IPhone 3G Won't Set World Afire

Critics love the awesome camera, screen, and new features

(NEWSER) - The iPhone 4 hits tomorrow, and tech reviewers everywhere are incredibly impressed. Here's what they're saying:

• The iPhone 4 is “a major leap over its already excellent predecessor,” writes Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal . The new features work very well, and the redesign “manages to make the 3GS appear bulbous by comparison.”
• David Pogue of the New York Times almost doesn’t bother reviewing it. “What’s the point?” he writes. They’ve already sold tons of these. “The public seems perfectly capable of sniffing out a winner without the help of tech critics.” But for the record, yes, the iPhone 4 is "sweet."

(NEWSER) - Even a gadget as good as the iPhone isn't without its annoyances, although luckily bigger geeks than you have cooked up workarounds for most of them, Jared Newman writes in PC World. Some major gripes:

• AT&T: The carrier's stranglehold in the US is becoming even more irksome as foreign iPhone users start to enjoy better tethering and multimedia messaging services.
• Weak email management: An update has added bulk email management, but there's still no simple way to delete or move batches of messages.

Hackers use school vacation to best Apple's engineers and 'jailbreak' new phone

(NEWSER) - A group of teenage thorns in Apple's side have been the first to release "jailbreak" software for the latest iPhone 3GS, the Wall Street Journal reports. The hackers, in the latest round of what Steve Jobs calls "a cat-and-mouse game with his top engineers," created software that lets iPhone users unlock their phones and download applications not approved by the company. More»

Quickoffice nice, but wait to buy: Mossberg

(NEWSER) - At long last, the iPhone has a full-fledged office suite that can edit, format or create Microsoft Word or Excel documents. Third-party app Quickoffice has some nifty features—including old-fashioned cut/copy/paste, which the iPhone itself hasn’t implemented yet. But it’s missing a number of features, writes Walter Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal, enough that he can’t yet recommend it. More»

'I've never seen anything like this,' Apple boss says

(NEWSER) - The iPhone’s new App Store has exceeded the company’s wildest expectations, tallying up average sales of $1 million per day, Steve Jobs said today in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Apple’s on pace to make $360 million from the store this year. “This thing's going to crest a half a billion, soon,” says Jobs. “I've never seen anything like this in my career for software.” More»