Apple

NEW YORK--Collins Osei, who had bought an iPhone 3G last year, came to the AT&T store Friday not to buy the latest-generation iPhone 3G S, but instead he wanted to downgrade to a less expensive Nokia phone.

Osei said his decision to go back to a basic-feature phone was all about cost. The iPhone and its service plan are simply too expensive, he said. Osei, who is in the middle of his two-year contract with AT&T, had his iPhone 3G stolen recently. But he said replacing it with a new one would cost too much. Instead, he picked up a Nokia 2600 for a mere $43.

But Osei's decision didn't hinge just on the upfront cost of the phone. He also said he was tired of paying the additional $30 a month data charge that is mandatory with the iPhone.

"The iPhone plan was just too expensive," he said. "They made me pay $30 extra a month for data, and I don't really need the Internet on my phone. So I went back to a regular phone. And now I'm on a plan that costs $39.99 a month."

Osei might not be the only consumer out there turned off by the high cost of the iPhone service fee. Unlike previous iPhone launch days, there was no line of people this morning waiting outside the AT&T Time Square store hoping to get the latest iPhone 3G S. In fact, it looked like more customers were leaving the store empty-handed or with other devices than those leaving with new iPhones.… Read more

Apple's newest iPhone went on sale Friday, and while there weren't the throngs of buyers lined up for blocks in all locations as was the case for the iPhone 3G a year ago, there was plenty of activity as the 7:00 a.m. sales start drew near in each time zone.

And the first buyers now have their hands on the iPhone 3G S.

CNET's Caroline McCarthy and Marguerite Reardon are reporting live from several retail locations in Manhattan and say that the crowds grew throughout the morning. When the store opened, Apple Store employees were … Read more

The rolling rollout of the iPhone 3G S is under way. Apple's latest iPhone has been going on sale Friday at 7 a.m. local time in each time zone where it's available.

We've got a team of people covering the launch. In the East, CNET News' Caroline McCarthy and Marguerite Reardon are reporting live from Apple and AT&T stores in Manhattan. Out West, Erica Ogg, Josh Lowensohn, and James Martin are keeping tabs on iPhone sales in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Are people lining up the way they have for past iPhone launches? Is the phone everything they expected it to be? Does it really take just 10 to 15 minutes to get set up? Tune in and find out as the day goes along.… Read more

AT&T's decision to allow Major League Baseball fans to stream games live onto their iPhones while restricting video streaming using another video application has one advocacy group crying foul.

With the release of the 3.0 version of Apple's iPhone operating system this week, subscribers to a popular application from Major League Baseball called At Bat will now get the chance to stream live video feeds of baseball games directly to their iPhones or iPod Touches. The first game was streamed Thursday afternoon, featuring a match up between the Chicago Cubs and White Sox.

But unlike … Read more

Piper Jaffray's senior analyst Gene Munster thinks it's going to be a good weekend for Apple and AT&T as the companies begin the rollout of the iPhone 3G S on Friday.

Munster expects Apple will sell 500,000 iPhones this weekend, according to a research note sent to clients, reports Fortune. That's half as many phones as Apple sold when it launched the iPhone 3G, but Apple sold that phone in 21 countries on the first day. In comparison, the iPhone 3G S will be sold in only eight countries on its first day.

Still, … Read more

Apple has issued an advisory regarding security enhancements included in the iPhone OS 3.0 release Wednesday.

Here is a synopsis of the 46 iPhone security vulnerabilities addressed by the latest operating-system update for the iPhone and iPod Touch. As may be expected, many of these security patches focus on the Web-browsing framework WebKit.

CoreGraphics Changes to CoreGraphics prevent maliciously crafted image and PDF files from causing unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution; vulnerabilities causing the same problems in FreeType v2.3.8 were also patched.

Exchange Changes were made to prevent a user from connecting to a malicious … Read more

Despite the intense amount of interest in Apple's third-generation iPhone, this Friday's launch of the device may not bring out the hordes of Apple fans like it has in years past.

The first days that the original iPhone was on sale in June 2007 (and the iPhone 3G last July), lines at Apple and AT&T stores across the country snaked around city blocks, filled with both newbies and Apple's most loyal customers anxious to be the first to get their hands on the much-anticipated smartphones. Some of the most ardent iPhone devotees camped overnight to … Read more

The iPhone world is rejoicing over the "it's about time" cut-and-paste feature in the just-released 3.0 version of the device's operating system. But I'm willing to bet that another group breaking open the champagne right now is the team at Twitter.

Not to mention the makers of Twitter iPhone apps.

And why?

Everyone knows that the reason that cut-and-paste was the most-heralded new feature in iPhone OS 3.0 was that for the first time, it would allow people to move content around between applications, be it between a browser and a note, or … Read more

AT&T received harsh criticism from some customers who wanted to upgrade to the new iPhone 3G S but discovered they would not receive the best upgrade price. However, the company on Wednesday changed its tune.

Saying it has been "listening to their customers," AT&T is changing its policy to allow customers who are eligible for an upgrade in July, August, or September to upgrade starting on Thursday at what it calls the "best upgrade pricing." The upgrade eligibility tools won't reflect the change in policy until Thursday, the company said.

If … Read more