Did you sign the petition against Rogers Wireless yet? If you're one of those that would like to do it, but didn't manage to spare those minutes required for this, then I think you should think again! Don't get me wrong - I am not crazy about Rogers Wireless either, but it seems they are finally giving in to public pressure, so they announced a very interesting promotional plan for future iPhone 3G owners, as we're going to see right away...

Ladies and gentlemen, beloved future iPhone 3G owners, the news goes like this: the almighty Canadian mobile carrier, Rogers Wireless, together with its sub-brand Fido, decided to offer its potential subscribers to the available iPhone 3G service plans a serious data package. Why? Leaving aside the prices of the plans announced already, none of those had a serious amount of data included, so...what about iPhone 3G porn? Oh, no, it slipped...I wanted to say "what about business users of the iPhone in need of large data transfers," please believe me! ;)

The promotional plan for the iPhone 3G is being offered to those that are going to sign up for the Apple device before the end of August will have access to a $30 monthly plan that offers 6GB of data per month while purchased with any existing voice plan Rogers or Fido are already offering. Oh...so this is an ADDITIONAL PLAN? Not quite interesting, if you ask me. So, you get a voice plan, pay $30 more, and you receive for them just enough bandwidth to watch "nearly 105 hours of YouTube videos" per month, as Rogers claims. Great, just great!

Now, it should also be added that Visual Voicemail is considered separate from the data plan, and requires an additional $8 monthly payment, as will text messages. Obviously, you can still order these individually, or as part of "value packs," but in the end, I think you'll pay the price of a iPhone 3G every month...<-180x150 Small Rectangle - right->

I guess I should have said something more, but this is so outrageous, that I can't, so I'll leave Rogers Wireless in its misery, and move on to the European theatre of operations, where we find much better options.

For example, in Austria, T-Mobile offers a Classic plan, with 1,000 minutes of calling time to any mobile network, 3GB of data, Visual Voicemail, and free Wi-Fi, for a special $55 rate for the first 10,000 customers.

In Belgium, we have Mobistar, offering extremely expensive iPhone 3G phones($826 and $967 for the two models we all know about), with pretty poor service plans, too, starting at $47 - 180 minutes calling time, 300 text messages, and only 200MB of data.

Well, the war still rages on, and I think Rogers Wireless should look at the best offers currently announced to become available in some areas for the iPhone 3G, and do the right thing. I know they can do it, they only have to try harder!

"Which is better: Mac, or PC?" Good question, but - no matter what some people may say - the answer depends a lot on the one answering the question. Taking it from the lower level, some people may be heavily influenced by the advertising campaigns and what their friends are saying, and by the fact that - we all must admit - after using a Windows computer, seeing Mac OS X in action for the first time may seem like something out of this world for beginners. In the middle section, we find people that have average Windows expertise, and after working with both platforms, they decided that the Mac is better...or not, depending on the case. At last, we have experts, usually going with both platforms at the same time, because some things are usually better when done on a PC or on a Mac. The funny part is that, after being mocked over and over again by Apple's "Get a Mac" advertising campaign, Microsoft decided to strike back using the same weapon!

I know it may be a bit late, in fact I am sure it's too late already, but here's what Microsoft's VP of Vista marketing, Brad Brooks, said on Tuesday, at a Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference - in a few months, a major advertising campaign will strike back Apple where it hurts the most - its corporate image."You thought the sleeping giant was still sleeping, well we woke it up and it's time to take our message forward. There's a conversation going on in the marketplace today and it's just plain awful. We've got to get back on the front foot," said Brooks. <-120x240 Vertical Banner - right->

While admitting the truth that Vista "broke a lot of things" and caused "a lot of pain" to its partners trying to support it, Brooks thinks Apple doesn't have anything unique, and Microsoft can counter it. "They tell us it's the iWay or the highway. We think that's a sad message. Software out there is made to be compatible with your whole life," he concluded.

Now, I have to ask - what message are they going to use for this campaign? "Get back to Vista," "Please don't go," "Get Vista, receive free Halo 3," or "One Vista a day keeps the Apple away?" No matter what they do, even if Steve Ballmer will appear in the commercials playing Merlin, I think not even magic can save Vista now. After all, it's not a commercial disaster, but it's a big hit for Microsoft's image and its consumers' trust, and this is where companies like Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, or Google are most vulnerable - financial losses can be covered, but gaining back the trust of an entire planet after letting them down, that's much harder!

So...which is better: Mac, or PC? If you also tell us why, that's even better! Come on, don't waste this chance of helping other people seeing the good and evil behind these two computing platforms, drop your comment below and make it count!

Are you ready for the second coming? Not ready? If you're scared, don't be - I am talking about the second coming of the iPhone, what were you thinking of?!? Oh...whatever - here's the deal - while we should still wait for at least 3-4 days until the first iPhone customer reviews popup, the press already started talking about Apple's new baby. Obviously, we're talking about the new iPhone 3G, since the older one already got huge media coverage. The good part is that some of Apple's favorite journalists already had the chance to play with the thing, and here's what they think about it...

Just as a side note - as you have probably imagined, I am not one of Apple's favorite journalists yet, but I am working on it! ;) Now, let's see what's the opinion of The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The New York Times on the new iPhone's capabilities, shall we?

First of all, let's see what Walt Mossberg, from The Wall Street Journal, has to say:

- As expected, the iPhone 3G is much faster than the original version.

- The new iPhone "mostly keeps its promises." Sorry, but I disagree with that. Just think about the iPhone 3G videoconference capabilities(none available? yeah, that's right!)...

- Once you enable 3G, the battery is being drained much faster than the battery of the old iPhone.

- If you like to go on the street with music playing out loud on your iPhone, then the 3G version is better for this purpose - the built in speaker is much louder, no matter if you're playing music or having a speakerphone conversation.<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->

- There are plenty of improvements in the software of the iPhone 3G.

USA Today's Edward Baig also reviewed the iPhone 3G, so here you have the highlights of his article:

- According to Edward's experience, most websites load in up to 30 seconds while using 3G, which is much faster than on EDGE, usually taking an extra 30 seconds, or even more.

- While the plastic back makes the iPhone 3G feel "perfectly comfortable," it seems it's also improving reception, as Apple confirmed.

- "No equal among consumer-oriented smartphones." Are you sure? What about the Samsung Instinct? Don't hit me, that was just a thought...

- Apart from better overall audio quality, the headphones are also better.

- The conclusion is that "Apple has raised the bar with iPhone 3G," so the journalist awarded "an enthusiastic thumbs up."

At last, David Pogue, working for The New York Times, also got a chance to write about his own experience with the iPhone 3G. His impressions?

- An interesting fact is that, according to David, there are 6 million iPhone owners in the world, as we speak. I thought this number to be at least 8 millions by now...

- Unfortunately, replacing the battery still costs $86.

- The GPS receiver's antenna seems to be too small for turn-by-turn navigation of a full unit, and a "canyon effect" caused by surrounding buildings can sometimes block reception.

- Regarding the quality of phone calls, he also noticed a huge improvement in sound quality.

Well, you got the links, you can take your time and enjoy those articles by yourselves. If I think well, I hardly wait to see the first iPhone customer reviews popping up, because there's no better way to measure how good is a product than the satisfaction of the end-user. Obviously, it all takes time, but since the iPhone already spent a year on this planet and there's nothing really bad to say about it, I am sure the iPhone 3G will follow on the same path!

When was the last time you tried to talk to your computer? I am not talking about cursing it, since curses don't count as "talking." Did it answer? If it didn't, then you should stop talking to objects, or go see a doctor! Why? Well, in the last years, speech recognition is getting better and better, and giving voice commands to various devices is no longer something out of Sci-Fi movies. If you are crazy about the iPhone, but not that crazy about touch control, then you will soon be able to issue it voice commands. Is this awesome, or what?

OK, so what's so special about the new voice services for the Apple iPhone? Well, according to the official press release from Fonix, now "users can launch a playlist or search contacts and dial by voice." If launching a certain item or dialing a name is not something out of this world, I wonder how does this work when you want to search your contact list for one of those 8 Johns you have in there, and all you can remember is the...icon you have associated with his number! ;)

Don't go away yet - I was just joking, more or less - I am sure things are much better than I can figure out for now. Here's what Fonix says:"Fonix iSpeak™ connects the user by just saying the phone number or by saying the name of a person in the contacts database. Additionally, users will be able to navigate their music libraries and launch a song or playlist simply by saying the name of the artist, song, or playlist."<-125x125 Button - right->

According to D. Lynn Shepherd, Sr. VP of product engineering at Fonix, "The powerful and dynamic tools provided by Apple have allowed the Fonix team to quickly and efficiently develop Fonix iSpeak™ for the Apple iPhone 3G. The feature rich iPhone™ is easy to use and our robust embedded speech interface will further create a positive and natural user-friendly environment which will further illustrate the dynamic features of this phone."

Great! There's only one problem - still 3 long days remaining until the lucky ones of us will have the iPhone 3G at hand...

While AT&T doesn't exactly offer the best iPhone 3G plans on the planet, it seems they come up with a free iPhone 3G! Yes, you read that right, but probably you also got it wrong, so let me explain. I am talking about "free" like in "freedom," and not "without having to pay a single dollar." For now, I have no idea on how to get the iPhone 3G without money, maybe only from those carriers offering them for free, but tied with extremely expensive service plans, or if you win some contest having one as prize. Since I have no idea about contests awarding iPhone 3G mobiles for now, let's see what can be said about AT&T's free iPhone 3G, shall we?

First of all, I must tell you about the funny advice from AT&T regarding your old iPhone. Once you upgrade, they say you could deactivate it and use it as a WiFi iPod. Come oon! A $600 iPod? No, thank you! Well, there's always the other solution, better for your family or friends, and also better for AT&T. If you want to know more about that course of action, feel free to check AppleInsider's article on how to hand down your old iPhone.

OK, so as we were able to see so far, in some cases, the cost of the iPhone 3G can go up to over $2000 during a 24-months contract, so let's see how expensive can be the free iPhone 3G offered by AT&T...
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In a recent news release, AT&T disclosed terms and monthly rates for the iPhone 3G service plans, but also hinted that the 8GB free iPhone 3G will come for $599, and the 16GB one, for $699. I know it may sound painfully expensive, but if you're not that much of a talker, this may be cheaper in the long run.

The problem is that you'll probably still remain tied with AT&T, but you'll have the freedom of choosing a pay-as-you-go plan for voice service, because there is no prepaid data plan from AT&T available yet...so in the end, most iPhone users will choose "slavery." If you know some secrets regarding this whole deal, feel free to drop your comments below, I'm anxious to get to know your point of view!