O2 ignores existing iPhone users with the all new iPhone

Apple just announced their newest iPhone - the iPhone 3G S and is due to launch on June 19th.

The S stands for Speed supposedly, which feels more Microsoft then Apple in style. No that isn’t a complement. It also seems a bit light on new features if you already have an iPhone as you can download the updated 3.0 software using the latest version of iTunes on June 17th (more instructions here).

If you do that you’ll miss out on a longer battery life, a 3MP camera, hands free voice contol and the ability to record video. The battery life is the same as the previous version when using 3G but is approximately a third longer using WiFi, listening to audio or watching video.

Existing O2 iPhone users are out of luck this time though. Whereas previously there was an option for existing iPhone users to upgrade to the new version by extending the length of their contract to O2, this time the only path to get the new iPhone is to pay out the remainder of your contract.

Most of the comments on Twitter when searching for O2 and iPhone are complaining about this state of affairs.

My take: most people will not pay and Apple could stand to take a hit. If Twitter is anything to go by, O2 is taking a bit of a hit to its brand as well. It is certainly not winning any plaudits

One thing is certain though, when those who bought the iPhone 3G when it launched come to the end of their contract (about 6 months from now) the mobile industry could be a different beast altogether in the UK. There is no Palm Pre today and the Google phone (G1) has been slated for its hardware (though not its software). In the next 6 months though, the Palm Pre should be available in the UK (on either  O2(!) or Vodafone) and there are supposed to be a large number of new Google phones (18+!) hitting the market by the end of the year.

Interesting times in the mobile phone market..

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for the ultra geeks amongst you – this guy made his iphone walk!

I love the iPhone – grudgingly of course as it is an Apple product – it really has moved the mobile phone forward and everyone else has been left scrambling to catch up. Both Microsoft and Nokia are seriously struggling. But there are still major gaps.

One of the toughest things for Apple, is that it is trying to target two very different markets: business and consumer. It has had the consumer aspect tied up with its interface, music and phone capabilities (though it needs a better camera). On the business side, the simple support for Microsoft Exchange has helped it to quickly penetrate the business user. The number of iPhones in our office has rocketed and is now the most popular phone in the office – beating Microsoft phones.

But there is a downside – it syncs Email/Calendar/Contacts but does not sync Tasks and Notes (unlike mobile phones which use Windows Mobile).

There are some 3rd party solutions out there:

KeyTasks – Good interface but it does not seem to sync properly and there is no category support.

TaskData – It does not have a great interface and again no category support.

Surprisingly there is no Exchange Notes sync app that I am aware of. There is however a great app out there that provides this funcitonality (without the Exchange Sync). It is called Evernote. It allows you to type out notes, record voice clips, capture photos and even has some basic to do functionality. The only thing it really needs is Exchange sync support – and possibly the ability to record video clips but I guess we are waiting for Apple to support that first.

I was in Atlanta last week and one of the single most annoying things was that the meetings in my calendar stuck with the UK time zone – so my 2pm meetings shifted out to 7pm (as the UK is 5 hours ahead of Atlanta).

I found the culprit in Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars and then scrolling down to the item Time Zone Support under Calendar. When switched on (mine was by default) this basically made your calendar show event dates and times according to the time zone selected for the calendar. I want my times to shift according to the time zone I am in so switching this item off produces that effect.

Happy days

Given its GPS functionality and superior mapping software, the lack of turn by turn GPS applications on the iPhone was a glaring omission. Especially as Windows Mobiles have had this functionality for years now.

Well it looks like that will quickly be rectified with the release of version 2.1 of the iPhone. This version will allow developers to do exactly that – what is the betting developers at TomTom and Garmin are busy downloading the latest developer’s version right now?