Keep in mind that there is a difference between unlocked and contract-free. Countries where you can buy iPhone 3Gs both unlocked and contract-free include Italy, Belgium, South Africa, Czech Republic, and Greece. But unlike Hong Kong, you can’t buy them directly from Apple in those countries.

The leading theory regarding why Apple is doing this in Hong Kong is that it’s a strategic move in Apple’s ongoing negotiations to officially sell the iPhone in mainland China. Earlier this week came reports that China Mobile is trying to get Apple to sell iPhones without 3G and without Wi-Fi.

So, assuming Apple is not interested in selling crippled Wi-Fi-less iPhones to satisfy China Mobile’s demands, but still wants to profit from the enormous Chinese market, selling unlocked contract-free iPhones in Hong Kong is the optimal way to supply the mainland Chinese gray market.

(Photo by Dan Butterfield)

Not only did it end-run the App Store, it cut Apple out of its 30 percent take on the fee. No more, though. Apple has shut down access to the ad hoc license system. I wouldn't go so far as to claim Apple's iron-fist approach will cause consumers to switch phones. But there's an obvious angle for Google: Play up the goofy apps like Pull My Finger that Steve Jobs wouldn't touch. Because if you've ever watched a bunch of drunk twentysomethings playing with their phones in a nightclub, you know that stupid and entertaining often beats pretty and functional.

Heavy data users have two new options: pay $120 per month for 100 megabytes of international data use or $200 for 200 megabytes. Previously, AT&T announced a 20-megabyte plan for $25 and 50-megabyte plan for $60 plan. A word of caution: Those fees are in addition to what customers already pay to use the phone in the United States.

AT&T says customers can cancel whenever they want, but there are caveats. If you are overseas for only a week, you still have to pay for the whole month — an AT&T spokesman said the company doesn’t prorate the fees. And if you forget to cancel the plan after you get home, you will continue to be charged. AT&T won’t let you specify ahead of time when you want the international plan to end.

(Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)

• Using two Macs, two Dell computers and two iPhones, I ran into problem after problem.
• While changes made on the Web site or the iPhone are instantly pushed to the computers, changes made on computers are only synced every 15 minutes, at best.
• The Web site was sluggish.
• occasionally calendar entries wouldn’t load at all.
• Sometimes, you have to manually refresh the Web pages to see changes made on your devices
• when I tried to open my Web-based file-storage page directly from the MobileMe control panel on Windows, I got an error message on both Dells.
• MobileMe calendar appeared as a seprate calendar in Outlook.
• My address-book groups [showed up in Outlook] as separate address books.
• On one occasion, my synced contacts on the iPhone appeared as names only.
• Certain emails simply disappeared [instead of being routed by rules to different folders.]
• Twice, MobileMe was unable to sync my bookmarks at all. When it did, their order was scrambled.
• My custom ringtones for particular contacts were lost.

At the Soho Apple Store on Sunday, they turned away at least two hundred people who had been waiting in line because they had TWO phones in stock before the store opened. But this showed up as "in stock" on the website.

And yes, I am sending this on my first generation iPhone.

Sorry, I wish I had [taken photos], especially of the starbucks toting d-bag of a store manager pecking away at a Blackberry.

(Photo by ycr)