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The server requests are said to come from the San Francisco Bay Area, near the Cupertino headquarters for Apple and Atlanta, AT&T’s home.
As the software appears to be internal, very little is known about what the minor update fixes. But AppleInsider appears to have got its hands on a screenshot (see picture).
Image courtesy of Gizmodo.comMac Rumors reports that AT&T stores are due to get the displays tomorrow:
Beginning July 8th you will receive the new iPhone 3G demo devices at your store to enhance your sales process. These devices will be used the same as your 2G demo devices in your sales process but now you can demonstrate the additional capabilities of the iPhone 3G including the App Store
Apple Stores in the US are rumoured to be opening at 8am to mirror AT&T stores, iPhones will be activated within Apple stores and cannot be paid for with cash.
It should also be noted that iTunes 7.7 which is required for iPhone activation should be released sometime Tuesday, just in time for the New Zealand iPhone launch.
PC Advisor is reporting that “secret plans” for the UK launch of the iPhone 3G have been revealed to the publication.
The publication claims that a local Carphone Warehouse disclosed the information which stated times and details of the iPhone 3G launch on July 11, these included VIP passes for those who pre-order the iPhone.
Contrary to previous reports the publication notes that O2 and Carphone Warehouse stores will open at 7.02am and as of Monday July 7 customers will be able to pre-order the iPhone online; although O2 has confirmed that iPhones will be available on a first-come first-served basis.
According to the report customers who pre-order will receive a “Welcome Pack” and “VIP ticket.”
CEO Hans Arentsen of Dutch company PaperFoam confirmed today that Apple has ordered “millions of paperfoam packages” for the new iPhone 3G.
The Dutch company which was founded in 1998 and makes use of potato starch in the injection moulding process allowing a 90-percent reduction in carbon footprint in comparison to plastic. The product consists of 100-percent natural resource, either potato starch or Tapioca starch.
The company CEO didn’t give away much information but did state that the iPhone 3G will ship in a cardboard box with a fully-recyclable starch tray on the inside.
iPhoneinCanada.ca has posted an entire memo that describes the in-store process of activating the iPhone come July 11. Apple is currently offering an “activation only” version of iTunes but will release iTunes 7.7 on July 11 to allow in-store activations.
iPhone In-Store Processes
Absolute NO’s:
Action Items
1. Shipments for fixtures should start arriving in stores July 8th. Once fixtures are received in store, they can be put together, but Demo Unit cannot go onto fixture until July 11th.
2. Please ensure that the DP’s send their floor plans to their stores to ensure proper set-up of the fixtures when they arrive
3. Store Set-Up Phase 2 - Please ensure all your stores receive the attached set up document as soon as possible. They can download iTunes Client only from the link provided in the document. We need confirmation that this was downloaded by EOD Friday July 4th, 2008.
Key follow ups
1. MShop – (July 11 – 20 Mshop will be suspended for participating locations) more information to be discussed on Director’s call on Monday June 30th.
2. SMB On-sites – No Pre-advertising, no desk drops, no posters (You can show up on that day and sell the product) No pre-promotion
3. Training – ensure store reps have signed up. Sales process training will be included next week.
4. Fast-Track will be unavailable from Sunday June 29th at 12 PM until Tuesday July 1st at 8 PM
5. Product will be available shortly for ordering
Store Setup Requirements for iPhone
This document outlines the initial store setup requirements that you must fulfill in order to effectively sell the iPhone in store. To ensure customers can leave with a fully functional iPhone, it must be first be “unbricked”. This process involves using the tether (a USB cable: see below) to connect/sync the iPhone to a unique ‘Activation Only’ version of iTunes via a computer. More information about the unbricking process will be provided in training (found on Fast Track and Sales Central) and you will be informed when the job aid is available.
Glossary:
Bricked: Default state of the iPhone, only emergency calls allowed.
Unbrick: Enabling the phone for services.
Tethering: Connecting an iPhone to a computer running iTunes.
Activation: Customer account setup and CTN provisioning which is completed in-store and is immediate. This is identical to today’s process for other wireless products.
Requirement 1) Download/Install ‘Store only version’ of iTunes
1) Download and install 7.6.3b4 from the following link. Do not attempt to use any other version of iTunes as V7.6.3b4 is a specific activation only module designed for in-store use.
https://attache.apple.com/AttacheWeb…QNmUHPjRZRI%3D
2) When you enter the link above you will be asked if you want to ‘open’ or ’save’ the file. Select ‘Open’. The file is 102mb and may take 5 to 15 minutes to download, depending on your connection speed.
3) Once downloaded you will see a window containing two files. One file is for a Mac and the other is for Windows. Please double-click the Windows.exe file.
4) A small ‘warning’ window will pop-up that advises you to extract all files –Please do so.
5) An ‘Extraction Wizard’ will start. Click ‘Next’.
6) You will be asked where you want the files to be extracted to. The default location (a temporary file) is ok, so select ‘next’. You will then be advised that the extraction has finished. Click ‘Finish’.
7) A new window will appear with the extracted files in (both Mac and Windows). Double click on the Windows.exe file. You may be presented with a Windows security warning. If so, select ‘Run’ as the files are safe. There may be a delay before the next step starts.
8. Pop-up windows and instructions will guide you through the rest of the installation process. You must close MS Outlook (if it’s open) before completing the installation.
9) During the installation process you will be asked if you would like an iTunes shortcut on your desktop – Please do so.
10) You may be asked to restart your computer – Please do so if asked.
11) Once you have restarted you will see an iTunes shortcut on your desktop.
12) The download process is complete – you must now follow the following steps to complete the process.
* You MUST now enable the ‘Activation only Module’ within iTunes.
13) Create a shortcut on your desktop by right clicking on a blank space on your desktop and selecting ‘new’ and then ’shortcut’.
14) A ‘Create a shortcut’ wizard window will appear. In the box within the window marked ‘Type the location of the item’, please type or copy and paste the following bolded text in this EXACT format.
15) Please ensure you use the whole of this text with all punctuation/grammar exactly as specified:
“C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe” /StoreActivationMode 1
16) Click ‘Next’. You will be asked to enter a name for the shortcut. use:
iTunes Activation Module
17) Click ‘Finish’. You will now see a new iTunes shortcut on your desktop with this name.
18) This shortcut is the Activation Module and should be used to unbrick the iPhone. When you first start this version of iTunes there will be a terms and conditions agreement that you will need to “accept’ in order to proceed.
Note: Unbricking the iPhone should only be completed after activating the iPhone on Sales Central. Full instructions on how and when to activate and unbrick will be provided in a training job aid on fast track and sales central. You will be informed when this Job Aid is available.
Note: As of July 11 2008, an updated version of iTunes (7.7) will be publicly available from www.apple.ca. It will have the activation only mode built in (like 7.6.3b4) so you will not need to use unique Weblinks to download it. As it is a publicly available version of iTunes it still needs to be configured for store use. Therefore you MUST ‘enable’ version 7.7 in the same way as you did for version 7.6.3b4 that is detailed above.
1) To update your current version (7.6.3b4) to V7.7 to benefit from software updates; Open iTunes, select ‘help’ and ‘check for updates’ or go to www.apple.ca and download iTunes from the ‘downloads’ section. You do not have to uninstall previous versions first.
2) You MUST still enable the activation only mode, using the shortcut creation method above.
Requirement 2) Tethering the iPhone
Ÿ Every iPhone box contains its own tether (USB cables to connect the iPhone to the computer) which is required to complete the unbricking process and for customers to sync their iPhone’s at home.
Ÿ In order to speed up the in store process you will receive 2 tethers for your store as part of your Demo unit docking station shipment.
Ÿ Attach each tether via a USB port (ideally USB 2.0) to separate computers. There is no need to remove the tethers; they can remain connected at all times. If the tether is not long enough, you can extend it with a USB extension lead purchased from many electronics stores
Ÿ The iPhone will need to be connected at the other end of tether for unbricking - only after the activation has been completed in SC (see training module on SC and Fast Track for details).
Requirement 3) Sales Central Training and IDs
Ÿ iPhone should only be activated via Sales Central and through the call centre in an emergency.
Ÿ An iPhone Sales Process job aid will be available on Fast Track and SC. It details all the related sales process discussed in this document and others, including Sales Central.
Ÿ Please ensure all store reps have their own unique and active Sales Central ID and have reviewed the job aid.
Ÿ The iPhone product will be made available through DOAT in due course (you will be advised when this happens) and no other special permissions are required in order to activate the iPhone.
Additional Information:
AppleInsider has posted an article claiming that O2 Stores in the UK will open at 7.05am on the day of the iPhone 3G launch. This time is well ahead of the stores usual opening times and a far cry from the 6PM launch of the original iPhone.
AppleInsider is also reporting that O2’s policy of offering an unlock code for Pay As You Go phones after 12 months will remain in place for the iPhone 3G.
The unlocking which costs £15 would allow the iPhone 3G to be used on any other network.
Two separate reports coming out of China on Friday point towards Apple’s negotiations with China Mobile are coming to an end.
“Apple is no longer insisting on a revenue-sharing policy, so the biggest hurdle for China Mobile to bring in the iPhone has been cleared, but there are practical issues still to be resolved,” said China Mobile spokeswoman Rainie Lei. As reported by Reuters.
“We’ve broken through the biggest obstacle,” Gao Songge, deputy director of China Mobile’s general department, told Agence-France Presse. “And we are negotiating at the working level.”
Neither spokesperson would reveal a timetable for the iPhone release in China which had 540 million mobile users at the end of November 2007.
A posting on TokyoMango with an accompanying video (below) shows the Japanese keyboard functions of the upcoming iPhone 2.0 firmware.
According to the post users will be able to choose between a QWERTY-keyboard and a Japanese mobile phone style keyboard and from there can select either a multi-tap style kana keyboard or a sliding keyboard.
The post explains, “Japanese kana letters are organized in groups of five according to a beginning letter and corresponding vowels (a i u e o), so you can either put in the first letter and then hit the same key between 1-5 times to get the right sound (multi-tap), or you can put the first letter in and then tap and slide through to see all five sounds and pick the right one.”
Video after jump.
Gizmodo is claiming that it is “highly probable” that the iPhone 2.0 firmware will reach GM (Golden Master) this coming Friday. The article originally stated that the software would also ship this Friday but has been updated to state that it will ship on July 11.
The iPhone 2.0 OS update will be available as a free update to existing iPhone owners and a $9.99 update for iPod touch owners. The biggest features in the update are the extensive collection of tools for Enterprise customers, including highly sought after Exchange support.
Mac Rumors reports that worries over huge queues on the iPhone 3G launch day on July 11th may have convinced O2 to allow signups prior to the date.
Unlike like the launch of the original iPhone, customers can no longer buy a handset and activate it onto a contract from home, purchasers must sign up to a contract in-store and the credit check process can be lengthy.
According to Mac Rumors an O2 rep has informed several customers that users will be able to signup for iPhone 3G contracts ahead of the handsets launch:
The main point he told me was this, From July 1st All O2 stores in the UK will offer pre registration Credit checks, You can come in store, have your contract setup for you, and a unique registration code given to you. The contract will simply be “paused” and wont be activated. No details are taken about which model phone you are going to be purchasing.
You can then turn up on July 11th and quote the registration code and then make a standard purchase of the phone and then the contract will become activated.
In other news Stuff Magazine claims that sources have disclosed the price points for the pay-as-you-go iPhones from O2. Stuff claims that the 8GB iPhone will cost £370 and the 16GB £470.
