Apple is rumored to be in talks with Orange, France’s exclusive iPhone carrier, to cut pricing on iPhone in hopes of stimulating sales in that country. Since it first marched down the Champs Elysées four months ago, iPhone has been greeted with as much acceptance by French consumers as bad Camembert cheese - selling just over 100,000 units in that period. That’s owing to the fact the French iPhone, much like its fat pasty American counterpart, lacks 3G wireless.

Europe enjoys greater 3G buildout than North America’s wireless infrastructure, so its absence in iPhone makes it even less desirable than leftover onion soup. Naturally the French have thumbed their already erect noses at Apple’s wonder device, and said “Merde!” to iPhone. But with the imminent arrival of a 3G model drawing nigh, this won’t be an issue for much longer.

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Unlimited calling plans seem to be all the rage these days, with every carrier provision subscribers with “all you can speak” plans. Now even iPhone users will soon be able to gab all they want, and not pay dearly for it in the next billing cycle. According to Engadget, AT&T will be soon offer a special iPhone bundled unlimited calling plan for the low price of just $119.99 a month. Not a bad deal I suppose, if you spend ever waking hour of your day with a cell phone symbiotically attached to your face.

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China’s largest wireless carrier wants to bring iPhone to its customers. According to sources within China Mobile, the company is deeply interested in negotiating a deal with Apple, though no formal talks have yet taken place. I guess the Chinese have given up on trying to clone the iPhone after recent failed attempts.

China represents one of the worlds largest and fastest growing wireless markets. One that could prove very lucrative for Apple, and fill its coffers with lots of Yuan.

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Put down your pint of Guinness and drop your Blarney stone. Apple struck a deal with O2 Ireland to bring iPhone to the land of shamrocks and bar fights. That confirmation comes straight from the horses mouth, depending on which end is speaking, in the form of an official announcement on O2’s website which lists iPhone’s availability on March 14. So there you have it.

Now how about making a nice pot of corned beef and cabbage for wee little Kent?

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Yes, it seems The Boy Genius Report jumped the shark by misinterpreting some cryptically worded internal memo from AT&T as proof positive the company would soon be rolling out a tethering feature (and plan) for iPhone. Sadly, or not, it is not to be. Nope turns out that memo described nothing more the process of tethering iPhone to iTunes. Ironically that document was intended to clear up customer confusion and had precisely opposite effect. AT&T - Raising the bar.

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Alright, you Aussies. Drop your didgeridoos and Kangaroos and get down from your gum trees, because iPhone is coming to your bush. What’s that you ask? Is Kent a few Kangaroos loose in the top paddock? Nope, and I haven’t been smoking any strange Aboriginal tobacco either.

T-Mobile says it will begin rolling out iPhones to customers sometime in the first half of this year, give or take. Abso-bloody-lutely they will, so start saving your zacks now. Now stop questioning my sanity unless you want to start a barney. Got it? Ta!

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iPhone may soon come to the land of the rising sun. Word on the street is that NTT DoCoMo head honcho, Masao Nakamura, has been seen in public holding hands with a certain American wearing faded denim jeans and black mock turtleneck sweater. He confirms today that his company is actively engaged in talks with Apple, but shrugged off questions concerning terms or product release dates.

I’ll lay you odds that Apple won’t swindle the same lucrative revenue sharing margins out of NTT that they’ve managed to extract from other wireless carriers, like our very own AT&T. And unless this agreement concerns the upcoming 3G model, iPhone has zero chance of success in Japan, which is a much more tech savvy market that doesn’t look kindly on non-HSDPA phones.

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Germans. You think you’re all so smart with your pickled cabbage, exotic sausages, fine Pilsners and now UNLOCKED iPhones? For just a few hundred Euros, you can waltz over to a computer, dock your iPhone, pay an unlocked premium fee through iTunes, and enjoy the privilege of using your iPhone on any wireless carrier you choose.

Well that’s all well and good, but just remember we Americans still poses the worlds most egomaniacal corporate CEO, Steve Jobs. Top that!

Readvia Boy Genius

Bonjour! My name is Jacques. On behalf of the people of France I would just like to say Merci to you Americans for exporting the Suprême iPhone. We French are quite accustomed to pinching and making gestures with our fingers, so the iPhone will be as second nature to us, oui? However, our country already has too many elitist assholes, so you may keep Steve Jobs. Just give us the iPhone and we can forget the unpaid loans you still owe us from the American Revolution. Did you swine think we had forgotten that our King Louis financed your war of independence, and allowed your con man, Benjamin Franklin, to rob our national treasury! Give us iPhone, and we give your freedom… and I don’t mean fries, mon ami.

Read les press release after les break.

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Someone has devised a clever yet altogether impractical way of getting 3G speeds on iPhone by pairing it with a Windows Mobile Smartphone equipped with HSDPA. Now, rather than go into details I’ll simply refer you to the the website to see and judge for yourself. And I won’t be putting this process to the test because my sole Windows Mobile device, a newly purchased AT&T Tilt, is being returned due to the fact it is an utter piece of bovine anal excrement.

For those who crave adventure and just love cramming radioactive gadgets in your pants, go for it. I won’t stop you.

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Reuters reports that German mobile operator Deutsche Telekom has signed an exclusive agreement with Apple, bringing iPhone to the land of bier and lederhosen. The terms of the deal remain undisclosed, but according to one source an announcement from both sides will come as early as next week.

Neither company is offering comments at this time, but when asked by reporters whether a partnership had been reached, a press agent for T-Mobile clicked his heals together, raised one arm in solute, and shouted “Jawohl!”.

So there you have it. Willkommen zur Partei, Deutschland!

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Syd from Alien Camel sends word that his company is offering free full IMAP email service to a select group of hardcore users that spend all day in their inbox, to test out their new service and provide feedback.

You must meet a specified list of requirements in order to join.

• You must be willing to participate in providing us with feedback about our service. The feedback maybe requested via email, Instant Messaging, telephone call or by completing a web form.
• You will need to be a registered and activated iPhone user. We will require your mobile phone number if you are selected as we will be sending out your confirmation code via SMS. If you don’t want to provide us with your mobie phone number please do not apply.
• We will remind you to cancel your “free account” before the year is up or signup for a standard plan.
• Your account must be active and used at least once a month, if not, we may close the account.

Many are called, few are chosen. Sign up now.

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Nokia held a gala press event earlier today, proudly showcasing its newest line of consumer handsets and high-end smartphones, all very common and sporting the usual design flair we’ve come to love, and lament. But the true highlight of the show came during a special promotional video demonstrating upcoming technology Nokia has cooking in its labs. wink wink

An amazed audience looked on in stunned disbelief as the video revealed a slim device with full sized touchscreen - demonstrating nearly every feature of iPhone. Right down to gesture navigation and motion acumen identical to iPhone’s patented MultiTouch interface and accelerometer-driven screen reorientation.

Apparently the phone maker from Finland has run out of ideas and now looks to its competitors for inspiration. Great work, guys! What will you rip-off think of next?

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Some hosers in Montreal successfully managed to get iPhones working on Canada’s Rogers wireless network, with a little help of the rather costly TurboSIM card method. Apparently these chaps are unaware of the 18 million and counting software unlock solutions that cost nothing, or they could have saved themselves the price of 200 maple leaves, eh?

Come on, Canada. The Israelis are making you look like chumps!

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Financial Times reports that Apple has managed to secure exclusive contracts with several major European mobile operators in efforts to bring iPhone to France, Germany, and the UK, later this fall.

An official announcement outlining the details of the partnership will be made public at the end of this month, during the IFA trade fair in Berlin. Speculation is running high that T-Mobile, O2, and Orange will be Apple’s dance partners, though all three declined to comment (wink wink).

I’m just as happy to see iPhone move beyond US shores as much as any citizen of the world, but the part that drives a MacBook through my heart is the Euro model will include 3G support. weeping

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Let this serve as a warning to all readers about the dangers of unexpected international roaming charges. Heric Silva shares his experience and illustrates why you need to keep an eye on your iPhone while traveling overseas.

I recently went to Europe for 9 days. I used my iPhone over there and it seemed to work very well. I received my bill the other day and it was over $1200, yes $1200. When I had my Treo I usually get a bill for about $400 to $500 when I was in Europe. Now the problem is that the iPhone does not have anyway of controlling the amount of data you receive, unlike the treo where you can limit the amount of email data you download and giving you the option to download the rest if you like and letting you know the size prior to downloading it so you can see if it is worth the money. When I used my iPhone and press any of the applications that require updating to retrieve stock, weather, email or whatever it needs…you get hit really hard on the $ per KB international roaming charges. Also the email client does not store the downloaded/viewed emails it always has to pull them down from the web so even if I already looked at it it would download it again and incur roaming data charge!

This is a major flaw that will cost users a bundle. Why do they bother to give you 8GB of memory if they don’t even use it for email storage and downloaded files. The iPhone is essentially an iPod with a phone and the phone portion is very limited.

I called AT&T to complain and they said “sorry these are all legitimate charges, give Apple a call.” I have called them but I was on hold for about 45 minutes so I gave up and will try again. I think they should pay my bill, their poor design causes the users to incur unnecessary data charges.

This flaw should be made public and they should re-reimburse all users that have incurred these massive charges.

Over the weekend I received my AT&T bill in the mail - both of them. Huh…TWO envelopes? Rather than the usual slim parcel containing a handful of billing statements, I received two overstuffed packets filled with nearly sixty pages, detailing every minutia of data. While this is still a far cry from Justine Ezarik’s infamous 300 page AT&T bill, it still exceeds the boundaries of reason and is horrific waste of tree.

Somewhere in the world, birds and squirrels were made homeless to provide me with this worthless example of excess. AT&T promises to cut down on the paper trail, but I have my own solution - online billing. I pay my cell phone bill online, and have for several years now. Why AT&T feels compelled to bless me with redundant paper invoices is beyond me.

Join AT&T, kill a tree.

Dave Stolte had a nasty surprise in store for him, upon returning from a trip to Eurorpe (with his iPhone) - a $3,000 bill from AT&T. It seems David learned the hard way that AT&T does not offer international roaming with its iPhone data plans.

Two weeks of travel with sporadic AT&T EDGE network usage off and on mixed with wifi when available… $3000. Doing some research, I learned this morning that AT&T offers unlimited international data usage at $70 per month to its Blackberry customers. Here’s my bottom line: I want this same usage plan to be made available to iPhone customers and to be applied retroactively to my account.

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Among the dull roar of criticisms about iPhone I have to endure, one in particular stands out as the most irritating and unfounded - the attack against AT&T. I hear these slanderous indictments all the time…“Why did Apple choose AT&T?”, “AT&T sucks! They should have gone with Verizon or Sprint”, “AT&T is evil”. Blah blah blah.

Here’s a bit of schooling for you numbskulls - What you don’t understand is that the quality and reliability of wireless service in the U.S. is subjective and varies from one location to another. For example, in my specific locale, Sprint offers the worst reliability and coverage of any major carrier. T-Mobile is practically non-existent. Verizon offers great service, but their selection of handsets is abysmal. So, for all practical purposes, AT&T is the “best” wireless carrier for me. Your experience will vary. A friend of mine who lives in Redmond Washington (no, it isn’t Bill Gates) says that T-Mobile offers the best coverage and voice quality in his area, while Sprint is teh suck. So which one of us is right? We both are.

Unlike other parts of the world like Asia and Europe, wireless infrastructure in North America is less ubiquitous and unevenly distributed. This is the reason why we suffer through so many dropped calls, poor voice quality, and latency.

So yes, AT&T does suck. And so does Verizon. So does Sprint. So does T-Mobile. And so on. There is no “best” wireless carrier, only best in your location. Live it, learn it, be it.

Germany’s biggest retailer says iPhone mania is sweeping the land of Beer and Wursts. A spokesperson told to German newspaper Tagesspiegel that it receives more than 1,000 inquiries a day about iPhone, asking when it will be available.

As a nice segway to the earlier story posted today revealing that 25% of iPhone users have switchted to AT&T, more than 50% of Germans say they too would switch carriers to get an iPhone.

Sehr gut!

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