I know we talked about this before, but the latest info on the topic seems to clear things out once and for all. What topic? Well, the real value of the iPhone 3G, of course! I know a lot of people are interested about the iPhone 3G price, but how many of them would be interested in knowing the real value of the device they are spending their money on? Most of them, I am sure of that!

According to the latest reports, the iPhone 3G is worth only $174.33, when talking about pure manufacturing costs, $53 less than the old iPhone, despite the fact now it has 3G and GPS chips included. Anyway, this shouldn't come as a surprise, since the Flash memory is much cheaper now, and the back of the device is no longer made out of aluminium, but plastic.

Andrew Rassweller, analyst with iSuppli, thinks that "Apple aimed for a more cost-effective design for the 3G iPhone compared to the 2G, in order to lower the retail price, which will allow the company to seed adoption and to capture maximum market share now—while the company still has buzz and a perceived differentiation relative to its competitors." Aren't they all aiming for lower production costs? So much for stating the obvious...
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So...how did they do it, after all? Well, while the iPhone used two tightly connected circuit boards, the iPhone 3G uses only one board, while the battery is no longer soldered to the smartphone. The best part of the new iPhone is that compatibility with non-US networks has been expanded as much as possible, the Infineon chipset now supporting WCDMA phone networks, used in Japan and Korea, so the iPhone 3G is able to go "where no iPhone has gone before!"

The licenses for patents and other intellectual property costs are estimated at $50, so a 55 percent profit margin for Apple, before adding the marketing and software parts in the equation doesn't look bad at all, don't you think? Need an advice regarding Apple shares? "Buy, buy, buy!," I guess that should be obvious by now...

By allowing Mac OS X to run only on its own computers, Apple made a good choice for the business, but also created an opportunity for the clones to attack. No, we're not talking about Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones here. The interesting part is that we're not talking about Chinese clones, as it happens with the iPhone or the iPod, but ones that can be found right around the corner, in the sunny Florida! Now, let's make a short trip into the past, before moving on to the last events regarding the Mac clones, shall we?

This year, in early May, some eBay user going by the nickname of chris555 had the nerve to post an announcement with a desktop computer having Mac OS X preinstalled, going even cheaper than Psystar - about $400, compared to $550, for a Psystar Mac clone, as you can read in the Clones Attack article I wrote back then. Since that post was promptly removed from eBay, but Psystar didn't suddenly disappear from the market, Apple has recently decided to get rid of this problem. Obviously, we're talking about a lawsuit here!<-125x125 Button - right->

On the 3rd of July, one day after Psystar announced its own modified Mac OS X 10.5.4 Leopard update for customers who previously purchased one of those unauthorized Mac clones, Apple filed a formal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and the reason is obvious - copyright infringement.

The entire battle is being fought in the shadows, it seems, since Apple didn't make any official statement yet, while a certain Robert from Psystar argued that Mac OS X's license agreement is violating the antitrust laws. "What if Microsoft said you could only install Windows on Dell computers? What if Honda said that, after you buy their car, you could only drive it on the roads they said you could?," said Robert. Could anyone blame him for not being right?

So that long wait for the iPhone 3G is finally over, and the device is on sale in a lot of places already, with even more expected to come in the near future, so what about taking a look at those sales numbers? There's only one word to describe iPhone 3G's debut weekend, and this is something that even Steve Jobs seems to agree with: "stunning!" If these guys from Apple managed to surprise even themselves, things are looking much better than "just great," in my opinion, but let's digg in a little, shall we?


I guess the iPhone 3G specs are no secret to all those interested in it already, but I am sure there are still entire legions of fans waiting to grab one. After all, what is a million, compared to those almost 10 millions having the old iPhone already? Not much... Oh! Did I say A MILLION? Yes, I did, and that's the truth. This is no rumor, because it has just been officially confirmed by Apple!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the iPhone 3G has been sold to over 1 million customers in the first 3 days(that's the same as "over 1 million units," since this time, the policy was "one iPhone, one customer") after its arrival, setting the bar extremely high for its follower. The equation is very simple - the iPhone 3G went on sale Friday morning, and Sunday, it passed by the "1 million units sold" mark!
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According to Steve Jobs, "iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend. It took 74 days to sell the first 1 million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world." So, what's going to happen with the next iPhone? 10 million units in the first day, maybe?

All in all, Apple shares climbed 2.4% in early trading on Monday, and that's good enough for a lot of people. As for the future... we should wait and see, as we did all these months as rumors about the iPhone 3G assaulted us on all possible channels.

...and smash it! How's that for a sick scenario? Well, that's not all, because to smash a smartphone is not that...smart, if you ask me! Think about boiling it, throwing it into a volcano, take it with you at least 30-40 meters below the sea level(not in a sub, of course), spray it with some meat flavor and throw it to a bunch of aggressive dogs...or even give one as present to your wife, and then call her to say you want a divorce, because her best friend is pregnant with you and you're going to marry her. Enough scenarios to turn an iPhone 3G into a pile of junk? Here's another one - donate to a site that plans to buy it, and then destroy it!

SmashMyiPhone3G is a funny idea, but I think they have less chances to receive donations than someone asking for donuts money. After all, if you hate Apple's smartphone so much, I guess you should also have some friends sharing this feeling with you, so what could be better than a baseball match, using the iPhone 3G as ball(I just discovered another interesting path to a crushed iPhone 3G!)?

Started back in June, SmashMyiPhone3G claims to be "run by a pair named Hong and Hong residing in the outback of Australia. Having escaped Jamaica in 2004 by boat to start their own herb plantation in the sunniest place known to man they spend their time writing about iPhone news, hacks, tips etc. while waiting for their plants to mature." Humm...got some weed??!?
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Wait, it gets even better! "On their top 10 things to do before their 250 birthdays is to smash the iPhone rasta style. No further elaborations were given as to this particular style of smashing – although they promise it’ll be unique and never to be repeated again without their consent."

So, let me draw the conclusions here - we have a pair of immortal twins, named Hong and Hong, and they are both taking care of a herb plantation in Australia. Until now, their heads remained in place, but it seems they have some problems with them, anyway. They are planning to get $750 to buy one iPhone 3G and smash it, as you can see above. Cool, but what about getting some bricks to smash with their heads, first of all? If they smash 3 bricks each, film the action, post the movie on SmashMyiPhone3G, I promise to be the first one to donate!

So, what do you think about this challenge, guys? Are you in, or out? ;)

OK, so the iPhone 3G is finally here, but what about those problems it has to face in these early days? Leaving the supply shortage part aside, there's enough to be worried about even after being so lucky to get in possession of this new beauty coming from Apple, and one issue that has been troubling a lot of people in these last few days is the fact that the screen of the iPhone 3G has a yellow tint. So...what about it?

After facing the iPhone 3G activation madness, which I guess is far from over, in some areas, some happy iPhone 3G owners become less happy when they experience up close and personal other problems with the iPhone 3G, like the yellow tint of the screen I just mentioned above. The good part is that you can get rid of this annoyance really easy, as we're going to see right away...

Obviously, when you get a phone, and see that its screen has a yellow tint, you draw the conclusion that something's wrong with it. Well, if you think for a while, you may figure out that yellow glasses can be used to improve visibility, just like the yellow headlights cars use on foggy weather, so Apple's claim that the yellow tint of the iPhone 3G's LCD helps improve visibility is not something  you shouldn't believe. Even more, I think there's also a proof that this is not only a good lie, because now I'll tell you how to get rid of it, if you really think the old blue-biased LCD is better!
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From the early iPhone 3G user feedback, it is known already that the iTunes update system contains a "hidden" firmware update for the iPhone 3G, update able to fix several minor issues, including the yellow screen tint. Now, I wonder what happens with those that like the yellow tint - no firmware updates for them in the future?

The interesting part of the whole deal is that, while clicking "Check for Updates" in iTunes shows nothing new, pressing the "Restore" button installs firmware that's two builds newer than the default one, going from 5A345 to 5A347! Leaving the yellow tint aside, it seems the new firmware also fixes some app crashes, but nothing is official, yet, so we're talking more about rumors. Anyway, if you have some information regarding this subject you'd like to share, we're "all ears!"