Be Excellent To Each Other

Ooh, share the wealth myoptika. I've tried all sorts of guides and converting to .aac here there and everywhere and nothing seems to be occurring on mine.

Have you jailbroken it? It's simply a case of downloading the app called 'PhoneZap'. It's one of the featured ones on the Installer, and there's a section where you can create your own ringtones from songs that are stored on the phone itself.

Excellent if that works. A lack of custom (and free) ringtones is the only gripe I had (other than that if you're talking on the phone, it *could* be easier to use the interface still - but that's a ludicrous complaint, really, 'Bah, my phone is not sufficiently like a laptop when I use it like a phone!').

Reasons why my iPhone is great and not crap: had to find a business last weekend, wasn't sure where. Had a lift coming in 5 minutes. Quickly loaded up Safari, found the address; backed out of Safari, into Maps. Requested directions, and then zoomed in nice and close. Followed the route along using the excellent 'step by step' interface, allowing it to all load in.

I could then happily provide directions for the whole route without needing GPS or to pay for the data transfer over a slow network; and I could flip back to Safari to check on the site of the business, for their number if needed. Awesomesauce.

PhoneZap does work because I'm using it right now.

Phonezap, aha. I'll get it right now. I have been using Cydia more than installer, so I missed that one. Cheers!

So, everyone ready for 6pm? I went so far today as to go into the O2 shop and ask about what I would need to do to upgrade from my currently SIMplicity tariff to a "hypothetical" new iPhone. Answer: very little, hurrah.

What's happening at 6pm?

Steve Jobs'll be doing a keynote at WWDC. The new iPhone is roughly 99.999% likely to appear. However, some speculators are getting a little too optimistic about what features it will have.

Yeah, I think there's no way the 32" screen rumour can be true.

Wildly optimistic Apple fans? That never happens.

Maybe it has a projector in it?

Perhaps, but I think it's very unlikely there is going to be a free pony in each box.

40" screen.
Infinite supply of loaves and fishes.
Enables user to walk on water.
Free sense of self satisfaction with every purchase.

Meanwhile 1 week after purchase the Jesuscomputer still isn't here. The invoice arrived this morning but no sign of the box itself. I would make some amusing link between Apple and Citylink except my Citylink deliveries are great.

What's this PhoneZap thing for MP3 ringtones? I used iTunes and a little converter thingy to make one the same day I got it. I didn't realise it was causing anyone a problem.

Did you get your iPhone via the O2 contract deal, Mr G? And if so, are you just planning to "go out and buy" an iPhone2, or upgrade somehow?

No. I bought an iPhone1 off the shelf for my other half, which was duly unlocked and is running with an Orange SIM in it. Separate from that, I migrated my Orange tariff onto O2 SIM-only contract, still using my old Orange phone, back in January of this year. Hence for me to get an iPhone2 now is essentially an "upgrade".

The process is different depending on if they do the iPhone2 like the last one (no contract in store, activate through iTunes) or like a normal phone (enforced contract in store). My guess is the latter.

The rumours are all pointing towards fairly significant subsidisation for iPhone 2, although I suspect it'll still be tied into certain carriers, rather than unlockable. Frankly, if Apple doesn't offer this, there's going to be a major shit-storm.

I concur with Craig.

Anyone fancying dribbling about new iPhone capabilities, go to http://www.macrumorslive.com/

I assume the Apple online store is closed because of the launch. Meaning I can't track the Jesuscomputer status for updates. Not that there are any (updates). Bah, this is worse than ordering a brand new game for my CPC mail order and then having to wait bloody ages for it to arrive.

Can you imagine Sir Alan shutting his market stall shop?

No, didn't think so.

I'm now wondering if I've made a big mistake by getting an N95 8GB the other day. I blame Grim....

Funny to see all the entire internet bitching about Apple's new prices. There's a great quote on the BBC from some numb-nut moaning that "I bought a $299 iPhone just last week, and now the new, better iPhone is going to be $100 cheaper. I HATE APPLE EVEN MORE NOW."

Jobs made is common knowledge that the 3G iPhone was due (very rare for Apple). On the other comment, I guess the poster has a point. After all, it's not like Dell, Sony, LG, Nokia (etc.) reduce the prices of a unit to shift old stock and then release a new, cheaper and better model! No, wait.

What amazes me is that the rumour mill was absolutely bang-on on every single point this time: Office support, GPS, Me.com, 3G, thinner, better battery, etc.


Take it back. Or get Grim... to buy you an iPhone.

I'm not too fussed myself. I expected a 3G unit some time in the next year. In the meantime, I get the first phone that I've found truly useful. The new model does sound good, I might get one ($199 still equally ~£100 then, probably) in the US, given chance.

But as you say - it was obvious and inevitable. And it hardly makes the original unit obsolete - the majority of the New Things are app-related and will apply to both, almost entirely. The internet is whiny.

Are not.

Yeah, this model sounds good. Slightly surprised there was no capacity bump though -- I was betting on 16Gb/32Gb. I guess it's a cost control measure in the light of the subsidies.

CUS -- you likely won't be able to buy a US one -- I'm guessing that they are acheiving these prices by offering subsidies from the network, which will require a contract sign up at the same time. I don't think we'll see the same "activate at home" model that left the 2G one so open to exploitation. We'll see though.

It'll be interesting to see whether the Maps application will come bundled with complete maps for the UK (or whichever territory you buy it in, natch) to save the phone having to download map data over Wi-Fi/3G when using the GPS mode.

It won't, is my bet. It's just the same old Google Maps. There is no turn-by-turn -- yet: I firmly predict that either TomTom, Garmin, or someone else will ship one via the App Store pronto. The GPS manufacturers are very concerned about an iPhone with built-in GPS eating their market, and rightly so, and will act to stem that by at least selling the software for it. I guess these will continue to rely on bundled maps. I think I want the 16Gb model...

Well, I'll be buying one.

When I next replace my phone. Which won't be for 9 months or so.

I'll be getting one July 11th, I reckon.

I'm going to be whiny. I expected them to come out with something awesome, and they've just come up with 'an iPhone with GPS'. 'In white.'
Have they addressed the rubbish SMS stuff, sup-standard camera, no vid-chat, lack of MP3 ringtones or MMS things yet?

No. Although: what's wrong with the SMS? The ringtones are at least easy enough to get around, and whilst I will miss MMS a bit the bald truth is I've only sent and received a dozen in the last three years so clearly I haven't missed it much.

Start writing a message, get a call / hit the menu button / do something else - your message has gone.
[edit]No MMS, it seems (looking at the Apple Store). Amusingly, it suggests you share photos by showing them to your friends on your iPhone

My feyonce says you are a wronger than an inaccurate thing on Incorrect Day. We just tested it; she wrote an SMS but didn't hit send, I called her, she answered, hung up, and it went straight back to messaging. It also didn't vanish when she half-wrote one, hit Menu, loaded iPod, Menu again, Messaging. She does remember losing a half-written one once, perhaps when she received another incoming one and selected to go read it; but only that once.

No, no MMS is confirmed. Primary photo sharing is still email. I concur this is a weakness. I'd prefer cut&paste though.

I won't be buying one of these new ones unless a) it can be bought without signing up for a contract on the spot and b) the hackers manage to get it unlocked.

I have heard about this no mp3 ringtones thing. Does it mean you can't have any song as a ringtone, or does it just prevent you from using that particularly poorly encoded music format? If I got an iPhone on 16th July would I be able to select an Apple Lossless file as ringtone, or would it kibosh that as well?* And if it would put a hurtin' on my plans, what would it offer as a substitute?

* In which case that does suck.

Don't bet on this.This is likely to happen. All the v2 beta firmwares have been thoroughly exploited, apparantly through some deep seated security flaw. Although without understanding the flaw it's hard to be sure.

That's my guess, too. You can also pretty much guarantee that the 16/32 jump will come either pre-Christmas (if a sales boost is needed) or post-Christmas (to push Apple's traditionally sluggish quarter).


Interestingly, Apple won't be getting a dime from AT&T this time round. I suspect Apple's banking on people buying loads of apps for iPhone, for which it gets 30%.


I like the quote I read from an "unnamed CEO of a market-leader in GPS devices": he said he was "shit-scared of an iPhone with GPS".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7443543.stm

OWNED

That's a good point actually -- a storage bump around the traditional autumn iPod refresh would slot in nicely. Good thinking.

That's not my reading. I read one of two options: first, the entire iPhone1 business model (no subsidy, Apple gets cut of device and cut of revenue) was flawed. It certainly didn't do well in Europe and made it oh-so-easy for the hackers to get their hands on hardware with no contract agreement. On the other hand, perhaps Apple are smarter than that and it may only ever have been a short-term measure, designed to milk the early adopter market, at which it did very well.

Dropping the enforced revenue share with AT&T/O2/Orange/T-mobile in the four existing countries may open Apple up to going to a non-exclusive footing on the European market too.

That is indeed the quote I was alluding to, and quite right too. They are already approaching market saturation and struggling to differentiate new models; most average consumers are perfectly happy with a two year old low-end model. The only thing they've come up with recently is the idea of getting live traffic measurements by putting SIM cards in them and lo and behold, here comes a very nice device with a big, bright screen that lots of people want anyway and already does every single thing a standalone satnav does and a bunch more.

Haha, that was quick.

Heh! It has to be said, I always thought that quote I mentioned was from TomTom. Thing is, if they can flog the software for, say, £50 or so, that's got to be a better profit than a device for two or three times that.

Elsewhere, interesting news continues to filter in. First, in the US at least, iPhones now HAVE to be activated in-store. While this won't stop unlocking, it's going to put the brakes on some. Personally, I don't have a problem with this. The iPhone's even going to be available on PAYG, and while O2 isn't ideal for everyone, this really wouldn't be a great time for Apple to suddenly lose a huge wodge of cash, due to 1 in 6 iPhone users continuing to unlock the phone. (I'm thinking about this both from a knee-jerk idiocy scale—see all the analysts who are already saying Apple's totally screwed outside the US, because it "only" has a 5% share of the smartphone market—and from an R&D standpoint, with Apple being one of the few companies that pumps a shit-load of money back into research.)


Perhaps it was a no-risk strategy. Apple doesn't always get it right, and Jobs has already been bitten by a couple of horrendously expensive failures (Cube, anyone?) Had iPhone not sold well, Apple would have still made a good profit, meaning the exercise wouldn't have been a write-off. As it is, I think it's fair to say iPhone has outperformed expectations, and with that in mind, Apple has moved to a more typical model. As of July, of course, Apple might end up making money hand-over-fist through the store—remember that it gets 30% of the revenue for every software purchase.

Just about the only negative news, bar the crappy camera that still exists in iPhone (again, that seems a cost issue—Apple appears to have spent its time honing the old model rather than massively upgrading the entire thing; see also: Snow Leopard) was seeing O2's £30 plan. It's clearly only there to bump people back to the £35 one. Quite where O2 can justify the drop from 600 to 75 minutes and 500 to 125 texts, I don't know. Then again, it'll be interesting to see what VOIP stuff yomps on in for iPhone, and now Apple's not revenue-sharing, I'll bet the company will now be quite happy to see Skype on its phone.

I'm guessing it's more than $199 on PAYG though? I need a new iPod and I need a new phone but by the time I decided this the old £130 iPhones had sold out everywhere.

Keep an eye on ebay and the like. I bet there's going to be some cheap Jesusphone 1s available soon.

I imagine so. I suspect on PAYG, there's no subsidisation from Apple, and so you'll be paying the 'standard' hardware price (whatever that is now), but then you won't be paying £540+ for the contract.

Non-shocker, this. They were never going to subsidise the upfronts with no contract lock-in.

Bloody hell, that's a bit of a joke, isn't it? Maybe that's designed for the unlocker crowd! Interesting, the £45 a month plan costs you £180 more over the contract but saves you £100 upfront -- so if there's even a fairly small chance you'll exceed 600 minutes in a month it's worth going for.

Hah, however, I dunno if they are strong enough yet to piss the market off like that.

One thing I do find surprising -- we're getting a better deal than the States, I think (£99 upfront versus $199 upfront; we have 18 month contract, they have two years).

Gah, unlocked GPS iPhone with TomTom software WANT.

Depends on how good the GPS is, though - it can take phones a long while to find a decent satellite signal. Gaywood could probably tell you why that was.

You're saying it's his fault?

Could be.

If only you could find him.

So, £169 with 35/mo contract seems pretty sweet. Assuming it gets ramped up to 16/32Gb in 9 months or so, are we looking at a price rise then or will the "old" 8Gb model still be available?

Naturally It's because finding a GPS signal, in radio engineering terms, is like listening for a fart in a thunderstorm. By the time it reaches the Earth's surface the signal is about 0.00000000000000001 watts, compared to the 1 watt transmit strength of your mobile phone, for example. This is why they don't often work indoors.

To calculate your position the GPS receiver needs four of those, and needs to listen to them for long enough to sync the time stream. Each signal is essentially just an atomic clock time pulse; all the GPS satellites are synchronised, and by examining the differences in time at the receiver end and making some calculations from the speed of light, it can calculate how far it is from each satellite.

It knows where the satellites are as they are geosynchrous; calculating where you are on the earth sounds simple if you have A-level maths but is actually hideously complicated as the Earth's surface (spoilers!) is not a sphere.

Given all this, the mystery isn't that some receivers are slow to obtain a lock-on; the mystery is how on God's green Earth modern GPS systems like the £30 Bluetooth one I bought can, inside of 10 seconds, acquire a lock on inside a car and start reporting position. Beats the shit out of me.

Mohh