Somebody  from MobileGuerilla claiming to have found the first photos from an Apple iPhone on the web.

He searched for “taken with an apple iphone” on Google for well over a month now and finally found a set of Flickr images tagged with the phrase. The phrase is automatically generated by Flickr based on the EXIF data from the camera itself.

The Flickr account however belongs to an individual who can be tracked down to a LinkedIn profile which reveals that they are a Program Manager at Apple in the Consumer Electronics industry.
 

Interesting EXIF info from one of the original images, submitted by Bill Baron:

* Camera Make = Apple
* Camera Model = iPhone
* Picture Orientation = rotated 90° (6)
* Lens F-Number/F-Stop = 14/5 = F2.80
* Color Space = sRGB (1)
* Image Width = 1600
* Image Height = 1200
* Unknown tag: Tagnum = 0xa500 ===> data = 11/5
* Compression = JPEG compression (6)

                                                                                                                                 From Mac Rumors

Posted on April 29th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Photos | No Comments »

The iPhone, as Jobs proudly dubbed the device to thunderous applause ,will be three devices in one: a cell phone, a wide-screen iPod with touch controls, and an Internet communications device. Cingular is the lucky carrier (apparently the companies have patched up their relationship following the Motorola Rokr bust).

We haven’t gotten to hold an iPhone yet, but we’re just as excited as the next person to finally write down our first thoughts, and we won’t sleep until we get our hands on one. Check back near the iPhone’s June release date for our full review.

Availability
As has been widely rumored for months, Cingular (soon to be AT&T) will be the sole iPhone carrier. Both Apple and Cingular stores will sell the phone starting in June. Europe will get it in the fourth quarter, and Asia will have to wait until next year. Finally, the U.S. gets something first!

Good thing we have a few months to save our pennies. The 4GB model will cost $499 with a two-year contract and $599 for the 8GB version (also with a two-year contract). Again, that’s a bit high when compared to other carrier-supported music phones such as the Sony Ericsson W810i, particularly since you’re locked into a iPhone contract with one carrier.

Design
To be successful, an Apple phone has to sport an iconic Apple design–the Rokr’s dull design did it no favors. Fortunately, Apple fulfilled our expectations this time with a smooth design and an innovative interface. Say goodbye to traditional cell phone buttons–this phone is all touch screen, all the time.

With only one hardware control (a “home” key), iPhone’s real estate is dominated by a huge, 3.5-inch display. From what we call tell, the device looks beautiful with a resolution of 320×480x160 pixels per inch (the highest iPod resolution yet, according to Jobs). The videos and photos look great, and we love that the “smart” screen shifts automatically to a landscape orientation when you start to play a video. One giant touch screen controls the phone, and no stylus is needed (”Yuck,” Jobs said). Use your fingers to type messages and e-mails on an onscreen keyboard–Jobs promises onscreen typing will be faster than on a standard smart-phone keypad, but we’ll believe that theory when we actually get a device in our hands. (And speaking of yuck, what about all that finger grease?) But we admit the scrolling feature looks especially promising as Jobs had only to slide his finger across the display.

Of course, such a large display makes for a large phone: the iPhone measures 4.5×2.4×0.46 inches. No, it won’t slide into smaller pockets, but it joins the similarly sized Palm Treo 750and its weight (4.8 ounces) is mostly standard for a handset of this size. Of course, the slim profile is noteworthy as well. We’re a tad surprised Apple has jumped on the thin phone bandwagon, but trim design, after all, is the cell phone trend of the day. As Jobs made clear, iPhone is thinner than both the Motorola Q and the Samsung BlackJack.

Features
Though we’re pleased Apple made it a quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone, we’re disappointed the iPhone’s data support tops out at 2.5G EDGE networks. Considering the multimedia-friendly feature set, the omission of any 3G compatibility is a bit bizarre, particularly since Cingular now offers UMTS and HSDPA.

We wouldn’t normally spend much time on voice mail, but Apple pulled a new trick out of its hat with Visual Voicemail. Rather than forcing you to call your voice mail and waiting to browse through multiple messages to hear the one you want, Visual Voicemail displays all the messages you have in a list, similar to an e-mail in-box. All you have to do is select the message you want and listen away.

It’s tough to truly evaluate the iPhone’s capability as a music and video player without some hands-on experience, but a cursory look at the product shots and details gives us some idea; that, and the fact it’s closely related to the highly rated iPod music player iPod.In short, the iPhone is sure to offer an easy-to-use media playback interface, and the breadth of content offered by iTunes (its compatible service) ensures you’ll never be wanting for music or video files. Of course, the touch-screen interface will take some getting used to for users who are accustomed to the iPod’s Clickwheel.

The iPhone, which will be offered in 4GB and 8GB capacities (flash memory), doesn’t have any restrictions on how much of that memory you choose to fill up with media content–no 100-track limit, as is the case with the Motorola Rokr. The convergence device also takes a step away from its iPod brethren by offering a built-in mic for audio recordings. And unlike most cell phones, the iPhone offers a standard 3.5mm audio jack, which will work with all mainstream stereo headphones. There’s no FM radio but that’s nothing new from Apple.

One thing is for certain: the 3.5-inch wide-screen display is much better for full-length movie viewing than the 5G iPod’s comparatively paltry 2.5-inch screen. And Apple’s new partnership with Paramount really helps to fill out the movie category in iTunes. If there’s anything we have to complain about, it’s that the video player isn’t offered as a standalone device, sans the phone capability, (which is sure to mark up the premium on the price). Of course, if that happens, we’d like to see something above the max 8GB of memory. iTunes content and video load on the phone via a USB computer connection–unfortunately, as far as we know there are no wireless downloads–and the iPhone comes with an iPod connector.

Beyond the music player, the iPhone runs on Mac OS X and promises a 2-megapixel camera, a photo-management tool that rotates the display for landscape photos (like with videos), support for Google Maps, conference calling, a speakerphone, and text and multimedia messaging. We imagine there will be personal organizer applications as well, but Jobs kept mum on such fine details. Connectivity options also look promising with stereo Bluetooth (thankfully), Wi-Fi (a huge plus), POP3 and IMAP4 e-mail, and a Safari Web browser. The free push Yahoo e-mail app looks especially cool since we won’t have to wait for syncing with a PC.

The iPhone also comes with some unique sensors that detect how you’re using the phone and change the display accordingly. A proximity sensor knows when you bring the phone to your ear and then dims the screen and shuts off the touch screen. The ambient light sensor adjusts brightness and saves power, and the accelerometer knows when to switch between landscape and portrait orientation.

Outlook
After months of iPhone speculation, we were sick of the device even before it came out. But now, well, we have to admit it’s quite lovely. The vivid display is especially attractive, and we like the sleek, minimalist design. The touch screen may involve a learning curve, but we’re excited to try it out. The iPod functionality will no doubt draw many, and in particular, we’re glad to see world phone support, the Yahoo e-mail app, stereo Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.

On the downside, we were hoping for wireless iTunes music downloads. And it’s too bad Apple stopped short of 3G support. Also, we’re hoping that Apple introduces a standalone touch-screen iPod without the phone element as not everyone will want a convergence device. And here’s the biggest caveat: Phones are only as good as the calls they make, so we’ll have to wait for our final assessment once we get a review product. As for battery life, Apple is promising five hours for calling or video and 16 hours in music mode.

Overall, however, and despite the high price, we predict an iPhone success. The iPhone will garner interest simply because it exists and, as such, has great potential to move music phones into the mainstream. Nokia’s Xpress music phones and Sony Ericsson’s Walkman handsets present a strong challenge on some level, but Samsung’s new Ultra Music probably stands to take the biggest hit if the two devices go head to head.

     An old article from CNET, but I think it’s very useful.

Posted on April 28th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Reviews | No Comments »

Reuters reported that Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said on Wednesday the company’s iPhone is on track to ship in late June.

Oppenheimer also said that the gross margin of 35 percent the company turned in during its most recent quarter was “not sustainable” because component costs are not expected to remain as low as they had been.

“We look forward to shipping the iPhone in late June and are very excited,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Apple’s iPhone has been surrounded in a thick cloud of hype ever since it was announced in early January. The phone was announced at MacWorld 2007 in January, but it was all the talk at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas which was being held at the same time.

From the beginning, Apple said that the iPhone would ship in June of this year and would be a Cingular Wireless (AT&T Wireless) exclusive phone. Late last month, a rumor about iPhone release date  June 11 was reported by CNET. The launch would coincide with Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco which is slated to run from June 11 through June 15.

Things took an even more interesting turn when Apple announced that it would delay the launch of its OS X 10.5 Leopard operating from June until October. At the time, the iPhone was blamed for the delay. “iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS(R) X team,” said Apple on April 12.

Insiders at the Company manufacturing the Apple iPhone claim that iPhone quality problems are causing concen to the extent that the phone may be delayed to end of June or early July.

 Hopefully Apple iPhone will ship on time as their CFO’ s words. 

Posted on April 26th, 2007 by admin
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According to Engadget Mobile,an internal AT&T iPhone Q&A document was leaked.They got  many valuable information:

I found following  Q&A also very useful

Q. When will the iPhone be available?

A. The iPhone will be available in June exclusively on the Cingular network.However,you can go to www.cingular.com/iphone to find out more about the device and to sign up to receive more information.

Q. Where to buy the iPhone? 

A.   The iPhone will be available in Cingular company-owned retail stores,at www.cingular.com, and will be offered through Cingular’s direct mail/direct response channels in June 2007.The iPhone will also be available in Apple stores and at www.apple.com

 Q. If a customer is at the end  of their contract  prior to launch and want to wait to upgrade,what should I do ?

 A. If a customer is at the end of their contract or is no longer on a contract and wants to wait to upgrade to the iPhone,AT&T will allow this. QA scores will not be reduced for allowing the customer to wait to extend their contract in this scenario.

Posted on April 26th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Plan | No Comments »

Some analysts say that AT&T is attempting to use the iPhone to radically change the loyalties of cellular subscribers.

Sprint Nextel recently lowered online music prices and introduced a feature-rich but low-priced music phone. Verizon Wireless is allowing potential subscribers to try its network for free for 30 days. Phone vendors are announcing a steady stream of flashy music phones such as the Samsung Ultra Smart F700 and LG’s Prada.

Many believe there’s one reason for this burst of activity: the iPhone. Few have seen Apple’s forthcoming phone/media player, which AT&T/Cingular says iPhone will release in June, but it has been the topic of frantic, sometimes fanatical online discussion. And other cellular operators appear to be busily preparing themselves for its release.

Another word, loyalty, sums up the reasons for the strong response from AT&T’s competitors. Some analysts say that AT&T is attempting to use iPhone to radically change the loyalties of cellular subscribers. These analysts note that, while most subscribers aren’t very loyal to their cellular operator, many people are fiercely loyal to Apple and its iPod media players.

“We did a survey and we found … carrier loyalty wasn’t a big issue. People aren’t that loyal,” said Miro Kazakoff, director of the wireless practice for market research firm Compete Inc. “So [AT&T] is trying to transfer loyalty to the device, not the carrier.”

In other words, Kazakoff said, AT&T is using the iPhone to create customer loyalty where little loyalty exists. That, in turn, would translate into more subscribers who are less likely to leave the AT&T fold. Seen in this light, iPhone is a potentially powerful marketing tool that AT&T’s competitors can’t ignore.

Nonchalant Competitors

Superficially, Verizon Wireless and Sprint, the second and third largest cellular operators in the U.S. behind AT&T, are nonchalant about the potential challenges presented by iPhone.

“Publicly, they’ve adopted the dual stance of being nonchalant about iPhone and trumpeting their own music offerings,” Kazakoff said. “But they’re working to build out their services to compete. They’re not really nonchalant at all.”

Verizon Wireless didn’t return calls requesting interviews for this story. However, Alana Muller, Sprint’s director of wireless data marketing, said that her company would have lowered prices, from US$2.50 a song to 99 cents, and introduced new music phones even without iPhone’s imminent entry into the market.

Having said that, however, Muller drew a sharp distinction between Sprint’s offerings and those of AT&T/iPhone. In particular, she spoke about Sprint’s recent introduction of the Samsung UpStage music phone, which, at $149, is far less expensive than the $500 iPhone. And, unlike iPhone, UpStage can download songs over the air, she said.

“We’re putting music in the hands of the masses,” Muller said. “We have nearly a dozen devices that can access our online music store and we have a lot of great devices. The UpStage is very cool and the price can’t be beaten. I see no reason for a customer to leave our service.”

                                                            By David Haskin, Computerworld published at PC World.

Posted on April 24th, 2007 by admin
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 It seems that Apple iPhone accessory launches are starting even before the iPhone’s release.

 Apple iPhone has yet to hit the shelves yet. However accessory makers are predicting a wave for the purchase of iPhones. Japanese case makers are already rolling out protective cases for iPhone due to be retailed in late June. It features a rubbery prophylactic, see-through hard case and a faux sneaker design. This must be due to the overwhelming sales of iPod with 4000 accessories chalking up sales worth $1 billion a year. (more…)

Posted on April 23rd, 2007 by admin
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Apple’s soon-to-be-launched iPhone will be irrelevant to business users because it is a “closed device” and does not support Microsoft Office, a senior executive with the software giant said this week.

“It’s a great music phone, and I’m sure it will be fantastic and have an interesting user interface,” Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific head of smartphone strategy Chris Sorenson told press during a recent visit to Australia. He said: “It’s a great music phone, and I’m sure it will be fantastic and have an interesting user interface. However, it’s a closed device that you cannot install applications on, and there’s no support for Office documents. If you’re an enterprise and want to roll out line of business applications, it’s just not an option. Even using it as a heavy messaging device will be a challenge.”  

Microsoft already has a presence in the mobile phone market with their Windows Mobile platform. As per sources, around one hundred and forty phone models already run Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system. While Apple’s new device is not expected to hit the US market until June, and Australia in 2008. The Windows mobile devices have picked up a significant portion of the converged device market, although they are up against the dominance of Nokia and its Symbian OS, Research in Motion and its BlackBerry OS, and decreasingly, Palm. Apple iPhone would be powered with a customized Mac OS X operating system and Sorenson said that the mobile users prefer familiarity with the Windows Mobile interface.

Posted on April 22nd, 2007 by admin
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While people like AT&T’s COO and Apple themselves continue to maintain that the iPhone is still on track for June, everyone is still skeptical that something else is probably brewing behind closed doors. After all, Apple told us that Leopard was on track for Spring just a couple weeks before they announced that it was being pushed ’till October, and some sources have told Ars that they were made aware of the October date by Apple long before the rest of the world knew.That information is confirmed once again by a close source this morning, and he has some not-so-great news about that pesky iPhone delay rumor. He Who Shall Not Be Named™ has told us, “Apple knew two months ago that Leopard was going to be delayed since all of the key engineers are now in Taipei.”

Why, oh why are all of the key engineers in Taipei of all places? It turns out that Hon Hai/Foxconn has confirmed directly to our source that the iPhone is indeed running into issues, and that “Apple had 50 OS engineers working around the clock in Taipei to make sure that this shipped on time. The issue with the iPhone is not the battery, but the software Q/A and OS-related issues.”

Our source also confirmed from Foxconn/Hon Hai that “it does not look feasible that Apple will be able to ship units out in May to make the shipping date in the US (June), so expect units to trickle by end of June or early July.” I’m not a fan of “trickling” myself, although I can’t deny that it wasn’t fully expected—this is Apple we’re talking about here, after all. So what are we talking, in terms of availability? “It is doubtful they will have enough units on hand to meet the demand.”

All I can say in response to that is that I hope some of you are getting ready to perform sexual favors for your favorite Apple and/or Cingular retail store personnel, come June/July.

                                                                                                                        By Jacqui Cheng From Ars Technica

Posted on April 20th, 2007 by admin
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Insiders at the Company manufacturing the Apple iPhone claim that quality problems are causing concen to the extent that the phone may be delayed past June 11th 2007.

Apple is struggling to deliver a quality iPhone according to insiders at a Taiwanese phone manufacturing Company.  Han Hai (aka Foxconn) are concerned that the designs Apple have delivered for manufacturing are not robust enough and that the Apple software functions built into the phone are sucking juice out of the batteries to the extent that talk time is significantly compromised. It is expected that the iPhone will not be launched on June 11th 2007.

Apple, it seems is concerned that they could be hit by a flood of warrantly claims a move which Han Hai is trying to avoid as they could well end up wearing the responsibility for some of the claims. The problem the insiders claim relate to the way the software has been designed. Functions working in the background are sucking power while the phone is not being used to the extent that call times are limited.

According to Han Hai staff, several meetings have taken place between Apple and the manufacturer over the quality of the phones and above all the performance of the phones when benchmarked against other smart phones.

The insider said” Apple are concerned over potential warranty claims. Unlike the iPod which also had battery and hard drive problems when it first launched the Apple iPhone is a lot more complicated and more difficult to manufacture. Both organisations have met to discuss this. Apple have assigned more people to resolve several software issues that are impacting the launch.” they said.

“We’re hearing it’s mostly an issue with the complexity of the device,” said iSuppli analyst Jagdish Rebello.

The expert also suggested that the shift of software team members from Mac OS X Leopard to the iPhone was in response to issues discovered late into the testing phase. “Typically the manufacturer and the service provider are making sure the phone meets all its specifications,” he said. “It’s clear they have found some issues that they need to fix.” he said.

The announcement that Apple would delay the release of its newest version of Mac OS X, known as Leopard to concentrate on the iPhone has not surprised people in Taiwan. A senior executive of a major phone manufacturing Company said ” The iPhone is complex. We make a lot of phones but this one is different. they expect the software to do a lot. They want a sleek looking design which is also robust. sometimes the two don’t go together.

Scheduled for release on June 11 2007 it is expected that only limited numbers of the phone will be available. It appears that the last thing Apple wants is quality problems with their phone. Apple staff have been told that the launch of the iPhone will be a lot tougher than the launch of the iPod. A memo to Apple staff is reported to have claimed that several manufacturers are in a position to hurt Apple if the iPhone has quality problems.

Apple admits that it has redeployed some of its software engineering and quality assurance personnel away from Leopard to the team working on the June launch of the iPhone due to the  last-minute problems that have cropped up and raises questions about whether Apple will push back the iPhone release till after the US holiday period.
According to BusinessWeek in the USA various iPhone suppliers have been told that the iPhone may not be available until the end of June, according to Jagdish Rebello, an analyst with iSuppli, a market intelligence firm in Silicon Valley. Apple had never specified when in June the device would ship, but its wireless partner, AT&T (T), had been cited in published reports naming a June 11 target date, the same day of an Apple software developers conference. “We’re hearing it’s mostly an issue with the complexity of the device, and that all the component suppliers are making their deliveries on time,” Rebello says.

Apple hinted in the statement that making the iPhone is no cakewalk. The cell phone “contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device,” Apple said. It added that the device had passed “several” of its required certification tests and would ship in “late June.”

Usually with two months or less to go before market release, a device like the iPhone would ordinarily be going through a heavy battery of testing in preparation for volume manufacturing. The apparently sudden shift of personnel away from Leopard suggests that a late wrinkle has emerged. “Typically the manufacturer and the service provider are making sure the phone meets all its specifications, and that all the production glitches have been ironed out,” Rebello says. “It’s clear they have found some issues that they need to fix.”

First Time Is Right Time
Richard Doherty, director and co-founder of the Envisioneering Group, says he’s tested the phone and didn’t uncover problems with it. Apple may be beefing up software developer tools and fixing security concerns, he reckons. “Putting a powerful operating system on a phone took extra hands on deck,” he says. “The last thing Apple wants is for the iPhone to be vulnerable to hacker attacks.”

Apple hopes customers will use iPhone for online purchases, so it’s making the operating system more powerful than existing mobile systems, such as Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Mobile or Symbian, developed by a Nokia (NOK)-led consortium. “They don’t want it to be a version 1.0 of the iPhone, but version 4.9,” Doherty says. “Apple wants to get it right the first time.”

Another challenge is giving the iPhone sufficient battery life. The battery will have to be powerful enough to handle a variety of functions, but it must also be compact, analysts explain. “There’s a lot of skepticism about the iPhone’s battery life,” says Paul Sagawa, an analyst with Sanford Bernstein. The iPhone is expected to have two batteries, one for the phone and the other for the music player. The phone battery, which is very small, would have to power a huge screen, Wi-Fi network connections, and many other power-hungry features.

Wall Street’s Not Worried
Wall Street analysts generally dismissed the Leopard release delay, saying there are plenty of other reasons to be bullish on Apple stock. Adobe (ADBE) will soon be upgrading its flagship creative software for the Mac, giving computer users another reason to buy new Macs. And barring any major glitches, many analysts are confident the iPhone will be a hit. “Although the push-out of Leopard is not ideal, we view iPhone as the delivery of the next leg to the Apple growth story,” Goldman Sachs (GS) analyst David Bailey wrote in an Apr. 13 research note. Apple stock dipped 2.1% the day after the late afternoon announcement.

The delayed Leopard is the second rollout of a major Apple product this year. Apple also delayed the launch of Apple TV, which hit store shelves at the end of March. But Leopard’s four-month delay is minor compared with the many delays that beset Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows Vista. The system was first due in 2005, but didn’t hit store shelves until early 2007.

And the extra time means added weeks of speculation surrounding the features due to be included in Leopard, now slated for an October launch. “Our analysis indicates that if not for the ’secret’ features, the core Leopard operating system would likely have shipped on time,” American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu wrote in a recent research note.

However embarrassing the Leopard delay, the release of a bug-riddled iPhone would be disastrous, particularly since expectations have been set so high. “It’s not easy to make a phone,” Sagawa says. “The hype has risen to such a fever pitch that to disappoint people with the product would be quite a black mark.”

                                    From SmartHouse by David Richards and BusinessWeek

Posted on April 17th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Release Date | 92 Comments »

   Since Apple confirmed they would launch iPhone in June.There are so many rumors about the exact release date. The latest is June 11 mentioned by a Cingular customer service manager.Let us take a look at the whole story:

Latest Update:

 1/9/2007, Steve Jobs’ keynote at the Macworld Expo told us  iphone would ship stateside in June, Europe in fourth quarter, Asia in 2008.

 1/10/2007, somebody said  the apple iPhone would be shipping in October in the UK  according to the internal email .

 2/6/2007, LoopRumors discovered a  document  from Apple to Federal Communications Commission, and they concluded that June 15th is the release date of iPhone.

 2/8/2007, the article published on Engadget.com  pointed that iPhone FFC letter was a hoax.Guys over at Phone Scoop noted that the confidentiality agreement document is, in actuality, photoshopped.

 3/29/2007, according to CNET Cingular confirmed  the release date will be June 11. However, the information was from a  customer service manager. It may not be quite accurate.

We will keep you posted on the lastest news. Please bookmark this page for further reference.

Posted on April 13th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Release Date | No Comments »