AT&T gets the iPhone through 2010

USA Today is reporting that the iPhone will be exclusive to AT&T through 2010, one year later than Apple’s original commitment to the company.

The iPhone’s price tag dropped for the 3G version thanks to the work of AT&T chairman Randall Stephenson. Stephenson was behind AT&T’s subsidy of the 3G iPhone. Where as the first generation iPhone was paid for completely by the consumer, the 3G version is subsidized by AT&T. For each iPhone sold AT&T is shelling out the remainder of the cost of the device to Apple, most analysts estimate around $300 a pop.

Buying an iPhone 3G gets a little easier

Getting an iPhone 3G got a little easier this weekend:

If you’re still waiting to pick up your iPhone 3G, then the Apple store may be making your job a little easier.

According to an announcement on the iPhone availability page on Apple’s website, some Apple stores that typically open at 10am will now open at 8am to accommodate for iPhone customers. The stores are also reportedly adding new staff to deal with the demand for the phones. Since all iPhones have to be activated in the store iPhone lines are often several hours long, additional staff and hours should help to ease that strain at the stores at least a little bit.

Apple Launches Beta Testing for App Store Developers

Apple’s App Store was one of the major improvements in the 2.0 software upgrade. Since the launch of the store users have been downloading games and other apps nearly non-stop with the total number of application downloads now reaching well into the millions.

One behind the scene aspect of the App Store that a general user might not realize, is that each one of the 909 applications currently available on the iPhone was first be approved by Apple before it becomes a part of the store. That means that new applications often have a pretty tremendous wait time to get approved before they actually make it into the App Store ready for users to download.