Hey Guys,

I don't usually post too much, but figured for any techies out there, (well, techies probably know, but for those techie wannabes :P) this would be some awesome news. Steve Jobs just officially announced the new 3G Iphone, and to sum up the basics:

It will be available in the US and 21 other markets on July 11th. The 8gb model is $199, 16gb is $299. It's 3.6x faster than the old edge model and loading pages, and comes with GPS with live tracking. Hope the GPS manufacturers have something planned to compete

Link:
http://gizmodo.com/5014675/the ... july-11th-starting-at-199

well as I broke mine yesterday when I dropped it for the first time - I smashed the glass on the front - and they said the repair cost was the exact same amount as the cost of a new phone...

I guess I just found the replacement.

Quote from Becky Rose :

well as I broke mine yesterday when I dropped it for the first time - I smashed the glass on the front - and they said the repair cost was the exact same amount as the cost of a new phone...

I guess I just found the replacement.

Really? I thought it was meant to be tough!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=t4X0MRsMXLA

Must just have been bad luck for you. My iPod touch has been fine, big drops

Wow.

The iPhone.

Woo.

The main issue with the iPhone isn't the cost of the unit, it's the cost of the functionality. I don't imagine the flat-rate £40/mo deals with no additional data charges will change much with a cheaper handset.

It is a great bit of kit though.

BTW Kev, you can buy the iPhone and then use a PAYG SIM...

Quote from thisnameistaken :

The main issue with the iPhone isn't the cost of the unit, it's the cost of the functionality. I don't imagine the flat-rate £40/mo deals with no additional data charges will change much with a cheaper handset.

It is a great bit of kit though.

I have to say I totally agree with this. And it seems that an increase in the price of the data plan is inevitable, which essentially nullifies the decrease in initial purchase price. But as an engineer, I am damn impressed with the hardware upgrades.

Quote from Jakg :

BTW Kev, you can buy the iPhone and then use a PAYG SIM...

But if you're planning to use a PAYG service - meaning you don't intend to make much use of the additional functionality over a regular phone - then you lose the whole point of buying an iPhone.

I honestly thought the initial offers with the old model were a great deal for Blackberry users, not so much for anybody else.

That's the thing; it's a Blackberry competitor, Blackberry beater even, and that's all well and good for Blackberry users but not really for anybody else. I got the impression the original plans available for the old handset were deliberately marginal in order to get the handsets out there and make people appreciate what a good unit it was. It worked too, but I don't think the prices will come down with the new model.

The plan already has got more competitive since launch, I am on the base plan which I think is £25 a month and i've got 400 minutes more now a month than I did when I signed up. Mind you as most of my minutes are international calls I get totally stung still as they're not included of course grrr.

/me puts wallet away.

/me waits patiently for current cellphone to break

/me throws cellphone at wall.

blargh. I dont get the iPhone at all.
Why not spend the same money (and problably even less) on a PDA? more funcionality, waaaay more features...

My pda has all the iPhone has plus a decent working wireless (one you can *gasp* configure), GPS, word, excel, acrobat reader etc... I honestly dont get it. And I'v used one - its just a ridiculously overpriced piece of design...

Quote from Stigpt :

blargh. I dont get the iPhone at all.
Why not spend the same money (and problably even less) on a PDA? more funcionality, waaaay more features...

Why not just get a cheap phone and not a PDA?

The main reason I've avoided "smart" phones is that I don't ever want to feel obliged to use a stupid little keyboard to reply to some arsehole customer who insists that their enquiry is "urgent", when they always insist that all their enquiries are "urgent" when they quite patently aren't. Ever.

I didn't have a mobile phone at all for a few years for precisely the same reasons. If I'm not at my desk, send me an email. If you don't want to send me an email, your job isn't that urgent.

Quote from Becky Rose :

well as I broke mine yesterday when I dropped it for the first time - I smashed the glass on the front - and they said the repair cost was the exact same amount as the cost of a new phone...

I guess I just found the replacement.

good timing Becky!!!!!

Quote from Stigpt :

blargh. I dont get the iPhone at all.
Why not spend the same money (and problably even less) on a PDA? more funcionality, waaaay more features...

My pda has all the iPhone has plus a decent working wireless (one you can *gasp* configure), GPS, word, excel, acrobat reader etc... I honestly dont get it. And I'v used one - its just a ridiculously overpriced piece of design...

Well, a lot of people are under the impression that the Iphone is an all-purpose business phone. Personally, I don't think it can even compare to the functionality of the Blackberry's, but you're very right, when you buy an Iphone, what you pay for is the UED (User experience design). I'm not an apple fanboy, but compared to blackberry's, this thing is pure smex.

Quote from Becky Rose :

The plan already has got more competitive since launch, I am on the base plan which I think is £25 a month and i've got 400 minutes more now a month than I did when I signed up. Mind you as most of my minutes are international calls I get totally stung still as they're not included of course grrr.

Skype - much cheaper

skype is fine and VOIP in general is great other than the line quality of course but sometimes only a phone will do... Otherwise I'd use Skype wouldn't I.

As for why I bought an iPhone. Because finally there is a phone with a good feature set that has a user interface that I dont have to sit down and learn, its not got Windows on, and it works as an iPod.

I'm not a phone person, I dont know what a blackberry is, I dont want to know unless the user experience is as simple and funky as my iphones.

Some phones I can't even make a call on, I know every part of the iPhone and I never read a thing ... Including to my shame the multiple licence agreements...

Quote from Becky Rose :

Some phones I can't even make a call on, I know every part of the iPhone and I never read a thing ... Including to my shame the multiple licence agreements...

You gave agreement to something you didn't read? Gasp. Go to jail.

There was an experiment once where the license agreement included a note that everyone must pay 5000 dollars if they agree.

Now, if they start selling that thing WITHOUT a contract I'll buy one for sure. 200 dollars.. wheeh. But I'm pretty sure we'll get it for 350

EDIT: Oh, they won't be selling them officially here, then we'll have to order ours from Finland

The handy thing about being European is that any agreement you must agree to to use something AFTER handing over money is legally invalid.

The disadvantage is not being able to afford the court case to get your legal rights...

Quote from Becky Rose :

skype is fine and VOIP in general is great other than the line quality of course but sometimes only a phone will do... Otherwise I'd use Skype wouldn't I.

Fair enough...... be aware that Skype have a great new deal where for £6.95 you can call any of 34 countries land lines for free as well as receiving 3 land line numbers in any of those countries, so people calling you only pay local rate from that country

I would certainly buy one of these, but in Hungary it will be almost twice as expensive... It's still worth it but I don't like to pay a lot more for nothing.

Quote :

Fair enough...... be aware that Skype have a great new deal where for £6.95 you can call any of 34 countries land lines for free as well as receiving 3 land line numbers in any of those countries, so people calling you only pay local rate from that country

That's great when i've got my laptop running and a free wireless access point... When I make calls abroad it's usually because i'm not near my computer, usually I use MSN. The international calls part of my bill only comes to about £25 a month anyway.

Quote from Becky Rose :

That's great when i've got my laptop running and a free wireless access point... When I make calls abroad it's usually because i'm not near my computer, usually I use MSN. The international calls part of my bill only comes to about £25 a month anyway.

cool Becky. Just wanted to let you know as its a great new Skype deal

On brazil we dont even have At&t, but i still use Iphone on our local phone provider (oir however its called) i used a program to unlock it, i´ll do the same with the 3g one, once i get one. Why not do that and use whatever phone company you wish, my iphone is a few months old, and i never had a issue because of the unlocking...

im definitely getting one once they get to Aus. =D

I'd love to have a gadget like this, but at a thousand bucks per year its just not worth it to me.