You might not have heard, but the Apple iPhone 3G S goes on sale tomorrow, and AT&T thought you might want to know exactly how things are being arranged come the morning. The iPhone 3G S will be available from all 211 AT&T stores across the US, just in case you decided not to do the sensible thing and pre-order for home delivery. Stores are set to open at 7am local time, exclusively for those customers who have pre-ordered for in-store pickup.
It hasn’t taken hackers long to enable unofficial tethering on iPhone handsets running OS 3.0, and its taken carriers even less time to put out the predictable dire warnings regarding anyone found using such hacks. UK carrier and official Apple iPhone partner O2 have issued a statement suggesting that anybody found using tethering without their official “Bolt On” package will be charged or disconnected.
While you’re waiting for iPhone OS 3.0 to download, sit back and watch AT&T backpedal. The carrier has announced new upgrade pricing for the iPhone 3G S, in response to complaints from iPhone 3G users. Now, iPhone 3G users who would be eligible to upgrade in July, August or September this year may now have access to AT&T’s “best upgrade pricing” from Thursday June 18th. They’ve also confirmed that the iPhone’s MMS functionality will arrive in late Summer, and they’ll be charging exactly the same per MMS message as they currently do for SMS text messages.
Video explanation after the cut
The Acer Aspire One 531 range has finally reached the US, making its official appearance on the company’s regional website and even, we’re hearing, making it out to retailers. Several versions of the 10.1-inch netbook are available, including integrated 3G on two of the models.
AT&T have announced a bevy of new features for their U-verse Total Home DVR system, that will begin rolling out to customers from today. The updates include a 20-percent speed increase to Internet Max subscribers, taking their connection up to 12Mbps, plus more flexibility in scheduling recordings from any U-verse receiver or a new version of the system website.
Video demo after the cut
If you’ve been thinking about an iPhone 3G and can’t see yourself tempted by the specifications of the freshly-announced iPhone 3G S, now is the time to buy. Apple intend to keep the 8GB iPhone 3G on sale alongside the iPhone 3G S, so as to “extend their audience”, and to do that they’ve cut its price from $199 to $99. Effective today, you can pick up a brand new iPhone 3G 8GB for under a ton; interestingly, the AT&T press release says that “options are available to purchase [the iPhone 3G 8GB, iPhone 3G S 16GB and 3G S 32GB] without a 2-year contract”, though doesn’t go into details.
Cut-price iPhone 3G 16GB details after the cut, plus 3G S upgrade costs
When the invitation for HTC’s mysterious June 24th press event came in earlier this week, we speculated that it could see the launch of the HTC Hero. After all, the third Android handset is already showing up in leaked promo videos, suggesting it’s teetering on the edge of availability. Now, Chinese paper Economic Daily News is reporting that yes, not only will the Hero drop on the 24th, but a second version of the smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard.
If Palm thought they could seize the Pre spotlight with their Google I/O demo, they were sadly disappointed. As well as their official HTML5 demo we’ve also seen the results of the Pre’s 3-megapixel autofocus camera, courtesy of both Palm themselves and one of the company’s Lead Software engineers.
More Palm Pre news after the cut
Nokia have thrown open the doors to their Ovi Store, making the previously limited-access download system available globally. The store can be accessed either from a Nokia web browser, at https://store.ovi.com/, or via the Ovi Store app which is available to download to “more than 50 Nokia devices” including the soon-to-arrive N97 shown here.
Today has been exciting for mobile phone enthusiasts. First, information on the HTC Lancaster was released. Details about the Lancaster include a 2.8″ touchscreen, full size slide out QWERTY, and will feature a unique HTC Social Networking integration client. Launch date on ATT is slated for August 3rd.
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