Scoop

Put this in the rumor mill if you will and take it with a heavy pinch of salt, but a fella over at Teknojunkie claims that a couple of employee’s at a Cingular store told his [writer’s] cousin that the iPhone, out of contract, will cost $899 and $999 for the 4GB and 8GB models respectively.

I personally find it hard to believe any phone would cost this much money and even harder to believe that the iPhone will actually cost $599, let alone £899, with a contract on Cingular. Surely the $599 is the total price of the iPhone without a contract?

In the U.K, even the most expensive of phones cost about £150 at the most with a contract, which translates to roughly $300.

With a bit of luck this will be the last “is it or isn’t it going to be released on time” post, at least until the build up to the iPhone launch day in Europe begins.

But it’s officially arrived from the horses mouth itself, the iPhone is on schedule to ship in late June, which should quash all those curious individuals out there who believed the iPhone would barely make it on time. Although again, being “available” and “shipping” are two different terminologies, so perhaps those who order the phone in June won’t see it until the beginning of July.

I actually blame AT&T (Cingular) for all of this though. Apple still hasn’t announced an exact date for the launch of the iPhone, although the WWDC which starts June 11th was the most obvious time to release a new product, but it was AT&T who actually gave “official” word on the phone being available June 11th, and seeing as it doesn’t look like it’ll make that date now, we’re all having a nag at Apple. Leave it be!

[Via H Enthusiast]

I see a lawsuit pending here or a possible scam, I haven’t worked out which yet, but something has got to give.

Found on DIYTrade.com is what appears to be an iPhone made by a different company. The name of the company is Source Leading Co, LTD. and they are a leading supplier located in Shenzhen, China, mainly engage in Selling stock items, electronics products and consumables products, apparently.

The seller has used the keywords “iPhone”, “iPod” and “Apple” to get peoples attention, which isn’t exactly right, and the phone clearly has the name ‘iPhone’ printed at the bottom of it. I really don’t know if this is a real company with a real product here, but if it is, they’re in for a whole world of pain when Apple finds out.

David Goetzi from Media Daily News scoops that an advertising agency (maybe longtime Apple ad agency TBWA Chiat/Day) is currently casting for a new iPhone commercial. According to his post, David writes:

It seeks characters from various backgrounds, including Asian men who speak Mandarin; Hasidic males fluent in Hebrew; a French-speaking cab driver; a pair of Jamaican (or West Indian) women who can “speak with a thick patois accent” and others. The characters would tout the phone in their native languages, while going about their routine business, such as the Asian men as customers in a fish market.

No word on whether this is an actual concept ready for production or simply a spec ad from TBWA Chiat/Day or a competitor. Frequently, in attempts to win business, competitive advertising agencies will spend a ton of money to produce a “spec” ad in order to win pieces of business. This does not mean, it will ever see the light of day or broadcasted on television. But if nothing else, it gives an insight to what may possibly be the launch creative for the huge projected advertising campaign in June.

[Via Media Daily… more...

My colleague, Greg, reported to you a while back about a suspicious Ebay listing that claimed to offer the iPhone, despite it not yet being released. This scam came a few days after the one I reported in which 23 people were fooled into bidding for the iPhone, one of 6 available from a particular seller, with the highest bid reaching $1,125!

It has just been reported on once more that yet another scam has appeared. This time Froogle is the harbour for the selling cons as unlocked versions of the iPhone are being put up for sale, with prices varying between $400 and $800 - there’s even some “hot” email addresses up for auction.

One word to the not-so-wise: Please don’t buy or attempt to buy these “phones”, because the chances are you’ll receive nothing but a gaping hole in your current cash flow situation, and if you didn’t have a cash flow situation before you certainly will after you try and buy one of these.

[Via About Cellphones]

It’s been a roller-coaster ride for Rogers Wireless users in Canada as it has been both rumoured, then rubbished and now further rumoured that Rogers Wireless will be the exclusive carrier of Apple’s iPhone in Canada.

Back in January I reported to you that Rogers Wireless would be the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in Canada, yet three months later those rumours were virtually rubbished when Rogers Wireless said that they hadn’t announced whether or not they would be selling the iPhone, putting it all down to simple speculation.

But in a rumoured email, Rogers Wireless have pretty much confirmed that they will be selling the iPhone, saying:

“Rogers is actively working with Apple to launch the iPhone in Canada as soon as possible and will be the exclusive provider of the iPhone in Canada,” the email read.

“Please be advised that Rogers will be offering the iPhone exclusively in Canada [...] Other Canadian wireless carriers will not launch the iPhone, Rogers will be the only Canadian wireless carrier to offer the iPhone.”

[Via MacNN]

It seems that the first non-Apple related person to receive an iPhone is Madonna and she didn’t even pay for it!

According to Autoboard, Steve Jobs kindly issued Madonna an iPhone after the Pop Queen’s daughters iPod screen deteriorated. How kind!

The pictures seem to tell it all but whether this is the true story or not is anyone’s guess.

Picture 1 | Picture 2

Update: It appears that the device Madonna is holding is no iPhone, but some sort of iPod (although I’ve not seen an iPod like that before).
[Via MacDailyNews]

According to Cnet News, Apple is set to release the iPhone at the start of the WWDC on June 11th.

Cnet decided to give Cingular a call and were swiftly transferred through to a customer service manager who confirmed that the iPhone will be released June 11th.

Many will remember a fake letter from Apple to the FCC a while back which asked for the communication regulators to keep hush-hush on the release date of the iPhone, which was supposed to have been June 15th.

Whilst this hasn’t been confirmed from Apple’s end, it’s got to be pretty reassuring to hear it from Cingular’s end. Although, considering Steve Jobs’ keynote starts on June 11th, is it really too difficult to imagine him releasing the iPhone on the same day?

[Via Wired.com]

Over in Europe, and especially the U.K, it’s not often we find carriers with exclusive rights to mobile phones, but that’s not to say it doesn’t happen. As many know Cingular is Apple’s network operator of choice to sell the brand new phone in the U.S, but what about Europe? For a while now I’ve been suggesting that O2 UK and Vodafone are the leading contenders to gain exclusive rights to sell the iPhone over in the U.K, but…

...a report in the Guardian has suggested that Vodafone is the most likely choice and talks are already in progress with Apple about bringing the iPhone to the U.K on Europe’s largest network provider.

We’re still waiting for an official announcement on this but I dare say it’ll arrive during or shortly after the official launch of the iPhone in the States this June. Stay tuned!

BrightHand

Here’s one for the “how can you be so stupid?” pile - 23 bidders on EBay recently fought out the rights to own the iPhone, with the highest bid being placed in at $1,125.

Apparently Ebay seller, rgonzales23455, had 6 iPhones up for grabs but refused to comment in reply to an email as to how he acquired the phones. On the auction list he/she stated “Please note: I have 6 of these phones available for immediate shipping. I accept Paypal only for this auction. Free shipping via USPS Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation. Will ship immediately after payment clears Monday – Friday,”. As yet there is no word from Apple, Inc. on the subject but the listing has been removed from EBay after they were alerted of the fraud.

Looking at the facts though, the fools who tried to get the iPhone were willing to spend over double the R.R.P - talk about wanting something too much.

[Via ComputerWorld]