It sure looks that way. It’s hard to tell if it will be an embedded GPS or simply support for an external unit, but it appears the support will be built-in.
There are also references to strings mentioning satellite status, GPS time, type, position, accuracy, latitude, speed, magnetic variation, etc., which is a good sign for iPhone users looking for GPS integration.
I would think they’d really want to include it with the unit, simply so more people will have it and they can build more great apps around it. We’ll find out soon.
The LG Voyager (previously called the “Verizon Voyager” in many places) will be coming to Sprint and AT&T. The phone is expected “within this year”. It had better hurry, because there are a lot of other (better) phones coming out pretty soon too. No word on pricing, but I would expect somewhere around the $300 mark.
Also no word on the operating system. The Verizon version is running a Verizon-flavored OS. I don’t know if those phone will see Windows Mobile or something else. We’ll probably find out soon enough.
Android keeps looking better and better. Opera has just announced that they have created a version of Opera Mini specifically designed for Android. Opera Mini is my favorite browser on the N95 (though TeaShark is a close second), and I’m glad they decided to built it for Android.
Now, just get me an Android-powered phone in the QWERTY-slide-out form factor (like the Samsung Glyde) and I’ll be a happy man.
According to TG Daily, the pricing structure for the 3G iPhone will be:
8GB – $399
16GB – $499
32GB – $599 (maybe)
The phone will feature a slightly thinner body and a less “plasticky” case. They expect the phone to be released at WWDC 2008 (June 9-13), which lines up pretty well with the other guesses we’ve heard of “60 days” and “sometime in June”.
It’s amazing how tiny advancements in the iPhone make for big news, but I guess that’s how it is.
The latest beta version of the 2.0 firmware apparently now has contact search, a much-requested feature. In addition, there is now a “meeting invite” feature in the calendar.
I still haven’t heard if my big two gripes have been fixed:
MMS – I want to be able to easily send pics to another phones.
Video capture — Sure, the live video chat would be really cool, but at least let us capture simple video clips.
If they fix those, the iPhone might just be too tempting to pass up.
It seems that every phone company is working on an “iPhone killer”. So far, none have really succeeded but there are some good looking phones in the works.
The latest comes from Nokia with their “Tube”, the first touch device from them. They’re not releasing many details about it, other than:
Entirely touch operated
Java support (which the iPhone doesn’t yet officially have)
Photos can be uploaded directly to the web
Based on the name, we can assume a lot of video/TV features.
One of the neatest features introduced by the iPhone was visual voicemail — tap your way through your voicemails onscreen, rather than having to press 2, then press 7, then press 4, etc. Certainly a useful way to manage them.
Klausner Technologies owns a few patents on visual voicemail, and has previously filed a lawsuit against Apple. Sprint decided to simply pay Klausner the necessary licensing fee for the technology, and will introduce it when the Samsung Instinct comes out.
It can be assumed that the visual voicemail system on the Instinct will be similar to the system on the iPhone, but no one can say for sure. The instinct is expected to ship in June for around $200-$275.
The next step will be to add something like Spinvox to this, which converts voicemails into text. It’d be nice to see a list of voicemails in your phone (visual voicemail), be able to read each of them (Spinvox), and then choose to listen to them if the text translation wasn’t clear. I keep hoping Jott might get into the voicemail-to-text game as well, because their speech-to-text recognition is pretty solid.
It sure looks that way. It’s hard to tell if it will be an embedded GPS or simply support for an external unit, but it appears the support will be built-in.
