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Has it been 74 days already? This weekend Apple sold it’s one-millionth iPhone, a few days after they slashed the price by a third to jolt sales.

With this news Apple shares went up $4.94, or 3.8 percent to 136.71. Apple thought they would hit the one million iPhone mark by the end of September, so they are ahead of what they had predicted. By comparison, it took two years for Apple to sell one million iPods.

Apple knocked $200 off the price of the 8-gigabyte iPhone last week bringing its price to $399. Apple also discontinued the 4-gigabyte version.

The price cut angered Apple customers who bought the iPhone for the full price. Price slashing is common in the cell phone industry, but not common for Apple. Jobs issued an apology the next day and offered customers $100 credits if they bought their iPhone within 14 days of the price cut.

The same day Apple slashed the iPhone price to $399, it unveiled a new iPod, also $399 and called the iPod Touch. The iPod Touch is essentially the same as the iPhone but without the cell phone capability.

The New Jersey 17-year-old who hacked the iPhone to work with other cell carriers traded a hacked iPhone for a new Nissan 350Z and three brand new 8GB iPhones. The car and the three phones came from CertiCell, a Louisville, Ky.-based mobile phone repair company.

“This has been a great end to a great summer,” Hotz wrote.

Hotz said he will be sending the three new iPhones to the three online callaborators who helped him get the Apple iPHones to work with other carriers. Since iPhone’s launch, Hotz and his online friends took about 500 hours, or around 8 hours each day.

The 17-year-old Hotz made a deal with Terry Daidone, co-founder of CertiCell and has promised him a paid consulting job.

I’d say that is a very good ending to a great summer!

Photo credit: Y! News 

Okay, this is my third straight entry on the iPhone. I have to apologize for those of you who are sick and tired of hearing about the iPhone. Anyway, I stumbled upon an article this morning stating the issues (more like gripes) about this device.

According to CNET.com, the iPhone is considered an easy-to-use, sleek interface, top-notch music and video functions all in a nice pretty design, however they don’t consider it to be living up to the hype.

After all this is a phone we’re talking about and there are a host of missing features, sluggish EDGE network and variable call quality which left them wanting more from the iPhone.

To scroll through long lists, such as the phone book or music playlists CNET found it somewhat tedious. Flicking your finger up or down will move you part of the way through a list, but you cannot move directly to the bottom or top of the list. The lack of buttons requires a lot of tapping to move about the interface.

The keyboard is pretty much accurate, however it has a long way to go to achieve greatness. When typing an email or text message the keyboard is displayed only when you hold the iPhone vertically. As a result, the CNET reviewer could only type comfortably with one finger, which really cut down on typing speed. Plus basic punctuation such as periods and commas are on a secondary keyboard which was annoying.

There’s more to the CNET review in which you can check out here.

Halleluiah, maybe Apple, Inc.‘s iPhone hype will start to fade a little now that some of us have gotten our hands on one. Gadget junkies lined up today to hopefully pick up one of the long awaited electronic device in years.

Apple stores in New York saw crowds of over 600 people and several dozen customers at AT&T stores — the phone’s exclusive wireless carrier for the next two years.

In San Francisco about 200 people stood outside an outlet. One customer mentioned that most of the phones out there today are garbage. He had been through several phones, even the expensive phones. He also claims that the iPhone is different and that it’s the latest toy so he had to get one.

For those of you who have been living under a rock the past 6 months or so, the iPhone melds a phone, Web browser and media player all in one device. Technology gurus say that the iPhone is a “breakthrough” device but are concerned about the smooth touch-screen interface instead of a keyboard.

In any case, if trends continue to go towards smart phones, I think the iPhone will be very successful seeing that it has just about everything users like (except the computing power of some smart phones that are already out there). All I have to say is to those who really want the iPhone — Good luck getting your hands on one and get ready to dig deep into your wallets for activation, monthly fees and oh yeah, the $499 sticker price on the 4GB model and the $599 price on the 8GB model. You’re looking at around $1400 for a two-year required service contract. IPhone away everyone!

Consumers planning to buy the iPhone when it goes on sale in the U.S. later this month will need to have an iTunes Store account before they can activate the device, according to information on Apple’s Web site.

A Separate Deal from Cell

Apple will require customers to establish a separate account with its online media service in addition to one with AT&T Wireless Services, which has signed an exclusive U.S. distribution deal for the iPhone.

The move will allow Apple to create its own billing relationship with iPhone customers, rather than collecting payments for any iTunes purchases they make via the mobile operator.

The iPhone is due to go on sale in the U.S. on June 29. The company has announced plans for a European release in the fourth quarter of the year but has yet to provide details, such as whether the European version will operate on 3G (third-generation) networks.

Warren East, CEO of ARM Holdings PLC, mentioned at Computex that the iPhone will promote all smartphones. Apple first put out the Newton personal digital assistant (PDA) in the early 1990s, in which U.S. Robotics followed with its Pilot (which later became Palm). Adding computing functionality to mobile phones to create smartphones happened soon after. Seeing that everyone wants to stay connected while on the move is another reason small computing devices are even more popular.

This is not very new news, in fact East said “this has been an emerging market for a long time.” East predicts that sales will end up close to 200 million units, or double last year’s figure. He also adds that within the next few years, smartphones will make up half f the mobile phone market.