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Sure, O2 in the UK may be giving them away for free, but why quibble over a Euro-buck? That's what T-Mobile Germany is counting on as they announced that Apple's next generation iPhone 3G could be had for as little as €1 with a €69 a month contract. Want a 16GB model? Starts at €19.95 on a €89 monthly contract.

If you prefer more up front, less down the road, you can also pay your €169.5/€249.95 at the door and walk away with a tiny €29 contract.

Now why can't AT&T -- and closer to (my) home Rogers -- learn from the Europeans?!?

If the next great future of computing in the Cloud, as many pundits -- not to mention Google -- think, then the next great race is delivering that future via Rich Internet Applications. Right now, there are two major ways of doing this. The first involves using a proprietary, locked in technology (admittedly with increasing "openness") like Adobe's Air/Flex/Flash trifecta, or Microsoft's .Net/Silverlight double team. The second is with truly open standards such as HTML, CSS, and AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) like Google, Yahoo, and many others use.

Phone Different Week in Review June 16, 2008

Every week I will be bringing you what I think are the week’s biggest stories and articles. Last week was, uh, more than a little crazy. Read on for the news you saw and more than a few pieces that may have blown by you in the flurry of WWDC coverage.

Here we go!

Are you tired of hearing about whether or not we'll get actual, real, turn-by-turn GPS on the iPhone yet? You shouldn't be, because it's a killer feature that a lot of other smartphone platforms are justifiably proud of and the iPhone needs to get it, Apple's crazy rules be damned. At least, that's what we tell ourselves when we cover all this TomTom news, from "It's coming to iPhone" to "It's not coming."

[Note: This a a Wait-A-Thon post! Comment on this post -- or any post tagged "Wait-a-Thon" -- for your chance to win a $100 iTunes Gift Card! Note that you must post with a valid and real email address so we can send you your prize -- no switching!]

Back in April, sister site Crackberry.com posted a hypejacking article detailing their "Top 10 Reasons the iPhone was NO Blackberry". Rather than a purely facetious "And thank Jobs for that!", TiPb kept tongue firmly in cheek but responded with the "Top 10 Reasons the iPhone is Incomparable" and a more considered (meaning they didn't let me write it!) 10 Reasons to Ditch Your Blackberry for the iPhone. (Though in my defense, I did think there was something the iPhone could learn from its Blackberry competitor...)

Now, however, as the iPhone 3G and its 2.0 software are poised to take on the enterprise market, where RIM is still clearly the sales (if no longer the mind) share leader, perhaps it is time. So, as Crackberry.com pushes their "Top 10 Reasons the iPhone is STILL NO BlackBerry", let's just strap our business plans on and see if there really is any way the Blackberry can compare to the iPhone 3G.

Read on to find out!

If Fake Steve weren't taking some "vacation" time to allow his alter-ego's to move from Forbes to take over Steve Levy's job at Newsweek, he'd no doubt be all over this.

Seems Woz, who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs in a garage during the age of aquarius (or something), in between Segway Polo matches and paying for hamburgers with uncut sheets of $100 bills, found some alone time with his honey, celebrity funny woman Kathy Griffn, in the back of a limo.

What to do, what to do...

Not evil twin to theiPhoneBlog.com Week in Review, not an invasion by Fake Steve, This Week in Smart Phone Schadenfreude brings you all the feel-better news you need about the smartphone world outside Apple’s current media dominator. (Who knew there was such a world? We were just as surprised! Inelegant, interface challenged, keyboardy, crashy, single-touchy place — best not to linger…). Join us as we mock review the big news from last week at our sister sites. Everybody loves sibling rivalry!

In this week's edition: RIM Flips, Windows Mobile is why Ballmer should quit, and Palm's Centro is a... hit?!

Paul Kafasis, who along with his fellow Rogue Amoeba's raised some early concerns over the iPhone SDK, is back with a post WWDC status report, and his current opinion? Brokended.

Could these be T-Mobile's iPhone 3G rate plans? I couldn't find them posted yet on T-Mobile's site (and my German is nicht gooden anyway), but reader Germany iPhone User sent us a tip on the image below, so if this is them, then this is them!

Update: Turns out not so much (see comments below).

According to the image, plans come in small, medium, large, and extra large (XL) sizes, from €29 through €89, with 50 to 1000 minutes, free weekends, 0 to 500 SMS, with 500mb of data on the lowest plans, and unlimited on all the rest.

Likewise das cheapen plan will get you an iPhone 3G 8GB for €169 (or 16GB for €249) while einen XL will get you the 8GB free! (16GB for €99)

Ever since a young Steve Jobs audited a calligraphy class and sparked the taste that has driven modern consumer computing, Apple had prided itself on pixel-perfect design. And this year, for the first time, iPhone Web Apps and (beta) App Store apps were eligible for Apple's WWDC-delivered Design Awards. (Which makes sense, given the iPhone was released less than a year ago...)

According to Apple's Developer Connection, the awards:

Recognize technical excellence, innovation, and outstanding achievement in software development. With new categories for iPhone development, this year’s Apple Design Awards [were] more exciting than ever.

And this year, the Jobsy's went to: