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Patent-mania running wild from Apple is nothing new, though these recent filings do seem a tad focused on enabling new form factors, don't they? To go along with the iFlip and iPhone Nano, and the iSlider, comes a little something that just might allow for an iStylus:

The iPhone 3G is SOOOOO close, I can practically taste the doubled speed, GPS and iPhone 2.0-and-web apps sweetness!  It's hard to believe that it's already been over a year since I held the object of my obsession (a.k.a. iPhone 2G) for the first time in the Apple Store.  Now, my still-gleaming 2G is about to become a has-been.  Will it be worth the box it was shipped in after July 11?  Read on for this week's Tip, the possible future of YOUR "old" iPhone!

In our forums, dhp1080 asked an important question: since the iPhone 3G comes out on the 11th and whoever wins is surely going to be the sort to go out and buy one that day, doesn't it make more sense to hold the drawing for the winner of our iPhone 3G giveaway a bit earlier?

Yes, yes it does.

Time.com begs the question as to whether consumers would be, and should be, willing to pay for App Store apps:

So why can't all iPhone apps be free? Well, quite simply, because people are still willing to pay for them.

Er... No. All apps can't be free because all developers don't get free housing, food, and a healthy cash allowance for themselves and their families to live off of while they develop all these fantastical free apps.

It's the same reason why the Time.com writer probably doesn't work for free, even though the web page containing the article has advertising on it.

TeliaSonera and their Norwegian subsidiary, Netcom, are pretty much dropping Ragnorok onto Scandinavians who dared hope for reasonable price plans, but how about Finland?

Small plans start at €31.69 for 100 min, 100 SMS, and 100 MB of data, with €159 for an 8GB handset and €385 for 16GB.

Large plans are €89.99 for 1000/1000/1000, with a €1 8GB and a €85 16GB.

US$142 for 1GB of data?

The App Store will officially launch alongside the iPhone 3G on July 11th, but what's going to be available? We've seen the highlights. Super Monkey Ball. Ebay. Twitteriffic. Loopt. But a handful of Apps do not a Store make. Apple will need some volume and to get it... they've imposed a deadline!

Yup, of the fraction of developers who've been accepted into the program, only those who have their final release uploaded to Apple's servers by 12PM PDT on July 7th will be eligible for App Store launch. (And even then, there's no apparent guarantee Apple will approve you in time for that most auspicious of occasions.)

Sister site WMExperts brings word that T-Mobile is raising the a la carte price of SMS text messages to an exorbitant $.20 per 160 characters (sadly, an industry average...) While they have their theories as to why tiny text qualifies for thousands of dollars per meg of data charges, others only really care about one thing:

A change in the terms of service may -- just may -- be a way for those of you stuck on contract with T-Mobile to get out of jail and into a sexay new iPhone 3G.

Those lucky... bloggers over at Gizmodo have scored a video walkthrough of both the iPhone 2.0 software (build 5A345) and the matching iTunes 7.7 developers received last week. What say they?

I'll admit that when I saw the prices for the iPhone 3G sans contract ($599 for the 8gig and $699 for the 16gig), I was disheartened. It turns out these prices are a actually more surreal than they appear at first blush. Gizmodo did some math and figured out the following: it is cheaper to just buy an iPhone 3G and sign up for the contract, pay the activation fee, then cancel the contract immediately and pay the early termination fee. Check it out:

Whoa! Looks like Hong Kong's kung fu may not be as good as we thought it was. While their rates aren't terrible, it doesn't seem like many people will actually be able to enjoy them, least not at launch!

Reader Janric sent this in: