iPhone Update from Optus
Optus has announced that the iPhone will not be available for purchase from online stores and sales call centres. You can get your iPhone from a list of participating stores. Simply enter your postcode and you will be shown a list of outlets within that area that will be selling iPhones.
However, priority will be given to deposit holders over non-deposit holders and they will gain entry into participating stores 2 hours before general opening.
If you are unable to get your hand on an iPhone on the launch date (11 July), you can leave an order in store to receive priority on future iPhone shipments.
iPhone Pricing in Australia
With only 3 days to go till the official launch of Apple iPhone, two telco companies, Optus and Telstra have so far released their official pricing and plans while Vodafone still remains a mystery.
The official Optus iPhone pricing and plans shows that the 8GB iPhone (black) will sell for $729 while the 16GB iPhone (Black & White) will sell for $849 outright for pre-paid customers. For post-paid customers, you will only be able to get the 8GB iPhone for free on a $79 cap plan (24 month contract) and the 16GB iPhone for free on a $89 cap plan (24 month contract).
As for Telstra, the iPhone 3G price revealed that you will be able to get 8GB iPhone for as little as $279 and the 16GB iPhone for $399 on a monthly $30 plan (24 month contract).
Vodafone have yet to reveal their prices for the long awaited iPhone while 3 have launched an online petition begging for Apple to give them a slice of the cake.
In America, Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone 8GB model will be available for $199 and the 16GB model for $299 with the condition of a 2 year contract with AT&T .
With such a huge demand for this truly elegant device, I wonder how many people realise or know about the data usage of it and whether it will be feasible with the data plans the telcos are offering. Don’t be surprised with your first bill if you rack up on data charges with the 3G capability of surfing the net, checking your email and using the GPS.
"I did not know" – Yahoo acting dumb
Chief executive Jerry Yang said his firm had always been open with Congress and that it was “fully committed to protecting human rights”.
Mr Callahan said then that he did not know why the Chinese authorities wanted to trace Shi Tao – who was jailed for 10 years – but it has since emerged that other Yahoo employees had a document stating it was to do with the “suspected illegal provision of state secrets”.
“Yahoo claims that this is just one big misunderstanding,” Mr Lantos said.
This is one funny article. If you didn’t already know, Yahoo recently gave information to Chinese officials leading to the arrest of Shi Tao, and jailed 10 years for sending an email to a foreign website, warning journalists not to cover the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 2004.
Shi Tao’s mother who was present at the hearing only received a silent nod from Jerry Yang, CEO of Yahoo and Michael Callahan, execute vice-president of Yahoo.
I guess Shi Tao’s mother can be comforted from Yahoo’s “I didn’t know” defence which lead to her son’s jail term, with a silent nod.
At least offer her monetary compensation, gosh. Oh wait, Google‘s owning you at the moment. Gotta save every penny.
Apple goes Open Source
Finally the fruit goes open source.
I was leaning more towards getting an iPod Nano but now with Apple about to release a software development kit (SDK), I’m seriously considering the iPod Touch. The iPod Touch uses the same underlying architecture as the iPhone, which will be the first to have its software go open source.
What this means is that you can now have your favourite softwares installed onto your device. Word, Excel, Skype, Firefox and others will be available. I’m pretty sure someone will develop those softwares.
The iPod Touch comes at a hefty price though. $419 for the 8gb, and $549 for the 16gb whereas the Nano comes at $199 for the 4gb, and $279 for the 8gb.
Perhaps I should just wait till the price drops.