July 10 - 12:15pm EDT   The first iPhone 3Gs have gone on sale in New Zealand, early reports say. The information comes courtesy of "iPhone Jonny," who claims to be one of the first in the world to buy the device, having waited several days in line in front of a Vodafone New Zealand outlet. The wait is said to have been particularly unpleasant, as New Zealand is currently in winter and it recently experienced one of its coldest days this year. Vodafone is charging a standard $199 NZD for an iPhone. [full story]

July 9 - 8:00am EDT   Claims of a summer launch for the BlackBerry Thunder may be thwarted by a still very rough design, says an alleged Research in Motion insider speaking to BGR. Initially pitched as a near-term competitor for the iPhone 3G, the first touchscreen BlackBerry is described as "in no way shape or form" ready for a near-term launch and has glaring bugs that include a flawed on-screen keyboard and overall interface, a touchscreen that ripples on touch, and an overly sensitive tilt sensor. [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 - 12:25pm EDT   A man from Portugal has already managed to secure an 8GB iPhone 3G, photos and forum posts suggest. The poster claims to have got his hands on the device in advance of its official July 11th launch without having to pay; although refusing to say where the phone came from, one photo shows the device operating on Vodafone Portugal's network. Internet access speeds are "really good," according to the poster. [full story]

July 8 - 9:20am EDT   Policies for iPhone 3G access to carrier Wi-Fi should vary dramatically around the world, reports say. While carriers such as AT&T and Rogers Wireless have committed to free hotspot access with a subscription, other countries may not hold this policy in common. Vodafone Italy now admits that it will not be offering any free access, and Orange Switzerland says this will be limited to 100 hours per month. [full story]

July 7 - 9:00pm EDT   Italian iPhone customers will supposedly enjoy the leisure of activating their iPhone from the comforts of their own home, while a third company – 3 Italy – announced it would also sell the iPhone, come September. Macity writes that both Telecom Italia and Vodafone will not be able to activate the iPhone 3G at the store, and will instead take both the device and SIM card home to perform the activation through iTunes, similar to how the first iPhone was sold. [full story]

July 7 - 3:05pm EDT   International carrier Vodafone has announced the monthly rates for the iPhone 3G in Portugal and Italy. In the former country, most phones will require a two-year contract; the cheapest plan is the "Best iPhone 100" option, which costs approximately €30 per month, and offers 100 minutes, 100 texts and 250MB of data traffic. Best iPhone 230 (€45) upgrades to 230 minutes and texts, while the 500 plan (€65) graduates to its own corresponding numbers. Data remains fixed. Prices for the actual phones range from €299 (8GB) and €389 (16GB) under the 100 plan to €129 and €219 under the 500 option. [full story]

July 7 - 1:30pm EDT   New reported images of the BlackBerry Thunder have been released today by BlackBerrySYNC that show an apparently reworked media player for Research in Motion's first touchscreen device. The images reveal an interface that is heavily based on the current BlackBerry software but includes an iPhone-like category picker for music, video, recording, and similar features but also has a more visual album browser and a full-screen video player. [full story]

July 7 - 6:20am EDT   Vodafone New Zealand revealed on Monday that the iPhone 3G in New Zealand will be priced at $199NZD (around USD$150) when purchased with a 24-month contract. With stocks expected to be "strictly limited," the company has to disclose the its rate plans for the new device, but is expected to announce a significant tariff restructuring in the next few days, moving away from the traditionally high data costs seen in the country. Previous price plans have seen charges of up to NZD$10 per 1MB of data, with dedicated 200MB bundles costing NZD$35, however, this is expected to drop to a more manageable cost of around NZD$10 per 10MB used for casual users. Like O2 in the UK, ... [full story]

June 27 - 10:10am EDT   Wireless carrier 3 Australia has received a strong surge of interest in carrying the iPhone 3G, a corporate blog claims. On Thursday the carrier posted a message explaining that it has contacted Apple about carrying the 3G, but that it is seeking public response on the issue as a means of getting Apple's attention. Hundreds of mostly positive comments have since been posted on the site, and visitors can currently sign up for e-mail notifications about the iPhone. [full story]

June 25 - 5:00pm EDT   Research in Motion on Wednesday afternoon reported what it says are record results for its spring quarter. The company's revenue spiked 107 percent year-over-year to just over $2.2 billion based largely on shipments of BlackBerry devices themselves, which made up 82 percent of the revenue between March and May. The company delivered about 5.4 million BlackBerry smartphones and notes that almost 43 percent of these were new customers. About 2.3 million new BlackBerry push e-mail accounts went live in the same period, RIM says. [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 24 - 12:15pm EDT   Telecom Italia has announced some preliminary details on its two-year subscription prices for the iPhone 3G, reports say. While it has yet not disclosed the monthly cost of each plan, the iPhone itself should cost approximately €199 with an entry-level subscription; in a scheme similar to that of O2 in the UK, subscribers to high-end plans will receive the phone for free. Controversially, TIM will only say that each plan guarantees "at least" 1GB of data each month, despite the prevalence of unlimited transfers in other countries. [full story]

June 24 - 7:35am EDT   Nokia this morning changed the mobile industry by purchasing the remainder of Symbian that it hasn't previously owned and establishing the Symbian Foundation, an organization meant to unify and promote the Symbian OS for cellphones. The group includes phone makers that already produce Symbian phones such as LG, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson; it also includes carriers such as AT&T, NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone as well as semiconductor firms STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments. Despite Nokia's purchase, the company is putting Symbian and Series 60 in the hands of the Foundation and will give any current or future member royalty-free rights to use the platform. [full story]

June 13 - 8:25am EDT   The European Union today warned carriers in its member states that it would start regulating the roaming rates for data and messaging in the region without voluntary price drops. While not saying what would dictate the regulation, Commissioner Viviane Reding explains that the government body will start posting Europe-wide prices in the next two weeks and will likely demand that most prices be regulated lower if not dropped voluntarily. [full story]