The MiFi is gorgeous, and about as big as a business card holder. And miraculously capable of connecting to Verizon's 3G cellular network and spitting out Wi-Fi to up to 5 clients.

The device is manufactured by Novatel, and instead of a metal top of the reference design, it has a plastic top, which I imagine is better for wireless signal reception. The 3G connection is a Verizon EVDO revision A connection, and it was not too slow while being tested from downtown Manhattan.
Speed was what you'd expect from an EVDO Revision A piece of kit:

The Wi-Fi itself is of the B/G variety, with basic security settings and the ability to hide SSID broadcasting. There's a web based UI for managing the hotspot, too.

The operation of the device is relatively straight forward, in most ways. You hit the power button and it turns on and automatically connects to a Verizon 3G signal. (I kind of wish the power button was more recessed, I can see it turning on in a bag.)

There are some variables as to how you connect the device to your computers and wi-fi devices, though.

The micro USB port used for charging the device doubles as a connectivity port. When you connect the device to your computer by USB, the internet access can be turned on by Verizon's software. This charges the device, but disables Wi-Fi so no other devices can use it. Connecting the MiFi to the wall charger via the same port allows the Wi-Fi to be accessed. I do think that its nice that it is both battery powered and capable of being used as a tethered device. If you're going to use your 3G connection on only one device you're better off connecting it as such because transferring a connection over a USB port takes less power than over a wireless signal, even if its only Wi-Fi.

The device works fine. Wi-Fi range is not all that strong, but given the portability of the device, it's better than expected, providing strong coverage at 25 feet away in a place with congested airwaves. The 3G was fast, as I noted above, but I did not compare its reception to other types of 3G modems. The MiFi can power down when not being used, automatically, after a set time. Rebooting the device takes about 5-10 seconds, however. Battery life was around 2.5-3.5 hours while using it to work (read: plenty of internet access at all times, but not quite up to the level of streaming video.)

Do I like this thing? Yes. It would be nice to use in the car, as long as you have a car USB charger, and could be convenient if you have to share one connection between several Wi-Fi devices. Obviously! (Although, sharing an EVDO connection between friends can tax a friendship terribly.)

Since it's an all in one machine, will it replace your house's internet? No, its not designed to, because of the limited range, and speed compared to cable modems and faster DSL connections. And Verizon's 5GB/month limit for its $60 unlimited plan. (There's a useless 250MB plan for $40). The MiFi is $100 with a 2 year contract, after a $50 rebate. Later in the year, Sprint will also carry the device, if you prefer their network better as we do.

I don't know if I need this, as I've got an EVDO card for my computer, and my phone has internet on it. I guess I belong to part of the population that doesn't worry so much about portable WiFi on a separate piece of gear, no matter how nice the hardware is. But I'd take this thing.

Smallest 3G/Wi-Fi combo I've ever seen.




Fairly priced; about the same cost as a regular 3G data card, with more flexibility.




Specifically for people who want to share a 3G connection with other devices; if you don't need that, get a regular card for your laptop.




We rate Sprint's network slightly faster, and that device is coming out later in the year. Although the Sprint's metallic case may (I am only guessing) have worse reception than the plastic case.

Here's the chronology: Cox, the cable and internet provider, announced plans to start a wireless network; Cox then clarified, stating that they actually meant that they were, at least for the time being, partnering with Comcast and Time Warner to piggyback off of Sprint in a venture called Pivot; this dissolved. Now, Cox is going it alone.

The announcement spares us the useful details, like when the network will go live, or what the flagship handsets or handset manufacturers might be. They are promising some kind of mobile TV, a carrier-wide app store, and mobile broadband, but none of these things are revolutionary, or even particularly exciting. But we really shouldn't be sour about this. New competition, even if it's from a stodgy old cable company like Cox, is more than welcome in the lumbering wireless industry. [WSJ]

Basically, this is opening the flood gates for nickel-and-diming microtransactions from the App Store. Before, when you spent $5 on a game, you knew you were getting the whole game—with free upgrades. Now, you'll spend $5 on a game and you'll need to spend another $5 to unlock all the levels and weapons. And that's on legit apps. Just wait for the novelty fart apps with one fart sound that want you to pay for extras, or a flashlight app that wants you to pay for different colors.

This could easily turn tons and tons of apps into crippled trialware without consumers knowing, and it's going to make developers hungry for the extra cash they can make by charging you for extra feature they would have included in the full version anyways. Like a game charging you $3 for fancy horse armor on the Xbox 360, but without the filter than comes from the huge budgetary requirements of Xbox 360 games, this is going to open the floodgates for the sleaziest app behaviors possible. The worst part of it is, there will be enough people willing to pay a little here and a little there to support this kind of behavior. But I for one, am out. Do not want. [Gizmodo's iPhone 3.0 Coverage]

Q: Where do you stand on tethering?
A: There's two pieces needed to support that: client side and working with carriers. We're absolutely supporting tethering in the client side in iPhone 3.0, but we're working with carriers around the world to see when they can add tethering support on their networks. But we are building that support into iPhone 3.0.

Looks like jailbroken tethering will live on, for now.

[iPhone 3.0 OS Guide: Everything You Need to Know]

• Confirmed is support for sending and receiving photos, contacts (VCards), and audio files. Looks like video is not included.

• You can record voice notes with the iPhone's mic, edit them on the phone, and then send via MMS.

• Bad news for iPhone EDGE owners though: MMS is one of the features Apple is pruning from the 3.0 release for the first-generation iPhones.

Here's how it works: you double tap on a word to present a cut, copy, paste popup. Two draggable icons appear for customizing the selection. Double tap in an empty space to bring up the cut, copy and paste bubble and paste it in. Double tap again to select again, select entire block of text and paste again. Easy as pie.

You hold your finger down on an entire paragraph to select it. If it's got rich formatting, such as links or bold text, it'll copy it all for you. You can copy and paste across all apps, including web content. To undo, simply shake the phone.

It looks like they really did it right this time. It took so long, according to Forstall, because "it's tough to navigate security issues and nail a simple UI." Mmkay.

• Print out the bingo card.

• Follow our the iPhone OS 3.0 keynote liveblog and take note of the timestamp as the event in the bingo card happens.

• You can shout bingo if you fill out one line or, alternatively, one of the four 2 x 2 brick groups.

• When you get a bingo, quickly send us an email including the events and their timestamps from our liveblog to tips@gizmodo.com. Include "iPhone OS 3.0 Liveblog Pizza Bingo" in the subject, so we can spot your entry easily.

The first time we did this, lots of people forgot to put the timestamps from our liveblog. You must put these to participate.

The first person who sends us a bingo wins the prize: One free pizza (if there's pizza internet ordering where you are located, that is). Nothing like an edible prize to warm up my heart and my stomach. [iPhone OS 3.0 keynote liveblog]

Archive Below:

7:06 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
One of the benefits of having these keynotes in Cupertino instead of SF (for me) is the fact that I don't have to wake up at 5 AM. Wee.

8:38 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:

8:41 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
We're here! The weather's surprisingly mild, so we're not like freezing cattle outside waiting to be let in.

8:42 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Did you know John Mayer is on Twitter? I wonder if he's going to be following this today. His Twitter background is an OS X desktop, so chances are good. But, he uses a BlackBerry. HMM.

8:48 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Still about an hour to go. People are slowly strolling in, already weary from the Bay Area traffic.

8:52 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Everyone try Oregon Trail for the iPhone yet? That thing is addicting—I spent many hours this weekend avoiding bears and dysentery. Some children didn't make it. What, you expect me to stop for EVERY kid eaten by snakes?

8:54 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:


Hi! Brian here. Good morning!

8:58 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Oh, and farmer and banker are both good. Carpenter, less so.

9:00 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
What does everyone expect to see today? Post your prediction in the comments of the first post on Gizmodo. Here's what I think. Cut & Paste, MMS/video, and new edible Phil Schiller edition iPhone. 32 delicious gigabytes.

9:05 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Not a whole lot of bald guys today, surprisingly.

9:05 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

9:10 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Someone just set off the loudest alarm I have ever heard. Not me, I swear.

9:11 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
And now everybody is streaming outside. Is this a fire? Did Steve show up and start screaming at people?

9:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
We're back inside. Disaster averted.

9:18 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Liveblog bingo is up! Go to the main page and print it out. What, your office doesn't charge you. Print that crap in full color, highest quality.

9:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
40 minutes left. There's a guy that looks EXACTLY like Matt Damon here.

9:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Actually, imagine if Matt Damon had a cousin that went to Stanford, graduated with a computer science degree after changing majors from chemical engineering. Then he decided to purchase a belt that doesn't quite fit so well. That's this guy.

9:25 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:
Don't forget, you still have time to play the iPhone OS 3.0 Liveblog Pizza Bingo. You can get a bingo card here.

Also, if you want to make comments about and during the event, you can post your comments here.

9:26 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Then next to him, there's a guy whose eyes are 2 inches too close to each other. If you're saying to yourself, "hey, there are only two inches total between my eyes", yes. That's exactly what I'm saying.

9:30 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Dr. Drew from loveline, Kumar from Harold and Kumar, and that one guy from Band of Brothers and now 24 are also here.

9:32 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Speaking of 24, Jack Bauer is one person who will NEVER use an iPhone. It may be functional, but it would never survive a fistfight inside a quarry.

9:35 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
When the screen breaks, he would say "dammit".

9:36 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
There's an interesting Italian villa theme going on inside of the Town Hall. I think they need to add a functional fountain in here.

9:36 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
24 minutes left.

9:37 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
What do you want in the next gen iPhone that can only be added through a hardware release? Front video camera, slightly more memory, Nike+ support.

9:44 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
We're inside. The unofficial band of Apple, Coldplay, is playing.

9:45 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

9:45 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
It smells like doobies in here:

9:46 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

9:47 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
I think it's the newspaper guys.

9:48 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
Harry "Spartacus" McCracken of Technologizer.com

9:48 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Twelve excruciating minutes left til start.

9:50 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

9:50 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Now Jack Johnson is playing. I would must RATHER have John Mayer, if that wasn't obvious from our previous liveblog last September.

9:52 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:


Heeeeeere's Brian!

9:53 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:


Apple's Jos and Katie Cotton, getting ready for the show.

9:54 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
And that's half of me on the right, which LUCKILY, includes my crotch.

9:55 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:


After a dozen or so liveblogs, I realize that I have a biological radar for news, and that when it is imminent, I develop the need to urinate.

9:56 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Apple ad music!

9:57 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

9:57 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Getting excited. Like in theaters, a disembodied voice just told us to turn our phones off. They DIDN'T say iPhones, surprisingly.

9:59 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
I think this may be the only time anybody besides Phil Schiller's wife and kids are SO excited about having him show up anywhere.

10:00 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
Jason Chen, showing intense blogging face. BTW, at least 5 times at every trade show, someone calls me Jason Chen now. All look same.

10:00 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Chances of a one more thing today are slim.

10:00 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:01 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Music stopped. Apple's Jos is stepping on stage. (Not Phil Schiller yet)

10:01 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:01 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Greg and Scott Forstall will be the ones presenting today, not Phil! As of this week, the iPhone is in 80 countries around the world.

10:02 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Greg Jos is a pretty slick speaker, btw. Slicker than Phil Schiller.

10:02 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:03 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
iPhone sales are up to 17 million through December 2008. If you count iPod Touch together with iPhones, they've sold 30 million devices.

10:03 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Jos is going through the history of the SDK now. They've had 800,00 downloads of the free iPhond SDK, plus 50,000 individuals and development companies join their paid iPhone program.

10:04 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Over 60% of these developers have never developed anything for Apple before. One of the guys at Gameloft, a major cellphone/portable game development company, says that the iPhone OS is "the next great development platform for Gameloft."

10:05 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Steve Demeter, the guy who made Trism for iPhone, is on screen now in a short video of him biking and talking. Handsome guy! He just said said hello outside while we were waiting. Hey Steve!

10:05 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:06 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
His Trism game was made in his spare time OUTSIDE of his work, most likely allowing him to quit his job entirely. He lives in San Francisco and has a nice looking apartment. App Store money!

10:06 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:06 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Jos is back on the stage.

10:07 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:07 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Joswiak says there are 25,000 apps in the App Store. For their most current month of data, 96% of total apps have been approved. And of those, 98% of those have been approved in 7 days or less. There have been more than 800 million downloads of all apps total (8 months time).

10:07 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:08 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Jos is introducing Scott Forstall, SVP of iPhone Software to give us a preview of iPhone 3.0.

10:08 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:08 AM on MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Scott says the 3.0 software is a major update to all iPhones and iPod Touches.

10:09 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:09 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
To start, he's going to talk about what Apple's doing for developers in 3.0.

10:09 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The SDK gives developers the same APIs and tools that they use (almost, there are some parts of the phone hidden for security and performance reasons). 3.0 brings 1,000 new APIs.

10:10 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:10 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
First, Scott is talking about enhancements to the App Store.

10:12 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Some developers have said they like to have other business models other than the current sell-once model that's in the App Store. What are some? Subscriptions for magazine developers, additional levels for game devs, and eBook devs, who want to sell one app and sell eBooks inside the app. They're supporting ALL of these things now with In App Purchase.

10:12 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Inside the app you will get prompts like continuing to purchase issues of magazines (6 issues for $5, for example), or buying more levels (add ten more levels for a game for $2).
10:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Another example is for city guides. Instead of selling a huge city guide app, you can sell one city guide app, then sell each individual city separately (and for more money) inside the app. The entire scheme is tied into the iTunes store.

10:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
It uses the same iTunes password and username, using the same APIs and same purchase scheme.

10:14 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:14 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The business model for in-app purchase is the same as the store. The developer sets the price for each in-app item, 70% of the revenue goes to the developer, and there are no credit card fees. They continue to be paid monthly. This is ONLY for paid apps, not for a free app that developers want to charge for once you've already downloaded it.

10:15 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
So in essence, free apps are still totally free. You won't be tricked into paying for anything.

10:15 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:15 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next is support for Peer to peer connectivity.

10:15 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:15 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

10:16 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The new multiplayer connectivity allows you to bring up a dialog that lets you find local devices. The services provided are Automatic Discovery over Bluetooth (no Wi-Fi), no pairing, Bonjour, and isn't just for games.

10:17 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
But this isn't just for games, it works for ANY P2P application. For example, apps that can send business cards to another phone, in a handshake-like manner.

10:17 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:17 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next, accessories. There are "thousands and thousands" of developers building accessories.

10:18 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:18 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
With the iPhone 3.0 SDK, they're going to enable accessory developers to make custom applications that can communicate directly with the accessory. For example, an equalizer application on the phone that can control the equalizer on the speaker when it's docked.

10:18 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:18 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Another example is an FM transmitter. With 3.0, the dev can build an app on the iPhone itself that can control the FM tuner, finding the best frequency to use at the current moment.

10:19 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:19 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
An even more esoteric application is for medical devices, like a blood pressure monitor that can dock into the iPhone that allows you to send your blood pressure directly to your doctor after you've measured it.

10:19 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
These accessories can talk to the phone over the dock connector AND over Bluetooth.

10:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
You can use standard protocols or build your own custom protocols.

10:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next up is Maps.

10:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:21 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Many developers have asked Apple to use Google maps inside of their application. And it's here. The Maps app can now be used as a public API and be embedded directly into any app.

10:21 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Everything is in there-pinch and zoom, custom annotations, satellite views, location tracking and location tracking.

10:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
There is also ONE MORE THING to do with Apps. Developers can now use CoreLocations to make Turn by Turn applications.

10:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
Turn by Turn!

10:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:23 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
So now you can build a turn by turn application app, but you cannot use Apple's Google Maps because of licensing issues. But you can bring your OWN maps (as a developer), and make turn by turn directions for the iPhone.

10:23 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:23 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

10:23 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Now, Push Notification. "You know, we're late on this one." "There's a few reasons for this, most importantly, within two months of launching the App Store, we had over a thousand applications on the app store."

10:24 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Apple had to completely rearchitect the structure for the push notification in order to make it scalable for all the millions and millions of downloads. But now, they're "good to go."

10:24 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Developers asked them to do background processing, because it's "easier to do background processing." But Apple says it's "not good for the customer."

10:25 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Apple's been testing background processing on other phones (Windows Mobile, Android) by opening up IM app, and just having it run in the background lowers battery by 80%.

10:26 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
By using Apple's push notifications, battery life only dropped by 23% when an IM app is "open" in the background, listening for messages.

10:26 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Here's how Push notification works again. The Push notification service has a persistent connection to the phone, so you can get notifications all the time. The three things you can send are badge alerts, text alerts and audio alerts. Text alerts appear like SMS alerts, badges show up on the app icon, and audio alerts (like AIM) plays in the background.
10:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
To be perfectly clear, this means no background processing yet. Just push notifications.

10:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

10:28 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
In game voice chat is also one of the various APIs now open, as is iPod library access, proximity sensor, audio recorder, battery API, streaming audio and video, data detectors, text selection (oh??? is this for copy and paste??) UI alert view, sake API (for rumble) and GPS lingo.

10:29 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Scott says they asked a few developers to come in and make some apps in just two weeks with the 3.0 API. They're going to show some demos now.

10:29 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
First is meebo, the IM app.

10:30 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
From meebo, it's Seth Sternberg, the CEO of meebo.

10:30 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:31 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
What are some of the new features in meebo? First, there's IM networks like AOL/MSN, networks like Facebook, plus proprietary social networks like MyYearBook.

10:32 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Why did meebo wait until now to build an app? Because they felt like push notification was NECESSARY to make a complete IM user. They wanted to allow an easy way to quit out of the app and get back in "when it made sense."

10:33 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Their extra "spice" in their App allows you to connect to social networking sites and get alerts from your friends when they've done things you may be interested in.

10:33 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:35 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
They're showing a demo of Sims 3, which looks actually pretty great for a phone.

10:35 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
EA is going to have in-app commerce, having you buy items for the Sims in the App Store directly from the game for $0.99 each.

10:36 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
For example, playing music from the stereo in the game lets you play music back from YOUR music library (from the 3.0 SDK API).

10:36 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:36 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
"Next up is Oracle." Which elicited audible groans from the audience, despite their CEO being Steve Jobs' good friend.

10:38 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
This is your chance to go grab a sandwich. Unless you're your company's IT guy that's trying to get business apps onto your enterprise's iPhones. Then you'll be RIVETED.

10:38 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
Bore-acle, I mean, Oracle:

10:38 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The Oracle guys are talking about their app that tracks supply line and blah blah chain blah blah company stuff.

10:39 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The Oracle app goes and pulls out data from their backend CRM server, which you can use to find the account rep and contact him over email, phone or SMS.

10:39 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Oracle's done.

10:40 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
JD Power ranked the iPhone #1 for customer satisfaction for business smartphone users.

10:40 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next is ESPN, moving their webapp to a native app with iPhone 3.0.

10:41 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Their ESPN Alerts app brings text alerts directly to your phone using the push notification service, plus play the ESPN tone whenever that happens.

10:41 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:42 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:42 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
They're sharing off a video directly inside the app, using the new media player that pulls down the appropriate quality video depending on your connection.

10:43 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

10:43 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:43 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
With this app, ESPN doesn't have to deliver for the "lowest common denominator", and can scale video quality automatically using the API so you get the best quality for your connection type.

10:44 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next is LifeScan, a Johnson&Johnson company in glucose monitoring.

10:44 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:45 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
LifeScan's app is for people with diabetes in order to "simply diabetes management."

10:46 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:46 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
In their example, they're putting themselves into the shoes of Maddie, a 15-year-old girl with diabetes. She tests herself six times a day and injects insulin multiple times a day. First she needs to prick her finger and get her glucose reading. Now the insulin meter can transmit her reading to her iPhone over Bluetooth or over the 30-pin dock connector.

10:47 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
She can then track her readings and mark them appropriately as before a meal or after a meal. Then she can track what kind of food she's eating and how much of it, plugging it into the iPhone, which will tell her exactly how much insulin she needs after her meal.

10:48 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Maddie can then re-calculate on the phone if she then needs less insulin because she's going to exercise later.

10:48 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
With the iPhone app, she can then let her parents know that she's OK by sending them a message directly through the app that has her glucose level and how she feels.

10:49 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:50 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:50 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The app shows her glucose levels in chart form and can list out all her previous readings.

10:51 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next up is ngmoco:), the people who made Rolando (I'm pretty sure).

10:5 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

10:52 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:53 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:53 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Today, they're showing two upcoming games. First is Touch Pets, a social pet simulator. Second is LiveFire, a multiplayer first person shooter over 3G or Wi-Fi.

10:53 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
One of the uses of Touch Pet is a push notification of a "play date with someone else's dog."

10:54 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:54 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The dogs are playing together. You can buy clothes and random crap for your dog. Toys. Food. I wonder what happens if your dog starves, or whether you can beat up other dogs who are on a play date with your dog.
10: AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:55 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next LiveFire, a FPS game.

10:56 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
You control the FPS by touching anywhere on the left side of the screen, then shoot with your right thumb.

10:57 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
You can then send push notifications to your friends on your friend list in order to invite them into your game. You can BUY new weapons for real money (rocket launcher), and play together with your buddies.

10: AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:58 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Pretty fun, with Quake 1ish graphics and relatively smooth (for a phone) framerate.

10:58 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:58 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next up is smule, the people who made the Ocarina app.

10:59 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
They're inviting Dr. Wang on stage to talk. Wang is an assistant professor at Stanford.

10:59 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:00 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Their new app is Leaf Trombone (World Stage).

11:01 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:01 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
It's a similar idea to Ocarina and lets you slide the trombone on the right, change the range on the left and play by blowing into the microphone.

11:01 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Wang's talking in a loud, breathy whisper, and is kinda creeping me out.

11:01 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:02 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Wang and his friend are demoing playing Phantom, of the Opera on Leaf Trombone. It sounds like Phantom of the Opera, for sure, and it's definitely cool.

11:03 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Wang's gone, and Scott's back on stage.

11:03 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:03 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

11:04 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Now, finally, onto the customer side. It has more than 100 new features. INCLUDING, Cut, Copy and Paste.

11:04 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:04 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Scott's now demo-ing the copy and paste feature on a phone running iPhone 3.0.

11:05 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Here's how you select text. double tap onto a bit of text and it automatically places a "CUT, COPY, PASTE" bubble above your current selection. Double tap to bring up a paste bubble later to paste.

11:0 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:06 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
To select an entire block of text, put your thumb on the right drag point and drag it to where you want your block of text to end. You can drag the left drag point as well.

11:07 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
You can drag between apps as well (obviously), through the same process. Double tap, then drag in order to select what text you like, then double tap and paste to paste it.

11:0 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:08 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
You can also copy and paste web content. The phone uses the same analytics engine in Safari that they do for zooming in order to know which selection to select for copying. Yes, HTML paste for copying. If you didn't mean to paste something, shake your phone in order to Undo (or Redo) your paste.

11:08 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
undo by shaking:

11:09 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
There's a photo icon inside the SMS app, and Scott called it the "Messages" application, which means there SHOULD be MMS coming soon too.

11:10 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
One more thing he wants to show you is Photos. You can now send more than one photo at a time with 3.0 by tapping the action button, selecting a bunch of photos, copying, and then pasting it into the Mail app.

11:11 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Cut and paste can work across multiple apps, has undo support, can work with developer APIs, and can use Cocoa Touch support for regular text.

11:11 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:12 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next, Landscape. Apple's had support for landscape mode for Safari since launch, and can enter text in wide-keyboard mode. Now you can use landscape in "all key applications" including Mail.

11:12 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
They're also adding support with the big keyboard for composing messages in Mail as well. It also works in Notes and the "Messages" application.

11:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next up is "Messages", which they will enhance in 3.0. You can forward and delete messages-individual messages or multiple messages.

11:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:14 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The BIG news is that they're adding support for MMS (as we spotted earlier). You can send and receive Photos right over the network. Contacts (VCard). Audio files. Or your location. No word about video yet though.
11:14 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

11:1 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next, Voice Memos. (No sending video in Messages it seems). You can record voice memos to yourself, lectures, interviews using the built in microphone or an external microphone. You can trim it using the phone itself, then send it on using email or MMS.

11:15 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:15 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:16 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Then there's Calendar. They had personal calendars first, then Exchange (last year) and MobileMe. They're now adding CalDAV, a calendar standard that's supported by a lot of people like Google and Yahoo. It's useful for shared calendars. Second is subscriptions, using the .ics format.

11:16 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:16 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Now is Stocks. They're adding support for news stories (headlines) in the bottom of the app, plus details like highs and lows and PEs. There's also landscape view.

11:17 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:17 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Search! Not only can you search inside the Contacts application, which was there in iPhone 2.0, you can now search in all of the key applications, including Mail.

11:17 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
Search in Mail! Works on the server using iMAP:

11:17 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
If your search isn't found on your iPhone, the search continues on the server.

11:18 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
There's also search in Calendar, iPod (search by artist, album, etc) and Notes.

11:18 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:19 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
There's now a new home screen where you can search across all those applications, and they call it Spotlight. The search is to the left of your regular home screen, and you access it by flicking left from your standard home.

11:19 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
You can also search Apps and use Spotlight as a quick launcher instead of going all the way to the 8th screen and searching for your app.

11:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Basically, search searches most of the major Apple-developed apps.

11:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

11:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Other good features: Notes Sync, audio/video tags, live streaming, shake to shuffle, Wi-Fi auto login, Stereo Bluetooth, LDAP, iTunes account creation, YouTube ratings, Anti-Philshing, Call Log, Parental Controls, Media Scrubber, OTA profiles, VPN on demand, Languages, YouTube subscriptions, YouTube accounts and Encrypted profiles. Also, auto-fills. The biggest addition here is probably Stereo Bluetooth A2DP support.

11:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
TONS OF NEW FEATURES:

11:23 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:24 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
To recap the big features in 3.0: In-App purchase to enable more app functionality, peer to peer connectivity, accessory connectivity, Google map controls, push notifications, cut and paste, landscape mode, Messages (MMS), voice memos, new Calendar support, enhancements to the Stock App and search (Spotlight). Plus, Bluetooth, if you're really looking forward to that one.

11:24 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Scott's leaving the stage and Jos is coming back on.

11:24 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:25 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
How are they going to make it available? First as a Developer Beta available TODAY. It's going to be available to everyone in the iPhone developer program. You can join now and get access to the beta. They'll have more info on their website as well.

11:26 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
They'll be hosting developer forums where you can share 3.0 development information with other devs.

11:26 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The App Store is now available in 77 countries, out of a total 80 countries that the iPhone is available in.

11:26 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:


Who's the keynote master? Forstall has excellent presentation duration, going for over an hour with little help, but Jos is so natural. It's like this is his livingroom.

11:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
How about regular people, not developers? They're going to ship it "this summer." It will be a free update to iPhone 3G customers. It works on the original iPhone as well, so that not ALL the features will be available (like MMS and Stereo Bluetooth) on the 2G iPhone.

11:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
It's also going to be available for both generations of iPod Touch users as a $9.95 update.

11:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
Free this summer! But the old iPhone won't get the MMS or Stereo Bluetooth.

11:28 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The developer beta again, is available today, and will ship to regular users this summer.

11:28 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall are coming up on stage for a short Q&A. It's not over yet!

11:29 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

11:30 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
People are clearing out, but the media is staying for a reprogramming session. MUST OBEY.

11:32 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q&A's starting now.

11:33 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Josh Quittner, Time: Why did it take so long so get Cut and Paste into the iPhone?
A: There's a user interface you need to design, security issues, and "there's a lot of pieces you need to worry about instead of getting osmething that doesn't work right."

11:34 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Video is still a blackhole if you visit a website with flash.
A: We have no announcements on Flash today.

11:34 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:36 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Could you qualify a bit more about the peer to peer. It looks like it's available across the two iPhones, but it seems like you can do peer to peer with other Bluetooth devices.
A: It's really a device to device Bluetooth connection. It's 1 to 1, using Bluetooth and Bonjour to discover other devices and make an IP connection.

11:36 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: So you can control devices…?
A: Yes, now you can, with third-party applications, control and talk to accessories over Bluetooth.

11:38 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Are people able to trade files, say music files, through iPods with this?
A: We have the ability to stream music to music apps, and certainly a game, if a game has music in the game it would be possible to download game tracks, but if would be confusing for other music apps with downloadable music that isn't through the app store.

11:39 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Where do you stand on tethering?
A: There's two pieces needed to support that: client side and working with carriers. We're absolutely supporting tethering in the client side in iPhone 3.0, but we're working with carriers around the world to see when they can add tethering support on their networks. But we are building that support into iPhone 3.0.

11:39 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Can you say anything about hardware?
A: No.
Q: Netbooks?
A: Nothing to announce today.

11:40 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Bluetooth human input device profile for external keyboards.
A: We have nothing to announce.

11:40 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Will you make any promises about push notification in terms of uptime?
A: No. We want it to be as reliable as possible.

11:41 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: On the voice memo, you mentioned external microphones. Could you use an off-the-shelf microphone?
A: Yes absolutely, if you have an adapter.

11:42 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Are you addressing some of the performance issues in the current OS? It's slightly laggy, are you going to address that in 3.0.
A: We absolutely take performance very seriously. These units, because they're tethered, are more laggy than you would see on standalone units. But we are addressing lagginess in our own ways.

11:43 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Jason Chen:
Q: Is there a physical hardware problem on the first-gen iPhone that prevents it from doing MMS.
A: It's a different radio, so it is a physical issue.

11:44 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: With Peer to Peer, can you have access to other iTunes library?
A: You can see them but I don't know if you can play them.

11:46 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Do you have any comments on your app acceptance scheme?
A: We want to help developers to be very successful. We also want a store where customers feel great about the quality of what they get, so the numbers speak for themselves. [Kind of a non-answer here]

11:48 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
And that's it. Thanks for reading, and hit up the main Gizmodo site for more posts and analysis soon. See you guys next time!

11:49 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

I've got particularly weak AT&T reception in my house, so any news on Femtocells, useful for improving coverage by bridging cell call data over a fixed internet connection, is good news.

The employee came upon this information as internal news of landline and wireless business integration. In this case, specifically, landline workers would be used to do low level wireless installs and wireless workers would soon be tinkering with U-Verse.

The box is supposed to come in the next year or so and hopefully, U-Verse's rollout will have progressed somewhat by then. More news is that the 3G Microcell, AT&T's stand alone Femtocell pictured above, is confirmed to be hitting by Q2 of this year. (Timing was previously unknown, although AT&T hinted at the Web 2.0 conference that movement would occur sometime in 2009.)

The company is purportedly hoping to announce its all-you-can-eat music product before the end of September, with a launch date in Europe before Christmas. Right now, Walkman phones function on a pay-per-track business model, with roughly 5 million un-DRM-ed songs available. If its unlimited service is similarly DRM-free, it might have a chance at one-upping Nokia's Comes With Music buffet after all. One can only hope. [Financial Times]

Apple has eliminated so many annoying little hang-ups that you might run into when using the old one. The GPS pinpoints to meters instead of blocks. The 3G connection slashes web loading times by minutes to seconds. The more rounded case feels great in the hand. And most importantly the new software polishes the OS and opens the phone up to nearly unlimited capabilities through the countless programs that are already being written by the brilliant legions of faithful developers. It's kind of cool.

If you want to cut to the chase, the software is what we're most excited about—so much that we ran the first half of this review earlier extolling the iPhone 2.0 virtues in detail, including the fact that it's a free upgrade for the people who snapped up the first iPhone, perhaps before it was ready.

On the software side, the iPhone has the most advanced touchscreen OS out there today. Scrolling, dialing, panning, zooming, touching and pinching are all actions you can do to get around your photos, your maps, your movies, your music and of course, your phone calls. The iPhone 2.0 update improves on the already great communication features such as desktop-class email and web browsing by adding MobileMe and Exchange support—both of which push emails to your phone as soon as they're received, just like on the BlackBerry. These two new additions also allow your phone to always sync contacts and calendar events with your computer or your office's system directly over the air, without ever needing to dock, or take any action. There's also the App Store, which gives you access to a gigantic library of third-party applications to add features such as controlling your iTunes, instant messaging, 3D gaming and To Do lists. One drawback is that Apple may not support the cool (illegal) apps like the NES emulators and video recording programs that don't work through the SDK. Lots of unofficial third party apps may never make it to the store. One, Instinctiv, a super iPhone music shuffle app, was recently denied store sales because it is against the terms of agreement to enhance the iPod or iPhone music playback in any way. Huh?! Apps also take a long time (minutes) to install and uninstall, and backups now take awhile longer than before. Annoying, but still worth the wait.

The fact that the free software's advantages are available on the original iPhone means that the reduced subsidized price $199 for the 8GB and $299 for the 16GB are good, but maybe not good enough to justify a trade-in. (The $10 extra a month for 3G access is a wash, frankly.) Quite a conundrum for those of you tempted.

Onto the hardware. Let's start with the husk: Once, I sat down on a twisted key, putting a giant scar across the aluminum back of my iPhone. With that one exception aside, my iPhone's abused-to-hell case still looks strong and shiny.

The new case is made of smudge-able plastic, and last time I checked geek material lust hierarchy, plastic was a distant ranking of 452342 places behind aluminum. The effect is that the case, feels lighter, warmer and thicker but also cheaper than before. And in your hand, picking up a slightly warm iPhone, it feels almost more organic. Between that and the the rounded shape, which fits far better in the hand, it's like you're cupping a warm baby bird. The old phone by comparison feels like its a better quality device, with the spiritual heft of a German machine. The new case is lighter but actually thicker; still, it feels less significant and durable. The case did survive being put in a bag full of keys and rubbed vigorously. Only some of the silver Apple logo on the back got visibly scratched. The case is also a lot easier to send radio waves through than the previous case—useful as this phone has many more radios—although reception improvement was not noticeable. [UPDATE: Actually, it is much better, in both EDGE and 3G mode] Also, if you place the new model on a table, it rocks when you tap the screen, so you can't use it as a table top computer anymore. And the case is very easy to smudge. The black color is available in both sizes, but the white only comes in pricier 16GB, much to the chagrin of boyfriends who promised to buy their significant others one in the pale tint.

The screen is slightly warmer in color temperature (more yellow than blue), slightly brighter (even when considering decay over time) and the daylight viewing is better, but it's the same 3.5-inch, 480x320 resolution screen. And it's still gorgeous.

Oh, the headphone jack isn't recessed anymore, so you can use whatever headphones or adapters you want. And the lock and volume buttons are recessed slightly more and are metal. The speakers and earpiece have a metal grill behind them. All this, to great effect.

To mention the 3G is to bring up painful memories, the time I've lost waiting for web pages to load on the iPhone, or standing on street corners waiting for maps to load.

Our tests in AT&T's aggressively built-out NYC area showed the 3G connection is 4.8 times faster than the old EDGE connection. When you turn off 3G and do an EDGE-to-EDGE test between older and newer models, they both perform the same. The GPRS (850, 900, 1800, 1900) and UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900 and 2100 MHz) cellular radios have the advantage of some design improvements, including the use of the steel ring around the screen as an antenna and the electronic transparency of the now all plastic back.

Wi-Fi reception is better. In a side-by-side test with the old iPhone, we walked away from an access point, the old iPhone's connection died at 100 feet and the newer one lasted to about 120 feet. And there's a new Airplane mode that turns off cellular but powers up Wi-Fi for airline internet.

At the end of a day with lots of email and browser use, or media playback, my old iPhone would be begging for a serious dock charge. How does the iPhone's 3G connection affect that?

The downside of such speedy downloads is a reduced battery life, something the original couldn't stand to lose much of. We're do more testing of that soon. But here's an interesting thing: According to the data out there, the iPhone 3G has better battery life using 3G than the old iPhone does using EDGE. Let me explain. Apple's official browsing battery life rating on Wi-Fi is 6 hours for both models. They never rated the EDGE battery life but most testers found it to be about 25% less than Wi-Fi. That's 4.5 hours. The iPhone 3G rating is 5 hours of browsing. Apple is claiming that it's 5 hours for both the new iPhone 3G and the EDGE on the old one. We shall investigate such claims soon. But I wish Apple would take me up on my idea for using the 3G only for active browsing, maps and certain apps that need it, dynamically switching to EDGE for IMing, email downloading and weather checking.

UPDATE: Battery life has been noted to drain very quickly, but because I find myself using the phone a lot more often thanks to the added usefulness of apps. 3D gaming is also a killer on battery, far worse than anyone has claimed so far, thanks to the constant use of CPU, GPU and LCD backlight. Here is a roundup of nine battery tests taken from the best reviews, averaging about 5 hours for 3G talk (good) and 3-5 hours for "mixed use". Regardless of life, here are some tips on increasing iPhone 3G endurance and some gadgets that can help extend battery life.

Phone-wise, I decided to lower my minute plan. I completely have stopped using my old iPhone for voice in San Francisco's spotty network, and even when I'm connected, everyone sounds like they have marbles in their mouth. Network problems aside, the good news is that basic voice quality issues have been fixed.

Doing side-by-side calls, the difference when using the new phone and old is like the difference between talking to someone with their hand over their mouth and with their hand taken away. While the new iPhone's speaker and mic definitely improve sound quality, it seems packets do matter too. When the the phone is running on a 3G network (in downtown NY), calls sound especially clear compared to the old iPhone. But when both iPhones are on EDGE, the call difference is noticeable, but not night and day. Even the speakerphone's audio is much louder and so, music played through the mono speaker is also improved. As for reception back in spotty coverage areas, I'll have to do a side-by-side soon to let you know how that goes. UPDATE: I could make no calls before in my house. Now I can, in both EDGE and 3G mode, with good (not great clarity). This is fantastic.

The old iPhone's location detector was accurate within a few blocks, using Skyhook's system of logging cellular towers and Wi-Fi spot MAC addresses and pairing them with physical addreses. I thought it was fine for making sure when I searched for an ATM machine, it would only return local results. The new A-GPS system is accurate within meters, though, opening up the iPhone to more useful location-based apps, maps and geotagging of photos.

The A-GPS helps get quicker fixes in the city, compared with a typical PND. However it doesn't refresh as quickly (every 5 to 15 steps), and won't give you a "heading-up" view, so when you're walking, it takes a bit longer to figure out where you're going. This is clearly optimized for walking, though in a pinch it could help lost drivers. The greater accuracy isn't the only reason it's better than the older iPhone: The ability to track your path is a nice enhancement too. The time to GPS lock is between 1 and 10 seconds, using a combination of Wi-Fi and cellular as well as GPS. But don't even think about using this for regular car nav: there is no voice prompting, nor is there automatic turn-by-turn.

Apple didn't write a dedicated turn-by-turn navigator for driving, with voice, but now we hear that companies are making them, so we look forward to revisiting this once real navi apps are out.

The old iPhone's software can take a photo and email it or send it to a MobileMe gallery, but the camera itself is relatively weak. It won't capture video, and I've lost countless YouTube hits by not having a video device at the ready. This situation has not been improved much.

UPDATE: One nice thing we've finally confirmed is that the dreaded buzz you got with speakers and tape adapters too close to the iPhone with the GSM connection running during calls or data disappears when you're running 3G.

The new camera has the same 2MP shooter which returns 1600 x 1200 pixels. There still isn't video capture. Image processing seems to be slightly less grainy but it's not something you would notice. The MP count would be fine, but the low-light quality is still terrible. Nokia and Motorola have built thin phones with better imaging, why not Apple? And Apple's forte is software, so why can't they beef up the software tools, by adding image stabilizers and noise reducers, not to mention Photo Booth-type frames and effects?

Inside the box: A new smaller USB charger the size of an ice cube, headphones, a sync cable and a SIM eject tool. There is no longer a dock included to use with the cable.

This is really not a revolutionary phone. It's more like the iPhone we wished Apple made last year. But basics, like cut, copy and paste are still missing. (As is MMS, thanks for the reminder, commenters.) As well are the ability to use the phone like a hard drive. Other than that, we're hoping for some more revolutionary changes to come by software update. And let's take a moment to remember how many developers are making killer iPhone programs right this second. There's the revolution.

So the hardware is interesting in the iPhone 3G, but the real story here is the new iPhone OS 2.0 firmware, which we've written about in depth here. You manage to install that, old iPhone users, you've got about 80% of this new iPhone's mojo. But if you're not making your calls on an iPhone yet, well, what are you waiting for?

[Our iPhone App Review Marathon, iPhone 2.0 Firmware Review: Forget 3G It's the Code That Counts]

The improved array, brilliantly named the Expanded Very Large Array, is now halfway done and well on its way to completion in 2012. Each of the 28 dish antennas will eventually be able to collect eight simultaneous two gigahertz streams, giving the facility ten times greater power than before. The EVLA will be used to study star formation, supernovae, and black holes. Though the price is a cool $94 million, that's less than the cost of 190 neat wristwatches. [SciAm via /.]

Erica Sevilla, a Verizon spokeswoman, said:

I think people can feel comfortable we're not storing information that can later be used against them. Unless you have something stored on your phone or on a recipients' phone, it does not stay on our network for a long period.

You may want to breathe a collective sigh of relief, but Rebecca Jeschke, spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, seems to think otherwise:

"We trust so much of our communications and thoughts, even, to these third parties who are capturing this information and storing it in various ways. It's time for us to think about it."

It's a dual band, in the PCS 1900 MHz and Cellular 800 MHz bands, which covers signals of EVDO, HSDPA, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon flavors in the US. It grabs a decent signal inside or outside a window, or even better, on a roof, using a big antenna. The repeater connects to the antenna by a long piece of coax, and boosts a signal by up to 55DB. Doing a shitty install, I measured a real world gain of 10-15dB, using the iPhone's field test mode. That's good enough to clear up calls and reduce dropped connections in the ultra dead cellular zone I call my office. Not bad for $350, and now I don't have to leave my desk to take calls.

[RepeaterStore]
[Advice by Richard Baguley of WirelessInfo.com]