Following the rumour that O2 would offer the iPhone for free to customers yesterday, they’ve now confirmed this and announced several other things. Here’s the details…
- O2 to Launch iPhone 3G in the UK on July 11(as previously announced by Apple)
- Available on consumer tariffs, business tariffs, and Pay As You Go (!)
Pay As You Go is fantastic news, and I wasn’t expecting it despite the rumours. No price has been announced for the phone on PAYG just yet, but we’ll keep you informed.
The price for the 8gb phone on a £30/month tarrif will be £99 (pretty good deal, we guess), but if you choose a higher £45/month tarrif you’ll get the 8gb model for free.
The price for the 16gb phone is £159 on the £30 and £35 tariffs, £59 on the £45 tariff and it will be free on the £75 tariff.
Based on the prices outlined above, we’d guess that a Pay As You Go version would cost around ~£199 for the 8gb model, and ~£249 for the 16gb model.
TechCrunch UK have apparently had a source from O2 confirm that the 3G iPhone will be free on an 18 month contract to new O2 customers, but £100 for existing customers. This is not officially confirmed by the carrier, so take it with a pinch of salt – it sounds pretty realistic, though.
Hopefully there will be a Pay As You Go version on the phone, or at the very least, some cheaper tariffs.
Finally – the second generation iPhone has been announced and people can finally stop spreading rumours!
Here’s the feature list we’ve all been waiting for…
- Full Plastic Back (with thinner edges)
- GPS w/ Google Maps integration
- Better battery – two hours extra talk time, seven hours of video, 24 hours of audio.
The iPhone 3G is being released in over 70 countrys.
The new model will cost $199 for the 8gb version, and 16gb will cost $299.
July worldwide release! Woo!
That’s everything that we know for now folks – we’ll update as we get prices for the UK and other countrys.
Yep, Mobile Me was real after all! It’s basically Microsoft Exchange, but for normal people; all of the features are here… Push email, contacts and calanders, as well as a ton of other little things. For example, say you have a date in your calander on your Mac… If you change it on the Mac, it’ll automatically update on your iPhone. That’s basically how the whole thing works – pretty cool!
There will also be a web based application where you can access everything from any web browser.
Update on browser application: Very impressive AJAX application, looks just like a desktop application. There are web based versions of all the typical apps; iCal, mail, etc. Changes made on the web are automatically pushed to all other devices (Macs, iPhone, etc).
There will be a 60 day free trial of the service.
Mobile Me replaces .Mac completely – current members will automatically upgraded to the new service.
More details as they come.
Live streaming TV is something almost every iPhone owner would love to have – it probably would even be the killer feature for a lot of people. Well, it looks like streaming TV on the iPhone will soon become a reality thanks to non other than Sling Media.
Sling have secretly been working on a native application for the iPhone which will allow SlingBox owners to stream live TV to the device (as well as the iPod Touch) – sounds pretty good to us, especially if you already own a SlingBox. The native application will feature an iPhone style horitzontal scroller (think coverflow, but for TV remote buttons) for control.
There is currently no firm release date.
