Carriers

Australia is the Latest Victim of Apple’s iPhone Shortage Game

On launch day of the iPhone 4 I was 26th in line at the Mall of America. I arrived at 2 in the morning and by the time Apple opened their doors there were easily over 300 people waiting behind me. I know that everyone in line that day didn't go home with the new iPhone. It was blissfully maddening.

The latest shortage reports are coming out of Australia where TUAW shows the country's carriers are feeling the heat from a high demand, low supply market. With cell carriers down under getting new shipments each week, and the Apple stores in the US each day, I feel like the company purposely shorthands their retailers and inadvertently causes chaos...

Is T-Mobile Getting the iPhone 3GS?

The tweet says it all. The update was posted by Chris Anderson, editor of Wired. Perhaps he is baiting us but nevertheless it's the first rumor of its kind so what the heck.

Apparently Chris was told by a T-Mobile manager that the iPhone 3GS would be coming to the carrier. Why the company would be getting the year old model of the iPhone instead of the current device is beyond me. I guess that's why they call it a rumor.

Thoughts?

How Environmentally Safe is Your iPhone?

Apple is one of the most secretive companies you'll ever deal with. Even when they're about to release a product or report good news, they seem to have a vacuum seal applied to the lips of their employees. This seems to be the case with a piece of less desirable news regarding the eco-friendliness of the iPhone.

U.K. carrier, O2, showed off their "Green Rankings" which show the British consumers which phone hurts the environment least. Sony Ericsson and Nokia lead the way while the Palm Pre Plus bottomed out the ridiculous chart. Where did the iPhone rank? It didn't. Apple chose to keep the iPhone out of the research..

Hardware Fix Coming for the iPhone 4 Antenna in September?

iDB reported about the iPhone 4 arriving in Mexico last week. Today Mac Rumors posted an article claiming an executive from Telcel, the mexican iPhone carrier, says the iPhone 4 will be getting a hardware revision once the free case promotion runs out.

Marco Quatorze comments that the policy of giving away free cases will be implemented the same to the rest of the countries selling the iPhone 4. Following September 30th (the date Steve Jobs said Apple would reevaluate the issue) the hardware would be changed to resolve the antenna discrepancies. A bold assumption to say the least...

What Would a Non-Exclusive iPhone Cost?

As iDB covers the possibility of a Verizon iPhone, most everyone thinks having a choice of carriers would be good for the consumers. However it's that very exclusivity that makes the awesome device more affordable than other smartphones in its class, says 9 to 5 Mac. They have a point.

AT&T's position as sole carrier in the U.S. doesn't come without a hefty price. By being lone wolf they have to fork over subsidies that make the iPhone cost just $200-$300. In fact the mobile provider pays out more in subsidies for the iPhone than any other phone they offer. Don't feel too bad for them because in reality it has been AT&T's personal cash cow.

UltraSn0w iPhone Unlock Updated to Fix Missing Carrier Logo

The Dev Team updated UltraSn0w from 0.91 to 0.92 to fix the missing carrier logo. Those of you who unlocked using PwnageTool + UltraSn0w noticed the disappearance of the carrier logo. While this was just an "aesthetic bug", the core functionality of UltraSn0w (the unlock) was not altered in any way.

A short update was given on the Dev Team blog earlier today:

Today we released an ultrasn0w update that fixes an issue for those running firmware 3.1.2 with the 04.26 baseband.  That specific combination resulted in a missing carrier name in the upper left-hand corner of your home screen.  Today’s ultrasn0w update from 0.91 to 0.92 fixes that problem (which was an important issue for roaming). You should see the update available if you have http://repo666.ultrasn0w.com as a Cydia source.  Enjoy!

According to AIS, the carrier logo has been fixed for the following countries: USA, Thailand, Austria, Trinidad, Germany, China, Kuwait, Serbia, Poland, France, Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Ireland, UK, Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, Malaysia, Hungary, The Netherlands, Bahamas, Jamaica, India, Israel, Belgium, Canada, Portugal, Denmark, Costa Rica, Italy, Chile and Argentina.