(I received this picture in an e-mail from an anonymous Apple Phone Show listener who spied Andy, Chris and I recording episode 37 of the Apple Phone Show at the Macworld booth.)
After a pretty jam-packed week, the 2008 Macworld Expo drew to a close yesterday.
Chris Breen’s iPhone Super Sessions were well-attended and both Andy and Chris’ iPhone books drew some interest.
The iPhone news from Apple and the third-party vendors at this year’s show was both good and bad. The good - well of course the 1.1.3 update. This is a significant update, allowing a level of customization previously unavailable on the iPhone. And the new Google Maps triangulation feature was a brilliant move. It works better and faster than any cell phone GPS I have ever seen. It also offers the advantage of working indoors, something no cellphone GPS can do. There’s no satellite acquisition time and no battery drain. The new web clips are also brilliant. Gmail works better than ever on the iPhone and the new multi-recipient SMS is also cool.
But that’s it. No announcement on the 3G or 16-gig models. I had previously reliable sources assuring me that the 16-gig phone would be announced. Oh well, we will probably hear more about that in a special Apple news event soon.
I was also astonished at the lack of new or exciting iPhone accessories. Yes there were cases - lots of them. And frankly, most were utter crap. I literally threw away six of the test cases I received during the show. They were so bad, I couldn’t think of anything else to do with them.
There were some weird contraptions that would let you affix the iPhone to a hat so you could watch it like a TV - problem is you also end up walking into polls.
There was a cute little tripod stand for iPhone made by Jobo - but not yet available.
Otherwise, I just didn’t see anything that wowed me. Maybe I missed something - if so, please leave a comment below to tell me what it is. After days of walking the show floor, I came to the conclusion that the iPhone accessory market needs some time to mature.
Is it not 1.1.3 as teh upgrade version.
If I am mistaken I apologize but I was sure that the update was 1.1.3 not 1.13.
Thanks for teh news, keep it up.
I caught a couple of shots of you guys too, Scott:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13788863@N08/page2/
Yes Stavmar we made a type - just like you did (teh is the)
ya I think apple will give us little something in feburary. That I hope is super cool
You end up walking into poles? or into pollsters? After all, the Feb 5th primary is coming up soon.
Why a 16 GB iPhone doesn’t exist.
It’s the chip. Look at the teardowns of the 16GB iPod touch - it uses TWO 8GB chips. Look at the teardowns of the iPhone - it only has space for the one chip for storage.
If you truly want to predict the emergence of the 16GB iPhone and look like a genius, look up the 8 GB chip datasheet and pay attention when the manufacturer announces a 16GB chip. Until then quit being dissapointed that apple hasn’t pulled it out of their orchard by now. I’m a fan of the show, keep up the good work guys and gals. Cheers, Jared
The show didn’t exhibit a large variety of products, but I enjoyed all of the live podcasts and seminars. That’s what made it all worthwhile to me, and where I spent most of my time.
Jared I don’t have any desire to “look” like a genius. And I didn’t want to PREDICT anything. I reported information gleaned from a previously reliable source.
I’ll be disappointed (despite your assertion I shouldn’t be) every time a source lets me down.
And not to bust your bubble, but the 16 gig chip already exists.
Scott,
Indeed. It looks like Samsung’s 16GB chip (that was originally announced in 2005 and supposed to have entered production in 1Q07) may finally be in production. I’m fairly certain the chip is K9GAG08U0M. (Google for more info.)
Unfortunately, given the margins on NAND Flash, the fab houses want to stay at full capacity. At one point last year, Toshiba was sold out. With the rumors of the next gen iPhone being pushed to mid/late summer, the fab houses are trying to synchronize production with demand. Let’s hope the next gen iPhone gets here soon though.
Cheers,
Jared
[…] SECTION8JOE wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIt works better and faster than any cell phone GPS I have ever seen. It also offers the advantage of working indoors, something no cellphone GPS can do. There’s no satellite acquisition time and no battery drain. … […]
An improvement that has gone unnoticed so far (at least for what I can say) in the 1.1.3 update is in how the iphone handles the timer. I use the iphone to listen to an audiobook (audible of course) to help me to fall asleep but, previously, I always had to reset the timer onto “sleep” because it was automatically set on “marimba.” As a result, I was woken up a couple of times by the phone because I forgot to change the setting and the iphone decided to let me know my mistake. Now, thanks to the update, it keeps the settings I used the last time and there is no need for me to change it unless I want to. It’s the small things that make Apple my favorite computer company…
I do like that, Adrian - I’ve been woken up plenty a time much earlier than I wanted to due to that.
One thing I really want is the ability to read show notes on my podcasts. I do really miss that from my Nano, and seems like on a device such as this they’d have figured out. That, and hot-downloading of new podcasts right on the phone when they become available. However, using the trick from the Internationally Beloved Technology Columnist ™, even on edge if I use the podcast feed I can make podcast “radio” in my car.
Overall though, I’m happy… just today the triangulation locator helped me. It is way faster than GPS, and gave me the answers I was looking for more accurately.
The only drawback is that it doesn’t talk back, so a navigator in the shotgun seat of the vehicle is necessary unless you pull over… but considering I got it for free, I’m a happy camper.
Scott, did you check out the iPhone iV by Fastmac? That’s a good accessory that won iLounge Best of Show. You should get a review unit…
Grrrr…. me hates post spam. The 16 Gig is a single chip? That’s pretty cool.
FWIW I think we should drop the second dot from software version. 1.13 is 8 bits shorter than 1.1.3. Such a waste of bandwidth. Now if my iPhone had HSDPA, I’d be all about excess bits, but on EDGE, I’m all for human-language compression.