Apple Sydney Store Unveiled, Opens June 19th

Apple recently took the wraps off their first Apple Retail store in Australia and officially announced the date and time for the grand opening. The Sydney, Australia store will have its grand opening on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. This means the store will be open in time for the Australian launch of the iPhone 3G on July 11th.

Located at 77 King Street, the three story building is expected to have about 1335 square meters of floor space. Two other Apple Stores are expected to follow: one in Melbourne, and another in Sydney.

Source: MacRumors

AT&T and Apple Tightening Policies to Reduce iPhone Unlocking!

In the wake of Apple’s iPhone 3G announcement and AT&T’s press release detailing their new agreement with Apple, additional details are surfacing regarding the companies’ attempts to reduce the number of customers unlocking their iPhones for use on other carriers.

Gizmodo spoke with AT&T’s President of National Distribution Glenn Lurie, who revealed that all iPhone activations will take place in-store. This is in contrast to the current system in which customers may activate their iPhones from home using iTunes. Additionally, Reuters reports that AT&T has said that purchasers who do not activate their iPhones within 30 days will be subject to penalties. No details on these proposed penalties have been made public.

Source: MacRumors

Apple Revamps .Mac: MobileMe Announced

As rumored, Apple has announced MobileMe, described by Apple Vice President for product marketing Phil Schiller as “Exchange for the rest of us.”
Not all of us work in an enterprise… Not all of us have access to an exchange server. Now with MobileMe, we all can have access to those features. [...] MobileMe is Exchange for the rest of us. –Phil Schiller

Features
- Push Email, calendar, and contacts
- Synchronization between iPhone, Mac and PC (Outlook for Windows integration)
- “Desktop-like” Web Applications for Mail, Contacts, Calendar, photo gallery, and iDisk online storage available via me.com.

MobileMe replaces .Mac and will be available in early July for $99/year, with a 60 day free trial available. Guided tour avaiable at Apple.com/me.

Source: MacRumors

Apple Announces iPhone 3G Finally!

After months of anticipation, the heavily rumored 3G iPhone was announced today during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference Keynote.
“Just one year after launching the iPhone, we’re launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPhone 3G supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync right out of the box, runs the incredible third party apps created with the iPhone SDK, and will be available in more than 70 countries around the world this year.”

Features
- 3G-capable. 2.8 times faster than EDGE.
- Simultaneous voice and data conections
- Microsoft Exchange AcctiveSync
- GPS built-in
- Better battery life – 300 hours of standby, Talk-time 10 hours (as opposed to 5) on 2G networks, 5 hours of 3G talk-time (competition is 3 hour 3G talk time), 5 to 6 hours of high-speed browsing, 7 hours of video, 24 hours of audio.
- flush headphone jack

Pricing and Availability
The iPhone 3G will be available July 11th in 22 countries for $199 for 8 GB and $299 for 16 GB. The 16 GB model also comes in white. Apple has posted details on their website, but it is currently overwhelmed.

Source: MacRumors

iPhone Apps Announced: Super Monkey Ball, Loopt, Pangea games

During today’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, Apple showed off some of the applications that have been developed using the iPhone Software Development Kit. We’ve highlighted some apps of interest here.

Sega Super Monkey Ball
Initially previewed at the SDK launch, Super Monkey Ball now includes over 100 levels. In playing through the last world, Sega demonstrated how they used the iPhone’s accelerometer to control the movement of the character.

Loopt
Loopt is described as location-aware social networking. The app displays a map with pins representing where your friends are. User profiles can show a log of where you’ve gone and its simple to blog, send in a photo, text, or call your friends.

Pangea Games
Pangea Software has ported 2 games to the iPhone. The first game is Enigmo, which is a physics-based game and makes advanced use of the touch controls as well as the CPU. The second game is Cro-Mag Rally, described as a “cave-man racing game.” Both applications are priced at $9.99.

Band
Garageband in your pocket? Kind of… An independent developer, MooCowMusic from the UK developed Band that includes a virtual piano, drums, 12-bar blues “instrument”, and a bass. All of the instruments sound very impressive and what you play can be recorded.

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