Two caveats to this. One, you shouldn't interrupt a backup that's in place, because that results in a corrupt backup. It's fine if you perform another backup right after to make a correct one, but if you forget and try and restore? It's phone corruption time. Two, using this method means you will not have a phone backup. Yeah, seriously. You won't have anything to restore from, so you'll have to go in naked the next time something's broken with your OS. Now that you know what the risks are, here's how you do it:

This command will change a hidden setting in the iTunes preferences that will force it to skip the backup process.

1. - Quit iTunes.
2. - Open Terminal.app
3. - Copy and paste this in, then hit return:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true

4. - Open iTunes
5. - Plug in your iPhone (2.0 or 3G) and sync.

It will take a few seconds, assuming you don't have a ton of music or podcasts.

Changing the 'true' in step 3 to 'false' will re-enable the backup feature.

[Zerologic]

The framework is expected to roll in the fall. As TechCrunch points out, Facebook's iPhone SDK indicates that mobile is a big part of their vision—so expect to see a lot more Facebook on your phone (and other gear) in the near future. Hope you're into oversharing! [TechCrunch]

"There is a huge shortage of iPhone developers. Good thing there are books and classes to get new ones up to speed. Oh right: FUCKING NDA." More seriously, he points out that the NDA, unless lifted, threatens dev conferences like iPhoneDevCamp 2, where they'd get together to obviously talk about programming. The apps are out there, it's silly they still can't they talk about creating them. [Fucking NDA via TUAW]

1. Turn down the LCD. The new iPhone's screen is brighter, but you shouldn't be running this thing at full heat if you want to save battery power. I keep mine at 10% brightness. Change this under Settings -> Brightness.

2. Wi-Fi new network scanning off or Wi-Fi off. While you're not checking data for more than a few seconds at a time, I'd turn off Wi-Fi and in general, I'd turn off Wi-Fi scanning. It uses less power than EDGE or 3G but when you're not using your network connection, you might as well shut it down. Change this under Settings -> Wi-Fi. Same goes for Bluetooth.

3. Toggle off 3G till ready. Here's something I wish Apple had automatically managed. I use 3G for browsing, YouTube, app store purchases when not around a computer, or during important calls. For all other uses, including email, weather checking and Twitter, etc, I use EDGE. This setting is under Settings -> General -> Network.

4. Turn off Vibrate in Games. Playing a game with vibrate happening frequently is an unnecessary battery suck. If you can turn it off, turn it off.

5. Limit use of A-GPS tracking. GPS tracking is still pretty useless after you've gained your bearings, since there isn't a turn by turn navigation mode for driving. I exit out of maps once I've got the directions in my mind, and if I lose myself again, I just start maps up once more.

6. Buy Apps and Songs in iTunes. You can buy songs over Wi-Fi or Apps over 3G, but that doesn't mean you should. I'd recommend buying Apps at your computer if you can help it, and syncing them to your iPhone instead. As an added bonus, you'll be picking up a charge while you're tethered to your computer.

7. Set the Autolock to 1-minute. The iPhone's autolock is good at shutting off the screen if you forget to when placing it in a pocket, purse or just tossing it on a table after a call. I set mine to the most aggressive, 1-minute, but there are times where I set it to 2-minutes. This setting is under Settings -> General -> Autolock.

8. Use programs with 3D less often. Not surprisingly, I've noticed that when I play games rendering 3D, battery life drops. Using the graphics chips more intensely will crank up power usage, but maybe the drain is also because of the nature of gaming: Unlike email or browsing, gaming is a full-time, full attention endeavor that also keeps the CPU, GPU and LCD going full-time. (I'd like to think this is a more useful tip than "don't use your iPhone" but maybe it's not something you can avoid if you're a gaming addict.)

9. Set Push to Off, and Set Fetch Time. Push email isn't that useful for me because I know I'm getting emails all day long and that I have to be checking all the time. Push does use more juice than the fetch mode, which checks for calendar, contact and email syncing at set intervals of 15 minutes to an hour. I set mine to 1 hour unless I'm out of the office. If you seldom update your contacts and calendars, you might even be better off syncing by cable to iTunes, while you pick up a charge.

10. Stay Juiced. If you're at computer or in a car, you should try to use a cigarette adapter or USB cable to pick up a few minutes of charge. Every bit helps!

These tips also apply to a first generation iPhone running OS 2.0.

PC World says that the result is remarkable knowing that AT&T's HSDPA/UMTS network is very power-hungry because voice calls use the more battery-demanding 3G band. Apple's own tests give the new iPhone a 5 hour talk time over 3G, so that's 38 minutes more. By contrast, the Samsung Instinct—which runs on EVDO—switches to CDMA for voice, which they say it uses less power. In theory—as the results show.

They also claim that the iPhone 3G's battery performance is lower than the iPhone over 2G, which is true. But that's like comparing apples to oranges (no pun intended). They didn't test the latest iPhone's battery life over 2G networks, which Apple rates at 10 hours (the same as the iPhone classic). Also, these tests don't compare the iPhone to some options available elsewhere in the world—like Nokia's—but it gives a good idea of where the iPhone 3G stands against the competition. [PC World]

Apple has eliminated so many annoying little hang-ups that you might run into when using the old one. The GPS pinpoints to meters instead of blocks. The 3G connection slashes web loading times by minutes to seconds. The more rounded case feels great in the hand. And most importantly the new software polishes the OS and opens the phone up to nearly unlimited capabilities through the countless programs that are already being written by the brilliant legions of faithful developers. It's kind of cool.

If you want to cut to the chase, the software is what we're most excited about—so much that we ran the first half of this review earlier extolling the iPhone 2.0 virtues in detail, including the fact that it's a free upgrade for the people who snapped up the first iPhone, perhaps before it was ready.

On the software side, the iPhone has the most advanced touchscreen OS out there today. Scrolling, dialing, panning, zooming, touching and pinching are all actions you can do to get around your photos, your maps, your movies, your music and of course, your phone calls. The iPhone 2.0 update improves on the already great communication features such as desktop-class email and web browsing by adding MobileMe and Exchange support—both of which push emails to your phone as soon as they're received, just like on the BlackBerry. These two new additions also allow your phone to always sync contacts and calendar events with your computer or your office's system directly over the air, without ever needing to dock, or take any action. There's also the App Store, which gives you access to a gigantic library of third-party applications to add features such as controlling your iTunes, instant messaging, 3D gaming and To Do lists. One drawback is that Apple may not support the cool (illegal) apps like the NES emulators and video recording programs that don't work through the SDK. Lots of unofficial third party apps may never make it to the store. One, Instinctiv, a super iPhone music shuffle app, was recently denied store sales because it is against the terms of agreement to enhance the iPod or iPhone music playback in any way. Huh?! Apps also take a long time (minutes) to install and uninstall, and backups now take awhile longer than before. Annoying, but still worth the wait.

The fact that the free software's advantages are available on the original iPhone means that the reduced subsidized price $199 for the 8GB and $299 for the 16GB are good, but maybe not good enough to justify a trade-in. (The $10 extra a month for 3G access is a wash, frankly.) Quite a conundrum for those of you tempted.

Onto the hardware. Let's start with the husk: Once, I sat down on a twisted key, putting a giant scar across the aluminum back of my iPhone. With that one exception aside, my iPhone's abused-to-hell case still looks strong and shiny.

The new case is made of smudge-able plastic, and last time I checked geek material lust hierarchy, plastic was a distant ranking of 452342 places behind aluminum. The effect is that the case, feels lighter, warmer and thicker but also cheaper than before. And in your hand, picking up a slightly warm iPhone, it feels almost more organic. Between that and the the rounded shape, which fits far better in the hand, it's like you're cupping a warm baby bird. The old phone by comparison feels like its a better quality device, with the spiritual heft of a German machine. The new case is lighter but actually thicker; still, it feels less significant and durable. The case did survive being put in a bag full of keys and rubbed vigorously. Only some of the silver Apple logo on the back got visibly scratched. The case is also a lot easier to send radio waves through than the previous case—useful as this phone has many more radios—although reception improvement was not noticeable. [UPDATE: Actually, it is much better, in both EDGE and 3G mode] Also, if you place the new model on a table, it rocks when you tap the screen, so you can't use it as a table top computer anymore. And the case is very easy to smudge. The black color is available in both sizes, but the white only comes in pricier 16GB, much to the chagrin of boyfriends who promised to buy their significant others one in the pale tint.

The screen is slightly warmer in color temperature (more yellow than blue), slightly brighter (even when considering decay over time) and the daylight viewing is better, but it's the same 3.5-inch, 480x320 resolution screen. And it's still gorgeous.

Oh, the headphone jack isn't recessed anymore, so you can use whatever headphones or adapters you want. And the lock and volume buttons are recessed slightly more and are metal. The speakers and earpiece have a metal grill behind them. All this, to great effect.

To mention the 3G is to bring up painful memories, the time I've lost waiting for web pages to load on the iPhone, or standing on street corners waiting for maps to load.

Our tests in AT&T's aggressively built-out NYC area showed the 3G connection is 4.8 times faster than the old EDGE connection. When you turn off 3G and do an EDGE-to-EDGE test between older and newer models, they both perform the same. The GPRS (850, 900, 1800, 1900) and UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900 and 2100 MHz) cellular radios have the advantage of some design improvements, including the use of the steel ring around the screen as an antenna and the electronic transparency of the now all plastic back.

Wi-Fi reception is better. In a side-by-side test with the old iPhone, we walked away from an access point, the old iPhone's connection died at 100 feet and the newer one lasted to about 120 feet. And there's a new Airplane mode that turns off cellular but powers up Wi-Fi for airline internet.

At the end of a day with lots of email and browser use, or media playback, my old iPhone would be begging for a serious dock charge. How does the iPhone's 3G connection affect that?

The downside of such speedy downloads is a reduced battery life, something the original couldn't stand to lose much of. We're do more testing of that soon. But here's an interesting thing: According to the data out there, the iPhone 3G has better battery life using 3G than the old iPhone does using EDGE. Let me explain. Apple's official browsing battery life rating on Wi-Fi is 6 hours for both models. They never rated the EDGE battery life but most testers found it to be about 25% less than Wi-Fi. That's 4.5 hours. The iPhone 3G rating is 5 hours of browsing. Apple is claiming that it's 5 hours for both the new iPhone 3G and the EDGE on the old one. We shall investigate such claims soon. But I wish Apple would take me up on my idea for using the 3G only for active browsing, maps and certain apps that need it, dynamically switching to EDGE for IMing, email downloading and weather checking.

UPDATE: Battery life has been noted to drain very quickly, but because I find myself using the phone a lot more often thanks to the added usefulness of apps. 3D gaming is also a killer on battery, far worse than anyone has claimed so far, thanks to the constant use of CPU, GPU and LCD backlight. Here is a roundup of nine battery tests taken from the best reviews, averaging about 5 hours for 3G talk (good) and 3-5 hours for "mixed use". Regardless of life, here are some tips on increasing iPhone 3G endurance and some gadgets that can help extend battery life.

Phone-wise, I decided to lower my minute plan. I completely have stopped using my old iPhone for voice in San Francisco's spotty network, and even when I'm connected, everyone sounds like they have marbles in their mouth. Network problems aside, the good news is that basic voice quality issues have been fixed.

Doing side-by-side calls, the difference when using the new phone and old is like the difference between talking to someone with their hand over their mouth and with their hand taken away. While the new iPhone's speaker and mic definitely improve sound quality, it seems packets do matter too. When the the phone is running on a 3G network (in downtown NY), calls sound especially clear compared to the old iPhone. But when both iPhones are on EDGE, the call difference is noticeable, but not night and day. Even the speakerphone's audio is much louder and so, music played through the mono speaker is also improved. As for reception back in spotty coverage areas, I'll have to do a side-by-side soon to let you know how that goes. UPDATE: I could make no calls before in my house. Now I can, in both EDGE and 3G mode, with good (not great clarity). This is fantastic.

The old iPhone's location detector was accurate within a few blocks, using Skyhook's system of logging cellular towers and Wi-Fi spot MAC addresses and pairing them with physical addreses. I thought it was fine for making sure when I searched for an ATM machine, it would only return local results. The new A-GPS system is accurate within meters, though, opening up the iPhone to more useful location-based apps, maps and geotagging of photos.

The A-GPS helps get quicker fixes in the city, compared with a typical PND. However it doesn't refresh as quickly (every 5 to 15 steps), and won't give you a "heading-up" view, so when you're walking, it takes a bit longer to figure out where you're going. This is clearly optimized for walking, though in a pinch it could help lost drivers. The greater accuracy isn't the only reason it's better than the older iPhone: The ability to track your path is a nice enhancement too. The time to GPS lock is between 1 and 10 seconds, using a combination of Wi-Fi and cellular as well as GPS. But don't even think about using this for regular car nav: there is no voice prompting, nor is there automatic turn-by-turn.

Apple didn't write a dedicated turn-by-turn navigator for driving, with voice, but now we hear that companies are making them, so we look forward to revisiting this once real navi apps are out.

The old iPhone's software can take a photo and email it or send it to a MobileMe gallery, but the camera itself is relatively weak. It won't capture video, and I've lost countless YouTube hits by not having a video device at the ready. This situation has not been improved much.

UPDATE: One nice thing we've finally confirmed is that the dreaded buzz you got with speakers and tape adapters too close to the iPhone with the GSM connection running during calls or data disappears when you're running 3G.

The new camera has the same 2MP shooter which returns 1600 x 1200 pixels. There still isn't video capture. Image processing seems to be slightly less grainy but it's not something you would notice. The MP count would be fine, but the low-light quality is still terrible. Nokia and Motorola have built thin phones with better imaging, why not Apple? And Apple's forte is software, so why can't they beef up the software tools, by adding image stabilizers and noise reducers, not to mention Photo Booth-type frames and effects?

Inside the box: A new smaller USB charger the size of an ice cube, headphones, a sync cable and a SIM eject tool. There is no longer a dock included to use with the cable.

This is really not a revolutionary phone. It's more like the iPhone we wished Apple made last year. But basics, like cut, copy and paste are still missing. (As is MMS, thanks for the reminder, commenters.) As well are the ability to use the phone like a hard drive. Other than that, we're hoping for some more revolutionary changes to come by software update. And let's take a moment to remember how many developers are making killer iPhone programs right this second. There's the revolution.

So the hardware is interesting in the iPhone 3G, but the real story here is the new iPhone OS 2.0 firmware, which we've written about in depth here. You manage to install that, old iPhone users, you've got about 80% of this new iPhone's mojo. But if you're not making your calls on an iPhone yet, well, what are you waiting for?
[Our iPhone App Review Marathon, iPhone 2.0 Firmware Review: Forget 3G It's the Code That Counts]

"A little faster downloading of webpages, and it has a GPS [Global Positioning System] chip built in. But, you know, these aren't, like, break-the-bank items...A lot of the people I know just aren't going to upgrade yet.

Then again, the guy was planning to stand in line to score his new iPhone... [Macworld]

The problem may have been a by-product of indoor testing, or it may have just been a random bug. Or, somewhat implausibly, the iPhone 3G's GPS is completely broken and entirely unfixable. Or maybe more likely Kansas is some default no man's land for GPS devices on first boot and this is a video taken before the iPhone here got its bearings. Time will tell. [Gizmodo AU]

If you need more gritty and less nitty, check out Chen's rundown of the reviews. Or, if you have some spare time, read the Three Amigos' own unexpurgated scribblings. [USA Today, WSJ/AllThingsD, NYT]

For a shortcut to plan pricing, read on:

As for the subsidized iPhone pricing, AT&T has clarified that it's available for "new customers, current postpaid iPhone customers in good standing prior to July 11, and AT&T non-iPhone customers who are currently eligible for an upgrade discount" with a two-year agreement.

Which one's Frucci? [JoyofTech]

You're proud of the work you've put into your iPhone SDK application. Show us what you did. Email your entry to tips@gizmodo.com with the subject "iPhone SDK App Contest: Name of App" with the name of your app there. Each entry should include screenshots (as many as it takes to properly illustrate your program) as well as a 1 paragraph description telling us what it's all about. We'll showcase the best ones here for the world to gawk at.

We also know that there are tons of very cool applications such as Sling that might not even be approved by Apple as an official SDK app. That's why we're taking entrants for unofficial (jailbroken) apps as well. Send those in to tips@gizmodo.com with the subject "iPhone Unofficial App Contest: Name of App". Essentially, we'll be getting a weird kinda sorta head-to-head that pits bigger name companies/development teams against hackers.

Yesterday, during Adobe's second quarter earnings call, chief Shantanu Narayen had this to say:

We have a version that’s working on the emulation. This is still on the computer and you know, we have to continue to move it from a test environment onto the device and continue to make it work. So we are pleased with the internal progress that we’ve made to date.

Sounds promising, no? The problem is that even when Adobe has a perfected version of mobile Flash for the iPhone, it still needs to convince Apple to allow it on the iPhone. Previously, Steve Jobs has complained that mobile Flash isn't powerful enough for the iPhone and regular Flash is too bloated.

With the iPhone 3G coming in just a few weeks, we really hope Adobe and Apple can work out some kind of agreement, because that speedy connection will make viewing streaming videos on the iPhone a joy. Let's cut the bullshit and make this happen, OK guys? [Alley Insider]

I just uploaded a video clip I captured at Tuesday night's Eddie Izzard show here in Houston. He's off on a tangent of a tangent, discussing his never writing down material due to dyslexia, when he says "I wonder who DID name it dyslexia. Hang on." And pulls his iPhone from his back pocket. He proceeds to search Wikipedia and read from it and make jokes regarding the information on the Wikipedia site for several minutes. Then jokes about Germany, then jokes about Scrabble, then... you get the picture.

This a few minutes after a sketch about cavemen and the stone age where he made several jokes about a caveman named Steve adding GPS to rocks, making them move faster, and cutting the price in half.

[Thanks Daniel]

Developers in the Flixwagon lab created the first-ever mobile client that can broadcast live high-quality video from unlocked iPhones to the web. The company wanted to experiment with ways to broadcast live video from the iPhone until the official SDK supports video. Flixwagon plans to continue working with the iPhone SDK in the future so that it can offer this functionality to all users once video becomes a standard iPhone feature.

After Flixwagon is installed on the phone, users can broadcast videos from it to the Flixwagon website with one click. Videos can be watched live or stored for future viewing. Also, they can be embedded in blogs via our flixee widget or uploaded to the user's YouTube account. Users can also easily determine which of their contacts to share each video with.

If you have an unlocked iPhone with Installer in it, you can click here to join the alpha testing. [Flixwagon and Flixwagon iPhone Clips]

It's most probably an optical effect, but that fingerprint looks a lot like a cam. If he wasn't such a cool cuddly guy, I would think Phil is playing mind tricks with us. In any case, we will always have the Apple Videoconferencing Kit.

[Thanks Nathan]

Yeah, the headphone jack is now flush. Otherwise, here's a list of stuff that's people were expecting, or at least hoping for, but didn't get in the new model:

• A 32GB model
• A better camera
• More RAM
• MMS
• A2DP Bluetooth for stereo streaming
• A camera on the front for videoconferencing
• Video capabilities
• Turn-by-turn navigation (will come with a 3rd party app, I'm sure)
• The ability to copy and paste

None of these are really dealbreakers, except maybe the lack of space for data hoarders, but it's disappointing that some of the more basic things didn't get a bump. I mean, we are talking about the second generation of the phone here. They couldn't improve the camera at all? Or give us some of the very basic things, like MMS and copy/paste that people have been clamoring for since day one? And I personally would be happy to pay the current iPhone's price for a 32GB iPhone 3G so the transition from my 60GB iPod wouldn't be such a kick in the pants.

Overall, we got what we were expecting, 3G and GPS, and essentially nothing else. And really, at the end of the day, those are the big features that really matter. 3G (along with the price drop) will sell phones, MMS won't. I know I'm being nitpicky, and really, I'm not all that disappointed. I'll still be buying one. But it just seems strange that nothing else besides those and a minor facelift were added to Apple's flagship handheld.

What do you guys think, were you expecting more upgrades here or are you happy with 3G and GPS alone?

Though not mentioned onstage or in the press release, photo geotagging is listed on the new specs page under the camera and photos section. Neato. Remaining question: What's it do to that otherwise nice battery life? I wonder if those GPS makers are still in fact shitting themselves right now. Update: Yep. [Giz@WWDC, Apple]

Translation: "Movistar brings you the magic of the iPhone. Would you like to know when? There are already 29 impatient people."

The 3G iPhone will be available for sale in Spain at the June 18 grand opening of Telefónica's megastore—an Apple Store-like shop located in the company's landmark building in Madrid's Gran Vía—with nationwide availability the next day or after a few hours. The shop is now getting its final touches. [Apple Weblog—in Spanish, gracias Paquito]

Before starting, you need the material. Grab the mandatory high-resolution image from Apple, and resize it to low resolution (like 600 pixels high) in Photoshop. Take a photo of any object in your hand, preferably of a size similar to the iPhone and black (not obligatory, as you can see in the samples.)

Now, follow these steps:

1. Copy the front of the iPhone minus the borders.
2. Paste the iPhone image on the photo of the object serving as the base of your fake.
3. Use the Distort or Warp tools (under the Edit menu) to adjust the image size and perspective to match the base object (optional: if necessary, add a mask to blend the borders of the pasted iPhone with the base surface).
4. Add noise to your image (under the Filter > Noise menu.) Choose Gaussian, color noise. Select a good amount but not excessive.
5. Apply Gaussian blur (under the Filter > Blur menu). Again, not a lot, just enough to make it craptastically rumor-worthy.

You are done. Now save to JPEG using a low quality setting—to add even more realism to the stolen nature of the image, and eliminate any errors caused by your lousy Photoshop skills—and you are done. Then, send to your least favorite blog. Yes. You know exactly where.

Whatever it is, the back looks as bad as the front (including the deformed Apple logo), at least in these photos. We have a hard time imagining that anything like this could come out of Monssieur Jonathan Ive's brain. Or better said, we have a hard time envisioning us buying what looks like a soulless piece of machinery, even while the true soul of the iPhone is its operating system.

We will see if we get a cease and desist email—now that Cupertino is waking up—but for now, remember our first rule of rumors: never, ever trust them. [iPhon—Thanks Jean Paul]

* Yes, frogsters. You see, this is completely unrelated to the fake iPhone, but I'm in Madrid, Spain, and today is the 200th Anniversary of the uprising against the French occupational forces in Madrid, which started the revolution that kicked Napoleonic troops out of the country. So today it's frogsters, or the Spanish equivalent, gabachos. (And for the record, I love France.)