According to Goldman Sachs’ Robert Chen, it won’t lack new features. “Apple’s going to put a lot of innovation, not just on the hardware, but also on the software of the new iPhone,” he said.

Specifically, this might mean a better camera (which is a very safe bet as far as predictions go), but also a sensitive back case, similar to the touch panel used for the Magic Mouse. A couple of days ago, Motorola introduced the Backflip, an AndroidAndroidAndroid smartphone that can be controlled via a touchpad on the back of the screen; dare we dream of something similar on the iPhoneiPhoneiPhone?

Apple, of course, doesn’t comment on “rumors and speculation.” But according to Chen, the new iPhone will go into production in April and should be available to consumers in June or July — just enough time for the rumor train to go into full speed.

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What’s important now is that Apple maintains their strategy and ensures that it stays ahead of the Google Nexus One. Although, latest reports state, “In the Google phone’s first week, it was outsold by the iPhone by a factor of 80 to 1″, so I don’t think Apple needs to worry too much!

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The Juice Pack is a rechargeable lithium polymer battery in the form of a non-slip, soft grip case. It doubles the uptime on your iPhone 3G in these ways (additional hours):

- Standby Time – Up to 350 hours

- Talk Time – Up to 6 hours on 3G | Up to 12 hours on 2G

- Internet Use – Up to 6 hours on 3G | Up to 7 hours on Wi-Fi

- Audio Playback – Up to 28 hours

- Video Playback – Up to 8 hours

Now that’s an impressive accessory!

One does wonder then, is the iPhone capible of being a “business phone” as well ?

Mochasoft have released an iPhone Application which puts a positive score in the “yes” column. Mochasoft’s VNC client is able to connect to a VNC server (tested on RealVNC, TightVNC & UltraVNC) and allows a user to view a computers desktop remotely.

This enables people who are “on the go” to log on, from anywhere in the world, to a pre-configured computer that has an active internet connection and to interact with the desktop in a similar way as if they were sitting directly in front of that computer.

You might ask, who would use such a thing? – “I would” would be my 1st answer and here is why:

As an I.T. Support technician I am often required to be many places at the same time. The posibility would exist where I could log into my office computer, view invoices, client records, and email (even though it would possibly be easier to access it from the iPhones Email) etc – I would also be able to do the same for any remote clients who’s net work I support.

The software comes in two versions, a lite “free” version which has no support for the windows ctrl-alt-delete function, and has no right mouse click, and a paid version (approximately $6), which at the time of this article being published is currently subject to release after Apple’ software team’s review.

Read more about this at Mochasoft’s VNC page

Bling Bling … Bling Bling … Hello? – It’s a Gold Plated iPhone !

In other iPhone news… GoldStriker from the UK specialises in unique high-fashion mobile phone adaptations in 24ct Gold, 18ct Rose Gold and Platinum Plated products.

Goldstriker gives you “the opportunity to express your individuality, and stand out from the crowd” – all at a small price of course.

An iPhone (Generation One) 16Gb version in 24ct Gold will set you back around $599.95 (approx. R4620) to have the Bezel and rear Apple logo coated in gold.

I have seen that the company has a bit of material on its website (accurate at the time of publication) of the iPhone 3g, but these links don’t appear to be working, which I can only imagine has something to do with Apples in-store activation policy, which requires contract users to activate their contracts in store when they buy an iPhone.

Lets hear your thoughts… Has it all gone too far, is this too pretentious? or is it really a way to stand out from the crowd?
Sign-up to comment.

Jonny Gladwell (New Zealand) aged 22, has become the 1st person to own a new iPhone 3g, he had spent 60 hours lined up outside the Vodafone store to have the privileged and told reports he was going home to put it on charge and get some much needed sleep.

Initial reports from the UK suggest that the excitement explosion over the new iPhone 3g was bigger than they had envisaged with Steve Alder, iPhone director for the “O2″ Up carrier reportedly saying, “We’ve seen the demand the 1st time, but we were even (more) blown away by this demand”.

Japan Tokyo have iPhones on sale for $215 (Approximate R1650) for an 8Gb version and the 16Gb version on sale for $320 (Approximately R2440) these prices being on average around 7% more than early indications.

There is still no official word out from either Vodacom or Apple on the release of the iPhone for local South African markets. We have been in touch with the Public Relations personnel for the various companies and have been assured an update the moment there is one.

iTunes, the online “apple shop” for music content and more recently video content is now set to offer application content too for purchase and download. Not surprising that application delivery will probably be the initial vector into the market for the new iPhone 3g through the iTunes store which is now in its early stages in South Africa.

I believe it wont be long now before music and video content is also avablable for purchase and download through the South African iTunes Store.

• First and foremost (to ease us into the bad) here is a bittersweet problem -
  With bandwidth being as expensive as it is in South Africa – One really wonders what the overall total cost of ownership would be for running an iPhone in this country.

  Recent international figures indicate that consumer usage of bandwidth may be up to 30 times higher than on a regular phone.
  All that ooohing and ahh’ing over a rich web experience and the host of available things to do on the phone would undoubtedly lead to more usage and may result in overall prices.

• The prospect of having GPS functionality on your phone is great, but the truth is that the A-GPS technology that is present in the new iPhone (a technology which factors in hot-spot and cell phone tower location data into positioning calculations) is only really as good as the information the iPhone is being fed. Does Vodacom have this functionality present on their cell towers, and if so, how wide-spread is it?Then there are the maps, which are a separate issue altogether, what map data will the phone make use of, can it be updated, would there be a choice of 3rd party mapping, and how complete are those maps?
  

• On the iPhone (1st Gen) – There was also an apparent issue with connecting to a laptop via bluetooth, to use the phone as a dial-up modem for laptop surfing. A few hacks were discussed to make this a reality. Has that issue been resolved in the iPhone 3g?The new specifications are still reporting to have “Bluetooth support for headsets only” – This isn’t nearly enough of a standard if the iPhone wants to compete with the other vendors in this arena.
• The battery life is not actually as long as it reportedly is the iPhone specs informational pages. Some people see the iPhone as an expensive teenagers toy, whilst others hope to embrace the host of features it offers to use it as a successful business tool. How will the limited battery life effect this?The battery is also not user-replaceable and this could lead to more expensive ownership in the long-term.
• Video Camera & MMS – There is still no video recording, and the only apparent way to send images from the phone is via email, and not by MMS like some of the other phone vendors allow.

Some people were “put-out” by how quickly the iPhone 3g was put out after the iPhone 2g – My gut tells me that Apple have done this new version of phone largely in response to the wide spread jail-breaking of the 1st generation iPhone, and in an attempt to drive market penitration in many more countries. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if a 3rd generation of iPhone was to hit the shelves a year and a half – two years from now…

For all of you looking to buy the new 3g Iphone, here is a sneak peek of one such unit, which was somehow leaked to a member of the public.
The picture shown above shows the box contents, whilst the centre image shows widescreen internet browsing of the new iPhone 3g.

Below, a “special” clip for removing the SIM card.

I know this is probably close to being “in poor taste”, but who is to say what you can or cannot find funny.

This brilliant comic was done by the guys over at JoyOfTech.com – Thanks guys!

The accelerometer of the new Apple iPhone 3G is able to measure motion on three axes (I sure hope that’s the plural of axis) and developers can use the data communicated by the iPhone to write applications that make use of how you operate and move the phone.

This opens up a whole new host of avenues for developers to make games that immerse the gamer in a real-time struggle with the phone to bop and weave around racetracks and to avoid baddies and danger.

For those of you who are interested in the more serious aspect of the accelerometer, the iPhone’s calculator function has been improved over the previous generation of iPhone where users can now tilt the iPhone sideways in order to make use of a scientific calculator function.
There are obviously many more benifits, like being able to view pictures according to their portrait / landscape aspect ratio and the benifits of using a wider view when making use of websites.