iPhone 3G feature tally

New features:

• 3G internet- Faster internet than in previous version.
• GPS- Those location-based services I’ve been pining for should follow shortly.
• App Store- Availability of third-party apps will definitely make iPhone a more useful and attractive device.
• Extended battery life- Anyone who owns a cellphone right now knows how sweet this is.
• Uniform, reasonable pricing- $599* was steep. $199* is very attractive. And if you’re feeling fancy, $299* isn’t too much to spend on a phone/device of this calibre. Interestingly, this also marks the first time Steve Jobs openly appeared to consider what price someone is willing to pay for one of his magical toys.

Missing features:

• Video capture. specs list shows that it supports a lot of different formats, but not .3g2, a common mobile video format.
• MMS can’t send picture messages.

Initial verdict: It was close, but I’m going to have to say it’s a pass right now for me. The lack of video and MMS are deal-breakers; for someone who does not carry around a separate camera, video capabilities are really convenient and have become a must-have feature. Still no MMS: this is somewhat offset by unlimited internet, but getting random pictures from- and sending spontaneous pictures to- family and friends is also on my “must have” list.

Amidst the abundance of coverage and analysis, I still have one lingering question: What was in all those mysterious boxes?

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* $USD. Despite near-parity of Canadian and US dollars, expect it to be slightly more expensive when released.

Update (10/6/08): According to the Rogers press release, pricing will be $199 or $299 for respective 8GB or 16GB models. Looks like dollar parity finally paid off. Still no word on plan details or whether we’ll see UK-style subsidized prices.

counting down the minutes

today’s the big day!

the apple stores worldwide are down- which is always a good sign. the iphone dev center is also unavailable right now. in just under an hour, all our speculating and positing will be confirmed (or not.) this is how we plan to stay on top of things during the keynote:

macrumorslive
tuaw
arstechnica
engadget
digg

twitter.com/tuaw
twitter.com/macrumors
twitter.com/wired

if that’s not enough, you can always download the video of the keynote once it’s posted. until then, have a look at this interesting article.

6 days and counting…

CNET is reporting on another reason Monday could the big day we’ve all been waiting for- apparently there is confirmation that the App Store is ready to go and will be live sometime Monday. We expect it will go live shortly following the keynote at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

Developers have long known that June is the likely month for the App Store launch, as this year’s Apple Design Awards included two iPhone-specific categories. Entries for this year’s ADAs were due weeks ago, so expect there to be a surprising amount of quality apps ready to go once Apple decides to flip the switch on the store- including a few from Apple itself.

WWDC seems to be the most appropriate occasion for this to come together, and, assuming this ties in with the 3G iPhone rumours and announced Canadian launch, we couldn’t be more excited.

$10 says

someone’s already working on this. It feels like we’re just around the corner from having useful and ubiquitous location-based services on every phone. If it weren’t for the iPhone’s “one-app-at-a-time” policy, I’d be the first to download and use an iPhone Imity client. Maybe we’ll see something similar in the appstore anyway.

Any bets on whether location-aware apps will be among the initial offerings?