iPhone 3G is finally official, starts at $199, available July 11th

[Bouncer]

iPhone 3G is finally official! - Engadget

It's been a long wait, but Apple finally took the wraps off its 3G iPhone. Thinner edges, full plastic back, flush headphone jack, and the iPhone 2.0 firmware -- Apple's taking a lot of the criticisms to heart from the first time around. Obviously 3G is at the forefront, but they're also making sure it's available all over internationally, works with enterprises, runs 3rd party apps... and does it all for cheaper. Apple claims its 3G speeds trounce the competition, with pageloads 36% faster than the N95 and Treo 750 -- and obviously it completely trounces the old EDGE data. Battery life isn't getting put out to pasture though, with 300 hours of standby, 8-10 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 7 hours of video and 24 hours of audio. GPS is also a go. Apple is using A-GPS, which supplements regular satellite GPS data with info from cellular towers. WiFi data is also worked into the mix, which should give users a pretty solid lock on where the heck they are on this planet. Apple hopes to launch in 70 countries this year. 8GB is available for $199, 16GB for $299 -- and the 16GB comes in white. Apple will be hitting the 22 biggest markets, including the US, on July 11th.

[Timma]

I've been following this all morning. I am very surprised that it's gonna be that cheap. Looks like im putting my crackberry on ebay.

[dna9488]

About fuckin time. I still rather go with the Nokia N96

[SonofBone]

Not much of a gadget guy...is it still AT&T only or will somebody have to crack this one too for other carriers? Seems like a lot of features & a reasonable price.

[COLOSSUS]

Nice

but im waiting for the Blackberry thunder to come out. its suppose to be the iphone killa.

iv heard this about many phones but we'll see about this one

[Timma]

Not much of a gadget guy...is it still AT&T only or will somebody have to crack this one too for other carriers? Seems like a lot of features & a reasonable price.

Still only ATT but i have seen a few cracked up on ebay. Apple has rumored that eventually they will have it for all carriers.

[Bouncer]

i have a nokia flip phone. anyone want to trade? lmao

[Bouncer]

iPhone 3G hands-on

iPhone 3G hands-on - Engadget

* We did a quick data test -- at our location we went from 104Kbps on the EDGE iPhone to 215Kbps on the 3G model. 2x ain't bad, yo.
* The enable/disable 3G setting is real, and buried a few menus deep. There is no automatic switching, Apple just assumes you'll leave 3G on, and that the iPhone has the juice to support that usage.
* WiFi is still 802.11b/g, no support for n yet.
* Yes, that GPS is A-GPS, just as we mentioned.
* Geotagging photos is a thumbs-up. We were deep indoors though, so native GPS wasn't working and we couldn't get a clear idea of satellite acquisition time.
* The screen looks exactly the same -- maybe a tiny bit brighter, but the unit was new, so it'd be negligible.
* The camera is identical to the first -- 2 megapixels. No front-facing camera (of course).
* It's certainly thicker feeling, but they rocked it Treo-style and really tapered those edges, so it just doesn't feel that different. But because of that curved back, it'll dance around on your table a little more than your completely-flat original iPhone.
* The plastic back didn't feel too cheap. In fact, it felt pretty solid. It's very clossy, so it'll pick up fingerprints just as well as the glass up front (yay).
* It comes with a ridiculously, absurdly small power adapter. It basically looks like a tiny square with a USB port on one side, and power prongs on the other. It will power any other iDevice (iPod touch, 1st gen iPhone, etc.), and sell separately for those that want a smaller adapter.
* The dock (now sold separately) and adapter (if you want an extra) will both go for something like $29, although that price is not yet confirmed.
* No mention was made of copy/paste, MMS, etc.
* It doesn't look like this thing is going to fit in your old dock. The new dock does look smaller and more sculpted to the new iPhone's curves.
* The headphone jack is flush, as mentioned. It's still 3.5mm, so if you don't like the out of box phones (which won't stay in our ears), bring your own, no problem -- and no adapter needed!
* Yes, original iPhones are totally gone, you won't be seeing those made anymore. Long live the aluminum back!

It looks like they took an amazing device and made it significantly better. If the battery life is as good as they claim, we think this will steamroll the competition in the enterprise space. And even if it doesn't, at $199 it's going to be extremely hard for people to resist.

[sana]

bah humbug

[Bouncer]

bah humbug

ha! epic "i payed $400 for my old obsolete iphone just months ago". :rofl:

i told you so..

[Timma]

bah humbug

HAHAHA! Never get the first model because something better is coming along not far down the road for cheaper, especially with Apple. I may actually wait like 6 months to see if they come with something better or if the price goes down again.

[Bouncer]

HAHAHA! Never get the first model because something better is coming along not far down the road for cheaper, especially with Apple. I may actually wait like 6 months to see if they come with something better or if the price goes down again.

there will be an iphone 3 in about a year and a half. i doubt very much that the price will ever be lower then $199 though.

[Timma]

there will be an iphone 3 in about a year and a half. i doubt very much that the price will ever be lower then $199 though.

I was just reading at macrumors.com and the new lower price isn't what it's cracked up to be. The new iPhone is half the price. So the 8 gig is $199. Now here's the catch. ATT is not sharing the revenue from the plans with Apple like they did before. On top of that they are supposedly increasing the price of the plans by at least $10/month. So pretty much ATT is putting the screws to everyone this time.

[Turbo3000]

HAHAHA! Never get the first model because something better is coming along not far down the road for cheaper, especially with Apple. I may actually wait like 6 months to see if they come with something better or if the price goes down again.

That applies to almost every product. You can't always keep waiting. I bought my 1st gen iphone when it was still expensive as shit, and yeah in hind-sight I could say I should of waited, but I have enjoyed every minute of this phone.

[Stonecold54]

all this to what? waste time on a small computer? I am all for the internet and neat "Stuff" but christ what the fuck is the big deal...it would be one thing if people had important things to talk about but the majority of "Cell phone" coversations that I hear aren't worth a nickel. I guess I don't get it why people want to isolate themselves with gadgets and then call people on them to tell them how much they haven't done today.