Doctor Happy Mac's Mac News

3G iPhone to be cheaper?

andrew[at]doctorhappymac[dot]co[dot]uk (Andrew Stephens) — 2008-06-05T19:50:45+00:00

Rumours are surfacing that the launch of the new 3G iPhone (rumoured to be taking place at the WWDC in San Fransisco on the 9th June) will see a major relaxing of Apples one supplier per country rules as well as the introduction of heavily subsidised handsets. Uptake of the iPhone in europe has been slow. Partly due to the lack of 3G connectivirty but partly because european consumers are used to paying far less for their hand sets than US customers. Current rumours are that UK supplier O2 will offer the second generation phone for around £100 when tied to a contract of 18 months or longer, while purchasers of the company's heavy data plan (£75 per month) may get their iPhones free of charge.

The new 3G phone is rumoured to feature many new features including GPS, an improved camera and instant messaging via iChat. All will be reveraled (probably0 on the 9th. The count down has started.

O2 and Carphone Warehouse drop iPhone price £100

andrew[at]doctorhappymac[dot]co[dot]uk (Andrew Stephens) — 2008-04-20T19:49:41+00:00

UK sole provider of the iPhone O2 and partner outlet Carphone Warehouse have announced a £100 price drop on the 8GB iPhone with immediate effect. The offer, which ends in June reduces the price of the phone from £269 to £169. The price of the 16GB model remains unaltered at £329.

Despite strong initial sales, the iPhone has not been the success in the UK as it was in the US, possibly due to the high price compared to the US phone coupled with a lack of 3G connectivity that most european smart phones including the Blackberry, have built in.

The O2 promotion is being carried out independently of Apple UK and means that o2 are effectively making no profit on each handset and relying on monthly plans to generate income.

The new £169 price means that an 8GB iPhone is currently cheaper to buy than an 8GB iPod touch, though of course customers are still locked into an 18 month tarif plan starting at £35 per month.

A 3G version of the iPhone is expected to arrive in the states in June.

MacBook/MacBook Pro Update

andrew[at]doctorhappymac[dot]co[dot]uk (Andrew Stephens) — 2008-02-26T23:57:20+00:00

Apple's long awaited announcement of updates to their consumer and professional laptop lines were finally announced today.

The new MacBooks look identical to the old ones apart from a small change to the trackpad to facilitate the addition of multi touch gestures, first seen in the MacBook Air model. Under the skin the new machines contain the standard upgrade fair of faster processors (2.4, 2.5 and 2.6 Ghz) courtesy of Intels new Penryn chip design and larger hard drives (200-250 Gb).

The MacBooks do without multi touch gestures but also gain a speed boost and upgraded storage.

In all these machines represent a useful update with most changes being incremental but useful. All the machines are available with immediate effect.

iPod shuffle - half the price or twice the storage

andrew[at]doctorhappymac[dot]co[dot]uk (Andrew Stephens) — 2008-02-21T21:44:41+00:00

Adding more space to the smallest iPod, Apple announced a doubling of the tiny shuffle's storage from 1GB to 2GB. In addition the old 1GB model has been price cut to £32. Each model of iPod is available in the same 5 colours as previously. The 2GB shuffle can hold around 500 songs and also be used as a USB flash storage drive (with a USB port adapter).

The price drop to £32 for the 1GB shuffle means that Apple's range of iPod players spans the entire price spectrum from £30 to £330 (iPhone 16GB). Something for everyone then.

BBC TV shows make it to iTunes

andrew[at]doctorhappymac[dot]co[dot]uk (Andrew Stephens) — 2008-02-20T20:02:46+00:00

The BBC have announced that as from Tuesday (Feb 19th) a selection of their shows will be available via iTunes download. The initial offering of shows includes ratings toppers like Robin Hood, cult sci-fi show Torchwood and the ubiquitous Two Pints of Lager. Also released are new episodes of the 80's based cop/fantasy show Ashes to Ashes. Shows are priced at £1.89 per episode. BBC sources have indicated that following on from the recent launch of the Mac version of the corporations iplayer, they intend to make BBC content available via iPhone and iPod Touch also.