There's no real info on this thing, but it appears to offer most major plug types by spinning the three segments around. It'd be the perfect thing to put in hotels, where people are continually unable to charge up their razor or laptop. [GadgetLab]

The international version will work in "over 100 countries and territories", but Amazon doesn't specify if there are any additional charges for using it in a place other than the one where you bought it. It also looks like AT&T is the one that will be providing overseas roaming coverage for the GSM version. [Amazon]

Update: Ah, here's the bonus price.

Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases are $9.99, unless marked otherwise. When traveling abroad, you can download books wirelessly from the Kindle Store or your Archived Items for a fee of $1.99

Kind of puts everything into perspective, doesn't it? While the US smartphone market is our main stock and trade here at Giz, no one should forget about companies like Nokia that supply a huge percentage of the rest of the world's phones. Even though they took a bit of a bath last quarter, it wasn't nearly as bad as some have hoped, and for that Nokia has nearly 16 million new phone users in India to thank. [Reuters]

Because, as we know, we're getting trounced there. Japan's fiber connections blow away even the speediest FiOS install you can get here, and South Korea's percentage of homes with broadband connections makes our (albeit significantly less population-dense) country look almost third world.

Waverman's Conectivity Scorecard, besides providing a great Flash interface to scroll through each country's ratings, takes into account not just pure infrastructure statistics, favoring a broader look at how broadband is actually used in three main areas: at home, in businesses and by the government. And while our domestic broadband percentage may be lagging (especially in rural areas), our disproportionately high usage of the high-speed web at work and, if you can believe it, the government is enough to push us to number one.

And while Waverman could just be singing to the keep-broadband-out-of-the-Stimuls crowd, it's an interesting way of looking at things. [Connectivity Scorecard via Bits]

Posting on its official blog [translated] , T-Mobile Netherlands says "the 3G coverage of T-Mobile is as good as the competition, there can therefore not lie. We suspect that it is a hardware / software specific issue of the iPhone itself." CNET sees that "can not lie" bit as web babel-talk for a Dutch expression meaning "so that should not be the issue."

And in a Sydney Morning Herald story, Vodafone Australia also blamed Apple hardware for sucky 3G, saying “We are aware of the issues on the iPhone 3G and we’re working with Apple to provide a solution." Another anonymous source mentions the carriers had no time for device testing prior to launch, since they received handsets just one day before they were to go onsale.

It makes sense. International customers have been enjoying 3G for a lot longer than AT&T folks here in the U.S., so they're more likely to gripe if things don't meet standards set by other phones in the last few years. [CNET, T-Mobile Netherlands [translated], Sydney Morning Herald via iLounge]

One point where a lot of the international carriers get you is in a lack of unlimited data. You can't be keeping a running total of kilobytes consumed this month when you pull your phone out of your pocket to look up a movie time or find a restaurant—that's just not the way this phone works, especially considering the range of data-consuming applications available. Many of the Euro carriers max out at 1GB before by-the-megabyte charges set in, which you'll suck down before you know it over 3G.

But on top of that, here are three that have found even more creative ways to reach into your pocket and/or piss you off.

Mobistar (Belgium): Ridiculous Unlocked Hardware Prices, With a Contract
Due to Belgian law, all phones must be sold unlocked. That means the iPhone is not eligible for a subsidy, and the 16GB will run you a massive €615 (that's $982). You can buy it without activation of a contract, but if you want to actually use the phone in Belgium with Mobistar service, they've still got you for a two-year contract, the most generous of which has a 1GB data cap and 540 minutes for €60 ($96)—kind of defeats the purpose of forcing sales of unlocked phones, no?

Rogers (Canada): Longest of the Long Contracts
Despite compromising somewhat by offering a discounted 6GB-per-month data plan on top of any of their regular voice plans, Rogers will still have you for three years. Insane. Plus you can only pair the 6GB promotion with any of their standard voice plans (not their iPhone packages), so you'll be paying extra for visual voicemail and SMS. And when you factor in the Canadian-to-US dollar exchange rate being $1=$1 right now, it gets even uglier.

Movistar/Telefonica (Spain): 3G Data Tease
Even though you can walk away with a free iPhone if you get on an expensive enough plan (Movistar hits you up either €15 or €25 per month for their iPhone plans on top of a minimum voice charge per month that ranges from €9 to €90, depending on usage), Movistar's "unlimited" data plans have an evil twist: after consumption of your first gigabyte under the Plus plan (or a paltry 200MB for the standard), your speeds are capped at 128kbps down/64 kbps up. Those are basically EDGE speeds, folks—according to our tests the 3G can manage 769kbps download speeds on AT&T's NYC network, which means for the rest of the month, you may as well save some battery by disabling 3G—you're not gonna use it. [A personal note from a Spaniard with a long experience dealing with Telefónica and Movistar: like always, the greediness and lack of vision of their execs—and by extension of most cellphone companies in this country—defies any description. Their secret mission statement remains the same: "screw the consumer when you don't have to compete with others". Which is exactly why I left my contract with them a long time ago, and I'm sticking to my iPhone classic until I can get the 3G somewhere else. — JD]

So our condolences to you, our Canadian, Belgian and Spanish readers. You're probably not alone though—there are still at least 49 more countries waiting for their iPhone launch, so the worst may yet be ahead of us. If you're getting screwed now or in the future, share below. You'll feel (a little) better.

[Rogers, Mobistar, Movistar/Telefonica]

Section 337 bans all product importation when they infringe upon U.S. patents. Which if the International Trade Commission judge sides with the patent holder, the aforementioned companies will be subject to. Although this will only be a problem for the companies if the court sides in favor of the patent holders, Steven and Mary Reiber. Even then, they can still appeal that ruling as well, and if history gives us any clues (Remember Qualcomm?), then the hard drive manufacturers just might get off this time. Otherwise Samsung looks like it will be getting a lot of new business[Ars Technica]

Now Jajah's taken their mobile web page and made it PSP compatible. Now, this doesn't quite mean that you can make calls with your PSP. It just means you can use your PSP with Wi-Fi and initiate a Jajah call to go to your cellphone. Useful if you're using a really old phone that doesn't have at least a WAP browser. – Jason Chen

PSP (PlayStation Portable) gamers around the globe: Call with JAJAH! [Jajah]

How does it work? Well, just visit jajah.com from either your PC or your smartphone's browser, log in, and enter in the person you want to call. Jajah will call you, then the recipient, and connect the two. The best part is that if the person you're calling is also a Jajah member, the call is free (barring any mobile minutes you burn up on your cellphone plan).

We spoke with Jajah yesterday gathered additional information.

Jajah says they have 70-ish phones supported right now, and any phone with a mobile browser should be able to log in and initiate calls. They've also got Java and Symbian plugins for an embedded version, so you won't have to pull up the webpage—you can start the call from the app.

The service is mostly targeted at mobile professionals and people who have family over seas. Instead of making expensive calls from their cellphones, they can have Jajah initiate the call and pay substantially less. It's not quite cheaper than using Skype or even a calling card, but unless you're always in the office or always have your calling card with you, this is an easier alternative.

As for the quality, Jajah claims that from what they've seen, most people can't tell the difference between a Jajah call and a standard call. We had noticeable delay on one of our test calls between two cellphones, but Jajah blamed that on the quality of the "last mile" provider, aka, the cellphone provider.

There are also conferencing and scheduling features, which makes getting together with multiple people cheaper and easier (if you've got their information entered in) than otherwise.

Although the price is a bit more expensive than other options, the convenience of being able to dial up people from your smartphone makes Jajah something worth looking into. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Jajah]

Mobile users sign up above first, then go to:
mobile.jajah.com