I have the "Mac" flu, too. Hoping to finally make the purchase in the next ten days to go with my very own office!!! Alan and I have been sharing office space for the last 7 years but I've outgrown my cubicle. We've turned one of the guest rooms over to me. It's almost finished and I can hardly wait for my space.

I covet your phone Ray and Masaki!

Ray, when I buy my Mac, I'm going to buy the one to one classes too. Glad to hear that you find them helpful. I know I'll be on a bit of a learning curve.

iPhone3G on sale July 11th!! Looks pretty awesome!

Summary of todays keynote:

New Features
In addition to features that were previewed at the iPhone Software Roadmap event, Apple announced new features of Firmware 2.0 and the SDK, including:

- contact searching
- complete iWork document support
- complete Office document support (now includes PowerPoint)
- bulk delete and move for Mail
- save images you receive
- scientific calculator in landscape mode
- parental controls
- language
- 3G
- GPS

In addition, Apple announced a method for developers to have their applications receive information while not in use. Apple had previously said that they would not allow background applications to run on the iPhone, to the widespread dismay of developers who need such functionality to server-side information. As a response, Apple has implemented a notification feature into the SDK which will allow applications to be alerted of server-side events (i.e. new IM received, new mail, etc) without having to run in the background and eat CPU cycles. This functionality is scheduled to be delivered in September, however it will be seeded to developers "soon."

iPhone Firmware 2.0 will be available for free to existing iPhone customers in "early July". The firmware will also be available for iPod Touch users for $9.95.

Mobile Me replaces .Mac and will be available in early July for $99/year, with a 60 day free trial available.

Features
- Push Email, calendar, and contacts
- Synchronization between iPhone, Mac and PC (Outlook for Windows integration)
- "Desktop-like" Web Applications for Mail, Contacts, Calendar, photo gallery, and iDisk online storage available via me.com.

One other announcement that Apple made during the keynote was that they would be providing developers with a preview of Mac OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard") this afternoon. This session, however, will be covered under non-disclosure, so while we don't expect any official features or announcements to be coming from Apple, some information is certain to leak.




*********

All-in-all, pretty good developments. So, the big queston, LCT iphone owners...are any of us upgrading?

I'm seriously thinking about it.

I haven't had my iphone for a year, yet. I probably won't be upgrading for a while, anyway.

I'm upgrading. GPS is a big thing for me. Probably passing down my iPhone 1.0 to Amanda. :)

Robert:

Does Firmware 2.0 include 3G & GPS? Will the Firmware enable my current 16gig iPhone to sport those features?
If so, that would make me one happy camper.

Doug

Sorry to disappoint, Doug, no. 3G and GPS are native to the new phone only.

Here ia a link to the features contained in the update.

Grumble, grumble, grumble

Thanks, DOug, for cluing me in to the announcement today. Otherwise I may have bought an iPhone this weekend. Now I will definitely wait.
This seems very unfair to current iPhone owners. The new model will be faster, better battery life, contain GPS, and cost about half.

grumble, grumble, grumble

(lol)

Gil, around here nobody has had iPhones in stock for about two months. The general consensus was that there had to be a new one coming out today.

What Pam said. The stock of iPhones has gradually dwindled over the last 2 months in preparation for the announcement today. Apple did learn from the iPhone introduction that people are not appreciative of their new investment immediately devaluating after purchase! Remember that the new iPhone won't actually be available for purchase until July.

Doug - unfortunately, the new features require new hardware so you can't upgrade your current iPhone to the new spec. But the 2.0 firmware compatible with the first generation iPhone will still add some nice features including the App store, iWork and Office support (nice for Mac users), and compatibility with "push" Email if you subscribe to .Mac (ooops, Mobile Me).

It sounds like Tomtom (a major figure in the car GPS navigation market) is preparing a turn by turn product that'll work with the GPS chip in the iPhone 3G, essentially turning the iPhone into a Tomtom GPS navigation unit.

Masaki:

1st: My congrats on the very happy news. Our love to Amanda!

I guess I will just live w/ my 16 gig iPhone 1.0. I don't need the gps. The google maps function works rather well. I admit that I would have welcomed the faster internet and longer battery. But I can't see upgrading after so short a time. I will have had my iPhone for only 4 or 5 months when the new one is available in July. Hard to justify an upgrade expense after so short a time. Maybe I'll just wait for iPhone 3.0.

I did notice, however, that the price cut for the iPhone will be more than offset by the higher charges from AT&T. The data charge will be $30 per month as compared with $20 for iPhone 1.0. So, you save $200 on the phone today and pay $240 more over the two year service contract. (I don't need to do present values. It is close to a wash - but good marketing stuff!)
But this is the Apple way...... I looked back and realised that each and every Mac I ever bought cost me about the same in absolute dollars. But each time I got more machine & features. Looks like the same thing at work here.

Doug

Doug - Thanks for the good wishes. We're all sick with a cold (except for Kazuya) so we're trying to keep it that way. Quite tricky. :)

Yes, the data plan increases to $30/month - I guess that makes sense given the faster data access but it does add up after a while.

There is some noise on a mac board where I'm a regular that 3G coverage will be spotty, at best. My research says that this is not necessarily so. Looks to me like most major metro areas are covered. Before any of us make the jump to a new iphone, however, I encourage you to check this list to be sure your hometown is in the mix.

EDIT to add: If anyone is interested in checking out the aforementioned mac boards, PM me and I'll gladly shoot you a link and some posting guidelines.

So if you're traveling in the US, you might go in and out of service?

Good question. No, Diane - you would still have service - the phone will kick over to EDGE. I've quoted the below directly from the AT&T website:

In areas where the 3G network is not available, customers will continue to receive service on the AT&T EDGE network, when coverage is available.

The AT&T EDGE network is available in more than 13,000 cities and towns and in areas along 40,000 miles of highways. It provides average data speeds between 75-135Kbps.

Robert, do you think the ipod touch will ever get GPS ?
John

John - I'd doubt it. Doesn't make sense from the standpoint of Apple's product line. The iPhone is supposed to be the pinnacle of the handheld stuff and therefore will have the best features. The flavor of GPS in the iPhone is A-GPS which means Assisted GPS - it uses cell phone towers to give an initial fix to the phone and to reduce locating time through the GPS satellites. Obviously, a iPod Touch would have no cellular capability which would mean that they couldn't use the same chip set. They certainly could develop another chip set to install in the iPod Touch but like I mentioned before, it doesn't seem to make sense financially from Apple's standpoint. Indeed, it does bring up the question of where does the iPod Touch stand in Apple's lineup given that with the current listed prices, the iPhone is actually cheaper than the iPod Touch.

Maybe Robert's heard differently.

John:

I'm tracking with M's assessment 100%

Thanks guys. I know most of you use a cell phone a lot but since we are retired we don't use a cell phone very much, in fact we just use a prepaid plan with T mobile @ $ 0.10 p/min. So ATT will not work for us. The I Touch would be a great traveler w/GPS.
Oh well, just a thought.

John