Isaiah's Tech

Today, Apple announced something extremely huge. iPhone OS 4.0 was introduced which is a huge improvement over their current OS 3.0. It reportedly improves over 100 minor updates and a couple of game-changers like multitasking(!!), organization (folders for your apps), unified mailbox(!), iBooks, their new Game Center, and their new [HTML5] iAd platform. Apple has apparently figured out a way to do multitasking without taking a huge hit on the battery life. Unfortunately, only the iPhone 3GS and the third-generation iPod Touch will support multitasking because they said that it's a hardware issue. If you're interested in learning more about the iAd platform, check out the post on Computer World. The iPad will be upgradeable to iPhone OS 4.0 this Fall. Crunch Gear has a short video below showing off the multitasking.

Update: According to Engadget, you can now download the iPhone SDK 4 Beta. Check out the direct link here.

Update: Gizmodo has just mentioned that the iPhone OS 4 software includes three new functions: AVCaptureDevice.hasFlash, AVCaptureDevice.flashMode, and AVCaptureDevice.hasTorch. This likely points out that the next iPhone will have some sort of flash for its camera - not Flash on the browser.

Update: According to Engadget, there's also evidence for a front-facing camera as well. They've found a couple of different files that imply this.

• The OS will support multitasking. Jobs claims that multitasking will not consume significantly more power or system resources than normal single app operation will.
• Multitasking will be available on seven classes of apps.
• The first is music. Apps like Pandora will now be able to run in the background without dramatically affecting browser performance or speed.
• VOIP is another class of apps that will be able to run in the background. Skype can now run in the background, allowing you to receive texts and calls while not actively using the app.
• Navigation and other location-based services are important applications of this multitasking feature. Now apps like TomTom Navigator and Navigon can run in the background, allowing you to browse and still receive directions.
• Push notifications will also be able to run in the background.
• Apps that take time to run a process, like uploading photos to flickr, will be able to do these processes in the background.
• Apple will also allow local notification apps to run in the background.
• Apple does not expect multitasking to significantly increase the strain on network traffic for AT&T.

[Mobile Magazine, The Next Web, TUAW, Crunch Gear, Engadget]

Last March, Apple offered the iPhone 3G contract-free and now they're doing the same this year. Apple stores are now selling the 8GB iPhone 3G for $499, the 16GB iPhone 3GS for $599, and the 32GB iPhone 3GS for $699. Unfortunately, this isn't unlocked so it's still locked to AT&T. You'll also only be allowed to get one per day. I think it's a bit too much, but people will still go out and buy them.

[Apple Insider]

• There will be multi-touch gestures OS-wide. (Would make sense for that as the rumored OS for the iTablet is close if not the same as the iPhone)
• “A few new ways” to run applications in the background — multitasking.
• Many graphical and UI changes to make navigating through the OS easier and more efficient. We haven’t had this broken down, but we can only hope for improved notifications, a refreshed homescreen, etc.
• The update will supposedly be available for only the iPhone 3G and 3GS, but will “put them ahead in the smartphone market because it will make them more like full-fledged computers” more than any other phone to date. Everyone is “really excited.”
• The last piece of information is the most vague, but apparently there will be some brand new syncing ability for the contacts and calendar applications.

So... this is what Virgin Mobile had in store. It looks like Virgin Mobile is preparing to launch a couple of phones including the iPhone 3G / 3GS, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 / Curve 8530, and the Samsung M330. Also on the list is the Novatel Wireless MiFi 2372. You can actually check them all out below.

Update: Twitter user (and friend), @db0mbase has just hit me up with a couple of pictures he actually snapped in December which basically show everything you see below in their internal systems. The iPhone and Broadband2Go can be found here, the Bold 9700 / Curve 8530 are here, some extra stuff are here, and even more extra stuff are here. Some of the pictures are also below.


[Mobile Syrup]

Finally! It's been available for a couple of months now in North America and Vodafone has just launched the iPhone 3GS in the UK. If you're one of the 50,000 people who pre-ordered one you better go ahead and get yours now. It's available for free on a 2-year contract, but you'll have to pay 45 Pounds ($73 USD) monthly for the 16GB model and 75 Pounds ($122 USD) monthly for the 32GB model, which could be a serious deal breaker. You can also get it for free on an 18-month contract but the monthly fees are ridiculous. Check it out here.

[Slash Gear]

10. Samsung (I8000) Omnia II - This phone is, obviously, the direct successor to the original Omnia and Samsung has changed it enough to impress me. The Omnia II has: a 3.7-inch AMOLED resistive touchscreen display with a 480 x 800 resolution, a 5MP AF camera (with an LED flash, geo-tagging support, and face / smile detection) that's capable of shooting video at 720 x 480 resolution, a Samsung S3C6410 800MHz CPU with a dedicated graphics accelerator, 2/8/16GB of internal storage, 256MB of RAM, a microSD card slot, WiFi b/g with DLNA / Bluetooth 2.0 + A2DP / aGPS support, a 3.5mm headphone jack, Stereo FM radio with RDS, quad-band GSM / tri-band HSDPA connectivity, and a 1,500 mAh battery.

Samsung developed this new AMOLED display back in the beginning of June, so I'm glad to see that they're already shipping these out. I don't think anyone will be upset with the clarity of a 3.7-inch AMOLED display with a 480 x 800 resolution. I don't know how good the TouchWiz 2.0 UI, but I've heard that it's been greatly improved since version 1.0. Thankfully, it's just 11.9mm thick.

Unfortunately, the display is a resistive touchscreen so it's not as responsive as it could be. I tested this handset in stores and it was running Windows Mobile 6.5, but it was fairly sluggish - which made me quite sad. The widgets on the home screen were quite laggy and Samsung's customized UI is not as good as HTC's.


You can check out the Samsung (I8000) Omnia II here or on GSM Arena (photo credit), if you'd like.

9. Samsung B7610 OmniaPRO - Here is a great QWERTY keyboard-packed phone and it has amazing specs. The OmniaPRO has: a 3.5-inch AMOLED resistive touchscreen display with a 480 x 800 resolution, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 5MP AF camera (with an LED flash, geo-tagging support, and face / smile detection) capable of recording D1 video (720 x 480 resolution), a Samsung S3C6410 800MHz CPU with a dedicated graphics accelerator, 256MB of RAM, 2GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, WiFi b/g with DLNA / aGPS / Bluetooth 2.0 + A2DP support, a 3.5mm headphone jack, Stereo FM radio with RDS, quad-band GSM / dual-band HSDPA connectivity, and a 1,500 mAh battery.

Thankfully, it's got a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, which is a great addition to any mobile phone. Like the Samsung I8000 Omnia II, this handset is also rocking Samsung's new AMOLED display that has a high 480 x 800 resolution. This is sure to bring you the crispest pictures and video you've ever seen on a mobile phone. An 800MHz CPU also joins the party, which is welcomed. This phone beat out the Samsung I8000 Omnia II simply because it has a physical QWERTY keyboard and the virtually identical spec sheet.

But, like I said, this phone has a resistive touchscreen display which is a let down. However, Samsung has placed their new "Advanced R Touch" technology on this handset. At this point, I don't know how much it will improve the touchscreen of the device. Another let down is, of course, the OS. Windows Mobile 6.5 hasn't received the best of reviews, but if you can get past the slight lag it'll do. WinMo is still quite good in the mobile OS world, they just need to improve the UI and the speed of it. Another bad thing is that it's 16.2mm thick, simply because of the QWERTY keyboard. A like it or hate it kind of thing is the back battery cover - it's red.

You can check out the Samsung B7610 OmniaPRO here or on GSM Arena (photo credit), if you'd like.

8. Nokia N900 - This is Nokia's first Maemo 5 device and I've read that the OS is quite nice, especially since it comes with full Flash support. The Nokia N900 features: a 3.5-inch resistive touchscreen display with a 480 x 800 resolution, 32GB of internal storage, 256MB of RAM, a microSD card slot, a 5MP AF camera (with a Carl Zeiss lens and a dual-LED flash) capable of shooting WVGA video, WiFi b/g with DLNA / Bluetooth 2.1 + A2DP / aGPS support, an ARM Cortex A8 600MHz CPU with PowerVR SGX graphics, an FM radio / transmitter, a secondary video calling camera, a TV output, a 3.5mm headphone jack, quad-band GSM / tri-band HSDPA connectivity, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

This handset comes with more goodies like Skype and Google Talk VoIP integration, which is great for the future. I'm sure Skype will integrate video into their mobile software soon, especially with Fring doing that with the iPhone and certain S60 devices. Hopefully they roll out support for my device soon, just saying.

Unfortunately no phone is perfect. The resistive touchscreen display isn't as responsive as people would've liked and it's fairly thick at 18mm. The thickness wouldn't bother me much though since I always have baggy pockets and the phone I have right now is 17.9mm (it's an N81) - and I don't mind it.


You can check out the Nokia N900 here or on GSM Arena (photo credit), if you'd like.

What it doesn't tell us on the spec sheet is that the Satio is capable of playing PlayStation games in nHD (ninth High Definition) format. We don't know how well the Satio will play games, but it does have the same CPU as the iPhone 3GS, which is a good thing. We'll know more about the gaming capabilities of this phone in the future. The camera is more than impressive, but just remember that megapixels aren't everything. I should probably mention that you get an 8GB microSD card in the box.

As of right now, the inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack has not been mentioned yet, so I'll assume that it doesn't have one. This is a huge let down to most people out there. The touchscreen is supposedly resistive, but it's not confirmed yet. The Satio runs on S60 and it's not as touch-friendly as some of the other OS's out there. Like the LG BL40 - which didn't make my list - it has a small 1,000 mAh battery.

You can check out the Sony Ericsson Satio (Idou) here or on GSM Arena (photo credit), if you'd like.




Besides the 8-megapixel goodness, the camera also comes equipped with: an LED-flash, geo-tagging support, face / smile / blink detection, and image stabilization. The 3.7-inch display is the largest AMOLED to hit a mobile phone, but unfortunately, it's not the best one to hit Samsung devices. The Samsung I8000 Omnia II - mentioned earlier - has a 3.7-inch AMOLED display as well, but it has an improved 480 x 800 resolution.

There's not much to dislike about this handset, but it does have a couple of underwhelming features. The i8910 Omnia HD runs on Symbian S60 5th Edition and it's not as touch-friendly as the iPhone OS. The browser also doesn't have Flash support right now, but that's limited to a few handsets at this point.

You can check out the Samsung i8910 HD here or on GSM Arena (photo credit), if you'd like.

1. Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 - It wasn't a tough decision, even though I've always hated Sony Ericsson; I once hoped that they would just go bankrupt already, since they release the same cheap Walkman phones over and over again. However, the XPERIA X10 was made official about a month ago and the specs are pretty damn good. The XPERIA X10 is my number one phone to-date, even though it hasn't been released yet. Its specs are truly promising.
In addition, this phone is running a sexy and customized build of Android 2.0 (as seen here). And yes, I know what you're saying. How can this be your number one phone when it hasn't been released yet? Well, GSM Arena got their first look at this handset and mentioned that it is running a Qualcomm QSD8250 1GHz Snapdragon CPU.

What also makes the XPERIA X10 interesting is that it's looking like it will be Sony Ericsson's first Android handset, since they haven't announced anything else yet. Somewhere down the line though, it looks like Android devices will have multitouch support. 4-inch capacitive touchscreen display + 1GHz Snapdragon CPU + sexy and customized Android build + an 8MP camera = Love.

The bad thing about this handset is that it won't be available until early 2010. If you were to pick the Google Nexus One or the HTC HD2 over this handset, I couldn't and wouldn't argue with you. They're all great handsets, but the fact that this runs Android, has a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, and packs a 4-inch OLED touchscreen display are the real punch-out factors for me.

You can check out the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 here or on GSM Arena (photo credit), if you'd like.

A bunch of notables - in no specific order: LG GW820 eXpo, HTC Touch Pro 2, Toshiba TG01, Nokia N97, LG Viewty Smart, HTC Touch Diamond 2, LG Chocolate BL40, Palm Pre, HTC Touch HD, , Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2, Acer (A1) Liquid, Acer (F1) neoTouch, HTC Hero, and the HTC Dragon / Passion / Bravo.

Yes, those are a lot of honourable mentions, but that's only because there are so many high-end phones that could be on this list. This list may not be perfect and I tried to do my best judging each phone by its spec sheet and other reviews that I have read. It's my first time making a list of the top phones on my blog and I understand that I can improve it. All-in-all I'm satisfied with my list - it just sucks that they're all expensive unlocked.

Of course, there are still phones to look forward to later this year. There has been talks of Samsung's WiMAX-capable handset running Android; it's rumoured to hit Sprint sometime in the future. Another phone to look forward to is a Samsung handset that will be running on the Nvidia Tegra chipset, check it out here. If this trend continues, Samsung will overtake Nokia.

The iPhone hasn't really been a major hit in Asia because of its high price, but it has just touched down in South Korea. You can now get the iPhone via KT, which is priced competitively and Apple is definitely looking to sell a bunch of them.

You can now get the 32GB iPhone 3GS for free on a 132,000 won ($113 USD) monthly contract, but there are two other options. If you feel like paying 45,000 won ($38 USD) monthly, you can get it for 396,000 won ($338 USD) and if you want to pay 65,000 won ($55 USD) monthly you can get it for 264,000 won ($225 USD).

[Boy Genius]

We've just got word that the iPhone could get launched on another carrier, Virgin Mobile. As you may or may not know, Virgin Mobile is actually a part of Bell, and this would also signal that Virgin Mobile will be HSPA-compatible soon. The possible pricing is below, but we're still waiting for this news to become official. That'll probably happen early next year, since the iPhone's are scheduled for a February launch.

No word of pricing but you can bet it’ll be the same as Bell and all the others:
3G 8 GB: $99.00 on a 3-year contract
3G 16GB: $149.00 on a 3-year contract
3GS 16 GB: $199.00 on a 3-year contract
3GS 32 GB: $299.00 on a 3-year contract

[Mobile Syrup]

Yup, that's right! Bell launched theirs yesterday and Telus has launched theirs today! All the pricing plans are below, courtesy of Mobile Syrup. I've noticed just one mistake in the pricing details below though. The LG BL40 aka New Chocolate is actually available for $99.99 CAD on a 3-year contract and not $79.99 like it states below. The Bold 9700 is $249.99 on a 3-year contract, which is slightly more expensive than what Bell offers ($229.99) but cheaper than what Rogers is asking for ($299.99). I also think it's great that they decided to launch the HTC Hero for just $99.99! Yup, don't forget the iPhone 3G and 3GS.

Check out Telus' website here.

[Mobile Syrup]