3G

Would you pay your full cable bill if there was static on the screen all month? Buy a dozen eggs if three of them were broken? How about paying $30 a month for the same service that others get for $20 a month?

This is exactly what I pay for a service I can't use. I love the iPhone 3G, but I can only use the EDGE network. I leave the phone set to EDGE because it works. The moment I switch over to 3G, data latency times shoot through the roof, voice quality decreases noticably, and calls drop every five minutes.

Apple and AT&T both deserve kudos for pioneering such an outstanding new product. I am willing to be patient with their growing pains. The network is going to be a perpetual work in progress. But it's not right to force me to pay for something that doesn't work. See, if I had an original iPhone, my data plan would be $20 a month and limited to EDGE. As it is, I have an iPhone 3G with a $30 data plan limited to EDGE.

I continue to try and use 3G at least twice a week to check up on the network but there has been no improvement. Various customer service representatives at AT&T have listened to my story. Of course I've updated to 2.0.2. Yes, I've rebooted my phone. A million times. No, not just using the sleep button. Yes, I've held down the home button and sleep button to reset. Nothing works. Nothing works except for EDGE.

When it was announced earlier this past week that AT&T planned to open its retail locations at 8am for the launch of the Apple iPhone, many were perplexed at the lack of a similar indication from Apple. After all, why would Apple allow AT&T to draw the crowds to their stores and forfeit all those direct iPhone sales -- not to mention the oodles of companion purchases? As it turns out, Apple isn't that stupid (surprise, surprise), and will be joining the 8am party along with AT&T.

Although unannounced, we've just returned from a long overdue 2 week vacation. A lot transpired during the two weeks our offices were closed (and not just in the world of the iPhone). We won't be able to catch you up all on all of it, but we'll certainly get the important things posted ASAP. Speaking of which, how nice to come home to recently surfaced iPhone 3G unboxing pictures. The following pictures, which turned up on the iPhone Portugal forums seem to be the first legitimate unboxing shots of the new 3G iPhone.

If you're like me, as soon as you get your iPhone 3G home and unboxed, you're going to want to slap a full body 3G iPhone invisibleSHIELD on it before exposing it to the elements. My current iPhone has been protected by the invisibleSHIELD since a few weeks after I purchased it on release day last year.

Yes, "confirmed" is a relative term, at least when it comes to "unconfirmed" iPhone release dates. However, that said, Gizmodo recently reported that a source they describe as "very, very close to the 3G iPhone launch" has confirmed that the 3G iPhone will be announced at this year's WWDC and will be available worldwide immediately thereafter.

Of course, there's no word on this from Apple or AT&T here in the US, but who would expect such?

The report also suggests that the iPhone will no longer be sold at a

Those of you that were avidly following the rumor lead up to the launch of the current version of Apple's iPhone probably remember that one of the major "tells" in regard to the then-coming launch of the iPhone was a leaked memo from AT&T which instructed AT&T retail sales employees that they were restricted from taking vacation during the period between June 15th and July 15th of 2007. As it turned out, release day for the original iPhone turned out to be smack in the middle of that period.

The last month or so has been one of the most prolific in regards to rumors surrounding the release of the 3G iPhone. The latest rumors indicate that testing of the 3G iPhone is already underway by the privileged few, and that the release of the next generation iPhone could be coming as early as June or July.

According to a recent post, Engadget has it "on authority" that the 3G iPhone is already in the hands of a few privileged beta testers and is undergoing trials for a possible release come July 2008. Previous rumors have suggested that the second generation iPhone is scheduled for a June 2008 release, so this falls roughly in line with previous indications.

Engadget's source, which they describe as "trusted," gave the low-down on some of the 3G iPhone's highlight features, which include

If we ever go 30 days without publishing a new "source" of information on the coming of the 3G iPhone, you'll know the 3G iPhone has been released. That said, despite the large volume of rumors that continue to surface on the topic, rarely do they warrant mention. The latest, out of Citigroup, just might.

According to Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner, several sources [have] confirmed the introduction of a new 3G iPhone" in the second quarter of this year. Gardner offered up this information in a research note published following recent meetings with Taiwanese electronics companies. One can reasonably assume then, that

Rumors are flying as a result of a blog post on TUAW this morning, which indicates that Apple may be planning a product release event sometime near the end of this month. Suggestions of what might be coming at the event are already buzzing about and include: the Official iPhone SDK, new MacBook Pro models which would utilize Intel's 45-nanometre Penryn chip, and the ever-rumored 3G-capable iPhone model.

The source of the rumor is a tip to TUAW that indicates that the company that does television for Macworld and other Apple media events is reportedly hiring personnel for an event at the end of