Apple had a busy day today at the WWDC 2009 event, revealing that they will be slashing the price of the lowest capacity iPhone 3G to $99 USD, launching an new iPhone 3G S model, and introducing the 3.0 firmware update for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The 3.0 firmware will be available on June 17th for free for iPhone users or $9.95 USD for Touch users. The most notable new feature available are the ability to purchase and rent movies, TV shows, music videos and audiobooks directly through iTunes right from the device.
Other features include the ability to shake the device to turn on shuffle in music playback and new parental controls that will allow users to limit App Store apps. Also notably, Safari will now include autofill and much faster JavaScript.
AT&T will also finally begin supporting MMS features such as picture and audio mail in “late summer.”
A couple of the new software features will only work on the new 3G S model, and those are specifically, support for voice control, new camera controls, video capture, electronic compass, hardware encryption of all data and Nike + iPod support.
The voice control allows for, as expected, voice dialing. The new camera features include “rapid shutter, low light, macro and autofocus, touch controls for automatic refocus, exposure and white balance settings.” The camera will also be 3MP.
Video capture will allow for trim editing and easy uploads to MobileMe and YouTube. The hardware encryption will encrypt all internal data, making remote wipes instant. The compass, well, shows what direction you are facing on a map display.
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Result for: music playback
Apple has announced that they will be settling a pair of class-action lawsuits in Canada stemming from claims that the company misled customers “about the staying power” of the popular iPod MP3 players, especially the gradually dwindling battery life of first and second generation devices.
According to court documents, Apple is offering an online store credit of about $44.75 CAD for those living in Canada that purchased an iPod before June 24, 2004.
To be eligible for the credit, the battery life of your iPod “while continuously playing music — needs to have dropped to five hours or less for the first and second generation of the device and four hours or less for the third generation.”
The lead plaintiffs in the case, two iPod owners, claim that the company misrepresented its product by saying it was capable of 10 hours of continual music playback. It is a well known fact that after even the first recharge, iPod battery lives began declining.
A similar case was settled in the US in 2005 and Apple offered a similar settlement as well. $50 USD in store credit or $25 in cash if the battery life has dwindled to a certain threshold.
Result for: music playback
Although Nokia continues to struggle for market share in the US, sales overseas continue to grow and today the handset maker announced the launch of the Nokia XpressMusic 5800 , nicknamed “the Tube”, in what should be their largest release of the year.
The 5800 launches alongside the release of Nokia’s “Comes with Music” unlimited music download service and uses a Symbian S60 interface that Nokia has been demoing since last year.
The device is touchscreen and can be considered more of music player than a phone. Its dual speakers face outwards and there is a 3.5mm headphone jack, two features not found on many phones. Also included are 81 MB of on-board memory and a large 8GB microSD card as well as a guitar pick stylus.
Music playback includes protected WMA, MP3, AAC and there is word that the phone can use Windows Media Player 11 as its on-board player.
According to the source the XpressMusic 5800 includes “quad-band GSM (regional variants will support different 3G standards), 802.11b/g, GPS, a forward-facing 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and 30 fps video recording as well as a second backward-facing camera. The screen measures in at 3.2″ with a 640 x 360 resolution.”
