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World First: The iPhone 3G goes on sale in New Zealand

Sick of all the iPhone hype yet? You're not alone. The good news is, the iPhone 3G has finally arrived and we can start figuring out if this phone warrants all the fuss.

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Here in New Zealand, iPhone 3G arrived amid howls of protest from anguished iPhone lovers distraught as Vodafone, the sole Kiwi supplier of "that phone", announced pricing so expensive even the Canadians are laughing at us. Turns out, owning an iPhone in New Zealand is going to cost at least NZ$80 per month (that's about US$60 if you're reading this from overseas) with the phone itself costing NZ$549 for the 8GB version (around US$460). Things only get more expensive from there in terms of cost of ownership and it would seem you need to be at least a little moneyed if you plan on becoming an iPhone owner in New Zealand. So as desirable as the iPhone 3G is, we must temper our hot-blooded gadget lust with a splash of icy cold water straight from Vodafone's billing department.

iPhone 3G
For the past few weeks we've spent some serious quality time with the iPhone 3G. Does it warrant the midnight queues at Apple stores around the globe? Well, yes, mostly. If ever there was a geeky gadget that deserved to have the word "sex" applied to it, certainly it's the iPhone 3G. And if we can separate our billing-related angst for a moment and look at the iPhone itself, we find an incredibly capable, highly desirable, yet far from perfect device. Let's take a look.

Continue reading: What do you get with the Apple iPhone 3G? »