Appletell

The Apple Store employee seemed very nervous as he approached me, yesterday. I’d been standing in line for nearly three hours, as had everyone else, and he was about to tell me I couldn’t upgrade my wife’s Nokia phone to an iPhone 3G. After he tried to give me the reason, I told him, “Are you sure? Because I went to an AT&T store on Sunday, and the guy said since her Nokia line is already on my Family Talk plan, I could switch her to the iPhone, but would have to pay extra for the data plan.” The employee said they’re not equipped to do that at the Apple store, to which I replied. “Well, that’s my fault for not confirming it, so I won’t freak out on you.”

The employee was relieved. He glanced at the line behind me, and sighed, “Thank you.”

I felt bad for the guy. Waiting three hours for a phone, half of which were spent standing in the mid-day sun on a 90° day, will set anyone to boiling. Tell that person after the wait that he can’t get the phone, and you’ve got an explosive situation on your hands. I get why Apple’s doing the whole in-store iPhone 3G activation thing, but I don’t get why they didn’t have more 1 to 3 people at a time activating phones. I also don’t get why the Apple employees, a week after the launch, still aren’t better trained on how to handle anything but the most basic activations. And considering that they aren’t, I don’t get why Apple isn’t sending more phones to AT&T...because that’s where I had to go to complete my iPhone set-up.

Jump past the break to learn how to set up your iPhone your way, not Apple’s.

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Six and one-half hours in line at the Apple Store, added to the three hours spent waiting in line at at AT&T store, only to be told that they had run out. Is the white, 16 gig iPhone 3G worth it? Totally. The excitement felt by Ralphie upon receipt of his Red Ryder BB gun is comparable.

Although demand will begin to fall off as time goes on, there are a few tips for eager iPhone fans who have yet to get their hands on one of these amazing devices. Check them out after the break.

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Well, at least it seems as though we’re making progress. Yesterday I wrote about growing discontent among consumers with the “deal with the devil” Apple made to lock the iPhone to AT&T for a period of five years.

Now, The Washington Post reports that AT&T will begin selling the iPhone to users who would like to use it with a different carrier—that is, if they are willing to pay three times as much for the smartphone; a whopping $599. This is the original price of the iPhone when it was launched.

Apple’s popular iPhone can be yours, no contract required. But there’s a catch—and a pricey one at that.

AT&T yesterday announced that it will offer the smartphone to people who want to use another carrier, starting at $599.

The iPhone 3G, scheduled for a July 11 release, will be available for $199 to new AT&T customers or existing customers eligible for an upgrade—under a two-year contract. The larger-capacity 16-gigabyte model will cost $299 under the same conditions.

For those looking to use another carrier, the 16-gigabyte version will cost $699.

This news comes on the heels of AT&T’s announcement that it will be raising rates on their iPhone plans to $70 per month for the most bare bones plan. If these comments by readers of The Post are any indication, AT&T’s price hikes will probably hurt Apple’s iPhone 3G sales at least a little bit.

“Was going to join the line at midnight,” wrote one commenter responding to a Washington Post blog post about the price plans. “Now won’t get one at all.”

“I will just have to swallow the price hike,” wrote another.

Via [The Washington Post]

David Pogue of The New York Times posted a Q&A with an AT&T public relations representative about AT&T’s plans for the release of the iPhone 3G, and it’s clear that they are out to fleece iPhone customers more than ever.  Why not?  There’s nobody for them to compete with!

We all should have seen this coming when Apple decided to enter into an exclusive 5-year deal with AT&T for the iPhone.  Now that Apple has lowered the price of the iPhone in $199 in hopes of making it more affordable for the general public, AT&T has taken it upon themselves to raise their service rates for their basic iPhone plan from $60 to $70—text messages not included.

More after the break.

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If you still don’t know what you’re going to do with your old iPhone once you upgrade to the iPhone 3G, AT&T is suggesting something which might actually appeal to you and the rest of the old iPhone users. AT&T will allow you to keep the old iPhone and use it as a Wi-Fi-enabled iPod.

This means you can opt not to have the old iPhone re-activated as a wireless phone, but instead work as an iPod device which you can still use to surf the web or your e-mail through a wireless connection. If you’re not on a WiFi hotspot, you can still use the old iPhone ala iPod for viewing movies and listening to music or to access the iTunes player.

In addition to all this, AT&T is also recommending that old iPhone users upgrade the firmware of their iPhones to v2.0 before having them de-activated in time for the July 11 release of the iPhone 3G. But that is, of course, necessary only if you intend to upgrade to the iPhone 3G.

Via [AppleInsider]

Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon boss, isn’t a good friend of Steve Jobs, or at least isn’t now. When interviewed by the Financial Times, he said that, “Steve Jobs eventually will get old.” Verizon Wireless recently bought Alltel, the fifth-largest US wireless company. With the addition of Alltel, Verizon Wireless will surpass AT&T to become the leading mobile operator in the U.S., or fifth largest in the world. With 80 million customers, revenue has also gown 5.8 percent in 2007. Mr. Seidenberg is sure Verizon Wireless will take a large chunk of the revenue from the growing mobile Internet.

From 9to5Mac:

“There goes the conspiracy again,” [Seidenberg] says of Apple. “You’re declaring them a winner before they’ve earned it on the field.” Jobs has no monopoly on innovation, he cries.

Maybe he’s just a little frustrated that Verizon turned down the offer to put the iPhone on their network? I mean, what else? Seidenberg’s older than Steve!

Via [9to5Mac]

Klausner has finally announced that they have made a settlement in their patent lawsuit against Apple and AT&T. Back in December, Klausner filed suit against the two companies, claiming that the iPhone’s visual voicemail software violated patents 5,572,576 and 5,283,818 .Apple and AT&T are both going to pay the firm an undisclosed sum to license the technology.

Back when Visual Voicemail was introduced, it was met with tremendous support. Some even went as far as to call it “… a very significant development in the world of voicemail ... [it should be] standard everywhere.” Apple tooted their own horn by calling it “… one of the greatest advances in the history of mankind ... without question.”

Um, okay. Overstatement of the century. I’m not saying the program isn’t a good one, but both of the patents it violates are more then 12 years old. 

Those two patents have been successfully defended before; Klausner recently settled with Vonage over the same issue.

Via [Apple Insider]

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At WWDC last week, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, announced that the 8GB model of the new iPhone 3G will sell for a maximum of $199* across the world in any carrier. What pricing did each carrier choose? AT&T maxed out and will be selling it at $199. Outside of the States, some carriers will be offering it at the bare minimum or close to nothing (with a calling plan). In Germany, T-Mobile will sell the iPhone for only 1 euro to the customers who select the top plan. Another carrier, O2, who carriers the phone 3G in the U.K., announced the iPhone will be free for all customers who sign up for one of the top plans.

So, let’s do some math; an iPhone with AT&T would cost $199 for the phone and $69.99 a month for a two year contract, for a total of $1,878.76. An iPhone with a two year contract on T-Mobile in Germany would be a whoping $3,265.54 02, and the UK has a pretty good price of $2,107.44, only 12% more than AT&T’s plan.

By reading the first paragraph, you’re hooked onto getting a phone with T-Mobile. A euro for an iPhone? Come on, why not? Then, it’s $136 a month with T-Mobile… and $87.81 a month with O2. European carriers know what they’re doing.

* Prices in USD

[Via Apple 2.0]

Honestly, we don’ t know what come over AT&T. Report has it they will not be allowing teethering capabilities for the iPhone 3G. This means that all the rejoicing when Apple included 3G connectivity with the new iPhone was for naught. We will not be able to finally use our iPhone as a data connectivity device for our laptop whenever there is no Wi-Fi hotspot available because AT&T decided, for no apparent reason, to not offer a phone-as-modem plan for the iPhone 3G.

Are not all 3G mobile phones supposed to do this function—that is, serve as a modem for laptops for mobile internet connectivity? If it is mobile carrier dependent, then the least AT&T could do for its customers and for the iPhone 3G’s usability is enable this function by providing a phone-as-modem plan. Alright, AT&T’s $30 consumer unlimited data and visual mail plan is pretty cool, and the $45 business data plan is pretty useful to some business professionals. But how about us, the simpletons, who would want to use the iPhone 3G for mobile connectivity purposes?

We think this business plan may not be best for both AT&T and Apple, as restricting the use of the iPhone 3G would only encourage enterprise hackers to enable this functionality in the not-so-legal way. But who knows? Hopefully, AT&T will change its business plan for the iPhone 3G later on.

Via [iPhone Atlas]