iPhone 3G
new hotness, techno-babble
Let’s start with the basics:
- Black and White
- $200 for 8GB, $300 for 16GB
- Hits stores on July 11
Now for some of the stuff you probably don’t know:
- $30/month for Unlimited Internet
- The iPhone is significantly cheaper for two reasons, the first reason being the iPhone is now subsidized by AT&T. The cost of unlimited internet increased to $30/month, up from $20. $30/month times 24 months = $720.
- Good Luck Unlocking
- Because AT&T is banking on your 2-year commitment, they’re gonna be extremely anal about people trying to unlock their iPhones. In the previous model, you could buy the iPhone from the store, bring it up and activate it (or hack it). Now, just like any other phone, you have to get it activated immediately after you sign up with AT&T.
- GPS = Convenient, Stalkerlicious
- With the built-in GPS, you’re gonna see all sorts of apps that take advantage of geo-location (knowing where you are). When you take pics, it’ll know your exact coordinates of where you took the pic. Want to see reviews of all the restaurants around you at any given moment? Done. Want to track where your friends are? You could fire up an app and see their locations on Google Maps. “Dude, why the fuck are you at my girlfriend’s house?!”
- 32GB by February?
- Apple is pretty good about updating their products at regular intervals. iPods tend to get updated in September in preparation for the holiday season. September is a little too soon for an update, especially since the 3G isn’t hitting stores until July 11. But January is a nice time to introduce an update because that is when Apple holds its biggest conference.
My final verdict:
People that have an iPhone…just keep it. Have a little self-control (I know, it’s hard) and hold out for the next minor update, which should be coming sometime early next year.
Everyone else? $200 and $300 is a fucking STEAL compared to all the other stuff that is out there. It’s an iPod + a phone + a web browser + a portable YouTube player (which is great for laughs at parties). All you Facebook whores will love it too.
June 10th, 2008 at 6:34 am
So, unlimited internet access is $30 on top of the $60 phone plan?
June 10th, 2008 at 8:26 am
@ Josh: The lowest phone plan is $40, so it’d be $70 total.
@ Mel: Since the iPhone storage space is usually smaller than most collections, does it have an option to randomly fill it up with songs (autofill, like the shuffle), or do you have to pick and choose? Also, do I really want to be stuck for 2 years with a crippled iPhone? Or should I wait 0.5-1 year more to get a hopefully up to snuff iPhone with better camera, front facing camera, video recording, more storage, MMS, and Cut/Copy/Paste? (I don’t currently own one)
June 10th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Oh and one more thing, maybe a viable option for me would be to try and find someone willing to sell the first gen iPhone for cheap ($100 or less), and maybe even jailbroken, and avoid having to pay the extra $240 to AT&T for their 3G speed plans, and then upgrade later? I dunno, your thoughts?
June 11th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Will, the iPhone supports normal playlists and Smart Playlists, just like the rest of the non-Shuffle iPods.
I create Smart Playlists like “all songs rated at least 3 stars, not played in the past month, up to 6GBs.” That way, the songs on my iPhone get automagically rotated. I spent a LOT of time perfecting my 30+ Smart Playlists…I’ll try to post my good ones here this weekend.
If you’re on AT&T already, or your current contract is about to expire, you should totally get one. 16GB is a nice number and having 3G internet wherever you go is just awesome. I’m always checking out movie ratings on IMDB while I’m picking a DVD at Blockbuster, or catching up on Google Reader while taking a dump. And I use the Google Maps app for realtime traffic reports too.
For me personally, I’m willing to stick to my current 8GB for a few more months and hold out for a potential 32GB January-ish. (I wanna to get my $600 worth out of this damn thing, ya know?)
Don’t bother with the first gen. All the future third-party apps will be optimized for 3G connection and GPS location awareness.
Things like video recording, MMS and copy/paste are can be added by third-parties or by Apple as a firmware update.