MacRumors

To help clarify any confusion about the upgrade process, AT&T has posted a number of walkthrough videos giving more information about the upgrade process for customers. AT&T announced that the iPhone 3G will be on sale starting at 8 a.m. local time at their AT&T stores.

Existing AT&T Customer Video
This covers the different scenarios if you are an existing AT&T customers. AT&T recommends you back up your iPhone with iTunes prior to buying the iPhone 3G. Additionally, voicemail will be deleted when you upgrade, so you should be sure to catch up on your voicemail prior to upgrading. Once you upgrade to the iPhone 3G, you can give your original iPhone to someone else who can activate it through iTunes and sign up for new service.

New AT&T Customer Video
This video is for customers activating new service at AT&T. These individuals can visit AT&T stores prior to July 11th to undergo a credit check to save time on the actual launch day. AT&T recommends you back up your phone data prior to July 11th. You will need a photo ID and social security number to start new service. If you are interested in porting your phone number from your existing carrier, you will need: your account number, account holder name, billing address, social security number and PIN or password. Most of this information is on your bill from your current carrier.

Apple has not yet announced what time their retail stores will open on July 11th. AT&T announced plans and pricing for the iPhone 3G earlier today.

Apple has posted a Guided Tour of the new features found in the iPhone 3G.

AT&T has announced detailed pricing information for its iPhone 3G plans and will start selling the iPhone 3G at 8am on July 11th in the U.S.

AT&T also confirmed that they will be subsidizing the price for new and current iPhone customers at the WWDC-announced price of $199 (8GB) and $299 (16GB). These prices are specifically available to the following customers:

- iPhone customers who purchased before July 11
- Customers activating a new line with AT&T
- Current AT&T customers who are eligible, at the time of purchase, for an upgrade discount

For AT&T customers who are ineligible for the subsidized pricing, AT&T is offering an "early upgrade" price of $399 (8GB) and $499 (16GB). You can check your eligibility in your online AT&T account (screenshot).

Finally, AT&T is offering an unsubsidized price of $599 and $699 at a later date as a "no commitment" price for individuals who do not wish to sign a long-term contract.

AT&T is offering a iPhone 3G common questions guide for existing and new AT&T customers.

TheRegister.co.uk claims that Apple is currently circulating prototype iPhones with physical keyboards amongst some mobile carriers to gauge demand for such a device.

actual prototypes - not just mockups - have been sent to senior executives at some operators. I'm not allowed to even hint which operators... but I can report that the keyboard has "issues" which are not yet resolved.

The author believes that despite Steve Jobs' open criticism of the fixed buttons on existing smart phones, that he is currently exploring keyboarded iPhones. The design is said to be a "slider" type design where the keyboard would slide out behind the screen. The reason for the interest is an attempt to further penetrate the enterprise market where physical keyboards are the norm.

Worldwide, it has not escaped the attention of mobile network execs that the bulk of corporate sales are not into the executive corridor. Rather, they are phones which are provided for staff, and the vast bulk of them have full-QWERTY keyboards - and all the best-selling ones, Nokia, Sony-Ericsson and HTC alike, have slide-out keyboards. The popular Danger Sidekick, too, has a slide-out (spin-out) QWERTY keyboard.

Of course, even if such prototypes exist, there's no guarantee that Apple will actually release such a design.

Apple has released Mac OS X 10.5.4 via the Mac OS X Software Update:

The 10.5.4 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1994.
For detailed information on security updates, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

This represents a rapid turnaround for Mac OS X version updates, with the last point upgrade having been released just one month ago (May 28th). The new update, however, is a requirement for some of the features of Apple's upcoming MobileMe service.

Update: Alongside OS X 10.5.4, Apple also released Security Update 2008-004 for users running OS X 10.4.11 and 10.5 - 10.5.3. This security update appears to be included in the OS X 10.5.4 update but has also been made available as a standalone update.

Finally, Apple released Safari 3.1.2 for Mac OS X 10.4.11. This update addresses a WebKit vulnerability that was fixed for Windows XP and Vista users in Safari 3.1.2 for Windows (released June 19th) and for Leopard users with the 10.5.4 update.

Rhapsody announced the opening of a DRM-Free MP3 store today. The music tracks will be compatible with the Apple iPod as well as most other music players. This represents a significant shift in strategy for the company, who previously sold tracks on a subscription model exclusively. Rhapsody, however, has not completely abandoned the subscription model and still offers this option to their customers.

Rhapsody believes that their incompatibility with the iPod was in part to blame for their lack of market penetration:

"We're no longer competing with the iPod," Rhapsody Vice President Neil Smith said. "We're embracing it."

The new MP3 store from Rhapsody is only available to U.S. customers and contains 5 million songs. Music will be priced similarly to other services at $.99 per song or $9.99 per album.

One unique feature to Rhapsody's service is the ability for customers to preview an entire track, rather than a 30 second window.

If you are a .Mac subscriber, Apple appears to have activated the corresponding @me.com email addresses. If your email address was username@mac.com previously, you can now use username@me.com and emails should arrive in your .Mac mailbox. In the near future, Apple will be migrating all the email services over to Me.com, but users will be able to keep their @mac.com email addresses:

Yes. In addition to your mac.com email address, you will also get an address at me.com with the same username when MobileMe is available. For example, if your current email is emily_parker@mac.com, you will get emily_parker@me.com. You can send from whichever address you choose. The choice is yours. You will still receive email sent to your mac.com address so you wont miss any emails.

Apple has also published Frequently Asked Questions about the .Mac to MobileMe transition.

The @me.com transition is part of Apple's shift to MobileMe, a new web-based service that offers "desktop class" email, calendar and address book functionality. MobileMe is set to officially launch in early July.

Update: At least one user said theirs is not yet working, but it is working for several others. It may take some time for the changes to propagate.

ZDNet.de has posted a new tool called ZDNet Clock Tool 1.0 for Mac Pro which allows you to overclock your Mac Pro. The process of overclocking uses software to increase your computer's processor speed and bus speed, potentially leading to higher performance. Boost the speed too high, however, and the computer may crash as either the processor or some of their components are unable to keep up. Still, ZDNet.de claims to have achieved some impressive results:

ZDNet uses three Mac Pros as test machines. One comes from the first Intel/Mac Pro generation (Mac Pro 1.1) with 65-nanometer processors and 1333-MHz front side bus. The others come from the third generation with 45-nanometer processors and 1600-MHz front side bus, as sold by Apple since January 2008 (Mac Pro 3.1). The first computer is equipped with two 2.66 GHz X5355 processors, and runs stable at 3.10 GHz, see figure 2. The other two have two 2.80 GHz E5462 processors. These can be overclocked up to 3.24 GHz and remain stable, see figure 1.

The multi-page article (be sure to click on 'weiter' for next pages) describes their results including stability tests over 24 hours. There are a few caveats as well:

If you carry out benchmarks such as Cinebench or Geekbench after overclocking, the benchmarks do not indicate any improvement in performance at first. But if you resort to a stopwatch, the higher performance resulting from overclocking can indeed be verified. You also notice that the system clock runs significantly faster after overclocking the computer.

Rebooting (but not shutting down) reportedly corrects this timing issue on all but the 1st generation Mac Pros. More details are available in the article. The application is available for free download from ZDNet.de (click on "Jetzt herunterlade" to download). Some MacRumors readers have already had some experience with this tool, but readers should proceed with caution (see potential disadvantages in overclocking, in general).

Update: Versions for other Mac models are expected in the future, and simply shutting down your Mac and turning it back on will reverse the effects of the overclocking application.

Rogers announced service plans for the iPhone 3G in Canada today. iPhone 3G combined voice and data plans start at $60 and will be available starting July 11th.

"As the wireless provider voted number one in wireless satisfaction(x), Fido is thrilled to offer a variety of well-priced voice and data plans making iPhone 3G accessible to as many of our customers as possible," said Sylvain Roy, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Fido. "These pricing plans will allow our urban customer base easy enjoyment of all that iPhone 3G has to offer."

The data plans, however, are not unlimited as had been rumored. The new rate plans are detailed below:

- $60/month. 150 minutes + unlimited evenings/weekends, 400 MB Data, 75 SMS sent, unlimited incoming SMS
- $75/month. 300 minutes + unlimited evenings/weekends, 750 MB Data, 100 SMS sent, unlimited incoming SMS
- $100/month. 600 minutes + unlimited evenings/weekends, 1 GB Data, 200 SMS sent, unlimited incoming SMS
- $115/month. 800 minutes + unlimited evenings/weekends, 2 GB Data, 300 SMS sent, unlimited incoming SMS

They are also offering a $15 monthly value pack which includes Call Display, WhoCalled, Caller Ring Trax, 2,500 Sent Text Messages and 2,500 Call Forwarding Minutes; and a $20 monthly value pack which includes Call Display, WhoCalled, Caller Ring Trax,10,000 Sent Text Messages and Fido Evenings starting at 5:00 p.m. and 2,500 Call Forwarding Minutes.

Rogers suggests that 400MB will get you up to 200,000 text emails or 3,100 web pages or 1,360 photo attachments.