An Apple iPhone or iPod touch will become a central part of Abilene Christian University’s innovative learning experience this fall when all freshmen are provided one of these converged media devices, said Phil Schubert, ACU executive vice president.

At ACU – the first university in the nation to provide these cutting-edge media devices to its incoming class – freshmen will use an iPhone or iPod touch to receive homework alerts, answer in-class surveys and quizzes, get directions to their professors’ offices, and check their meal and account balances – among more than 15 other useful web applications already developed, said ACU Chief Information Officer Kevin Roberts. ACU’s vision for technology has been captured in a forward-looking film called ‘Connected,’ found online – along with information about ACU’s other ground-breaking mobile learning
efforts - at www.acu.edu/connected.

“We are not merely providing cutting-edge technology tools to our incoming students,” said Roberts. “We are also providing the web applications that ensure these tools will become critical to the students’ learning experience. Because 93 percent of ACU students bring their own computers with them to college, we are choosing to take them to the next level by providing converged mobile devices.”

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Funny case from Homade

Features:

You can buy it here. The price is 29.99$

A New Version of the iPhone SDK is Now Available. Seventh beta version just posted.

So quoth developer.apple.com/iphone, continuing their breakneck, nigh-unprecedented release pace for the iPhone Software Developer Kit (SDK) and iPhone 2.0 beta firmware.

As always, enterprising developers will likely comb through every string and bit in the new release, looking for new features, and hoping strike gold as they have in the past. I’m still holding my breath for video recording and… cut and paste, but admittedly any new discovery will be welcome.

Meanwhile Apple Software Update is now delivering Quicktime 7.5, one of the core components of the Mac’s, and iTunes’ graphic layers. If you’re not prompted for it, and don’t want to trigger it via the utility proper, just surf on over to Apple and grab the direct download. (Note: Mac users will require a reboot — like we said, it’s core level. Windows users, please let us know if you’re likewise sent to the restart.).

Speaking of iTunes, iPhone 3G specs indicate iTunes 7.7 will be required to use Apple’s new handset, so expect another update sometime between now and the July 11th first release date. Other than iPhone 3G specific support and shifting activation to carrier stores, it’s unknown what else the update will bring.

TomTom already has iPhone navigation software ready to roll

Seems TomTom has been working hard getting an app for the app store ready, no word on when it will be available, but and I quote “We have tried, and it worked.” “Our navigation system runs on the iPhone already”

Here’s some sources for you:
TomTom already has iPhone navigation software ready to roll – Engadget
TomTom for iPhone GPS Review

So, what’s with the new iPhone 3G?

Well, it’s pretty much the same iPhone as before — except now it’s down to $200, and has way faster 3G data, A-GPS (which is even better than regular GPS), as well as a flush headphone jack (which is great for anyone who doesn’t want to use Apple’s bundled headphones). Oh, and it’s also a little thinner around the edges, and a little thicker at the center. If you want to know what it was like to try out, check out our iPhone 3G hands-on.

How’d they get the price so low? The iPhone used to be crazy expensive.

Actually, depending on how you do the math it’s not actually cheaper. Now, in some countries the iPhone is free when you sign up for service, and in the US you’ll pay $200 for the 8GB model — half what it was a month ago — so you’re definitely paying less up front. But the data plans cost more now, so you might wind up spending more money over the long run.

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This is great interview with Brad Mays, AT&T PR made by editor of iphonebuzz.com Chase Higgins

Will you allow the iPhone 3G to be used on your pre paid service? No, each new iPhone requires a new, two-year contract. There will be no pre-paid or month-to-moth options.

Basically now there is no doubt, that the iPhone will not be able to be used on pre paid plans. This is unfortunate, as all the pre pay plans can do is give Apple more sales. It does not fit with Apple’s new plan to stop iPhone unlocking, and alas will not be allowed.

Can customers not eligible to receive a discount price, or those who are not willing to sign a contract, still get the iPhone 3G? No – see number one.

Well that is pretty straight forward. It does not answer the question though, if a customer currently on AT&T can get the iPhone 3G at the discount price. I am sure all that will come up in the future as the July 11th release draws nearer.

For people who are not in 3G areas but want the 3G iPhone for its looks, new features etc, will you still charge the extra $10 for data, or can they use the standard iPhone plans? We will provide more plan-specific information closer to the time of availability. But, as of right now, we have said that each new contract requires a voice and data plan. And, the new iPhone data plans are $30 for consumers, $45
for business users.

Well, it seems that AT&T prefers to deliver the typical corporate dance around. In my area, AT&T offers no 3G coverage, at all. There are plenty of areas with the same story, and it is hardly fair for them to pay an extra $10 a month for the same service they were getting with their old iPhone.

How will AT&T be activating the iPhone 3G, and can activation be done at home via iTunes still? All activations will take place in the store. We think this will give customers an opportunity to cover any questions they have before leaving the store.

We all know that this is not the case. Apple and AT&T are severely cracking down on iPhone unlocking, and are requiring all iPhones to go out the door activated. While there could be some truth to what was said here, it is more likely they are just trying to tighten control.

One of the big announcements to come out of WWDC 08′ was the introduction of Apple’s new MobileMe Internet service. MobileMe features push email, push contacts and push calendars from your “cloud” to native apps on your iPhone, iPod touch, Mac or PC. MobileMe will be available shortly and will replace Apple’s .mac service.

The MobileMe service will deliver a desktop-like experience on the web. Changes made on your MobileMe cloud will automatically update native applications on all of computers and or devices. “Think of MobileMe as ‘Exchange for the rest of us,’” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Now users who are not part of an enterprise that runs Exchange can get the same push email, push calendars and push contacts that the big guys get.”

The MobileMe web applications are 100% ad free and includes 20GB of online storage. The service will be available on July 11th priced at $99 for individuals and $149 for a family pack (includes one master account with 20GB of storage and four 5GB family member accounts.

Apple has posted a video tour describing the new features of MobileMe.

Good news everyone… Steve Jobs introduced the new iPhone(TM) 3G, combining all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast* as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK. In the US the new iPhone 3G is priced at a stunning $199 for the 8GB model, and just $299 for the 16GB model.** iPhone 3G will be available in more than 70 countries later this year, beginning with customer availability in 22 countries — Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US — on July 11.

Everythingicafe.com published nice post What You Need to Know About iPhone 3G
and here you can check the full specification of iPhone 3G and how it compares to the original iPhone

With the iPhone 2.0 Software Update, your iPhone will do even more. Extend its capabilities with innovative applications you download directly from the new App Store. Get push email, calendar, and contacts from your Microsoft Exchange server at work. And use great new features in Mail, Contacts, and other applications. Free in the next update.

iPhone firmware 2.0 was detailed in WWDC with some rumored features finally seeing the day of light. Features include:

• iWork and Office document viewing
• Save images from E-Mail directly to photo library
• Contact Search
• E-Mail/SMS Bulk Delete & Move
• Scientific Calculator when switched to Landscape Mode in Calculator
• Support for a TON of languages including Chinese, Japanese

On top of those features, Jobs detailed enterprise support for mass distribution of apps (up to 100 authorized iPhones) and also unveiled a new push notification system for apps that would use it (such as IM clients).

Firmware 2.0 will be available for iPhone users come ‘Early July’ for free and for iPod Touch users at a reduced fee (compared to the last update) of $9.95.

Pathfinder, a software development and user experience design firm, announced the initial release of rails_iui, an open source Rails Plug-In for the iPhone.

The plug-in makes it easier to build iPhone enabled web applications. Rail plugin adds the ability to iUI framework which contains a number of CSS styles and JavaScript event handlers, to make iPhone Web apps look and feel somewhat like native iPhone applications.

“While developing my latest mobile web application with iUI, I realized I was building up a library, so I converted everything to a Rails plug-in,” stated Rappin, creator of the plugin. “Open source is all about sharing what you have learned and making contributions to support the community.””

Currently the plug-in focuses on automating common tasks and streamlining development. Future enhancements include improvements in documentation, testing and leveraging the Rails framework to enhance interactions, especially related to history and back behavior.

To get more information and download the plugin go to here or here.