So, after a tidal wave of criticism from the iPhone early adopters, AT&T is doing the right thing — kind of. Today, AT&T issued an update to its policy regarding the iPhone 3G S upgrade price. Previously, only those existing customers who were eligible for a new phone subsidy (typically those within a few months of their two year contract expiring) would get the best price for the device. That meant no current iPhone 3G owners were getting it because that device is only 11 months old. But now, AT&T will offer the best price to some iPhone 3G owners — but which ones? Basically, it looks like those with the most expensive contracts.
“We’re now pleased to offer our iPhone 3G customers who are upgrade eligible in July, August or September 2009 our best upgrade pricing, beginning Thursday, June 18,” AT&T writes. But don’t be fooled, that’s far from everyone. → Read More
Following up on our earlier story, it looks like Apple is holding back delivery of the iPhone 3G S units that we pre-ordered over the web, until Friday. This, despite the fact that they’re already in the United States, and many had been scheduled to be delivered tomorrow.
Earlier, several reports came in of disappearing delivery dates from online shipping trackers. That missing date has now been replaced on numerous people’s invoices with the following:
“THE RECEIVER REQUESTED A HOLD FOR A FUTURE DELIVERY DATE. UPS WILL ATTEMPT DELIVERY ON DATE REQUESTED “
Well, that was a close call. I’ll admit, I was tricked too at first by a link going around on Twitter right now stating that the iPhone 3.0 software’s launch was pushed to tomorrow. It’s an Apple site that lists the launch date for the update as June 18, tomorrow. The only problem is that the site is Apple’s Singapore website, where the update was always scheduled to be released on that date.
If you go to Apple’s actual U.S. website, you’ll see that the launch here is still slated for sometime today. So ignore the tweets that are undoubtedly filing up your screen right now. iPhone 3.0 will be released at some point today — though those hoping for a midnight launch were disappointed — and the iPhone 3G S will be out on Friday. The online pre-order units have already shipped, and are in the U.S., but word is they may still not get delivered until Friday. → Read More
Last night, we noted that iPhone 3G S pre-orders started leaving their point of origin in China yesterday, and many had a scheduled delivery date of tomorrow — a full two days before they’re scheduled to hit stores. Today brings more proof of that, as the phones have hit American shores already.
Okay, they’re in Alaska, so not exactly at the local FedEx for many of us. But still, the stated date of delivery on these orders remains tomorrow. So everyone who pre-ordered their’s from a store can commence their bitching. At least until we all find out that AT&T won’t activate these early iPhone 3G Ss until Friday. → Read More
Orders for the new iPhone 3G S are now in the air from Shenzen, China. And people who ordered them right away last week may be in for a treat – arrival two days early.
A friend who ordered the phone as soon as he could got his UPS notice today that the phone has been shipped, and the tracking page on the UPS site shows a June 17 delivery date, two days before the phones will be available in stores.
If it does arrive then, will AT&T activate it? Or will it be an iBrick for two days?
We’ll check back with him as soon as it arrives for an unboxing. And if he’s amenable, a tear down. I want to see the insides of this thing first hand. → Read More
AT&T will not be charging subscribers extra for MMS when it rolls out, according to an FAQ (PDF) that iLounge found online. Just thought you should know. I was worried about that and now it looks like I’ll be dumping my BlackBerry Curve and heading to AT&T for the 3G S. Will AT&T offer MMS and tethering? Later this summer, as part of the 3.0 software, AT&T will make multimedia messaging (MMS) available at no extra cost to customers with a text messaging bundle. And, in the future, AT&T will offer tethering capability for iPhone 3G S and iPhone 3G. via iLounge → Read More
Most TechCrunch writers are iPhone users. And while we’re still debating whether when what time we will be upgrading to the iPhone 3G S next Friday, we are excited for the iPhone OS 3.0 next Wednesday. We’ve had a few requests to publish the apps we use on our iPhones – and we’re going to share that information with you now.
The following list is by no means all of the apps we have on our iPhones. There are plenty of apps we only use a couple times a month (e.g. Shazam), but when we need them, they’re great. We’ve also linked to any TechCrunch/CrunchGear/MobileCrunch reviews of the apps. Let us know which apps you use in the comments below. → Read More
John Carmack loves the iPhone SDK. Last year he said he was working on an app that will take the iPhone to its graphical limits and Doom Resurrection is probably it. Thankfully, it was developed with the current crop of iPhones in mind so you don’t have to have the new iPhone 3G S to play it. But if the iPhone 3G supports games this graphically awesome, what can the iPhone 3G S with OpenGL support and a 600MHz CPU do? The mind boggles. → Read More
There’s a poorly kept secret in Silicon Valley: A lot of people are using their iPhones to stream live video over the web. The reason this is kept secret is because technically, no one is supposed to have such an app on their iPhone. You see, Apple has not allowed any of these live-streaming apps into the App Store. One reason is because these apps use hacks to get the iPhone’s camera to record video. But another is undoubtedly because AT&T does not want live streaming video clogging up its network. But if Apple and AT&T think videos like this and this were shot on something like a Nokia N95, they’re dreaming.
Even the video-crippled iPhone 3G has proven to be a great tool for shooting streaming live video, and now with the launch of the iPhone 3G S — which actually supports video, the implications are huge. Companies like Qik and Ustream should be shouting from the rooftops, “Finally!,” right? So why is everyone so quiet when it comes to using the iPhone 3G S for streaming live video? Well, because it’s still far from a sure thing. → Read More
Apple has hired David Fincher, director of movies such as Fight Club, Zodiac or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, to direct a TV commercial for the iPhone 3G S. The 30-second spot is supposed to push the phone’s video recording feature. Fight Club cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth took over the camera work for the commercial, which was released today.
Commercial after the jump. → Read More
You would think this is planned, but there is no way that the FCC is efficient enough to release documents detailing the iPhone 3G S on the same day as the announcement. No way. But here they are anyway. → Read More
You would think this is planned, but there is no way that the FCC is efficient enough to release documents detailing the iPhone 3G S on the same day as the announcement. No way. But here they are anyway. → Read More
Better read the fine print, friends. Apple said today that the iPhone 3G S costs $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB). But that’s the price only for new AT&T customers. The price if you’re already an AT&T customer and/or are upgrading from an iPhone 3G? Try $699 (32GB), $599 (16GB), and $499 (8GB). To quote Peter Ha: “HOLY SHIT.” → Read More
The new iPhone 3G S sounds great. It’s not a huge update to the iPhone, but it packs a few very important things: More speed, more storage, more battery and a better camera that can do video. It’s a no-brainer to upgrade to it, just as many did from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3G last year, right? Wrong.
While current iPhone owners last year got to upgrade to the iPhone 3G for the fully subsidized $199 and $299 prices, the same will not be true this year. Instead, current iPhone 3G owners only 1 year into their 2 year contracts, will have to pay $399 and $499 to upgrade. The reason for this is simple: AT&T subsidizes the phone down to $199 based on a 2-year payment agreement with the customer. If you only paid one year of that contract, AT&T would have to eat those costs. So instead it’s putting that cost back into this new phone. It didn’t do that last year, because the original iPhone wasn’t subsidized. It makes sense, but here’s why that’s a bad idea. → Read More
