After months of speculation (and frustration) MMS for the iPhone 3G and 3G S is officially arriving on September 25, AT&T has confirmed. This is a full 3 days after summer officially ends (AT&T’s original deadline was “late summer”) as our own MG pointed out earlier today, but like a lot of things with Apple/AT&T, better late than never.

AT&T posted the following comments on its Facebook page:

An Update on iPhone MMS for our Mobility Customers

We know many of our iPhone customers are eager for an update on our rollout schedule for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). We’ve been working for the past several months to prepare our systems and network to ensure the best possible experience with MMS when it launches – and that launch date is: September 25 for iPhone 3G and 3GS customers. MMS will be enabled through a software update on that day.

We know that iPhone users will embrace MMS. The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One. We appreciate your patience as we work toward that end.

We’re riding the leading edge of smartphone growth that’s resulted in an explosion of traffic over the AT&T network. Wireless use on our network has grown an average of 350 percent year-over-year for the past two years, and is projected to continue at a rapid pace in 2009 and beyond. The volume of smartphone data traffic the AT&T network is handling is unmatched in the wireless industry. We want you to know that we’re working relentlessly to innovate and invest in our network to anticipate this growth in usage and to stay ahead of the anticipated growth in data demand, new devices and applications for years to come.

The iPhone 3G S launched a few months ago, but AT&T users haven’t been able to take advantage of a few much vaunted (and much needed) features as yet: MMS, Bluetooth file-sharing, and tethering are the Big Three. This, of course, despite the fact that AT&T is the “flagship” carrier! But never mind all that, because today we have some good news in the way of this latest bit of gossip: starting with iPhone OS 3.1, AT&T users will, in fact, be able to use MMS and Bluetooth file-sharing. Welcome to 2006, iPhone owners!

I kid, of course, but it is ludicrous that we’re getting so excited over a feature that’s been around for many years now. But I guess that’s what makes the iPhone so great, all that bleeding edge technology.

The key is Apple’s event next week, on September 9. (A few people from the Crunch Team will be there.) That’s when it’s expected that Apple will announce these new features—if not at the very event, then sometime that week.

Keep in mind that that Apple event seems to be music-centric. Whether that means new iPods with built-in cameras, the Beatles coming to iTunes, social media functionality built into iTunes (“Jim played ‘Paint it Black’ 22 times today. He must be going through a phase.”), or whatever, who knows.

In other news, the New York Times is finally getting around to something that we have known for months: the iPhone is just killing AT&T. Anyone who was at SXSW last March knows first hand how all those iPhone-toting attendees brought AT&T to its knees. Basically, iTunes users, with their excessive data consumption, is pushing AT&Ts’ network to the breaking point; some might even call it broken. (Comedian Jim Norton often ranks about his terrible iPhone reception, on the West Side of New York City.)

So, yeah, three cheers for MMS, maybe.

The original announcement of the iPod Touch 2G jailbreak mentions that this could be an untethered break which does not require users to connect their iPhone to a computer to run the jailbreak. Noice.

First, we present Fracture. You tap the iPhone to “crack” the screen and then you tap again to cause the apps to explode, triggering the rest of the apps to explode in rapid succession. Next, we find SkyFart. You press a little man and he farts. Then you press him again and he farts and again and flies into space. Then you press him again and he farts and flies. Then you press him again…

So which app was accepted by the App store with open and which one was rejected?


This is a symbolic representation of the two apps fighting the app store.

The logical thing to say, based on the common understanding that the expression of gas and fecal matter as a mode of transport is considered by some to be offensive, is that SkyFart would be rejected out of hand. This is not true.

I’ve been hanging out with the lads from VisuaMobile, the creators of both apps and got to see firsthand some of the odd reasons given by the iPhone gatekeepers. For example, read this email exchange.

> Please include the line below in follow-up emails for this request.
>
> Follow-up: XXXX
>
> Dear Visuamobile Developer,
>
> Thank you for submitting your application to Apple’s App Store. Unfortunately, your application, Fracture, still cannot be added to the App Store because it uses standard iPhone screen images in a non-standard way, potentially resulting in user confusion. Changing the behavior of standard iPhone graphics, actions, and images, or simulating failures of those graphics, actions, or images is a violation of the iPhone Developer Program agreement which requires applications to abide by the Human Interface Guidelines.
>
> If you would like to share this app with friends and family, we recommend you review the Ad Hoc method on the Distribution tab of the iPhone Developer Portal for details. This will allow you to distribute your application to a small group of people of your choosing.
>
> Regards,
>
> iPhone Developer Program
>

Fair enough: they are using the iPhone home screen in a manner unbefitting of an iPhone home screen. It could potentially confuse and vex the mentally deficient to the point of tears. It dilutes the brand by allowing the user to feel that he or she has power over the home screen. It uses Apple IP in a way that is detrimental to good will.

But what about the fake calls app. This app simulates a call coming in, allowing the user to escape from dullards with ease. It uses the iPhone’s dialing screen and even shows you getting a call from Steve Jobs, not something I’d want folks to simulate if I were a member of the marketing or legal teams at Apple. They definitely don’t want some moron like me pretending to get calls from Steve. It dilutes the brand.

It’s not so much that Apple censors apps as it is that the situation is paternalistic and self-serving. Obviously VisuaMobile makes their money on iPhone apps and this is a brave new business model that, in a sense, uses Apple’s good will and popularity to boost the bottom lines of a number of successful programmers. As MG wrote, it’s not clear there’s a rhyme or reason to many of these gnomic responses that are essentially the result of a Kabbalahic and arbitrary reading of the terms of service.

Are VisuaMobile upset? A little, but they understand. Luc Veuillet, VisuaMobile’s marketing man, even notes there are no hard feelings. “It’s a business. We love them,” he said.

But when will devs say ‘Enough is enough?’ Ever? I doubt it.

Apple released the iPhone 3G S on Friday (here’s our review), and the world is much better off because of it. What didn’t sit well with me is this CNBC segment that aired on Friday. It shows a several people clamoring over the device, saying how great it is, why they want it, etc. But fast-forward to 1:03 and you’ll see Prime Time Sam Roberts from the Opie and Anthony show. Here’s where the trouble starts.

In the CNBC-aired version of the interview, embedded here, Mr. Roberts is portrayed as someone who’s gushing over the iPhone 3G S—“BlackBerry is yesterday, the iPhone is now!”

Only that’s now what he said at all.

The entire interview aired live on the Opie and Anthony show on Friday. (Anthony had sent an intern, whom Mr. Roberts accompanied, to the Fifth Avenue Apple Store to buy an iPhone first thing in the morning. The intern was unsuccessful, as he usually is.) This is the audio, as aired on Special Delivery with Sam and Dave on Saturday night (you can also download the audio here):

Never mind that the CNBC reporter gets her facts completely wrong (“But BlackBerry is coming out with their touchscreen pretty soon…” Yeah, it’s out already. It’s called the Storm. It stinks, but it’s available, and has been for several months now.), but that Mr. Roberts is portrayed as being just another rabid iPhone 3G S fan is disingenuous at best, dishonest at worst. He obviously alludes to the fact that MMS won’t work right out of the box (“picture messaging, soon”); that AT&T service in New York is atrocious (switching from the BlackBerry to the iPhone because he’s “tired of all [his] calls going through”); mocks the Apple-consumer culture (“hopefully we’ll spend $500 to $700 today… on just Apple products”). And so on.

Now, if you’re just a regular CNBC viewer, you’d be under the impression that Mr. Roberts is nothing but a wooly-haired iPhone 3G S mark. I think it’s safe to say that’s not accurate.

Does any of this matter in the grand scheme of things? Of course not. But if CNBC is editing Mr. Roberts’ interview to fit some sort of pre-determined angle (“go interview crazy iPhone fans”), then it does make you wonder what other type of creative editing is going on over there.

So which is it, Apple?

Obviously, this isn’t a huge deal, but considering how many people are writing stories, posts, tweeting, etc, about the device right now, you’d think Apple would like to have one correct name out there. But it seems that it’s not even sure. While the press release this morning has “iPhone 3GS,” the website still has “iPhone 3G S.”

As I’ve said from when the name was first rumored, I think the iPhone 3G S (or 3GS, for that matter) is kind of a silly name. Already, I’ve heard some people who are unclear if “3GS” just means multiple iPhone 3Gs. And then there’s the whole issue of writing iPhone 3GSs, plural. Plus, having played around with the device all weekend, I’m still not sure they shouldn’t have called it the iPhone 3G V — for Video.

I’ve contacted Apple for some clarification.

Update: According to a tweet from The Washington Post’s Rob Pegoraro, Apple has made the change to “iPhone 3GS,” citing Apple’s Greg Joswiak. Someone should probably let their website know.

First, an anecdote: when the iPhone first launched in 2007 I took it on a tour of Central Europe, namely Budapest and Warsaw. Communism had just fallen and the dreams of these benighted nations were dashed. But as I pulled the iPhone from its protective cozy, the eyes of those present were filled with hope again, hope that there was something better out there, something magical. That something was called the iPhone and it was this promise, the promise of a Jobsian escape from the gristmill of history. All of this in a cigarette-pack-sized cellphone.

Fast forward two years. With the release of the iPhone 3G S we can safely say that the bloom is off the rose. The 3G S looks exactly like the iPhone 3G in every way. There is no outward identification and, in those intervening years, Hungary, Poland, the UK, Russia – heck, everybody – got the iPhone. Pulling one of these out is like pulling out something like a tin of Altoids – a bit against the grain but common enough to discourage gawking. So we must answer a few questions in this review. They are:

* What are the major improvements?
* Who is this phone for?
* Should you buy one/should you upgrade?

And so we begin.

What are the major improvements?

Unless you live on the veldt with your family of Stone Age bushmen, I expect that you have a working understanding of the current iPhone 3G. To recap, it is a touchscreen, multi-touch phone – which means it supports multiple finger gestures including “pinching” to zoom in and out. It has a color screen, an earphone jack, and little else in terms of external characteristics. There is a silence switch and volume controls and it still uses the standard iPod jack found on every iPod since the dawn of time. It supports podcast playback with skip-back and fast forward play modes.

This is a 3G phone which means you get about 200 Kbps up and 500 Kbps down on AT&T’s network. Your mileage may vary while roaming. You’ll pay $60 to $120 a month for unlimited data and a bucket of minutes. The phone itself costs $199 for the 16GB version and $299 for the 32GB, which presupposes you’re coming in as a new AT&T subscriber. Costs for upgrading are dependent on your current status at AT&T.

Now for the improvements. The main improvement is VGA video recording and upload. This is a huge deal. Before the iPhone, cell phone cameras were an add-on, something that you used in a pinch when you didn’t have anything else. Now the camera is a must-have and Internet syncing comes standard on almost every phone out there. It was the iPhone that started this charge and with the ability to upload video to YouTube, they are about to own the casual video market.

In short, the ability to upload video is great. You can shoot some video of junior at the park, compress it, and begin the upload in about a minute. The upload itself takes considerably longer – don’t try to upload anything over a few minutes using 3G – but it runs in the background and uploads, slowly but surely. Other casual video cameras, like the Flip, are done for.

The photos it takes are also quite nice. Here are a few I took in bright sunlight:

[PSGallery=2nyx58o35c]

Other than that, you’re looking at nearly identical hardware with a slight speed bump, more working memory and storage, and a magnetometer. Everything else about this phone – cut, paste, search, etc. – appears on the iPhone 3.0 firmware update, accessible to the entire range of iPhone devices. Hmm… why is this familiar?

That’s right: Apple is going MacBook on their phone line. They’re upgrading the hardware in a very specific and almost imperceptible way. Just as the current crop of MacBook Pros are almost indiscernibly different from the previous crop, this iPhone is indiscernible from its older brother. Why? Because Apple makes “Apple” hardware. It doesn’t take to flights of fancy like Dell or HP and it doesn’t feel the need to change trade dress from one iteration to the next. The next iPhone might look different but this is an evolutionary step designed more to showcase 3.0 than anything Apple designers can come up with. It’s almost as if Apple was keeping the lid on Snow Leopard improvements and instead focusing considerable energy on the iPhone OS.

The phone also has a magnetometer and can act as a compass, which makes for great walking directions and future turn-by-turn apps, but there are none to test right now so I can’t add this into the “compelling” file. UPDATE – I used this while walking in London and it’s a great addition. You essentially prevent yourself from wandering off in the wrong direction.

I also left out Nike+iPod because I hadn’t used it in a while. In short, this supports Nike+iPod. You can measure your stride, distance, and speed while running.

So this is really a video-recording iPhone. It’s faster, sure, but that is not the point here. This cements Apple’s position in media sharing.

Who is this phone for?

It is now a phone for everyone. My buddy, a programmer for a financial house, has been using a Blackberry for years. He wants to switch to an iPhone and now with search, he can. My mom wants to see pictures of her grandkids – she could feasibly get an iPhone 3G for $99 – the same price she paid for the pink Motorola RAZR she was carrying.

But if you are an early adopter and Apple lover, you may need to pass up this version. It does little your current iPhone 3G can’t do and unless you really love sharing video, you’d be hard-pressed to justify the upgrade costs.

The Apple hardware upgrade model works like this: take last year’s model, update the speeds and feeds, and add one compelling extra. The MBPs have gone unibody with an SD card slot. That SD card slot is vaguely interesting and you’ll stare at your old MBP thinking “Darn, I wish I had an SD card slot.” And you’ll sell your old MBP and buy the new one. The next iteration will have two more USB ports. Or a Blu-ray drive. Or a vibrator. You get the picture.

So here’s the iPhone upgrade – kind better performance with VIDEO. Is video worth the extra $200-$300? Potentially, if you’re a video buff. But could you wait until the upgrade is truly compelling? Sure.

Should you buy one/should you upgrade?

If you’ve read this far, you’re still unsure whether to upgrade. I, as an Apple fanboi, am sitting this iteration out. The wife has expressed interest in the video but I worry that the next iPhone iteration, which will probably come next year, will contain more compelling upgrades and that all the muss and fuss related to upgrading – not to mention the cost – will be repeated for the next model… and the next… and the next. Obviously, this is Apple’s plan and I’ll probably ignore my own advice sooner or later, but Apple power users can get away with avoiding the 3G S upgrade for the next few months.

I know you won’t listen to me, so go ahead and upgrade.

As for non-AT&T customers and customers looking to upgrade at the standard pricing or customers upgrading from the first-gen iPhone should run, not walk, to the AT&T store. This is the best phone on the market, bar none, and will change the way you think about phones. Praise not high enough? The iPhone has changed mobile telephony forever and the sooner you hop on the iPhone train the better. Everyone else is now playing catch up and unless you know you have very specific reasons for sticking with RIM, WinMo, or Symbian, you need to check the phone out. I don’t add Android or WebOS/Pre to that list because those platforms have not been tested nor are they particularly earth-shattering – yet.

Bottom Line

Current 3G owners could potentially sit this upgrade out. New users thinking about a feature phone on AT&T should go iPhone. No matter what the guy at the mall kiosk says, no matter how many phones he pulls out with a little keyboard, the iPhone is better. You say you need a physical keyboard? You don’t. I started using the iPhone after using a Sidekick for a few years and I haven’t missed the physical keyboard one bit.

In short, make the move.

How do I know? Well because I’ve actually had a unit for a few weeks now. You see, the myTouch 3G, which will be available in early August for $199 with a 2-year agreement, is actually the same device as the Google Ion phone that was given to everyone who attended the Google I/O conference a few weeks ago. And technically, both are really the HTC Magic, which was released a few months ago in Europe, and more recently in Canada. But for the myTouch 3G, T-Mobile is offering some other bells and whistles to differentiate it.

The biggest thing T-Mobile is trumpeting for this device is a deep level of customization. Users will be able to customize the menus, wallpapers, icons and a range of other things on the device with the use of themes and skins. This is a sharp break from a device like the iPhone which has a completely un-customizable look and feel.

And the device itself will come in three colors: black, white and what it calls the “distinctive” merlot. (Which only makes me think of Paul Giammati in Sideways, “I am NOT drinking any fucking merlot!”). But there will also be the option to completely customize the shell of your phone too.

The other key point T-Mobile is touting for the myTouch is something called Sherpa, which T-Mobile worked with startup Geodelic to create. Basically, Sherpa is an application that claims to learn from a user’s actions. So, for example, if you’re searching a lot of Thai food, Sherpa should recognize that as something that you like in the future. And it uses your location information to give you tailored results for what it believes you will want based on what you’re around.

Here’s T-Mobile’s spiel on it:

At the heart of the T-Mobile myTouch, Sherpa™ is an application with a built-in learning engine that automatically customizes itself to your preferences. Created by Geodelic, the application learns your likes and dislikes through behavior and user feedback, prioritizing recommended retailers, restaurants and attractions. Seamlessly blending behavior recognition, a recommendation engine and location-relevant information, this combination of learning is exclusive to Sherpa and unlike any experience currently on the market.

The Hardware

But how does the actual hardware of the myTouch stack up against the G1? Very well.

The first thing you’ll notice is that it’s substantially smaller than that G1. This is all thanks to the removal of the physical keyboard. Because myTouch uses the Android 1.5 “Cupcake” software, it utilizes a virtual keyboard. While this will undoubtedly annoy some users, from a design perspective, it was a very good move. It allows for a device that is not only smaller, and lighter (it’s about an ounce and a half lighter), but it looks a lot nicer too.

And it’s gotten a little bump in its specs. While it features the same processor, the myTouch has double the internal memory of the G1 (now 512 MB), which makes applications load and run much more smoothly.

The screen size and resolution remain the same (3.2-inch TFT-LCD 320 x 480). And, unfortunately, while the display is capacitive, it still does not support multi-touch which is a key feature of the iPhone and the new Palm Pre.

The myTouch also has the same 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus that the G1 had. And the device also comes pre-installed with a 4GB microSD card, but this is user-upgradable to any size.

But the most noticeable difference has to be the battery life. In my experience, the G1 had very poor battery life. The myTouch offers a huge improvement in that regard. How much? Well just in everyday use with a couple applications running in the background, my G1 battery would be gone in a few hours. The myTouch battery easily lasts all day in the same environment.

The iPhone

While this device trumps the G1 in every way, the comparison that more people may be interested in for the myTouch is likely how it stacks up against the iPhone. With the removal of the physical keyboard, the devices are more similar now.

Before I get to that, I will say that the biggest factor for which one you’re likely to enjoy more will be if you’re a bigger fan of the more open Android platform, or the more tightly controlled approach Apple is taking with the iPhone OS.

In terms of hardware, there is still no question in my mind that the iPhone is still much nicer. HTC managed many solid improvements over the G1, but when holding the two hand in hand, the myTouch still feels plasticky, and as a result, cheap, compared to the iPhone.

If you have the original iPhone or the iPhone 3G, you’ll appreciate the 3.2 megapixel camera and the ability to shoot video with the myTouch, but the just-released iPhone 3G S matches both of those features now.

In terms of speed, it’s a bit hard to compare the two since the platforms run different applications. The myTouch, like the G1, features a 528 MHz processor which is a faster processor than the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G had. But again, the new iPhone 3G S meets that speed and even pushes past it, in terms of raw processing power.

I’ve only played with the iPhone 3G S for a few days, but I think it’s safe to say that for day to day use of any application and browsing the web, the new iPhone blows past the myTouch in terms of speed. But again, the myTouch seems noticably faster in many regards then the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G.

That’s not the say that the myTouch has no advantages against the iPhone. It has a huge one: It can run third-party applications in the background. Apple has been toying around with the idea, but the Android phones have done this since day one. And as I noted above, while this severely hurt the G1′s battery performance, the myPhone performs much better even with applications running in the background.

Price

But in a move that still isn’t being talked about all that much, Apple may have dropped a bomb on devices like the myPhone 3G not with the iPhone 3G S as much as with the $99 iPhone 3G. At $199, the myTouch is the same price point as the entry-level iPhone 3G S, but I can see a lot of new smartphone buyers opting for the older iPhone for $100 cheaper.

Pre-orders for the myTouch will take place for existing T-Mobile customers on July 8. The device will be $199 with a 2-year agreement, and generally availability is set for early August.

To me, this is yet another indication of why Apple needs to move away from its AT&T exclusivity. While this year’s activation fiasco isn’t nearly as bad as last year’s nightmare, it’s still pretty bad considering that most of the iPhone 3G S orders were done via pre-order this time around. So AT&T knew what it was getting into ahead of time — and still couldn’t handle it. Then of course there’s the hilarious fact that MMS is not ready to go in the United States despite being launched on the device in 20+ other countries. And the same is true for tethering. Both are expected sometime later this summer.

Oh, and the iPhone 3G S can handle faster data speeds then the iPhone 3G (up to 7.2 Mbps now), but that doesn’t matter because AT&T’s network can’t do the same yet — and may not be able to in most places for a couple of years.

AT&T tried to do the right thing by offering some existing iPhone customers full subsidies for the new iPhone, but that was only those paying a large amount of money each month. It really should have offered it to all existing customers, just to rope them in for another 2 years of service because I’m betting that when its exclusive deal is up next year, Apple is going to ask to starting seeing other carriers.

Anyone who saw the WWDC keynote (now available online), clearly heard the jeers and boos from the crowd whenever one of the Apple execs had to say that AT&T wasn’t yet ready to launch one of the new iPhone features. You can be sure Apple heard those too — and that it wasn’t happy to have to say such things during a keynote in which the majority of those in the audience were AT&T iPhone customers.

Find the email below:

Dear Apple Customer,

Thank you for your recent Apple Store order. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delay in your iPhone activation.

We are still resolving the issue that was encountered while activating your iPhone with AT&T. Unfortunately, due to system issues and continued high activation volumes, this could take us up to an additional 48 hours to complete.

On Monday, you’ll receive an email from Apple with an iTunes Store credit in the amount of $30. We hope you will enjoy this gift and accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience this delay has caused.

Thank you for choosing Apple.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Team

So, I’ve now had a full day with the latest iPhone, the 3G S. So far, so good. This isn’t meant to be a full review — that will come later. But I wanted to give an initial reaction based on the last 24 hours, because as someone who has more than extensively used both the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G, a lot of users may be interested to know what immediately strikes me as different in this version.

The obvious answer would be its speed. There’s no denying it, it is fast. But that speed is severely hampered by AT&T’s often bad service and the fact that while this phone is capable of transferring data about roughly twice the speed of the iPhone 3G, AT&T’s network isn’t yet capable of doing the same, rendering that advantage moot. So instead of iPhone 3G S, I really would have called this thing the iPhone 3G V — for video. Because that feature, quite simply, is awesome.

Yes, plenty of other devices have done video in the past, but the combination of the overall package of the iPhone with this video recording capability is a game-changer in my opinion. And as we wrote last night, this could spell big trouble for the Flip. Others are saying the same thing. The way that the 3G S handles video is more than good enough for the average consumer. And I think we’re going to see that play out over the next several months.

Not only does the 3G S shoot video in fairly nice (VGA) quality (with the possibility of doing HD quality someday), it is dead simple to upload to YouTube — it is literally the click of one button. Almost immediately after unboxing the 3G S I shot a quick 30 second video (embedded below), and within minutes it was online being viewed on YouTube — and that was transferring it to YouTube via 3G. (Over WiFi, it’s obviously even faster.) No, that’s not as real-time as live video streaming that a service like Qik would like to offer (but is currently being restricted from doing so), but again, it’s fast enough for most consumers, and it’s much better quality to boot.

And one thing that sets it apart from competitor smartphones with similar functionality, like the Google Ion (aka the G2 or HTC Magic), is that the 3G S has dead-simple video editing capabilities right on the device. You simply drag your finger across the video timeline along the top of a video to trim it down to just the part you want before you upload it. And playback of these videos on the device itself looks great.

But really, it’s the whole package of the iPhone as an extremely consumer-friendly device mixed with this video functionality that is killer. Just think about all those popular Twitter applications on the iPhone. When those add video sharing functionality, these iPhone videos are going to be everywhere, just as iPhone-shot pictures are.

And it’s already happening. The increasingly popular yfrog was the first such service to support video from the 3G S, as it already is offering it through Twittelator. And the video attachments are already coming in from the new device. You can expect a surge of other Twitter apps to follow, as TweetDeck, Tweetie and Twitterrific are all ready to launch video support with yfrog, we hear.

And you can bet that other services like TwitVid, the other TwitVid, 12seconds and possibly even TwitPic are sure to follow. But the fact that you can record a video and upload it with one click to YouTube is huge. And with YouTube’s new social features, those videos can auto-tweet out when you upload them, as I learned yesterday.

I asked YouTube for its thoughts on the new iPhone. “It’s a truly amazing world – and great for YouTube – if everyone has an IP connected video camera in their pocket 24/7. Examples such as the protest videos in Iran display the incredible impact of getting video online and shared with the world. The 3G S is only going to increase the velocity of realtime creation and sharing via YouTube,” Hunter Walk, the Director of Product Management at YouTube, tells us.

I can already see it — there will be so many simple ways to get video from your iPhone 3G S to the web, that we’re about to enter the next phase of mobile social sharing: Full-on video. And I think that’s fantastic, I just hope all these services are ready as obviously video is an entirely different game than pictures are. Yfrog claims to be ready, as does YouTube. “We’re already seeing thousands of uploads from new iPhones, but we’re built for scale and receive more than 20 hours of video every minute, so overall quite confident that iPhone users will have a great experience sharing via YouTube,” Walk says.

Really, the only thing I see inhibiting this video revolution on the iPhone 3G S is, not surprisingly, AT&T. How the service is going to handle all these relatively big video files flying over its network all the time now is a huge question mark. We already saw that it couldn’t handle a few thousand geeks with iPhones being in the same place at the same time during SXSW this year — just imagine the first event where there are thousands of geeks with thousands of iPhone 3G Ss, uploading video.

AT&T says that it is continuing to upgrade and improve its network. But the company couldn’t even get MMS ready to go in the U.S. for the iPhone 3G S launch, so I’m skeptical.

The time for excuses is over for AT&T. If it wants to prove it deserves that iPhone exclusivity, it needs to be ready for what’s about to occur. The mobile video revolution is upon us. And that’s why this device should have been called the iPhone 3G V.

Below find a couple more tests, one in widescreen (horizontal) mode, one in vertical mode — featuring me as I am in most social situations, on the iPhone.

Flip cameras have really grown on me. A year ago I didn’t see any point in it, since most point and shoot cameras did everything the Flip could do at the same or better price point, and they took good pictures, too. The Flip was very simple to use, but the software wasn’t so great and it didn’t play well with Macs. I didn’t see the point in carrying the extra device.

But at the end of last year Flip released the Mino HD and everything changed. The device was a lot smaller than most point and shoot cameras, and took way better video (1280 x 720 high definition video v. 640 x 480 on most point and shoot cameras). They also fixed the software to work well with Macs. And the joy of taking a device out of the box – no cords or wires at all – was real. Their $590 million exit to Cisco was well deserved. I now love my Flip camera, and not just because the company sent me a check for $1.3 million.

Along the way Pure Digital fought ridicule from the big video camera companies, who said nobody would want the device. Then, once Pure Digital proved the market, all those competitors jumped in with their own offerings. There are now many devices with similar tech specs as the Flip, but Pure Digital has managed to stay ahead of them all by innovating faster.

Flip Can’t Beat The iPhone

That’s just not something they’re going to be able to do v. the iPhone and other similar devices to come.

The new iPhone takes very good video (640 x 480). That isn’t as good as the Flip (not yet anyway, word is that it actually can shoot HD video but is being slightly crippled), but it’s still able to shoot perfectly good videos on the go (example), which is exactly what the Flip is for. And the iPhone has something that the Flip will never realistically have, cellular and wifi connectivity that lets you upload your videos immediately. No need to sync back with your base computer to edit the video and upload it. You can do basic editing right on the iPhone, and publish it to YouTube immediately. As an added bonus, that video can be geo-stamped via the phone’s GPS capability.

That makes it significantly more useful as a video device than the Flip, and worth the reduction in quality. You already have to make some quality tradeoffs with the Flip anyway, so if you are going to have a second video device after your iPhone, it may as well be a slightly bigger video camera that you keep in your bag. I just don’t see people grabbing that Flip when they run out the door.

And one last killer feature of the iPhone – live streaming video from services like Ustream and Qik are already a reality – most TechCrunch authors have been using it for months on the old iPhone. At some point soon Apple will allow those apps to launch, and iPhone users will be able to stream video in real time from their phones to the Internet.

The Flip still costs less than the iPhone, and the transition will be gradual. But most everyone carries a phone anyway. And within a couple of years video will be as ubiquitous on those phones as photos are today. Flip won’t have a chance.

Or do they?

Flip As A Brand v. Flip As A Device

Last year I wrote about a possible way for Amazon to fork it’s Kindle business to really dominate the e-book market: build signature devices and actually pay ODMs to use the software in a unique reverse-licensing model:

Imagine if Amazon launched a licensing program that gave hardware manufacturers the ability to build Kindle clones, along with an incentive to sell them at near-zero margins. Amazon would give those manufacturers access to the core Kindle hardware specs (there’s no real magic there anyway) and the right to call it a Kindle device so long as they also put the core Kindle software on the device. That software links the device to Amazon’s store, meaning downloads revenue flows through Amazon.

Flip could do something similar – leverage its brand to convince handset manufacturers to Flip-certify their devices.

Garmin, facing stiff competition for its GPS devices from mobile phones, is doing exactly this: “the nuvifone is Garmin’s entry into the cellular phone market and considered key to the company’s future. Cell phone carriers have increasingly been chipping away at Garmin’s market, adding navigational features to their phones.”

There’s no reason why Cisco shouldn’t work with handset makers to make them “Flip certified” – high quality video hardware plus the awesome Flip software installed right on the phone.

Another way for Flip to go is to launch a series of higher quality video cameras to compete higher up the food chain.

Both strategies have big holes, and neither may work. But one thing is certain – In another year there will likely be multiple mobile devices that record video as well as the Flip, and have the benefit of GPS geo-stamping and mobile uploading. Flip will hit a huge brick wall. If the brand wants to live, it needs to adapt.

Everything on this phone is snappier – Maps especially – and the auto-focus and video uploads passed the wife test who said that this is what she’s been looking for from the iPhone from the beginning. Looks like someone is going to have to upgrade someone.

Overall, this is a good, evolutionary upgrade. As we said at WWDC, this is about getting the iPhone up to speed and making it the de facto way to share video. The Pre is dead in the water compared to this release. I’m sorry. Video will be the next killer app and look for YouTube to groan under the weight of new videos and users.

One other great feature is the compass. This doesn’t make sense at first but if you’ve ever tried to follow iPhone walking directions in a strange city it makes perfect sense. In Maps, the iPhone shows where you’re headed instead of just a little dot. This added bit of information ensures you don’t walk the wrong way before you even start your trip. I can just imagine tourists – and me – popping up from the subway in New York and consulting their iPhone compass programs like Lewis and Clark in Tevas and cargo shorts.

Interestingly, the trade dress is completely the same. I mean to the point of confusion. Do you have an S? A regular one? I’m going to be digging around and pulling some Kremlinology on this because quiet clearly this means something – they didn’t make it look EXACTLY like the 3G for reasons of economy. Something is up.

Otherwise, we’re going to put this through its paces this weekend and we’ll have a full review after that.

Interesting note: We’re in the car right now and I’m tethered via the iPhone using our magical tethering tricks. They work and this is probably the fastest I’ve seen the MacBook Air load web pages in all the time I’ve had it.

UPDATE – This is hilarious. I have had this Air for months now and the Wi-Fi has sucked consistently. Tethered to 3G it’s as fast as any other laptop when it comes to browsing.

Here are some comments from iFixIt’s tear down of the 3G S. Theirs also included a girl.

* Thankfully, opening the iPhone 3G S is as simple as the 3G. After
removing two Phillips screws, the two halves of the phone are separated
easily using a suction cup.

* The iPhone is differentiated externally only by a new model number,
A1303. The lettering on the back is now shiny, like the Apple logo.

* The internal physical design is virtually identical to the iPhone 3G.
A random passerby on the street would not know the difference. Heck,
even we were struggling to differentiate the two.

* The new graphics core should drastically improve performance, meaning
Apple’s serious about the handheld gaming market.

* There’s still a “Do not remove” sticker above the logic board.
Naturally, we removed it.

* Nearly all components have been relocated to the front side of the
main PCB, including the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Flash memory chips.

* The battery is 4.51 Watt-hours, or 1219 mAh. That’s about 6% larger
than the iPhone 3G’s battery. Hopefully the hardware runs more
efficiently, since increased battery life will not come from the battery
itself.

* There is an additional antenna connection near the dock connector.
We’re not sure what for just yet. However, we do love exploring these
teasers… Stay tuned!

* For those who are wondering about the fingerprint-resistant coating on
their iPhone 3G S screen: The oleophobic, or oil-proof, technology
evolved from waterproofing. Oil-proof technology is harder to achieve as
oil has a much lower surface tension than water, so it spreads out
easier and thus is harder to get rid off. MIT’s solution was to create a
coating material which creates a layer of micro fibers, but with a much
larger contact angle between the oil droplets and the fibers.

Some comments on usability of the 3G S:

* Camera quality is much improved from the 3G. Close-up shots were
possible down to about 5 cm, and the brightness adjusted well when
picking a focus area.

* The oleophobic screen does seem to clean slightly easier than the 3G’s
normal screen.

* Google Earth (duration of the spinning load wheel) (over Wi-Fi): 3G
S: 4.9 sec; 3G: 22.2 sec. A bit faster than Apple’s claim of 2X speed
improvement — although we know that one simple test of one application
means little in the real world.

Excuse PHa’s anger.

Depending on your eligibility for AT&T’s subsidy (more on that here), that means you can get an iPhone 3G S 16 GB for $129.35, the 32 GB version for $194.35. Or, perhaps even better, an 8 GB iPhone 3G for $64.90. Yes, you can get a new iPhone for $65 — thanks to Microsoft. Crazy.

Here’s is a full rundown of how to make it happen:

New iPhone Contracts Only:

1. Visit ATT Wireless website and validate your email address with Premier.
2. Check your email and click the link to your ATT Premier Store.
3. Open a new tab with the same browser that your ATT Premier Store is open in.
4. Go to bing.com in the new tab and search “att wireless”
5. Click the 35% CashBack Sponsored Link
6. Sign into your CashBack account and get redirected to the main AT&T Wireless page.
7. In the top right enter the term “Premier” into the search bar.
8. Click the first link that reads “at&t premier login”
9. You will get directed to the same Premier store you have open in the original tab.
10. Congratulations, you are in the Premier store under the CashBack AT&T Site

If you have an account with AT&T and you just want to make an upgrade or add a line:

1. Go to bing.com
2. Search ” ATT WIRELESS “.
3. Click the AT&T sponsored link, you will redirected (after you enter your email) to either the regular AT&T store or the Premier store depending on which account you have
4. Log in to your account and make your purchase.
5. The cashback will show up as “pending” after a couple of hours.
6. If it takes more than 48 hours for the cashback to show up, contact bing’s customer service then you will asked for your order number, method of payment( I attached my whole purchase order to the email): You cash will show up within hours

I have no idea if this will actually work — it may go against AT&T’s rules for device — but if you’re seeing all the hype today and still looking to buy one online, it’s worth a shot.

[via IntoMobile]

[Thanks Nick]

These instructions are pretty weird, but here goes. Bing has a 35% off offer for AT&T and to get it you need to go to the AT&T site and register under the “premier” moniker. Then go to Bing and search for ATT wireless. Notice the 35% off ad at the top.

Get a Cashback account, go back to AT&T, login to the Premiere service, and pick up your 35% off. This is only for new contracts. If you’re not a new customer, just do all that but don’t worry about the Premiere stuff.

Apparently it’s best done in IE. Let me know if it works.

You did know that Apple announced a new iPhone right? Yeah, it’s called the iPhone 3G S, where the S stands for Speed. So are you going to get it? There have been pics filtering in from tipsters all morning showing fanboys lined-up, waiting for their chance to get the latest and greatest from Apple. But are you one of them? Or are you avoiding Apple, and AT&T, as you would a coughing pig?

Happy iPhone 3G S Day! We’ve got the tear down of the latest iPhone here so you don’t have to spend all day sitting and staring at your new phone, wondering how it ticks. Oh, and there is a small, and geeky, surprise hidden within the iPhone 3G S that might reveal upcoming features.

It seems that the Samsung SoC S5PC100 and ARM Cortex A8 has enough juice to support 720p video recording verse the VGA that’s currently implemented on the iPhone 3G S. Plus, there might be enough power to even do video conferencing.

But there must be a reason why Apple didn’t enable these features from the start. Perhaps the extra features degrades the performance back down to the standard iPhone 3G level. Maybe 720p video recording will be activated later. Who knows.

AT&T has just released official word about the upcoming wave of iPhone 3G S device deliveries to its retail locations and directly to customers who have pre-ordered the widely anticipated phone. TechCrunch is here to make it easier for you to skim the information by breaking the press release down to the core items (no thank you required):

When, how, where

- the device will be sold in 2,200 AT&T retail locations and 211 U.S. Apple retail stores

- you can expect these locations to open at 7 AM local time (pre-ordered only)
- customers who have pre-ordered at an AT&T store should go to the same store they ordered the device at, with their receipt, but check their arrival date before to avoid disappointment
- customers who have pre-ordered online can expect their devices to start getting shipped over to them today at the earliest
- other customers can come at regular business hours and will be served at a ‘first come, first served’ basis

Pricing (with two-year contract commitment)

(ad verbatim)

- $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB) for all new AT&T customers and existing AT&T customers who have fulfilled their previous agreement. In addition, AT&T yesterday extended this pricing to iPhone 3G customers who will be eligible for a full upgrade in July, August, or September 2009.
- $399 (16GB) and $499 (32GB) for existing AT&T customers who have not yet fulfilled their existing agreement but would like an early upgrade to iPhone 3G S. This early upgrade option is exclusively available for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S.

Data plans

- monthly plans for consumers start at $69.99 per month for voice and data, and families who share minutes get special rates (starting at $129.99 a month for two iPhone lines with bundled voice and ‘unlimited’ data)
- small businesses are also eligible for special discounted service rates and can share up to 20,000 minutes per month between as many as 40 employees
- all iPhone plans include nationwide long distance and roaming, Visual Voicemail, Rollover, and unlimited Mobile to Mobile calling

MMS and tethering

Coming ‘later this Summer’ and ‘in the future’, respectively.

How many can you buy?

- New customer: one iPhone 3G S per person
- Existing customer: one iPhone 3G S per eligible telephone number
- Online customer: one iPhone 3G S per household
- Inheriting the good old iPhone 3G from someone else? Visit an AT&T store to activate your device.

So, are you getting one?

It’s not here. We’re not big enough to get one in the first wave of releases and we clearly haven’t “gone native” with the PR persons involved. We’ll have a thorough and intelligent review up after the weekend. Until then, enjoy the above video of Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton.

For a great examination of this situation by a site that we should all respect and read, pop over to iLounge.