What's up with the perspective on this image? Take a look at the bottom right corner of the phone...



I think Gruber said it best. This news is bigger than all mobile/wireless news announced at CES put together. Which is kind of depressing.

This is clearly the new iPhone chassis that has been making the blog rounds over the past week.

Wow, some pretty stupid questions from the press, that were obviously not going to be answered (how many units are they gong to ship). Surprised no one asked if this phone also supports GSM/UTMS in addition to CDMA. Turns out it doesn't. Or if it comes with any (few dozen) Verizon apps pre-loaded - zing!

The mobile hotspot app is Verizon's - that's one feature ATT doesn't offer. The phone is non-exclusive so it may very well appear on Sprint next. Perhaps by the time the new iteration is announced in the summer. That would make T-Mo the only one of the 4 major US carriers not to get any love.

But don't you pay for mobile hotspot on their other phones? It bugs me when a feature like that gets included on one phone and not on the others. Again, we're paying for the data, why not let us use it how we want? They didn't talk plan prices at all, did they? I assume it's the same plans available to their other phones, other than the hotspot feature.


I know T-Mobile is the red-headed stepchild, and no I don't think it's essential that they be on that carrier too, but they might as well. It doesn't hurt, and it wouldn't require as big a change as this revision. Prior to today, Android's primary competitive advantage was its presence on all major carriers. The iPhone is, of course, on the biggest two, but there are still subscribers to be had.

Still, this is a pretty big deal. I'll be interested to see how everything plays out, how many AT&T users jump ship, how Android fares on Verizon now, etc. I think Verizon is a much bigger network in my area, and I get a number of people asking me the "when?" question.

I think they'll get a pretty big rush of users, but I think it'll also take a while to tell. For one thing, there's a great many Verizon users who already bought their Android phones because they didn't know the iPhone was coming (yeah, there were rumors, but the WSJ has been rumoring this day for the last two years it seems).

They didn't mention, but engadget did say it's $20 for other phones. Yes, it's a total rip-off. It's paying for nothing. What they're saying is that they're not really giving you the bandwidth you're paying for when you grab the initial plan. Or at least they don't expect you to use the bandwidth they claim is available. They advertise "unlimited" but it's not. Then I'm sure if you used 3 or 4GB consistently every month they'd soon cap you lower or kick you off.

Why don't consumer watchdogs and other groups stop this fraudulent advertising practice?

In Canada we've been seeing false advertising about mobile pricing for two decades.

The issue with T-Mo is that the iPhone's chipset doesn't support its frequency. They'd need to change over to what is it now, 5 bands total?

I know what the issue is, but that's why I said I can't imagine it would be as difficult as making a CDMA version of the phone. Wouldn't they be able to simply change the frequencies they work on? Unless it requires an antenna redesign like the CDMA version also needed. Whatever, it's not a big deal that they aren't on the 4th-place carrier. If they add Sprint that's all they really need


Amen to all that. Actually, this practice irritates me less when you're on an "unlimited" plan (of course, it's never "unlimited," but whatever). It's when they limit you to 2GB, make you pay for the hotspot, and don't even increase your bandwidth. That's the absolute worst. It's a blatant "yes, you get 2GB, but don't you DARE use that!" Ugh, I hate all these carriers.

That's why I'll be on T-Mobile with my Nexus One until the phont crumbles into dust. Somehow when Froyo was released on the N1, I got the hotspot feature for free and it's never been turned off! I use it regularly enough that I need it now, and not regularly enough that I'm willing to pay a ridiculous $20/month for it.

It's a photograph of a poster on a wall, taken from an angle. So you're seeing a proper photograph which has then been perspective-warped by the angle of the photographer taking the picture of the poster.

Well, anyone with an iPhone can run an app to do the hotspot thing, though it's only available to jailbroken devices.

I thought it was Verizon's sleeker more racing-forward iPhone.

Looks like the CDMA iPhone isn't going to work with every iPhone 4 case, due to the change in the mute switch.

For now, I'm sticking with AT&T. Verizon doesn't service where my parents live, and I currently share a family plan with them to keep monthly costs down. I've also never been hit with roaming charges while in the US, but I've heard this is still possible on Verizon when out in the middle of nowhere. I'm hoping enough people will leave AT&T to make the network run a little better, as I've noticed data congestion issues here in southern California.

Hopefully this will lead to some good price competition (though I doubt it will), and once LTE rolls out, the ability to switch carriers without switching phones.

New cases from China will probably be available in three to four hours from now.

Verizon hasn't announced yet what the mobile hotspot pricing will be for the new iPhone. Most likely, it will be the same as for Android phones. If it's cheaper, there will be a scream from all their Android people, followed by a run on the web sites that talk about how to jailbreak and install custom ROMs.

Frankly, it's not really all that big a deal. Since I originally got an iPhone in 2007, I've done business trips where I never actually needed my laptop. I just do everything from the phone. The exceptions to that rule, ironically enough, would require negligible bandwidth -- most notably, synchronizing git repositories if I'm working on something at the time. That's noise compared to catching up with the New York Times in the morning, even on the phone.

I believe ARS is reporting that the hotspot feature is part of the $30 unlimited monthly data plan.

You mean it's not a big deal for you specifically. As I've already stated, I use the wireless hotspot on my phone quite often, for work and for fun.

It's also the reason I want a WiFi-only tablet. I don't want to pay for two data plans when, for the occasional moments I'll use it, I can tether my tablet to my phone.

You could also just swap the SIM card between phone and tablet if you're on a carrier with that technology... To be fair, I don't know if that works on ATT either what with their locking and all.

You're really suggesting that?

Well, you'd be saving the battery in one of the devices.

Doesn't work. Just tried to swap my iPad and iPhone 4 SIMs. Both devices noticed the switch and showed the phone numbers (yep, the iPad has a phone number), but both complained they weren't set up for a data plan. Even after a restart, neither device allowed me to set the APN. I do know that the iPad on AT&T uses a different APN setting then the iPhone and other smartphones, so that probably has something to do with it. I could probably override this with a configuration profile, but at that point it starts to get annoying.

The new Motorola Atrix, initially AT&T only, is an interesting point in this space. You can physically plug the phone into a keyboard/video docking station, and it becomes something of a netbook. Presumably, you don't need a second data plan or other such silliness.

I definitely think it's a cool idea, and I'm sure it would do the job for most things, but there are things for which I need my netbook. First and foremost, for my work I need an ethernet port, and that seems to be something that companies are trying to get rid of...


My dismay was mainly at the inconvenience of switching your SIM card all the time. For myself, I'd have to remove the battery from my Nexus One every time I did it. Plus, at the moment it's only the iPhone/iPad duo that has the microSIM, so you'd have to have two devices that matched on that anyway.

So yes, it's a way around (that doesn't work, according to Tom), but it's not a practical one

There are simple adapters that let you use a micro SIM in a device expecting a normal SIM.

Do those adapters make it any less inconvenient to actually do the swapping? Because to enable the hotspot on my phone I press a single button on my home screen, which seems easier to me, plus I can still get calls.

On the iPhone the sim card easily ejects from the side and you don't have to turn off the phone to remove/insert.

I have about 4 of those SIM adapters - they came with my SIM cutting tool.

No, it's not "easier" to eject and swap a SIM in any case. But it is easier on the wallet if you have to pay an additional $20 a month for tethering or using your phone as a hotspot.

Anyway, it's moot if ATT has the profile set up to be iPhone (or phone) specific and doesn't allow swapping.

Currently I have two different SIM cards myself. One is voice only and the other is data only. I swap once in a while, but I don't normally carry both cards on me. Usually I have the data card and on the odd occasion I need to make a voice call I use voip. I was supposed to be using a dual SIM adapter by now, but the one I bought on eBay never showed up (got a refund).

Not really and I wasn't claiming it did. I was just pointing out that your claim that you needed to have two devices with matching SIM requirements wasn't correct.

Fair enough. Sorry I was snippy, I didn't get much sleep last night and my NAS was being annoying...

The latest rumor is that the hotspot feature will be coming to all iPhones with version 4.3 of iOS. It remains to be seen how this will play out with ATT - cost extra (like tethering) or lumped in with the base data package (like VZ)?

One thing's for sure, ATT is going to lose customers with VZ getting the iPhone. There's no reason to believe that Verizon will not push many more iPhones than ATT ever has. It's already been observed by multiple people that prior to the recent announcement, many consumers were making choices between iPhone and Verizon, not iPhone and some other phone. The runway is now clear, they can have their cake and eat it too.

This talk of iOS 4.3 left me pretty confident that we're also not going to see an untethered jailbreak for 4.2.1 on new devices. I suppose the writing's already been on the wall for over a month on that one though.

Looks like the VZ hotspot "rumors" were too good to be true - it'll cost an additional $20 per month for the privilege of being able to download UP TO 2GB.

Yes, you read that right. Up to 2GB on what you're already paying a monthly fee to supposedly receive "unlimited" data.

2GB goes by in a blink of an eye on a computer streaming or downloading video. Seems like there will still be a big market for the Jailbreak tethering applications.

I thought there was already a beta of an untethered jailbreak for 4.2.1 on the iPhone 4 ?

Where did you get the idea that Verizon lumped in their hotspot feature with any of their data plans? I was under the impression that it always cost extra on their Droid phones. The Pre is the only phone in recent memory that's had a plan on a carrier that included hotspot.

Some blog posted a comment from someone at Verizon that it was "included" - sort of like the Pre. Which would have been a big deal comparing it to the Droid contracts.

I'm sure the iPhone will outsell every Android handset by a healthy margin without it, but the feature is still a huge rip-off.

Andy, I haven't seen anything announced about an untethered Jailbreak for iPhone 4 on any blog, including the Dev Team's. I suspect it will never be released and instead they're waiting for 4.3 which may be the last 4.x update.

I had seen this:

http://blog.iphone-dev.org/redsn0w

...and not read it carefully enough. I see now it is only for people with a copy of 4.2b3 available and with SHSH blobs stored for 4.2b3

Random vaguely-related thought:

I just got a Google ChomeOS laptop in the mail and was playing with it yesterday. It has a built-in Verizon 3G modem, for which they offer an unusual pricing plan. You can use 100MB per day for free, for the next two years anyway. If you want more data, you can pay by the month or they offer a $10 per day all-you-can-eat plan (which nicely undercuts overpriced hotel WiFi rates).

That pricing plan is intriguing. For the odd times that I might want to tether my laptop to my smartphone, 100MB would be more than sufficient for my needs. Wouldn't it be nice if Verizon offered such a plan?

That sounds like some Google shenanigans in the mix. I wonder what the kick-back is.

Of course, the absolute number of Cr-48 laptops in existence right now is vanishingly small. I guess they're "experimenting" to see how people actually use them. (And they'd use them a lot more if the touchpad didn't totally and completely suck.)

Do they have a feature that automatically moves the mouse pointer to ad links then?

Preorders for the CDMA iPhone are starting on Thursday. A firmware update to 4.2.6 has appeared on the Apple update site as well.

This must be the "4.2.5" possibility I saw the Dev Team mention. Apparently they're waiting for 4.3 for a proper untethered jailbreak for the newer devices. Though you'd be hard pressed to find that mentioned anywhere.

I wonder how it will go with a JB for the Verizon model. No doubt a lot of people will also want an unlock to use the device on Sprint.

4.2.6 just has "Bug fix to ensure Personal Hotspot data usage is accurately reported" as the change and its only for the CDMA iPhone 4 so far.

Has anyone even asked this yet.... Is anyone going to pick up a VZ iPhone?

Reports indicate pre-orders are going strong, with VZ's site failing to keep up with traffic early this AM.

I suppose there's no reason to think that sales won't be as strong as they have been on ATT in the past. At least over the long term. I think this is really going to pad out Apple's bottom line.

To put it in perspective, VZ's existing customer base is at least 3x the total population of Canada.

17 hours, and the first batch of phones is already sold out. Only existing Verizon customers could order today, and it looks like quite a few did. Servers crashed under the load just as they tend to do whenever AT&T started accepting orders for a new iPhone.

And 4.2.6 is what all the review units had. Sounds like thats the shipping firmware, and it was posted for anyone doing clean restores of the phone once they get it. Current rumors have 4.3 coming out sometime before February 16th, to allow people to subscribe to The Daily. For now, it's being provided for free, thanks to Verizon sponsoring it.

Verizon didn't report numbers this morning, but they did indicate the iPhone 4 proeorders broke their first day sales records in the first 2 hours. Those first two hours were 3am-5am Eastern time (12am-2am Pacific). Verizon must be really happy, as this happened with relatively low marketing costs for them, compared to say the amount they spent on "Droid" marketing and commercials for other various phones. Getting the iPhone years after it came out may benefit their bottom line more then being the initial launch partner.

I would have thought they'd need to pay Apple some large sum for Apple to make the CDMA iPhone?

Why? Selling millions more units wouldn't be enough motivation?

When talking millions of units sold. The cost of revising the design is lost in the noise.

Normally yes but this is Apple and the iPhone. Telling Verizon that they have to give them a large sack of cash to get a CDMA iPhone made even though Apple would profit greatly from it wouldn't be too outlandish IMO.

I'd expect the same from any other company that had such a successful product as the iPhone which was in great demand. Apple is a company and out to profit at the end of the day and even Verizon would still make a killing even after paying Apple.

Apple did make it very clear at the Verizon announcement that the phone was not exclusive to Verizon. Odds are, they may see it as a necessary step to keep the growth going, both here in the US via Verizon, and also in a few other countries where CDAM has a large user base. China and India both seem to have enough people on CDMA to help justify the new phone. The other option was to wait for LTE rollout worldwide to reach these users, and that is likely to take years. This would provide more time for Android or other platforms to capture a large chunk of CDMA users, like what happened here in the US with Verizon.

And it's already begun, AT&T and Verizon are now running competing ads about the iPhone, with Apple standing to benefit either way.

Apple's commercial, showing both phones doing the same thing, clearly a neutral stance.


Verizon's poking fun at AT&T's call quality issues


AT&T boasting about simultaneous voice and data

I'm sure Apple would have done the CDMA phone earlier if it weren't for the exclusivity agreement with ATT. The Verizon customer base is just too big to pass up.

This helps build additional loyalty for the platform and when LTE finally does come around, Apple will realize the repeat sales. Something that wouldn't be as easy with Android anyway, because there are so many companies competing with that platform, that it's very easy for one of them to get lost in any given product revision.

So what are you guys thinking as far as when Apple will start doing LTE? iPhone 5? 6? 7?

I'm certain the next one won't be, and frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the one after that wasn't.

However, I hear most tech journalists cite Apple's slow adoption of 3G as a reason they'll wait for a year after LTE is prevalent. I don't think they're going to do quite the same thing this time. When they held off on the switch before, there was no competition in their space. I think they'll have to move to LTE quicker than they'd like just to be able to match features.

I think "iPhone 6" or whatever next year's model is called will be the earliest they'll add 4G.

None of the US networks are even close to maximizing the speed possible with 3G and 3.5G technology, I'm not sure I'm going to hold my breath for LTE.

There would be no purpose in deploying LTE on a phone this summer. While it might be available in pockets of the US, it's not going to be widespread internationally. Most of the Android phones that come out with support for it will be all but abandoned in 4 to 7 months after release.

I'd say iPhone 6 (summer 2012) at the very earliest. At this point I can't see them unleashing anything in iPhone 5 that would make me switch from my iPhone 4. Unless of course I can sell it (it's factory unlocked and works everywhere) and upgrade for next to no money, pretty much in prep for the following year's upgrade.

I'm pretty much assuming the iPhone in 2012 will go to LTE. Right now, LTE is very limited, and data only. By 2012, there should be enough widespread deployment, and voice will likely be figured out by then.

What I'm curious about is if Apple will use the fake 4G term, by having the 2011 phone show 4G in the status bar when connected to a higher speed HSPA+ network. To me, I still think it's a marketing sham. But, if they don't go along with it, some consumers might fall for the 3G/4G trap and start avoiding the phone.

I think the biggest question is whether we'll see a unified (UMTS(GSM)/CDMA) iPhone in the near future...

I'm a little confused by this statement. Are you thinking of WiMax? It's not like all those phones are going to suddenly stop getting 4G data one day. They use LTE, which is going to be the standard going forward.


I doubt it, unless Apple really had this Verizon deal in mind a long time ago. I'm guessing development on this year's iPhone started too long ago for that. And as we seem to agree, it's more likely that they'll just make a 4G phone in 2012.

No, they'll continue to work fine, but they're likely not going to get software updates, since they'll be made by companies that have zero vested interest in the unification and longevity of the platform and only want to push newer handsets every few months. What these guys care about the platform is 1. that it's free and 2. that it has Google's brand attached to it.



They definitely have been working on Verizon for a long time (long in the world of tech anyway). But when I said "near future" I didn't necessarily mean for this summer. Even with an LTE-capable product next year, it's still got to support UMTS/GSM for global reach. But, I wouldn't rule out a unified device this year. I'm not much for betting, so I can't really offer odds, I just wouldn't be too surprised if it happened.

On Verison's iPhones, I take it that phone calls interrupt whatever surfing might be going on.

I mean it would suck if callers got a busy signal if they happened to call while you were watching your favorite Youtube video.

For both Verizon and AT&T, if the phone is on the 2G network, phone calls will go right to voicemail if data is being used. For the Verizon phone on 3G, a call will ring the phone, and interrupt the data session if the call is answered. On AT&T 3G, the call won't interrupt data, but it may slow it down a little for the duration of the call.

Looks like the chipset supports GSM and CDMA, so that could be a sign of things to come.

Apparently even though there seems to be very little difference between the AT&T and Verizon models, there's a lot of difference under the hood.

Which chipset? I mean, I know there's a chipset that does, but I was under the impression that the Verizon iPhone was not using it. That chipset (and in the future possible others like it) are why I wouldn't be surprised to see a unified iPhone sooner rather than later.

EDIT: Ok, I've seen the iFixit tear-down and they ARE using the Qualcomm chip I was thinking about. But they're missing the other parts to get GSM working though. Seems like a pretty strong indicator that iPhone 5 will be universal though.