Now, we're hoping this isn't some elaborate hoax perpetrated on the kind citizens of the internet, because if it's real, it's amazing. Here's the deal: a man capturing video poolside with his iPhone 3GS somehow loses control of the device and ends up dunking the entire phone... while filming. Miraculously, he manages to fish out the handset and it's still rolling. We don't know what the lifespan was / is beyond this clip, but obviously long enough to upload the video or transfer it to a computer. Impressive stuff, though we strongly suggest you don't test this one out on your own. Check out the full video after the break.

[Via George Ruiz]

A final iPhone 3GS jailbreak hasn't been released yet, but that isn't stopping enterprising hackers from trying to get at all that extra horsepower, and some of the first notable hacks we've seen are these updated PlayStation 1 and Game Boy Advance emulator ports, which run way faster than the versions for the original and 3G. The revved up hardware in Apple's latest is apparently capable of running either of these at 150 - 225fps with zero frameskipping, which is pretty impressive. Of course, we'll be way more impressed when the Dev Team releases a 3GS jailbreak and we can hit these up ourselves, but in the meantime there are plenty of videos to with which to while away the time at the read links.

Read - Emulator videos
Read - ZoTTD blog post with more info

As we said following the Pre launch, no new gadget is immune to growing pains -- especially when it's tied to a manufacturing and distribution campaign on the scale of the iPhone 3G S. Statistically, it's just not possible to walk away from an opening weekend without a few hiccups when you're pushing this many units of anything; the best manufacturers can realistically hope for is to keep problems minor, respond to issues quickly, and spin the crap out of anything that comes up.

To that end, here's what we're tracking on the 3G S from the first three full days of sales:

• Apple is awarding $30 iTunes store credits to individuals affected by lengthy activation times on their new phones. Regular activations shouldn't take more than an hour or two (ours were basically instantaneous) and ports from other carriers should take a maximum of 48 hours, but some unlucky individuals are still waiting to come online. We probably would've destroyed the phone with a hammer or a direct impact with a wall by now, so our respect goes out to those of you who are still waiting and haven't destroyed anything of value.
• It seems that some users are getting the error message pictured above when attempting to hack tethering support onto their AT&T iPhones using mobile config files available online, though repeatedly deleting and re-adding the configuration seems to help in some cases. Of course, AT&T isn't supporting tethering on the phone at this point anyway, so we wouldn't expect a shoulder to cry on if you call in to customer service with this one.
• Boy Genius Report is reporting that sounds played by the phone are immediately followed by some sort of extremely high-frequency tone -- the kind little kids and the next door neighbor's dogs hear, but you may not.

Anything else going on out there in the field? Perhaps more importantly, anyone being driven batty by shrieking blasts of ultrasound they couldn't identify?

[Thanks to everyone who sent these in]

Now that we know the iPhone 3G S and the Palm Pre share extremely similar 65nm ARM Cortex A8-based internals, it's time to break out the stopwatches and see how these blood brothers stack up. Anandtech has the first head-to-head tests we've seen, and it seems like the 3G S has the slight edge, loading a series of web pages 11 percent faster and a whopping 54 percent faster than the iPhone 3G. Not too shabby, but not exactly a thorough drubbing either -- especially when you consider webOS is still 1.0 and there's likely some optimizations to come. Full results at the read link.

Update: Anandtech had some uncharacteristically bad math going on -- the 3G S is actually 21 percent faster than the Pre, which is quite notable considering the similar hardware and WebKit-based browsers.

There's been talk the last couple days about the fact that there really isn't anywhere in the States to take advantage of the blazing 7.2Mbps downlink connection supported by the iPhone 3G S -- except for one great hope, one diamond in the rough that could become a shining destination for 3G S owners the world over. That destination would be Chicago, where AT&T fired up 7.2Mbps trials late last year, and the hope was that they might be letting lay folk (like us) in on the action in time for the 3G S release. Well, we've been running side-by-side tests today, and the short answer is that we're clearly not accessing 7.2 -- granted, the 3G S is getting marginally faster speeds both up and down, but we figure this can easily be attributed to the new model's faster processor because a doubling of the downlink pipe simply doesn't account for a 100kbps bump in speed (latency was all over the map on both phones, for the record). If you're holding out on upgrading from a 3G to a 3G S, go ahead and crack a smile -- because for now, anyway, this is one spec bump that means precisely zilch in the real world.

Rogers must know a good thing when it sees it, because it's essentially copied AT&T's modified plans for providing deeper subsidies to more customers looking to upgrade to an iPhone 3G S in the next few weeks. The details are just a little bit different though: with Rogers, the new deal is that anyone who bought an iPhone 3G between July 11 and September 30 of 2008 -- and has averaged CAD $100 or more a month on their bill -- will be able to nab the 16GB or 32GB for $199 and $299, respectively, on a three-year contract. Buyers between July 11 and December 31 of last year or who didn't manage to average $100 a month will get the less heavily-discounted prices of $449 and $549, while any customer will be able to waltz in and spend $699 or $799, a princely sum indeed.

Well that was fast. Orange Boutique in Paris, France did a midnight release of the iPhone 3G S, and the gang at Rapid Repair were there to pick one up and subsequently rip their new toy to shreds. There isn't much here in terms of analysis of parts yet, it's more so just a quick and dirty job to get it out to the world, but hey, if you're into watching someone rip apart brand new, expensive gadgetry, we've got just the gallery for you.

As we know from its WWDC unveiling, the iPhone 3G S is basically a 3G with some faster bits, more memory, and a better camera -- but is it worth the price of admission? Head on over to our full review for the answers you seek (and maybe some you don't)!

The original plan was to offer mildly subsidized prices of $399 and $499 for the 16GB and 32GB versions of the iPhone 3G S to AT&T customers who weren't currently "upgrade eligible," but the carrier's having a change of heart, ostensibly in response to... you know, people wanting to pay less. The new plan is to let anyone with an upgrade date in the months of June, July, August, or September get in on the fully discounted $199 / $299 price points, which should cover a good number of existing 3G owners. Unfortunately, the way the upgrade date is calculated is black magic involving your monthly bill, your credit rating, your contract, and your astrological sign, so you'll need to log in to AT&T's site or call up a rep to figure out the full deal; we're told customers should start to see those new discounts reflected on their accounts as of tomorrow. And don't worry -- anyone who's already preordered will be receiving a full refund for the difference.

Just because UPS can get you your iPhone 3G S a couple days ahead of its official launch date doesn't mean Apple wants it to. We're getting a bunch of tips rolling in with updated tracking information for shipped 3G S orders folks have placed through the online Apple Store, confirming that Apple has actively coordinated with its shipper to hold on to the packages until "a future delivery date" that isn't specified. We can only assume that'd be the 19th, but our question is this: can you just march down to your local UPS branch and try to pick it up yourself in the meantime? Carriers often require that at least one delivery be attempted before you can waltz in and grab the package, but it might be worth a shot later today.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Waiting days in the blistering sun for a phone that more level-headed folks (that is, not us) will be able to get by simply waltzing into a store a few days later just isn't what it used to be, is it? As iPhones make the inevitable transition from wildly-anticipated objects of lust to commodities, it seems that Apple's putting progressively less effort into carefully orchestrating and micro-managing launches -- and if you want solid proof of that, look no further than the shipping tracking numbers coming off of the online Apple Store's order status site where you'll find that some iPhone 3G S units should be in buyers' hands tomorrow. If you're counting, that'd be a full two days before the official release of this Friday -- and while we suppose the company could have some agreement in place with its carriers to hold onto the units until the official release, we're not giving UPS that much credit.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: It seems that many, if not all, of the individuals with tracking numbers leading to phones already stateside are now seeing the following status update on their packages: "THE RECEIVER REQUESTED A HOLD FOR A FUTURE DELIVERY DATE. UPS WILL ATTEMPT DELIVERY ON DATE REQUESTED." In other words, Apple's having these guys queue up the phones until they give the word, presumably not until Friday. Maybe some distribution centers with loose reputations might let you run down there and pick 'em up, though? Worth a shot, right?

There have been various ways of getting iPhones onto AT&T's prepaid GoPhone plans pretty much since the beginning, but for some inexplicable reason (hint: contracts are lucrative), the carrier is closing the door on prepaid in concert with the release of OS 3.0 this week. To be clear, we have absolutely no idea how AT&T would reliably detect whether you're running 3.0 on your iPhone -- unless Apple were to report it to AT&T using data culled from iTunes, and we somehow doubt it's happening that way -- so in all likelihood, they're just assuming most folks will move to 3.0 within the next few weeks and are using the release as a convenient line in the sand. New iPhone 3G and 3G S owners will have a hard time signing up for GoPhone altogether, and legacy customers are being told that the upgrade "may impact the data service" unless they move to postpaid. Actually, it's even more stratified than that: only original iPhones are being allowed to stay on Pick Your Plan with the unlimited data add-on, while 3Gs have to move. To be fair, this has been the policy all along -- 2G on Pick Your Plan, 3G not eligible -- and it seems they're just now deciding to lay down the law and bring everyone into compliance, but that doesn't mean we have to like it.

[Thanks, Kris]

Apple's being pretty cagey with the hard specs of the iPhone 3G S, but apparently T-Mobile Netherlands didn't get the message -- it's just posted up a specs page listing 256MB of RAM and a 600MHz CPU. That's up from 128MB and 412MHz in the first-gen and the 3G, and it's basically exactly what was rumored. Of course, the 3G S also has that new PowerVR SGX graphics chip that supports OpenGL ES 2.0, so the total speed boost is probably more than just pure clock speed, but we'll find out for sure when we get our hands on one.

[Via iLounge]

As endlessly predicted, Apple's unveiled a new iPhone today at WWDC, the iPhone 3G S -- the "s" stands for speed. Although it looks almost exactly like the 3G, it's much, much faster -- some tasks are almost four times faster. Data speeds are upped to 7.2Mbps HSDPA, and the camera is now a 3 megapixel unit with tap-to-autofocus and auto white balance -- and just as expected, it now supports 30fps VGA video recording with editing features. You're also getting a built-in compass, Nike+ support, and a new battery that offers 5 hours of 3G talk time and 9 hours of WiFi internet use. There are some surprises, too -- holding down the home button now enables a new voice control interface that lets you do everything from make calls to control iTunes, and Apple's touting a new "fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating." New and end-of-contract pricing is set at $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB when it goes on sale June 19th Stateside and in 80 more countries in August -- and the current 8GB 3G will remain on sale for $99, effective immediately. You'll have to pay a bit more if you're mid-contract, though -- $299 for the 3G and $399/$499 for the 3G S.



Read - Apple PR
Read - AT&T PR with pricing info