3G iPhone's mediocre battery life still beats rivals

The battery life on Apple's new 3G iPhone isn't great, but it beats that of other 3G smart phones we've seen. PC World's Test Center ran it through our standard talk-time battery life test, and found that on average it ran 5 hours, 38 minutes, a running time that we consider earns a Fair rating.

That's a big tumble from the superior performance of the original iPhone, which ran on AT&T's slower EDGE network and lasted the maximum 10 hours of our testing time. But the 3G iPhone beat out the rest of the current 3G smart-phone pack, most of which fell shy of the 5-hour mark that's the cutoff between a word score of Fair and one of Poor in our performance ratings.

Of other handsets that support AT&T's HSDPA/UMTS network, only the HTC Touch Dual came close, with an average talk time of 5 hours, 18 minutes. The AT&T Tilt pooped out at 4 hours, 47 minutes, trailed by the Pantech Duo at 4:46; the Motorola Q9 Global at 4:43; and the Palm Treo 750 at an abysmal 3:53. The iPhone 3G also beat out competitors on Sprint and Verizon's EVDO mobile broadband networks, including the Palm Centro (4:19) and the Samsung Instinct (5:33).

Power-Hungry Networks

3G networks in general are notorious power drains, but the network type used by AT&T is particularly power-hungry because voice calls use the same mobile broadband network as data tasks. In contrast, the EVDO technology on which Sprint and Verizon base their 3G networks supports data only; voice uses older CDMA networks, which (in theory at least) use less power.

The good news for AT&T and other HSDPA/UMTS customers is that they can make voice calls while using their phones for data (that is, tasks such as browsing the web or reading e-mail); Sprint and Verizon users cannot simultaneously do both.

And the good news for 3G iPhone owners is that they're probably better off than other 3G handset owners in terms of battery life. But that won't help when your 3G iPhone stops running at the end of a long and busy day.

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Intel saves batteries, pumps multimedia with Centrino 2

Intel on Monday launched Centrino 2, its latest mobile platform, which the company claims will increase laptop battery life while delivering speedier performance and faster wireless connectivity.

After four refreshes, the new chipset platform is Intel's first major Centrino upgrade after its predecessor was launched in 2003. Running faster processors, the Centrino 2 platform feature will better multimedia performance while consuming less power, the company said.

Laptops with the Centrino 2 platform include Core 2 Duo processors running between 2.26GHz and 3.06GHz, a graphics chipset capable of handling high-definition graphics and a wireless chipset. Three of the new Core 2 Duo processors run at 25 watts for lower power consumption compared to earlier processors, which ran at 35 watts of higher.

Intel plans to ship a quad-core Core 2 chip for the platform later this year for gaming, said Mooly Eden, vice president of Intel's mobile platforms group, during a launch event in San Francisco. Centrino 2 chips are manufactured using the 45-nanometre process.

A gaggle of new wireless connectivity features in the wireless chipset includes support for 802.11n wireless networking and WiMax wireless broadband. Laptop vendors like Lenovo are planning to offer additional mobile broadband options like UWB (ultra-wideband) in future Centrino 2 laptops.

Some users spend more time with their laptops than their wives, so it was important to include better entertainment options on Centrino 2 laptops, Eden said.

The laptops will be able to handle 3D graphics and high-definition content through the new GMA X4500MHD integrated graphics processor. The chipset supports DirectX 10 and is capable of off-loading the processor by taking on heavier graphics loads by hardware-based decoding. Users will be able to watch a two-hour Blu-ray movie on a single six-cell battery charge, Intel officials said.

"The world is going to high-definition... it will happen this year or next year," Eden said. By 2013, the number of Blu-ray drives shipping in laptops will outnumber Blu-ray drive shipments in game consoles, he said.

To improve multimedia performance while saving battery life in laptops, Intel has added technology called Switchable graphics to the Centrino 2 platform. The laptops can switch from a discrete graphics card to an integrated graphics processor when running on a battery. Users will have the option to switch between cards either manually or automatically.

Intel also announced Centrino 2 for vPro, which has security management features allowing remote fixes.

The new platform and its graphics chipset make the company more competitive with Advanced Micro Devices, whose Puma laptop platform raised the bar in handling high-definition content, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64. "Integrated graphics has never been Intel's strong point in the notebook [space]. They are committed to eliminating graphics as a source of competitive weakness," Brookwood said.

Companies including Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and Fujitsu have announced new business and ultraportable laptops based on the Centrino 2 platform.

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Police step in as London Apple Store closes early

Flanked by police officers Apple staff effectively closed the London Apple Store today in the middle of the afternoon.

Garbed in blue T-shirts the Apple crew blamed the closure on UK iPhone carrier O2’s faulty registration system, as entry to store browsers was forbidden and no more customers were allowed to join the queue to purchase the new iPhone 3G.

At 3pm, customers at the world's largest Apple Store were told that it would take at least three hours to buy an iPhone, and anyway the store was closed for new business as the company couldn’t be sure that it would be able to serve the numbers already snaked round the store.

“The O2 system just keeps turning on and off,” explained one Apple Store staffer.

He said that Apple - unlike its retail partners O2 and Carphone Warehouse – did have stocks of the sought-after white iPhone 3G, but that customers should wait a few days for the O2 system to be repaired.

Police helped Apple staff besieged by potential iPhone customers being turned away.

Note prophetic sign in the Apple Store window.

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O2 on iPhone: Huge demand, no 16GB, yes there's problems

An O2 spokesman has attempted to offer what little explanation it can at the activation problems iPhone users are facing - but Apple has so far failed to comment on the situation.

Problems are plaguing iPhone 3G customers and those equipped with older models who are trying to upgrade to iPhone 2.0 software. When trying to complete the authorisation or upgrade process, the operation locks and iTunes offers an error message.

The result leaves iPhone owners frustrated, and means their devices will do nothing at all, bar making emergency calls.

This is how the system works (as explained by O2).

1. You sign up to an O2 contract in store. The device remains bricked.

2. You plug the device into iTunes and it unbricks the device

3. Your SIM card activates on the network. For new customers only there may be a delay in this happening as O2 processes the orders which means customers can use the iPhone but not phone features until SIM is active. Upgrading customers just put their old SIM in and they're away.

O2's spokesman urged patience: "Demand is really high," he said. "In some of our stores we have been selling 40 iPhones an hour - the same level of sales those stores usually do in a day."

Speaking to Forbes, a spokesman for AT&T has described a global problem with Apple's iTunes servers. It appears that with iPhone shoppers in 22 countries now trying to activate their device, Apple's iTunes servers just can't keep up.

Despite the many problems that have plagued the launch, O2 has seen some success, at least in terms of sales. "Half our stores are out of iPhones," the spokesman said, "and we're completely sold out of the 16GB models".

New stock will be made available through O2 next week, availability will be revealed on the O2 Web site.

On the chaotic scenes and in-store problems that defined the first few hours of iPhone sales this morning, he said: "From our point of view - things were slow when we opened this morning, but we have been processing people, we've been selling a lot," he said.

"All we can say to customers is keep trying," he said.

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How much would you pay for first place in the Apple Store queue?

The queue to be first in line for an iPhone 3G began Thursday morning by a single person.

In his distinctive yellow sleeping bag suit, Sunil Raman bagged the number one spot and bedded down for the day, and night.

Sunil Raman bags first place and gets ready for a long night

In the evening he was joined by Antonia Guerra and two other iPhone 3G fans. By the time the iPhone 3G went on sale, over a hundred people were queued up outside the store.

This morning's queue outside the Apple Store, Regent Street

But Sunil wasn't first in line. He'd planned all along to sell his ticket on eBay, and did so via his own personal blog.

So how much is first place in the Apple Store worth? Just a mere 41 according to the Sunil's eBay page.

The winning bidder was David Suen, who told Macworld: "I didn't buy the last iPhone because it didn't have 3G. I'm very excited to be getting the iPhone 3G today".

David Suen, first in line for a mere 41

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iPhone 1.0: Sell it while it's hot

If you were thinking of selling your first-generation Apple iPhone to help finance the purchase of a new 3G model, you might want to do it right now. Like, today.

At this moment, on the eve of the 3G iPhone's launch, original iPhones are commanding upward of $350 on eBay. But some observers believe that those prices will drop rapidly as an anticipated legion of iPhone 1.0 owners upgrade to the new version and put their used handsets on the market.

In fact, Aaron Vronko is banking on steep price declines for used 1.0 iPhones. Vronko is service manager at RapidRepair, a Kalamazoo, Michigan-based store that fixes and refurbishes iPhones (as well as iPods, Zunes, and a couple of other high-profile gadgets). RapidRepair buys and sells a lot of iPhones, Vronko said, and the store has posted a standing iPhone buyback offer of $125 for a fully functional 8GB model - and an offer of $150 for the 16GB version.

Vronko has observed the spirited auctions and elevated final prices for 1.0 iPhones in recent days, but "we don't think they're going to stay that high," he said. On the other hand, he doesn't think that those prices will go into the dumpster, either.

"For a ton of reasons there are going to be a lot more sellers and buyers than usual for a used phone," he predicts.

Buyers and Sellers

Who's going to buy? Domestically, older iPhone may appeal to people who like the handset but are ineligible for AT&T's subsidized 3G iPhone prices - or who simply don't want to pay the higher data service fees that AT&T has announced. (AT&T will continue to charge $20 a month for unlimited data on the older models, but it's going to demand $30 a month for the newer ones).

Vronko plans to make money selling used and refurbished iPhones overseas, in places where people can't get iPhones from their carrier (the new iPhones won't be as easy to unlock for use on unauthorized carriers).

China, for example, isn't among the 72 countries that Apple plans to ship 3G iPhones to by the end of the year - and Vronko says that the iPhone is a huge status symbol in China. "We've already got a contact there who has said, 'I want every iPhone you can get me,'" Vronko said.

Attractive Upgrade Deals

Counterbalancing the demand, Vronko believes, will be a glut of used first-generation iPhones unwanted by owners who are eager to upgrade to the newer model at the subsidized price. "Their warranties either have run out or are about to run out, and if you can sell your original phone for $100, that makes [the upgrade] a whole lot cheaper," Vronko said.

"The iPhone is the first phone where the secondary market for it is going to be massive compared to what it is for other phones," he added.

Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney generally agrees with Vronko's analysis. "The likelihood of the installed base turning over to the new iPhone is high," he said. That's because many of the 5 million or so people who bought the first-generation iPhone were "the kind of people that will own the latest and greatest of anything," he added.

The subsidized pricing will be a big draw, too, he said. Admittedly, some current iPhone owners may not want to sign on for the higher data charges just to get GPS and mobile broadband, which Dulaney views as the principal improvements.

But even if only 30 per cent of current iPhone owners upgrade, "that's still substantial," Dulaney said. And he agrees with Vronko that the market value of a used iPhone will remain higher than the market value of most other used-phone models. "This is probably unique," he said.

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Intel surprise part supplier for iPhone 3G

iFixit's move to disassemble one of the first iPhones sold in the world has revealed some of the details of what's inside, with components from Intel and others revealed.

Initial analysis reveals Apple sourced components from TriQuint Semiconductor, Intel, Samsung, Infineon, ARM, SST and Skyworks, among others.

TriQuint is a new supplier offering a range of components for the iPhone 3G's telephony features, including parts for UMTS, HSUPA and WCDMA/HSUPA.

Flash memory has been provided by Intel, at least in the model disassembled over night. The processor combines a Samsung ARM-based chip with the flash memory.

EE times plans to later publish a initial tear-down analysis from Portelligent.

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