As iPhone channels continue to run dry, more and more readers have asked whether now would be a good time to buy an iPhone or not -- assuming you could even find one. Our Mike Rose suggested that dry channels might indicate that Apple is trying to avoid that whole "if a new model appears within 15 days of purchase" nightmare. If he's right, expect to see a flood of refurb units hit Apple and AT&T just after the new 3G unit is introduced.

The first generation iPhone is an absolutely fabulous device and there's nothing to indicate that it won't be 100% compatible with new firmware for a long time to come. Price cuts on previous generation units make them an especially good match to hacking and unlocking. You can be enjoying your new iPhone while waiting out the inevitable 3G price drop or the move to newer generation technology.

With Apple, there's a distinct consumer advantage to buying about 6-months behind the trend. As a delayed adopter, you buy all the beauty of the new technology while getting that (plus all the software updates and fixes) at a slightly lower price.

Word is out: new versions of the iPhone SDK and firmware are available for download. Word about the details are still trickling in from developers. This is Apple's fifth beta release since the iPhone SDK was released in March. There's just under a week left until the end of the Apple Design Awards submission period. No word if iPhone developers who submitted under earlier firmware will be able to re-submit outside the 72 hour period that Apple allots for "re-dos".

Readers report that this is a smaller download (just over 1 GB) and details are trickling in through the comments.

Thank you everyone who sent this in!

Continue reading BREAKING: New iPhone SDK & Firmware released

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1. The nano thong. It's what you think it is.
2. iBuzz. As far as we know, the first iPod-powered sex toy.
3. Combo iPod dock/toilet paper dispenser. Because someone's never heard of magazines.
4. iPod boxer shorts. At that point, just turn on the radio.
5. The KNG iPod DJ dock. I can't explain it in words; You have to look.

Our anonymous iControl tipster has returned and tells us that a new XMPP framework has been spotten in the latest iPhone firmware. XMPP refers to the open source standard developed by the Jabber community for instant messaging. Remember back in March when Apple announced it would support native instant messaging? In a nutshell, it looks like Apple's new iPhone-based chat will be built on Jabber/XMPP.

Unfortunately, we're told that this XMPP support remains in a private framework and will not be available to 3rd party SDK developers. Apple has made a strong commitment to sand-boxed development, allowing developers little access to the underlying OS and frameworks. Single-purpose apps like games should thrive in this development environment while less bounded utilities like social networking apps may struggle--or at least have to depend strongly on web-based servers.

An anonymous tipster tells TUAW that according to code found in the latest firmware release, Apple is working on a new iPhone application called iControl. Like Apple TV and other remote controllers, it would allow the iPhone to connect wirelessly to local iTunes libraries and browse through and play media from those sources.

TUAW is told that a media navigator will allow you to view videos, play podcasts, listen to music and even support shuffle playback. The screenshot shown here shows some of the localizable strings for the iPhone-based application. There's obviously no timeline for release, but since the SDK event back in February, it's been rumored that Apple would release some official iPhone apps of their own, and iControl might be the first.

Update: The data is so thin on the ground that it's hard to respond to readers who have asked whether this will be a "Back to my iTunes" application. Just having local Bonjour support wouldn't be all that useful. Apparently a screenshot of the bundle (not apparently a real application) here