Thursday, July 3, 2008 -- 12:30 p.m. -- on my couch

I don't know how to say city hall in Swedish, but the Swedes were successful in fighting it, according to MacWorld's iPhone Central blog.

Telia Sonera's plans weren't exactly getting rave reviews -- I mean one of them costs $145 a month and comes with 1,000 minutes, 1,000 text messages and just shy of 1GB of data.

So because of complaints aplenty, Telia Sonera is letting Swedish consumers keep their existing cell plans and still use it for a new iPhone 3G. And then you can spend a little more and add unlimited data.

Here's a link to MacWorld's entry.

And, apparently, consumers next door in Norway aren't taking their iPhone 3G rules sitting down and they are also fighting back.

Suck on that, Rogers. You're next.

Thanks for calling.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 -- 8:30 p.m. -- at my desk

Boy, that headline's a stretch. I realize that. I want to change it. Nahhhh. I'm keeping it :-D

It's tough to keep up these days ... looks like the iPhone is heading to even more countries.

Here's the shortest and simplest press release ever from TeliaSonera:

TeliaSonera today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia later this year.

There you have it. 7 more countries. What's that now, like 300? It seems that way, anyhow.

Anyone in these countries out there and on the blog? Please write to me.

Thanks for calling.

Monday, May 12, 2008 -- 1:32 a.m. -- on my couch

According to Reuters, Singapore Telecommunications and associates will bring the iPhone to Singapore, India, Australia and the Philippines later this year. According to an announcement Monday by SingTel, Southeast Asia's largest phone company, it, Bharti Airtel, Globe Telecom and Australia's Optus have already signed the agreement with Apple.

There are still some big countries left to announce, but soon the iPhone will have a legitimate home around the world.

I know we have at least one regular contributor here from Singapore who is going to be pumped beyond belief about this news. You know who you are.

If you are from any of these areas -- or if you aren't -- I have just signed an agreement with my comments area and it's open for business now.

Thanks for calling.

Saturday, May 10, 2008 -- 1:26 a.m. -- on my couch

Good news for folks in Ireland who want an 8GB iPhone right now ... following in the footsteps of O2 UK, O2 Ireland is dropping the price €100 from €399 to €299.

Of course, the 3G iPhone is coming very, very soon ... presumably to Ireland, but that's not known for sure. So the question is a hard one ... pay a little less for some iPhone love now or wait patiently for what should be the 3G iPhone and pay an unknown price.

It's not an easy decision to make, but at least know that there's some good news for the current crop of 8GB iPhones.

Thanks for calling.

Friday, March 14, 2008 -- 12:03 p.m. -- on my couch

Typing that headline made me crave buttermilk pancakes and strawberry syrup.

Hmmm. Strange.

Anyhow, as reported earlier, today is iPhone launch day in Ireland and Austria.

So welcome Ireland and welcome Austria to an incredible club. Welcome to club iPhone.

Each country is a little different. Here's a quick overview and links to the respective Web sites for more information.

Ireland (o2)
TARIFF: €45 to €100
MINUTES: 175 to 700
SMS: 100 to 250
DATA CAP: 1GB
PLAN: 18-month plan required
WEBSITE: www.o2.ie

Austria (T-Mobile)
TARIFF: €39 (classic) to €55 (supreme)
MINUTES: 1,000 to 4,000
SMS: Varies according to plan - up to 1,000 included
DATA CAP: 3GB
PLAN: 24-month plan required
WEBSITE: http://iphone.t-mobile.at/

Definite differences between the two countries.

I know we already have Irish readers, and I thank you. And I welcome anyone else from Ireland and Austria that wants to become part of the strongest international iPhone community in the world. That's right here at iPTIB. Feel free to contact me via any of the methods on the right rail for more information, or just leave a comment here. Remember, I respond to EVERY SINGLE COMMENT so if you say something, check back because I will definitely answer you.

Unfortunately, SMS alerts are not currently available outside of the United States.

Thanks for calling.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 -- 1:28 p.m. -- at my desk

According to Dow Jones and Austrian newspaper Der Standard on Wednesday, the iPhone will be introduced in Austria by T-Mobile on Friday.

T-Mobile Austria wouldn't comment on the story, but Der Standard reports that there will be two models -- 8GB and 16GB and that the prices will be EUR399 and EUR499 respectively. Each require a 2-year contract and the minimum monthly fee will be somewhere between EUR50 and EUR60.

So we'll see whether or not this report is accurate, but of course Dow Jones has a good record.

I'll keep you posted. I'm not sure if we have any Austrian callers, but I'd love to.

Thanks for calling.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007 -- 6:29 p.m. -- at my desk

This whole thing with the big o2 outage in the U.K. today got me thinking about all my international callers. Apparently, we have a lot of them.

And if you read through the posts on the U.K. outage you'll see that thousands of miles and an ocean can't stop the lines of iPhone communication here at iPhone, Therefore I Blog.

So whether you are in the U.K. or France or Germany -- heck, even if you are in New Zealand and are wishing for an iPhone -- there's a place for you here at iPTIB.

Please let me know if there's anything I can do for you.

Thanks for calling.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007 -- 5:27 p.m. -- at my desk

I have just been informed that visual voicemail will not be immediately available on the iPhone in France.

According to Orange, the feature won' t be implemented until January. No word on why the feature isn't ready, but for now it's regular old voicemail for French iPhone users.

As you can see from the picture, it exists.

I'll let you know if I hear anything different or updated, of course.

Thanks for calling.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007 -- 2:30 a.m. -- on my couch

Thursday's iPhone day in France. And sacre bleu, there will be locked and unlocked versions.

The price for the locked version and 2 year contract will be the usual 399 euros (about $594). But like in Germany, Orange has to sell an unlocked version. While the cost is still a mystery, Orange's head honcho Didier Lombard told Europe 1 radio that the amount will be "significantly lower than 999 euros (about $1,486). T-Mobile charges 999 euros for an unlocked iPhone.

So we'll see if the French will open their arms to the iPhone ... it hasn't been going over as well as Apple would like in the UK and Germany is selling an average amount, but certainly far from spectacular.

Me? I'd love nothing more than to be in Paris on Thursday, cappuccino in one hand, iPhone in the other and croissant in my mouth.

Anyone from France reading that plans to buy an iPhone? Or pass it up? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for calling.

Thursday, November 8, 2007 -- 11:02 a.m. -- on my couch

Attention iPhone fans in the U.K. and Germany: If you are going to the launch in your country, please e-mail us photos at skleinberg@tribune.com

iPhone, Therefore I Blog has one of the most popular iPhone galleries in America and we'd like to extend that to you. So send us a photo of you in line, or a photo of you with your brand new iPhone. Or, just send us a photo of anything and a few words about it to the above e-mail address and I'll get it posted in our gallery for the world to see.

Looking forward to meeting you ... and seeing you ... even if it's not in person.

Thanks for calling.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007 -- 7:44 p.m. -- at my desk

**UPDATE: If anyone knows of any hugely popular mobile phone sites in Europe, could you pass that info along? I'd love to contact them about linking to us. Any help I can get to spread the word over there would be most helpful. Thanks!**

Friday is a huge day for our friends in Germany and England. The iPhone goes on sale at just after 6 p.m. local time.

I wanted to take this opportunity to let all of our international readers know (we have many) that you'll be very well represented from this side of the pond.

This is a global iPhone community, so if news breaks that's specific to iPhones in Europe, you'll read about it here just like you'll read about everything happen stateside. I don't want anyone to think that this site is skewed toward America, because it really isn't. I'll provide information useful to everyone, no matter where you are logging on from.

So if you are in Europe, or in a country that doesn't yet have an iPhone, feel free to tell your friends about this site and get them in the habit of checking here early and often for the latest iPhone news. You won't find more up-to-date news on any other site, and you won't find my brand of opinion, humor and insight anywhere else.

And, we already have one of the best iPhone photo galleries in the world. Let's make it better with photos from across the ocean.

And as always, I want to know your thoughts ... what do you like and what don't you like? What do you want to see more of? Less of?

Thanks for calling.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 -- 2:33 p.m. -- at my desk

If you live in France, you won't have to hack and jailbreak your way to an unlocked iPhone.

Orange will include the key if you pay a premium.

Apparently, French law doesn't allow mobile phones to be sold solely by contract. So locked and unlocked phones are required. You can pay less and get a locked phone or pay more to get the whole shebang.

There's been no details yet on any pricing in France other than the price of the locked version (399 Euros/$565). It will be interesting to see how the price of an unlocked phone plays into the monthly fees for cellular and data service.

Merci for calling.

Friday, October 5, 2007 -- 4:27 p.m. -- on my couch

Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, only the latter one is good and it depends on your point of view.

According to Marketwatch.com, which cites French daily Les Echos, disagreement between Apple and Orange, the company poised to score the exclusive contract in France for the iPhone, could prevent the iPhone from connecting with French customers this year.

"The risk we're evaluating this week is that Apple crosses France off," Les Echos quotes a source at Orange as saying.

Les Echos says the sticking point is a French law that would require the iPhone to be sold with and without contracts. While there is an option in the states for a pay as you go plan with the iPhone, apparently it's not that cut and dry on that side of the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, BlackBerry sales aren't being soured by the iPhone's success.

Research in Motion said Thursday night that profits from its smartphones have doubled in the first financial quarter of going head to head with the iPhone. RIM said it had shipped about 3 million BlackBerry units worldwide compared to Apple's claim of 1 million iPhones.

In my mind, this isn't a big deal. BlackBerry users aren't iPhone users. I'll be careful because I know a lot of BlackBerry users ... but those folks could gain one full level of coolness if they upgrade to an iPhone.

What do you think about today's fruit salad? Sound off about Apple, Orange and Blackberrys in the comments.

Thanks for calling.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007 -- 5:39 a.m. -- my couch

This just in from London. And if you are reading this out loud, you should use your best British accent.

Looks like the U.K. gets its turn with iPhone giddyness (the offiical word of today is giddyness) on 9/11 (that's November 9th for all you folks in the states).

Steve Jobs made the announcement this morning at 4 a.m. Central Time live from London. The carrier will be O2.

And while several questions remain unanswered at this early time in the day, a few things of interest to start:

* The movies and photos on apple.com/uk all show O2-UK as the carrier and everything is updated for that side of the pond (as it should be). The phone ringer is distinctively British, and there's no more Johnny Appleseed. He's been replaced by John Anderson and Susan Park.

* This time around, the "finger" hangs up on Yo Sushi in London instead of a San Francisco Starbucks. You'd think someone would talk to those folks!

* And it looks like we'll all be waiting even longer for a 3G (high-speed cell network) iPhone. Jobs said that even the UK iphone will use EDGE and fall back to Wi-Fi where available. Europeans have embraced 3G much faster than we have here stateside, so a slower cellular network could cause an even bigger backlash than it has here. We'll have to watch that ... I can't imagine Londoners using EDGE, so Apple might not start as a favourite right out of the gate.

* Interestingly, folks who sign up for iPhone service will receive free use of Wi-Fi at more than 7,500 hotspots, which will be operated by The Cloud. Obviously, that's in response to EDGE's slowness.

* Monthly O2 service plans will cost £35 ($69), £45 ($89) and £55 ($109) and include unlimited data. Activation will be via iTunes.

I'll update if I get some more useful information. As far as other European countries, announcements are coming soon I'm sure. It will be interesting to see what kinds of roaming agreements are made.

If you have questions, send them my way. If I can answer them, you know I will.

Thanks for calling.