crashes constantly, requires registry edits (awful), and adding too much software to it virtually makes the operating system unworkable. Some people are saying iphone games suck yet I've played a few that rival PSP games (with some being as cheap as $.99).

Lots of people buy them on PAYG. Knock £200 off the price for the ipod touch it contains (everyone I know that has one uses the iPhone as their only MP3 player now) and you're left with a PAYG handset that costs between £150 and £250. For a smartphone without a contract that's peanuts.

I don't think it was a worthy update. They should have added way better camera, better flash, added some more features. N97 is a better choice...even though I never used it, but I'll get it as soon as it hits US markets!

As I said in the "Your Hardware"-based thread... The upgrade to HSDPA 7.2 is a useless upgrade to date... and will likely be out of date within a year, since AT&T @ least is rolling out 14.4 before 2011, and completely switching technologies to LTE in 2011. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/wink1.gif

HSDPA 7.2 might be useless for the US market but 7.2 is widely available here in Australia. :)

Still I'm not sold on the no buttons so I won't be getting one, that and they are crazy expensive and aren't available with my provider.

Paying a monthly fee for tethering? http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo.../confused1.gif

Most modern smart phones will let you use the phone as a modem for free!

Apart from that the 3Gs does look better and with 3.0 release imminent it adds much needed functionality for me. I really want to see what that video cam is capable of!

http://img248.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=img00012.png