The three heavy-hitters have reviewed the iPhone, notes CruchGear. All think it’s a sweet deal.

• The WSJ’s Walt Mossberg says the battery only gets about 4 hours with 3G running but the $199 price is good, even if you’ll pay some $160 more than the earlier iPhone over the life of a two year contract.

• USA Today’s Ed Baig likes GPS and the 2.0 update. He couldn’t access 3G in parts of his northern New Jersey neighborhood and elsewhere.
• The NY Time’s David Pogue really likes it… except the limited 3G availability. AT&T’s 3G coverage map reveals that in 16 states, only three cities or fewer are covered; 10 states have no coverage at all.

A free software upgrade, called iPhone 2.0, will be available to the six million original iPhones, starting Friday. For $10, even iPod Touch owners can get this upgrade. The iPhone App Store opens Friday with hundreds of applications (many free) available for direct downloads.

The 3G iPhone costs $200 for the 8-gigabyte model, $300 for the 16-gig. Service with voice costs some $70/month with a two year contract. It goes on sale Friday.

BlogRunner has more coverage while C/Net reviews some iPhone alternatives.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 7:28 am.