ivc blog

iPhone, yes, I’m pretty sure you have heard the name a couple of times before.

I decided to get the next generation iPhone, the iPhone 3G, on the launch date to get the excitement. Contrary to the first iPhone I got in October 2007 when the jailbreaking and unlocking was properly set up.

Ok, to the main story. In Norway the iPhone 3G is only sold by the Netcom operator via its Telebutikken stores. My goal was to get an iPhone 3G, with a new contract, break the contract, and activate it with my previous SIM-card from Telenor.

At 13.15 I arrived at the store, around 5-8 waiting in queue before me. The buying process was interesting, there was no properly set up queuing system in the store. I had to find my own piece of paper and write the next incremental in the queue. I got 82 and number 73-75 was processing then I got there. A little over an hour later, I’m ready to go.

The buying process is a two parter:

• Pick your iPhone, in my case 16GB black for 2290 NOK, credit check and pick existing or new contract, I choose new of course.
• Go over to the activation desk, asked if I could activate with my other SIM-card, but he had strict guidelines to only activate new devices with Netcom SIM-cards, gave me the 05050 customer service number for more details, very nice guy, shaked the hand of every iPhone customer.

At this point, I have an activated iPhone 3G with a new Netcom iTalk small contract. This is where most people would end up and start using the iPhone, but I want to use my current SIM-card.

I called the customer service and they actually had three menu choices, the third being “Press 3 for iPhone”. A friendly women quickly picked up (I guess they have extra staff) and I explained I wanted to go out of the new contract and use my current operator. To cancel the iTalk small contract would cost 2400 NOK plus the first month of the contract, 399 NOK. An invoice will be sent to my address.

This cancel process is also a two parter:

• She asked for the phone number to find the contract, asked if I was sure I wanted to terminate the contract, yes please.
• Next, asked for the unique IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number, printed on the same piece of paper with the contract phone number, used it to deactivate the phone in the Netcom network, sent a request to Apple to indicate the device should be unlocked, this happens next time I connected it to iTunes (at home) she told.

I played with the iPhone during the trip home and I noticed the Maps locate-me functions didn’t find my position. I hope this was because I didn’t have a cell signal, although it wouldn’t make sense. Even with a Wifi connection to allow any A-GPS data cache to be downloaded didn’t work.

The screen has a noticable yellow hue compared to the same brightness level. Not as crystal crisp white as the original (quality control?). It seems the white balance is a tad warmer. Apple confirmed that the white balance is warmer on the iPhone 3G, around 7000K compared to 8000K in the 1. gen.

To make it pick up the new SIM-card I had to do a full restore, and to complete the set up it was to connect to the iTunes (activation) servers. This was 17.00 CET/Norwegian time while the rest of the US was about or in the middle of waking up to iPhone launch day, making the iTunes servers crawl to a total halt. Finally at 21.15, the activation was successful, iTunes only needed a quick query to Apple to determine the lock state, fortunately it unlocked without needing any interaction. The next screen was the select previous backup or create new device profile set up.

There is also a store activation mode in iTunes, it looks like just a more automated hook-up-activate-disconnect procedure.

Mac: /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes -StoreActivationMode 1
Windows: “C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe” /StoreActivationMode 1

• The total cost: 2290 + 2400 + 399 = 5089 NOK

That places it in the higher end of the smartphones sold in Norway, e.g. the Nokie N95 8GB is sold without contract for 4850 NOK.

My plan is to buy another iPhone 3G 16GB unlocked in US (via a friend, Ebay, some other place) for cost (around 700 USD) once the launch day excitement plays out, import it to Norway, jailbreak it to add Installer.app (Dev Team is ready), and sell it to little under the unlocked cost in Norway to cover some of my expenses (around 1500 NOK).

With a new design also comes less compatibility, the old iPhone dock no long fits the new iPhone 3G. Not a big issue. The corner shape is pointier and not as round as before. My iPod 3G 2003 dock still fits and works perfectly though.

Edit: Only major advantages with an iPhone 3G over the 1. generation for me is: 1. GPS, 2. 16GB, the rest is irrelevant, and the 2.0 software is the same on both. Sold for 9000 NOK. Apparently, VG mentioned to watch out for iPhone price “coups” (the one mentioned is not mine, but there were only two auctions, the other being mine).