Yes. Its exactly 1 year ago today that we announced ourselves to the Internet with an introduction at the Glasgow MacUserGroup (GlasMUG). It seems like such a long time ago that we stood there and put up the first iPhoneUKlaunch.com website.

I started the website just because I didn’t want the UK launch to be such a quiet affair. Thinking it would pass un-noticed and that people wouldn’t take the iPhone to their hearts like in the US, I decided to just report on everything I could find regarding the iPhone and its launch in the UK.

I somehow don’t think the next version of the iPhone (due tomorrow, 11th July 2008) will be such a quiet affair. From the announcement through to the O2 Ordering website (don’t get me started on that!), through to the eve of the iPhone 3G in the UK - its been quite a ride. 

It was my intension to wind up the site after the launch of the iPhone last November, but people kept visiting the site and with the re-launch of the forum, our little UK iPhone community is thriving.

So now, almost 2 iPhones later, we are still going stronger than I ever thought we would. Just to give you an idea of what our little site has achieved, over the past year we have had:

1167 Published posts

86,277 unique visitors

933,962 pages viewed

2,845,149 hits

Thats on average 235 unique visitors per day! Looking at on average 10.8 pages per visit!

Not bad for a little website with no funding and a loyal fan base.

So we would like to say a BIG thank-you to everyone that has made iPhoneUKlaunch.com such a success. 

Here’s to the next 365 days of iPhone usage….

Steve

Hi,

Welcome to the the new Version 2.0 of iPhoneUKlaunch.com

We have made a few small changes as you might be able to see on the Desktop version. The iPhone version will stay the same, making it quicker to launch over the EDGE network.

We are still making a few changes and debugging, so please bear with us over the next few days till we can get all the bugs sorted. 

Enjoy your new site.

Steve
Online Editor 

Okay, some of you might be wondering what’s with all the posts over the last few days. Well, as we use Wordpress for the site, we thought we could try a Syndication of iPhone sites to bring all the news to you. This involves a plug in that we set up for certain sites which then read RSS feeds to bring you all the news into one place, saving you the time to look at other iPhone sites - thus saving you time!

We have been testing this for the last few days - but we have noticed that some of the posts cut off mid sentence and when you click on the link, it sends you to one of our pages with no more text. This is down to the RSS feed not posting the entire post. We have now rectified this, so if you click on any title, if it is from a syndicated site, then it will take you there.

I will post a section in the forum for you to discuss if this is working - just trying to save us all some time by brings the news to one place, nice and simple!

Thanks

Steve

PS - comments welcome!

We have placed a nice little widget on the front page over on the right hand side. It is provided by Pingdom and indicates when the US Apple Store is down! It pings the website once every minute and looks for bits of code. It should change when the US store is down. We will see if this works this coming Tuesday!!!

Okay, after so many emails and a few comments on the website - here it is, the iPhoneUKlaunch.com forum.

Here’s the deal…I have set up PHPBB3 Forum which you can link to from the main site on the right hand side (the image that says Discussion Forums). I have enabled it so you will have to register - the reason for this, is to reduce the spam that will hit the forums. I have also enabled the IM on the forums so you can ‘ping’ other members.

I have set up a single Forum called “All things iPhone” and in there you will find a few topics I have started and you can post your own topics. I have tried this afternoon to get a link to the front page of the iPhoneUKlaunch.com site, without any luck.

The forum, if used, will get modified and updated as we go, so lets spend some time in there and get going.

For those reading this on their iPhones (as I understand that you cannot see the icons on the right side due to the iPhone Viewer, the link is http://forum.iphoneuklaunch.com

Bookmark it and tell you iPhone friends!

Let the discussions begin…

Hi All,

Just wanted to pose a question to our loyal readers out there. If we started a forum on the site, would you use it? or would you prefer to continue to post your comments on the blog?

We did create one at first and no-one really used it.

We thought we would ask you before we spent the time to set one up.

Comments welcome.

Steve
Online Editor

Okay, I’m going to completely go off topic for this one, but hey, it’s my website!

As you might have guessed from the banners on the lead up to the iPhone Press Release with SJ back in 2007 (sounds weird saying that!), I am a huge 24 fan and was gutted to find that Season 7 has been delayed due to the Writers Strike in the US (go WGA!). Well I came across this video on YouTube on what if 24 was filmed in 1994!

Link here

PS - if you like 24, you should find this…enjoyable!

Just a quick note to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year. Best wishes to you all for 2008 from all at iPhoneUKlaunch.com

We will continue to bring you all the iPhone UK News throughout 2008, including everything about the new 3G version.

Be safe.

Steve
Online Editor

PS - we will be running a limited update service until the 3rd January 2008!

Well, like I said just last week, I will be bring on some more Guest Administrators to help withe the burden of updating the site. I might even buy them all a pint for Christmas! As well as our “long term” administrators David & Hugh who did such a wonderful job whilst I was drinking my way through Napa Valley Wineries, I am delighted to welcome Jon and Will.

Jon, is currently enjoying a relaxing Thanksgiving near Cupertino and has just emailed a brilliant review of use of his UK iPhone in the US, together with a few nice hints & tips should you be traveling to the US anytime soon. Will runs a fantastic Mac website called “MacTastic.net”, where he gives loads of hints and tips. Check it out (link is also on the right).

Both Jon and Will are members of the Glasgow Mac User Group and have been supporters of the site since we started. I welcome them to iPhoneUKlaunch.com as Guest Administrators!

Steve

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

A BIG thank you to all of you out there that have emailed and left comments regarding the future of iPhoneUKlaunch.com

I fully appreciate everything you all are saying about the site. So I have decided NOT to stop posting and to continue, but it will be in a limited fashion. I will endeavor to post at least once a day (Monday - Friday) and more if I can sift through all the information. I will also be inviting some Guest Administrators to post, to help lighten the burden.

As for the site name, we will continue to use this site as so many of you have told me that you have it on your RSS feeds, and how easy and quick it is to download over the EDGE network. We have the site registered for 2 years so we might as well make the most of it.

Moving forward, we will try to look at iPhone UK related stories, but if there are general stories that we feel might be of interest to you, then we will also post them too. Everything that has been here will continue to be here for the future, so you can double check information, links, etc.

We have so much to look forward too for the iPhone including the SDK coming in February next year and no doubt a 3G iPhone sometime next year (start saving your money!).

If you have any iPhone stories or see any information that you would like to contribute to the blog, then please email me at steve@iphoneuklaunch.com

Thanks for your support over the recent months and I look forward to continuing the site with you all.

Steve
Online Editor.

Hi to all my friends out there,

Well it has been an emotional journey over the recent months. We finally have the iPhone in the UK, and I believe this is the start of something special - a revolution in mobile phones in the UK. So now that the iPhone has been launch, where do I take the site. Well we have had a fantastic response with the site getting between 1500 - 3500 hits a day and at its peak - 125,000 hits on the day the iPhone was announced by SJ at the Regent Street Apple Store. We have climbed the rankings in Google and are 3rd, behind Apple (of course!) and iPod.org.uk

So my question to you al out there that read the site is, will you still use the site for your iPhone UK information? I have posted a second poll to the right to ask that very question and would be grateful if you would select.

Over the recent months, I have tried to give you the latest information and operating the site has been fun, but has come at a cost - I have little income coming in. And I would hate to just cease updates if you are still willing to visit the site for your iPhone UK information. Therefore I have a proposal. I can continue with the updates but the site might only be updated once a day (or twice depending on work!) Is this acceptable to our readership?

Please leave your comments as I would like to know what you all would like from the site moving forward - there’s always a rumored 3G iPhone launch to cover…..

Steve
Online Editor

Well, later than promised, here is the YouTube video from last friday outside the Apple Store, Buchanan Street, Glasgow, as we where waiting for the iPhone to launch. Thanks to SBBT Media for their support for getting the video done and for spending the day with us - It turned out great.

Check it out on YouTube

Hi All,

Well I am back from the good old US of A with iWife and its nice to see that our 2 guest administrators, David & Hugh have not completely destroyed the site. I will be asking them to continue to contribute that their leisure, so thanks guys looking after these iPhone News Addicts!

David gave me his iPhone to take to the US to activate a signal on AT&T and I have got to say that after using it in the real world for two weeks, it has sealed the deal for me. Given that I agreed not to use the iPhone to make calls, I took the SIM out so I only used it on WiFi networks - for which there are many free ones in the US.

I gave the camera a good run for its money and I will be posting some pictures I took from the iPhone and comparing them with some taken with my 7.2mp Sony Camera. The verdict, a 2mp camera is never going to stand up to a 7.2 or a 12mp camera with zoom, but for snapping away on holiday, it did the trick very nice indeed.

Email was a breaze to pick up and when I first synced the iPhone with my Mac, all my email accounts came up, and I have a few for various sites. I sync’ed about 4 different email accounts and managing them was very easy.

The safari browser was great for finding restaurants etc. and google maps works great. I did a test to see the route and distance etc. that google maps gave me against the Hertz Sat Nav - and they where almost the same, so if you plan your route putting in start location and end location, then select the list options, it tells you the turns etc. so it could be used as a very crude sat nav system.

The notes application was really great. Given that we where going to the wine counties of Napa and Sonoma, I wanted to list all the wines we tasted (and it was alot!). I just whipped out the iPhone, went into notes, and tapped away. The keyboard does get easier the more you use it. The great thing with notes, is that when I was finished, I could just tap on the envelope and it converts the note to an email which you can sent to anyone.

All in all, a great visit.

Glad to be back.

Steve
Online Editor

Over the next 2 weeks, we have not one, but two mystery administrators looking after the site. David & Hugh will be posting throughout the days whilst yours truely is away sunning himself with iWife in San Francisco. Please bear with them and trest them with respect.

Thanks for your help guys.

See you on the other side…

Steve
Online Editor