Australia

We thought Australia was pretty lucky to have the choice between Optus, Telstra, or Vodafone for their iPhone 3G plan, but they're about to get even luckier. While us poor saps in the US get to make due with just AT&T, the people in Australia are going from three official iPhone carriers to four; Virgin Mobile has announced that they too will be carrying the iPhone soon.

Both Australian iPhone carriers Optus and Telstra have announced their plans and prices for the iPhone 3G. Both carriers will be offering more traditional iPhone 3G plans. On Optus, pricing of the handset is listed at the monthly "handset repayment" charge, which ranges from $0/month to $59/month depending on model and plan. Plans range from 19/month for 100MB data and "$50 of calls and text", to $179/month for 1GB of data and "$1500 of calls and text".

On Monday, Australian wireless carrier Telstra confirmed report that it had joined the ranks of the Australian carriers which would provide service for the iPhone via its Next G broadband network. The company also announced sales of the upcoming iPhone 3G handset and will retail the unit for $279 AUD for an 8GB model and $399 for the 16GB model.

Apple has announced the official carriers of the iPhone 3G in nations around the world, but one carrier who didn't get the deal is refusing to take it sitting down. Australian carrier 3 is claiming that, while Apple has not agreed to let them carry the iPhone 3G, they have received a great deal of interest from their consumers loyal to their network. Because of this, they are asking the people to show their support for their cause by digging their blog post on the popular social news website Digg.com.

Over in the land down under, Apple's Australian iTunes Store has just begun to offer television programming for sale. The online location is offering a standard price of $2.99 AUS per episode, although no season passes seem to be available as of this writing as of now.

Over in the land down under, Apple's Australian iTunes Store has just begun to offer television programming for sale. The online location is offering a standard price of $2.99 AUS per episode, although no season passes seem to be available as of this writing as of now.

According to Australian IT, wireless carrier Telstra will be joining Optus and Vodafone in offering the iPhone 3G at it's launch. According to unnamed sources, they will be getting the 3G iPhone on July 22nd, eleven days after it's rival carriers. Perhaps most unusual about the announcement is that their sources also say the Australian iPhone 3G will be capable of operating on the 850Mhz frequency range, something the original iPhone was not capable of.
[via Australian IT]

Apple has finally unveiled their shiny new retail store in Sydney, Australia, marking Apple's first retail location in the country. The impressive structure is located at 367 George Street, built into the first three stories of a large office building. The structure is somewhat unusual in it's design, in that it is a shallow, wide space, because the inner core of the building is taken up by elevators and other utilities. As a result, it was built into a shallow space, enclosed on the front by a glass box. Photos after the jump!