iPhone 3g owners received the preceding sms message yesterday afternoon. Turns out “that under certain conditions the new ultracompact Apple USB power adapter’s metal prongs can break off and remain in a power outlet, creating a risk of electric shock.” Apple is offering replacement via orders on their website at http://www.apple.com/support/usbadapter/exchangeprogram/ or through their retail stores starting Oct. 10.
Just yesterday, Apple released iPhone update 2.0.2 which is supposedly designed to improve communications between the smart phone and wireless networks. This is good news considering, since the release of the iPhone 3G on July 11th, there have been nothing but complaints about glitches and poor connectivity and bad battery life.
The bay area-based company didn’t even acknowledge a problem with is phone until two days ago… only after completing the 2.0.2 patch to offer worldwide. And even then, the description of the iPhone issue was vague at best, as Apple spokespeople decline to specify the Apple part that the patch was targeting, whether it be the antenna and amplifier, the radio frequency transceiver, etc. This is a little bit scary in terms of consumer confidence… if they neglected to tell us about this problem until it was solved months later, are there any other significant problems that Apple is keeping under wraps? For more info here’s an article printing an interview with Jennifer Bowcock, Apple spokeswoman.
It’s unclear where or when or how, but rumors are most definitely spreading about future models of the iPhone… the iPhone Nano and the iPhone Shuffle. Both of these devices are designed to target the other half of mobile users that purchase “pay-as-you-go” plans, and feature all the main applications of the regular iPhone (they probably won’t have email capability though). Of the two, the Nano version sounds like the more feasible product, or at least the closest to completion, as a Shuffle version would be overly complicated in terms of dialing and touchscreen functionality. Some reports even say that the Nano version is confirmed for release in the UK for just under 150 pounds… but who’s to say for sure. Anyway, here are some images of what the potential iPhones could look like.
Research In Motion, the company behind Blackberry, is expanding its product line and releasing 4 completely different phones for different types of users. All 4 will be released by the end of the year, and all of them sound pretty sweet in their own right. Here’s a brief rundown…
The first, coming within the next couple weeks, is the Blackberry Bold, or 9000. Rumors of a release date have the Bold coming out on July 25th, but seeing as that refers to tomorrow, I couldn’t really say for sure. Other sources point to the following week on the 29th, which seems more reasonable. Anyway, the Bold is a continuation of the classic Blackberry Curve, highlighted with more power, a better, brighter, quality screen, GPS, and a new OS. It still has the full QWERTY keyboard and all the tested software that Blackberry provides, and is targeted toward the business oriented person.
The next, which is also in the upper price range, is the Blackberry Thunder, or 9500, which is expected to come out sometime in November or December. As I’m sure you know, the Thuder is defined by its touchscreen interface, and has been coined by many to be the ‘iPhone killer’. In actuality, this device was built more to say “we can do it too” than to try and dominate the iPhone– Blackberry will still rely mostly on its Pearl, Curve, and Bold sales over those of the Thunder. At any rate, the screen is supposed to have better quality than the iPhone’s, but for right now, most of the talk is just rumor.
The third on our list is the newly unveiled KickStart, which is the first flip phone that Blackberry has ever put into production. It will be more of a mid range phone in terms of pricing, and is tentatively scheduled to release in September. Again, most of the Blackberry features will be included, and the keyboard will be the same as that already featured on the Blackberry Pearl.
The final Blackberry product to come is the basic, inexpensive Javelin, which will release around the same time as the Thunder in November or December. It is, to be short, a simplified version of the Blackberry Curve that will have all the same capability, with slower speeds and not quite as amazing quality parts. Again, most of the talk about the Javelin is still just rumor, but it is definite that the phone will release sometime in the next months.
Just a couple weeks ago, Guitar Hero, the completely addicting guitar game, was reformatted by Activision to function on cell phones! And in that short span of time, the game went from 85th among mobile game purchases to 9th… it will most likely top the charts within the month. Seeing the meteoric rise of Guitar Hero on the mobile phone platform begs the question; why have mobile phone games been so lame for so long?
There is no simple answer to that question (though there are plenty of complaints), but what can be said is that Guitar Hero has clearly started a movement, a revolution in the mobile phone gaming world! Companies like EA and Activision are refusing to produce any more crummy, boring games for all these cool new phones; the days of Tetris and Bejeweled and Brick Game are coming to an end. Electronic Arts, the giant game maker, is releasing its long-awaited Spore for cellphones, including the iPhone, not just on the well-known game platforms. Other cool new games to come include Kung Fu Panda, the Dark Knight, and Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass, all with mobile phone compatible versions.
Last weekend, the Apple network experienced massive gridlock across the board, as iPhone 3g owners tried to activate their wireless service while many of the original iPhone users tried to upgrade to the new 2.0 OS. It was poor planning to say the least, as the releases of the new OS and the new iPhone within a week of each other basically invited mass scale problems. Because of the network, Apple customers were taking much longer to purchase iPhones at the stores, and current iPhone users found that their phones completely stopped working when they tried to update the system.
But in spite of all this mess, in their first weekend of sales, Apple was able to get over 1 million people worldwide out the door with brand new iPhone 3Gs. Even though high sales were to be expected, this 1 million phone mark was nearly double what analysts had predicted, and will completely dismantle the economic model that had predicted Apple’s total iPhone sales for the year at just over 4 million. Boy I wish I had invested a week ago! Apple definitely has a winner here. You can get the full run down by watching this video.
It looks like the new Blackberry Thunder 9500, which is supposed to be RIM’s iPhone 3G killer, is the furthest thing from it at this point. Boy Genius was able to get amazing inside information once again, quoting one of his “RIM ninjas” as saying “Thunder is in no way, shape, or form market ready. If bold was any indication, Thunder won’t be ready for at least another 4-5 months.” The source even went on to say “most of the people who have handled it think it’s a joke.”
Apparently, there are several serious problems with the phone at this point. The keyboard is very difficult to type on, the screen shows ripples whenever it is touched, and the accelerometer within the phone is overly sensitive, making the phone go completely out of whack whenever it is moved. There are also half second delays that consistently occur while navigating through the operating system. Let’s hope these bugs can be worked out… I’d really like to see the Thunder emerge and actually challenge the iPhone! It’d be a shame if it fell into the other group of minor touchscreen wanabees. For more from Boy Genius click here.
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