iPhone News

Universal iPhone 4 Bumpers Hit Apple Stores – In case you didn’t know the buttons on the Verizon phone for volume are lower than the ones on the AT&T version. This case will work with both phones

MacRumors: Apple Preps for Verizon iPhone Launch With New Bumpers, Vacation Blackouts – This launch should be huge.

T-Mobile says ‘ask Apple’ on iPhone, hints it’s more likely – People are now wondering who is next

iFixit Begins Offering ‘iPhone 4 Liberation Kit’ to Tackle Apple’s Pesky Proprietary Screws – I am not sure this will impact many people, but its just something to be aware of.

Apple’s now shipping 366,000 iOS devices a day – Holy Sh!t that’s a lot of devices!

What AT&T Is Doing To Make Sure You Don’t Go To The Enemy – They need to go on the defensive to make sure they don’t lose customers.

iOS 4.3 beta 2 reveals iPad 2 Camera, PhotoBooth and FaceTime apps – These are much needed improvements in my eyes.

iPhone Apps

Apple Reveals the Top iPhone Apps of All Times – You may find some gems in here that you

Angry Birds Go LEGO – I love Angry Birds and Lego’s, so this is cool!

iPhone Jailbreaking

XBMC for Apple TV , iPad and iPhone 4 available now [jailbreak] – XBMC is some nice software, so this is a pretty cool motivation to jailbreak.

I had a conversation recently with some friends about the true cost of owning a smart phone.  I decided to run some numbers to see what the total cost of ownership really is across 5 of the more popular smart phones out there such as the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, Blackberry Storm, Android G1, and Palm Pre.

Here is a summary chart of what I found while shopping online:

[singlepic id=74 630 h=166 float=center]

As you can tell the monthly cost of ownership between the iPhone and the Storm are pretty close.  The G1 is your best cost saver across the board, except for when you get into the unlimited talk, text, and data.  Once you get to that tier, the Palm Pre comes through as the cheapest.

Now some basic disclaimers.  I tried to put some carrier specific disclaimers on each chart listed below.  These prices were effective on 7/20/2009.  When listing the price for the phone, I took into account what offers the carriers had running at the time, regardless of if it was a mail in rebate or instant rebate.  The prices do not include any state or federal taxes.  Finally, all of this is based on signing your life away to a 2 year contract as a new subscriber.

Here are the rest of the charts:
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