This the message that that some prepaid users got:

AT&T Free MSG: A new software upgrade for iPhone will be available on 6/17. This upgrade may affect your data service. Please visit att.com/iphone or call 800-901-9878 for a representative. If you download the software and are not on an approved iPhone data plan, your data service will be interrupted.

Meanwhile, Erica at TUAW has called AT&T and confirmed that they want pay-as-you-go users to move to a full data plan. According to the technician: "Based on your plan [official iPhone GoPhone plan], you will not receive the same quality service on your GoPhone plan, even with the same equipment. This is a technical change on AT&T's end on how we service that data plan."

Update: Apparently, Erica was misinformed, according to our contact at AT&T. This is not a change in policy at all, and the pay-as-you-go data plans were really never approved for iPhone.

• If you are a Pick Your Plan Customer with the required unlimited Data Plan for iPhone, you should not experience any interruption in your data service due to downloading the iPhone OS 3.0 Software Update which will be available on June 17.
• If you are a Pick Your Plan Customer who does not currently have the required unlimited Data Plan for iPhone, you will experience an interruption in your data service. To avoid this interruption, you should call 866-499-7888 to have the required Data Plan for iPhone added to your service.
• Pay As You Go rate plans are not approved for AT&T iPhone customers. Customers currently using an iPhone with a Pay As You Go rate plan should call 800-901-9878 so they can move to an approved rate plan with the required unlimited Data Plan for iPhone.

Still, a new unlock is in order. [TUAW]

The move comes as part of a campaign that orders people to "Identify yourself!", just like when Franco was a dictator. They want pre-paid phones to be associated with the user's personal information, including name, address, and national ID numbers (the equivalent to the Social Security number in the US). The new law also requires operators to register every single call made and hold the information for a year.

The reasoning of the European Union and the retarded Spanish government is that, by doing this, they can avoid bomb attacks like the ones that happened in Madrid's train stations in March 11, 2004, where terrorist triggered bombs using cellphones, killing 191 people and wounding 1,800. As if the terrorists couldn't forge identification data.

But does this make sense? Yes, bombs can be triggered with cellphones, but what difference does this make? They can be triggered by suicide bombers too, clocks, radio control, and by any other method you can think about. The fact is that there were bombs in Spain—and everywhere else—being triggered by a variety of methods before cellphones arrived. Cellphones are just one of them.

Does these irrational fears justify a campaign to control the communication of private citizens, specially when the bad guys can avoid the controls and use alternative methods to wreak havoc in society?

Paraphrasing Churchill: Do you want to die free and standing up, or live under fear and control, like in a fascist state? [El Mundo]

Your phone rings. Blah. When your conversation is finished, hatch your virtual pet. Take another call. Smother your pet with love. Take another call. See Petski there? Well, keep smothering. Make a call. Smother away, dearie. Ring Ring! Stroke Stroke. Yadda Yadda. Stroke. My, we are popular since we got our pastel kooky clamshell.

Pet needs to pee. But you need to talk to Glorinda and Shaznay about that new boy in fifth grade. This conversation is not over. But your interest in the pet is. Phone goes again. Pet is thirsty. Give a fuck. Pet dies. Decide that your mobile is ugly. Go to Mom, pester her and whine until she gives in, rolls her eyes and buys you an iPhone. – Ad Dugdale

Tamagotchi Virtual Pets Coming To Pre-Paid Phones [PC World]

Coming in both black and white models, like the MacBooks, the handsets sport a 1.9-inch QVGA screen. Other than that, it's pretty bare, feature-wise. No camera, no external memory, no bluetooth. The lack of features is most likely why Vodafone is releasing the phone for their prepaid market.

Available in July.

Vodafone K.K. to develop V201SH prepaid handset [Slashphone]