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[Updated following Phone Different Podcast #19, see below!]

Way back in February, Apple's Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook said:

"We're not married to any business model."

At the time -- and it's scary how long ago it seems already -- the iPhone was only available in the US, UK, Germany, and France, with rumors of Ireland and Austria waiting in the wings. What's more, these were all exclusive deals, with Apple doing their best to lock the iPhone down to single carriers in each territory in exchange for lucrative -- and unprecedented -- revenue-sharing deals that some have estimated could be netting Apple up to $15 per month, per subscriber.

So, with a potential billion dollars on the table, while they weren't married to it, they no doubt felt more than a little lusty.

But in true Apple fashion, invoking perhaps the pirate mantra of old, and embracing the same mindset that has them run iTunes as a near-loss leader, price-cut the iPhone a scant few months in, and offer cheap family upgrade options on their OS and iApps, it looks like Tim Cook was serious.

Read on to find out just how serious he was...

Let's recap the iPhone's prices so far: $599 to $399 to a rumored $199 to...undefined? One of the more interesting tidbits to come out of the 3G rumor mill has to be AT&T's CFO telling the media that no pricing decision has been made concerning the 3G iPhone. 

"There's not been a product announcement. There hasn't been any pricing decisions made. That's yet to come," CFO Rick Lindner told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York.

"They could be a great people. They wish to be. They only lack the light to power their devices. For this reason above all, their capacity to consumer data, I have sent them you, my only phone..."

According to a recently unearthed patent filed in late April, Apple is looking into having the iPhone join the Last Son of Krypton in drawing energy directly from the yellow sun.

The patent describes sandwiching a layer of (semi-)transparent photo-sensitive cells below the glass and LCD and above the Flex PCB, and could apply equally to iPods and even MacBooks.

While definitely future-thinking, it could well make removable battery concerns a thing of the past.

Another day, another iPhone 3G sighting. This time is comes courtesy of iphoneclub.nl [currently down, via engadget mobile] and the image seems to confirm our previously posted image of the iPhone 3G inside a case - which is to say it's a little bit bigger, a little bit whiter, but otherwise looks like an iPhone sans the metal casing on the back.

Does anybody think that this is coming later than the expected June launch date anymore?

Update: you can see a few more images here

In keeping with other recent, ridiculously short and detail-free iPhone statements:

TeliaSonera today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia later this year.

By Odin-One-Eye, the iPhone is coiling its way across the globe like the World Serpent in search of its tasty Thor-snack. Does this mean Ragnarok for Nokia on its home turf, or just that mythological metaphors strain awfully fast in blog intros?

Gotcha.

Table shattering score card now link list:

Can’t wait any longer for Native Apps? Me neither. (Late) June seems too far away? I’m with you. So why wait, when you can jailbreak! Over the next couple weeks before 2.0 is released, I’ll give you guys a glimpse into the jailbroken world of native apps every week. Plus: let’s face it, Jailbreaking isn’t going anywhere. The SDK is awesome, but some people won’t settle for anything less than full-on access to all the hidden bits of the iPhone.

In this week’s edition, we’ll take a look at a nifty little program called IntelliScreen. The idea behind this native app is smart, it creates a ‘Today’ screen for your iPhone’s unlock screen. Much like certain layout options in Windows Mobile and Blackberry, Intelliscreen offers a quick look at your calendar, mail, SMS, news, and weather. How well does this native app perform? Does it offer a great feature for users?

Read on for the rest of the review!

No need for double-takes. You didn't click the wrong link. Just breath, dig deeply, and stick with me for a moment. Yes, you really are still reading the iPhone blog.

For a 1.0 device, the iPhone knocked the ball -- if not out of the park -- soundly into the fence, and sent a complacent industry fumbling and flurrying to catch it. But no device, not even from Apple, could get everything perfect the first time at bat. Now, I've pretty much staked my turf here by playfully poking a little bit of fun at the competition but, truth be known, when they're not wasting their time on iClones every platform and handset has some great -- even killer -- features to recommend it. In that spirit, here's my top 5 list of what Apple should seriously consider stealing... er... learning from the competition if they want to hit a home run with 2.0 and beyond...

If Steve Jobs is the patron behind the concept of the iPhone, then Jonathan Ive is certainly the artist whose hand crafted its ultimate realization.

Apple's reclusive Vice President of Design recently spoke with the Independant's Claire Beale on the nature of design, winning an unprecedented six (6!) Black Pencil awards, and what drives Apple's success:

Last year AT&T took on temporary workers to help bolster their retail force for the days leading up to and the weeks following the launch of the first generation iPhone. So guess what's happening this year, just around the time of the scheduled WWDC Steve Jobs Keynote on June 9 and almost spot on the dates given in the last set of release rumors for June 19?

Yup, AT&T is taking on temps again! Secret "Summer Project Pro" is a G.O. from June 16 - August 16, 2008.

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!