DISQUS

Colby Olson · 1 year ago

I await your pile of dung review, I hear it has 3G capabilities. Would you still call it a shitty product?

shawnroos · 1 year ago

I dont like that mac is cheating us on prices. making a big deal about the 199 tag when its actually much more than that when you do the math on the 2 year contract. It sounds microsofty to me. in fact on my blog www.technoboogie.squarespace.com i wrote that i found the two new products to be a bit of a bummer, because they both lock you into paying more.

I think a free iphone and free sync storage would be the best win for the consumers....

Rachel · 1 year ago

Great news in the UK is that the new iPhone will be available on a Pay as You Go. With the price drop as well, it means that it's worth buying to play around with, without having to change providers.

They're going to be able to drive sales with this (which has been sluggish) as it's potentially going to be more attractive to teens plus everyone else who's still in a contract.

Michael Markman · 1 year ago

I did the math. It's $40 more expensive. You're right. It's NOT that much cheaper.

Ian Betteridge · 1 year ago

Of course, if you were in BoingBoing's IRC channel, you got all the news much faster than you would have hitting refresh on FriendFeed. Or you could have listened to the live audio stream of the keynote that someone managed to get running on Ustream.

But hey - never let an opportunity to plug your latest obsession go to waste Robert :)

Kapil · 1 year ago

Also the mobileme.com services have an applicable charge which I am guessing is more money out of the consumers' pocket. Correct?

Christopher Coulter · 1 year ago

It was subsidized, they could have still charged an arm and leg for the phone too and still required a 2 year contract hell. Phone cheaper, yes, overall ROI? Most likely more. Marketing gimmick really, Apple makes great stuff, but get out the credit cards, not sure why this is news. It's a cult that you have to continually pay for, pay to be "cool".

met · 1 year ago

And the $9.99 apps from appstore ? :) This is going to be one heavy investment. Which is why I've decided to hold on to my old iphone for now. I think I can live without the 3G and GPS.
I guess the revenue separation happened because Apple wouldn't share its revenues from the app store with ATT. ATT doesn't seem to have any bargaining power at all in this relationship.

eng1ne · 1 year ago

Does anyone know what will happen to the existing iphone at&t plan when they start selling the new iphone? I was trying to do the math if I should pick up an iphone on ebay (which will have the same capabilities except 3g and GPS) or wait for the new 3G model.

Lou Paglia · 1 year ago

why be upset with Apple? they are running a business and selling products/services that people want. I have no problem with them coming out with a new generation and better product offering and charging more over the life of ownership. It doesn't make sense to not do that and to market it exactly how they are marketing it. It is the only incentive to keep innovating.

smart business move. great products. solid strategy. smart pricing.

Ryan Eibling · 1 year ago

> Video? Not a word. Steve Jobs usually makes a big deal of things when he has them, especially sexy things like video. Nokia is safe for another generation because of this one feature alone.

Nope. Video recording is already possible with a jailbroken 1st gen iPhone via a third-party app. I've used it myself and it works pretty well. The only thing required for iPhone 3G video recording is software, so I'm sure something will be available whether it's part of the base iPhone software or in the App Store.

Ryan Eibling · 1 year ago

Besides what Lou Paglia said, Apple is the wrong target for disappointment or anger over pricing. It's been widely reported that Apple will no longer be sharing revenue from the service, so *they* aren't taking more money from you over the life of the contract. It's AT&T getting that extra $10, and it's AT&T requiring the 2-year contract (which is understandable if they're the ones taking the hit for the price reduction).

Jeremy Toeman · 1 year ago

To play a little devil's advocate... I only did one thing during the keynote - refreshed the Engadget feed every few minutes. I got all the same news you did, and was able to do other work at the same time. The consensus that FF was the best was most likely derived from the fact that all the people in the conversation were all FF-lovers! And frankly, how many of them are experts in mobile tech, gadgetry, consumers, or any other domain-relevant topic? No offense to FF or its users, but I'm much more interested in reading Ryan's commentary than I am hearing about the iPhone market from a "random technologist"...

Shane Conder · 1 year ago

I had to be at a car appointment, so I was watching on a phone. The easiest site for that? Engadget. Until it got so big that the phone I was using started crashing. Then I just watched twitter.

The iPhone 3G really isn't a second gen iPhone -- it's just a refresh of the current iPhone. I mean, iPhone +3G+GPS + 2 year contract plus $10/mo isn't really all that compelling. In particular, I'm still making due with a GoPhone plan that works great with both my N95 and my iPhone. Oh well.

So when's the iPhone 2 coming out?

MG Siegler · 1 year ago

Thanks Robert, glad you enjoyed the FriendFeed stream.

John Giannakos · 1 year ago

Come on you guys, the iPhone was $399 for 8gb when it first came out and that was with a 2 or 3 year contract with AT&T. Every phone on the market is advertised this way.

The bottom line is you go to an Apple Store, you buy the phone for $199 and you unlock it via ziphone or ijailbreak. That's what millions of people have been doing for months, and thats what I will do again, with the new iPhone.

Aaron · 1 year ago

It's not like Steve Jobs to cut prices out of the goodness of his heart.

Combine yesterday's mostly non-announcement with the rumors about upgraded cameras and video capabilities, and you get a nice picture of "negative space" in the iPhone lineup.

Knowing full well that the Scobles of the world will happily spend $500 on a new phone with the latest bells and whistles, I expect a video-centric iPhone upgrade by the end of the year -- it'll be an extra $10 a month for service, but come with unlimited video streaming from two cameras -- a high-quality one on the back, and a lower-quality one behind the screen for face-to-face conferencing.

Czech Mate · 1 year ago

Scoble,

I'm really getting tired of the snark factor in a lot of the blogs coverage of the Apple keynotes. It's like going to a movie and siting behind someone who throws snide remarks all thru the movie.
TAUW was terrible, gizmodo's younger blogger started out insulting some of the guests, Engadget was o so bored(they had great pics tho).

They're all trying to be Jon Stewert, but failing miserably.
Ars and macworld were good ,cause they kept their attempts at snark to a minimum.

They were kinda funny a couple of years ago, but now they have all jumped the snark.

For the Apple keynotes from now on, I'm gonna wait a couple of hours and watch it w/out the juvenile snark bait.

What's the frequency, Kenneth? · 1 year ago

So, what did you LEARN? I read it, and I didn't learn anything, except that you have friends who run something called FriendFeed and felt the need to pimp it.

Waste of time. Thanks!

Marc · 1 year ago

A pretty astute post. I have to admit that I'd like to like it more than I do, but I do think that the application development possibilities are pretty remarkable. Folks at Scroll Motion put together a video to that effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irXCMdRprfw
Now if only you could SHOOT a video with your iPhone - then it'd make a lot more sense for everyone.

Damien Hogan · 1 year ago

"Most of the time I learned about the latest Steve Jobs announcement on FriendFeed 45 seconds before I saw it pop up on MacRumorsLive"

The real world benefit of that "advantage" is hard to see for us mere mortals. If I may translate, so that you can get a feeling for how others may perceive that comment...

"Most of the time the latest Steve Jobs announcement on FriendFeed was in 11 point type, whereas MacRumorsLive was using 10.5 point type"

Graham · 1 year ago

The funny thing is that those who are saying its no cheaper due to TCO were the ones who were saying the iPhone was too expensive a week ago. TCO of the original iPhone was generally a decent price. you jut paid more up front and had a slightly cheaper data plan.

Geoff · 1 year ago

Well, Damien, you don't seem to understand technology very well.

You see, Robert could have waited until the keynote was over, so that he could read a summary from a reputable source like a normal person. But those carefully prepared summaries wouldn't contain the hastily written, poorly thought out semi-facts of the quickly fired-off Friendfeed tidbits, nor would they contain all of those charming typos and that oh-so-cute lack of punctuation.

Or, he could have relied solely on one of these other, crappier sites for his "live" reports. But... come on. Those sites were, like, full seconds behind Friendfeed! *Seconds*, man!

So, Robert used Friendfeed, a service that was created and maintained by Mohamed, Jesus Christ, Buddha and Vishnu. Thanks to this wisest of choices, Robert knew things a full 45 seconds before anyone else in the world, he says! (Except for the many people who were actually there. Or the many people who listened to the direct audio stream.) Why, he was amazed, Robert was!

With this extra 45 second headstart on most of the rest of the world, Robert was able to do.... well, nothing. But he did manage to waste an hour or so, and attracted a few dozen concerned stares in an Apple Store while he was feverishly refreshing several pages, when reading the full summary a few seconds after the event concluded would have taken him only five minutes.

You see, savvy users like Robert know that technology is really all about making our less complicated and more efficient. Friendfeed, man -- it'll change your life.

C. Cane · 1 year ago

I agree with L. Paglia and others; the current second-best devices from Motorola/LG/Nokia etc. have yet to even come close to Apple's innovations in the iPhone. Innovation. Vision. Thought leaders!

thunderbird79 · 1 year ago

Yeah, I looked at Gizmodo during WWDC 08. I remember the picture of Jobs showing the back of the hot new 3G iPhone. I still can't believe that Apple lowered the price of the iPhone $200! I mean, how's Apple gonna make any profit? It probably costs $200 just to make the thing!

So, does that mean Apple is going to lower the price of the iPod Touch $200? If Apple does, I am going to be pretty angry. I got a bargain for one on eBay, $285 to be exact. If Apple does lower the price of the Touch $200, I'm going to be a bit angry!

Visit ,y blog at thnderbird79.wordpress.com

iPhone Junkie · 1 year ago

I too got all the info from friendfeed.