iPhone News Updated

Users upgrading to iPhone, without AT&T

Contract doesn’t expire until late 2010? Here’s how you can get a deal on a 3GS right now

Searching for “iPhone 3G” on Craigslist SF bay area in the electronics section reveals that iPhone 3G owners everyday are parting with their Apple smartphones. Why?

A simple crunch of the numbers reveals a sharp divide between the price of the iPhone while in an existing contract versus the prices of new 3GS iPhones with new two-year AT&T contracts posted all over Apple’s Web site.

It is precisely this divide that may be leading existing iPhone 3G owners to turn in their practically-new phones for the new, speedier 3Gs iPhone, and earn some easy cash at the same time.

More surprisingly, it appears - on the flip side - that people are paying upwards of $300 for these old-generation products. What gives?

As it turns out, the contract is the issue.

Comparing the iPhones currently available for purchase through Apple, one is faced with three options.

Read the rest of this entry »

Some Apple stores in Canada received wrong iPhone 3GS units?

“I’m surprised there hasn’t been much coverage of the massive manufacturing screwup that Apple retail stores in Canada suffered yesterday… every Fido iPhone at my local Apple store (Fido part number, Fido SIM card) was shipped locked to Rogers! Apparently only Apple retail SKUs were affected; phones shipped to Fido stores and 3rd parties (TBooth, Wireless Wave) didn’t have this problem.

When it finally got fixed, the sales people were told by corporate that it was “a problem with iTunes”… but as far as I can tell, the only thing they “fixed” in iTunes was to let it unlock mismatched SIMs, and then update the baseband with a Fido sublock! During troubleshooting, we successfully activated a “Fido” phone with a Rogers SIM.

That said, the customer service I received was excellent. The employees I dealt with were polite, professional, and actively engaged in helping resolve my problem. This was clearly beyond their control, but they did the best they could to keep me informed and involved in the process, which is the reason why I made my purchase at the Apple store instead of the carrier or a reseller.”

While we cannot confirm or deny this, another reader e-mailed us confirming that it happened to him as well. Are there more folks out there that were affected by this? Leave us a comment!

[Thanks: http://www.iphoneworld.ca]