Articles tagged with: product launches

Since we haven’t been invited, we can only speculate about the magical time everyone else in the blogosphere will having at tonight’s spectacular Apple “Let’s Rock” press event. Actually, since it’s been described by some as “the most boring event in Apple's history ever”, we suspect that we’ll be having more fun down the pub.

Anyway, if you do want a blow-blow commentary of the events as they unfold over in sunny San Francisco (or for UK journalists, drizzly Islington), head over to our sister site, MacUser, who will have people at the event.

The event doesn’t start until 6pm UK time (10am PST), so there won’t be anything to see at the MacUser live blog page until at least then (and possibly not even then, if there's no 3G signal inside the Business Design Centre...). So, try to restrain yourselves. We will. At least until tomorrow morning, when we can finally copy and paste text on our iPhone. Probably.

[MacUser]

Now that a few days have passed since the second coming launch of the iPhone 3G and the iPhone/iPod operating system update, the web has had a chance to absorb and digest Apple's phone and software. As you can expect, pretty much every aspect of the iPhone 3G has been examined in great detail and yes, it has even been put through a blender.

Rather than jump on the bandwagon and report on every single iPhone development as it happens, we thought we'd sit back for a spell, then survey the scene and take our pick of the best coverage. Which is just what we've done, after the cut.

Ending much speculation about sales projections, Apple has announced it's already sold one million new iPhone 3G around the world. The million mark was reached yesterday after just three days.

That's exactly 71 days less than it took to sell a million of the original iPhones. Sales have been boosted by the simultaneous worldwide release, which say iPhone 3G go on sale in 21 countries, rather than just the one.

The was a healthy queue of people outside Apple’s Regent Street store in London this morning before the doors opened at 8.00am, along with a healthy number of journalists and camera crews. Mobile Computer was there and we spoke to the first person in the queue for the iPhone 3G.

We were expecting to hear that the #1 iPhone 3G fan had been there for at least 24 hours, but it turns out that he simply bought his place on eBay the night before for an “undisclosed sum” (but for less than the price of an iPhone 3G”, and turned up at 6.00am this morning to take his place.

The seller, apparently, intended to donate the auction proceeds to charity, so it was all for a good cause. Shame he didn’t hold out for more money, though… You can see our short interview with the first person in the iPhone 3G queue, along with footage of the 8.00am door opening, after the cut.

We're at London's Apple Store on Regent Street this morning, watching the queue grow and grow. When we turned up, there wasn’t much a queue at all. But, it’s over an hour now since the first customer entered the shop to buy his iPhone 3G, and he still hasn’t emerged.

Rumours from inside the palace of all things Apple suggest that the iPhone activation gateway has "gone down". As a result, it's taking much longer to process customers than expected. That probably explains why we're standing around out here like journalistic lemons.

We will of course post updates as and when we get them, including the promised unboxing video and first-impressions review – assuming our own iPhone 3G purchase is delivered today.

[Apple Store]

OK, we admit it, even we’re getting a little excited by the stream of iPhone 3G news that’s breaking today. Following the launch of the iPhone 3G-ready iTunes 7.7 and the iTunes App Store earlier today, the latest is a photo from Carphone Warehouse showing some iPhone 3G stock being delivered. Not the biggest news of the day, but still a little bit exciting, no?

We’ll be charitable and assume that a) that isn’t Carphone Warehouse’s only stock allocation and b) there are more than 40 iPhone 3G boxes on that pallet…

Well, Steve Jobs came on stage at WWDC and didn't disappoint - a black polo neck and blue jeans. Classic! Oh, and there was a small mention of a 3G iPhone as well.

The iPhone 3G (the official name) will launch in the UK and US on Friday 11th July. O2 once again has the exclusive and Carphone Warehouse has already confirmed that it will also be the only independent retailer to stock it. Expect orderly queues outside Apple stores too.

HTC launched its new Touch Diamond smartphone earlier today – a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional device with HSDPA, 4Gb of internal storage and an updated custom UI called TouchFLO 3D. Mobile Computer wasn’t at the launch, so rather than pretend we were by simply rehashing the press release, here’s the press release itself, along with a selection of images.

There's an interesting story over at The Register about the non-event that was the launch of the UK iPhone. A queue did form outside the Apple Store on Regent Street, but it was pretty much business as usual at other iPhone outlets (Carphone Warehouse and O₂) around the country – just a handful of customers, in other words. 

With just a few days to go before the iPhone goes on sale in the UK, Apple has revealed what the 'event' will entail. The iPhone will be available from Apple, O₂ and Carphone Warehouse stores from 6.02pm on Friday 9th November. The 8Gb model will cost £269 inc VAT and there will be a limit of two iPhones per customer.