148 Apps on Facebook 148 Apps on Twitter

Tag: Iphone hd »

AT&T Actually Rolling Upgrade Eligibility Dates Back

Posted by Jeff Scott on May 11th, 2010

In an effort to keep iPhone users happy and avoid the outcry we heard last year, AT&T has apparently started rolling back upgrade eligibility dates prior to the launch of the next iPhone. MobileCrunch has posted the following image showing an updated eligibility date moved from November to June of this year for a customer who purchased the iPhone 3GS at launch last year.

Last year lots of people were angry that they could not take advantage of upgrade pricing for the new iPhone. But it looks like AT&T is trying to avoid that fury this year and allow many more people to upgrade. Though at this point we don't know if it's universal as there has been no statement by Apple or AT&T.

MobileCrunch is reporting that AT&T has started to roll back upgrade eligibility dates from 18 months to what appears to be 12 months. This would allow customers who are eligible to take advantage of much cheaper upgrade prices for the hardware when the next iPhone is released.

We do not know at this time if that roll back will be for everyone or if that date is only for certain customers and not all at this time. While there are multiple reports of this from AT&T customers, it could be they are only rolling back the dates for customers over a certain service level.

Why would AT&T do this? They must have a reason. Perhaps they are doing it because the iPhone will be available on other carriers soon and AT&T wants to get as many customers as possible under a new two year contract. Or perhaps with the new front facing camera, AT&T will be increasing the monthly unlimited data plan fees, and they want as many new customers as possible on the new plan. Or perhaps AT&T just loves us all and wants to apologize for bad service. Ha!

But it seems as though lots of people are trying to see if they are eligible -- I can't even log into AT&Ts site at this point. Have you checked, has your eligibility date been rolled back? If so, let us know and let us know what plan you subscribe to (number of minutes/month) and how long you've been a subscriber. Let's see if this is universal or not.

[via MobileCrunch :: image credit: MobileCrunch]

Could this be the next iPhone? It's a Definite Maybe Probable Yes! [UPDATED]

Posted by Jeff Scott on April 19th, 2010

Update: 4/19: Gizmodo got the good and has spent some time with this found device. They are now convinced that it's real. And so am I. Check the bottom of the article for more details.

Something very odd happened over the weekend. The next iPhone was spotted. Then it was debunked. Then it was confirmed. And now, we're all confused.

Let's get caught up. Fasten your seat belts, this is a wild one.

On Saturday, Engadget posted some photos of what was reported to be a prototype iPhone. The phone was supposedly found on the floor of a San Jose bar, in an iPhone 3G case. The person that found it sent some blurry (why are they always blurry?) photos of it to Engadget hoping to get a little more money out of them for an in person inspection of the device. How they thought that they would be able to get together with Engadget before Apple's army of lawyers found them, I don't know.

Taking a look at the photos, they look about right. All of the buttons are in the right place, check. Home button looks exactly the same. On the bottom, the speaker and microphone look the same. And it looks like a typical Apple dock connector on the bottom.

The phone had, at one time, powered on and worked. It reportedly ran an OS that was decidedly different from the iPhone OS. But now, supposedly the phone no longer powered on. Odd.

After looking at them, most considered these photos (like the one to the right), a fake. A very good fake, probably a Chinese made knock-off, but a fake.

Read on for even more on this -- is it the next iPhone?