The problem was a missing base SDK, the file required to debug and run the application. To fix this was relatively simple. Go to Project > Edit project settings > Build > Base SDK and change that value to iPhone Device 4.0. Next, go to the dropdown box in the top left corner in the main window and select ‘simulator’ below device. Also make sure that ‘Debug’ is selected over ‘Release’.

This should allow the project to run in the iPhone simulator, simulating iOS 4.0. Don’t forget however, that if you want full functionality for your app, it’s worth debugging on an older version of the OS too (I’m going back to 3.2 which is what Xcode recommends) in order to make sure it works across all platforms! It’s worth also mentioning that this issue should only occur with projects created before upgrading Xcode, as the new Xcode will point to the new SDK’s by default, where as older projects will still be looking for the old (now non-existant 3.1.3). Now all I have to do is build this killer app!

Either way, Apple have responded by claiming there was a glitch in the original software regarding the signal bars, and that an update to come soon will make the signal bars more accurate and representative of the actual signal strength. To be honest it all seems a little suspect!

But all the blame can’t be put on Apple, as mobile reception can easily be boosted by carriers. For example, back when Chris Moyles was climbing kilimanjaro back in 2008 he reportedly called O2 to moan about his signal to his iPhone. O2 responded by ‘Boosting’ the signal, allowing him to have a flawless conversation with the BBC radio 1 team! Now, obviously O2 and other carriers can’t be expected to do this for every customer, but surely something should be said to the carriers as well as Apple? Scratch that, it seems AT&T are being sued too!

It started the night before, with an early night sleep followed by an early (5.00am) start. After a quick shower I jumped in the car and drove into my local town to stand outside the O2 shop in anticipation. I went prepared, with headphones and the complete ‘Inbetweeners’ box set downloaded from the night before. I got there at about 5.25am, to be greeted by a group of 7 people (6 male, 1 female) who had been there from as early as 4.00am!

As we stood and chatted for a while about the new phone, Apple/O2 marketing tactics and other things I felt part of a specialist (if not a little geeky) community – The elite and dedicated! A queue soon started to form, and by 6.00am there were about two dozen people behind me (I was 8th in line). Here’s a breakdown of the stats for my particular O2 shop;

people @4.00am – 1 (first arrival)
people @5.30am – 8
people @6.00am – 30ish
people @7.00am – 100ish
people @8.02am – 182 (official figure)

So, after making my way past the private security and into the O2 shop I looked at the handset for a few minutes and was then seated to go through the process. I soon got away and exited the O2 shop to be applauded by the ever-growing line of people (a lot of which I guess would be disappointed). One of the O2 guru’s said they had approximately 50 handsets in stock, which was a lot more than the anticipated 5 x 32GB and 10 x 16GB which they expected. Never the less over 2/3 of the line would go away empty handed.

I guess that’s it; pretty simple really. Yes, it was a major geeky thing to do, but I now get to enjoy another brilliant product from Apple as one of only a select few in my area and indeed the UK – now just got to find someone to try ‘FaceTime’ out with.

The UK prices are without any data-plans and so a pay as you go micro-Sim could be used. We will have to wait and see what prices O2, Vodafone and Orange put out when they make their upgrade/pre-order pages live (hopefully soon!)

Update 1: It seems there are a lot of complaints about the US pre-order page timing out when customers get to the ‘AT&T’ tariff selection page due to high volume of traffic to the page. So far, it would seem, only a handful of US iPhone poachers have managed to secure their iPhone 4!

Update 2: Vodafone have had their prices leaked for the iPhone 4: Read the Guardian article for more details, but it looks like the handset will cost between £90 and £280 on an 18 month contract, depending on the tariff you choose (£40 per month [600 mins / unlimited texts] makes the handset £180). Click the thumbnail to the right to see the 24 and 18 month tariffs from Vodafone for the Black 32GB device (Presumably the white 32GB costs will be identical).

Update 3: Orange has just announced their iPhone 4 tariffs! Unlimited texts on any 24 month contract, but £570 for the pay as you go handsets, which is £70 more than apple are offering directly! Take a look at the contracts HERE

Update 4: O2 have also updated their prices, including the handset price. With a similar tariff price (£40) on an 18 month contract you get 600 minutes (300 less than Orange) but unlimited texts! The handset cost for this tariff is £209. Check out all the tariffs HERE

But what’s it all about? Job’s has claimed there are over 100 new features, but pointed out just a couple during the Keynote.

Beautiful new looks: The iPhone is 24% slimmer than the 3GS, at just 9.5mm! It’s got a front facing camera and a glass screen with stainless steel surroundings! It also has an LED flash on the back as well as UMTS and GMS!

Retina Display: Over 4x the amount of pixels in the same 3.5″ 960×640 screen as the 3GS! It’s PPI (Pixels per inch) is a whoping 326, which is beyonhd the maximum that a human eye can handle! Wow. That means super clarity through the new glass front. Movies, photos and text will never be the same! Once you see it for real there is no turning back, according to Jobs! It has set the standard for the next 7 years.

A4 Chip: This is a bit of a geeky one, but basically it’s an [apple] in-house processor which is currently in the iPad. It’s quicker, less power hungry and a lot smaller (hence the thinner design). Job’s claimed up to 300 hours of standby time and 40 hours of music! The 4th generation phone also houses 802.11n connectivity and quad-band HSDPA/HSUPA. Basically it mean’s better signal and talk quality.

Gyroscope: This allows 6 axis motion sensing just like the Sony PS3 controllers, but more precise. It also has new locational API’s for even more precise location monitoring. From the reaction of the crowd it’s hard to imagine how fluid and smooth the rotation of objects are. There is also a proximity and Ambient light sensor now added to the existing accelerometer and compas.

New Camera System: With a 5 megapixel camera on the back, 5x digital zoom and backlit LED flash the iPhone is finally a camera to be proud of. Jobs said he was more concerned with picture quality than megapixel stats, and that was shown in the quality photos! It also takes HD Videos, at 720p and 30fps! iMovie for the iPhone is the new software developed specifically, which incorperates titles, transitions and many other features recognised from the ‘Final Cut Pro’ software.

iPhone OS 4 is now IOS4: The iPhone OS is now titled iOS4, which incorporates multi-tasking and over 100 new user features including folders and a unified inbox for email. There are tons of new features on iOS4 which will further enhance the operation of the phone’s user interface. iBooks is just one of these features, as seen previously on the iPad! Another is iAds (coming July 1st) which are like Google ads built into applications. Developers can get 60% of the revenue back into their accounts resulting in cheaper apps to be developed. IOS4 will be available from June 21st 2010.

Finally, video calling is available via the front facing camera and is “no longer a dream” according to Jobs. The final trick up his sleeve is called ‘FaceTime’. It only works over WiFi in 2010 as work needs to be done with providers.

So, that’s it! Comes in black and white, and early indications seem to point towards a cheaper overall handset ($299 for a 2 year contract with 32Gb model). AT&T are also offering up to 6 months early upgrading, which will hopefully be echoed into the UK’s market!

They go on sale on 24th June, 2010 in the ‘initial batch of launch countries’ (including USA and UK!). I guess now we wait for O2 and Orange to start disclosing some sale details over the next few days!

Another successful Keynote, well done Apple!

To keep track of what’s going on during the hour long keynote be sure to hit some of these links;

MacRumoursLive.com, Engadget, Live Gizmodo, iPhonealley.com and theAppleBlog.
Of cause if you use twitter you can also keep up to date by following ‘@macrumors’ or ‘@arsWWDC’, and I’m sure there will be some #WWDC based hashtags too!

So, the keynote kicks off at 9.00am hawaii time on June 7th 2010, but what about for those of us not sitting under a palm tree sipping on a coconut? (Can you tell I’m jelous?).

• 10:00AM – Pacific
• 11:00AM – Mountain
• 12:00PM – Central
• 01:00PM – Eastern
• 06:00PM – London
• 07:00PM – Paris
• 10.30 PM – Mumbai

All I need now is to get home from work, turn the heating up, sit back in nothing but my pants and enjoy all the marketing keywords that Job’s can throw at me! Oh and note to self – buy some coconut juice!

Depending on when you bought your iPhone will depend on the tariff that you will be paying. I was previously on the £35 per month contract, which gave me 600 minutes and 500 texts, and then used to pay an additional £7 per month for an extra 500 texts. This came to a total of £52 per month after the addition of insurance.

So, here is the punch line. I’m paying £2 less per month, with the same amount of minutes, data (edge / 3G) and unlimited texts! This is because O2 have brought out a new set of iPhone pay monthly tariffs for new customers. You can see how they stack up here. All I did was ring and tell O2 that I wanted to switch tariffs. There are no hidden charges, no contract renewals and the same billing date as previously.

A word of warning though, I had to go into settings > general > reset > reset network settings as I was getting sporadic data connections, but it’s all fine now! It’s a better deal all around, and you pay less than the old tariffs.

O2 said that they conveniently don’t have enough resources to call there iPhone customers and tell them of the new cheaper tariff changes. So, if you want to give this a go, or talk to an O2 iPhone customer support person just call 402 from your iPhone handset!

[poll id=5]

Anyway, the people at PC World told me that they had basically quote “…Stopped selling the 13″ model due to lack of stock country wide”. I asked why the lack of stock, when such product was in such high demand, to which I got a shrug of the shoulders.

Now, normally I would drop it at that point, but when walking out of the shop I couldn’t help but wonder why Apple would (assuming a little here) produce less of the 13″ model than the 15″ (more conventional) model, as they both contained exactly the same hardware (minus the screen, of cause).

Could it be to sell more of the higher models? No, because there is a 17″ powerhouse also on sale!
Could it be due to lack of 13″ screens? No, because both the 13″ and 15″ screens are produced on site at the same factory using the same resources.
Could it be to promote another product? Possibly, but this just seemed like bad marketing at a time of such high demand.

And then I stumbled across what I think is most likely the answer. The iPad. With its 9″ screen, it is very similar to the small notebook that Apple sell – with almost identical processing power, resolution and alike. My thoughts are that perhaps they have halted production on the 13″ model in preparation (i.e. to build demand even higher) for the iPad.

It all made sense, as the PC world sales person had said the regular shipment had ceased late February. Bingo!

HOLD THE iPHONE! – I got home and rang Apple, only to discover that they had plenty of 13″ models in stock – Could it be that my focus should be on PC World’s marketing, instead of Apple?

Damn you PC World, and please don’t file a law suit, Apple UK!