AT&T Customers can't buy iPhone at Apple Until Sunday BREAKING NEWS

UPDATE: The graphic overlay above seems to only show up on the Philadelphia-area store sites (Suburban Square, Lehigh Valley, and King of Prussia) at this time. Check with your local store if you're headed out to buy an iPhone, and you're an AT&T customer already...

You heard it here first. Heading over to the Apple iPhone page reveals a banner over the store picture as seen above, indicating that due to AT&T billing system updates, they will be unable to upgrade existing AT&T customers to a new iPhone until Sunday at noon.

Quite a bummer if you planned on picking one up this weekend, and it seems like precious little heads up for both customers and the stores.

It better be one heck of an update.. What would only affect the billing system at Apple stores... Hmm.. Speculate away...

A different take on the value of the iPhone

A few articles have been quick to point out that in the long run, the iPhone 3G will actually cost more than the previous iPhone. While that's true, and it's a point we've made here many times, I have a new perspective on the value of the iPhone.

I want to an AT&T store this past weekend with a friend, switching to AT&T, and not waiting for the new iPhone. The salesperson quickly showed us several options, from free phones, to about $200. What did they have in common? None were particularly memorable for starters, and all shared the same cheap plastic feel. Thanks to the RAZR, some models now have solid metal buttons though.

My friend ended up going with the Sony Ericsson Z750a: A flip phone with camera, video recording, 2MP and stereo bluetooth. A few of these features are better/missing on the iPhone (the full bluetooth support, and video for example.) Final cost for the Z750a: $99 after rebate. It struck me that this situation is very similar to the whole PC/Mac debate. while the "pc" phone was half the price, the build, operating system, and interface are far beyond anything else out there. In the Mac world, people are used to paying a premium for the OS, and maybe the cell phone market is catching on as well.

The bottomline is, an extra $99 for the iPhone with significantly greater storage, (Z750 is bundled with a 1GB card) the most hassle-free interface on any phone, and the ability to hold something that actually feels solidly built is well worth the extra money. While many people have compared the iPhone to other phones at the same/greaer price point (like the Voyager), the real market for the phone may very well be people who are considering getting a cheaper phone, realizing for nearly the same price (without rebate) they can have so much more.

Apple and Klausner Technologies Settle Visual Voicemail Dispute

Ahhh, another lawsuit has come and gone for Apple regarding patent violations.  In December of this past year, Klausner Technology accused Apple of appropriating Klausner’s patent for visual voicemail and joined eBay and AT&T in the suit.  The technology references the visual voicemail feature used in Apple’s iPhone.

Apple, eBay and AT&T settled the suit agreeing to license the visual voicemail technology under a non-exclusive deal.  The financial negotiations of settlement were not disclosed.

        Klausner has already licensed the coveted technology to Time Warner’s AOL for AOL voicemail services as well as Vonage for their Voicemail Plus services.  Comcast and Cablevision Systems Corp. are rumored to be in negotiations with the visual voicemail giants.  Comcast is looking to use the technology to send a visual alert your computer or cell phone when you have a new voicemail.  It seems there are never-ending possibilities to being connected.

this article based on information found at www.newsfactor.com

AT&T to blame for iPhone "delay"?

From the moment Steve left the stage at WWDC, we were shocked that neither the iPhone 3G, or more surprisingly, the Apps store, was ready for immediate use/purchase.

During our live coverage, we even wondered why Apple would've moved the WWDC up to June, then had the most important product launches in July anyhow. The answer, according to one source, could be AT&T. AT&T has been working around the clock to get 3G service to as much of the country as possible. However, that breakneck pace may not have been enough. Because of the integration between the 2.0 phone software, and the 3G iPhone, it would've been cumbersome to launch one without the other, not to mention lessening the PR value of the launch: after all, why would you want to give people a month to realize all the fun new stuff they can do with their current phone, before trying to sell them on a new one?

So the "delay" (if that's truly the case) should mean a better 3G experience, and added hype for Apple.

Note to AT&T: It's not 1998

Word is starting to get out about pogo, the new browser from AT&T. Yes, a web browser. In fairness, there's probably still territory to explore in the web browser space. flock for example, cleverly integrates the social networking aspect of online life today. What does Pogo bring to the table? Well, tabbed browsing, the ability to group similar pages under themes (like technology or sports) and then (here comes the innovation!) you will be able to see those webpages arranged as thumbnails. You know all those times that you can't remember that you go to cnn.com, but gosh, you remember what the homepage looks like? This is your solution.

It also gives you the ability to search your group of sites for information; handy for all those times you don't want to be bothered by all the most relevant results, just the results from the pages you already visit. You can see sites recently visited by clicking on a "viewed" button. Goodbye "history" button! Yes it's cool to see webpages being flipped through in the exact same manner as Apple's Cover Flow feature, but at the end of the day, it adds nothing. Any of these "features" could be added overnight to Safari or Firefox via plug ins. Frankly, it's almost designed as if internet explorer is the only browser the designers had ever seen. Maybe they're relying on that to be the case with most PC consumers as well.

The whole thing feels like something that would've been bundled with AT&T's Worldnet about ten years ago. The can play string music, and show floating camera views of the screen in the preview all they want, the bottom line is, if this is the best they've got, this browser is worst than DOA, it was already dead ten years ago.