When Apple released the iPhone 3G, I immediately upgraded. It was a no-brainer for me. I wanted the speed of the 3G network. The only thing that I missed was the design. I’ve always preferred the original design to the iPhone 3G and 3GS.

When the iPhone 3GS came out, most of the features that came with it were ho-hum to me. The only thing I really wanted was the video camera. If AT&T had granted me an earlier upgrade date than they did, I might would have upgraded. But as it was, I was going to have to wait about six months to upgrade, or the first of this year.

By the time I was upgrade eligible, I was just fine waiting for the next generation of the iPhone. It was a relatively short wait, and my patience has paid off.

Apple’s release of the iPhone 4 has me far more excited than the iPhone 3GS. From design to improvements, the iPhone 4 looks like a brilliant phone that will once again revolutionizes what a smart phone should be.

Here’s what grabbed me from the Steve Jobs keynote:

1. Design. This phone is beautiful. Like the original, it has a flat back. It is thin. The lines are beautiful. Solid black backing, stainless steel frame and black-framed glass. As I said, I’ve never liked the design of the 3G-series. When the photos of the iPhone 4 prototype were leaked, I got excited. It is a work of beauty.

2. HD Video. Too many times I’ve seen my kids doing something or I’ve been on the job and I’ve wished for video capability on my iPhone. Now, I get it. Plus, the iPhone 4 records in HD. Combined with what looks like a real promising endeavor with iMovie for iPhone, this is going to be fantastic to use.

3. Camera Improvements. Increasing the camera to 5 megapixels was nice, but it’s only a fraction of what Apple really did here. They’ve done two things that will make it the best camera on any phone. First was a flash, which other smart phones have. The second, however, is really unique. The inclusion of a backside illumination sensor helps boost the quality of the photos. Full details on the camera are here.

4. Retina Display. This makes a big difference if you do a lot of reading on your iPhone. I suspect it will make a real difference with the increased abilities of the camera and with iMovie for iPhone as well. As much as I use Instapaper and Kindle on my iPhone, I welcome what Apple has done here. It will be the sharpest display of any phone available. Read more about Retina Display here.

5. iOS 4 changes. Not only did the name change from iPhone OS to iOS, the new features were shown in more detail yesterday. Multitasking and folders are the two things that excite me the most. I’m also looking forward to the ability of adding multiple Exchange accounts. All of this will make my iPhone much more useable as an enterprise machine.

6. iBooks. We knew it was coming, and now it is official. iBooks is coming to the iPhone, and as expected it will automatically sync with the iPad. In short, it works just like the Kindle app does with the Kindle. I won’t say I’ll never use my Kindle app again, but iBooks will be my main reader on both my iPhone and iPad now.

I also wanted to share one of the more interesting pieces on first impressions of the iPhone 4. It comes from Kyle Baxter over at TightWinds, and it sums up my feelings nicely.

The iPhone 4 can be pre-ordered on June 15. I’ve already put it on my calendar.

Earlier today I posted about AT&T’s announcement of tethering, which has me most intrigued. The other part of the announcement — actually the main part of the announcement and what has received the most press — was that AT&T is changing the rates for their data plan.

Macworld has a great “What You Need To Know” piece, and you should definitely check it out. In a nutshell, here’s the gist for new iPhone users:

If you’re signing up for a iPhone as a brand new customer—and at this point, we’d recommend waiting until after the WWDC keynote to make any decisions—then you can opt for either the 200MB DataPlus plan for $15 per month or the 2GB DataPro plan for $25. If you want tethering, you’ll have to sign up for the DataPro plan, and tethering will cost you an additional $20 every month. Either way, however, you’ll also get access to AT&T’s nationwide network of 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in locations such as many Starbucks and airports.

If you are an existing iPhone user, like myself, you can keep the $30/month unlimited plan. After checking my AT&T usage, this is what I found:

As you can see, I regularly climb higher than 200MB/month, which really doesn’t matter since I will want tethering and must get the DataPro plan to qualify. And there, dear reader, is the rub.

If you are a current iPhone user with the $30/month unlimited plan and do not want tethering, all is well with the world. Nothing has to change, even if you upgrade to the new iPhone.

However, if you have an unlimited plan and want tethering, life is going to change. You have to have the DataPro plan. Granted, you’ll save $5/month for the first 2GB. If you stay under that limit, good on you! You just saved $5/month.

If, however, you exceed that 2GB limit, you’re dishing out another $10 for each 1GB you go over.

As for the overage charges, they are not bad compared to other networks. The comparison for current users, however, is not to other carriers but to our current carrier and what we’re paying. In other words, those of us who yearn for tethering will get screwed if we pass the 2GB usage mark.

At the end of the day, I can’t get too worked up over it. (Admittedly, I don’t expect to stream a lot of movies over 3G while tethered to my iPhone, though.)

The reason I can’t get worked up over it is that AT&T has to ensure that not only is their network viable but that it is able to expand as usage dictates. The only way to do that is to charge responsible amounts that both a) make it affordable to users and b) allow them to upgrade their network to meet increasing user loads.

That said, even with the DataPro plan, I have plenty of room to “grow” my usage when I start tethering to my MacBook (which is my main desire), my iPad (if possible but likely not) and perhaps other laptops (if multiple connections are allowed like with the Palm Pre).

AT&T announced today that they would finally offer tethering to iPhone customers, doing so a year after the feature became available on the iPhone for international users.

I try not to harp on AT&T too much, as I think all cellular carriers have problems, problems which would be grossly exaserbated if they were exposed to the massive user load of the iPhone.

What I’m most focused on is the fact that tethering is coming, and I couldn’t be happier. I got rid of my 3G connect card from AT&T quite a while ago because the amount I used it was not worth what I was paying.

As of recently, however, I’ve been faced with two new use-case scenerios where having a 3G/WiFi solution for multiple laptops has been created:

1. My travel has increased, and the need for WiFi connection for my MacBook has grown. Too, I often travel with a colleague. We both need to be on the Internet.
2. I purchased an iPad. I opted for the WiFi version because it was cheaper and because I know that I can use WiFi for most of what I need. Still, being able to get on the Internet via a 3G/WiFi solution would be nice.

Because of this, I’ve been contemplating a MiFi device. I’ve been holding off until the release of the new iPhone in hopes that AT&T would provide tethering. It seems, at least in part, my hopes are coming to fruition.

But a couple of questions still remain:

1. Will I be able to tether my iPad to my iPhone?
2. Will I be able to tether multiple devices to my iPhone?

The simple answer to the first question may be no, but it still may be possible with a third-party app. I’m not counting out the idea that Apple and AT&T will provide a solution to tether the iPad to the iPhone.

Regardless, one thing is certain: I’m upgrading from the iPhone 3G to the iPhone 4 when it is released.

AT&T has announced that MMS is coming on Sept. 25 (via MacWorld):

According to AT&T’s press release, a software update will enable MMS for iPhone 3G and 3GS customers (original iPhone owners are, unfortunately, out of luck with the MMS feature). Besides finally offering a date, AT&T is also clearly trying to quell the seething masses and complaints abou t overpriced, sub-par service that have become almost deafening. The company did not offer any further information about when it might offer tethering functionality for the iPhone, another feature that Apple announced in the iPhone 3.0 software update.

Personally, I’m more interested in tethering. I’m also interested in what another carrier could do for the iPhone. More interested in tethering, but my disdain for AT&T grows daily.

Steven Frank makes a pertinent observation about his ban against the iPhone and App Store: The problem with my self-imposed iPhone boycott is I’m not sure how I know when it ends.

I said I wasn’t going to return to my iPhone “until there’s a resolution” with the various well-documented app store problems. But what does that actually mean? What set of criteria would constitute a “resolution” here?

He goes on to layout his benchmarks, which are a good guide.

Panic developer Steven Frank is mad as hell, and he ain’t taking it anymore:

There’s been no indication that Apple want to do anything to resolve the problems with app store policies that have been laid bare a hundred times over. There’s no indication of anything, as a matter of fact. Nothing. After a year. It’s a black hole yawning back at us. How much has been written about this over the last year? What reason is there to believe anything’s going to change in another year if the policies (whatever they are, who knows) seem to be just getting worse over time?

I’ve reached a point where I can no longer just sit back and watch this. The iPhone ecosystem is toxic, and I can’t participate any more until it is fixed. As people have told me so many times: It’s Apple’s ballgame, and Apple gets to make the rules, and if I don’t like it, I can leave. So, I don’t like it, and I’m leaving.

This is just one example of the rage against the iPhone App Store machine. It’s growing, and hopefully Apple will respond appropriately soon.

David Pogue of the NY Times has a few “Cellphone Gripes Worthy of Congress’s Time”:

Above all, though, you’ve got to wonder why, if Congress has time for things like cellphone gripes, it’s barking up this particular tree. Frankly, there are many other, much more whopping things that are broken, unfair and anticompetitive in the American cellphone industry.

It’s a good read, and he’s got some valid gripes. Now if we could get Congressional hearings into DSL/cable Internet service.

On Twitter today, Wil Shipley (@wilshipley) of Delicious Monster posted this sad news:

Delicious Library for iPhone isn’t coming back as long as we’re using Amazon’s APIs, unless they decide to make an exception to section 4e.

As Brent Simmons said on his link blog: “I think this sucks, by the way.”

Mashable has a piece on the Justice Department’s investigation into AT&T and other wireless carriers who have exclusive agreements with phone makers:

The U.S. Department of Justice may not be happy with this and other exclusivity arrangements, though, and has opened a review of AT&T, Verizon, and some of the other major telecoms. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, this “initial review” will explore issues like anti-competitive practices, the sheer market share of AT&T and Verizon (60% of wireless customers), and the practice of locking up phones via exclusivity agreements. Could the government end the AT&T-Apple partnership?

I am not an AT&T fan, moreso for their poor DSL service than their wireless service, though I’d prefer Verizon.

That said, the Justice Department should leave this one alone. These agreements are not anti-competition. They are due to competition. They are two businesses doing business together. And these types of agreements are everywhere.

Kirk McElhearn talks about how we listen to music and a future of unlimited music for subscribers:

The way we listen to music changed when, after decades of coming from needles in grooves, it went digital. Now that digital music is mature, the next step is to disembody it entirely and stick it on central servers somewhere. No more will we need to worry about what to put on our iPods; someday soon, we’ll have an unlimited choice of music—for a monthly fee—wherever and whenever we want it.

I don’t see this happening anytime soon because I can’t imagine an affordable subscription model that would allow for unlimited choice and still generate revenue for Apple to be profitable and still pay the record labels.

I’m stuck in a love triangle with two popular RSS readers, and I just can’t figure it out. I love them both but for very different reasons (and at very different times).

On the desktop, I prefer NetNewsWire for a variety of reasons:

• Keyboard shortcuts for blog posting, Delicious posting, Twitter posting, etc.
• Easier keyboard navigation
• Sorting by date either ascending or descending
• Natively selecting NetNewsWire as default RSS reader

Of course, I can mimic much of NNW’s keyboard shortcuts using bookmarklets in Safari’s Bookmarks Bar and activating them by using Command plus the number of the correlating bookmarklet. (i.e. Cmd-5 takes my selection and sends it to MarsEdit for blogging.)

But the problem with that is that I have three extra bookmarks in the bar, which starts to clutter it. Too, if I ever add or change a bookmark before the bookmarklets, I’ll have to learn new numbers for my shortcuts. (That may not seem like much, but if you are a power keyboard user and have repetitive actions you use daily, then the change takes a while to learn.)

So there it is, my love for NNW on the desktop is deep and true.

But then there’s the iPhone… I like the NNW iPhone app. I like Newsgator as a syncing system. But I love Google Reader on the iPhone.

Here’s why I prefer Google Reader to NetNewsWire on the iPhone:

• Better syncing. Since you are using a web app versus a syncing service, everything is always in sync.
• Faster. NNW’s iPhone app takes a while to open and sync before you can start using it.
• Mark as unread. You can easily mark items as unread on iPhone. Not so much with the NNW app for iPhone
• Nicer interface. I’m one of those people who loves the Google Reader’s native iPhone interface. I’ve not tried Byline or any other app for Google Reader on the iPhone because Google’s web app is so superb. (OK, no badge telling me how many unread items I have, but I have so many feeds I know I always have something to read. It’s not like email.)

And, so, my love for Google Reader on the desktop is deep and true.

Over the past few days, I’ve tried to use Google Reader on the desktop. And I’ll admit to a couple of pluses for Google Reader:

• It is always “synced” across my multiple laptops, desktops and iPhone (but save for the iPhone, syncing works perfect for NNW)
• I enjoy using the speed of Safari versus NNW’s integrated browser (which is also built on Webkit, like Safari)

I’ve also found a couple of major annoyances.

The main one: There is no way to view the original item in a tab opened in the background.

That’s counter to how I do some of my blogging. For a political news blog I run, I open all the feeds to which I want to link for that day and then I go through them. That kind of work flow is next to impossible with Google Reader.

So what am I to do? If the two products synced together, I’d use NNW on the desktop and Google Reader on my iPhone.

I’ve thought of splitting my feeds between the two, but I can find no logical way of doing so. (Besides, the thought of two RSS readers is absurd to me.)

For now, I’ll continue to test Google Reader on the desktop, but considering I spend way more time in a desktop environment versus my iPhone, I’m betting on NetNewsWire carrying the day.

(But breaking up with Google Reader on the iPhone is going to hurt…)

A colleague of mine was sporting a Richard Solo backup battery for his iPhone yesterday. After listening to him rave about it, I was set to buy one.

Then this morning, before I headed to the Solo website, an article from Cult of Mac popped up in my RSS feeds featuring a new backup battery that is set to be released from Phonesuit.

The Richard Solo battery, shown below, attaches to the connector at the bottom of the iPhone. It adds a bit of length to the phone, which admittedly is not ideal. And, as one poster on Cult of Mac pointed out, it can add a bit of strain to the connector. You can charge both the phone and the battery simultaneously with the provided cable. The Richard Solo sells for $49.95. (There is a second version for $54.95 that has a light and laser pointer.)

The Mili Power Pack, shown below, from Phonesuit fits the iPhone like a case or a glove. While fitted into the Mili Power Pack, you can charge your iPhone and the back-up battery via a USB port. You can even charge a Bluetooth headset from the Mili via the USB port. The Mili will sell for $79.95.

For me, I’m still leaning toward the Richard Solo. First, it’s a good bit cheaper. Secondly, I use a Griffin Clarifi case with my iPhone, so the Mili would require switching out cases when I needed the extra battery. That’s a non-starter in my book.

When I first started with Twitter, I tried a few Twitter apps for the iPhone. I settled on Twitterific, which I do not use on my Macs. (On my Macs, I use Twhirl.)

Twitterific for iPhone is great. I like the app. But it is missing a few things, such as

1. Not showing direct messages.
2. Not showing nearby tweets.

Still, I was content. Then I met Tweetie after it’s 2.1 release. And now, I’ve dumped Twitterific for Tweetie.

Give Tweetie a tweet. It’s a great app for Twitter and the iPhone.

Here’s the latest mind-numbing game to be added to Me Ol’ iPhone.

It’s Paper Football from Jirbo, Inc. There is both a free and paid version.

I can’t see paying $8 for the paid version, so I went with the free one.

It’s good for a novelty, and I played for a while. It won’t set your world on fire, but it’ll give you something to do while standing in a line.

Apple made three big announcements concerning the iTunes Store at their annual-no-more keynote at Macworld this week.

Here are my thoughts:

1. DRM-free. Great! This should have happened a long time ago. But the way Apple allows to upgrade your existing purchases is ridiculous. It’s 30 cents per song, which I can live with. But you can’t pick and choose what songs to upgrade. As pointed out by Kirk McElhearn at Macworld, you’ll have to shell out a boatload of money and upgrade all at once.

2. 3G downloading! The iTunes Store joins the iTunes App Store with the ability to download songs over a 3G connection. And it’s about time! I’m more excited over this than the DRM-free announcement, I think.

3. New pricing. This has been coming for a while, so no surprise. Songs are no longer just 99 cents. A three-tier structure will price songs at 69-cents, 99-cents and $1.29. And Apple promises more songs at 69-cents than $1.29. (I’m betting new releases have a higher price. You think?)

Nothing Earth-shattering but good stuff, nonetheless.