Detailed demo of Sprint/Samsung's Instinct

WWDC 2008 Keynote in 1 minute

It's here...Apple says hello to 3G.

You could cut the anticipation with a knife leading up to Apple Inc.'s Worldwide Developer Conference this morning. The company delivered the iPhone 3G to thunderous applause more than 75 minutes into a nearly two-hour presentation.

The sold-out event brought 5,200 people to the company's annual gathering for developers and kicked off with details about the iPhone 2.0 software, App Store and 11 new application demonstrations from developers.

"I think it's widely believed that this is the phone that changed phones forever," CEO Steve Jobs said, leading up to up to the big announcement.

Calling the iPhone "one of the most amazing products I've ever had the pleasure of being involved with," Jobs checked off five major areas that Apple was pressed to improve on and delivered on all of them with the new device. A 3G network plus GPS support, enterprise support, third party applications, more scale and a lower price will all be met with the new device, which comes out July 11 in 22 countries.

"We did figure out what our next challenges are, the next mountain we have to climb to go to the next level," Jobs said. Although six million iPhones have been sold thus far, Jobs said the price must drop before reaching greater scale.

"We need to make the iPhone more affordable," he said.

A lower price

Most disturbing for other handset vendors that have been trying to catch up with the first generation of the device is that the 3G, 8GB iPhone will sell for $200 in the United States, with the more spacious 16 GB model priced at $299 — both with a 2-year contract at AT&T Mobility. (The first-generation iPhone continues to be listed on the AT&T Mobility site at $399 for the 8GB model and $499 for the 16GB model, though both are tagged as “temporarily out of stock.”)

As expected, the new pricing indicates a new business model for Apple and AT&T.

“The new agreement between Apple and AT&T eliminates the revenue-sharing model under which AT&T shared a portion of monthly service revenue with Apple,” AT&T said in a statement. “Under the revised agreement, which is consistent with traditional equipment manufacturer-carrier arrangements, there is no revenue sharing and both iPhone 3G models will be offered at attractive prices to broaden the market potential and accelerate subscriber volumes.”

AT&T also said unlimited data for the 3G iPhone would cost $30 per month.

During his presentation, Jobs compared the iPhone's performance over Wi-Fi, a 3G network and EDGE. The new device pulled up nationalgeographic.com over 3G in 21 seconds and took 59 seconds on the EDGE network. Wi-Fi clocked the site in at 19 seconds. "You can see that the 3G speeds are actually approaching Wi-Fi," Jobs said.

Scott Forstall, senior VP of iPhone software, introduced 11 different engineers that each has developed applications that will be available on the App Store at launch or shortly after. Sega, eBay, Loopt, TypePad, Associated Press, Pangea Software, Cow Music, MLB.com, Modality, MIMvista and Digital Legends Entertainment all showcased their applications built for the device to varying levels of “oohs” and “ahhs” from the crowd.

"We've developed for nearly every mobile platform, this one is the best," Loopt's Sam Altman said. "We think this is a new era in mobile."

Forstall also introduced a new feature that allows iPhone users to receive notifications of changes on an application even when the user isn't actively using the applications. Instant messaging messages and more will be made available through a new Apple Push Notification Service that maintains one consistent link with the device, rather than requiring multiple applications to run in the background.

The specs

The “3G” aspect of the new iPhone calls out the device’s tri-band HSDPA support in the 850/1900/2100 MHz bands in addition to its quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support from the previous model. (No word in Apple’s press release about support for HSUPA technology, which AT&T Mobility has baked into its recent network upgrades.) Apple claims the device will have 10 hours of talk time in GSM mode and 5 hours of talk time in UMTS mode. The device continues to include Wi-Fi capabilities as well inside its new, slimmer profile.

Speaking of aesthetics, the 3G iPhone will not come in two colors: black for both models and white for the 16GB model. The new colors are rendered in plastic that will replace the previous models’ aluminum casing.

The new device also includes assisted GPS technology and Bluetooth 2.0, which were both lacking in the original model. The GPS functionality was central to several new applications that were presented during the event that also highlighted new applications developed for the iPhone platform through its software development kit.

Apple also touted the new device’s support for enterprise applications, as well as Apple’s new MobileMe service that pushes e-mail, contacts and calendar events from a central Apple server to the iPhone. The MobileMe service is set to replace Apple’s previous .mac service.

Other “improvements” to the device include a flush headphone jack and the inclusion of a “SIM ejector tool.”

Article courtesy Matt Kapko of RCR Wireless News

That's one expensive phone

Good news, Dior lovers: More pictures, and details, of the upcoming Dior mobile phone have emerged. We knew the fashion house was introducing a luxury handset after images of the phone appeared online, but the pictures didn't really reveal anything about specifications, pricing and color.

Lucky for us, an article on the Wall Street Journal gives us a few more details regarding the designer phone, which will be initially available in Russia and China. The reason for this, according to Dior Chief Executive Sidney Toledano, is there's a bigger demand for luxury goods there, and consumers living in these countries really pay attention to color and design when buying a phone.

But don't be disheartened if you really want one, because this phone will work in most parts of the world, except Japan and Korea, where it isn't compatible with local wireless networks. Specifications are still a bit sketchy, but we do know the features on the Dior phone include a touchscreen, a camera, and special ringtones.

What really makes the Dior handset stand out though is the accompanying clip-on mini-phone that comes with the model. This unusual attachment called "My Dior" is about the size of a USB key and connects to the main handset via Bluetooth to make it easy for the user to answer any incoming calls.

As you can see from the picture above, the phone will be available in pink, red, and white when it goes on sale later this year for $5,000.

Article courtesy Yahoo.com