Agincourt Technologies Ltd

Apple iPhone 3G

At 8:02 on a crisp July morning Apple officially unleashed their latest edition of the iPhone on the UK. Pre-empting the wait I had arrived at 6:30 to join a queue of 5 people outside the O2 store which quickly built up to over 50, meaning hours of waiting for those at the back.

So why was there such excitement about a mobile phone, and what made me crazy enough to wake up before the crack of dawn to sit outside a shop?

A fully-fledged browser

No other phone on the planet has a web browser as simple and elegant as Apple's iPhone. Many have tried to clone it, but the combination of the WebKit rendering engine and the iPhone's patented multi-touch screen simply cannot be beaten. It allows you to pan around with your finger, and to zoom using an intuitive pinch gesture. Now the iPhone 3G has near-broadband connectivity there is no real reason you should be anywhere without a desktop-esque web experience.

Exchange & MobileMe

One of the most popular platforms for businesses to share files, contacts, calendars and the like is Microsoft Exchange, and the latest iPhone software (available for the original iPhone too) can link into this directly via ActiveSync to provide this service on the move.

For those who aren"t business users, Apple have created a service called MobileMe, which provides the same functionality, but at the low cost of £60 a year, so anyone can share their data between their computers, laptops and iPhone without having any technical fuss to deal with.

Enhanced GPS

The previous iPhone didn't have satellite-based GPS, it merely worked out it's location using the cell network, which wasn't very reliable. The iPhone 3G now includes both satellite and cell network -based GPS, which allows it to quickly get it's rough location then narrow it down from there using the slower satellite system.

The Application Store

Alongside the iPhone 2.0 software comes 3rd party applications, all provided through the Application Store managed by Apple, which means that nobody can write a virus and distribute it via software as they are all checked beforehand. With over 500 applications, over 100 of which are free, available from day one, and over 250,000 developers working on their own, the platform has more developer backing than any other. Because developers have access to all the iPhones features such as the 3G, GPS, accelerometer and touch gestures we can look forward to seeing some very exciting ideas being developed.

The applications aren"t limited to business use either, the current top downloads include everything from shopping lists linked to the physical location of shops to interactive 3D games - we recommend Super Monkey Ball for some accelerometer madness.

Cost

The cost is dependent upon what contract you order with the phone, and you will have to us the O2 network, however you will not pay more than £99 or £159 for the 8 & 16GB model respectively. Also if you want one of the white models, exclusively available in the 16GB from the Apple Store. Business contracts are also available, for more information visit o2.co.uk/iphone.