Peon's Place

And better yet, it’s on sale! Again!

Apple’s manufacturing partners are expected to build 2 million iPhone 3GS handsets in the fourth quarter this year. Last week marked exactly two and a half years since Apple unveiled the iPhone 3GS during its Worldwide Developer Conference in June 2009. Citing industry sources within Apple’s supply chain, DigiTimes on Friday reported that production of Apple’s iPhone 3GS has continued at high volumes that should hit 2 million units in the December quarter. In the first quarter of 2012, production of the iPhone 3GS will reportedly slow to between 1.4 million and 1.6 million units. The same report also suggests that production of Apple’s CDMA iPhone 4 could top 1 million units in the fourth quarter this year, slowing to between 500,000 and 600,000 units in the first quarter next year. In the United States, Apple’s iPhone 3GS is available for free on contract from AT&T while the CDMA iPhone 4 is sold by both Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

I still have my iPhone 3GS, and upgrading to a new phone leaves me with the feeling of “Oh look, I no longer have the latest and greatest” 3-6 months after doing so.  At least when i purchased this iPhone, that feeling stayed for over a year.  Read the rest of this entry » Two and a half year iPhon...

Get ready, because in October when the iPhone 5 comes out, it’s being packed with Sprint’s amazing 4G speeds as well!

Well. Almost. Actually word around the Cupertino campus is that the iPhone 5 will be only 3g, making Apple substantially behind the competition.

But hey, at least Sprint will be the only carrier to offer unlimited data plans, now that AT&T and Verizon have cut users off from unlimited freedom and enjoyment! Actually, wrong again. Sprint plans to end, or at the very least throttle, data plans on the iPhone.

So much for excitement, right? Maybe you can go to T-Mobile, the only major carrier now without an Apple device.

Are you paying $30 per month for your Verizon unlimited data smartphone plan? Well it’s unlimited no more. Starting July 7, you’ll no longer be able to purchase an unlimited data plan through Verizon, which is moving instead to a “usage-based” model. This isn’t the first such move as AT&T dropped its unlimited data plan last summer, but it does seem to represent a tipping point for the industry.

Mobile phone companies have been ditching their unlimited data plans (which encompass streaming video and music, Internet use and e-mail) for a few reasons, but primarily because the amount of Internet traffic from phones has surged over the last few years, and will continue to do so in the years ahead. According to Cisco, mobile traffic will grow 26-fold by 2015, and total mobile video traffic will expand to 197 million gigabytes over the next four years. That’s the equivalent of roughly 13 billion YouTube videos. In a letter to Verizon’s employees, the carrier’s higher-ups said that data usage had more than doubled in the past three years.

Read the rest of this entry » Verizon charges you the s...

With Verizon taking the iPhone 4 (still on 3G network) next month, I have my predictions. And that is to say, reception will be no better than it is with AT&T. Apple really is to blame for many of the shoddy reception issues, blatantly dropped calls, etc. Not AT&T.

However, The Daily Show had a long piece regarding the inception of the iPhone into Verizon’s lineup of phones, and here is the video with Jon Stewart!

I love how they even threw Stephen Colbert in there.

BGR posted this morning that the new Apple iOS update to 4.3 will include the ability to turn the iPhone into a mobile hotspot, notably important for Laptop, iPad, etc owners without non-WiFi options available. You could always do this once jailbreaking your phone, but now it’ll be allowed the correct way.

Verizon iPhones will be shipped with this update already in place, and AT&T users will see the feature enabled some time in the future.

..but I still won’t get rid of my iPhone.

Verizon Wireless made the release date for the Motorola DROID R2-D2, Star Wars Special Edition handset public. The device will be available beginning on September 30th online and in select stores for $249 after a $100 mail-in-rebate. The special-edition smartphone will come preloaded with notification sounds, ringtones, wallpapers, widgets, and music from the Star Wars movies.  How cool is that? You know, if you’re a complete Star Wars nut.

Read the rest of this entry » Awww, it’s so cute!

Yet another blow to AT&T while also hurting Verizon, is the iPhone crossing over to T-mobile before other carriers. Granted, the hardware is very similar to AT&T’s hardware, and only a slight frequency change must be made. But yeah. Verizon? So sorry.

It looks like it will all take place in the third quarter of this year… which is sooner than you think.

Read the rest of this entry » iPhone coming to T-Mobile...

Verizon Wireless will be selling the iPhone in January, according to a report filed by Bloomberg. Representatives from both Apple and Verizon did not comment on the matter, but Bloomberg is extremely confident about this one having verified it with two sources “who declined to be named because the information isn’t public.” Let’s just hope this Verizon iPhone has a better antenna system than the iPhone 4 as we know it.

The iPhone, which has been the sole domain of rival AT&T in the U.S. since June 2007, will give Verizon a boost in its competition for smartphone customers, UBS AG analyst John Hodulik said in an interview. Verizon customers, who numbered 92.8 million at the end of the first quarter, may buy 3 million iPhones a quarter, he estimates. “Apple is going to dramatically increase the number of devices it sells in the U.S. when exclusivity at AT&T ends,” said Hodulik, who is based in New York and rates Verizon shares “neutral.” “It’s hard to ignore the quality issues that AT&T has faced.”

Verizon Wireless is planning to offer a slew of devices, including tablet computers and three to five phones, that could run on its new LTE high-speed wireless network by May 2011, Chief Executive Lowell McAdam said Friday.

These devices should help Verizon Wireless hit the ground running with fourth-generation wireless services to compete with smaller rival Sprint Nextel, which already plans to launch its first 4G phone on June 4.

Another week, another analyst weighing in on the iPhone’s future.

Sources predict that because of a deal AT&T cut with Apple for the iPad 3G, the U.S. telecommunications giant will continue to have carrier exclusivity for the iPhone until at least 2011. His reasoning goes like this: Apple hasn’t been happy with AT&T’s network performance for the iPhone. AT&T wanted to remain the exclusive U.S. carrier for the Apple phone, keeping it out of rival Verizon Wireless’ hands. So it offered a generous and recurring monthly data program for the iPad.

One thing, though: another firm, Global Wireless Solutions, released a study this week comparing all the major wireless providers in New York City. It found that both Verizon and AT&T were about 99% reliable, with throughput up to 20 times what they offered five years ago. Assuming that GWS’ data is accurate, and that AT&T did actually make the iPad deal to keep the iPhone away from Verizon a little bit longer, maybe that deal doesn’t matter–at least for iPhone owners in New York.