Still, the big news out of Cupertino didn’t stop Voodoo from making a try for gamers’ hearts with their two new super-systems.  The Envy – a MacBook Air-rivalling ultraportable notebook – and the Omen – a monolithic custom-designed desktop – caused waves with their superlative performance and stupefying price-tags. 

Less expensive, but no less surprising, ASUS revealed pricing for the Eee PC 901, 1000 and 1000H.  Ostensibly “budget” ultraportables, the notebooks will actually cost you a minimum of $599 (for the 901).  The good news is that real-world performance of, say, the 901 versus its predecessor the 900 is much improved; the bad news (for ASUS at least) is that there are plenty of other new “normal” notebooks that will quite likely undercut the Eee numbers.  HP alone announced 16 new notebook and tablet models this week.

It’s not just standard notebooks, either; Gigabyte announced pricing for their M528 Mobile Internet Device, while at the other end of the touchscreen scale (and not something you’d want to carry around with you), HP’s TouchSmart PC got a slick upgrade and arguably manages to outclass the iMac.

If the idea of the TouchSmart being compared with an iMac is too strange for you, things could just get stranger.  EFiX is about to launch a USB dongle that will streamline the installation of OS X onto standard (i.e. non-Apple-sanctioned) hardware.  Expect histrionics when it hits the streets.

Elsewhere, further details about Dell’s own entry to the ultraportable space emerged, including naming – Dell E and Dell E Slim – and confirmation of not just an 8.9-inch device but a larger, 12.1-inch version.  If they can bring them in reasonably cheaper than the larger Eees – and, being Dell, there’s nothing to say that’s unlikely – then the familiar brand name will win them plenty of customers.

In gaming, the “Ouch!” award for trying to save money and have it bite you in the ass goes to Microsoft, for trying to develop their Xbox 360 GPU chips themselves.  If all had gone to plan, it would’ve saved them millions of dollars versus contracting the design out; unfortunately the chips caused the infamous Red Ring of Death fault, and cost Microsoft over $1bn in warranty repairs.

As for what the SlashGear team have been looking at this week, aside from eyeing up the new iPhone we’ve had Gateway’s M-152XL notebook in for review, and spent some time with HP to marvel at their CRT-besting DreamColor LCD monitor.  If you want to know what animation experts DreamWorks use to create films like Kung Fu Panda, make sure to check out our exclusive videos.

Update: SlashGear iPhone 3G review on July 11, 2008

“Fundamentally, 3G radios are different from 2G. 2G radios have been around a long time, so they’re more optimized. Five hours for 3G is a great benchmark in and of itself. What we’ve been able to do is be very aggressive on power management to achieve those numbers” Bob Borchers, Apple’s senior director of worldwide iPhone product marketing

More excitingly, even inside the convention center the 3G data connection proved a success. The transition from WiFi b/g to tri-band 3G took around two seconds; CNN’s site took 2s to load, NYTimes coming up in 3s. 3G can be switched off, and the iPhone limited to 2G connections, but Apple don’t expect many to do that and the option is buried down through the settings menus.

GPS suffered from being tested indoors, and nobody could get a grip on acquisition times. Thankfully Apple have very much used the Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) method, where GPS is just another way – along with WiFi and cell-tower positions – that the iPhone can find itself. The company confirmed it won’t be offering its own mapping data; they demoed the handset with Google Maps, but TomTom have already announced that they’ve an iPhone satnav app waiting in the wings. That should fix the lack of voice-directions, too, and mean you can use the phone for navigation even without internet access. Photos are automatically geotagged, with as much accuracy as the iPhone 3G can figure out from its three methods.

Copy & Paste and Bluetooth A2DP are confirmed as still missing in action, which is a shame, and Apple PR declined to comment on their later introduction. It seems reasonable to assume that they’ll turn up sooner rather than later, though. There’s also no front-facing camera and the main camera is the same, mediocre 2-megapixel unit with no autofocus, no flash and no video capture capability.

Quite a few people have commented on the new, tiny power adapter, which is an extremely small cube with two prongs on one side and a USB port on the other. It’ll apparently recharge the first-gen iPhone too, as well as the iPod Touch, and will be sold separately as well as included with the iPhone 3G; we’ve heard a figure of around $29. The dock won’t be included as standard, only sold as an accessory, and has been slimmed down; it’s not visible from the front when the iPhone is in place, and may not be compatible with the original iPhone because of the casing change.

All of the apps demonstrated in the first half of the keynote were available to look at, and unsurprisingly SEGA’s Super Monkey Ball seems to have been the first port of call. The graphics are universally praised and gameplay “addictive”, but there was concern that in tilting the iPhone 3G the player lost the best viewing angle of the display. It sounds like the Nintendo DS may have some competition!

Remember, these opinions are from ten, maybe fifteen minutes hands-on time with the iPhone 3G, so there’s plenty of time for it to impress (or, heaven forbid, disappoint) in a proper review.

Update July 8, 2008: iPhone 3G reviews(US Today, NYT, Allthings D)

BBC
Engadget
Gizmodo
LaptopMag
MacWorld

[via iPhone Buzz]

07:17 am Vincent Nguyen: Onsite at Moscone West! The line outside is packed with attendees. Press registration starts at 8am.

07:38 am Vincent Nguyen:

07:39 am Vincent Nguyen: Quick video of the gift bag that apple is giving out to antendee — has t-shirt inside.

08:39 am Vincent Nguyen: Before things get too crazy later (n 1 1/2 hours) I wanna do a quick shout out to my buds at the Chandler Fashion Square mall in Chandler, AZ! Thanks for saving my ass (long story — HDD failed on MBP 2 days prior to event!)

08:44 am Vincent Nguyen: Damn DOOR! It’s is the only thing keeping me from the entering .

09:27 am Ewdi: Roughly 30 minutes to the event…..

09:41 am Vincent Nguyen: Door is open, but broadcast journalists are allowed in first

09:49 am Vincent Nguyen: And we’re in!

09:50 am Vincent Nguyen: I’m in the third row from the front, music still playing and ten minutes or so to go

09:53 am Vincent Nguyen: It’s going to take a while for everyone to get in – this is a big room

09:56 am Vincent Nguyen: No shortage of special guests. Al Gore and Walt Mossberg already in the room.

10:03 am Vincent Nguyen: The stage is looking pretty lonely – just two iMacs on there

10:04 am Vincent Nguyen: Apple ushers are trying to settle the room down, asking people to turn off their phones

10:06 am Vincent Nguyen: Lights are dimming

10:07 am Vincent Nguyen: Steve is on stage

10:07 am Vincent Nguyen: Massive applause from audience and Apple staff

10:08 am Vincent Nguyen: “We’ve been working hard on some stuff we can’t wait to share with you”

10:08 am Vincent Nguyen: “There are 52,000 attendees at WWDC”

10:08 am Vincent Nguyen: They sold out the venue and couldnt’ find anywhere bigger

10:10 am Vincent Nguyen: They’ll be talking about the iPhone this morning and the developer programme

10:10 am Vincent Nguyen: After lunch, we’ll be looking at Snow Leopard

10:10 am Vincent Nguyen: The new version of OS X

10:10 am Vincent Nguyen: 250,000 ppl have downloaded the iPhone SDK

10:11 am Vincent Nguyen: Of those, 4,000 have been in the beta program

10:11 am Vincent Nguyen: Out of 25,000 applications

10:11 am Vincent Nguyen: Starting to talk about iPhoen Enterprise features

10:11 am Vincent Nguyen: Recapping the last announcement: Exchange support, etc

10:12 am Vincent Nguyen: Push email, contacts, calendars, global address book

10:12 am Vincent Nguyen: 35% of the Fortune 500 companies have been testing the new iPhone enterprise functionality

10:13 am Vincent Nguyen: They’ve been closely working with Cisco on the VPN and security side

10:13 am Vincent Nguyen: They’ve also been working with higher education establishments

10:13 am Vincent Nguyen: Steve is showing us a video of how iPhone 2.0 has been used

10:14 am Vincent Nguyen: Multiple talking-heads with company CTOs discussing the appeal of iPhone 2.0

10:14 am Vincent Nguyen: According to Steve the feedback has been “fantastic”

10:15 am Vincent Nguyen: Company IT people are falling over themselves to praise the platform

10:16 am Vincent Nguyen: Including contacts search – finally! – that filters as you enter search terms

10:16 am Vincent Nguyen: The army has been playing with the iPhone too

10:17 am Vincent Nguyen: Video over, Steve back on stage with Scott Forestell to discuss SDK

10:17 am Vincent Nguyen: Apparently Apple internally uses beta release SDKs

10:18 am Vincent Nguyen: He’s recapping that much of the iPhone code is the same as in OS X

10:18 am Vincent Nguyen: The same native APIs

10:18 am Vincent Nguyen: Cocoa Touch, Media, Core Service, Core OS – that last is very similar to OS X

10:19 am Vincent Nguyen: They’re particularly proud of the OpenGL implementation – it’s “very fast”

10:19 am Vincent Nguyen: Core Services include everything from database layer to core location so combining functionality is straightforward

10:20 am Vincent Nguyen: Cocoa Touch, as discussed last time, is all about making the GUI as quickly as possible

10:20 am Vincent Nguyen: Steve is discussing the development tools

10:21 am Vincent Nguyen: Scott is going to demo constructing an interface using Interface Builder

10:21 am Vincent Nguyen: App is called Nearby Friends and ties into the address book API and the core location API

10:21 am Vincent Nguyen: Displays whoever is within 10 miles of you

10:22 am Vincent Nguyen: XCode imports the APIs and then Interface Builder is used to drag in icons and controls

10:22 am Vincent Nguyen: It’s all ridiculously slick, but it’s nothing we didn’t see last time

10:24 am Vincent Nguyen: Demo is continuing

10:25 am Vincent Nguyen: Interface Builder has been told exactly what the iPhone can display, and it’s reflowing the icons to suit the screen

10:25 am Vincent Nguyen: Scott is showing the app in the iPhone simulator (that comes with the SDK)

10:26 am Vincent Nguyen: Cue applause as the finished app works and doesn’t crash anything

10:26 am Vincent Nguyen: Took just 10 minutes to make

10:26 am Vincent Nguyen: Now imagine how slick it would be with GPS too!

10:27 am Vincent Nguyen: The developers are going wild, you’d think they’d hate coding or something

10:27 am Vincent Nguyen: Scott has a Big Book of Praise full of happy quotes

10:28 am Vincent Nguyen: “You’re witnessing the birth of a third major computer platform: Windows, OS X and iPhone” – quote from David Pogue

10:28 am Vincent Nguyen: Developers are being invited onto the stage to show off their wares

10:28 am Vincent Nguyen: SEGA are back with Super Monkey Ball

10:29 am Vincent Nguyen: Ethan Einhorn from SEGA is discussing how impressed he was when they set to coding Super Monkey Ball

10:30 am Vincent Nguyen: Because development was so quick, they could add lots of levels: over 100, all the monkeys

10:30 am Vincent Nguyen: Tilt control demo is super-slick

10:31 am Vincent Nguyen: Ethan is playing a Super Monkey Ball level, tilting the iPhone to move through

10:31 am Vincent Nguyen: It took them 95 days to code and will cost $9.99

10:31 am Vincent Nguyen: from the official App Store

10:31 am Vincent Nguyen: eBay have been invited up to the stage

10:32 am Vincent Nguyen: Ken Sun from the online auction site is discussing their eBay app for the iPhone

10:32 am Vincent Nguyen: You can track your watchlist, add items to it

10:33 am Vincent Nguyen: It’s not quite as exciting as Super Monkey Ball, I’m afraid, but it looks very usable

10:33 am Vincent Nguyen: Plus Ken says it only took them five weeks to develop

10:33 am Vincent Nguyen: eBay app will be free

10:34 am Vincent Nguyen: You can bid directly from the iPhone, as well as browse listings and look at all the photos with a gesture-based scroll

10:35 am Vincent Nguyen: The people from Loopt are on-stage, it’s a location-aware app

10:35 am Vincent Nguyen: Similar to Buddy Beacon from Helio – shows your friends pinpointed on a map

10:36 am Vincent Nguyen: You can see more at loopt.com

10:37 am Vincent Nguyen: There are Facebook-like status tweets for each person: “Check out this giant redwood tree” for instance

10:37 am Vincent Nguyen: Each person has a user profile, with photos they’ve submitted and a log of where they’ve been

10:38 am Vincent Nguyen: It’s cross-profile – will work on other mobile devices and all of them play nicely together – and will be free when the App Store launches

10:38 am Vincent Nguyen: TypePad are next, with a dedicated iPhone blogging tool

10:38 am Vincent Nguyen: Has photoblogging functionality, with geotagging

10:39 am Vincent Nguyen: According to the TypePad rep photoblogging is one of the platforms most popular features

10:39 am Vincent Nguyen: Photo can be taken directly from the camera or picked from shots already in the iPhone gallery

10:39 am Vincent Nguyen: It’ll also be free

10:40 am Vincent Nguyen: Associated Press (AP) are on-stage now

10:40 am Vincent Nguyen: They’re here to plug their Mobile News Network – thousands of news sources funneled into your iPhone

10:41 am Vincent Nguyen: It’ll cache news so you can read it while underground or trapped in the hold of a plane

10:41 am Vincent Nguyen: Includes images and video

10:42 am Vincent Nguyen: You can also send them news and video for the network

10:43 am Vincent Nguyen: It’s also tied into your location, so it will show topics relevent to where you are

10:43 am Vincent Nguyen: Pangaea software are on-stage, talking about two new games

10:43 am Vincent Nguyen: Both ported from OS X

10:44 am Vincent Nguyen: One is physics-based, you need to touch, drag and rotate

10:44 am Vincent Nguyen: The other is a driving game: Cro Mag Rally, in 3D

10:44 am Vincent Nguyen: You play as a racing caveman

10:45 am Vincent Nguyen: According to Pangaea it only took 3 days to port it all across

10:45 am Vincent Nguyen: Including changing the controls so that tilting the iPhone mimics a steering wheel

10:46 am Vincent Nguyen: Both will be priced at $9.99

10:47 am Vincent Nguyen: A lone developer from the British insurance industry is on-stage, Mark Terry

10:47 am Vincent Nguyen: Thankfully it’s not about insurance – it’s a game, virtual instruments called Band

10:48 am Vincent Nguyen: He’s demo’ing it by playing with Imagine by John Lennon

10:48 am Vincent Nguyen: Consists of drum background, a piano and more

10:48 am Vincent Nguyen: Best of all – and the crowd love him and it – is the fact that he developed it in his spare time

10:49 am Vincent Nguyen: Sorry, it’s actually called Cow Terry, not Band

10:49 am Vincent Nguyen: You can record what you play

10:50 am Vincent Nguyen: MLB.com are on-stage, talking about their new baseball app

10:50 am Vincent Nguyen: Jeremy Schoenherr demo’ing it – lots of stats and live game info

10:51 am Vincent Nguyen: It can tell you who is playing where, what the score is, real-time video highlights

10:51 am Vincent Nguyen: Both it and Cow Terry will be available when the App Store launches, but no prices given

10:52 am Vincent Nguyen: A doctor from Modality is on stage with two medical apps

10:53 am Vincent Nguyen: Basically using the iPhone as a teaching tool

10:55 am Vincent Nguyen: Ouch, it’s almost 11am and there have been no big announcements

10:55 am Vincent Nguyen: Second medical app lets consultants and specialists look at medical imaging while mobile

10:56 am Vincent Nguyen: It’s tricky to get excited about this without wearing a white coat

10:58 am Vincent Nguyen: MultiTouch gestures are used to rotate and flip the images, pull up rulers and shake to get rid of them

10:58 am Vincent Nguyen: The final developer is on-stage, and it’s another game

10:59 am Vincent Nguyen: Digital Legends Entertainment – they only started working on their title 2 weeks ago

11:00 am Vincent Nguyen: Basically a fighting game, touching the screen moves the fighter

11:00 am Vincent Nguyen: It’s unique to the iPhone and will appear in the App Store come September

11:01 am Vincent Nguyen: Uses OpenGL and dynamic graphic rendering, it looks like a decent 3D fantasy adventure actually

11:02 am Vincent Nguyen: Apparently developers have been asking for a way to know when users aren’t running an app

11:03 am Vincent Nguyen: Apple is criticising Background Processes as the wrong way to accomplish this – they eat battery and CPU cycles

11:03 am Vincent Nguyen: Ouch, they’re showing Windows Mobile Task Manager, and it’s not as an example of good practice

11:04 am Vincent Nguyen: “We’ve come up with a far better solution, a push notification service we’ll provide to all developers”

11:05 am Vincent Nguyen: The iPhone maintains an ongoing connection with an Apple server

11:05 am Vincent Nguyen: When you quit an app, updates are shuffled from server to iPhone; developers send the updates to Apple

11:06 am Vincent Nguyen: Uses Badges, which alert the no. waiting, Custom Alert sounds and Text Alerts that are similar to text alerts

11:06 am Vincent Nguyen: Won’t be available until September, but developers will be able to access it soon

11:06 am Vincent Nguyen: iPhone SDK has been updated

11:07 am Vincent Nguyen: Now includes iWork document support together with Word, Excel & Powerpoint compatibiltiy, plus the ability to save images (finally!) and a new scientific calculator

11:07 am Vincent Nguyen: Bulk and move mesages, parental controls and new language support

11:08 am Vincent Nguyen: Finger-drawn Chinese and Japanese character entry

11:08 am Vincent Nguyen: They’re popular additions in the room, the crowd is v.excited!

11:09 am Vincent Nguyen: The 2.0 firmware will be available in early July

11:09 am Vincent Nguyen: Free for iPhone, $9.99 for iPod Touch owners

11:09 am Vincent Nguyen: Now Steve is discussing the App Store

11:10 am Vincent Nguyen: Sorry, $9.95 for iPod Touch owners

11:10 am Vincent Nguyen: Confirming App Store T&Cs: 70% of revenue kept by developers, FairPlay verification, no charge for free software

11:11 am Vincent Nguyen: There’ll be wireless downloads direct to your device, and automatic updates

11:11 am Vincent Nguyen: App Store will be available in 62 countries; will check your connection and the app size before download starts

11:11 am Vincent Nguyen: if the app is under 10MB then it will come over the mobile network; bigger, and it’ll use either WiFi or iTunes

11:12 am Vincent Nguyen: Enterprise clients can set up their own private App Stores on their intranets and limit employee iPhones to access them

11:13 am Vincent Nguyen: That’s been a specific request from business customers

11:13 am Vincent Nguyen: Discussing a new way to distribute and test apps: Ad Hoc

11:14 am Vincent Nguyen: create a group of up to 100 iPhones and send apps to all of them; Steve suggesting this would be useful for testing betas or in classrooms

11:14 am Vincent Nguyen: Something entirely new: MobileMe

11:14 am Vincent Nguyen: “Exchange for the rest of us” – demo by Phil

11:15 am Vincent Nguyen: Push email, calendar and contacts without an Exchange server

11:15 am Vincent Nguyen: Ouch, Phil Schiller has just called ActiveSync “ActiveStink”

11:16 am Vincent Nguyen: Works cross-platform and info is pushed up and down: e.g. new email goes to all devices and from all devices

11:16 am Vincent Nguyen: Continuous, automatic syncronisation

11:16 am Vincent Nguyen: And it’s all done over-the-air via the cellular connection

11:16 am Vincent Nguyen: Mail, iCal and Address Book on Mac all supported, as is Outlook

11:18 am Vincent Nguyen: New site: Me.com

11:18 am Vincent Nguyen: Recreates the desktop experience but online from anywhere

11:19 am Vincent Nguyen: Syncs everything – including photos – and looks just like Apple’s Mail, Contacts, Calendar and Gallery apps

11:19 am Vincent Nguyen: They’re calling it a “breakthrough web 2.0 app interface” and it looks amazing

11:20 am Vincent Nguyen: iDisk is integrated into Me.com; Phil Schiller is demonstrating it now

11:20 am Vincent Nguyen: It includes everything you’d get with Outlook Web Access, with more besides – it all acts just as you’d expect the desktop version to

11:21 am Vincent Nguyen: Drag’n'Drop, multiple message select, in-line replies, complete control over pane and window resizing

11:22 am Vincent Nguyen: Contacts includes live searching and ties with Google Maps

11:22 am Vincent Nguyen: Calendar has color coding and you can drag’n'drop events, as well as display multiple views

11:23 am Vincent Nguyen: Gallery has thumbnail scrolling and drag’n'drop

11:23 am Vincent Nguyen: Hard to believe this is all web-based, it’s miles ahead of the competition in terms of interface

11:24 am Vincent Nguyen: iDisk app can send files to individuals through the web interface

11:24 am Vincent Nguyen: They’re demonstrating the over-the-air capacity: iPhone sync’ing with Me.com

11:25 am Vincent Nguyen: It’s all happening live: email, contacts, appointments, all show up on both at the same time

11:25 am Vincent Nguyen: With read status and any amendments intact

11:26 am Vincent Nguyen: Very little lag when something is changed, though presumably this is all via WiFi not cellular data on the iPhone itself

11:27 am Vincent Nguyen: Thank goodness for unlimited data plans!

11:28 am Vincent Nguyen: “Exchange for the rest of us … The perfect companion”

11:28 am Vincent Nguyen: $99 a year

11:28 am Vincent Nguyen: That includes 20GB online storage; MobileMe replaces .Mac

11:29 am Vincent Nguyen: 60 day trial and available in early July

11:29 am Vincent Nguyen: .Mac users auto upgraded

11:29 am Vincent Nguyen: Steve’s back on stage

11:29 am Vincent Nguyen: First iPhone shipped on June 29th last year

11:30 am Vincent Nguyen: Um, Steve is using a photo of me to illustrate the launch

11:30 am Vincent Nguyen: 90% customer satisfaction

11:31 am Vincent Nguyen: 98% of ppl use it to browse online, 94% use email, 90% SMS messaging, 80& ten or more features

11:31 am Vincent Nguyen: Apple ran out of stock several weeks ago – 6m sold

11:32 am Vincent Nguyen: Next challenges: more affordable, 3G networks, enterprise, third party apps, mmore countries

11:32 am Vincent Nguyen: 3G iPhone!

11:32 am Vincent Nguyen: “today we’re introducing the iPhone 3G”

11:33 am Vincent Nguyen: Black back panel, thinner edges, full plastic back

11:33 am Vincent Nguyen: “it’s really nice” says Steve

11:33 am Vincent Nguyen: Massive applause here

11:33 am Vincent Nguyen: solid metal buttons, flush 3.5mm headphone adaptor

11:34 am Vincent Nguyen: same 3.5-inch display, improved audio

11:34 am Vincent Nguyen: “Feels better in your hand” apparently

11:34 am Vincent Nguyen: They’d comparing EDGE vs 3G in a demo

11:35 am Vincent Nguyen: download in the browser takes 21 seconds on 3G and EDGE crawls along

11:35 am Vincent Nguyen: EDGE finally finishes after 59 seconds

11:36 am Vincent Nguyen: Steve is comparing 3G with WiFi speeds

11:36 am Vincent Nguyen: 17 seconds to download on WiFi

11:37 am Vincent Nguyen: 3G is 2.8x faster than EDGE

11:37 am Vincent Nguyen: Plus the iPhone 3G is 36% faster than other 3G phones (e.g. Treo 750 & Nokia N95)

11:38 am Vincent Nguyen: Email attachment takes 5 seconds on 3G, 18 seconds on EDGE

11:38 am Vincent Nguyen: Plus, Steve points out, the results are better to look at on the iPhone compared to rivals

11:38 am Vincent Nguyen: Standby time is 300hrs

11:39 am Vincent Nguyen: 3G talktime is 5hrs

11:39 am Vincent Nguyen: 2G talktime up 2hrs to 10hrs total!

11:39 am Vincent Nguyen: 5-6hrs of 3G browsing, 7 hours of video, 24hrs of audio

11:39 am Vincent Nguyen: GPS now built-in

11:39 am Vincent Nguyen: The room is going wild here

11:40 am Vincent Nguyen: It’s also assisted GPS, uses WiFi and cell towers to better pinpoint position

11:40 am Vincent Nguyen: Steve thinks location-based services are the future on the iPhone

11:40 am Vincent Nguyen: Can do tracking and work as a compass – without the dedicated compass Google recently showed in their Android prototype

11:41 am Vincent Nguyen: Demo GPS with a moving car icon on Google Maps

11:42 am Vincent Nguyen: Current iPhone available in 6 countries today, will be 12 countries for 3G version

11:42 am Vincent Nguyen: 25 countries over next few months

11:43 am Vincent Nguyen: Showing different countries getting ticked off on map – Canada, Sweden, Mexico, Norway, Netherlands, etc

11:44 am Vincent Nguyen: Seventy countries in total, including China, Australia and Japan

11:45 am Vincent Nguyen: Rollout over next few months

11:46 am Vincent Nguyen: Now price: was $599 at first launch, now $199!

11:46 am Vincent Nguyen: $199 for the 8GB iPhone 3G!

11:46 am Vincent Nguyen: $299 for the 16GB

11:47 am Vincent Nguyen: The room here has just exploded

11:47 am Vincent Nguyen: They’ll make a white version too

11:47 am Vincent Nguyen: Rolled out at the same price all over the world

11:47 am Vincent Nguyen: Available July 11th

11:47 am Vincent Nguyen: They’re showing the new advert

11:48 am Vincent Nguyen: Advert is showing a safe carried by security guards, with the iPhone 3G inside

11:49 am Vincent Nguyen: “The iPhone 3G is one of the most amazing products I’ve ever had the privilege to be associated with”

11:50 am Vincent Nguyen: iPhone teams are being called to their feet, and the applause is deafening

11:51 am Vincent Nguyen: “WWDC 2008, I think it’s going to be our best so far”

11:51 am Vincent Nguyen: The lights are coming up and it looks like the keynote is over

11:51 am Vincent Nguyen: Steve has left the stage

11:52 am Vincent Nguyen: There’s no “one more thing”, but a 3G iPhone should make up for that don’t you think?

11:52 am Vincent Nguyen: Thanks for reading the iPhone Buzz Live Blog – we hope you’ve been as excited about this year’s WWDC keynote as we have been!

11:52 am Vincent Nguyen: Make sure to keep reading iPhoneBuzz.com for all the details of the new iPhone 3G

After getting in a good jab at Microsoft (Phil Schiller referred to ActiveSync as ActiveStink) he discussed how this new software will push email, calendar and contacts without the need for an Exchange server. This will work cross-platform and push/receive information to/from all of your devices. You’ll have continuous, automatic synchronization over the cellular connection.

Apple has also launched a new site called Me.com. This will keep everything synced, incluing photos, mail, contacts and your calender. iDisk has also been integrated into Me.com, which will include drag and drop functionality, and more.

From Me.com you’ll be able to select multiple messages, do in-line replies and have complete control over the pane and window resizing in this mobile application. Your calender will be color coded and allow for drag and drop events.

They demonstrated the synchronization abilities with the iPhone and Me.com. Everything from contacts, appointments, mail and more showed up on all devices at the same time, with thing such as read status and amendments in place. Simply amazing.

The service will run $99 per year, and will include 20GB of online storage. For those unsure, this will replace the .Mac service.

The 8GB iPhone 3G will run $199, while the 16GB version will run $299. You’ll be able to snag one of these in both black and white. Now your iPhone can match your older iMacs and the  like.

Don’t go rushing out to your Apple stores just yet, this bad ass phone won’t be available until July 11th.

• 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.48 inches (115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm)
• 4.7 ounces (133 grams)
• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), UMTS / HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz), GSM / EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• 300hrs standby, 8-10hrs 2G talk, 5hrs 3G talk, 7hrs video playback, 24hrs audio playback
• AT&T data plans: personal $30 (on top of voice), business $45 (on top of voice) with two year agreement

More details at Apple’s official page here.

This sexy new device will feature a black back panel, thinner edges and a full plastic back. You’ll see the same 3.5-inch display that we’ve grown to know and love, and a flush 3.5mm headphone jack.

Lets get to the specs. As we all know, it will have a 3G HSDPA connection, which will allow users to browse the net at roughly the same speed as you experienced on WiFi with your first-gen iPhone. As a comparison, a page that takes 59 seconds to download on EDGE will finish in roughly 21 seconds on the 3G network. Now that’s an improvement! WiFi is still just a bit quicker at 17 seconds to finish That’s not to say that they haven’t still left the WiFi option in for those that aren’t able to get a 3G connection.

Battery life has seen a major improvement with 300 hours of standby, talk-time on 2G is 10 hours (double of the original iPhone) while 3G talk-time is 5 hours. You should get around 5 or 6 hours of high-speed browsing (3G baby!), 7 hours of video and 24 hours of audio. Very impressive.

Guess which phone finally has GPS? Serisouly, could you imagine the next-generation iPhone to leave this one out? I think not. It will use a combination of cell phone towers and WiFi to track your location. This will integrate well with Google Maps to show you exactly where you are, and where you’re going. You’ll even be able to use your iPhone as a compass. More info as we get it!

• 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.48 inches (115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm)
• 4.7 ounces (133 grams)
• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), UMTS / HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz), GSM / EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• 300hrs standby, 8-10hrs 2G talk, 5hrs 3G talk, 7hrs video playback, 24hrs audio playback
• AT&T data plans: personal $30 (on top of voice), business $45 (on top of voice) with two year agreement
• Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US will get the iPhone 3G on July 11th

More details at Apple’s official page here.

Press Release:

Apple Introduces the New iPhone 3G

Twice as Fast at Half the Price

SAN FRANCISCO, June 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple(R) today introduced the new iPhone(TM) 3G, combining all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast* as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK. In the US the new iPhone 3G is priced at a stunning $199 for the 8GB model, and just $299 for the 16GB model.** iPhone 3G will be available in more than 70 countries later this year, beginning with customer availability in 22 countries — Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US — on July 11.

“Just one year after launching the iPhone, we’re launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPhone 3G supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync right out of the box, runs the incredible third party apps created with the iPhone SDK, and will be available in more than 70 countries around the world this year.”

iPhone 3G gives users ever faster access to the Internet and email over their cellular network with quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA for voice and data connectivity around the world. iPhone 3G supports Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE
networks and automatically switches between them to ensure the fastest possible download speeds. The new iPhone 3G also makes it easier to multi-task with simultaneous voice and data communications, so with iPhone 3G you can browse the web, get map directions, or check your email while you are on a call.

iPhone 3G includes the new iPhone 2.0 software with both the iPhone SDK and key enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide over-the-air push email, contact and calendar syncing as well as remote wipe and Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to corporate networks. The iPhone SDK allows developers to create amazing applications that leverage the iPhone’s groundbreaking Multi-Touch(TM) user interface, animation technology, accelerometer and GPS technology on the world’s most advanced mobile platform.

iPhone 3G includes the new App Store, providing iPhone users with native applications in a variety of categories including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel. The App Store on iPhone works over cellular networks and Wi-Fi, which means it is accessible from just about anywhere, so you can purchase and download applications wirelessly and start using them instantly. Some applications are even free and the App Store notifies you when application updates are available. The App Store will be available in 62 countries at launch.

Additional features available with the iPhone 2.0 software include the ability to do real-time mapping and track your progress with GPS technology, mass move and delete multiple email messages, search for contacts, access a new scientific calculator, turn on parental control restrictions for specified content, save images directly from a web page or email them to your iPhone and easily transfer them back to your photo library on your Mac(R) or PC. iPhone 3G delivers an amazing 10 hours of talk time on 2G networks and 5 hours using 3G, with up to 5 to 6 hours of web browsing, up to 7 hours for video playback and up to 24 hours for audio playback.

iPhone 3G takes advantage of MobileMe(TM), a new Internet service that pushes email, contacts, and calendars from an online “cloud” to native applications on iPhone, iPod(R) touch, Macs and PCs. With MobileMe email, messages are pushed instantly to iPhone, removing the need to manually check email and wait for downloads, and push keeps contacts and calendars continuously up-to-date so changes made on one device are automatically updated on other devices. With iPhone, you can even snap a photo and post it directly to a MobileMe Gallery to share with friends and family.

iPhone 3G will be available in the US on July 11 for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 8GB model and $299 (US) for the 16GB model in both Apple and AT&T’s retail stores and requires a new two year contract with AT&T for qualifying customers. iPhone 2.0 software will be available on July 11 as a free software update via iTunes(R) 7.7 or later for all iPhone customers. For further information about iPhone 3G pricing and availability in the US and internationally, visit http://www.apple.com/iphone.

* Based on 3G and EDGE testing. Actual speeds vary by site conditions.

** Based on iPhone 3G (8GB) and first generation iPhone (8GB) purchases. Requires new two year AT&T rate plan, sold separately.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh.
Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its
award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit Apple’s PR website (http://www.apple.com/pr/), or call Apple’s Media Helpline at (408) 974-2042.

(C) 2008 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, iPhone, Multi-Touch, MobileMe, iPod and iTunes are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. 

When you go to download an application, you’ll be able to grab it over the mobile phone network if it is under 10MB. Otherwise, you’ll need to get yourself to a WiFi connection. Enterprise customers will be able to set up their own application store on their intranet and limit access to applications for their employees.

A new way for distributing applicaions has also been discussed. Developers can make a list of up to 100 iPhones and send apps to all of them. Uses for this would included beta tests and classroom applications.

Apple has created a push notification service which will be distributed to all developers. Essentially the iPhone will keep a steady connection to the Apple servers. When you quit an application, updates are shuffled from the server to your iPhone.

We won’t be seeing this functionality until September, however, developers should be getting their hands on this very soon.

One of the biggest additions is iWork support, MS Office document support which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Next you’ll finally be able to move and delete messages in bulk, which is something I know I’ve been looking forward to. You’ll also be able to download images that are sent to you.

Other apps include a new calculator which will switch to scientific mode when the iPhone is rotated. You’ll also see parental controls and excellent language support.

Look for the iPhone 2.0 firmware to hit in July sometime. iPhone users will be able to download this for free, however iPod Touch owners will need to pony up $9.99 for the update.

Next to take the stage is online auction experts eBay. Their own iPhone application will allow you to track auctions you’ve bid on, see which ones have been outbid and more. It took their team roughly 5 weeks to develop the entire program, which will be available for free. Free is good!

If you haven’t heard of Loopt, it is a location-aware social networking application that can track where your friends are at any given time. If any of you have used Helio, it is similar to their Buddy Beacon service, which can be fun to use. It will show a map with pins to denote where your friends currently reside. You can also browse user profiles and easily call or text them directly from the application. This will also be free when the store launches.

Bloggers will enjoy this next application, which is TypePad. It just happens to feature a dedicated blogging tool for those that don’t mind typing out entries on their favorite phone. You can also send in pictures from this application directly from the iPhone’s camera, which will make the iPhone an invaluable tool for mobile posting. Yet another free application (I’m starting to like this trend).

The AP (Associated Press) has taken the stage to inform everyone that they are going to be integrating their Mobile News Network into your iPhone. This is essentially a network of their most trusted news sources for your viewing pleasure. You can also report news yourself by submitting first-hand accounts and photos directly from the iPhone.

For those looking for more games, Pangea Software is showing off a couple of their latest titles, both of which are ported from OSX. One is physics-based, while the other is a racing game titled Cro Mag Rally, in 3D. It took them a whopping 3 days to port both games from their desktop OS. Both games will retail for $9.99 when they are released at launch.

For those looking to get in on some mobile rocking action, a lone developer has shown off a rhythm game which he developed in his spare time which allows you to play instruments like drums, piano and more. The app is called Cow Terry. Pretty cool that he managed to do this just in his spare time.

Baseball fans will really enjoy the new app from MLB.com. You can check to see which teams are playing, scores and even get real-time video highlights from anywhere in the world.

Two more applications are demonstrated by a doctor from Modality. Essentially he is using these to turn the iPhone into a teaching tool. Can you imagine walking into a college course and seeing your professor managing his entire class with just an iPhone? Very cool. The second app will allow docs to view medical imaging while on the road. Not sure how I’d feel about my doc using the iPhone to check out my X-rays, but if it speeds up things when he’s away, that’s always good.

Yet another game has been announced, this time from Digital Legends Entertainment. This one is a fighting game which utilizes OpenGL and dynamic graphic rendering. Apparently it only took them around 2 weeks to develop.

Coacoa Touch should make building new UI’s a breeze by using Interface Builder. They’ve gone on to demonstrate just how easy it can be to drag interface elements and combine them to create a UI. The Interface Builder will even help you keep the iPhones orientation in mind by rearranging things to be much easier to use.

They are boasting how simple to use these new features are to use, which will make developing easy as pie for their new Application Store. Next up they’re going to give us a run-down of new applications we can expect to see.

Steve’s first thing to talk about is the iPhone. Apparently there have been over 250,000 people download the SDK, with over 4,000 people in the beta program. Those are really some impressive numbers.

Currently they are talking about the iPhone in three major areas; Enterprise, SDK and new features for the end user. First up is Enterprise. 35% of the Fortune 500 companies are testing the new enterprise features for the iPhone. They’re also working with Cisco on VPN and security, as well as higher-education establishments to see how it can be incorporated in that environment. According to Steve, the feedback has been “fantastic.” One of the newer features includes filtering contact searches as you type, which will be very handy.

Also on iPhone Buzz there’s a run-down of the latest speculation, intrigue and rumor surrounding what magic Apple might announce.  iChat is perhaps the key software title people are hoping for, correcting the absence of IM on the iPhone that still doesn’t make sense to most users, while there are new photos purporting to be the 3G iPhone itself.

You never know, we might not see an iPhone at all today.  Apple have only confirmed that the keynote will include details of OS X development, and they might stick resolutely – and frustratingly – to their guns this morning.  But the consensus is that something shiny and cellular will grace the live blog, so stay with us – http://live.iphonebuzz.com – to see if it’s everything we hope it will be.

It’s not just a 3G iPhone that’s suspected; there’s also talk of an OS X Tablet.  Mysterious boxes have been turning up with strongly-worded NDA “don’t you dare open me until the 10th” warnings, and the case analysing squad have had a field-day trying to work out whether accessory manufacturers have been given a sneak preview of even just the dimensions of the new handset.

As ever, you can find all the latest iPhone rumors, news and accessories over at iPhone Buzz.  The Live Blog kicks off tomorrow morning, Monday June 9th, at 10AM San Francisco time – click the logo for details of local times.

The rest of the week will consist of question & answer sessions, hands-on opportunities and workshop labs. Developers are being invited to bring their own code along, with assistance promised from Apple’s own engineers. Both newcomers and experienced programmers are catered for, with topics covered including interface design and implementation, application frameworks, security, localization and networking.

A 3G version of the iPhone is not the only device speculated to feature at the WWDC. An iTablet or Mac Tablet has also been suggested, sporting a 720×480 multi touch screen being around 50% larger than the iPhone. Registration is open for the event now.

When the time comes nearer to the event, I’m pretty sure there will be many rumor about 3G iPhone! Will Apple announce it during WWDC? Well, only time can tell.

SlashGear plans to attend the event and will be delivering keynote live from ground zero.