3 days ago I got up at 3:30am, packed up my truck with things like sleeping bags, camping chairs, and goodies to snack on and drink, and headed off to the Gateway Apple Store in Salt Lake City, Utah to get my new iPhone 3G S.  About 3 hours of waiting in 50-60 degree weather later (too cold for me!) I had my new 32 GB iPhone 3G S.  Just a day before I sold my previous iPhone on Ebay for $307, and that will go to the proud new owner, Unlocked and Jailbroken with the new 3.0 firmware tomorrow morning.  I documented the entire process on Qik, which you can watch here.  Fox 13 (KSTU) News here in Salt Lake City also picked up my stream and shared it with viewers - you can watch their coverage of it here.

Shortly afterwards, my friend, Kirk Yuhnke, an Anchor and Reporter for Fox 13 News texted me and asked if I could show it off in a segment today.  I obliged and this morning got to take my first venture into live broadcast TV, showing off my new iPhone 3G.  Kirk let me come back-”stage” with him and we hung out in his office waiting for our turn, and I showed off the iPhone in preparation for our segment.  Then it was our turn, and it went by too fast!  I admit if it weren’t for the video playback it would all be a blur!  I shot the following behind-the-scenes videos (shot entirely on the iPhone) of my trip to Fox13 Studios, on my new YouTube channel:

The entire trip led to this live segment, from the Fox13Now.com website - consider this my review of the iPhone 3G S:

After our segment, Kirk showed off his demo Blackberry unit, something we a) couldn’t even get working, and b) when we did figure it out, seemed cheap compared to his Palm Pre and my iPhone.  He also showed me that the new Jawbones are shipping with new earpieces, which make it secure much, much better in your ear without any need for the wrap-around ear-band that keeps breaking off for me on their units.  We then decided to test his phone against mine.  The battle for smartphone dominance was decided (well, sort of) in this video:

Jealous that all your 3G S friends have video AND cut and paste on their iPhones?  Envy no more.  Just earlier today as those of us were out braving the Apple Store lines to get our new iPhones, the iPhone Dev Team released a new version of their iPhone Jailbreaking tool, Pwnage Tool that works with all iPhone versions except the 3G S.  The tool works with the 3.0 software, and will enable your 3G and younger phones (even first generations) to run tools such as Qik, and give free tethering just by installing it.

Previously, limits to the iPhone Baseband prevented any versions of the iPhone above 1.2.1 from being Jailbroken.  This prevented many important bugs from being updated, and most importantly, as of Wednesday kept users from accessing the copy and paste, voice memos, search functionality, and more that the 3.0 software update provided.  Now, all traditional 3G and younger phones can have full access to that functionality.

The iPhone Dev Team is still working on finalizing updates to their replacement for “yellowsn0w”, which allowed the iPhone 1.2.1 software and younger to also be unlocked for all GSM carriers to use.  The replacement is called “ultrasn0w”, and is supposed to unlock all released iPhone versions, including those after 1.2.1 which yellowsn0w would not work with.  Put in laymans terms, when ultrasn0w is released, you will be able to use any iPhone, on any version of the iPhone software, on any supporting GSM carrier.  The iPhone Dev team is supposed to be just around the corner from releasing the unlock tool which enables ultrasn0w for use on other Cell Phone networks.  They have suggested you wait to Jailbreak your iPhone if you intend to unlock it as well under the 3.0 update.

The 3G S may still be far off from an unlock or Jailbreak.  It is my understanding that Apple has introduced a chipset that makes this “impossible”, or very difficult at a minimum.  So if you want streaming video and much more customization without the speed, along with the ability to switch contracts to any provider at any time, you may want to hold onto that old iPhone for a little longer.

Okay, I know no one at Apple reads my blog, but this is wishful thinking on my part. I’m getting really desperate, and so are what seems to be hundreds of others who have recently upgraded to the 10.5.6 update on the various Mac and Apple forums on the internet. The issue lies around Safari, and Facebook, and Gmail, and sessions. When I use Safari, no matter what I do, after about 30 seconds, Facebook logs me out. I can’t use Facebook in Safari. After 30 minutes or so on Gmail, it becomes unresponsive, and refreshing returns a 400 Bad Request error.

The only way I’ve found to fix this is to reset Safari, reboot, or clear all my cookies, but then, another 30 minutes later or so, all the other problems resurface again. I tried downloading the latest Webkit build, still no go. I tried reinstalling Leopard, still no go. I tried installing the full package from Apple.com for 10.5.6 and it still gives me the same issue. Each time I think it gets fixed, but a few minutes to hours later the problem comes right back.

It would appear that I’m not alone on this issue, either. Just doing a google search for “10.5.6 safari cookies session” or “safari gmail 400 bad request” returns page after page of users having issues. Threads like this one and this one prove there’s a serious issue here, with no response at all from Apple.

I’ve switched to Firefox, which actually I prefer, but Firefox is extremely slow for me on my Mac when compared to Safari for some reason. I want my Safari back! Apple, please, if anyone is listening, we need a fix soon! I am powerless without this update, and I’m really, really close to just getting a PC.

My original 2G iPhone actually made me money. I mean literally - it made me $111 to be exact! I have long been a fan of Apple products. Not only is the UI superb, but Apple focuses on the entire experience - from the hype before the product launch, the purchase of the product, to the unboxing of the product, to owning the product and making every element of the product an enjoyable experience. Not surprisingly, every Apple product I’ve owned has also held its value at the time of sale. My very first iBook died, wouldn’t even boot, and with full disclosure I sold it, DOA, for $500 on Ebay. My second laptop, a Macbook, I made $200 on it after owning it for a few months (I sold it because my job at the time gave me 2 laptops and I did not need 3). I was completely amazed, that when I decided to try the same on my old iPhone, the same thing rang true. I bought my original iPhone at $399 just less than a year ago, and almost a year later, I was able to sell it yesterday (unlocked) for $510 on Ebay. Name one other cell phone that you can do that with on the market today.

If there’s one reason you buy an iPhone it should be that it, among all the other cell phones on the market, will not depreciate near as much as that of other phones. In fact, with the continued innovation of Apple and their continued edge they seem to have on the market, the hype surrounding the iPhone could just so happen to increase the value of your old phone to higher than you bought it.

I don’t know how long to expect these inflated prices to last, but so long as Apple stays innovative, and they continue to force customers into contracts on the new 3G phones, unlocked 2G iPhones actually have a value that the new 3G iPhones do not have - the ability to buy a phone, right up front, with no contract or provider tied to it. I don’t expect the price of the 2G’s to go down any time soon. Growing up my Dad (he is an Accountant) always taught me to make purchases that were the least likely to depreciate. The iPhone is a wise financial choice to make.

Have you made money on your iPhone? Please share your stories!