Unless you live in a remote corner of the world and never read any news on the Internet (then what are you doing here) you’ve probably know that the new Apple 3G iPhone is launching in the US tomorrow and launched in Australia earlier today, which for them is tomorrow. :-)

A small group of people have been waiting in line to purchase the first US 3G iPhones at an Apple store in New York City for over a week now. I don’t know where it’s decreed getting the first of anything is best. My thinking says you don’t want to be on the “point-of-the-spear” when it comes to new hardware or software/updates.

I’d just as soon let someone else work out the bugs and then get the .01 revision with all the fixes. This way I get much the same enjoyment without many of the headaches.

As a recap, Apple in conjunction with the 3G iPhone launch is:

  • releasing version 2.0 of it’s operating system for the iPhone and iPod Touch handhelds;
  • releasing iTunes 7.7 to support the new software and functions;
  • introducing an Application Store through iTunes for 3rd party applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch;
  • revamping Apple’s .MAC online web service to a new MobileME web service; and
  • releasing Apple TV 2.1 to interface with the new MobileMe web site.

At this moment all of these new applications, web sites and software updates are in various stages of deployment. I’ve installed the new versions of iTunes and Apple TV and for the moment I’m waiting for Version 2.0 of the iPod Touch OS.

The new iTunes App Store came officially on-line just a little while ago and is being written about by almost everyone in the technical and Apple blog world. It looks very interesting and I’ve already seem some applications I’ll download once I’ve upgraded to the 2.0 update.

Apple’s .MAC site has been down since yesterday evening and the new MobileMe site is not yet online. The .MAC service has been less then stellar for a long time, needing updating, and I’m hoping there’s some real functionality improvement in MobileMe.

For me there’s not to be a new 3G iPhone just as there wasn’t an original iPhone…at least as long as AT&T is the lone service provider. :-(

Update 07/11/08 – As of at least 7am (no I didn’t stay up all night waiting :-) ), it appears that Apple’s MobileMe web services are now online replacing the .MAC web services. Old email accounts and aliases will work (for now) using either @mac.com or @me.com domains. New accounts or aliases will only use the @me.com domain.

At first glance the MobileMe services look promising.

One Comment

  1. I have not been using my new 3G iphone cos I cannot activate it. I have tried to use internet but no result