AM is extremely easy to set up and has lots of options so you can choose which contacts you see. It supports Gtalk and AIM protocols in addition to ICQ, MSN, Yahoo and Jabber. AM even logs your IM sessions so you can refer back to old conversations. But best of all, it keeps your IM conversations going, even when you are on a call or out of the program, and sends Mail style notifications alerting you to how many IMs came your way while you were gone. All in all, an extremely good experience for IMing on the go, so jailbreak if you haven't yet, and install this puppy. [Google via Lifehacker]

Is there a difference between buying the iPhone at AT&T and buying it at Apple? Only if you're a business customer. AT&T says that there's no difference between regular customers, and both stores can do things like transferring your number from another carrier. See here for more details.

What's the final pricing information for AT&T's plans? Here it is below.

What time will the iPhone be on sale on July 11? 8am, so if you really, really want one, you might have to camp out.

What new features are coming in iTunes 7.7, the update that's coming July 11 along with the iPhone 2.0 software and iPhone 3G? MobileMe stuff, parental controls for games, and various other features like using your iPhone and iPod Touch as an iTunes remote. Click here for video and screenshots.

Wait, did you just say that iPhone will be able to control iTunes? Yup. You're getting a free remote control App.

Is there a good reason why the enterprise data plan is more expensive than the standard one? A good reason? AT&T says it's because business customers use more data than consumers, so they charge more.

Is there an upgrade fee for the iPhone 3G on AT&T? Yes. $18, says AT&T.

In the instant just before executing my turn, something in the road punctured my front tire. In two places. 130 psi of traction and control were gone in an instant. I immediately went into an uncontrolled fall at 25 mph. Since I had already started my turn, the vertical stability of my bike gave way to momentum and gravity. I hit the pavement hard, sliding about 20 feet before friction brought me to a stop. Suddenly the pavement didn’t feel so good beneath me. I had a nasty abrasion on the outside of my right leg and right forearm, and a very sore right ‘cheek’, which took the brunt of my fall. I stood up as quickly as I could to take inventory of my faculties to see if I suffered any broken bones. Luckily, I hadn’t.

Once I gathered myself and my bike to the side of the road, I reexamined my injuries. I was somewhat pleased the abrasion on my arm was not as bad as it could have been, saved by the leather-palmed gloves I was wearing for such an occasion (which were now ruined, but a small price to pay for the protection they provided). And my leg could have been worse, too, had it not been saved by my…my iPhone. “Oh no!”, I yelled.

Panic raced through me. Retrieving the iPhone from my pocket immediately revealed the screen had not suffered breakage, so I pressed the ‘Home’ button and the iPhone sprang to life. I was still about a mile from home, so I unlocked the display and immediately pressed the Phone icon so I could call home for assistance. The ringing sound at the other end was music to my ears; the phone still worked!

Sure, any phone could have protected him just as easily I'm sure, but could that phone then help you look up the surgery you're avoiding due to its protection? I think not. [Gantos]

At the end, last Friday didn't bring the iPhone 2.0 Golden Master for final developer testing, "small glitches" apparently being the cause of the delay. But in the meantime, we have been playing for a long time with these two.

Everything has been trouble-free so far. The iPhone applications are fast (the iTunes Music Store actually feels faster than before, as does Safari), there have been no errors or glitches, and, except the fact that the content restriction policies still don't seem to be working (I activated the restrictions for Safari and I still could access several of my favorite porn sites—thanks for the links, Jason), everything seems to click just fine.

In iTunes, the MobileMe section is there, but not active yet (perhaps because I don't have a MobileMe account to try it myself). The applications tab in the iPhone control panel is there, however, although obviously there are no apps to try it yet. In the iTunes preferences, there are three changes: automatically check for available downloads, age gaming restrictions, and—the most interesting of them all—"look for iPhone and iPod touch remotes."

Unfortunately, since we don't have the remote application yet, we couldn't try this one. July 11 is not arriving soon enough.

The developer is aiming for an August release and a price of $9.99, but both of those issues are still subject to change. [Rolando via TUAW]

There's apparently a new touchscreen handset from LG on the way, and early word is that it's slated to be the Korean phone maker's new flagship phone. So far known as the KC910, it appears to be more camera than phone, shooting at 8-megapixels with a real Xenon flash, face detection, image stabilization and a 480p camcorder function, which is worth noting. It also supposedly has an 800x480 resolution screen, which means it can show 16:9 movies with no cropping, all in a form factor a little over half an inch thick. If they can throw in a few other high-end features like Wi-Fi and a good browser then this handset could out-media the iPhone and be a real challenger, but we're holding our judgment till we've seen it in action. [Electronista, via DC Sources, via Ubergizmo]

$299 - 16GB iPhone w/contract
$36 - Activation
$175 - Early Termination Fee
$70 - One month of service

Total Price Using The Shady Method: $580

So...

8GB iPhone Canceled: $480
16GB iPhone Canceled: $580
8GB iPhone Unlocked from AT&T: $599
16GB iPhone Unlocked from AT&T: $699

Are we missing something?

We're going to say this emerging from the depths of Apple seems pretty unlikely—as much as Apple might want to crib marketshare from BlackBerry and Co. (which rests in part on the keyboard), we just don't see Apple making hardware just for business users, especially potentially bulky, less than aesthetically perfect hardware. (Though Apple would obviously pretty it up.) Besides, you do get used to the keyboard—though driving while texting your mom isn't as easy. [The Register]

Canada doesn't produce its own electronics. “But Dan,” some defensive, annoying nationalist might say, “what about all those semiconductor plants in Southeast Ontario?” Well, Antagonist I Just Created, you're a nitpicker and totally missed my point. Consumer electronics brands are almost exclusively imports from the States and various Asian countries. Update: RIM is obviously the one significant exception. What that means is that Canada imposes duties on pretty much everything, driving the retail prices up. I won't even go into the 15% 12.5% sales tax. (Yes, shut up about taxes, America, you're a bunch of whiners.) But even worse, Canada is currently cursed with a horribly strong dollar, leading to damnable economic benefits across the nation. Yet they have not adjusted to the temporary economic downturn (don't say recession, don't say recession) in the Greatest Country on Earth.

What does that mean to a young, naïve Pennsylvanian just trying to figure out how to make his Benjamins last? When I went looking for a new laptop, I found something fascinating: the same HP model, from Best Buy's online sites, costs $649 in the States, and a whopping $799 in Canada. Going by exchange rate, that computer should actually have cost $654 at Bestbuy.ca—that's $150 less I could spend on still deliriously expensive Canadian beer!

I'm a particular kind of gadget nerd. I don't go crazy over Linux or cell phones or overclocking or whatever. I'm a media nerd, and I have the debt and unhealthy pallor to prove it. Trust me, normal people don't stockpile PMPs or set up a Netflix account at a new apartment before introducing himself to his roommates.

Media is where Canada takes a big ungainly flop on its face. I lived in Montreal, a thriving artistic city with an unparalleled music scene and multiple international film festivals, a city that is very much in the here and now. Yet there is absolutely no legal way to watch Top Chef as it airs, forcing poor deprived Canadian children to wait for months to get their culinary-based reality competition fix. This year the show began June 24th in Canada, after the whole season had already ended in the Land of the Free.

Besides delays, Canada's version of the FCC, the CRTC, has very strict rules about the percentage of “cancon,” or Canadian content, that must be played. A whopping 60% of television programming between the hours of 6 AM and midnight has to be homegrown. Now, that's mostly taken up by filler like daytime talk shows and local news, but an awful lot of solid entertainment falls to the wayside to make room. There's a very long and boring debate about consumer freedom vs. preservation of Canadian culture, but the discussion's been going on for decades and Top Chef doesn't wait for parliamentary consensus.

On the same note, any Canadians who have ever tried to stream US television episodes legally over the web will be familiar with that ever-present message of rejection: “This video is not available in your region or location.” The CRTC refuses to allow the lovely Padma Lakshmi to appear on my computer, even in a low-res, three-inch popup window. So forget about Hulu or any other legit way to watch those shows; Canadians are forced into less savo(u)ry Internet back alleys like BitTorrent as a matter of course.

This epic struggle doesn't only apply to television, but gadgets as well. Canada has been without the JesusPhone for so long that they've reverted to a culture of hunter-gatherers. Even when it finally arrives later this month, it won't be readily available to all: The cost of the phone and its monthly plan is so high that the Canadians who do opt for it will have to forswear store-bought food and live off the land to save money. Even TiVo only landed in Canada in late 2007, although seriously guys, you don't need to record Corner Gas and all that other cancon. It's really not very good.

Selection of consumer electronics in Canadian brick-and-mortar stores is depressingly limited, with few non-mainstream products and long delays on others. The hilariously-named Best-Buy-equivalent “Future Shop” seems to be staffed with people chosen only for their ability to turn customers purple with rage. So you'd think Canadians would just turn to online shopping for their nerd needs, right? Well, Amazon only exists in Canada as a shadow of its true self, selling nothing but books, DVDs, music, and video games. Newegg? Forget about it. Woot for electronics? Not a chance. If you're lucky enough to find some misguided online retailer willing to ship you some gadgetry, you'll enjoy the lovable quirks of the Canadian postal service. Canadapost does deliver mail occasionally, but most of the time they indulge in their hobby of losing shit, charging more than my monthly rent in duties, and hoarding packages for weeks just for fun.

I like making fun of Canada, like any other red-blooded, God-fearing American citizen. For a gadget nerd, it's frustrating. The cost of our favo(u)rite toys is upsettingly high, the selection far too meager. Shipping is expensive, unreliable, and slow, and there's not even much good TV to watch while you wait for your imported gadget to arrive. On the other hand, if you're a functioning member of society who prefers sensible politics and beneficent social values to slightly more convenient electronics purchasing, Canada's pretty great. Just get ready to pay up for the ridiculous Canadian iPhone plans when you flee northward to avoid the next war. Happy Canada Day—or Bonne Fete du Canada—everybody!

Dan, our summer NYC area intern, just graduated from McGill in early June. Feel free to say hi to him. And in case you were wondering, he HAS already been hazed a bit. As he himself admits, he's the one with the beard.

For a shortcut to plan pricing, read on:

As for the subsidized iPhone pricing, AT&T has clarified that it's available for "new customers, current postpaid iPhone customers in good standing prior to July 11, and AT&T non-iPhone customers who are currently eligible for an upgrade discount" with a two-year agreement.

• Stunning, console quality graphics

• Twelve beautifully crafted tracks

• The famous Crash Bandicoot cast of characters

• A host of weapons, items and power-ups

• Fully configurable controls

It's not Mario Kart, but it will do until Apple merges with Nintendo. [Polarbit — Thanks Virginie]

As I think we've firmly established, we call these iPhone clones because they are made superficially with the look and feel of the iPhone in mind. They are not direct competitors to the iPhone, as they don't run on a smart, open platform like iPhones—or Blackberry and Windows Mobile phones—do. The Dare, like the Instinct, is closed and proprietary, geared to customers who like much of what the carrier has to offer, and would just like a better way to make use of it. And after spending some time with the Dare, I can safely say that, much like the Instinct, it really does let you do that. Easier Access
For starters, Verizon has done away with its dependence on unchangeable, annoyingly deep menus. With the Dare, you can drag any app or function directly to the desktop for one-click access. You can add key people to the Favorites launcher, where you simply drag their face to the phone or message icons to call or launch a new SMS.Even those cryptic notification icons always seen at tops of phones are clickable on the Dare.E-mail and Web
Let me get this off my chest first: The Dare browser is WAY better than the Instinct's, both in rendering speed and page layout. You can navigate Gizmodo with very little trouble, especially if you're going read-only. My only complaint was that there was no way I could find to speed-scroll through so many blog posts without giving my thumb a callous.Verizon's E-mail app is basically the same as it's been for about six or eight months. I do not recommend it for business use, as it's not very full featured, but I was able to get the Dare to notify me whenever any mail from three different accounts came through, and the iPhone-like QWERTY keyboard with pop-up letters really helped when typing. The only trouble I had sending e-mail was due to a funky POP3 account with ambiguous recommended settings. (One negative: You can't edit POP settings once you've configured them, so I had to keep deleting and adding the same account over and over again.)

Premium Unlimited-Use Plans
The good news is, unlimited use of e-mail and web are included in Verizon's new premium price plans, along with unlimited text messaging, unlimited use of basic V Cast clips and ACTUALLY USEFUL stuff like the ESPN MVP sports and WeatherBug web apps. Though it seems at first glance that pricing is a tad higher that Sprint's, the difference is negligible:



$80/month - 450 primetime talk minutes
$100/month - 900 primetime talk minutes
$120/month - 1350 primetime talk minutes
$140/month - Unlimited talk minutes
And yes, there are family premium plans that give you these perks for multiple (compatible) phones. The phone itself is $200 after a mail-in rebate.

Lighter Features
In our introductory walkthrough video, we showed you some awesome traits. After a revisit during our review, here's how those features held up:

• Slow-mo video cam - It's a bit grainy, but with decent light, it could make some interesting videos at 120 frames per second. The 3.2 megapixel camera is decent, but nothing to write home about.

• Full photo editing - Speaking of camera, the editing feature is not as "full" as we first thought. There's no red-eye reduction or shadow/highlight or color adjustment. Most of the options are actually novelty, and even for being silly they are not very useable.

• Music player - Good: Plays MP3s and even iTunes Plus DRM-free AACs that you drag to the "My Music" folder of the MicroSD card (up to 8GB); Bad: Still has issues with tags, and appears to count image metadata as additional song files, so browsing by Artist or Album is fine, but browsing "All Songs" is messy. In addition to that the video player reads standard MP4 (but not H.264), and pauses songs when you switch to video playback, only to pick up where it left off once you're done.Hardware
Like the Sprint Instinct, there's a 3.5mm jack for universal headphone fit, but unlike the Instinct, the Dare has a motion sensor inside that tells whether you're holding the phone horizontally or vertically. Videos, photos and the music browser all automatically adjust, as do keyboards and web pages. It's a nice touch, though I'll be honest, you don't really miss it on the Instinct.

The Dare's touchscreen leaves something to be desired. It's not as snappy as the Instinct's, and even after calibrating the screen, I found myself resorting to fingernail tapping to gain some precision.

The body of the Dare is a tad chunkier, but shorter too, with a slightly stubbier screen.

Dare vs. Instinct
The Instinct is, inside and out, a more elegant device. I preferred Instinct's e-mail app, and its included news, sports and weather web apps were great. Verizon is promising some unlimited-use apps like ESPN MVP and WeatherBug to compete with that, and while they're pretty nice programs, they were not ready to be used on the Dare at the time of this review.

The thing I can't stand about the Dare is VZ Navigator. I have tried to appreciate this, and since unlimited use of it comes with the premium plan, it can be considered a feature of the phone. Still, it's the worst GPS UI I've ever played around with, and Verizon would do much better to kill off their own licensed app and go with Telenav, which Sprint and AT&T both use.

Still, after playing with both, I have to say that the Instinct's aesthetic assets don't fully make up for the Dare's key advantages, one of which happens to be Verizon's network. In the northeast at least, there's no substitute.

Conclusion
Like the web apps, there are a few more wait-and-sees: Visual voicemail isn't in effect yet, and may or may not come via over-the-air update. Rhapsody is just launching today, and for $15/month extra you will be able to sideload the Dare with Rhapsody-to-Go tracks, though a Windows PC is required for that.

I am very content to say that this is Verizon's best attempt at a customizable, user-friendly touchscreen phone, and that, if you are into buttonless touch interfaces, you could do a lot worse across all the carriers. I think the $200 iPhone trumps the $200 Dare if you don't care which carrier you're on, but for those of you who are sticking with Verizon, you might, um, venture to pick up a Dare. [LG Dare at Verizon Wireless]

It's just the screen. It still works. Anyway, I was still going to bitch and bitch and bitch about it breaking just in time for iPhone 3G. And then I couldn't decide what to whine about. I mean, I was sitting on the fence between "why do these things always break a week before a new version comes out? Isn't that too much of a coincidence? Are they made for that? Why oh why did it break now?" and the second option: "Why don't these things break the day before the new version comes out, so I don't have to live with this imperfect iPhone classic for any more seconds than are absolutely necessary?"

So as you can see, looking at the stupidity of my own internal debate, I decided not to whine about anything, and will just wait until the 3G version comes out. NEXT WEEK!

[Ed Note: I lost one two weeks ago. I think it's the same subconscious phenomenon going on.]

The letter, which can be found on ruinediphone.com asks Apple's head honcho to “take a look at all these disappointed people” and do something! It also includes a petition, which has garnered over 10,600 signatures at last count. Do our friends to the North a favor and sign the fracking thing, eh?

Rogers has argued that its top data plan, 2GB a month for $115, is more than enough for most users and that an unlimited plan would “end up costing customers more for what they don't use.” Hmmm, sounds suspiciously like they're taking a page from the book of the cable industry over here. [Fortune]

Which one's Frucci? [JoyofTech]

The iPhone 2.0 operating system Golden Master will follow the release of build 345, which has seen the activation of two code-signing and encryption features not previously available.

Keep in mind that this date is tentative, even if the source remarked that "this is the plan." Meanwhile, the iPhone Dev Team has confirmed they are working hard cracking the latest build, getting ready for the pwnage of the final release. Also, remember that releasing a Golden Master internally or to developers doesn't mean releasing it to the general public. As announced publicly during WWDC, Apple will make the update available in July.

The Price: Around $500—official price not announced yet.

The Verdict: It's good, but it's not $500 good, esp without a qwerty.

The E66 is the first number-pad cellphone I've used in 3 years that I wasn't afraid of. Calls on the phone are loud and clear both directions. Its thin form factor and grippy textured back make it enjoyable to hold and you can perform a decent amount of functions without sliding up the top. It has tons of features and it doesn't half-ass any of them. Like the N95, it's got a decent flash camera that takes sharp pictures and video, and has options comparable to most point-and-shoots. The Wi-Fi and 3G load fast in the browser, and GPS found my position when I was outside. (It didn't locate me inside, though, like some phones with assisted GPS.) OTA app downloading was painless and so was setting up my Gmail account.

Still, I have some beefs. Symbian doesn't feel very fast. Like many S60 devices, apps and options are buried deep in menus. The phone is too quick to auto-rotate between portrait and landscape modes, a feature that seemed pointless given the cramped real estate of the E66's 2.4" screen. Also, though there are third-party browsing options available that are probably much better, Nokia's built-in S60 browser sucks, plain and simple. It loads non-optimized pages in actual size so it's hard to navigate the screen, only allows for one page to be open at a time, and sorely needs touchscreen functions provided by other modern smartphone browsers.

I hate to mention it, but there's a touchscreen phone coming out in a few days on the same network that costs $300 less. This is the problem with a lot of unsubsidized phones. [Product Page]

A lot of has to do with the fact that Android itself is still baking—it's hard to develop for an OS that isn't totally set and firm to the touch. So, even though Google has lotsa cool prototypes like one "a long touch-screen, similar to the Apple iPhone, a swivel-out full keyboard, and a trackball for navigation similar to the kind on some BlackBerrys," developers are having to constantly rewrite apps because the OS is in flux.

The Weather Channel admits it has already had to "rewrite a few things," and the latest version of Android is going to require some of the biggest revisions yet. The iPhone's SDK on the other hand, is ready to go, and many developers are already familiar with OS X. (And if developers are choosing one platform over the other, that's where Android's real trouble starts.) Topping it off, phonemakers like Samsung aren't having a jolly time integrating it either.

Sprint's woes are in part due to the fact it wants an Android phone with Sprint services, rather than a generic Google-y one. Because of the pushback, they might skip over a 3G Android phone and just do a WiMax one (though that doesn't make much sense to us—the EV-DO footprint is and will be way bigger than gimpy WiMax's, even in the first half of 2009, and that's being optimistic). Curiously, no word on the newly open Verizon's front, but given how messy Android is right now, even with all of its promise, we can't really blame AT&T for sitting it out for now. [WSJ]

According to the search company's statistics, there has been a sharp increase in "iPhone porn" searches over the last year, showing either that iPhone users are all a bunch of pervs, or that Jason and I spend way too much time surfing the web in the bathroom. Probably both.

Apple says that they won't allow any adult-oriented applications in the iPhone app store—so goodbye to your interactive anime porn games through iTunes, hello to Installer.app—but the 3G speeds and the Safari browser is open to any kind of content. The new version of Safari, however, will include parental contents so only daddy and mommy can surf the pink flesh wave. [TIME]

Found on Time. Think you can do better? You probably can. Hit the comments and give it your best shot. [Time via BGR]

The attacked lasted 2-3 minutes and they left out the part where I actually grab the guy by his balls and twist and pull them...This was more of a hate crime than it was from him trying to steal my iPhone. If he wanted the iPhone it fell from my hands and slid under the seat. My interview was pulled from the local website possibly because I mentioned hate crime.

He also reveals that the bus driver had left the vehicle and that one of the bus passengers was actually friends with the assailant. For the full account, be sure to hit the link. [MacBlogz]

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Apparently these students from South Florida aren't the only ones working on iPhone Packbot controls, as the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Lab has been said to be doing similar research. If only there was so much fervor to give the iPhone a decent copy 'n paste application. [via Engadget]

New cradle allowing full integration into the vehicle architecture: Mercedes-Benz makes in-car iPhone® connection even easier

Stuttgart - Whether it be a quick call to a business colleague for an important discussion, listening to favourite music tracks or checking home and office e-mails whilst on the move - the Apple iPhone® is a leading-edge business tool with multimedia capability, available in Germany and other markets. Now Mercedes-Benz allows the iPhone® connection to be fully integrated into the vehicle architecture for the first time - once again pointing the way ahead for the automotive industry. The new Apple iPhone® cradle allows simple switching between the telephone and audio functions. What's more, thanks to the location of the cradle in the centre console, the iPhone® is within easy reach of both the driver and the front passenger. For ease of use, the iPhone® is controlled via the multifunction steering wheel, while the vehicle display is used to indicate the phone status or music functions and information such as the track title and artist.

Over 100,000 people in Germanyhave already purchased an iPhone® - made by US electronics giant Apple - since its launch in November 2007. By introducing the new cradle for the Apple iPhone®, Mercedes-Benz has made it even easier to enjoy the special benefits of this trend-setting multimedia application, even when on the move in the car. This fully integrated solution - the first of its kind - enables either the phone functions or the audio functions on the iPhone® to be activated. As ever, the device is easy to use thanks to the controls on the multi-function steering wheel, all of which enhances road safety, as the driver's hands remain on the steering wheel, leaving them free to concentrate on the traffic and the other controls in the cockpit.

Perfect reception is assured as the iPhone® connects to the vehicle aerial automatically when inserted into the cradle. A further advantage is the automatic recharging of the iPhone® battery whilst the phone is sitting in the cradle.

This function means that the iPhone® stays fully charged, which is ideal if the user has to leave the vehicle.

New design to influence the style of further cradles

As well as impressing on a technical level, the Apple iPhone® cradle's exclusive design allows it to be integrated seamlessly into the interior of Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The all-new design is based on a black-and-silver colour scheme that adds hallmark Mercedes-Benz touches. The leading-edge design will be used in future cradles for mobile phones available from Mercedes-Benz Accessories GmbH.

The iPhone® cradle can be inserted into the centre console - where it is within easy reach of both the driver and the front passenger - with a single click and without the need for any tools whatsoever. The portable device is therefore easy to plug in and unplug.Optional convenience telephony (Order Code 386) must also be specified. The cradle connects to the audio system either via the optionally available Media Interface or the retrofittable iPod®Interface Kit available from the range of genuine accessories. Both variants use an integral adapter lead that has to be installed by a specialist workshop, ensuring an ideal connection between the cradle and the Media Interface or iPod® Interface.

The fully integrated iPhone® is available now for the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, E‑Class, CLK-Class, CLS-Class, S-Class, CL-Class, SL-Class, M-Class and R-Class. The product will also be offered for the new GLK-Class when this model is launched in October. In Germany, the Apple iPhone® cradle retails at € 249 (including VAT) and is obtainable from all Mercedes-Benz dealers.

The adapter leads for the Media Interface or iPod® Interface are available for € 39 (including VAT) in Germany.

[eMercedesBenz]