Physically the iPhone 3G S may not look much different to the iPhone 3G, but that “Speed” moniker certainly does make a difference when you turn it on.  It’s too early to quantify exactly how much faster the 3G S is over previous models, but what we can tell is that everyday tasks – such as flicking through homescreens, navigating message-filled inboxes and browsing long contacts lists – are now significantly quicker.  We’ve only had a short time to download a few of the more graphically-intense games, but they look visually more impressive too, no doubt thanks to the new PowerVR SGX video chipset.

Elsewhere, the camera – freshly updated to 3-megapixels – is a little faster to snap a frame, and comes with touch-focus selection.  That’s not a new thing in smartphones generally, but it works well with the iPhone 3G S’ huge preview window.  Shots themselves err on the side of over-exposure, both in stills and the new video recording, and Apple to continue to refuse any sort of manual control.  What you do get is the ability to trim video clips on-device before syncing with iTunes, sending via MMS/email, or uploading to YouTube or MobileMe.

The trimming system is easy to use, but our first impression is that it’s very basic.  There’s no way to merge or join clips, only chop off the beginning or end of them, and – more importantly – there’s no way to copy the video and leave the raw file intact.  Still, on-screen the playback quality looks great, certainly better than we’ve seen on other video-capable devices.

For the rest our our first-impressions, head over to SlashGear where we’ll have live photos and video throughout the day.  We’ll be putting together our full review, too, so if you have any questions you’d like answered, leave us a note in the comments!

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In the box you get the iBooster unit itself, built into a docking cradle, together with a magnetic vehicle antenna, cigarette lighter power adapter and printed installation guide. It’s compatible with both the original iPhone 2G and latest iPhone 3G, and Wilson also produce a model intended for the BlackBerry range of smartphones. Each will go on sale in Spring 2009.

Installation is straightforward: the iPhone drops into the cradle, then you plug in the antenna and stick it, via the magnetic pad, to the outside of your vehicle. The power adapter hooks up to another port, and that automatically powers the iBooster on. No settings or tweaking necessary.  If you’re using a case for your iPhone that means it won’t fit into the cradle, the amplification will work wirelessly up to 2.5ft away from the iBooster, so you can leave it on a seat or in a different mount.

While most of the design decisions make sense, it’s not all quite so straightforward. The strangest aspect of the iBooster is its inability to natively recharge the iPhone; you need to add a separate charger, that plugs into a third port on the cradle. Why it can’t split the supply from the cigarette lighter is unclear; we’re waiting to hear back from Wilson about why this is the case, as those with only one suitable power socket in their car will have to choose between boosting or recharging.  We’re also hoping they can confirm which bands the iBooster supports, and as such whether it’s only currently of use with US-spec 3G or will handle Euro 3G too.

Wilson aren’t aiming the iBooster at your everyday iPhone user – the $350 price underscores that – but at the mobile professional for whom ensuring a few extra bars, and therefore a few extra calls and a successful data connection, is worth the hassle.  In fact they promise to increase the transmission power to the cell site by up to 20x over the iPhone alone.  Every iBooster is apparently manufactured within a room with zero cellular signals, connected to a central server that monitors quality actually during the build process.

Of course, ease of setup and convenience is all pointless if the device doesn’t actually do what it’s supposed to: boost iPhone signal strength. Initial impressions suggest greater call stability and improved sound quality, but we’ll be testing the iBooster out over the next week to see if it’s really worth that premium price-tag.  Keep reading iPhone Buzz to find out the results!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2m6oKPu18M[/youtube]

More pictures and videos from the event coming soon…so stay tune.

Feel free to submit your iPhone 3G unboxing pics/videos to iPhone Buzz — we’re doing a special feature on iPhone 3G around the world.

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mjIgSUMlVQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbTKc6ft-mM[/youtube]

[ePrice via iTechNews]

Although there are points untouched by each review, particularly the new Apple App Store, each reviewer concentrates on a mostly different area.  Mossberg is heavy on the new data functionality, with the 3G connection boasting speeds between three and five times that of the original iPhone.  In his own battery tests, he got 4 hours 27 minutes talktime (actually three hours less than the first Apple handset managed) and 5 hours 49 minutes on 3G.

Baig, however, had no 3G coverage in New Jersey, and as such focused more on the new GPS functionality.  Accuracy is praised, especially when driving, which he found made it all the more frustrating that Apple didn’t supply native live directions.  Maybe a little more cynical than Walt, Ed criticised some lack of backward compatibility with accessories made for the previous iPhone.

Finally, Pogue concentrates more on the iPhone 2.0 software and on how it makes the handset more complete.  That Apple still avoids some “standard cellphone features” remains a frustration; like his fellow reviewers, David found that audio quality of the handset is much improved.  This seems to hold true both for incoming and outgoing voice calls, as well as the speakerphone.

Do Mossberg, Baig and Pogue think you should buy an iPhone 3G?  It seems very much a case of how decent the 3G coverage is in your area as to how impressed you’ll actually be.  Battery fluctuations aside, the data capabilities are finally – network depending – able to live up to what Safari on the cellphone can handle.  However the software updates will be available to existing iPhone users, and given the rising costs of AT&T service you could be forgiven for not immediately spurning your original.

iPhone Buzz will be at the launch of the iPhone 3G this Friday, bringing you our own thoughts and opinions as soon as we have the cellphone in our hands.  See you then!

Have you heard of the new iPhone 3G? One of our Apple ninjas came through for us, and we’ve got some unboxing goodness for you to enjoy. Yes sir — iPhone 3G is in the BGR offices! First impressions? It’s black and shiny. In all seriousness, it’s very sleek, the chrome buttons look great, and it feels just as good as the first one. Our unit is not activated though, so we couldn’t actually explore anything. But then again, we’ve definitely seen OS 2.0 before. Thoughts? We’ve got some awesome detailed pictures all up in our gallery, and we even included some sexy iPhone on iPhone action shots for all y’all wanting to see them side by side. Check it out!  [BGR]

Images via iPhone Portugal (Click through for more images)

“Fundamentally, 3G radios are different from 2G. 2G radios have been around a long time, so they’re more optimized.  Five hours for 3G is a great benchmark in and of itself. What we’ve been able to do is be very aggressive on power management to achieve those numbers” Bob Borchers, Apple’s senior director of worldwide iPhone product marketing

More excitingly, even inside the convention center the 3G data connection proved a success.  The transition from WiFi b/g to tri-band 3G took around two seconds; CNN’s site took 2s to load, NYTimes coming up in 3s.  3G can be switched off, and the iPhone limited to 2G connections, but Apple don’t expect many to do that and the option is buried down through the settings menus.

GPS suffered from being tested indoors, and nobody could get a grip on acquisition times.  Thankfully Apple have very much used the Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) method, where GPS is just another way – along with WiFi and cell-tower positions – that the iPhone can find itself.  The company confirmed it won’t be offering its own mapping data; they demoed the handset with Google Maps, but TomTom have already announcedthat they’ve an iPhone satnav app waiting in the wings.  That should fix the lack of voice-directions, too, and mean you can use the phone for navigation even without internet access.  Photos are automatically geotagged, with as much accuracy as the iPhone 3G can figure out from its three methods.

Copy & Paste and Bluetooth A2DP are confirmed as still missing in action, which is a shame, and Apple PR declined to comment on their later introduction.  It seems reasonable to assume that they’ll turn up sooner rather than later, though.  There’s also no front-facing camera and the main camera is the same, mediocre 2-megapixel unit with no autofocus, no flash and no video capture capability.

Quite a few people have commented on the new, tiny power adapter, which is an extremely small cube with two prongs on one side and a USB port on the other.  It’ll apparently recharge the first-gen iPhone too, as well as the iPod Touch, and will be sold separately as well as included with the iPhone 3G; we’ve heard a figure of around $29.  The dock won’t be included as standard, only sold as an accessory, and has been slimmed down; it’s not visible from the front when the iPhone is in place, and may not be compatible with the original iPhone because of the casing change.

All of the apps demonstrated in the first half of the keynotewere available to look at, and unsurprisingly SEGA’s Super Monkey Ball seems to have been the first port of call.  The graphics are universally praised and gameplay “addictive”, but there was concern that in tilting the iPhone 3G the player lost the best viewing angle of the display.  It sounds like the Nintendo DS may have some competition!

Remember, these opinions are from ten, maybe fifteen minutes hands-on time with the iPhone 3G, so there’s plenty of time for it to impress (or, heaven forbid, disappoint) in a proper review.

BBC
Engadget
Gizmodo
LaptopMag
MacWorld

Let’s start with the balancing issues, in just a coil shape, you have to work with weight issues and get it positioned just right or it’s constantly tipping over. Then there are weight-related issues within the coil, namely that even when I got something else much heavier to hold down the coil so it wouldn’t tip, the coil was too limp to even hold the weight of the iPod up.

Every time I put the iPod in the holder it would droop down almost to touching my desk, making me wonder “What’s the point?” Eventually though I was able to find some places where this stand worked that no other could.

First, I was able to bend it into the perfect position so it dangled from the back of my monitor and then put my iPod touch just above the upper right hand corner of my desktop so that if I had it charging, syncing, or playing music through my PC speakers, bam, it was right their in sight and in reach. Then I have a little shelf/coat hanger type thing above the head of my bed, I use it for books and remotes, things of that nature, anyways I was able to bend it into like a shelf hook shape and watch YouTube videos on my iPod Touch with it dangling right in front of me.

Next I hopped in my car, because my mind was finally going where I could use this thing, and sure enough, I was able to dangle it from my review mirror and it put my iPod in the perfect position. Even better though was when I finagled it to fit on top of my steering wheel so I could use it for directions if I wanted to, it rested on my automatic shifter, only partly though, and was out of the way of my hands and my dash controls/gauges.

I was then able to do the shelf hook thing with it again in front of my stereo back inside my house instead of just setting my iPod on top of my soon-to-be hot stereo. This thing hangs on ledges perfectly, I hung it in my doorway, off my door handle, right now its hanging on my mirror.

So, for just setting stuff on your desk, it’s not that great of a purchase, and I’d recommend the PED3 from ThoughtOut for that purpose. However, if you are having troubles finding the right stand because you can’t find one that will fit in the tight space you have or because you don’t actually have a surface to set it on, but you do have a place to hang something, I definitely recommend it, its great. I Give it 3.5 out of 5 gears.

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[Via Naja King by ThoughOut Review - SlashGear]

You can see that there’s not much extra in there than you normally get with an iPod. You’ve got your earbuds, USB cable and dock adapter. One extra that we haven’t seen before is a plastic stand for your new iPod.

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It looks very similar to the iPhone, and is therefor simply gorgeous. Vincent hasn’t gotten a lot of time to play around with it yet, but we’ll be brining you a full review sometime later.

So if you are curious what goes into these new iPods they have tons of pictures. I myself was curious to see how they were able to make the new iPod Classic’s with more storage, but thinner than the 5G iPods.

I now like the new iPod Classics more because of a metal plate behind the screen to protect from cracking. Oh and there is a nice little cushiony pad with I assume is to help with shock protection. I can’t wait to see the new iPod Touch’s taken apart to see just how much of the hardware is the same and more importantly to see the flood of hardware hacks wherein people upgrade their iPhone’s HDD to the same 16GB capacity of the new iPod Touch.

iPod nano & classic unboxed, cracked open [via SlashGear]

Specs wise this thing is amazing, it has 3G, a 3” 240×400 touchscreen, 5.1MP Schneider-Kreuznach camera with image stabilization (is this a phone or a camera?), auto focus, ISO 800, and QVGA vid recording topping out at 120fps! Now what good would a phone with that extensive of a list of camera features be if you couldn’t edit and upload your content? Well that’s just it, you can, you can use the touchscreen to edit photos and you can upload your video directly to YouTube.

With those three Prada styled phones, with all those features, I think the LG mobile development and design team have earned a well deserved break. Now if only we could bring the whole line down to an affordable price point.

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Features:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEoAVub1Q48[/youtube]

Camera Demo:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW9ADFtUTgc[/youtube]

Some ‘Splainin’ To Do:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAYNW3ozTAk[/youtube]

Live Demo:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qep5iT2AACM[/youtube]

IFA 2007 – SlashGear Exclusive video hands-on of the LG Viewty KU990 [via SlashGear]

Essentially it looks like the Prada you all know, and some have come to love, but with a few nice additions, namely the smartphone functionality. On the hardware side it has HSDPA and twin cameras as well as a generous screen.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H8Zcj2Y_sc[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq0Lo8w-gtQ[/youtube]

There is no keyboard, instead its on the phones touchscreen. For more on the SlashGear article from February click through to here.

IFA 2007 – Exclusive video hands-on of LG’s KS20: the HSDPA Prada [via SlashGear]

Other features include One2One mode that allows you to use two SM100 EarModules as a Walkie-talkie. While this is a nifty Star Trek like feature, I’m just not sure how useful it is since the range of Bluetooth isn’t all that great. The switch between PhoneMode and Environmental mode is a nice touch. You can set specific sound volumes for each mode. VoiceCapture is suppose to do a better job at picking up your voice and make it much more clearer for the person on the other end, but that doesn’t always work out too well. The second to best feature is the wind protection. I tested the headset with my windows down driving on the highway at 65MPH with Chris on the other end. The result? While Chris was able to tell I was in my car with the windows down and the wind blowing by, he was able to clearly make my voice. Now that’s really damn impressive.

Click over to watch the video review.

The spec shows 8 hours of talk time and 70 hours of standby time; this sort of true if you use the headset without any of the environmental settings.

Overall, I rank the SM100 EarModule’s form factor and quality scores an above average ranking of 3 ¾ out 5. The sound quality is good but it’s just not equivalent to the nX6000. It’s more comfortable to wear for longer durations than most Bluetooth headsets on the market.

My recommendation: The SM100 EarModule is a good buy when you factor in the noise cancellation, wind guard and the environmental modes (doubling as a hearing aide). The retail price is $129, but our store is selling it for $99.95.

The rubberized exterior gives the Sidewinder a nice touch and feel while keeping the case extremely durable. The interior is rubber-lined to help prevent your iPhone from getting scratched up.

Unboxing the Marware Sidewinder Smart holster for iPhone

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It comes with a removable 360-degrees rotating ratchet belt clip. If you don’t mind this type of clip, then it’s perfect for you. However, for me it’s slightly thicker than I like, causing the iPhone to stick out away from my hip too much. On the plus side, you can position the case vertically or horizontally, simply by rotating it, and I can see that the flexibility might make the Sidewinder a winner.

Marware have handily included a clear protection film that covers the entire face of the iPhone, as well as a microfiber cleaning cloth. All this for only $24.95!

This looks like a great concept, but I’d be really afraid the Apple Bluetooth headset would drop off (what a way to lose a really expensive headset).