Todays & Tomorrows Technology

AT&T have released the iPhone version of their Navigator PND program through the App Store , offering turn-by-turn directions on the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. The Telenav-developed app supports both verbal and on-screen guidance, speech recognition, traffic alerts and full 3D mapping.

Those 3D maps are automatically updated in the background, too, as are POIs and street names. There’s also access to Yellow Pages, for business listings, together with online trip planning; users can set up their journey via their PC or Mac, and then have the route wirelessly delivered to their iPhone.

It’s all sounding great, aside from the price. AT&T Navigator for iPhone is priced at $9.99 per month, which works out at around $240 if you subscribe for the lifetime of your AT&T contract. With standalone GPS units going for bargain-basement prices right now, we’re not sure that’s cost-effective.

AT&T have announced the Motorola Karma QA1, an entry-level slider with full QWERTY keyboard and homescreen access to Facebook and MySpace. Aimed, unsurprisingly, at teenagers and young adults, the Karma has a 2.5-inch 240 x 320 display, 3.6Mbps HSDPA, a microSD card slot and 2-megapixel camera with video recording functionality.

There’s also A-GPS, and AT&T load their Navigator PND app onto the handset. The media player supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, RealAudio, XMF and MIDI files, together with H.263 and MPEG4 video, and the Karma has both a 3.5mm headphone jack and A2DP stereo Bluetooth 2.0 support. You can also access AT&T CV video.

Video hands-on after the cut

The Karma has a full HTML browser, with a dedicated shortcut key, together with threaded messaging, mobile email support including Yahoo!, AOL and Windows Live Mail, and can send and receive SMS and MMS messages. There’s also a speakerphone, speech recognition, CrystalTalk active background noise filter and voice-memo recording.

AT&T will be selling the Motorola Karma QA1 from June 28th, priced at $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate. You’ll also need to budget for a minimum of a $39.99 voice plan and $20 data or messaging plan.

We may not be seeing the same huge queues as we did for the original iPhone and iPhone 3G, but things are still busy this morning at Apple’s 5th Avenue store in New York City. SlashGear headed down to meet with the crowd and soak up some of the iPhone 3G S excitement.

Unlike the sidewalk-spanning lines in 2007 and 2008, this time Apple only needed to cordon off their immediate area. We’re putting all this down to a glut of online orders with people expecting a visit from their friendly UPS person sometime today; allowing iTunes activations at home might not lead to camera-friendly swathes of people outside your store, but it does make life a whole lot smoother for those working inside it!

Later on this morning we’ll be sitting down with Apple’s VP for a chance to ask some questions about the new smartphone and what they think about rival devices from Palm, Microsoft and others. Of course, we’ll also have our own first-impressions of the iPhone 3G S itself, so keep reading SlashGear!

You might not have heard, but the Apple iPhone 3G S goes on sale tomorrow, and AT&T thought you might want to know exactly how things are being arranged come the morning. The iPhone 3G S will be available from all 211 AT&T stores across the US, just in case you decided not to do the sensible thing and pre-order for home delivery. Stores are set to open at 7am local time, exclusively for those customers who have pre-ordered for in-store pickup.
If you’ve left things to chance, or find that the urge to pick up an iPhone 3G S sneaks up on you unexpectedly, remaining handsets in-stock will be available first-come, first-serve from the start of normal business hours; that’s likely to be 9am, but it’s worth checking with your local store to be sure.

Only one iPhone 3G S will be available per new subscriber, priced at $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model. If you’re a current subscriber, it’s worth checking AT&T’s new subsidy scheme to see if you quality; otherwise you’re looking at $399 and $499 to upgrade for the 16GB and 32GB models respectively. Existing customers can buy one iPhone 3G S per eligible phone number, while online shoppers can buy one per household.

With all that in mind, who is planning on picking up an Apple iPhone 3G S tomorrow? Let us know in the comments.

It hasn’t taken hackers long to enable unofficial tethering on iPhone handsets running OS 3.0, and its taken carriers even less time to put out the predictable dire warnings regarding anyone found using such hacks. UK carrier and official Apple iPhone partner O2 have issued a statement suggesting that anybody found using tethering without their official “Bolt On” package will be charged or disconnected.

“Internet rumours suggest that some customers have modified their iPhone to enable Internet Tethering without the purchase of the Internet Tethering Bolt On. Any use of this particular feature without the purchase of the Bolt on is specifically prohibited under our terms of service.

Under those terms we reserve the right to charge customers making modem use of their iPhone or disconnect them. If customers wish to use the Internet Tethering feature on their iPhone 3G or iPhone 3G S, we recommend taking the Bolt On which is available from Friday 19 June” O2 statement

The carrier has been less forthcoming about how they will check for unofficial tethering use, though it seems likely that anybody with high traffic rates will stand out and be investigated. Like other carriers, O2’s so-called “unlimited” iPhone data package actually has a 3GB limit, and they closely monitor traffic for signs of P2P or VoIP use.

Arguably, O2’s stance is more understandable than, say, AT&T. At least the former offers a tethering package in the first place – albeit an expensive one, charging £14.68 ($24) for 3GB per month or £29.36 ($48) for 10GB – whereas AT&T won’t offer official tethering at all until later in the year.

While you’re waiting for iPhone OS 3.0 to download, sit back and watch AT&T backpedal. The carrier has announced new upgrade pricing for the iPhone 3G S, in response to complaints from iPhone 3G users. Now, iPhone 3G users who would be eligible to upgrade in July, August or September this year may now have access to AT&T’s “best upgrade pricing” from Thursday June 18th. They’ve also confirmed that the iPhone’s MMS functionality will arrive in late Summer, and they’ll be charging exactly the same per MMS message as they currently do for SMS text messages.

That basically means that, if you’re a high-spending customer (e.g. you give AT&T more than $99 per month) and would generally be allowed to upgrade 12 or 18 months into a contract, you may be allowed to buy the iPhone 3G S 16GB for $199 or the 32GB version for $299. That’s as opposed to paying $399 and $499 respectively, as is the “normal” early upgrade price.

If you’ve already pre-ordered the iPhone 3G S then AT&T will either reduce the price when you pick the handset up in store, or – if it’s shipped direct to you – they’ll email you with a credit code. You’ll be able to find out if you’re eligible for the new pricing from tomorrow, either by logging in to AT&T’s site or calling them up.

The Acer Aspire One 531 range has finally reached the US, making its official appearance on the company’s regional website and even, we’re hearing, making it out to retailers. Several versions of the 10.1-inch netbook are available, including integrated 3G on two of the models.

Common to all versions is the Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, a 160GB hard-drive 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 display, webcam and WiFi b/g. The Acer Aspire One Pro 531h-1791 throws 2GB of RAM and Windows XP Pro into the mix, while the Aspire One 531h-1440 and 531h-1766 get only 1GB of RAM and Windows XP home, but add integrated 3G. The only other difference between the two 3G-enabled models is the warranty: one year on the 1766 and two years on the 1440.

If bought with a two-year AT&T data plan, the 3G models can be had for as little as $150. Elsewhere, the AOP531h-1791 is listed at around $466.20 at PC Super Store, while the AO531h-1766 is listed at Amazon and Radioshack for around $449.99.

If you’ve been thinking about an iPhone 3G and can’t see yourself tempted by the specifications of the freshly-announced iPhone 3G S, now is the time to buy. Apple intend to keep the 8GB iPhone 3G on sale alongside the iPhone 3G S, so as to “extend their audience”, and to do that they’ve cut its price from $199 to $99. Effective today, you can pick up a brand new iPhone 3G 8GB for under a ton; interestingly, the AT&T press release says that “options are available to purchase [the iPhone 3G 8GB, iPhone 3G S 16GB and 3G S 32GB] without a 2-year contract”, though doesn’t go into details.

If you’d rather the larger-capacity 16GB iPhone 3G, then you’ve still got a chance to pick one up with a sizable 50-percent discount. AT&T are selling the handset for $149 (with a new two-year contract), though because it’s “end of life” and Apple do not intend to keep it on sale alongside the 3G S, you’ll need to act pretty fast before stocks run out.

All well and good, but if you’re currently in the grip of an AT&T contract - not just for the iPhone 3G, but for any device - then the prices for the Apple smartphones aren’t quite so appealing. The 8GB iPhone 3G is $299 for those still mid-contract, while the 16GB and 32GB iPhone 3G S are $399 and $499 respectively.