July 15 - 3:00pm EDT   Apple has dropped plans to lower the price of music on the UK iTunes Store, the BBC reports. Tracks on the service normally cost 79p each, as compared to the continental price of €0.99. When Apple's cuts were announced in January, the value of the Euro meant that the UK was being charged an extra 5p per track; because the Euro has since increased in value however, the pricing on iTunes is now equal on both sides of the Channel. [full story]

July 11 - 9:20am EDT   The UK launch of the iPhone 3G has been crippled by activation problems, say multiple sources. O2's press office has confirmed that within minutes of the first sales in the country, all stores experienced an outage in the servers needed for the activation process. This was due to "huge simultaneous customer demand," says an O2 representative, who nevertheless promised that ordering and activation should otherwise take approximately 20 minutes. An O2 store on Oxford Street was observed handling roughly 15 people per hour though, meaning that some customers would have to wait hours. [full story]

July 8 - 10:45pm EDT   Carriers around the world are expecting shortages of Apple's iPhone, with saying they will be sold out in "minutes" and others indicating that the crunch could last for weeks. In a cautionary message to potential iPhone buyers, Britain's O2 says a rush of customers, ordering as many 13,000 per second, brought down its online orders for iPhone 3G: "We just weren’t prepared for this unprecedented level of demand," the company said in a memo. "No website is." The British carrier, however, said that stock is limited due to the simultaneous launch of the iPhone in 22-nations -- and while Apple's head of retail Ron Johnson has tried to allay concerns -- especially in the US, ... [full story]

July 8 - 4:35pm EDT   Apple is primarily responsible for iPhone ordering problems at O2 UK, the latter company is said to be claiming by e-mail. In response to an inquiry from one customer, O2 Sales Director Steve Shurrock is said to be blaming Apple for the almost immediate drain of online pre-orders. "We have been working continuously with them [Apple] to get as much stock for the UK as possible," says Shurrock. "Unfortunately, they have only been able to supply a small proportion of the number of phones we asked for, because they are launching simultaneously in 22 countries." [full story]

July 7 - 5:55pm EDT   After confirming last week that it would host early hours on July 11th as the iPhone 3G launches, O2 on Monday confirmed seeing "unprecedented" demand for the device, citing sales numbers for pre-orders through its website. Pocket-lint reveals that the UK wireless carrier offered customers who pre-registered through its website the chance to purchase the iPhone on its online store, and noted that, within hours, it had completely sold out of the stock set aside for those orders. [full story]

July 7 - 10:05am EDT   O2 UK customers wanting a pre-paid iPhone 3G will have to wait longer than contract subscribers, the carrier has announced. The wording on its pay-as-you-go subsite has been changed to list availability for "later this year," in contrast with the July 11th launch for contract plans. One of the few third-party distributors of the iPhone, Carphone Warehouse, has meanwhile issued a statement saying that pre-paid 3Gs will ship "in time for the Christmas period." [full story]

July 7 - 4:20am EDT   Current UK iPhone users with the O2 carrier, on Monday received news that they can pre-order the new iPhone 3G starting 8AM Monday morning. New phones will be delivered directly to customers by courier on Friday the 11th July, coinciding with the iPhone 3G launch. There is no upgrade fee for the iPhone 3G 8GB version for customers contracted to the £45 and £75 monthly tariffs, and a £99 charge for users of the £35 and £30 tariffs. For users wanting the 16GB version of the device, it is free with the £75 tariff, £59 with the £45 per month tariff, and priced at £159 on the £30 and £35 tariffs. O2 notes that these prices only apply to existing customers, and expire on ... [full story]

July 2 - 9:25am EDT   O2 UK stores will begin selling the iPhone 3G at 7AM on July 11th, the company has announced. The timing is even earlier than that of AT&T in the United States, which has announced that its doors will open at 8AM on the 11th, an hour before normal operations. The move is rumored to be necessary due to Apple's mandatory in-store activation policy, which may require several minutes per phone and could result in extended launch line-ups. [full story]

June 30 - 2:40pm EDT  High-priced upgrades have long been a collective burden of shopping at the online Apple Store. A new article from CNET UK has a run-down of pricing comparisons, noting that Apple's direct upgrade prices are, on average, about 200% that of Dell's. For instance: Going from a 120GB 5,400rpm drive to a 250GB 5,400rpm drive for a MacBook will set you back £90.01 from the Apple configurator. Doing the same upgrade with a Dell XPS M1330 costs just £30.01 on the Dell site. Likewise, buying a MacBook and switching from 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 to 4GB will cost an extra £120 from Apple. Doing that same swap with the Dell XPS M1330 costs just £40.01. [full story]

June 27 - 1:15pm EDT   The BBC is planning to build its own set-top box for iPlayer users, a report reveals. iPlayer is a free web service which allows TV license payers to stream the past week of BBC programming for free; it is typically accessed via computers however, with the exception of devices like the iPhone and the Nintendo Wii. The new set-top will hook up directly to a TV, and feed data from a broadband connection to effectively create an IPTV link. [full story]

June 25 - 9:30am EDT   Vodafone India has already begun taking pre-registrations on the iPhone 3G, according to an announcement. The move is unusual in that the company has yet to disclose a final release date for the device, although rival Bharti Airtel is expected to release it on July 11th along with the initial wave of iPhone 3G deployments. Bharti has not formally announced any iPhone plans, including any registration campaigns. [full story]

June 20 - 9:10am EDT   Apple's own retail stores in the UK may not be able to sell the iPhone 3G on July 11th, an industry publication reports. The issue stems from Apple's new activation policy, which forces customers to subscribe to a given carrier in-store, rather than at home through iTunes. Apple UK outlets are said to lack the means of running credit checks, and its staff are still untrained in getting customers onto a phone contract, in this case one from O2. [full story]

June 19 - 12:50pm EDT   UK-based Easyishop has announced a new webstore section for iPhone 3G. The shop's main focus is iPhone protection, featuring products such as The Invisible Shield. As the first shipping product for the iPhone 3G, the Full Body Shield offers 100 percent coverage of the phone's screen and body. It claims to use the same technology the military uses to protect helicopter blades. This product will be available for £20 and can be pre-ordered today; it is expected to ship before the iPhone 3G launches on July 11th. [full story]

June 17 - 10:50am EDT   Interest in the iPhone 3G has nearly quadrupled over that of the first-generation iPhone, says the UK division of phone carrier O2. Over 130,000 people are said to have pre-registered for information on the 3G launch, a significant shift from the relatively small 35,000 who expressed interest in the 2.5G device, which first launched in the UK on November 9th. Actual sales in that region fell below analyst expectations. [full story]

June 13 - 1:00pm EDT   The creation and sale of modchips is legal, the UK government has stated. The region's Court of Appeal has ruled in favor Neil Higgs, a vendor who had been selling thousands of modification kits for consoles like the Xbox, which in turn let gamers play pirated titles. Some 26 charges were filed against Higgs in late 2007, but as a result of today's ruling, they have all been invalidated. Higgs will also receive full compensation for his legal costs. [full story]