Gauson

After Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the truth is finally unveiled of what is to come in the following weeks ahead. So what is in store for us then?

In the article posted before the Apple’s WWDC a few days ago, I had mentioned Apple unveiling an ‘entry-level’ iPhone worth $99; however instead of 4GB that was speculated, it is 8GB instead. One question I ask myself is will 8GB be sufficient enough space? Not only will the ‘entry-level’ iPhone have the new iPhone OS 3.0 software packed with a lot of known features but there are also more than 50,000 applications (and rising) available from the Apple iPhone App Store for users.  Seeing as the majority of files or applications are not very large and those that are less than 10MB can be downloaded over cell networks, developers will try to keep their applications under 10MB if possible; so for the moment it looks like 8GB is adequate enough.

The $99 iPhone 3G will be much the same as the old model and will feature a 2 megapixel still image only camera with up to 10 hours of talk time and six hours of WiFi internet browsing.

How will the $99 iPhone 3G fare against other smartphones? As one of the iPhone’s competitors, the Palm Pre smartphone, was released just over a week ago, Apple slashing the price of the iPhone 3G to $99 does not come as a surprise as it now has a smartphone less than half of what the Palm Pre price is, making it among the cheapest – if not the cheapest – smartphone in the market today.

Apple also announced its higher spec iPhone 3GS. The “S” for speed can be attributed to its 600 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM compared to 412 MHz processor and 128 MB of RAM for the old iPhone 3G thus making it perform basic functions twice as fast as the old iPhone model. The iPhone 3GS will also have features such as better battery lifespan, voice control and built-in digital compass to name a few. Although I would have liked to have seen other features such as an FM radio player or even an expandable memory feature on the iPhone 3GS.

The iPhone 3GS also has a 3 megapixel camera with auto focus, nevertheless I must confess I found the camera upgrade to be mediocre in the least. There are phones like the Nokia N95 which have been around for a while now and medium-tiered Sony Ericsson phones which have 5 megapixels cameras. I certainly hope the optics make up for it.

The new iPhone 3GS supports the voice control by holding down the Home button for a couple of seconds and then commanding your iPhone to dial John. This feature has been around for sometime in most mobile phones or even smart phones.

The iPhone 3GS will come in either a 16GB model for $199 or a 32GB model for $299. The ‘entry-level’ iPhone and iPhone 3GS will be available on June 19 in the United States and July 7 around the world with both having access to more than 50,000 applications from the Apple iPhone App Store.

Not everyone may rush at the chance to get the new iPhones as the original prices ($99, $199 and $299) are only a fraction of peoples’ uncertainty. There is still the overly expensive monthly cost and a two year contract not to mention the fact that existing customers are required to pay upgrade fees to get the new iPhone 3GS.

iPhone 3GS is just better than its previous version, the new improvements are not as dramatic change as those of earlier models. We will just have to wait and see what happens next.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is less than a day away, and there are more signs that Apple will reveal the next generation of its latest iPhone gadget. The word out there says that Apple will start selling a more affordable 4GB ‘entry-level’ iPhone which could be a $99 iPhone and the likelihood of four different iPhone models deployed including 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB versions.

According to a market analyst, the main cost reductions would come from lesser features such as no 3G internet access, a lower resolution camera (less than 2MP with no video), no GPS, and a cheaper data plan (est. $15/month) with a usage cap. It is true that decreasing the monthly bill would hike up iPhone sales but iPhone carriers would not be too happy about that.

In the meanwhile, Apple can add high end upgrades to its iPhone 3G so it will get improvements in screen resolution, a better camera, increase in storage space, more colour choices and better video recording capabilities.

Though the ‘entry level’ iPhone has fewer capabilities, it is expected to perform comparably to the current iPhone. Any major cutbacks in features would not be an iPhone at all. It would be exciting to see what Apple has in store for its smartphones over the course of this year.

Microsoft’s new search engine called Bing has been launched too early in my opinion. It has long way to go before it can even be considered as a serious search engine or even compete with Google. Bing has some serious problem with the search results if it cannot find a website’s url when the website has already been indexed.

To test the Bing search engine when it was launched in the beta phase I searched for Gauson.com in the search box. I knew that Microsoft’s Live search had some problem with finding the exact url address of some websites. Now that the Bing is no longer in beta phase the problem still persists. Microsoft may have changed the packaging and made few improvements but the verdict is that Bing needs many more changes in order to provide good relevant search results.

Microsoft may want to take few notes from Google where webmasters have control over the way the search engine indexes the website.