~TECH-BYTES~

It’s been a long, leak-filled wait, but Apple finally took the wraps off its 3G iPhone. Thinner edges, full plastic back, flush headphone jack, and the iPhone 2.0 firmware — Apple’s taking a lot of the criticisms to heart from the first time around. Obviously 3G is at the forefront, but they’re also making sure it’s available all over internationally, works with enterprises, runs 3rd party apps… and does it all for cheaper. Apple claims its 3G speeds trounce the competition, with pageloads 36% faster than the N95 and Treo 750 — and of course it completely trounces the old EDGE data. Battery life isn’t getting put out to pasture though, with 300 hours of standby, 8-10 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 7 hours of video and 24 hours of audio. GPS is also a go. Apple is using A-GPS, which supplements regular satellite GPS data with info from cellular towers. WiFi data is also worked into the mix, which should give users a pretty solid lock on where the heck they are on this planet. Unfortunately, there’s no front-facing cam, which syncs with what we were hearing, but is still a little disappointing. Apple hopes to launch in 70 countries this year. 8GB is available for $199, 16GB for $299 — and the 16GB comes in white. Both pricepoints require a contract. Apple will be hitting the 22 biggest markets, including the US, on July 11th. Pre-orders are available now at the Apple Store.

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It’s easy to take for granted the 3G iPhone’s launch at this point. After all, Steve said it was “coming later this year,” as did a number of prominent mobile executives. And then there’s been the barrage of carrier announcements, many in international markets that use UMTS and have zero support for the iPhone as we know it today. But the fact of the matter is we’ve had very little to go on by way of material evidence — until now.

We have it from a reliable source that a version of the 3G iPhone’s firmware has been released — possibly for carrier partners currently field-testing the device — and has since been dissected. While nothing is ever guaranteed, in combing through the raw data, we think we got more than enough information on the low-level hardware and drivers that run the device to make some informed conclusions about what we can expect: quad-band GSM support (as we currently have), A-GPS (as we’d already gotten from another source), and tri-band UMTS / HSDPA — which would make the new iPhone(s) 3G-capable in just about every market in the world. Hardware details after the break. We’re through the looking-glass, people!

All the dirty details:

* Infineon PMB6952 / S-GOLD3 six-band UMTS / HSDPA transceiver (as we’d heard)
* Murata LMRX3JCA-479 tri-band amplifier (we’re assuming for the 3G)
* Sony SP9T antenna switch for GSM / UMTS dual mode
* ARM 1176JZF-S - Main CPU (same as in 1st gen iPhone)
* Skyworks 77427 chip - UMTS / HSDPA tx 1900MHz, rx 2100MHz
* Skyworks 77414 chip - UMTS / HSDPA 1900MHz
* Skyworks 77413 chip - UMTS / HSDPA 850MHz
* Internal build model number: n82ap (1st gen iPhone was model m68ap)
* UMTS Power Saving option - on or off
* Hooks for Global Locate Library (GLL), software that handles A-GPS related commands for the host processor

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Earlier this year, Apple COO Tim Cook confirmed that Apple’s expansion plans for the iPhone included India, but said only that the iPhone would arrive there “one day.” For a number of Indians, that day has already arrived thanks to unlocked iPhones, but many people are still waiting for the official release. That day may be coming soon, though, since Rediff is reporting that the iPhone will be coming to India in September of this year and that Vodafone will be the carrier.
The news is technically just a rumor, since it claims to come from a number of internal Apple and Vodafone sources. According to these sources, the 8GB iPhone will launch in September with a price of between 27,200 and 28,000 rupees, which at current exchange rates translates to  $685 to $710. If that’s the case, Vodafone will be making a bit of money on the device (even if there is revenue sharing), and the company may also get a chunk of the Australian market as part of the deal.

No information about the terms of the deal, launch quantities, or sales targets is available, although one of the sources does hint that unlocked iPhones may also be available at some point. As usual, Apple and Vodafone are have no official statement on the deal, however we should be seeing an announcement sometime in the next month or two if the official launch will indeed be in September.

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While it doesn’t exactly come as much of a surprise, it seems that Apple has plenty more goodies in mind for the iPhone (and, presumably, the iPod touch), with a recent batch of no less than six patent applications revealing some of its plans to turn the device into what it describes as a “lifestyle companion.” In this case, that rather vague term refers to what is effectively an upgrade to the Nike+iPod system, with the iPhone’s accelerometer and other built-in capabilities also coming into play in addition to the usual external sensors. It doesn’t stop with workouts, however, with the patent applications also indicating plans for a diet coach of sorts, which could even make use of the iPhone’s camera to scan bar codes on products. Those components would also of course all work together, with the system able to suggest workouts based on your diet and physical condition and vice versa. Of course, these being patent applications, there’s no indication as to when we might actually see such a system, but it sure seems a good deal.

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We’re not yet entirely sure how it works, but iPhone hacker Zibri’s just released a new app he’s calling ZiPhone, which claims to jailbreak any version iPhone — including new 1.1.3 phones right out of the box — without messy downgrades and baseband changes.

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