As the dust settles on the iPhone 3G / WWDC blowout, we've sifted through the debris and discovered a few eyebrow-raising tidbits you might be interested to know. The first of which is news that the next firmware update (2.0) could be headed to devices as early as June 27th, at least according to Apple's Australian iPod touch features page, which touts the arrival of the app store later this month. Meanwhile, Apple's cash cow won't get those OTA iTunes music downloads that were being heavily speculated on in May. Word on the street is that record labels are -- wait for it -- still holding out for those upped premiums, or that AT&T wants a cut of the action, which Apple is reluctant to hand over. Of course, AT&T wanting their share of that revenue makes good sense when you realize that the telco is taking a major hit on the sale of these devices -- a hit which will stall profits until 2010. Perhaps that explains the new rules about activation; according to a report from Reuters, the company will penalize customers who buy a phone but don't activate within 30 days, which falls in line with their aggressive new push to lock users into a contract... which looks exactly like the old cellphone business model. On a lighter note, iLounge has some real-world spy shots of the device's shell, which they claim smudges like it's going out of style, though it may be joined by a Product (RED) variation later this year. Enjoy!

Update: Apparently Apple reps have confirmed that there won't be any early firmware updates for the masses, and that they're still on schedule for July 11th. The Australian site has since updated its info -- so put the champagne back on ice.

[Thanks, Dan and Danny]

Read - Australian iPod touch features page
Read - No Over-The-Air 3G Music Downloads For New iPhone; Labels Holding Out For Higher Price Per Track?
Read - iPhone to cut into AT&T earnings until 2010
Read - Real World Photos: Inside + Outside iPhone 3G's New Shell

MP3 is all well and good, but some music fans crave better compression these days -- especially when doing over-the-air music transfers. Beatnik says it has a solution that would allow music transfers over 2.5G networks by compressing content up to 10 times as much as the MP3 format. This would possibly give operators the ability to service more customers while using older networks, opening up an new, untapped market. We've gotta ask: are people using older 2.5G networks really in the hunt for music downloads? Yeah, smaller compression would be good and all -- and Beatnik thinks so too -- but we tend to shy away from visions that encourage extending usage of the crazy-slow GPRS and EDGE networks around the world.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Try as they might, over-the-air music downloading services have generally been received with tepid responses from many wireless subscribers. That may change in Japan soon, as wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo will be offering the "Napster To Go" wireless music downloading service. While this sounds uneventful, the awesome detail here is that for a flat monthly fee (¥1,980, or about $16.70), NTT DoCoMo customers can access a wireless on-demand download library of over 300,000 tunes -- and download said tunes to their heart's content (the PC music download service from Napster features about 3,000,000 titles by comparison). Although NTT DoCoMo customers will see a 300,000-strong library of 3GPP-encoded titles, but we're not sure if file expiration or anything as heinous as that will be in effect here. Let's hope not.

Just as those of us stateside are getting our initial glimpse into music download service like SYNC and Vcast, NTT DoCoMo and Napster are expanding their mobile music offerings to all 52 million mobile customers. For a nominal $3.00 a month service fee, customers receive 300 (yes that's right) credits towards full length tracks and ring tones that are available via over the air downloading and always have the ability to purchases more credits if need be. With fourteen devices being supported off the bat there is no doubt that the Japanese are in a downloading frenzy.