iPhone v2

Despite the overwhelming success of the first Apple iPhone launch day, Apple and AT&T did have one glaring black eye left shining after the event: countless owners were plagued by activation problems which prevented new iPhone owners from activating for, in some cases, up to three days. An unactivated iPhone is essentially useless, with functionality locked out pending activation. In many cases, this left new owners with no working phone, as swapping their iPhone SIM with their older device didn't work. The whole activation process was, to put it mildly, an abomination. Considering the heat both Apple and AT&T took in regards to the activation process for the inaugural iPhone launch -- we all could have safely predicted that Apple and AT&T would have all their ducks in line for the iPhone 3G launch, and customers would enjoy a problem-free, quick and easy activation. Right?

Evidently not. Reports have been coming in all morning about what appears to be an eerily similar situation developing with activations of new 3G iPhones. Lines at both Apple and AT&T stores

With the release of the second generation iPhone 3G right around the proverbial corner, Apple has released the accompanying iPhone OS 2.0 to the public. iPhone OS 2.0 has been in beta testing with developers for months now, and has been the test bed for the first official third party applications which are now available via the iPhone AppStore (you must be running OS 2.0 to access the AppStore).

New iPhone 3G models will be pre-loaded with iPhone OS 2.0, but the public release of the software allows existing owners of the first generation iPhone to upgrade their phones to the new 2.0 firmware. The new iPhone OS brings a host of new

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.