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Woke up this morning and as per my usual modus operandi, checked mail on my iPhone and then went to read some feeds. That's when it happened, mobile.mac.com (the interceptive RSS reading feature on MobileSafari) came back with a server error.

Seems to be working for me again, but reports have since sprung up of others having trouble with web-bound services of .Mac (though email protocols seems fine).

So you might have heard that the iPhone 3G was going to retail for $199 from AT&T. I’ve already covered how it isn’t technically $199 for current iPhone users. And you heard Rene tell you that $199 is less than the notorious price DROP of the iPhone. Well TiPb has been wondering how Apple settled on dropping the price so dramatically.

And we settled on a story, kind of—more like a collection of reasons. We’ve analyzed the outcome back and forth, from reverse and from the beginning. And we think we have come to a conclusion (or at the very least, a conspiracy theory). In a purely speculative story, I’ll give you my opinion on how we reached $199.

Read on for Apple’s Path to $199

Hot on the heels of O2 in the UK offering FREE iPhones, and T-Mobile in Germany offering ONE Euro-buck iPhones, AT&T waddles up to the plate to remind these upstart old-worlders how a carrier is supposed to behave:

The company is treating the iPhone 3G pretty much just like any other phone in that people who are ineligible for upgrades have to pay the full, unsubsidized price for the phone. [...] AT&T hasn't specified what the unsubsidized price is.

Based on European conversions, however, let's expect that to push $700+

Boo! One of the most popular things to do with a 3G smartphone is to "tether" it, which is to attach it to your laptop and use it as a modem so you can get online anywhere your phone has service. Windows Mobile and Treos have multiple options for doing this -- some even via some sneaky software that works in a kind of "proxy mode" so you can avoid paying the extra costs associated with a full-on "Phone as Modem" plan (which usually runs in the neighborhood of $50 a month). Sadly, AT&T has let the official word out -- you won't be able to do this with the iPhone 3G:

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...