iPhone 3G: The arrival-day FAQs

After months of speculation, and weeks since CEO Steve Jobs trumpeted it at his company's annual developers conference, Apple today rolls out its new, faster iPhone 3G.

But with the hype seemingly on mute compared to last year's original frenzy when the first-generation iPhone debuted -- is there anything worth knowing?

We certainly think so.

Because Apple changed the game with iPhone 3G -- it's no longer demanding a slice of carriers' subscriber revenues and now takes subsidy payments from operators instead -- the first day of iPhone v.2 is a completely different deal. By now you probably know that the "3G" in the name stands for the new network capabilities it offers, including faster data transfer speeds. And, of course, there's the built-in GPS, which application developers will no doubt make use of with a slew of new apps. (There were already more than 550 available when Apple's App Store went live on Thursday.)

And yet, on opening day, we expect you'll have questions. And we have some of the answers.

[ For the big picture on the iPhone 3G, see InfoWorld's special report, and for more on bringing the iPhone into the office, read How to make the new iPhone work at work. ]

When does the iPhone go on sale? In the United States, doors open on Friday, July 11 at 8 a.m. local time. In the other 22 countries that get the iPhone out the gate, your mileage may vary. Japan's Softbank Mobile Corp., for example, was going to start selling the iPhone 3G at its store in Tokyo's Harajuku district at 7 a.m. local time (6 p.m. EDT Thursday in the United States) In some markets, however, the phone won't arrive for a week or more.

Where do I get one? With Apple's strategic shift -- it's taking the money up front from carriers in the form of subsidies, rather than a piece of the subscriber action -- there's not much online action for the new model. (Some exceptions: O2, the exclusive carrier in the U.K., took pre-orders online earlier this week, not that it did most customers much good, as the site melted down within an hour.)