Mum is no longer the word

Well, finally the misery is over. Steve Jobs attended the Apple Regent street store and let the whole of the UK know most of what it already knew.

O2 are to be the carrier and with "unlimited" data plans at £35, £45 and £55 the handset price of £269 seems almost pallatable.

No 3G but Edge is the weapon of choice for data accces, although on 30% coverage on the launch date of 9th november seems a little short and certainly will give pause for users who would have to give up 3G coverage for GPRS which, frankly, sucks.

On the back of my last post, I managed to convince myself that the iPhone isn't for me and have ordered an iPod touch which I should receive in less than a fortnight. However, now I know that we are definitely getting unlimited data I will be following, sheep like, and getting the iPhone on launch day.

18 Month contracts are a little more difficult to swallow when the handset isn't subsidised as the network cannot really justify the "standard" price points on their tariffs but, hey ho, that is rip off Britain for you.

Trying to read between the lines of anything said by Steve Jobs is near on impossible, a master of smoke and mirrors. When questioned on the lack of 3G he cited power consumption as the perfectly reasonable explanation for it's lack of inclusion, however, when asked about the Starbucks arrangement he was as cagey as you like, "You would need to ask Starbucks" was his reply.

All in all, a good announcement. At least now we can get our dates ready to go to the Apple store and queue with all of the other geeks on 9th November.

Now, if I could only decide on a case ?????

Decision indecision

Ok. I have spent the last few days processing the info from the Apple keynote, specifically whether the iPod touch is a better option for me.

The only way to do this properly is to do the pro's and con's so here goes

iPod Touch

Pro's

Has all functionality of iPhone except bluetooth and phone functionality.
Larger capacity than iPhone
No monthly bill
Slimmer than iPhone

Cons

No phone functionality
No bluetooth

iPhone

Full phone, iPod bluetooth functionality
Camera
Uber cool

Cons

Monthly subscription
only 8gb

I guess from a bang for buck point of view, the iPod touch is better value, but from an all in one point of view the iPhone brings you down to just one device for everything, so reall I am no further forward.

More pondering to do really

The agony and the ecstasy

Steve Jobs provided a complete range change for all but the iPod shuffle.

With the new Nano providing a new interface, looking distinctly stubby, the Nano provides video playback, impossibly thin, cover flow viewer. Looks great and retains the click wheel.

The iPod original is now renamed the iPod Classic and comes in a hhhhuuuuuugge 160gb capacity, redesigned interface and coverflow and an all metal case. Scratches - begone and, it still looks like an iPod.

The big news, and it is big. Widescreen, Wifi iPod. Same design as the iPhone it is the answer to non phone users who want all of the new features. Lots of services primarily aimed at the US market which will have no take up here but Safari browser gives a lush browsing experience, and , it will be available in the UK.

The worst news though, or lack of it, no announcement on the UK iPhone. WTF is wrong with this, it's ready, it's probably here so give it to us.

P.S. £1.89 for a TV Show - WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too expensive, rent it from Blocky, rip it and take it back £5 for a full season of most prime shows. Sorted.

Good Times

Apple event - the beat goes on

Tonight, at 6pm GMT the Apple event begins.

Come back here for the post event review this evening.

The Beat Goes on

Again we wait with baited breath as to the content of this weeks (5th September) "The Beat Goes on" Event from Apple.

The rumour mill is in overload as to what we can expect to see.

The current list is;

1. Widescreen iPod (with WiFi??)
2. New Video enabled Nano
3. The Beatles catalogue.

I guess I would only really be interested in an announcement on the UK iPhone launch date but it is always nice to see new gadgets inroduced.

Wifi would be a positive move but then if there are limitations as to how and what could be transmitted then we are in Zune territory.

Data Plans

Given the speculation the O2 will be the carrier of choice for the iPhone I am wondering what we may expect the tarrif to be.

Looking at O2's tarrifs currently, I am guessing that the £35 - £50 mark will give reasonable data quantities. This coupled with the handset price will make for a fairly hefty outlay. Maybe, as we do enjoy heavily subsidised handsets we will see a reduced initial outlay of the predicted £300 - £350 price tag.

Somehow I doubt it although, the fact that we are essentially paying double for music and video on iTunes, you would hope that Steve would cut us some slack. Somehow I doubt it.

I am also a little concerned that we may not see the full functionality such as visual voicemail on roll out, in true British style I guess the commercial negotiations will drag on as some pip squeak tries to squeeze the absolute last penny from anyone they can, and only then will the technical aspects be dealt with.

We can only hope that 3G is enabled on our handset as the EDGE network doesn't appear to cut much mustard stateside.

I wait with baited breath

The Killer features

I guess the real killer feature for me is the interface, a decent email client so that I can properly manage my info on the move and the iPod functionality really give a rounded package.

To move from multiple compromise devices to one single unit is a real deal maker for me. I like to travel light where possible and, reports suggest, this is the device to do it.

Although the Google Maps is a good app, a GPS enable one would be better but I am sure that once the 3rd party apps are enabled that these will come. I would be be a little reluctant to add too many apps to the unit and potentially reduce reliability.

We shall see.