UK iPhone Launch Special Report

Whilst over at the Podcast Expo, I was happy to help out at the Prong booth demo'ing some iPods and iPhones. iProng Radio is a podcast/website/magazine run by Bill Palmer. Bill contacted me a few days ago and asked if I'd be interested in writing a short piece on the UK iPhone launch. Always happy to oblige, so I sent it off today and he's published it on his website. It will also appear in a new magazine he is launching in December. You can check it out here: UK iPhone Launch Special Report A quick shout out to the MacBites crew who I met in the line outside the Apple store, especially Elaine who is a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member as well as participating in the MacBites podcast. Elaine graciously agreed to let me use some of her photos for the article. Thanks Elaine!

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UK iPhone Launch

Well, I went and did it and bought a new UK iPhone along with an 18 month O2 contract! I've never had a phone contract before prefering a PAYG as to be honest, I don't really use the phone that much. But after trying the US iPhone with a PAYG SIM it rapidly becomes apparent that the unlimited data in the O2 contract (especially as it is now truly unlimited) is worth the money so I've bitten the bullet. In addition, having a 1.0.2 iPhone meant I've been locked out of upgrading the phone and the new iPhone puts me back on the straight and narrow. I'll miss the third party apps but at least come February we'll see the official SDK for the iPhone and surely new apps won't be too far away. No major differences between the UK and US versions other than the International aspects and I'm loving the double clicking on the home button. However, I did notice that the UK screen looks better, the colours appear richer and deeper. I'll be checking out any further differences over the next few days so if I find anything significant, I'll post them here.

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No Laptop....

Just back from an extremely pleasant (albeit tiring) few days in Prague (Chezch Republic). I have to keep online at least once a day to check on membership additions and issues and in the past, I've taken my MacBook Pro for just such reasons. However, this time I thought I'd risk taking just the iPhone to see how I fared. No edge connection (as the iPhone is unlocked and running on a temporary SIM) but the good news was that the Hotel had free wifi in the bar - result! So how did I manage - surprisingly well! The mail client built into the iPhone is great and I was able to read all my mail, sort into urgent and not so urgent, respond to the urgent ones and file those for later action into a subfolder. Check out this weeks show for how I have my email configured. But along with email I was able to tweet and read my RSS feeds just as easily as at Home. Where it really surprised me was in the usefulness of Internet browsing to check on various bits and pieces - locations, place names, sporting stuff, basically everything at your fingertips! No to mention, passing round the iPhone to view clips and articles on thins we chatted about during the evening! It really is a remarkable, game changing platform. Oh and as an aside, Prague is an absolutely beautiful city and highly recommended. I was also surprised to see a large number of Macs in and around the town including a number of Macbooks and iMacs.

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Another MacVoices Spot - UK iPhone

I stayed up late on Tuesday to have a chat with my good buddy Chuck Joiner from the MacVoices podcast. As you can probably guess, the main topic of conversation was the announcement of the UK version of the iPhone on the same day. Chuck has just published the podcast on his MacVoices site - Link If you've not had enough of the UK iPhone, check out the podcast. Thanks Chuck!

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, iTunes, MacVoices, newmediaexpo2007

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UK iPhone Announced

As expected, this mornings Apple special event in London was to launch the iPhone in the UK. Not Europe mind, just the UK! Priced at £269 inc VAT for an 8GB phone, it looks like it's comparable in price to the US version. Not only price comparable, it also looks like it's the exact same phone - no 3G support just EDGE. The monthly tariffs are £35, £45 and £55 per month which is roughly equivalent to the US. Special deal with Clouds for free access to 7500 wifi hotspots - something we're sorely lacking in the UK although these are existing services I think. The bummer is it's not available until November 9th but I guessed that it wouldn't be an immediate release. Apple now need to build up the buzz here in the UK leading up to the launch date. It's amazing how many people know nothing about the iPhone! All will be revealed with the US ads on TV but revamped with a British Voice over, showing the Guardian Newspaper and the O2 Logo. So all in all, nothing earth shattering but good to see things formalised. I would imagine other countries in Europe are likely to be a bit upset at this being just the UK but hopefully the other announcements might come at the Paris Expo in a few weeks. I'll be discussing the UK iPhone announcement with Chuck Joiner on his MacVoices podcast later today so watch out for that in the next few days. Now do I pick up an iPhone in the US and unlock it or do I wait....

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