Electronics retailer Best Buy will begin selling Apple's iPhone 3G next month. Until now, only Apple Stores and AT&T outlets carried the phone. Like Apple Store customers, Best Buy shoppers must sign a two-year AT&T contract to leave the store with an iPhone. [WSJ]

The HTC Dream, the first fruit of Google's foray into mobile phones, will be available for preorder from T-Mobile during a one-week window starting September 17. The artificial time scarcity seems designed to create iPhone-like hype. And perhaps the Dream will succeed at that. At $150 along with a two-year contract and a new, probably more expensive, unlimited data plan, this is the first wireless device I've seen that looks like real iPhone competition. Sure, it has Google's Android operating system, a touch screen and 3G speeds, but it also has a keyboard. And it's from HTC, the Taiwanese handset manufacturer that makes really nice phones — mostly for Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system until now. But just like the iPhone, the don't-call-it-a-Googlephone won't really bust up the carrier-handset-operating-system industrial complex that has long bedeviled the mobile market.I recently purchased the HTC Dash, right before the California Supreme Court struck down as illegal early contract termination fees — otherwise, I might have gone and signed up for an iPhone myself. But I love the Dash since it, too, has real buttons and is slim enough not to disrupt the hang of a jacket. Even at over a year old (which is about 35 in Hollywood actress years), it's still selling well despite two major drawbacks: Windows Mobile and T-Mobile. Similarly, the iPhone is locked to Apple and AT&T. Want an application? You'll have to buy it from the App Store via iTunes. Want a different carrier? Tough noogies. Apple didn't so much break the lock between handset manufacturers and carriers as much as they inserted themselves as a third gatekeeper. While HTC has close ties to Microsoft — its U.S. offices are based in Seattle, and veteran Windows Mobile developers work at the company — the phone maker won't be leaving Microsoft country. It's just applying for dual citizenship in Mountain View. Dream buyers will be locked to buying T-Mobile voice and data plans, regardless. While customers wait, the current release is likely off in Germany somewhere being larded up with crappy default applications from Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile's parent, which clings to a desperate Teutonic hope you might be dumb enough to continue using its T-Zones wireless services, baked into every T-Mobile phone. Google's and Apple's entry into wireless just means that lock-in is getting extended from our phones to the desktop. Getting Windows Mobile to sync with my iTunes on my MacBook and Google Calendar and email was a project that took an entire evening. It still doesn't work over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. My father, who took one look at my phone after losing his own and bought one, had no difficulty synching his Outlook contacts and Hotmail account with his Windows PC. Any bets on how easy it will be to sync a phone running Android with Yahoo Mail or iTunes? So if you dream of buying a handset based on its hardware features, then picking an operating system to run on it, and then choosing a wireless carrier which works well in your neighborhood, keep dreaming. Google would rather join the wireless club, and lock you into its own set of services. The Googlephone promised to set us free, and the Dream looks beautiful — but it's just another cell phone.

Dropped calls. Flaky high-speed connections. Short battery life. The San Francisco Chronicle rounds up not one, but two unhappy iPhone users and an analyst who backs them up to prove that this new iPhone thing isn't working as planned. Not to get all Fake Steve on these guys, but look: The problem isn't the iPhone. It's you two. The iPhone is so popular that AT&T's networks can't handle the load. The onboard apps — so easy to install, just go to the store, click, and boom, it's that simple — are so hypnotic that you're running out your batteries playing with them. Pull your pants up and look in the mirror. If you can't handle it that your phone is more popular than you are, maybe it's time you and the iPhone went your separate ways.

Nightlife photographer Patrick McMullan has always wanted to be respected. His pictures helped create the reputations of niche characters ranging from hipster party gods the Misshapes to famed socialgay publicist Kristian Laliberte, and McMullan himself sees no reason he shouldn't share the spotlight. Unfortunately for him, he's fundamentally an inflated paparazzo, and not a wealthy one-a pretty significant stumbling block to becoming close friends with real celebrities. What to do, when publishing books has proved fruitless? Start a self-branded magazine, of course! (That comes on your iPhone, for some reason?) McMullan's new "magazine" will be strictly iPhone-only, I guess to keep it out of the hands of the wrong crowd. The "magazine" will be called PMc and feature his own photos, a double shot of self-promotion.

Looks like I'm a member of the One Percent Club again today — the supposedly tiny proportion of Apple's webmail users who are missing messages. Where's Apple's new MobileMe chief, Eddy Cue?

The most important software development of our time — Armin Heinrich's $999.99 "I Am Rich" iPhone app that did nothing but display a red gem — "was written pretty much as a joke" reports the New York Times, which is not amused. In a story headlined "Many Fail to See the Humor in ‘I Am Rich’ for the iPhone," the paper ruins all our fun, reporting that of the eight people who paid full price for the App, two — including a man who after accidentally buying the app wrote an angry review of it that is now widely available on the Internet — have successfully appealed to Apple for a full refund. The Wall Street Journal, describing Heinrich as an example of "some developers" who have "run afoul of Apple," reports an Apple spokesperson said the company removed I Am Rich from its store after a "judgement call." “I did not expect many people to buy it and did not expect all the fuss about it," a too modest Heinrich told the Times. “I regard it as art." Us, too, Armin. Us too.

Nullriver, a software developer, released an iPhone application called NetShare, which enables an iPhone to be used as a portable modem for computers. Despite being a violation of AT&T's terms of service, Nullriver got it onto Apple's iTunes App Store. Over the past week, Apple took it down, reinstated it, and then took it down again. Both companies are now laying the blame at each other's doorsteps, as one blogger realized in his attempt to get a refund for his purchase. Might just want to call your credit card company to get the charge removed. That seems easier.

Turns out you don't need $999.99 to get the "I Am Rich" app for your iPhone after all. Gone from Apple's iTunes App Store, it's available free on Cracked Apps, blog linking to pirated, generic versions of Armin Heinrich's useless widget and other less useless apps too. Haklabs just put Hakstore, which does much the same thing. "As a developer myself," an angry tipster tells us, "I feel outraged and I think media should write about this to force Apple take some legal action." Seems that Apple already has, but as with the music and film industries, policing the piracy won't do much good. "Assholes," taunts the person behind CrackedApps, "Someone reported everyone of my links. Give it a few and I will update all the links :)"

Before Apple succumbed to jealous cries of the hoi polloi and removed his "I Am Rich" application from its iTunes App Store, developer Armein Heinrich sold eight copies of his $999.99 pristinely useless software — six to refined buyers in the United States, one to a collector in Germany and another to one in France. From a technical perspective, all "I Am Rich" did was glow red. Metaphysically, it was known to provide elation only found in the delicate, snow white comfort of a Himalayan white tiger fur coat. Heinreich told the LA Times: "I have no idea why they did it and am not aware of any violation of the rules to sell software on the App Store." SAI performed the gauche math and figures Heinrich profited $6,000 from his work; Apple kept 30 percent of that for "store upkeep."

At a recent party to celebrate developer Joe Hewitt's latest release of the Facebook application for the iPhone, friends treated Hewitt to champagne and a cake decorated with, naturally, an iPhone running Facebook. Of course, moments later, pictures of said cake showed up in partygoers' news feeds and were automagically displayed on their iPhones. And you doubted the power of technology to change the world for the better.

After discovering Armin Heinrich's $999.99 do-nothing "I Am Rich" iPhone widget, Apple iTunes App Store reviewer Lee5279xx claims that he "clicked buy, thinking it was a joke, to see what happened. I forgot my wife had 'iclick' activated on my laptop and it really bought this app for $999." Lee5279xx probably meant Apple's 1-Click feature which overrides Apple's standard "Do you really want to buy this?" dialog box. But that was meant for 99-cent songs, not thousand-dollar timewasters.

Armin Heinrich's "I Am Rich" iPhone App, sadly no longer available for $999.99 in the iTunes App Store, was probably the most important software development of our time. Wonderfully, some 502 iTunes App Store shoppers took the time to review it, giving it a rating of two stars out of a possible five. Our 10 favorite reviews — sometimes marked by calm, playing-along cynicism, sometimes by wide-eyed fury — are below:

Maybe you haven't heard about the $999.99 "I Am Rich" iPhone App by Armin Heinrich yet. We'll catch you up, poor thing. Purchase this app for your iPhone 3G from the iTunes App Store now and it will do two things: display a glowing red gem for an icon and tell everyone who handles your iPhone 3G that you have more money then there are orca skin purses to spend it on. It's a bargain compared to a Patek Philippe watch which does the same thing.

It's like Steve Jobs is saying what we're thinking in a leaked email sent to Apple employees:

The enigmatic David G. of Apple has been given the go-ahead to proclaim MobileMe's email problems, affecting those lucky 1 percent of users, resolved after three weeks. I guess someone should email the FailMe Is More Like It guy. [Apple]

Nonsociety lifecaster, "tech blogger" Megan Asha, has damaged her iPhone 3G with a stiletto! Remember, it's wrong to take pleasure in the misfortunes of others. Except when the Jesus Phone is involved! HAHA. [NonSociety]

Widgetmakers think they have it tough complying with Facebook's changing rules and secret motives, but that's probably because they haven't had to deal with Apple yet. Lucky them. Now they do. Facebook executive Ben Ling announced yesterday at F8 that Facebook Connect — Facebook's initiative to weave activity on other websites into its site — will launch on the iPhone later this fall.InsideFacebook's Justin Smith says Facebook's third-party developers have been "clamoring" for access to Facebook's mobile platform, but we wonder if they know what kind of headache they're getting into. Not only is Apple secretive to the extreme about upcoming changes to its iPhone apps platform, it forces developers to keep quiet. Apple requires an NDA for "every single developer working on the platform — and every single person who installs the iPhone developer's kit" — greatly limiting any kind of help coders can be to each other when creating new apps.

Rumors of a Product Red iPhone, which would send a hefty chunk of change to fight AIDS in Africa with each purchase, may be real this year. I'm just saying, my made-up version last Thanksgiving had better specs.

"Apple's MobileMe is far too flawed to be reliable," the Sage of Potomac pronounced yesterday. It's a rare swipe from Walt Mossberg, the guy better known for writing Steve Jobs's marketing slogans ("the most elegant desktop computer I've ever used.") What's important is that Mossberg isn't complaining about MobileMe's launch glitches — even when it works, he says, it's not solid. Here's the bullet list of Walt's gripes:

Apple's .Mac email — relaunched as MobileMe in conjunction with the iPhone 3G two Fridays ago — is still flying as crooked as Drinky Crow on payday. MacRumors has aggregated customer gripes. Apple's hard-to-swallow response: Only 1 percent of customers are having problems after Apple's server migration. MobileMe mail works for stationary old me, but see these screenshots from readers: