Over at hydrapinion, I've punched out a story on my iPhone observations.

Stop by for a read.

Here's another little iPhone story I've penned over at Australian Macworld. This one's about Apple's little "secret" - many iPod accessories won't work with the iPhone 3G.

Now that I have my iPhone 3G I'm somewhat stunned at the fact that many of my iPod accessories are now either nobbled in some way or completely useless.

 iPhone 3G

It took me an extra week to track one down but I finally have an iPhone of my own. I had held out mainly because the extra cost over my current handset wasn't justified but having sold a couple of iPhone stories to some local magazines and selling my Nokia N95 handset has turned the benefit case around so that I've effectively achieved payback on the cost difference from my old deal.

I've gone for a white 16GB unit as I don't think the white will show fingerprints up as much as the black. I've got a 16GB iPod touch and find that less storage would not be a good thing for me. The games and apps I downloaded or purchased for the iPod touch synced across painlessly so it didn't take long for the iPhone to be fully functional for me.

I was porting my number from another carrier. I should make it clear that I've been really happy with Three. However, not being an iPhone carrier and their roaming arrangements for data (if you fall out of Three's 3G area you roam on Telstra's GPRS which as well as being slower costs a king's ransom to use) have tipped me over. Furthermore, Three (or Telstra or Vodafone) don't have network coverage at my home. Optus has coverage at my home.

Activation was quite fast an painless. Stan at MyMac Australia had set up my account and ported my number in less that 20 minutes. If you're planning to port a number from another carrier when you get you iPhone I suggest that you make sure you bring an old phone bill with the account number as that makes the transition process much faster.

I've not yet made or received a call but I have received SMS and it seems that the email features are working as advertised despite the many teething issues MobileMe is facing. A MobileMe update was released by Apple and appeared on one of my Macs via Software Update. I can't spot it on Apple's support pages and it's not appearing in Software update on my MacBook Pro so I'm not too sure what's happening there.

In any case, iPhone Mojo now has its own official iPhone and is battling Super Monkeyball addiction.

 iPhone

While I've not been blogging I have been penning stories for a number of magazines and online publications over the last few days.

Over at Australian Macworld, I've penned this story on how the iPhone has shaken the mobile market.

More interesting, in our view, is the number of downloads from the App Store — ten million on the opening weekend. Now that's a market change worth looking at.

APC has popped a few more of my reviews up covering three different product categories; routers, NAS and mobile Internet.

Billion BiPAC 7300N: a good all-round modem: Billion's BiPAC 7300N is packed with enough features to support the needs of almost every home or small office user.

Three Internet Key: hassle free mobile internet: Three's Internet Key is dead easy to set up and delivers great performance.

SMC Wireless Barricade N Gigabit Router: fit the internet in your pocket: How does SMC try to stand out from the crowded router marketplace? With a great all-round router that includes scanner sharing.

LaCie 2big network 2-bay NAS: 2TB of 'safe' storage: LaCie's 2big network ticks the right boxes for perfomance, looks and ease of use.

Thecus N3200 Home NAS: securely store and deliver data: Made with the home user in mind, the Thecus N3200 NAS ticks all the boxes.

Linksys WRT310N Wireless-N Broadband Router: now with added gigabit: The Linksys WRT310N builds on the success of the WRT160N.

Happy reading.

 3G • HSDPA • Internet • iPhone • NAS • Router

Even though I'm writing this for iPhone Mojo (part of the pocket Mojo family) you'll notice that I've largely ignored the iPhone 3G hype cycle. Frankly, there's not much I can add to the enromous chatter in the blogosphere. Given that the iPhone 3G was announced weeks ago and Apple seeded a few units to the media under NDA, the hardware story has been done to death.

The real story in Australia are the appalling data plans being spewed forth. I'm going to suggest that 1GB will be a reasonable data allowance for someone planning to do a reasonable volume of web browsing, receives about 50 emails per day and might use some other web services such an RSS reader that they update a couple of times per day.

Telstra's data plans can be found here. I find it hard to beleive that Telstra will be charging $89 for 1GB of data (you'll need to add a call plan and, potentially, an up-front purchase fee). WiFi browsing at Telstra hotspots is included at no charge.

Optus' plans are better but will need to either look at the $149 monthly cap (that includes a generous allowance for phone calls) or $99 per month with a lower call allowance. You can buy an iPhone on Pre-Paid with an upfront payment of either $729 or $849. Thisd includes $400 of credit that can be topped up on demand. For an extra $80 the handset can be unlocked and used with any carrier. WiFi browsing at Optus hotspots is supported but there are fewer than Telstra have.

Vodafone's iPhone offering is the one that totally baffles me. Frankly, I expect telstra to gouge the price and Optus to be not far behind but I epxcted Vodafone to be far more agressive with its pricing., To get 1GB of data you'll need a monthly outlay of $169. This includes a 8GB handset. A 16GB iPhone adds another $3.71 per month.

The one carrier in Australia that's not at the iPhone party is Three. It'sd a shame when you consider that their Mobile Internet packs offer 1GB for $15. Add that to a $29 monthly cap and $30 per month for the handset and about $75 could deliver a decent iPhone package.

 iPhone 3G pricing

Telstra, Austrlaia's largest mobile phone network, is one of Apple's iPhone resellers. They've announced their data plans with the cheapest iPhone option offering 5 MB (no, that's not a typo).

To put that into context I loaded a couple of my regular websites up and lloked at what sort of traffic they would count. The Age and APC Mag each counted for about 300K of traffic. The Age automatically refreshes every few minutes meaning that it's conceivable that the entire 5 MB allowance in just a few minutes.

I know that they're offering free WiFi but it's hardly ubiquitous in Australia.

Also, the Twitterverse is suggesting that Telstra's NextG network is almost maxed out already so the potential for full speed NextG may be limited.

 iPhone 3G • Telstra

I don't often use PocketMojo to proselytise or rant but I'm compelled to do so today. iPhone 3G reviews are starting to flow now that the NDA has lapsed and the phrase "Jesus Phone" is being thrown around as if it isn't highly offensive and blasphemous.

If you're a journalist, blogger or any other commentor on the iPhone:

STOP CALLING THE IPHONE THE "JESUS PHONE"

Would you call it the "Allah Phone" or "Buddha Phone"? It seems that mocking Christianity is OK but other religions are off limits. We may not all share the same beliefs but that's not an excuse to mock the beleifs of others.

In case you missed it the first time:

STOP CALLING THE IPHONE THE "JESUS PHONE"

Thanks

Following on from announcements by Optus and Vodafone and Three begging for customers Australia's other telco, Telstra has announced, somewhat surprisingly that they'll be selling the iPhone from 11 July.

Unlike the other carriers, Telstra has announced pricing.

8 GB - $279 up front and $30 per month OR $0 and $80 per month
16 GB - $399 up front and $30 per month OR $0 and $100 per month

In addition, Telstra's customers will have free access to Telstra's extensive WiFi hotspot network that covers significant parts of Australia's capital cities with access from every McDonalds restaurant, airport and other locations.

Telstra will NOT be selling unlocked iPhones and customers will be bound to their two-yar contracts. In contrast, Optus has said that they'll sell the iPhone unlocked.

One thing's certain - Telstra's announcement will setthe cat amongst the pigeons. While Optus and Vodafone are being coy about pricing and other details, Telstra has thrown down the gauntlet. The good news is that Optus and Vodafone will need to up the ante to compete.

My feeling is that Vodafone will respond with two year contracts with $0 up front and $49 per month with a data allowance of about 2GB. Optus will probably come in reasonably close to Telstra with perhaps more generous allowances within pricing caps.

The wild caard in all of this is Three. Despite being the last to come to an arrangement (at least one they're prepared to disclose) they have a reputation for delivering great value and not being scared to undercut the opposition. Already, they've announced more generous call and data allowances for current customers on capped plans.

 iPhone • Telstra

Over at Australian Macworld, I've filed a news story on what must be the most bizarre iPhone story. Local carrier Three is asking customers to petition them so that they can put some pressure on Apple to become one of Apple's sales partners.

Here's the story.

 iPhone • Three

My APC colleague Danny Gorog broke a story yesterday with screenshots from Aussie retailer Harvey Norman (under their Domayne brand) with unlocked iPhones seemingly to be sold for either $699 or $999. As Danny reported, the product numbers in the point of sale system seemed to be place holders (although using "666" might have been paying homage to the price of the original Mac).

Then, yesterday afternoon I posted a story about Melbourne reseller LineLink Data Communications and how they'd already undercut the reported Domayne pricing with offers of $775 na d$875 for the 8GB and 16GB units respectively.

It would seem that a price war has started even before a single sale has been made.

 Apple • iPhone