Seems the iPhone is causing a tizzy in Germany as hopeful subscribers are registering and calling Apple’s leading retailer over yonder at a crazy rate. To date, 57, 000 folks have signed up for more info, with a thousand or so more getting on board each day. Apparently 58 percent of the iPhone faithful would be willing to switch to the as of yet unannounced carrier, at a mystery pricepoint, on the surprise date. Here’s hoping they get that bit of PR out of the way soon so the Euro-iPhone madness can commence.
via [engadgetmobile.com]

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I wish I could have peppered my iPhone review with phrases like “at present,” “initially,” or “for the time being.” But Apple doesn’t work that way. If I could be confident that Apple would address the major shortcomings that I saw in iPhone, like the absence of programmability and the lack of access to even a sandboxed portion of the device’s file system, I’d have given the device a thumbs-up for its platform potential alone.

Instead, I had to evaluate iPhone as it is — for the technology, policies and message that Apple and AT&T are selling today. With that in mind, I judged it to be no match for BlackBerry, Treo, Windows Mobile and Symbian devices, all of which do what business needs, are programmable, are expandable, can be purchased from multiple wireless operators (at discounts), are offered with data-only and voice-only plans, have replaceable batteries, and also have very nice media players.
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Well, would you look at this. Yet another way to entertain yourself with that newly purchased iPhone, if you understand web development jargon, that is. Apple has now posted a guide that gives web developers the tools to design and create their very own web-based applications.

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Well, it seems Apple has reacted — at least partially — to the gripe that the iPhone battery isn’t user replaceable with the iPhone Out-of-Warranty Battery Replacement Program. If your battery goes flat Apple will replace it for $79.95 plus $6.95 for shipping, with turnaround time expected to be about three business days.

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It’s hard to accuse Michael Kovatch of squatting the iPhone.com domain for his perpetually to-be-created internet phone company — he snagged it way back in the halcyon days of ‘95 when Jobs was still estranged and the only mobile phones were Zack Morris mobile phones.

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Perhaps demonstrating how wide the rift between T-Mobile Europe and T-Mobile USA really is, Germany’s Rheinische Post is reporting that Deutsche Telekom will announce tomorrow that its carrier unit will exclusively offer the iPhone in Germany. Details on the partnership are slim at best, but the two most important nuggets of information seem to be known: November 1 for €450 (about $612), which we assume is for the 8GB unit.
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One of the inevitable first questions that gets asked when laying out hundreds of dollars for a device with a giant, glossy, gorgeous touchscreen is, “just how the heck am I going to protect this thing?” It turns out that the iPhone may not need any particular babying, but for the paranoid among us, Power Support is offering its “Crystal Film” through Apple stores. Ironically, Apple itself says that protective films aren’t recommended since they can interfere with the iPhone’s ability to register gestures, but sho’ nuff, walk into any brick-and-mortar Apple Store and you’re going to see these packs on the shelf. No matter how scratch-resistant it may seem, we figure there’ll be plenty of people willing to lay out the $14.95 sticker price for the marginal additional peace of mind Crystal Film offers, so we wanted to take a look at just how user-friendly the stuff is.
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