Good morning,

And welcome to the second iPhone UK launch day - more specifically, for the 3G iPhone.

Since the 3G iPhone goes on sale at 8.02am this morning, our coverage will be slightly different. We will still use our contributors to bring you all the latest iPhone news from all over the world - direct to the UK. But we will be opening our forum to allow you to post when you receive your 3G iPhone (if you where one of the lucky ones to get it via the O2 Online Store on Monday!), tell us about the Apps you have downloaded from the new iTunes App Store and what you think of the new 2.0 Firmware update.

Have a happy 3G iPhoneUKlaunch day.

Steve

So with the launch of the App store only 2 days away now, we thought we would ask our readers to let us know about all the apps that you download, what you think of them and your review.

We will be starting a new thread on our forum - click here for the link to the App Forum

We will also post the best reviews on the Native Apps page on the website for all to read.

Lets all share and share alike…

We had an email today from a source that tells us that the PAYG iPhone on O2 will cost somewhere between £200 - £269

I’ve got a friend who is a manager of an 02 store and he has told me that you will have to pay a “little” more for the iPhone on pay as you go, it will be in the £200 region (£100 is roughly the price is for Pay Monthly) but less than £269 (how much the iPhone was priced last year). If you do not believe me, then all I can do is assure you that when 02 announces this, my facts will be correct.

Until O2 announces the PAYG options, then please keep this in the rumor category, but thanks to Arjun for the heads up.

3rd post in as many minutes!

There is news that Tom Tom will be bringing their maps to the iPhone and they say that they have already tested it on the device. 

This will come as some comfort for those of you that didn’t like the idea of using Maps on long journeys, especially as you will still have to tap at each turn - if Tom Tom (or others) release their maps, then we would expect it to have audio - which would make things easier as well as SAFER!

So did anyone notice the smallprint on the O2 website? Dougie from Edinburgh did:

“Handset subject to availability. Connection subject to status, 18-month minimum term contract, credit check & direct debit. Data usage whilst roaming not included. Unlimited Wi-Fi is available at any of the 9,500 Wi-Fi hotspots from our partners The Cloud and BT Openzone (available from 11 July 2008). Excessive usage policy and full terms apply.”

So more WiFi areas for you to use your 3G iPhone! Now, if we can just get Starbucks to change then we’re onto a winner!

Okay, so the new iPhone 3G still doesn’t do MMS, but iPhoneUKlaunch reader Neil has installed a work around on his iPhone 1.1.4

I have an 8GB iphone with 1.1.4 firmware, using it on the o2 pay monthly contract that I started when I bought the phone.

This is presuming that the phone has been jailbreaked’.

1.  Firstly if you are on an o2 contract you need to get your iphone sim card provisioned for MMS as the iphone natively does not support MMS.  If you phone up o2 customer services and ask them, they will feed you the blah that you have an iphone, it doesn’t support MMS and therefore they will not provision your sim.  So what I did was took my sim out of my iphone, put it in my wifes phone and phoned o2 CS asking them to provision my sim for MMS - I fed them some story that I’d damaged my iphone and am now using a different phone - they will ask you what phone your sim is in, so make sure you have your sim in that phone and leave it in until the provisioning is complete - you’ll receive a confirmation text from o2

2.  Now install the Swirly MMS app onto your iphone - available through the installer menu on your iphone

3.  Now you need to input the o2 specific settings into swirly mms - click on the settings button in swirly mms and input the following settings:

NB - these settings are for o2 pay monthly only

MMSC - mmsc.mms.o2.co.uk:8002

Proxy - 193.113.200.195:8080

APN - wap.o2.co.uk

Username - o2wap

Password - password

Save these settings and that is swirly MMS configured for your phone

4.  To view received MMS messages you need to install additional packages on your iphone through the installer menu.  Firstly install ‘mobilefinder’ - this is under the ‘iclarified’ category in your installer menu.  Mobile finder is similar to the ‘finder’ application found on all macs that allows you to locate and browse files.  Now you need to install the ‘mobilepreview’ application, again through installer.  Preview actually allows you to view the received messages. 

5.  The final bit of tinkering you need to do is required because when you receive MMS messages they will appear very small when viewed.  Now what you need to do is con the network into thinking that your sim is in a different phone than the iphone - apparently the network resizes images based upon what phone they’re being sent to - this is quite a straightforward process to do…honest. Procedure as follows:

  -  click on installer on your iphone and select the ’sources’ button bottom right

  -  click ‘edit’ (top right) and then click ‘add’ (top left) - an add source box will open up starting off with ‘http://’

  -  next to http:// type in the following (note this IS case sensitive): swirlyspace.com/SwirlyMMSSettings/Settings.xml

  -  click ok, it will then refresh your source list and once finished click done at the top.

  -  now press the ‘install’ button in installer and you will see a new catergory there titled ’swirlymms phone faking’

  -  click on this category and you will have a list of phones that you can fake - I chose the sony erriccson one which works well for me - install this and then you are done - your received MMS will appear as a larger size.

Well thats it really - all of the above worked for me and I’m now able to send, receive and view MMS.

This report from MacWorld.co.uk:

O2 has officially confirmed its anticipated £100 discount on the 8GB iPhone, offering the device for just £169 until 1 June 2008.

O2 seems set to follow T-Mobile, ushering in a £100 price discount on at least one iPhone model.

A report on Mobile Today warns O2 and Carphone Warehouse will tomorrow announce the discounted iPhone price, offering the 8GB model for £169, against its existing £269 price.

O2 hasn’t yet confirmed the report, though a company spokesman earlier this month told Macworld: “We regularly examine all of our offerings to ensure they remain competitive and meet customer demands. We currently have no updates regarding iPhone pricing.”

Source: http://www.macworld.co.uk

Fscklog reports (another report) that T-Mobile Germany is starting to offer substantial discounts on 8GB iPhones when purchased with a 2 year service contract.

The 8GB iPhone normally costs 399 euro, but depending on the service plan you sign up for, you could get it for a 300 euro discount. The special prices are as follows:

249 euro iPhone with Complete S
199 euro iPhone with Complete M
149 euro iPhone with Complete L
99 euro iPhone with Complete XL

The offer is good only between April 7th and June 30th and the 16GB iPhone remains at 499 euro. The changes have not yet been reflected on T-Mobile’s site. This move to introduce subsidized iPhone pricing is interesting, in light of early beliefs that Apple prohibited the practice to avoid reducing the perceived value of the phone. For what it’s worth, we’ve heard that iPhone sales in Germany have been disappointing.

The news comes amidst reports of iPhone shortages in the U.S.

Source: MacRumors

“Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the world’s largest contract electronics maker, plans to ship at least 10 million third-generation iPhones for Apple Inc., a person familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires,” Wei Yi reports for Dow Jones.

“The person, who declined to be named, said Apple will likely launch the new generation iPhone as early as the second quarter,” Yi reports. “‘Hon Hai is ready to ship anytime. It is just waiting for the nod from Apple,’ said the person.”

“Last week, another person familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires that Hon Hai had received an exclusive contract to make an advanced version of the iPhone,” Yi reports.

Source: MacDailyNews

Apple have released three new iPhone ads in the US, called Bet, Brilliant and Music Store.

View them at the Apple Website here.

Apple was founded 32 years ago today, 1st April 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

Calling all Mac Developers out there, especially in Scotland!

MacMacDev is a group for Mac Developers in Scotland.

In Scotland? Use Macs? Write code? Come and join MacMacDev. Doesn’t matter if you’re writing for the desktop, the iPhone, or for the web, as long as you’re doing development work on the Mac you’re more than welcome.

We meet on the last Thursday of every month for an evening of geeky conversation and code; nothing too formal, no membership fees, no presentations, just socializing, discussing, coding, debugging, and the occasional bout of whining and rumor-mongering.

The first meeting of the CoreGroup met on Tuesday 25th March in Glasgow, 7 years and 1 day after the release of Mac OS X 10.0

Updated: Macmacdev has just teamed up with NSScotland to form a Mac Developer community in scotland

Our next meeting, macMacDevs[1], will be held at OffShore, 3/5 Gibson Street, Glasgow, G12 8NU, on Thursday 24 April 2008, from 19:00.

For more information, or to let us know you’re thinking of coming along, email david at macmacdev dot com.