iPhone 4 launch day in UK success

On June 24, 2010 in Apple, iPhone.
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So, it’s Thursday 24th June, 2010. That date will be in many happy Apple fanboys (and girls) heads as being the day the new iPhone 4 came out. Here’s my story on how I got my hands on one!

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.

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iPhone 4 pre-orders now live

On June 15, 2010 in Apple, iPhone.
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So, 9.00am Tuesday 15th June 2010 – The iPhone pre-orders go live in UK and US. The UK prices are £499 for the 16GB and £599 for the 32GB versions. The black model is the only colour available to pre-order at present, with the white one coming at some point in the future.

iphone 4 pre-ordersThe 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!

iPhone 4 Vodafone TariffUpdate 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

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iPhone 4 Officially Announced at WWDC 2010

On June 7, 2010 in Apple, Development, iPhone, New Technology.
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So, the iPhone 4 has literally just been announced! (In fact, I’m reading the live feed as I type this!!). Job’s described the new iPhone 4 as the biggest leap since the 1st generation iPhone back in 2007.

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!

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