The 3g iPhone will be available July 11th for $199 (8GB) and $299 (16GB)
It looks like Apple’s surprisingly good cover up job on the 3G iPhone is finally done for. CrunchGear has their hands on some very realistic shots demonstrating, among other things, video chatting, a Product (Red) model, Exchange, iChat (for Windows) and other little tidbits. It also includes definitive, once and for all proof that the iPhone 3g does include… 3g.
Updated with new, real photos.
I stumbled upon this model, the Mio C230, while shopping for something else at a Best Buy store.
It was marked on clearance from $199 to $126, which seemed like a pretty good price. I played with the in store model, and then went home to read reviews. I had a tough time finding any substantial reviews outside the mass produced Cnet page, but Amazon offered some insight and the opinions were fairly positive.
I decided that along with the 12% Reward Zone coupon burning a hole in my pocket, that this was the time to buy. I ended up with the Mio C230 GPS for $111 out the door after the coupon.
My initial reactions were poor, but it was due to my own incompetence. I couldn’t get the suction cup to stick to my window – until I realized that you had to pull the black lever on the back of the suction unit to allow the cup to grasp on, then close it to lock. I also couldn’t stand the interface, but that was because the unit does not default to cockpit mode; rather to an annoying fly-through.
Once I had a chance to sit down and learn the unit, I liked it more and more. Its small enough to fit in your pocket but the screen is big enough to mount on the window or dash and still be able to see it fine. The text to speech is great – the volume is troublesome to adjust, but loud and clear once its set to what you want.
The directions are generally good, but I’ve had a few spots of trouble. If you’re going on a street that is slightly curved throughout, the Mio C230 really has trouble. I’ve found that it “recalculated route” (you’ll grow to hate that phrase) over and over even as I followed its directions. Luckily, I knew where I was; but if this had been in an unfamiliar city, the result would not have been good.
The bottom line - most of the time, it works fine. Its a helpful tool by any means, and this particular unit is not bad. The SD card slot is great for those who want to expand its fairly meager inventory of POI (Point of Interest) or add music, pictures or games to the unit. I would not trust it for mission critical applications (taxi, fleet, trucker) nor would I recommend it to someone like Hertz, because it just lacks the polish to be ready for everyone. If you are willing to learn it and tolerate some oddities, this might be the perfect budget GPS for you.
By clicking the image link below, you will be taken to Amazon.com’s page for the Mio C230 GPS. By using that link, you are supporting Taylorwilsdon.com and allowing us to continue bringing free reviews!
It sold out pretty quick, but an eBay member found a way to get his hands on two of these hotly anticipated phones.
Click the picture to check out the auction, if it hasn’t been pulled. Update: the eBay auction has been pulled.
Have you ever thought to yourself - gee, how can I make my iPhone look even more nerdy? Well, you’re in luck. Griffin is killing two birds with one stone with their Clearboost iPhone case, which allegedly improves cell signal while only making you look a little lot dorky.
iLounge spent a week with the little trinket and gave it a respectible B+ rating, citing, “Over the course of five days of testing, we used a ClearBoost-covered iPhone indoors and outdoors alongside one or two iPhones without a ClearBoost case, trying various locations that were known to have great, good, or poor reception. We found that the antenna boosting performance displayed some fairly consistent characteristics: it is almost always a net positive, but it will not be a panacea for those suffering from complete service outages, and under some circumstances, it will do nothing.”
You can give the full review a read here
Nobody outside of Apple’s core group of bigwigs and monocle-wearing Monopoly men knows exactly when the 3G iPhone will be released, but Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey has already been 1 for 1 with his surprisingly accurate prediction that the current generation iPhone will receive a simple size bump in Feburary. The relevance here is that with a strong track record, there may be significant weight to his claim that a new iPhone in the second half of 2008 “[will] have a similar form factor as the current version although it could have a different look and will probably include 3G capability.” That sounds fairly vauge, but he was the first to accuratly predict the update and comes from a reputable ilk, so perhaps there is some basing to his statement.
The June date is simply placed due to its proximity to Apple’s WWDC convention, where they unveiled the shipping date for the original iPhone. Many other sources are claiming a June date, so it is shaping up to be both a fairly reasonable estimate and a very likely outcome.
To summarize, you have about two months to sell your old iPhone on eBay before the 3G version comes rumbling along to kill your resale value.
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