Chaotic Neutrality

After much speculation and rumor build up for the last couple months, anal overlord of the world, Steve Jobs, finally broke the silence and announced the next version of the iPhone — the 3G version!

The news of the 3G iPhone is definitely cool. The EDGE network sucks for loading web pages… and that happens to be one of my primary uses for the phone (I actually ran the install for a wordpress blog through my iPhone — sure I had to upload it via normal means, but still!).

The cool stuff:

• Price: $199 for 8GB, $299 for 16GB
• Color: Available in Black or White (only 16GB)
• Speed: USES 3G!!!!
• GPS: Has GPS… and integrates with Google Maps. Yes! Wheee!
• Headphone Jack: Non recessed! Apple learns from a very dumb mistake in V1.0.
• Business: Exchange and push email support. Move over RIM, here comes Apple trying to take your slice of the pie!

The bad stuff:

• Price: My old iPhone is now almost worthless with very little resale value. $399+ down the drain, but I guess it will make a nice gift for a non iPhone fanatic.
• Release Date: July 11th is too far away. I want to play with a new toy. Damn it.
• Other Details: Not many other details are available yet. I’m hoping for some other cool features being improved like MMS capabilities, better camera, video recording, etc.

Apple pushes the cell phone market one step closer to full on data capabilities and a real web browsing experience. This should help usher in an improved era of phone+web devices.

I’ll bet that RIM and Blackberry are pretty concerned right now.

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Earlier today, Apple announced its big plans for the iPhone which include an Over the Air (OTA) Application Store and full on Enterprise support.

Since Apple has already quickly grabbed 28% of the smart phone market (compared to 41% for Research in Motion’s Blackberry line), it seems that the upcoming 2.0 enhancements will allow the iPhone to vault into the #1 spot in the mobile smart phone arena.

Honestly, this is the day that I have been waiting for since I purchased my iPhone. Sure, the roll out is “a few months” away, but the details have been released and the SDK is available for download. This is a great day for iPhone owners and a scary day for RIM (stocks down $2.75 for the day currently. Related? You tell me!).

If nothing else, iPhone 2.0 will empower current owners with an impressive array of applications and give the ability for business / enterprise support. But, in reality, it will also launch the smart phone industry into bigger and better places and RIM (and other competitors) will be forced to be more innovative as well. A win-win situation!

The iPhone SDK will lead to:

• Mobile Games
• Powerful applications (AIM, IRC, Money Management… the sky is the limit!)
• Easy Updates through the App Download Store

The iPhone Enterprise enhancement promise support for the following:

• Push email
• Push contacts
• Push calendar
• Global Address List
• Certificates and Identities
• WPA2/802.1x
• Enforced security policies
• More VPN protocols
• Device configuration
• Remote wipe

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With only 9 days left in February, it seems as though the iPhone Software Developer Kit is imminent (Steve Jobs promised it in Feb. after all)!

It has been speculated that most/all of the following will be part of this release:

• Firmware 1.1.4 - Seems likely since 1.1.3 has already been “hacked” and psuedo jailbroken.
• Public SDK information release - This is what we’re all waiting for! When I originally purchased my iPhone 6 months ago, I immediately loved it… but I also longed to have the ability to install cool programs and applications on it.
• iTunes Application Management - I’m really curious to see how this works and how Apple tries to monetize this and extract as much as possible from their consumers.
• Adobe Flash - Yes! Now we can all watch porn internet videos on our iPhones and not just on YouTube!

Personally, I’m pretty excited to see how this pans out.

I’ve been using a jailbroken iPhone since day one and have come to enjoy applications such as MobileRSS, colloQ IRC, ApolloIM, and Flickr Integration with the built in camera. I’ve also come to love being able to customize the appearance (background, icons, sounds, etc) of my phone. I absolutely despise how Apple has tried to make it so every iPhone looks exactly the same.

With that being said, I’m actually torn between going legit and using the new firmware when it is released or waiting for the iPhone Dev Team to work their magic again.

Only time will tell… but either way, I’m still looking forward to it. Bring it on Apple! You bastards!

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Wow. Just wow.

One of my main complaints about the iPhone was lack of Apple support for the installation of 3rd party applications.

All I can say is that it’s about time. Too bad the slated release of the iPhone Software Developer Kit isn’t until Feb. 2008.

But that’s OK. The iPhone Dev Team has treated us all nicely by figuring out ways to “hack” the iPhone security and allow for 3rd party application installations since almost Day 1.

Still, I’m looking forward to being able to do this legitly and having access to much better applications to run on my phone. Glad Apple and its head control freak Jobs finally saw the necessity for this.

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Disclaimer: I am definitely not an Apple fanboy. The thought of Steve Jobs controlling every aspect of my electronics causes me immense pain.

With that being said, I did buy an iPhone. Mind you, I did not wait in line for it, but I was pleased to hear that the closest Apple retail store was still in stock on the Monday following release.

Enough of the background and onto the review…

(more…)

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