They put four iPhones to work testing the big four: Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and Three, running 150 individual speed tests in locations from Manly to Homebush, Annandale to North Sydney, and points in between.

The outcome?

Telstra blows away the competition with speeds almost double the next best network, while the best value data network Three delivered the slowest results. Indeed, Three’s best single result was slower than Telstra’s average.

Whether you’re just curious or need to confirm what you may already know about your chosen carrier, you can read the full report and download an Excel spreadsheet detailing the speedtest results here: The ByteBlog.

If you’ve conducted your own testing and it confirms or conflicts with those obtained by Seamus and his team, we’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Apparently Apple have said that they can’t produce enough to meet global demand for the device. Sucks to be them, then, doesn’t it?

If you are trying to pick up a new iPhone, your best bet is probably heading to an Apple Store rather than a carrier’s shop…

[The Courier Mail]

The INQ Chat looks a bit like a Blackberry clone, with a full QWERTY keypad and a 3.2MP camera, while the INQ Mini is a smaller candybar handset with a 2MP snapper.

The Twitter integration will work exactly like the Facebook integration on the INQ1 , in that you will remained logged in and be able to follow status updates directly on the main screen. Both these phones will also integrate with Facebook and Skype as well.

iTunes syncing will be done using Doubletwist, although if iTunes isn’t your thing, you can also sync them with Windows Media Player.

According to a local 3 spokesperson, they’re hoping to release the phone in Australia around October/November. And if the original INQ1 was any indication, that’s going to make them an extremely hot item for all the social network-lovin’ kids this Christmas…

[The Guardian via Stuff]

[Lifehacker]

Naturally, we’ve contacted Three to try and find out what the situation is. We’ll update when we hear back.UPDATE: Just heard back from Three. Here’s their official response:

3 confirms that current demand for the new iPhone 3G S is causing some stock shortages in a number of 3 stores, dealers and via www.three.com.au. 3 expects current stocks of the iPhone 3G S to be sold out this weekend. Stock of the iPhone 3G 8GB is still available.

3 advises customers who are interested in purchasing an iPhone 3G S to register their interest at www.three.com.au/iphonestock and we will advise them via email or SMS when stocks are available.

As you can see, to get the new 3GS iPhone, you still need to hop on a $79 cap plan, but that $49 plan with a free 8GB 3G is pretty tempting too. And the fact that the monthly handset cost for all phones has been dropped dramatically is good news as well.

What do you think? Are these prices likely to make you swing towards 3 over the other networks?

[Three]

There are 4 main plans on offer for people signing up to 3 for the new iPhone:
* $39 cap – $150 worth of calls, 150MB of data and $10/month for the 8GB 3G, $18/month for the 16GB 3GS and $24/month for the 32GB 3GS.

* $49 cap – $350 worth of calls, 250MB of data and $5/month for the 8GB 3G, $14/moth for the 16GB 3GS and $18/month for the 32GB 3GS. If you opt for either of the 3GS models, you’ll get an extra 500MB worth of data.

* $79 cap – $650 worth of calls, 1GB of data and a free 8GB iPhone 3G or 16GB 3GS, or $10/month for the 32GB 3GS.

* $110 plan – The works: 3000 minutes of calls, 500 SMS/MMS and 3GB6 of Mobile Internet every month. The 16GB 3GS is free or $5/month for the 32GB 3GS.

They’ve also got pre-paid on offer, with the iPhone 3G 8GB for $759, iPhone 3GS 16GB for $929 or the iPhone 3GS 32GB for $1,129. Pre-paid caps start at $29 a month (with 150MB of data) to $99 a month (with 2GB of data).

For current 3 customers, you can buy the iPhone hardware over 24 months, get a gig of data included and continue your current plan without breaking contract. The 8GB will cost $35/month, the 16GB $40/month and the 32GB $45/month.

Overall it seems pretty competitive, although I still think that Vodafone has the best value offer for the 3GS at the moment. Feel free to argue with me in comments…

[Three]

The great thing about this offer is that it’s not just for new customers – any 3 Broadband customer can log on and register for the free download of the AVG Internet Security software suite. After the initial 12 months, customers are given the chance to renew their subscription, which is obviously the incentive for AVG here.

As more people jump on the mobile broadband bandwagon, having decent security would probably help cut down on tech support calls to Three as well, so it’s a win-win-win scenario. It’s actually surprising that we haven’t seen a similar offer earlier.

[Three Internet Security]

Before we begin, it’s worth noting that online reports are saying that both Vodafone and Virgin iPhones can tether without requiring any special effort, so it’s probably best to try doing it that way first. All you need to do is select the the Settings –> General –> Network buttons on your iPhone, then choose ‘Set Up Internet Tethering’ and follow the prompts. If you get a message saying you need to contact your provider (which is what happens for Optus customers), you can try the solution below.

Also worth noting: This solution is not endorsed by the carriers, and in some cases may in fact be in breach of contract. Therefore, it’s very much a case of “Do it at your own risk” – in the UK, O2 has publicly stated that they “reserve the right to charge customers making modem use of their iPhone or disconnect them,” so don’t come crying to us if Optus or Telstra decide to add a little fee to the end of your next bill.

In any case, here’s how you get tethering on your iPhone, without jailbreaking, for all Australian carriers:

1. Open Safari on your iPhone and navigate to help.benm.at
2. Have a read through all the warnings so you know what you’re in for, then select the Mobileconfigs option.
3. Select Australia
4. Choose your network
5. When the option to Install Profile appears, press Install
6. You’ll get hit with a message saying that the authenticity of the profile can’t be verified and that installation will change settings on the phone. Select Install Now.
7. Once it’s done, exit Safari, go back into Settings –> General –> Network and try to set up tethering again. Follow the prompts and everything should just work.

With this solution, you may need to restart your iPhone to get MMS working again – although some people are saying that it kills MMS completely. And there’s no telling what Optus and Telstra might do once they discover your cheating them out of a monthly tethering fee, regardless of how ridiculous the fee is in the first place.

If you are game to give it a go, let us know how it works for you in comments… And remember – do this at your own risk!