It has been confirmed by early buyers from Hong Kong that the iPhone 3G is not SIM locked over there. However you need to sign a 24 months agreement with the carrier Hutchison Telecommunications to get hold of the iPhone and you need to activate in store.
The California located iFixIt.com guys just got hold of one of the first 3G iPhones. In fact they went to New Zealand to get one, only to instantly disassemble it to see what’s inside of it. The whole picture series can be watched here. The most interesting thing is: the battery is not soldered anymore. Enjoy…
By the way: iFixIt.com offers a special iPhone 3G release discount of 5US$ on everything. Use this coupon code: IPHONE3GLAUNCH to order your Apple parts here.
It is rumored that the iPhone Dev Team yet made it to jailbreak and unlock firmware 2.0. The firmware revision that has been found some hours ago on Apple’s download servers seems to be the real deal, although not being published via auto-update yet.
The Pwnage Tool is currently undergoing little modifications and testings to fully support firmware 2.0. Note that these information seem to apply to the iPhone 2G only, not the new iPhone 3G. Since the new iPhone is expected to use a new bootloader version.
Once the new Pwnage Tool has been released, we’re gonna provide a HowTo. Check back regularly. For now you find our “old” Pwnage HowTo for firmware 1.1.4 here.
Anyway this is good news: congrats to the iPhone Dev Team. Live long and prosper, guys!!!
Update 12.07.2008: see video of Pwnage Tool 2.0 here (sadly Pwnage Tool is not yet publicly released)… though)…
One day before the official launch of the iPhone 3G, over here in Germany the Appstore is already accessable. This comes in a moment where some sites and forums rumor that the new 2.0 firmware can also already be downloaded for offline update. We recommend to not download the 2.0 firmware yet. The Pwnage tool does not support firmware 2.0. Be warned if you brick your iPhone.
How to access AppStore (one day before offical launch)
Types of programs you can buy or download for free
The AppStore is a major step into the right lane. Apple did the right thing here. Prices vary depending on the application. The highest price we’ve seen yet is 25.99€ for “Universalis”. “Universalis” contains psalms, prayers and readings from the Catholic Liturgy. Believing in God seems to require the iPhone nowadays.
Even Erica Sadun (kudos!) got some titles into the AppStore, like her famous To Do List, that we all know from the AppTab Installer days.
Enuff said: get yourself an own impression and start your iTunes, now…
Two days left and counting… On friday 11th of july, eventually the iPhone 3G / UMTS will be released worldwide. In advance to that event leading companies in Germany and Switzerland announced to switch from different smartphone platforms to the iPhone
The conservative german publishing house Axel Springer said to migrate to Apple’s eco system within the next five years (read here) – this explicitly includes the staff’s use of the iPhone 3G. Aswell as Axel Springer the leading german bank company Deutsche Bank AG announced to switch from BlackBerry to the iPhone.
In 2007 France banned BlackBerry use by officials, because of feared snooping of state secrets by U.S. agencies. Although BlackBerry is a canadian product by Research in Motion, it was rumored by security experts that BlackBerry routed its traffic thru servers located in the U.S. and the U.K. (read MSNBC news here).
For all the people around the world, who desperately wanna get that new gadget called iPhone 3G, this is good news. Swisscom – (attention pleonasm) the swiss carrier – announced to offer the iPhone 3G with a prepaid contract. Using a prepaid tariff, prices for the iPhone 3G will vary from 519 CHF (=510 US$, =325€) for the 8GB version to 619 CHF (=610US$, =385€) for the 16GB version.
Anyway it has been confirmed that Swisscom’s iPhone will definitely be SIM-locked to the Swisscom network. Since nobody actually knows how to circumvent the new bootloader (only a few people just got their hands on a new iPhone) – we recommend not to buy an iPhone 3G early after release.
T-Mobile will subsidize the iPhone 3G. They just announced to sell the new UMTS 3G iPhone for just 1€, if bought with a two year lasting contract for 89€. With a contract for 29€/month the price for the iPhone will be 169€.
As a loyalty bonus to clients who bought the “old” iPhone, the new iPhone will be offered at a special discount. Exact prices are being worked on currently, said T-Mobile. Moreover the iPhone will be sold not only in T-Com shops or via T-Mobile’s online shop, but thru reseller channels aswell.
Just found…
Ok here we go with the details about the new 3G iPhone. Steve Jobs revealed it about one hours ago on the Apple WWDC in San Francisco.
Technical details
Introduction to the markets begin with July 11th and will be rolled out in more than 70 countries (see complete list here). The prices for the US market will be 199$ for the 8GB modell and 299$ for the 16GB modell. We suspect the low prices result from cheaper manufacturing costs for the plastic backside and from higher amounts of produced devices. The new iPhone 2.0 firmware will be available to customers of the old iPhone and iPod touch at the same time.
We will come back to this new iPhone once we got hold of one. Anyway, although in many countries the iPhone will be offered by more then just one carrier, we suspect it still to be SIM locked. So don’t buy it until we tell you how to SIM free and jailbreak ;-)
Update
It’s been reported, Apple’s plans to apply a new strategy against unlocking and jailbreaking. AT&T in the US and O2 in the UK will force consumers to sign the contract first before they get their hands on one of those new 3G iPhones. We expect this activation strategy to be implemented worldwide, although it has not been confirmed in other countries, yet. If this is true the grey market of iPhones would most likely be destroyed. But let’s see what really happens on july, 11th.
Since our site is located in the European Union, for legal jurisdiction we cannot show these photos here on our site. But we offer a search support. Try these keywords on Google link to find them on the net: 3G iPhone Pics accurate secretmrx