Some articles, including one of my own, have concluded that the new iPhone 3G is not worth the upgrade for those who already own the first-generation gadget. However, I overlooked that is perhaps the device's most important improvement: a standard-sized, 3.5mm headphone jack. Finally, all your headphones will fit perfectly without any stupid adapter.

This alone justifies the steeper overall price of the AT&T iPhone 3G compared to the original iPhone. As you may already have found out, Apple and AT&T managed to make people pay more while advertising they pay less for the new iPhone. The trick is very clever and is related to the apparently innocent $240 extra dollars over the course of a two year contract, to which you can add 24 months of paying the now-extra 200 messages/month plan, with $5 each month. That's an additional $120. Total? $360 more on the contract, compensating quite well the so-called "price cut" of the actual gadget from $400 to $200 for the cheapest model.

As already highlighted by nearly all reviewers, the most touted feature, the 3G connectivity, is plagued by two problems: lack of widespread coverage by AT&T and a much shorter battery life. The 3G radio chips are more advanced and the technology utilizes bandwidth in a far more effective way than 2G GSM networks, but all this comes at the expense of the power draw needed to fuel intense computations.

Meanwhile, iPhone 3G retail stores will probably deal with some supply shortages these days, before the next shipment is expected.

Together with the iPhone, Apple's AppStore was also launched, providing the first 500 third-party applications to iPhone and iPod Touch users. Apparently, around a quarter of these are free, while most of the rest cost less than $10. About a third are games. The applications can only run on iPhones and iPod Touches updated to the latest firmware, 2.0, or on the iPhone 3G which includes the new firmware.

Those pondering the upgrade to a 3G iPhone should remember that the upcoming 2.0 firmware, available for free to all first-generation iPhone users, will bring to their "old" gadget most of the functionality of the iPhone 3G, minus the 3G support and the GPS antenna. And, of course, minus the standard-sized, 3.5mm phone jack!