Over-hyped and over-priced it may be, you’ve got to smile at Tesla upgrading its lusted-after electric Roadster car with iPod/iPhone compatibility and a 7-inch touchscreen, which is supported by a rear camera for parking problems. More »
Tesla – Tesla Motors – Tesla Roadster – Sports car – Denmark
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The new iPhone has been officially outed and details of the next phone from Apple have been shared by Steve Jobs at the WWDC. The phone is pretty much the same as the prototype that walked into a bar recently (but failed to walk out). Jobs shared all the details about the iPhone 4, and made a case for this being the best iPhone ever. He’s right about that, but having just purchased the Sprint EVO 4G I am now even happier about my purchase than before the iPhone 4 announcement. Here’s how the two phones stack up against one another.
Hardware
Software
It may seem like I’ve stacked the deck against the iPhone, and perhaps so. I do believe the iPhone 4 is a sweet smartphone, and it has the full Apple ecosystem behind it, which is powerful stuff. I also believe that the Sprint EVO 4G is the most advanced smartphone hardware available — that high-res iPhone screen aside –and it can certainly hold its own in this head-to-head comparison.
Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d): Will Metered Mobile Data Slow the App Market’s Growth?
Check out the rest: GigaOM
We already knew that iPhone 4 would have a front-facing camera, but Steve Jobs waited until the end of his presentation to actually show it off. Using his traditional “one more thing” schtick, Jobs called Apple designer Jonathan Ives using FaceTime, a new software application for video calling on the handset. But first, Jobs asked the audience to turn off their Wi-Fi devices. Why? The new feature works between iPhone 4 devices and only over Wi-Fi, which is good and bad.
While bandwidth-intensive video won’t eat up cellular data plans since it uses Wi-Fi, this constraint does limit the potential locations to use FaceTime. Apple says it “needs to work with cellular providers” for video over 3G, but it had better hurry: More than 30 billion video calls are expected by 2015, according to our latest GigaOM Pro report (subscription required). Regardless of the connectivity challenge, Apple is making use of both cameras on the new iPhone 4 — users can show their face with the front camera or switch to the rear camera to show off the world around them.
Check out the rest: GigaOM
Today, Gizmodo won at the Internet, and all it took was $10,000. That’s the current price being whispered amongst the blogging circles as what was paid for a prototype of the next iPhone — yep, next, as in the one that isn’t announced yet — purportedly found on the floor of a bar in San Jose.
So what does all this mean? Is it real? Read on for the details.
The hardware:
The device won’t boot up and much of the internals are unlabeled, so only so much is known about the insides. But here’s what we know so far:
Is it real?
If you asked me this question earlier this week, after the first pictures of it had emerged, I’d have said no — or, at least, “It’s too early to tell.”
Given today’s evidence, however, it’s pretty much undeniable: Apple made this. Giz ripped the backing off the handset for a peek inside. I say this as someone who has disassembled one too many iPhones for their own good: that.. that is very much Apple’s work. From the shape of the clips to the types of connectors used, it’s all too familiar. Faking the outside of a phone to look like an Apple product would require man-power and cash money far beyond most people’s reach; faking the inside seems nigh impossible.
But the new design! It’s, it’s.. so different!
Yep. It is.
And that’s by no means evidence against it being real. People seem to have this false idea that Apple doesn’t take rapid departures in their product designs — when in actuality, they do it often. Regularly, even.
Every few years, Apple takes their flagship products, tears them apart, and rebuilds them from the ground up. Sometimes, they come back looking the same on the outside, but being drastically different inside (see the unibody MacBook Pros).
The rest of the time, they come back looking nothing like their predecessors. In 1999, Apple released the iBook G1, a brightly colored clamshell that came in a rainbow of hues. In 2001, Apple dropped the colors (and took the “clamshell” design a bit less literally) in favor of a squared-off, sterile white design of the iBook G3. Look at the iMac of 2001 and the iMacs of 2004 and 2009 and try to say that Apple’s “design language” is unwavering.
The Shroud:
Perhaps I’m just overly geeky, but the case this thing was wrapped in is one of the coolest parts of the story.
If this thing was out and about in someones pocket in some way that it could be dropped, the design team has apparently reached the point where it’s time for real world testing. With the iPhone reaching an almost ubiquitous level of popularity, however, an easily distinguishable new model wasn’t really something that could be carried around unnoticed.
Apple’s solution? Make it look like a 3GS.
Apple camouflaged this thing, much in the same way that car manufacturers tape all kinds of extra junk and obfuscation layers onto prototype cars when they’re testing them on the tracks. It sat inside a case that would make it look like a 3GS to anyone taking a cursory glance, with special holes cut in all the right places for the new bits.
On Legality
Before I get into this: this is by no means an indication of some moral objection on my part. Given the same opportunity — that is, to buy the next iPhone long before its release — I imagine I’d have done the exact same thing Giz has done.
With that said, I do wonder about where all of this sits from a legal standpoint. The story, as it goes so far: guy finds what looks like an iPhone 3GS in a protective case sitting on the floor of a bar in San Jose. He pops the case off and, lo and behold, it’s not the iPhone 3GS at all, but a brand-stinkin’ new, unreleased iPhone. He sends some pictures to Engadget, and then sells the unit itself to Gizmodo for the aforementioned rumored price tag of $10k. Giz then spends a few days attempting to prove that it’s real before posting it.
It goes without saying: I am not a lawyer. But given the circumstances and that all parties involved knew (or at least, have been working to prove) that this is an Apple prototype that didn’t rightly belong on a bar floor in San Jose, does this all fall into “possession of stolen goods”?
Either way, it’ll be incredible interesting to see how Apple responds to this. If they send a cease and desist, fight for some sort of injunction, or send in the A-Team to bust through the windows and steal the unit back, they’re essentially admitting its legitimacy. If they do nothing, they’ve got a prototype of their next handset floating around in the wild, months before its unveiling.
Read Giz’s full coverage here.
Check out the rest: MobileCrunch
Over the weekend — as is the tradition with upcoming iPhone models — photos were leaked that purport to be of the next-gen (G4) iPhone.
Engadget originally released them, then thought they were fake, but now claim that they are, in fact, genuine. It seems quite likely that they are genuine, especially as Gizmodo has just released a hands-on video of that very same leaked device, and claim to have had it in their posession for a week.
A few interesting features have come to light due to these leaks:
Gizmodo back the device’s authenticity, and deliver a convincing argument to say as much. I agree with them: this is likely the real deal. Some design features may change before launch, but this is a very polished device, so I can’t imagine that much will.
But don’t take just my word for it, you can go see the video and read Gizmodo’s evidence for yourself here.
And the original Engadget post is here.
Check out the rest: MobileCrunch
