By now your've seen coerial,first screened----twice----at Steve Jobs's WWDC keynote June9,"It's finally here,"it says,"the first phone to beat the iPhone."Yep,that would be the long-awaited,much rumored new iPhone 3G, debuting in 22 countries July 11 and coming to 70 total by the end of 2008.
The iPhone 3G is 2.4 by 4.5 inches and has a slightly thicker middle(0.48 inches) than the first iPhone(0.46 inches),althought it's more tapered at the edges. The old aluminum back is now shiny black plastic on the 8GB and 16GB models, and a white back is available for the 16GB phone. Apple wouldn't say if the plastic was the same as in its scratch-susceptible iPods and MacBooks.Other tweaks include metal buttons(replacing plastic) and a flush headphone juck. Yes, therecessed jack is gone,so users can nowuse any headphones without needing an adapter--we expect microphone enabled earbuds to flood the market soon.
Under the hood, the biggest change is 3G. The first iPhone used AT&T's EDGE network(Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution),which has data speeds roughly comparable to a 56k dial-up-modem---at the first iPhone's releas,AT&T said average EDGE speeds were between 75 and 135 kilobits per second. The iPhone 3G can download at near-Wi-Fi speeds; AT&T's 3G network, where available should allow transfers of up to 3.4 megabits per second. At the keynote, Steve loaded the National Geographic website over both the EDGE and 3G networks----it took the iPhone 3G just 21 seconds,2.8 times faster than the iPhone using EDGE,which needed 59 seconds.(Loading the same page over Wi-Fi took 17 seconds.)
The iPhones 3G also has a built-in GPS receiver, Which uses satellites orbiting Earth to determine its location. The origial iPhone used Wi-Fi hostspot and cell-tower triangulation to get a rough location, and those are still in the iPhone 3G's Core Location service,along with the added accuracy of GPS.
But even with those hardware upgrades, Apple claims longer battery life:up to 300 hours standby(the first iPhone had up to 250),5 hours of talk time on the 3G network, 10 hours of time if you're using the 2G cell network(up from 8), and up to 5 or 6 hours of Web browsing, 7 hours of video,or 24 hours of audio on a charge("actual results may vary"). We're waiting to find out how Apple accomplished this---the copany declind to elaborate when we asked--or how close its claims come to real-world results.The previous iPhone usesd a 3.7-volt Lithiu-ion battery soldered to the motherboard, and the iPhone 3G's battery is not detachable either, meaning owners still have to send it to Apple for a $79 replacement or use a third-party service or DIY kit.
Some things never change(or at least not yet),including the 3.5-inch Multi-Touch screen and Bluetooth 2.0,but no support for the A2DP Bluetooth protocol,which would let users stream steeo music to wireless headphones,Still no card slot for external memort and no voice-dialing capabilities.The iPhone 3G has the same 2-megapixel camera on the back that shoots still images only.(Currently,jaibroken iPhones can shoot wideo using third-party software,so we're hopeful that such an app will find its way to the App Store.) We were surprised Apple didn't announce a 32GB phone---a 32 iPod touch was available for $449 at press time---but we suspect that could happpen by the year's end.
Then there's the price:$199 for 8GB and $299 for 16GB when it debuts. However, AT&T is still the exclusive U.S. carrier, and those prices require a two-tear contract. AT&T's new agreement with Apple is more traditional than its previous deal. AT&T is subsidizing the price of the hardware(the companies won't say how much, and analyst estimates vary from $20) on top of what you pay for your voice plan(prices start at $39.99). So while the 8 GB iPhone 3G costs $200 less than the current 8 GB iPhone, you'll have to pay AT&T $10 more per month over the 24-month contract, or $240. As we went to press, AT&T was keeping um about data-only plans for hearing impaired users(which wasn't advertised but could be requested for the first iPhone)
