This is nice. thanks Anthony! I totally agree with what you say about "constantly evolving". Hoping that this will become THE constantly updated forum thread (ie. the OP being edited rather than a reader having to rely on wading thru 25 pages of comments like these for the latest info!) for Australian iPhone n00bs!

By the way a shameless plug - if anybody BREAKS their imported iPhone and needs something fixed that's not covered by warranty - or find it difficult/impossible to send it back to the US to be repaired, PM me. I've had my iPhone apart to repair a broken headphone socket and being familiar with iPod battery replacements and such in the past, I'm not afraid to crack these puppies open. I'll charge a reasonable rate for my time only. I'm based in Melbourne, happy to meet you at my house or wherever if possible (yeah I know it's kind of scary giving your baby to someone you don't know) but otherwise happy to do it all via good ol Auspost.

Actually have a spare headphone assy ready to go at the moment, but if something else comes up (eg a screen replacement) I'll help source OEM parts from eBay/iFixit/wherever.

Has anyone purchased via the US apple store and shipped as a gift to a friend?
Vaguely remember that we might be able to do that?

cheers.

thanks for the guide decryption!!

+10000000 for PriceUSA

Great guide - I am going to add a link to it on my FAQ page to help all the people asking questions about the iPhone. One minor correction - I am not actually an expat - not unless you consider Sydney a foreign country

Great post that helps to de-mystify the whole iPhone experience. One small thing I'd like to add is to to be wary of using ziphone with the "do-everything" option.
Read up on the options in regard to downloading the bootloader.
Sandy

Posted from my iPhone.

Note: You can't be a iPhone developer if you don't have a US address. While you can download the Dev Kit and develop your apps you can't load it into your Touch.

Digged all the way on digg.com

Excellent FAQ, thanks for publishing it

I do have a question though relating to data - is there a way to ensure that data access only takes place over wifi and not inadvertently over edge/gprs? I would rather avoid any data access via the carrier, with web/email downloads occurring only when wifi is available.

Hope that question make sense!

First off, great post decryption!

Secondly, if i was to purchase an iphone from the USA and use it with my existing SIM, when the iphone is released in Australia will i be able to go onto one of those plans without buying another iphone or will the serial number prevent something like that happening?

Great Q&A!

Great stuff. It is really good for a newbie to get updated on what's the latest going-ons relevant to Australia.

I am really looking forward to Jun-08 and the ability to get push stuff from Exchange. I can finally consolidate and stop carrying the blackberry.

Will do when 1.1.5 comes out

Right now no-one knows what Apple will do with iPhone software 2.0, they could make it a right bastard to unlock, or they could just leave things the way they are. I'd buy an iPhone ASAP. Chances are some smart cookie will figure out how to unlock the SIM so anyone can use it. Many countries still don't have the iPhone, so there's a lot of interest in getting it going.

I've added your name to the FAQ

I tried to use the USA Apple store to buy an iPhone with my AUS credit card and have it shipped to a friend in the USA so he can then ship it on to me. Apple charged my card, but then later said I can't buy it because my card is Australian and refunded my money.

Best bet is to PayPal your friend the money and get them to buy it and ship it on to you (or use PriceUSA).

Whoops, fixed that

Totally makes sense. Go to:

Settings -> General -> Network -> EDGE/GPRS

Chance APN to xxx.xxx - if you leave it blank, it will still work, so enter in fake details instead.

Added this to FAQ too.

Chances are (I'm taking a guess here), that when iPhone does come out here, it will have it's own special plan (ala Blackberry and Hiptop) and the only way to get on that plan is to get a new SIM and the only way to get a new SIM is to buy a new iPhone.

That said, if Apple released the iPhone here with the same hardware as what they're shipping now, you aren't missing out on anything. You will probably be able to buy AppleCare for your iPhone too (if it's like USA products brought into the country that are also sold here). The only thing you may miss out on is if the iPhone is launched with a killer EDGE data plan (remote chances of that).

If it's a 3G iPhone we get, then I'd just cut my losses and buy a new iPhone anyways, 3G iPhone would be awesome!

Great FAQ, decryption.

One other question though, what happens when you try to access Visual Voicemail?

Is there any way of disabling it instead of having to read the error message?

Thanks,
Larry

I managed to set it up to just call the Telstra Voicemail (more like speed dial than actual VVM).
I'll add a bit about VVM to the FAQ soon.

Hi

Will the iphones which are hacked work on Optus 3G network?