iPhone App Blog

Pretty much everyone is still reeling from Apple’s big announcement yesterday. Not only did Steve Jobs introduce three new/improved iPod models, but announced an iPhone price drop…a big one. Just two months after it’s release and iPhone’s price has dropped…wait for it…200 DOLLARS. That’s right, the 8GB iPhone is now on sale for $399.

That’s fantastic for folks that have waited for a price drop before shelling out the cash for this gadget. But what about the early adopters who bought an iPhone for full price two months ago? Well…they are really pissed. I’ll admit that I was really shocked about the huge price drop; I expected maybe a $100 drop and then another drop in time for Christmas.

The good news is if you bought an iPhone and are still in the 14 day return period you can take it to an Apple store and demand money back. For other early adopters there are fewer ways to get your vengeance on Apple, MacRumors and The Unofficial Apple Weblog both have good articles about getting something back from Apple after the 14 day return period has expired.

USA Today’s interview with Steve Jobs managed to get Apple fans into even more of an uproar. Specifically this exchange:

Q: What do you say to customers who just bought a new iPhone for $599? Sorry?

A: That’s technology. If they bought it this morning, they should go back to where they bought it and talk to them. If they bought it a month ago, well, that’s what happens in technology.

A lot of unhappy iPhone owners saw this as a big “F-You” from Jobs, but, seriously, that iswhat happens with technology. Almost everyone was expecting a price drop on the iPhone yesterday and, yes, it was a huge price drop and, yes, a lot of people feel cheated and, yes, it came extremely soon after the iPhone’s release. Is it really worth spending hours on the phone with Apple’s customer service for a $100 rebate or denouncing all Apple products forever? Well, probably not.

If you still want an explanation for the sudden price drop Apple 2.0 has compiled a rather comprehensive list. As always, the discussion continues at Techmeme…

One of the biggest complaints about the iPhone is the inability for users to add custom ringtones. There have been a lot of ringtone hacks around and even a ringtone maker download or two. Most, if not all, of these have required at least jailbreaking your iPhone to get them to work and then have to be re-hacked after firmware updates are released.

Well, there’s a new option in town. Ambrosia Software has just released iToner, a new iPhone ringtone maker that requires NO HACKING. That’s right, you can add ringtones to your heart’s content without worrying about re-installing them after the next update or bricking the thing and voiding your warranty.

And adding ringtones to your iPhone is as easy as it can be. Just drag and drop any MP3 or AAC files into the interface and then click the Sync button to add the songs to add the file to your iPhone ringtone options. There’s a free thirty day trial of iToner from Ambrosia Software, and the full download is only $15. 

Join the discussion at MobileWhack and Techmeme…

Last week’s announcement of teenage hacker George Hotz’s successful iPhone unlocking has generated a deluge of programmers promising easy unlocking software. Most notably iPhoneSIMfree had promised iPhone users a simple unlocking tool that would take only “2 minutes” to render the gadget usable on non-AT&T networks. iPhoneSIMfree even went so far as to demonstrate their hack for CNN.

After weeks of promising the hack will be on sale “next week” or “in 48 to 72 hours” iPhoneSIMfree has started selling bulk orders of the unlock. The bulk orders run from 50 licenses for $36 each to 5,000 licenses for $25 each. The hackers at iPhoneSIMfree are most likely trying to cover their collective butts due to the questionable legality of the product they’re selling.

So instead of just putting their butts on the line they ask you to become sort-of partners in their reselling scheme. This is mainly because, according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, unlocking a phone is protected, but distributors of unlocking software are not. iPhoneSIMfree switching from retailer to wholesaler also opens up opportunities for folks to sell unlocked iPhones for insane prices.

Many iPhone users are rightfully sceptical of iPhoneSIMfree’s unlocking software. They offer no guarantee that the software will work once new firmware updates are launched, and there’s the questionable legality of the whole thing. While most folks agree that Apple probably doesn’t mind the hackers, AT&T is all up in arms about it. So if you’re chomping at the bit to get your iPhone unlocked, I’d wait until the guys at the iPhone Dev Wiki or some other hackers make a free, open-source version.

For more information check out the relevant articles at iTWire and ars technica. There’s also a heady discussion going on in the comments section over at Engadget’s article.