As Phil Schiller mentioned during the keynote, the iPhone 3G S will be available in 16GB and 32GB configurations. For new and “qualifying” customers, those models are available for $199 or $299 with a new two year contract, respectively. Also, the 8GB iPhone 3G will stay in the lineup, and new or qualifying users can grab one for just $99 with a two year contract. AT&T will continue to offer the 16GB iPhone 3G, while supplies last, for $149.

For current iPhone customers, however, the options are a little tricky. “Upgrade eligibility varies with each customer, but in general you will become upgrade-eligible the further you are into your service agreement,” AT&T spokesperson Seth Bloom told Ars. Typically AT&T will allow for full subsidized pricing after about 18 months. AT&T’s website wasn’t updated at the publish time, but you can check your “eligibility” online via Apple’s online ordering page. (For those of us on staff who bought an iPhone 3G on launch day last year, it looks like we won’t qualify for subsidized pricing until this December.) We have already heard expressions of severe dismay from many other iPhone 3G users being told they cannot upgrade before 2010.

If you’re not eligible for standard subsidized pricing, you can get an “early upgrade” to the iPhone 3G S for $399 for a 16GB model or $499 for a 32GB model. If you just want an iPhone 3G, you can get an early upgrade for $299. None of those options are much of a deal, but if you want an iPhone 3G S as soon as possible, that’s what it will cost you. Either way, upgrading will include a new two-year contract and an $18 upgrade fee.

Further, AT&T also says that no-commitment pricing will be available for the iPhone 3G S. That will run you $499 for an 8GB iPhone 3G, $599 for a 16GB iPhone 3G S, and $699 for a 32GB iPhone 3G S — ouch. The benefit is that you don’t have to agree to any contract for any amount of time, but an AT&T iPhone plan is required to activate any iPhone with AT&T, and those plans still start at $70 per month.

Source : 2009-06 Ars Technica

A friend does not need control or limits, he will stick around also in bad times. You CAN do business with friends. AT&T does not treat it’s iPhone customers as friends but as milking cows. Their customers are with them on the iPhone plane as there is currently no other choice (and to keep the warranty at the same time). Guess how many will be leaving the moment the door opens.

But now, it has become even more exciting because now I’m able to make the step away from my Palm and instead of having always 2 devices to carry, it will only be one.

Today we put our hands on a version 2.0 software update and of course, who could resist! For the past few hours Bear and I have been downloading freeware games and social networking and whatnot applications, playing and wasting some idle time scrutinizing all.

I also put my hands on a few items which I would not want to miss since my Palm days: dictionaries and a good German – English translator. Those 2 have been my big expenses today, but of course I also bought Things, THE todo application for me. The new phone has already built in GPS so I won’t miss TomTom too badly. Only thing missing now is a decent time tracking application… which will hopefully show up soon! Found even an okay version of the Pyramid and Sudoku.

Tomorrow, after purchasing the new phone, I will update and make my MobileMe move…

Oh, I am having so much FUN!

This afternoon the snow came again. And the coziness. I’m in an odd mind frameset. In some sorts full of melancholy because I don’t seem able to decide and then just as easily to be as I’ve decided – this makes me fight shadows… But then again I have these wide waves of contentness and inner happiness to be right here, right now.

telekinesis

Remotely access your Mac through a collection of mini web apps on your phone.

— (Via » telekinesis – Google Code).