So with the WWDC wrapping up and no signs of the new iPhone release from Palo Alto, the internet has been buzzing with images of possible hardware designs of the new iPhone 5. Could this be it?

[Click the image for a larger picture ]

The new features listed on the above pic speculates what the new iPhone would include:

• An OLED Screen
• 64 GB Capacity
• 1.2 Ghz processr
• 5.2 Megapixel camera
• 4G Data Speed (Quite unlikely)
• iOS 5

Place your bets.

Ok, I don’t own a Mac. But I can aspire to get one, can’t I. So, let’s just begin that drooling with this new feature aptly named – Mac Workspace . There will be a series of such posts, and I hope you bear with my over enthusiasm.

Feature 1, here it goes:

Image via: MacLove

The only thing missing here is, some very loud speakers. Don’t you agree?

Steve Jobs’ recent keynote at the Apple music event came with a bunch of awesome announcements. Amongst them were the new iPod Nano loaded with a touchscreen, the new iPod Touch with dual cameras and supporting Facetime, as well as the new iPod shuffle which goes back to its body-controls design.

Amongst other announcements, Jobs also announced the opening of the world’s largest Apple store in London. This retail store located very centrally at Covent Garden has been creating waves amongst fanboys and even non Apple fans. It certainly did make it to the news headlines. I made a visit myself this weekend, and so here are a few pictures of the World’s largest Apple store – Covent Garden, London.

Hit the jump for more.

The interior walls are very fortress-esque. Well, that is what you expect from Piezza, don’t you?

It’s just a whole fortress of Macs, Macbooks, iPods, iPads and iPhones and also massive Telly on displays.

The stairs are trademark Apple. Just beautiful! I want one.

What is most awesome about this store is that there are numerous Apple based workshops being held throughout the week. For the entire list of workshops, please visit Covent Garden Store Website.

Busy Saturday afternoon at the Apple store, innit!

And all of this, just 5 seconds away from the famous London Covent Garden buskers performing area.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Please feel free to share this on Facebook , Retweet on twitter, or Stumble it. Cheerio!

So, I am giving in to my laziness syndrome. I have been writing for my other blogs as well, and hence, not much time to write for Techkeyla. And I have found the perfect solution. Video podcast.

So here it is. Techkeyla’s first video podcast, about the Apple iPad. Kindly leave your comments.

I know I am being a bit nasty to say this, but for all tech lovers who have been following tech headlines for the last couple of months, we have certainly seen a loss of interest for the Apple iPhone. And why is that? Primarily because iPhone’s 3GS has not been revolutionary in terms of the differences between the 3GS and its predecessors [ of course a better processor and video camera were included]. And add to that, the surging popularity of the Android family backed by HTC’s range and Motorola’s Milestone/Droid did not help much to the iPhone camp.

2010 does not look good for iPhone either. All the focus from Cupertino seems to be static on the rumored Apple tablet -iTablet or iSlate. There has been a sort of a tradition followed at Apple, the announcement of a new version of iPhone every year: 2007 -iPhone released. 2008 -2nd Generation, and 2009-3GS. But 2010 is looking quite hazy in terms of what new can the iPhone offer.

The appstore of the iPhone has already touched the 100,000 mark. But with such huge quantity, there comes the risk of becoming static in terms of growth and expansion. The big question that faces Apple is what more can the iPhone offer?

The Android Alliance with players like HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericcson in the bandwagon certainly poses as the future of smartphones. And with consumer-friendly price tags for some of the phones [ HTC Tattoo, T-Mobile Pulse], owning a smartphone couldn’t have been easier and cheaper. The Android is also fast catching up in terms of developers community making a range of applications. And with HTC’s announcement of 2010′s range of new Android phones, iPhone could soon be facing a big challenge to sustain its domination of the smartphone market.

Here’s wishing iPhone a quick and speedy recovery.

In an earlier post [ Compare the UK iPhone price war: O2 vs Orange vs Tesco] we compared the actual price of an iPhone in the UK on the three carriers. Today, Vodafone released its tariffs for the iPhone. The question remains that whether the fourth addition to the iPhone carrier range really adds value for the customer or is it just yet another player which doesn’t add any significant change.

The data download limit for Vodafone remains capped at 1GB per month. Compared to the Orange data plan which allows 750MB download per month, it is not much of an improvement. But what about everything else? Let’s find it out.

The detailed per monthly chart for the iPhone is given below.

Click on the image to see the full resolution.

Vodafone has certainly got more range of tariff plans, but the minutes offered by Vodafone is lesser compared to O2 or Orange. It is instead compensated by Unlimited Texts. Other than that, the tariff plans are pretty much the same. What do you say?

]]> http://www.techkeyla.com/so-how-much-does-the-iphone-really-cost-on-vodafone-uk/feed/ 0 http://www.techkeyla.com/compare-the-uk-iphone-price-war-o2-vs-orange-vs-tesco/ http://www.techkeyla.com/compare-the-uk-iphone-price-war-o2-vs-orange-vs-tesco/#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:28:50 +0000 Sujoy http://www.techkeyla.com/?p=433

Right, so here we are with not one, but three official carriers who are providing the iPhone in the UK [ unlike the US, where AT&T still has the exclusive rights]. We had O2 originally who were the sole carriers in the UK, but when the contract between O2 and Apple expired this year in November, Orange sprung into action. Yet, the rate and plans revealed by Orange for the iPhone were of no noticeable change than the ones of O2.

And now, UK’s biggest retail supermarket – Tesco – in partnership with O2, is posing as the third official carrier of the iPhone in the UK. The rate plans were released today [ visit: Tesco iPhone website]

So which one of the three is actually the one to look out, or has anything changed at all? Has the addition of 2 more players in the iPhone market brought any real value addition for the customer. We’ll try to answer that question with comparative spreadsheets of the various rate plans. Hit the jump to view the spreadsheet.

O2:

The first carrier of the iPhone offers the rate plans shown below. [For the higher resolution image, click the picture]

[Rates Source: O2 iPhone Website]

So, the O2 offers the iPhone in Pay & Go for £342.54 (8GB), £440.40(16GB) and £538.30(32GB). But the main competition arena for the carriers is the Pay-monthly deals.

We tried to calculate the per-month(including) for O2′s pay-monthly deals. [All rates are per month, including Phone costs, and averaged over the contract period]

On the 8GB iPhone 3G- it ranges from as low as £34.26 [for 24 month contract -600 mins/500texts and Unlimited internet] to £73.41[ for 18 months contract-3000 mins/500 texts].

On the 16GB iPhone 3Gs-the lowest rate was for £37.89[for 24 month contract-600 mins/500texts and Unlimited internet] to £73.41[for 18 months contract-3000 mins/500 texts]. Now this is a redundant plan, which pretty much leaves the 8GB iPhone plan as a stupid addition.

As for the 32GB iPhone 3Gs – the lowest rate was for £41.56[24 month contract-600 mins/500 texts and Unlimited internet] to £78.79[for 18 month contract-3000 mins/500 texts].

The iPhone certainly does not come cheap, and O2 has no unlimited talk+text plans similar as offered by Orange and Tesco.

Orange:

[Rate source: Orange iPhone website]

[For the higher resolution image, click the picture] The Pay & Go iPhone rates for Orange, O2 and Tesco are not much different at all. But the major difference between O2 and Orange is the offering of Unlimited mins, text and internet on the Orange plans. Of course, Orange caps the unlimited internet usage at 750 MB per month-as per the fair usage policy – which is in fact complete bull crap.

Secondly, for the lower rates, Orange offers better value for money.
Such as for £29.36 a month, Orange offers 150 mins/250 texts [ for almost similar Phone prices on 18 and 24 month contracts]. Whereas O2 offers 75 mins/125 texts for the same amount of monthly pay-plan [half of Orange].

But this difference is not there for the higher pay-monthly plans. So if you are going for the higher pay-monthly plans, there is practically no difference between choosing Orange or O2 as the Per-month cost works out to be quite similar.

And then enter – Tesco Mobile

[Rate Source: Tesco Mobile iPhone Website]

[For the higher resolution image, click the picture] So Tesco’s offering is a bit different from the pay-plans that we have seen so far. Or is it? It does offer a 12 month plan which no other carrier offers. This means, we won’t have to wait for long before we upgrade the next version of iPhone, as and when it rolls out from Cupertino. But the per-month rate calculated is repulsively expensive. Tesco has  its own £30 sim only plans which allows customers to avail unlimited texts/calls and internet. An additional 30 quid per month and £50 up-front will now get you the iPhone 3GS 32GB. It works out to just £64.17 which stands at almost half of the rate offered by both Orange and O2. But again, this is a 24 month contract.

Also, as I mentioned earlier – the 12 month contract flexibility is the one to look out for.

So, how do the prices of the three compare to each other.

Best Phone Price:

8GB: Tesco sells at a total of £462 for 12 months – which inflates to £693 for 18 months. But comparing 12 and 18 month deals is not fair. So we’ll just drop it.

So, as 12 month deals are only offered by Tesco, Round 1- goes to Tesco. Also the £20 month pay-monthly gives back £60 monthly credit and also for every pound you spend on your bills, you earn Tesco Clubcard points which you can redeem for your Tesco grocery shopping.

For 16GB:

24 month contract: Tesco’s rates:  £1440 for 24 months.

The closest that Orange comes is at £2936-for unlimited stuff and O2 offers something similar for £1321.38

And for 32GB:

24 month contract: Tesco’s rates: £1490 for 24 months [Just £50 more than the 16GB version, hmm!]

Orange offers almost the same for £2936.16 and O2 for £1761.84

The final verdict:

Pay & Go – Either of the three. Maybe Orange, coz it has Orange Wednesdays – offering 1+1 free movie tickets for Wednesdays.

12 months – only available on Tesco – clear choice.

18 months – Orange or O2 doesn’t matter. But if you’re choosing the £29.35 tariff, go for Orange.

24 months- Tesco ftw!! Unlimited Text, Calls and Internet – including Web and Wi-Fi which includes BT Openzones.

Now, it will be a tough act to follow for Vodafone when they release their rate plans early next year. As for Christmas time, I think Santa’s iPhone gifts will come with a Tesco Mobile Sim!

Please leave your comments on this comparison post! Cheerio!

Okay first get this. Steve Jobs is back, and he did confess he was unwell and even got a liver transplant. But the good news is “he’s Vertical”!! Engadget has a short video of his keynote today at Apple’s “It’s Only Rock n Roll’. It has been embedded at the end of the post. But for now, its picture time baby. Apple’s iPod event of the year in images. Get ready!!

Let’s rock in Apple style!!

*******More pics after the Jump!!*******

Matt Parkman from Heroes, I mean that guy who plays Matt Parkman…yeah, you know him!

We all love some Microsoft bashing, don’t we?

Look who’s back!! It’s Steve!

The line-up for the show!

The new iPod Touch range, with even more space.

Love those Graphics. The polygons override.; pardon the pun

One more thing; iPod Nano has a cam; Oh, but the iPod Touch doesn’t. Shame!

The Nano also got an FM radio. But why didn’t it before?

The colors and the hues!

Someone has to give the ad-agency some brownies!!

Yada Yada…Bla Bla!

Oh Norah! Sigh!