Originally Posted by
pacificrounder
With all the hype that I read on this board before the release of the iPhone 1.0, I am surprised to see that no one has started a 2.0 discussion thread. The WWDC keynote entertained me all day today (live streaming audio, sadly no video), but delivered, IMO, no big surprises.
They spent a great deal of time talking about how amazing the SDK is and how much developers love it, and apparently did some neat demos, including games that make full use of the tilt sensors. They also had an app that tracks your friends in the nearby area, allowing you to call or text them asking if they want to meet up - a little too big brother for me, but it could be cool.
The software update doesn't sound like it is going to be a major upgrade, besides the searchable contacts which is going to provide some much needed relief for those of us who have large fingers and trouble using the alphabet on the right side of the screen. It will be free for iPhone users and cost $9.95 for iPod Touch users, available in early July. The biggest part of the software upgrade will be the AppStore, which will be HUGE. It sounds like there will be quite a few free apps along with some that you have to pay for, including games.
And for the real meat and potatos:
- GPS is here
- the new model is actually called the "iPhone 3G," and 3G is 2.8x the speed of EDGE, and the iPhone 3G outperforms competing 3G phones like the Treo 750
- the headphone jack is no longer recessed
- the backing is now a sleeker looking black plastic
- it is slightly thicker than it's predecessor, and though I haven't seen any specifics I would expect it to be lighter because of the switch to plastic
Ready for the best part? It has a maximum price of $199 for an 8gb model. That means that with subsidies, it could be even lower when you sign a contract. The iPhone is becoming a more "real" phone, and not just a neat gadget, and I think that is a great thing because it will make it much more accessible. They are also going to be selling a 16gb model for $299, which comes in both black and white color schemes.
Oh, and for those of you logging on from overseas, it will be supported in 70 (yes, 70!) countries. Included in the software update is a language package that has tons of different languages and - because of the lack of buttons - the virtual keyboard makes it universally adaptable to different alphabets. Apple even developed a touch-entry for characters from Asian languages.
Needless to say, I am extremely happy with the fact that Apple took many of the criticisms of the 1st iPhone and actually improved them. One thing that I did not hear mention of was the ability to rotate the keyboard horizontally while texting - but they did rotate the calculator horizontally to make it a scientific calculator, so I'm not sure why the text keyboard wouldn't be able to do the same thing.
Release date: July 11.