iPhone - page 478

It’s iPhone launch day in the US and early reports from several sources indicate a scene of controlled chaos across the country as Apple Retail and AT&T employees work to satisfy the demands of people who must have a new phone today. It’s nothing like the mayhem that attended demand last summer when the first gen iPhone made its debut, but AT&T’s on-site activation requirement seems to be making the purchase of of a new iPhone much longer process than the 15 minutes touted earlier in the week as the time it would take to get in and out with a phone.

Steve Wozniak was quoted in MacWorld admitting gadget lust would keep him in line overnight down in San Jose to get a new phone this morning, but said,””A lot of the people I know just aren’t going to upgrade yet.”

Image via CNet

The new iPhone OS 2.0 software has been unlocked and jailbroken, according to Gizmodo blogger Jesus Diaz.

After taking months to crack the code on last summer’s inaugural release, the iPhone Dev Team has opened the gates to unsigned software on the iPhone 3G before its US debut. The Pwnage tool that will allow unofficial carriers access to the phone and give users full read/write access to the filesystem to enable installation of unofficial, “jailbreak” applications is “imminent,” according to CNet, though no firm release date has been announced.

This time last year, loads of experts were hypothesizing that Apple couldn’t succeed in the cell phone market. Well, it’s been a year, and the first generation did well enough, and the 3G version will almost certainly eclipse its sales by a huge margin.

The Industry Standard had the foresight to go back to some of the iPhone’s biggest critics and see what they have to say for themselves now. My favorite reply is from Rob Enderle, the famously off-the-mark tech analyst who seems to believe that the only difference between Apple products and other technology products is marketing.

I still don’t think it is a great phone, though, and without Apple marketing I doubt it would have done nearly as well. Apple could probably sell refrigerators to Eskimos.

Well if Apple designed those fridges, I would be in line to purchase them! Marketing on its own doesn’t lead to long-term growth. You can apply great marketing to a crummy product, as Microsoft is about to try with Vista, and it rarely makes a difference. Great marketing for a great product? Succeeds, but not just because of the advertising!

Anyway, it’s a fun read overall. A shame they couldn’t get John Dvorak to reply — I’m fairly certain he’s the only person who actually called on Apple to cancel the iPhone because Apple couldn’t stand up to heavy competition from Nokia and Motorola. Um…yeah. I don’t know if anyone is afraid of Motorola right now…

They should also hit up Maddox and his thrilling Nokia E70 that looks like a stun-gun.

Via Daring Fireball

Of the more than 500 applications unleashed during the AppStore launch today, none shows more promise for the iPhone’s future as a vital development platform than the amazing client for Internet radio station Pandora. It can play your personalized radio station over the air — even on EDGE. New music that isn’t in your iTunes library, playing anywhere that you have a signal.

There are a few of reasons why this is significant. First, it’s available for free but is supported by audio advertising, and if you get a subscription to the service, you can get rid of the ads altogether. That’s important, because Apple hadn’t made it at all clear that it was offering developers any business models other than outright purchases or complete giveaway. (Greg at Pinchmedia had a great article about iPhone business models a few weeks ago that I recommend for further reading if you’re curious.)

Second, though, Pandora’s application is a clear sign that Apple is going to be far less defensive of its role as media provider for the iPhone than it has been on the iPod. Think about it: Apple is allowing another company to play music in a dedicated application on the iPhone. Let me repeat that in bold: Apple is allowing another company to play music in a dedicated application on the iPhone! And the app even mimics the look of the iPhone’s music player! Seriously, I’ve never been more surprised by Apple in my life. On Tuesday night, I literally said Apple would never allow something like that to happen — too threatening to iTunes. And yet, here we are.

The presence of mobile Pandora for iPhone could, at its best, start to change how people think about both the iPhone and, especially, the iPod touch. When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, he called it a cell phone, a widescreen iPod and an Internet device. Though it was clear that the release of new third-party apps today would make it so much more, the fact that Apple has made room for someone else to deliver media to the iPhone really announces to the world that it is a platform for other companies to make money. And I have to confess that until today, I didn’t think it could be; I wasn’t sure Apple would make the iPhone more like a Mac and less like an iPod. Apple isn’t keeping out potential threats — it’s hoping that their work will help them sell more hardware. And that’s a level of openness the company has never had before.

Of course, this isn’t all new-found maturity for Apple — it helps that Pandora for iPhone directs you to iTunes over-the-air when you want to buy one of the songs that you like. Still, this is an incredibly positive sign for the iPhone going forward.

Via Listening Post

Photo via iFixit

The iFixit guys did what they said they would do and are up with first-look photos and analysis of their dissection of the iPhone they bought this morning in Auckland, NZ. They report the only other American outfit there with them was a team from Engadget.

The photos posted on the iFixit page link to hi-res images for a better look inside the new phone. Some good news is the iPhone battery, while secreted away beneath a sealed case, is not soldered-on inside, which should reduce the cost of replacing one after it withers from surfing the web at 3G speeds.

I’ve been a gamer for a very long time. I distinctly remember my dad helping me to play one of the earliest Space Invader units by lifting me up (what with a diminutive version of your correspondent not being able to see the screen properly) and then pretty much instantly regretting it (what with me being rather heavier than he realized). I’ve devoured games on ZX Spectrums, Commodore 64s, BBC Micros, Amigas, PCs, Macs, and consoles from Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft and Sony. And although today’s gaming landscape is clearly significantly more conservative and homogenized than that of the 1980s or early 1990s, there are still many gems lurking amongst the dross.

It’s curious to see Apple again taking interest in games. Few will remember the disaster that was the Pippin, a joint production with Bandai that rightfully made #22 on a top 25 worst tech products of all-time list by PC World, and Macs have never really been at the forefront of gaming, with users typically forced to pick up two-year-old PC games at current PC-game prices.

With iPhone, there’s a feeling things might be different this time. Right from the start, Sega was extolling the virtues of the device, demoing a highly competent version of Super Monkey Ball, and reports suggest spec-wise that Apple’s hardware rivals Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS, which are the only two mobile gaming platforms worth a damn. Also, Jobs claims a third of the first wave of applications on the AppStore will be games.

My concern is that the genius of Apple’s lack of physical controls for most applications (thereby enabling context-sensitive controls and keyboards) might be its undoing in the games world. Jailbroken iPhones offer emulators of classic consoles, but the lack of tactile controls renders them borderline unplayable, and although the iPhone’s accelerometer and touch-screen will force (some) developers to create unique and innovative products, there’s a real risk iPhone as a gaming platform will remain a seriously niche concern, by virtue of lacking a D-pad and other ‘standard’ controls.

Some might argue that iPhone’s unique controls can only be a good thing, using Nintendo’s Wii and DS consoles as ‘proof’. But while both of those devices have proved staggeringly popular, they offer alternatives to developers. Yes, you can wave the Wii remote around like a loony, or draw on the DS touchscreen, but more typical control methods are also catered for. And it’s pretty obvious that some developers try to shoehorn unwieldy control systems into games (a shocking number of DS games require hateful microphone-based controls at some point) on such consoles because they can. But with the iPhone, they will sometimes have to.

Looking at iPhone gaming demos to date, there’s already a split between games such as Super Monkey Ball using iPhone to fashion highly intuitive controls via tilting, and more traditional games being hamstrung, leading to having to ‘jolt’ your iPhone upwards to make a character jump. A quick glance around the web suggests I’m not alone in wishing iPhone catered for all, rather than those with an ‘accelerometer and tilting’ fetish. One Mac user created a mock-up of a PSX-style controller for iPhone, and the people over at icontrolpad.com (pictured right) have prototyped a device that almost turns iPhone into a PSP-style handheld console.

Unfortunately, any devices along these lines are likely to be limited to jailbroken iPhones—at least for the foreseeable. But here’s hoping Apple takes these ideas on board. For while I’m all for innovation and playing something new, it’d be a shame to restrict iPhone to certain types of games, simply by not giving developers access to a full range of controls, tactile or otherwise.

The iPhone 2.0 firmware update is available from Apple, according to both The Unofficial Apple Weblog and MacRumors. Though a check at the page devoted to the AppStore in Apple’s iPod Touch section indicates the firmware is “coming soon,” MacRumors found this link to the firmware in Apple’s xml files.

WARNING: before you go clicking on that link and downloading the firmware to your iPod Touch or your first gen iPhone, note that the firmware will wipe your device on install.  Apple posted the following notice:

“Normally if you choose to update, the iPhone or iPod touch software is updated but your settings and media are not affected. If your device currently has a software version prior to 2.0 (1.x) and you are updating to software version 2.0 or later, all data on your device will be erased in order to perform install the new software. In this case, iTunes will offer to create a one-time media backup of your device depending on what content is on your device and what content is stored in the iTunes Library you are connected to. You should ensure that you have enough free space on your Mac or PC to accommodate a backup that matches the capacity of your iPhone or iPod touch (4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB, or 32 GB) if you proceed with the this backup.”

We recommend you wait a few more hours for the “official release” of the 2.0 firmware. As “Auntie TUAW” noted, it’s not a good idea to go poking around on Apple’s servers to download random files for installs. Keep checking the Official Release link for updates.

The long-awaited opening of Apple’s AppStore may come on Thursday at noon Eastern Time to coincide with the launch of the iPhone 3G in New Zealand, according to a report published by Forbes.

Apple’s vehicle for distributing third-party applications developed for the iPhone could go live to accomodate purchasers of the new iPhone, who will be able to buy the phones beginning at Midnight local time in New Zealand. Forbes attributed the AppStore debut speculation to “three people who have been briefed on the matter,” but acknowledged Apple’s “usual veil of secrecy” makes “details about the size, scope or content of the store … consequently scarce.”

Three of the mainstream media’s most influential technology writers have published their initial reviews of the iPhone 3G and the consensus opinion seems to be “well, why not?”

Edward C. Baig gives the phone 3 3/4 stars out of 4 for USA Today and says “it’s cheaper, faster and a lot friendlier for business.”

Walter J. Mossberg writes for the Wall Street Journal that he found Apple’s upgrade “a more capable version of an already excellent device. And now that it’s open to third-party programs, the iPhone has a chance to become a true computing platform with wide versatility,” but notes the access to speed promised by AT&T’s 3G network seriously degrades the phone’s battery life.

The New York Times writer David Pogue has the least glowing of the three reviews and says that while there are notable, if small improvements in the 3G model, “unfortunately, most of the standard cellphone features that were missing from the first iPhone are still missing.” He cites lack of voice dialing, video recording, copy-and-paste, memory-card slot, Bluetooth stereo audio and phone-to-phone photo sending (MMS) capabilities as reasons to think twice about getting the phone.

All three reviewers praised Apple’s upgrades to the sound quality on the new model, an important consideration for those who might view its price in terms of the savings realized from not needing to purchase a new iPod, and always a welcome improvement to any portable multi-media device.

Of the more than 25,000 developers  who applied to Apple’s iPhone developers program, 4,000 were admitted, according to a story in Fortune. Apple set a July 7 deadline for those accepted developers to submit their applications for inclusion in the inaugural launch of the iPhone AppStore, expected to coincide with the worldwide debut of the iPhone 3G in two days.

We bring you now 12 interesting Apps to look for. Descriptions and screenshots after the jump.

Blogger Erica Sadun, writing for The Unofficial Apple Weblog, says there are several good reasons not to bother getting swept up in iPhone 3G fever.

Calling the phone “horribly priced,” especially in view of pricey carrier data plans that run upwards of $30 per month “to visit a few websites,” Sadun says everyone waiting in the rain right now outside the Apple Store in New York, the hordes of people in the UK who have already bought out O2’s supply of pre-orders, and the masses of customers worldwide who are expected to make Friday Apple’s biggest retail day ever – will be paying “the early adopter tax” for something that will be better and cheaper soon.

Acknowledging the upgrade to browsing speed promised by connectivity to the 3G network, Sadun believes unless “the speed issue [is] do-or-die for you, this is the upgrade to skip.”

Photo by JoLin via flickr

Apple retail outlets in Canada will not be selling the iPhone 3G when it makes its global debut on Friday, according to a report at AppleInsider. Speculation has been rampant that Apple Corporate is disgruntled by the PR fiasco created by Rogers Wireless service plan offerings for the new phones in Canada, which so far have attracted more than 50,000 signatures to a petition decrying the company’s pricing as predatory.

Rogers and its partner stores will be the only places to buy an iPhone 3G in Canada come Friday. Canadian Apple retail stores will, however, have demo units on hand for the July 11 launch.

Business must be pretty good at iFixit. The California-based Mac and iPod parts and upgrades site is sending tweeters and technicians to New Zealand to be the first people in the world to disassemble an iPhone 3G. iFixit reps plan to liveblog the disassembly of an iPhone 3G immediately after its worldwide debut at 12:01 AM NZST, July 11 (5:01 AM PST, July 10) and post live images and descriptions of the disassembly as it unfolds.

“Our technicians will also be analyzing the internals and posting component descriptions and design analysis,” said Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, in a press release issued by the company yesterday. “We’ll be posting internal photos as fast as we can take them.”

Photo via Fortune

My AT&T account tells me I’ll be eligible for a hardware upgrade on August 16th. I’ll probably wait at least until then to pick up a new iPhone 3G. And something tells me I won’t be disappointed.

Then again, I don’t have a sustainability agenda to push, as do a quintet of twenty-somethings calling themselves alternatively TheWhoFarm and Waiting for Apples, who began queuing up in front of the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan on Friday. The group is going for the Guinness Book of World’s Records entry for “longest time waiting in line to buy something,” according to Fortune, and hopes to persuade the next President of the United States to transform the White House’s 17-acre lawn into an organic farm.

It’s not clear what effect the group’s affinity for Apple may have on the company’s efforts to gain acceptance with Enterprise users.

Google has optimized Google Talk, its web-based instant messaging program, according to the company’s Mobile Blog website.

To send or receive instant messages an open instance of the phone’s Safari browser must be running. Switching to another browser window or application will change your IM status to “unavailable,” but you can select from a quicklist of the people you contact most, search your contacts, and manage multiple conversations. The company said it designed the iPhone optimization to closely resemble its desktop application.

Winning awards for the product design is old hat for Jonathan Ive and his team in the Apple Design Group. The company’s Senior Vice President, Industrial Design has won every honor that a product designer can claim, and then some. But today, he won an award unlike any other. He was recognized for a design that drove the adoption of an obscure technology.

Ive was honored with the Personal Achievement Award by the Mobile Data Association, a UK group that recognizes “those UK companies and individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the uptake and success of mobile data over the last 12 months.”

The iPhone can be credited for many things — upsetting the existing mobile phone market, increasing demand for cool touchscreen interfaces, creating a new icon to be used as short-hand for innovation — but, as the MDA notes, its biggest accomplishment probably is in driving demand and adoption of mobile data plans. Data plans have been available for a very long time, but the appeal of the mobile web wasn’t obvious to most of us until we first got to try the stupendous Mobile Safari. By itself, the iPhone has made HTML browsers a near-standard feature for a modern smart phone.

And the industrial design is a big part of the success of Mobile Safari. Wiithout the finger-flicking scrolls and double-tapping zooms, the iPhone wouldn’t be what it is and mobile data wouldn’t be so hot. It’s nice that an organization that has been promoting mobile data for years recognizes that design’s contribution to the iPhone goes far beyond aesthetics and software. It was designed to make the mobile web accessible and appealing. And it succeeded wildly.

Via Ars Technica.

One of the most-asked questions leading up to the July 11 launch of iPhone 3G has been “How much will current iPhone users pay to upgrade to a new phone?” We asked media representatives from AT&T to clarify the upgrade policy yesterday, and were told by Wes Warnock, “Eligibility for the upgrade discount typically involves a number of factors, including how long you have been in your current service agreement, your payment history (for example, prompt payment of bills), and more.”

Asked how that would relate to current iPhone users who can only have activated their phones at most a few days more than one year ago, Warnock would only allow, “In general, you are more likely to qualify [for the discount phone pricing] if you are at or near the end of your current service agreement and pay your wireless bills promptly.”

Because the iPhone 3G is being subsidized by AT&T, their standard upgrade pricing plan is in effect. This allows them to recover the cost of the subsidy over the two year life of the service plan you commit to when you buy the phone. Blogger M. Jackson Wilkinson at Jounce explains, “If you currently use a phone subsidized by AT&T, and you aren’t currently eligible for an upgrade (you aren’t nearing your contact’s two-year anniversary), you will need to pay the full, un-subsidized price for the iPhone 3G. In this case, that works out to either $199+200 or $299+200, hence the $399 and $499 prices.”

So, how does that affect first-gen iPhone users, whose phones weren’t subsidized by AT&T? Under the terms of AT&T’s upgrade policy, current iPhone users should be able to make a good case for being able to purchase the iPhone 3G at the fully subsidized price as long as they are willing to sign on for a new two year service contract.

Blogger Glenn Fleishman has additional details about iPhone pricing arcana at TidBITS

Image via AppleInsider

By any measure of event marketing, Apple’s rollout of its next-gen iPhone 3G has already been a success, with stories having run in every major media outlet, from Time to Fortune to BusinessWeek, CNN, The New York Times as well as on Internet blog sites large and small, covering the phone’s worldwide debut on July 11.

Both Apple and AT&T, the iPhone’s exclusive US wireless carrier and distribution partner, have posted videos hoping to get customers iReady for the big day and, according to a story in Fortune, reporter Philip Elmer-DeWitt says their approaches couldn’t be more different.

The Apple video, shot in the company’s signature stark, simple style, calmly lays out all the feature-based reasons you should believe that owning anything less than an iPhone may leave you unprepared to face the challenges of living in the modern world. As Elmer-DeWitt writes, “It’s hard to watch it to the end and not harbor iPhone 3G lust.”

At&T’s video, on the other hand, calls to mind the chaos and frustration likely to attend your effort to get your hands on one of the new phones on launch day, recommending that you may well want to visit an AT&T store in advance of July 11 to get your papers in order and your background check, uh, credit check out of the way to minimize hassles and delay when you come back to get the phone and have it activated.

As the countdown to launch day nears, more and more people are likely to be liveblogging the event and the pent-up demand for the device will continue to build. Some, however, are thinking more along the lines of Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, like Dameon Welch-Abernathy at The PhoneBoy Blog, who says, “Get iReady to be iScrewed.”

Apple’s chosen wireless carrier for the United States revealed pricing details for the iPhone 3G models, set to debut on July 11, according to information posted to the company’s website. New customers signing a two year service contract with the Dallas-based phone company can purchase the new phones for $199 and $299 for the 8GB and 16GB models respectively. Current AT&T customers who are eligible for an upgrade will also be able to purchase at the fully subsidized pricing while those not eligible for an upgrade will pay $399 and $499 for the two models. In typically cryptic AT&T style, the company’s upgrade eligibility requirements are not made public but only to logged in users requesting information specific to their account. The company’s generic message on upgrades reads “Device offers are made available from time to time based on a number of factors: service tenure, spending levels, payment history, usage practices and other factors,” though existing customers nearing the end of a two-year service contract cycle will presumably be able to purchase a new iPhone at the fully subsidized pricing with a commitment to a new two year contract.

In a somewhat puzzling development, AT&T issued a statement today saying it will sell the new phones “in the future” without a service contract for $599 for the 8GB phone and $699 for the 16GB model. Previously, neither Apple nor AT&T had indicated any intention to make the phones available without a service contract. Customers seeking to purchase phones on and near the July 11 launch date will be required to activate AT&T service at either an Apple store or an AT&T outlet, unlike the original iPhones released one year ago, which users could activate for service from their home computers. Existing AT&T customers will pay an $18 activation fee to get service on new iPhones; new customers will pay $36 for service activation.

Apple has ordered millions of earth-friendly packaging trays from a Dutch company that makes injection-molded shipping products from potato starch, according to The Register. After weathering criticism in the past from the likes of Greenpeace for the company’s use of Brominated Fire Retardants (BFRs) and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) in its products, last year, Apple CEO Steve Jobs promised a greener Apple. Turning once again to the company that made shipping trays for the first generation iPod nano and iPod video, Apple plans to ship its new iPhones in cardboard boxes with a fully recyclable tray made from 100% natural sources such as potato or Tapioca starch, according to Hans Arentsen, CEO of the Dutch company PaperFoam.

Apple’s App Store, the online distribution channel for applications being developed for the iPhone by third-party software makers, will presumably open its virtual doors with the release of iPhone’s 2.0 firmware and the debut of the 3G model hardware on July 11. Phone users and developers alike are understandably excited about possibilities on the horizon, but as developer Paul Kafasis writes for Inside iPhone, many aspects of the way forward remain uncharted.

With Apple having no previous experience in the role of software publisher for outside developers, Kafasis is concerned about uncertain protocols on issues including support, free trials, review copies, refunds, discounts, bulk sales, and upgrade pricing. On behalf of consumers he wonders if software will be tied to a single device, if it will be able to be backed-up and recovered later and what will happen when a user gets a new iPhone.

Most importantly, perhaps are unanswered questions about who will have and control the all-important customer information. “When we sell software to a customer, we can track visitors, hits, downloads, and more. We also get a name and email address we can use to contact the customer later, if needed,” he writes, and then wonders, “will [developers] get any of this from the App Store? If so, what pieces of it?”

Many people felt the initial release of the iPhone last year was badly hobbled by the restriction against native third-party applications. The emergence of such applications soon, and their distribution through the App Store, are thus as likely to be roundly welcomed as it is certain the roll-out will encounter bumps in the road. With a future all three parties – Apple, developers and consumers – would like to see as fulfilling, whether and when that might be the case will depend on the answers to some of Kafasis’ questions.

Since I first got an iPod, way back when Discmen roamed the earth, my fondest wish has been that I could use it as a quasi-remote control for my stereo. I could point it at a set of speakers, scroll through my music library, press the center button, and — BOOM! — music would pour forth.

Besides a few experiments with an iTrip, however, this has been wishful thinking. Until, perhaps, the next few weeks. MacRumors claims that the Read Me file for a developer release of the imminent iTunes 7.7 will finally make this dream real (well, provided you have a computer hooked to your stereo):

Use iTunes 7.7 to sync music, video, and more with iPhone 3G, and download applications from the iTunes Store exclusively designed for iPhone and iPod touch with software version 2.0 or later. Also use the new Remote application for iPhone or iPod touch to control iTunes playback from anywhere in your home — a free download from the App Store.

It’s pretty typical Apple to offer a few unannounced features on major operating system upgrades, but this one is incredibly welcome. Using the WiFi built into the iPhone and iPod Touch is a natural for this, and it’s much more convenient than using the (let’s face it) fairly inadequate Apple Remote. I just hope it will work with Front Row and AppleTV…

Photo by Silvio Sousa Cabral

Amid reports of a surge in orders for all flavors of Apple gadgetry, anticipation of the iPhone 3g’s July 11 debut has the Apple Retail division preparing for the onslaught and chipmakers such as Broadcom and Marvel hoping happy days are here again.

Wall Street analyst Craig Berger, speaking for FBR Capital Markerts, says the bump in Apple’s supply chain activity “suggest[s] Apple continues to knock the cover off the ball, that its product cycle momentum is ramping, and that any consumer spending malaise in the U.S. or Europe has yet to impact Apple-related product demand.”

In a memo distributed throughout its Apple Stores division, company executives laid the ground rules for interacting with the public as 3G launch day approaches. Among the anticipated issues, the idea of getting on a waitlist for first dibs was shot down definitively by Apple corporate, and retail employees have been told to call any customer who has reserved an iPhone Personal Shopping session on or after July 11th to inform them Personal Shopping sessions will not apply to the iPhone 3G.

At an Apple Store in New York this week, actor Kiefer Sutherland is said to have made a strong case for obtaining a pre-launch iPhone 3G to no avail.

The company plans to hold worldwide retail meetings on July 6th to begin conveying more specific official launch procedures to its staff, according to a report at the Unofficial Apple Weblog.

Apple is ensuring the secondary market success of iPhones by building secure data wipe into the 2.0 version of its software, according to AppleInsider. Several sources report the Gold Master versions of the software could be released internally at Apple and possibly to developers as early as Friday.

Citing “People familiar with the beta versions of iPhone Software v2.0,” the AppleInsider report says the upcoming release will employ a more foolproof method of erasing all personal data and settings from an iPhone. As is the case with the existing version of iPhone software, the function will be accessible by selecting Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Contents and Settings.

Unlike today’s iPhone software the revised function will wipe data in similar fashion to the “Secure Empty Trash” function of Mac OS X, by which all data is deleted, unlinked, and then overwritten several times to make it irretrievable by even the savviest of recovery tools.

This feature should be welcome to anyone looking to sell their first-gen iPhone and upgrade to the 3G model, as well as to those who will follow the same path with subsequent iterations of the phone.

The caveat is that the new method will take considerably longer than the method available by the current software version, but time seems a small price to pay for piece of mind.

UPDATE: This post originally borrowed liberally from an article written by reporter Dan Warne for APC Magazine. Though I linked to Dan’s piece and indicated the “10 Reasons” were his ideas and not mine, I realize now that reprinting his article with only the slightest changes and editing on my part could be seen as misleading at best and were certainly not in keeping with the standards to which I and Cult of Mac aspire. I ask for readers’ – and especially for Mr. Warne’s – forgiveness for my error — Lonnie Lazar.

People have been dying for the iPhone 3G for over a year, ever since the first user attempted downloading a web page on AT&T’s excruciatingly slow EDGE network. And let there be no doubt, when the phone hits global streets on July 11, people will rejoice, the coffers at Apple HQ in Cupertino will once again groan with excess and mobile carriers from AT&T to Vodaphone to O2 will breathe short-lived sighs of relief.

But in spite of the wow-inducing touchscreen interface, the bright and bold display, the push-synching of email, contacts, calendar, tasks and photos from Apple’s new MobileMe services, and the relative pleasures of speed on the 3G network – as always – Apple will have released a product that fails to meet some consumers’ insatiable expectations.

Herewith, 10 reasons to feel like Steve Jobs is ripping you off once again, as compiled by APC Magazine reporter Dan Warne: