iPhone 3G

How will Apple's iPhone 3G S compare to the Palm Pre? This chart offers a quick glance at how they stack up.

Apple on Wednesday started selling its iPhone 3G online, the first time in a year that consumers have been able to get their hands on the device without making a trip to an Apple retail store or buying from AT&T.

A regional China Unicom Web site posted pictures of the iPhone 3G and the Google Android-powered G1 amid rumors China Unicom will offer the iPhone 3G.

If it turned out that the big lump at the bottom of your stocking was a shiny new iPhone 3G, then you're probably already adept at surfing the web, checking your e-mail, even looking up directions on Maps, but there are a few features that you might have missed in your initial excitement. These top tips will help you fill in the gaps.

If you're feeling especially giving this holiday season, you can help someone get an iPhone 3G of their own, with the help of a new gift card from Apple.

Last week, I described the e-mail problems I've had with my Apple iPhone 3G. This week I'll give you my take on some other complaints that consumers have raised, including dropped calls, sluggish network speeds, and short battery life.

Because sometimes the things you fix aren't just one thing.

As India prepares for the launch of Apple's iPhone 3G on Thursday night, analysts and potential users here said the product will more likely be a device for consumers rather than a business phone. The iPhone 3G will find more favor among consumers, at least initially, because the business segment already has established products like Research in Motion's Blackberry, said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. The device is perceived more as a lifestyle product right now, he added.

Apple updated the iPhone's software Monday afternoon, but according to first reports posted to the company's support forum, the new 2.0.2 firmware has not fixed users' 3G reception problems.

Every Apple Inc. retail store Tuesday reported it has iPhone 3G smart phones to sell, but Apple's U.S. cell phone service partner, AT&T Inc., is still filling back orders placed up to two weeks ago and has no supplies in its brick-and-mortar outlets, the companies' Web sites revealed Tuesday.

One of biggest stories behind the release of the iPhone 3G -- and the iPhone 2.0 firmware update for first-generation iPhones -- was the inclusion of features designed for use in business environments. In this three-part series, I'll look at three areas that make up the IT side of enterprise iPhone deployment: the activation, configuration and deployment process; how the iPhone is managed in an Exchange environment (including tips for some early adopters); and the options for developing and deploying in-house iPhone applications.

With mature and well-established QWERTY devices from HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, and Research in Motion known to be capable of handling the needs of serious users, the iPhone 3G needs to be weighed against alternatives using existing professional and enterprise-targeted handsets to set the bar. As you may recall, I judged the original 2007 iPhone to fall far short of professional standards. The iPhone was too expensive to be missing so much. This time around, there are two new products under discussion. One is the iPhone 3G, the other is the iPhone 2.0 software.