NIMUG

The iPhone 3G is due to be released on the 11th July and will be available to existing iPhone customers as well as new customers.

Two reports from the two O2 stores in Bangor (Main street and Bloomfields) agree that they will not be dealing with existing iPhone customers looking to upgrade to iPhone 3G for an estimated two weeks. The stores will only be dealing with new signups. Both of them said (separately) that existing iPhone customers who expressed interest would be posted a new iPhone after being called in early July and agreeing to a new 18 month contract. This means that existing iPhone customers would be very unlikely to receive the iPhone on day one.

Both of these stores were likely O2 franchises and not necessarily O2 corporate or O2 retail. So I rang O2’s specialist iPhone support line and they just read the content of O2’s web page back at me.

Andy McMillan posts that the Castle Lane, Belfast O2 store will accept applications from the 4th July and people who register (first come, first served) will receive their iPhone 3G on the 11th July. The O2 store in Castlecourt says that first-time customer will be served on the 11th July, upgrading customers will have to wait a week.

Do you have anything to add from your local O2 store?

I’ve just upgraded NiMUG.org to the latest version of Wordpress so I’d appreciate it if everyone could keep an eye on it and make sure that everything is working okay.

Thanks.

Due to BarCampBelfast this weekend (Saturday) and Belfast OpenCoffee on 3rd July, we’re going to SKIP the NiMUG meeting for June.

Come along to one of the other meetings and say Hi!

Apple is releasing the iPhone 3G in the UK on July 11th. There is an upgrade path for existing iPhone users as well. The big news is that the iPhone 3G with 8 GB of storage is going to be £99 on low end tariffs (£30 and £35) and free on high end (£45 and £75). The iPhone 3G with 16 GB will be £159 on the low end tariffs, £59 on the £45 a month tariff and free to users on the £75 tariff.

What’s new in the iPhone after June 11th?

1. Software - the new iPhone 2.0 brings some incremental improvements over the iPhone 1.0 software but the big news here is the new App Store so you’ll be able to add third party software - from eBay auction watchers to games to vertical medical applications. They demonstrated games from Sega, a music ‘band in your pocket’, a native application from the Associated Press and other applications - all of which will work for the current iPhone in July and is also available for the iPod touch (for about £5).
2. 3G - much faster UMTS/HSDPA networking which scales back to EDGE if you move out of coverage. This is a massive speed increase and will mean it’s possible to download apps and movies over 3G rather than having to wait until you’re in a WiFi area.
3. GPS - a proper GPS module rather than relying on cellphone towers and Wifi triangulation. It is assisted by the other methods for those times when you might be out of line of sight of a GPS satellite. And it live updates so - as well as being more precise - you can see where you are when you’re moving.
4. MobileMe - the new name for .Mac - it incorporates push email, push contacts and calendaring as well as a 20 GB iDisk. It works with Mail, Address Book and iCal on a Mac, Outlook on a PC and Mail and your applications on iPhone or iPod touch. It syncs mail, contacts and calendar events over the air so there’s no need to dock up any more. .Mac wasn’t for everyone but for those of us who have been using it, it’s a welcome upgrade.
5. Deals - apart from the upgrade options which are pretty compelling, the iPhone will add to the free WiFi access from the Cloud by also adding in BT Openzone. This creates a huge number of WiFi spots out there so you may not even have to use WiFi. It’s one of the first time I’ve actually started believing the hype about ubiquitous networking.

I’m sure you’ll sound off in the comments.