iPhone

Apple has released a firmware update for the iPhone that might be the fix iPhone 3G owners have been awaiting.

We're putting iPhone OS 2.0.2 through its paces at the moment, but it should be available in iTunes the next time you connect your iPhone. The Boy Genius Report reported earlier on Monday that the update was coming, although that report was unable to verify whether the iPhone 3G reception problems would be fixed with this release. Business Week reported last week that Apple and Infineon were preparing to release a software fix for the iPhone's … Read more

Philippines auction site Auction.ph is planning to make the Apple iPhone 3G available on the Web site, but issues such as product sourcing and potential carrier partnerships remain hazy.

In a press briefing Friday, Auction.ph--one of the country's pioneering auction sites--unveiled a special program to put the new iPhone for sale at an online auction.

"It is a promo for our loyal users and online merchandisers," said Angelo Hernandez, public relations chief at Auction.ph. The executive said Auction.ph will initially auction off one iPhone 3G unit, with a starting price of "only" 1 peso (2 cents), at bidding increments of 0.5 peso.

Hernandez said the company expects a "lucky" bidder to snare the iPhone 3G--which goes on sale in the Philippines on Friday, August 22--at a cost far less than the announced price tag of the mobile device.

The appeal of purchasing the phone on the site, he said, is that Auction.ph already has a "fixed" price range for the iPhone 3G, from 1 peso to 5,000 pesos ($110). The price range is considerably cheaper than the 30,000 (US$663) price tag of the iPhone currently offered in the local market, he added.

Hernandez, however, remained mum on whether the Apple phone will be a regular item on the auction site.

Although it has a substantial user base, he said, Auction.ph has yet to initiate talks on how it will source for iPhone units and on possible partnership with local distributors and carriers.

"But we are open to this arrangement," Hernandez said, adding that the auction site has more than 1 million subscribers, including individual sellers, merchants, and bidders.

Auction.ph's CEO and founder, Oh Hyuk, started a similar auction site in South Korea that was eventually acquired by U.S. online giant eBay. … Read more

Reception problems with the iPhone 3G are occurring in towns and cities across the U.S., based on readers' responses this week to CNET News' request for more information about their balky phones.

More information has trickled out this week about the iPhone 3G's reception problems, which are now believed to be the result of a problem with the Infineon chipset inside the unit. Business Week reported Thursday that Apple and Infineon are working on a software fix for the problem, which Apple has yet to officially acknowledge.

But CNET News readers across the country report that many Apple … Read more

The issues plaguing the iPhone 3G are indeed related to a chip inside the phone, according to a new report, but the solution could be easier than expected.

Business Week is reporting that, according to its sources, Infineon's chip inside the iPhone 3G is the root cause of the reception problems that numerous iPhone 3G owners have reported over the last month. Nomura Securities analyst Richard Windsor first suggested Infineon was to blame in a research note earlier this week.

The good news, however, is that apparently Apple believes it can fix the problems with a software upgrade, according … Read more

Global banking giant HSBC is considering ditching the BlackBerry and adopting Apple's iPhone as its standard staff mobile device, a move that could result in an order for some 200,000 iPhones.

"We are actually reviewing iPhones from a HSBC Group perspective...and when I say that, I mean globally," Brenton Hush, HSBC's Australia and New Zealand chief information officer, told ZDNet.com.au this week.

HSBC has some 300,000 staff internationally. A decision to standardize on the iPhone on its corporate networks would likely lead to one of the world's largest iPhone orders.

"A decision on a piece of hardware like that would potentially be deployed, conservatively, to 200,000 people," Hush said. "You know, it's a big decision, especially when you have an existing fleet out there."

"But it's definitely something we are considering from a HSBC Group perspective," he said. "We always explore the potential application of new technologies, and this is no different."

Should HSBC select the iPhone as its official corporate mobile device, the decision would be a major blow to Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, which is HSBC's current standard staff mobile. … Read more

Updated 3:15pm with some clarifications due to language issues.

A wireless researcher in Sweden claims to have identified the issue causing iPhone 3G reception problems around the world.

Ny Teknik, a Swedish tech newspaper, has published the account of a scientist at the University of Gälve who investigated the iPhone 3G and discovered that the phone is not as sensitive to 3G signals as other phones. Claes Beckman is claiming that the iPhone 3G's nominal sensitivity is below that of published standards for 3G phones, meaning the phone drops the connection with a 3G tower more … Read more

Best Buy stores will begin selling Apple's iPhone 3G next month, becoming the first national retail chain outside of Apple and carrier AT&T to offer the wildly popular device.

Starting September 7, the 8GB and 16GB iPhone 3Gs will go on sale at 970 Best Buy stores and 16 smaller Best Buy Mobile stores, the retailer said. The deal is a coup for the Richfield, Minn.-based chain, which has been expanding its wireless offerings and introducing cell phone departments to its U.S. stores.

"It solidifies us as the place to go for the cool … Read more

T-Mobile's Netherlands division is blaming the iPhone 3G's reception issues on Apple.

In a company blog posting Tuesday morning spotted by a forum contributor at MacRumors, T-Mobile Netherlands threw the iPhone 3G under the bus, blaming Apple for the problems its customers have been experiencing connecting to 3G networks in that country. Complaints have been cropping up in the U.S. as well about the iPhone 3G's performance on AT&T's network.

"The 3G coverage of T-Mobile is as good as the competition, there can therefore not lie. We suspect that it is a … Read more

A financial analyst believes Apple's iPhone 3G reception issues may be the result of some faulty chips.

Richard Windsor of Nomura published a research note (spotted at GigaOm) Tuesday singling out the iPhone 3G's chipset, made by Infineon, as the probable culprit for the reception problems we reported on Monday. The dropped calls, service interruptions, and abrupt network switches experienced by iPhone 3G users reminded Windsor of similar complaints five years ago, when 3G phones were first launched in Europe.

"We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we … Read more