3G iPhone Going Into Production In May

A few folks noted the rumor mill churning over 3G iPhones coming soon. Apparently they might be going into production as early as May, and announced somewhere in the 2nd quarter. Hopefully they manage to stick a GPS and another 16 gigs of memory in this one.

Re:why

[CockMonster]

Because the iPhone was a flop outside North America.

Re: GPS

[IrrepressibleMonkey]

I don't have an iPhone, but according to the Apple FAQ:

How does the Maps location based service (LBS) work?
LBS provides your approximate location using information based on your proximity to known cellular network towers and Wi-Fi networks (when on and available). The more accurate the available information, the smaller the circle identifying your position on the map. The feature is not available in all areas. Known Wi-Fi networks are predominantly in urban areas. In order to provide your location, data is collected in a form that does not personally identify you. If you do not want such data collected, do not enable the feature. Not enabling the feature will not impact the functionality of your iPhone.

I'm assuming you have cell towers near you. Sure, when driving you'll need more accurate information than the LBS provides. But on foot, a map of the surrounding area should be good enough for most.

Re:why

[Seahawk]

So - what is the reason for not having 3G on the east and west coast of USA? I would guess the population density there is comparable to most of Europe.

And don't think we have 100% 3G coverage over here(Denmark) - far from it. I would guess by area we're around 40%(Complete guesstimate), but coverage by population is at least 80% - I see nothing that prevents USA from doing something similar.

Re:WishList

[TheRaven64]

I know everyone complains about EDGE, but I hope the 3G layers on top of the EDGE support. You can get EDGE just about anywhere--even if it is dog slow. Sometimes that's really handy.

Maybe in the USA, but not elsewhere. Most of Europe skipped EDGE and went straight to UMTS and is now moving to HSDPA. In the UK, O2 (who got the exclusive deal for the iPhone) quickly rushed out EDGE in London, but not anywhere else, meaning that the iPhone has to fall back to GPRS in most of the country. My current phone support UMTS and the network has pretty good coverage - I only occasionally have to fall back to using GPRS, and I really notice the different (50KB/s downloads with 200ms ping times become 2-5KB/s downloads with 2s ping times). My next phone will probably support HSDPA, jumping the speed up and the latency down another order of magnitude.

Much of the benefit of a decent connection is lost with an iPhone though, since you can't use it tethered. When I'm travelling, I keep my phone in my pocket and use it via bluetooth from my laptop or Nokia 770. The horrendously crippled bluetooth stack on the iPhone doesn't support this, however.

Re:why

[Bedemus]

Most providers do offer it in major metropolitan areas. AT&T Wireless, the carrier for the iPhone, for instance, shows their data coverage here [att.com]. A subset of these areas supports 3G, as shown here [att.com]. It's pretty easy to take a look at the data map, though, and get a feel for where there is population density that supports the rollout of the tech. If you go here [verizonwireless.com] you can see a similar coverage map for Verizon Wireless -- click "Broadband & V CAST" and look at the dark blue areas.

who cares?

[nguy]

I already have a 3.5G phone with a full WebKit-based browser, multi-tasking, and full programmability. It has a standard USB modem, GPS, a full Bluetooth stack, and tons of software. I can use as a tethered modem, via Bluetooth, and even use it as a WiFi access point using 3.5G for Internet access.

The iPhone has crippled software, crippled hardware, and crippled contracts. There is no reason on earth to buy one.

Re: GPS

[jandrese]

No, but it requires a high power receiver. GPS signals are some of the weakest ones you can actually use with consumer gear and it takes a lot of work (battery power) to get them.

Worse, because GPS signals require so much work to read, receivers typically require several minutes to achieve a usable result from a cold start, so the option of leaving it off for the 99% of the time you're not using it is less appealing because staring at a busy cursor on your phone for 5 minutes sucks when you just want some quick directions.

That said, cell tower location approximation systems are pretty lame. I tried using one on my phone and in some areas (dense urban areas) it would do ok, mostly, but once you got out into the burbs your error bars start expanding rapidly. It's not completely useless (you can find the street name you're on and only have to look in the circle on your phone most likely), but compared to a real live GPS system it's rather unsatisfying.

Re:why

[DrgnDancer]

Dude.. You live in Chicago, it's a grid, lucky you. Try to find your way around Houston or New Orleans without help sometime. It's a bona fide nightmare. New Orleans has streets that are parallel in one place and intersect in others, they call it a the "Crescent City" for a reason. It also has streets change names at random places for reasons that, while historically interesting, make no navigational sense. New Orleans is a bit unique by any standard, but most of what I like to call the "post-WW II Southern Cities" are huge sprawling things with little planning and often several "downtown areas" interspersed with residential subdivisions and bedroom communities. I've been to New York and Chicago, their well planned grid and awesome public transportation are things to be envied... Most of us do, because we don't have them.

Re:Why does iPhone succeed?

[teh kurisu]

Not only that, but the iPhone is free of all the crap that the networks insist on putting on your phone.

T-Mobile UK have intentionally made my Samsung Z560 more annoying to use. The most infuriating example is the web browser's bookmarks list. At the top of the list are two bookmarks for 'T-Mobile Favourites' and 't-zones'. You can't delete them, or even move them to another position on the list. The worst part is that the phone only shows three bookmarks on the screen at a time, you have to scroll to see more. So when I open my bookmarks menu, I see one of my bookmarks, and two that T-Mobile want me to see.

So basically, I'm buying an iPhone as soon as a 3G model comes out.

Re:why

[Anonymous Coward]

Rank      State           pop per sq. mi  pop per sq km
1      New Jersey      1,138.0     439.39
2      Rhode Island    1,003.2     387.35
3      Massachusetts     809.8     312.67
4      Connecticut       702.9     271.40
5      Maryland          541.9     209.23
6      New York          401.9     155.18
7      Delaware          401.1     154.87
8      Florida           296.4     114.43
9      Ohio              277.3     107.05
10     Pennsylvania      274.0     105.80
11     Illinois          223.4     86.27
12     California        217.1     83.85

The point is that more than 44% of the population of the USA live in areas more densely populated than Spain, and more than 30% of the population live in areas that compare in population density to France.  So stop using it as an excuse for not providing decent services.  At the very least you should be able to provide services equivalent to France for around a 3rd of the population. In some densely populated states, the services compare poorly with Greenland (much less densely populated than any state in the USA including Alaska), Australia, Iceland or Canada, any of which would be in the bottom three by population density if they were states in the USA.

I get fed up of wah wah, population density, wah wah anytime you challenge a USAian on why the roads are rubbish, or the network coverage is so bad.

Re:3G is what Canada needs...

[brunes69]

Rogers has HSPDA rolled out in many major centres already and is going to be doing so at a rapid rate this year.

Re:why

[Sancho]

That hasn't been my experience. I've used a Garmin pretty extensively. When I leave it on all the time, it usually knows where it is seconds after walking outside. When I turn it off and drive a good distance away, it takes maybe 30 seconds to reacquire enough satellites to get its bearings. It may not get all of the satellites that it wants right away, but it's always been spot on after 30 seconds.