When Apple announced the 3GS with all its whiz-bang new features, honestly the only thing I cared about was the increase in capacity. Everything else was just a bonus. I had my bank account all primed and ready to buy the thing as soon as it came out down here in New Zealand, but I was also keeping a wary eye on the NZ telcos to see what sort of blech they'd bring to the situation. Well, the blech they've brought is bad enough that I'm not buying a 3GS any time soon.

I looked forward to the release of the iPhone 3GS in New Zealand with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Excitement, because it would be nice to finally own an iPhone that can hold all of the music I actually listen to (16 GB just doesn't cut it). Trepidation, because as I made clear in an earlier post, the NZ telcos don't make buying an iPhone a cheap proposition.

The more time passed without any major announcements from either of the main NZ telcos, the more I knew their plans would suck. Vodafone already sold the 3G down here, so they were in a position to do pretty much whatever they wanted to the prices. Telecom was supposedly in "deep negotiations" with Apple to sell the iPhone in New Zealand, but the days stretched into weeks without any official word.

Traditionally, Apple has kept the prices of new products either the same or slightly lower when refreshing product lines like the iPod or iPhone. Many worldwide telcos have followed suit; in fact, across the Tasman Sea, Vodafone Australia offers a free iPhone when you sign up to a two-year plan.

Pretty much the most I was hoping for from the NZ telcos was that they'd keep their plan prices the same. I got my wish, sort of.

While I trashed Vodafone NZ's pricing in a previous post, in at least one way it's far ahead of U.S. telco giant AT&T: internet tethering using the iPhone is already possible over Vodafone's network without resorting to lengthy, kludgy, and unsupported hacks. Who knows how long tethering will stay supported here, or how long it will take before Vodafone remembers to charge extra for it, but for now, tethering is go in the Southern Hemisphere.

Tethering works over both USB and Bluetooth. Using USB to tether simply requires enabling internet tethering in the iPhone's settings, then plugging the iPhone into an available USB port on your computer. The Mac will automatically recognize the tethered iPhone, and your connection will be up and running.

Bluetooth tethering obviously requires enabling Bluetooth on both your iPhone and computer, and then selecting "Connect to Network" from the Bluetooth drop-down menu. Once again, the rest of the setup is automatic -- it really doesn't get much simpler than this.

The speed of the internet connection appears to be comparable to the iPhone's standard mobile speed using USB, but Bluetooth was only about half as fast. I didn't remain tethered for long for fear of gulping down my meager monthly data cap, but for the time I used it, tethering worked with no issues whatsoever.

For my money, having tethering available in little ol' New Zealand long before the U.S. will have it puts AT&T in an even less flattering light -- while AT&T has far more users spread over a much larger area than Vodafone NZ, AT&T also has more towers and more money to pour into their infrastructure.

Any other international iPhone users managed to get tethering working on their networks? Sound off in the comments, and be sure to let us know what network you're on.

Read on for a pictorial guide to enabling tethering over Bluetooth.

In a previous post, I discussed some of the shortcomings of New Zealand's broadband infrastructure. A lot of you gave some great responses, which led me to realize that although it's certainly not world-class, NZ's broadband isn't quite as bad overall as I thought - it's just my ISP isn't the greatest in the country, and it doesn't help matters that I don't live in a major city like Auckland or Wellington. When we first got here last July, we were kind of bewildered by pretty much everything (moving to a new country will do that to you), so we signed up for what seemed to be the best value for our money at the time. This turned out to entail a one-year commitment to Vodafone. Well, as it turns out, Vodafone NZ's broadband plans kind of stink compared to some other offerings people brought up, so we'll be ditching them for something better as soon as that commitment is over next month.

With my iPhone, however, I don't have the option of giving Vodafone the heave-ho for at least another 20 months. In fact, right now if you want to buy an iPhone in New Zealand, unless you're willing to jump through a lot of hoops and pay a lot more money, Vodafone is pretty much the only horse in town.

While some Kiwi commenters pointed out that broadband here isn't necessarily as terrible as I made it out to be, one thing they all agreed on was that the mobile phone pricing here is just barely short of criminal. No, let's not mince words: it is criminal. New Zealanders pay some of the highest mobile rates in the world, both for plans and for handsets. What we get for our money down here is pretty astonishing, and not in a good way.

iPhone and iPod touch software 2.0.1 became available yesterday, and today several iPhone 3G owners are reporting problems.

Specifically, users who paid to have their 3G iPhones unlocked by Vodafone* are unable to re-connect to the service following the update, and instead receive a "0xE8000001" error message. How helpful. It seems to happen on both Windows and Mac OS X.

As you remember, Vodafone is selling the iPhone in 10 countries, and a quick look at Apple's Discussion Boards reveal this problem popping up in Spain, Italy, Sweden and more, which leads us to believe that it's Vodafone's issue.

We haven't come across a fix yet, but we'll keep you posted. In the meantime, let us know if you've been able to squash this bug.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

*Update: Some of our tipsters have had luck restoring the phone to reconnect to Vodafone, but not all. Also, a reader from Finland reports the same issue with his locked phone on the Sonera network, and a Belgian correspondent chimes in with the same problem on Mobistar (Orange); looks like the issue is more widespread than just Vodafone's customers.

At the most recent World Wide Developer's Conference, Steve Jobs listed the countries that will see iPhone availability once the 3G model is released. As we approach the big day, more retailers are announcing their plans.

This week, Vodafone announced details of the New Zealand launch. Specifically, three Vodafone branches will host a midnight sale on Friday, July 11. Those branches are

• 171 Queen St., Auckland City
• 358 Lambton Quay, Wellington
• 681 Colombo Street Christchurch

Other stores will open with 3G iPhones on the shelves at 9:00 AM. No details on specific pricing or data plans, but Vodafone says that this page will be updated with those details later in the week.

A little birdie flew into TUAW Headquarters (read: Scott's Philadelphia apartment) this morning. In fact, he flew all the way from Australia to tell us that Vodafone will not be the exclusive carrier in Australia.

"What's that, little bird?" we asked. He said that Aussie carriers will have their own plans and deals, and that unlocked iPhones will be sold at Apple Stores.

Now, we can't substantiate the bird's accuracy (though he did say "G'Day" and "mate" several times), but considering the announcement that Italy will have two carriers, we aren't dismissing it out-of-pocket, either.

Update: The Sydney Morning Herald has published confirmation that Australia-based Telstra and Optus will also carry the iPhone.

Earlier today we learned that Vodafone has been tagged to carry the iPhone in ten countries, including Italy. Shortly after that announcement Italian communications company Telecom Italia announced that they, too, will carry the iPhone.

Neither company provided any more detail than that, so exactly what those plans will look like and how they'll co-exist is unknown. However, we understand that Italians love pay-as-you-go plans. In fact, Vodafone reports that 91% of their current Italian customers lack contracts.

Perhaps a paid vs. contract-free option? Only The Shadow knows. We'll keep you informed, readers.

[Via MacNN]

Yesterday, TUAW posted about using iASign to activate iPhones on non-iPhone AT&T plans. Today, TUAW reader AJ reports that he's used iASign to activate his iPhone with Vodafone.

He writes that at first he bought an AT&T prepaid card on ebay and used iASign to get it working. After doing a little thinking (how would he top off the card, and wasn't a US phone number going to be pretty useless in the UK?), he popped the AT&T-branded US SIM out of his iPhone and put it into an old O2 XDA handset, which he brought to the Vodafone store.

At the store, he had them add the phone to his current Vodafone contract. When he returned home, he put the Vodafone-compliant AT&T SIM back into the iPhone, and used iASign to activate it. He reports that he's made a call using the Vodafone network although the iPhone itself still says AT&T in the corner. He's also confirmed that his Vodafone number is assigned to the phone. Visual voicemail is, sadly, a no go but SMS text messaging works fine.

Update: This post is causing quite an uproar over at the #iphone IRC channel. Participants there suggest this method should not have worked. SIM numbers are network specific and Vodafone should not have been able to use an AT&T SIM. Specific questions that remain are: How and why vodaphone accepted the AT&T SIM and "reprogrammed" it and how the network accepted a different CCID (thanks Spoonet). More as this develops.

Update 2: I asked another TUAW reader to try this in Canada. He writes: "Rogers wouldn't take the SIM card number since the network prefix wasn't for Rogers, i.e. 8930. Back to square one." One user, puescho, tried calling T-Mobile in Germany and was told that a technician said this was not possible.

For those of you readers who have been curious, here is the canonical list of carrier logos installed directly on the iPhone. I know we've bandied about a bunch of carrier names here at TUAW. And, yes, it's easy enough for Apple to change its mind as negotiations go on and just do a software update to add or change logos and/or carriers. Leaving all that aside, at this time, the built-in carriers appear to be Cingular/AT&T, T-Mobile, and Vodafone. Each logo appears in two files in /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app, as Default_CARRIER and also FSO_CARRIER using a non-standard png encoding.

Who will win Europe's iPhone distribution deal? I've been hearing Vodafone for a long time now but today TechDigest posts that T-Mobile may have the edge. Those usual suspects, the 'unnamed sources", are back. And this time those know-it-alls are saying that T-Mobile, which is owned by Deutsche Telekom, has taken over the lead.

Unfortunately, T-Mobile does not seem to have a big presence, at least according to the article, in France, Spain or Italy. Also, it's unclear whether the iPhone will have a eurowide release or be introduced in different countries in stages.

There's still, what, eight months or so before the iPhone bows in Europe. Is the iPhone going to get an exclusive deal? Who do you think will be the provider? Or will there be many operators and none of this exclusive nonsense?

While Steve was quick to announce Cingular (or is it AT&T now? Who knows...) as the American carrier for the forthcoming iPhone, they're yet to line up a carrier in Europe. Market Watch is reporting today that Apple is actively courting providers, and may select Vodafone as their sole European iPhone carrier by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Google is supposedly considering Telefonica SA to carry a rumored "GPhone" in Europe.

[Via My iPhone]

One of the things that had us sitting at the edge of our seats during the iPhone introduction was Google Maps integration. Now Mad4 Mobile Phones reports that the Vodafone may scoop Apple on the phone front. According to the article, their mobile version of Google Maps (available as a Java download) will offer "easy to use maps and listings of local restaurants as well as other attractions and services." Yes, but will you be able to pinch the displays to zoom them? I think not. Clearly Google has made a big commitment to mobile information access and the iPhone, as well as Vodafone, are just part of the big picture. Windows Mobile and PalmOS users can already use Google Maps on their mobile device, as you can see at the bottom of the Google Maps Mobile page.