Apple introduced the first iPhone two years ago on January 9, 2009. Currently, there are 4 generations of the Smartphone. While the operating system iOS has changed, several features including the liquid crystal display with scratch-resistant glass and the button placement have remained the same. The 3G network capabilities and A-GPS were added to the 3G model, the 3GS iPhone featured a faster processor, a high resolution camera with video capabilities, and a compass. The latest iPhone 4, released on June 24, 2010, offers an upgraded screen and two cameras. The original iPhone with 8GB of memory sold for $599 at the time of its release.

The 3GS misses out on some refinements offered only by the iPhone 4, but it runs Apple’s iOS 4.2.1 and comes with a black or white back plate. AT&T is the second-largest U.S. mobile-phone carrier and requires a two-year contract to take advantage of the new $49 price.

Pre-orders for the iPhone 4 came in so swift that they may have overloaded the system. However, any possible new security breach is bad news for AT&T after the accidental leak of about 114,000 email addresses last week (ip-192.com reported here). The vulnerability did only affect iPad users that did sign up for AT&T's 3G wireless service in the U.S.

Issues related to iPhone 4 orders seemed to develop while the AT&T website tried to retrieve customer data. Both Apple and AT&T started to take pre-orders for the new iPhone on June 15, 2010. While Apple's site was still up and running, it said on Wednesday that orders placed on June 16 will be shipped on July 02, 2010. In the U.S., official launch date for the new smartphone is June 24, 2010.

Google's Hot Topics reported that the phrase "pre order iPhone 4" was the second most actively blogged and tweeted topic on Wednesday. At this time, AT&T is the exclusive carrier for Apple's iPhones. There is a lot of chatter saying that Verizon Wireless and/or T-Mobile USA are in talks with Apple Inc. to carry the iPhone.

The picture serves illustrative purposes only and does not show Apple’s new iPhone 4. Photo: JG Klein

"Free Wi-Fi is in my mind just the price of admission - we want to create ... new sources of content that you can only get at Starbucks. This is a thing that doesn't exist in any other consumer marketplace in America," said Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz during the Wired Business Conference in New York.

While other companies like Caribou and McDonald already offer free Web access, nobody else is promoting their own localized content. Starbucks hopes that the Digital Network will help to create some sort of community center where people will meet between office and home or, how Schultz put it, a bridge between the real and the digital world.

Since every customer will need a unique identifier to log into the network, Starbucks has the potential to serve targeted advertising based on its patron’s surf and purchase history. Online content may come from AOL's Patch.com, a community-specific news and information platform. The Digital Network will also allow free access to the Wall Street Journal, and serve music and videos.

Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,133 stores in 49 countries, including 11,068 in the United States, nearly 1,000 in Canada and more than 800 in Japan. The free Wi-Fi offer will be limited to the 6,700 company-operated locations in the U.S. 4,300 franchise stores will not participate in the promotion.

You can find a Starbucks store locator here.

Starbucks plans to offer free Wi-Fi at 6,700 company owned stores in the U.S. The Seattle based company follows McDonald and Caribou. Photo: www.imagine-your-world.com

The vulnerability only affected iPad users that did sign up for AT&T’s 3G wireless service in the U.S. "We take customer privacy very seriously and while we have fixed this problem, we apologize to our customers who were impacted," AT&T said in a statement. The breach exploited an Integrated Circuit Card Identifier (ICC-ID) present on every SIM card that is used as an authentication token. After the AT&T website received the ID's, it responded by providing an email addresses to allow a speedy log-on process to user accounts. The hacker group exploited the flaw by sending thousands of requests with made up codes to AT&T’s website, masqueraded as valid requests from iPads.

AT&T says that the issue has been resolved and that it will inform all customers who were impacted. It discovered the vulnerability after being alerted by a customer. Only email addresses were revealed in the breach. Goatse Security says that it has previously exposed vulnerabilities in Amazon's rating system and the Firefox and Safari web browsers.

The N8 is capable of recording and editing High Definition (720p) video clips and display HD web TV content, thanks to its 3.5 inch touchscreen and a 12 megapixel camera. By connecting the smartphone to a home theater system, users can enjoy HD-quality video with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound. The device will allow connections through Wi-Fi (b, g, and n standards) and Bluetooth 2.1. 16 GB of on-board storage (expandable via microSD cards) and a FM receiver and transmitter will round out the N8.

Social networking functionality allows for status and location updates, and a single app displays live feeds from Facebook and Twitter. Calendar events from social networks can also be transferred to the device calendar. The smartphone has multi-touch and multi-tasking capabilities, allowing users to keep several applications open at any given time.

The Nokia N8 comes with free global Ovi Maps that allow walk and drive navigation and provide guidance to points of interest in more than 70 countries worldwide. Nokia says that the N8 is the first device to be integrated with Qt, "a software development environment that simplifies the development and makes it possible to build applications once and deploy across Symbian and other software platforms." A Qt Software Development Kit (SDK) is currently available in Beta.

Nokia says that it plans to ship the new flagship phone in the third quarter of 2010. It is rumored that an unlocked carrier-independent model that would work on GSM-based AT&T and T-Mobile networks will carry a price tag of $500.

Photos: Nokia