We’re posting this as a warning to anyone expecting to just drop in to an Apple Store and grab a new iPhone.  If you haven’t already figured it out, iPhone 4 is going to be the biggest selling phone in history and even Apple didn’t anticipate the months and months of catch-up they’ll be doing to meet demand.

Don’t say you weren’t armed with the info!

“Prospective buyers in both the US and the UK — at minimum — found themselves unable to order the next must-have Jobsian device due to server overload, either in Cupertino, at the carrier level, or both.”

I don’t know anyone who got through, unless they used the brand new Apple Store app made available yesterday.  Makes you wonder if that record 600,000 orders could have been 6 million instead.

More from The Register.

Soon enough we’ll know just how confident Apple feels about continuing a one carrier arrangement with AT&T for its iPhone.  In the mean time, AppleInsider has learned from statements made by AT&T’s CTO that much has been done in the background to ramp Apple engineering staff to very high wireless technology knowledge levels.

Motorola’s heritage implies this knowledge is readily available on their staff.  How about others?  Do you think Blackberry, Palm/HP, or HTC have this level of expertise being driven into their products?

And if AppleInsider’s report is as true as it seems we won’t be seeing Verizon service anytime soon without a contract change.

Want “5 bar coverage” in your home?  AT&T’s 3G MicroCell is now (seemingly) available nationwide.  Of course you need to actually be on their service to take advantage of this new device, but once you’re lucky enough to find and buy one of these suckers you’re rock and roll.

In a recent search all around the Washington DC metro area we were able to find exactly… zero.  Keep looking though.  We’re very convinced this is the perfect device for home connectivity and just might be the device that pulls the plug on your wireline phone service.

If you think simply buying a Google Android device is going to set you free from closed ecosystems like the Apple iPhone and App Store combo, think again.

Carriers are already showing signs of taking advantage of the devices on their networks that aren’t explicitly locked to any particular mobile OS, and Android seems to be the most likely target.

Why? Google shares its technologies with the world – in this case, any hardware maker that wants to play – in the interest of driving advertising dollars, while Apple develops superior interfaces from hardware to software because that’s their primary focus.

If interface development is simply a handout for the world and means to and end and hardware is a latch on, who has control?  In the mobile world, barring any specific agreement requiring these two not be decoupled are altered in any way, the carrier.

This is the pecking order that resulting in carrier control and a lack of innovation in the mobile device industry – at least until Apple came on the scene.  And it will continue unabated if consumers aren’t careful.

Choose wisely.  More here: AT&T won’t allow unsigned Android apps on the Dell Aero? Might alter phone operating system longer term?.

Apple and AT&T couldn’t have made 3G access any simpler than this.  You can even shift over to the expensive plan or sign up on the fly from your iPad!

The most interesting passage is here in bold: “The company’s version of the tablet will feature built-in Wi-Fi utilizing Verizon’s hotspots for free data; the device will switch onto the 3G cellular network when it’s away from a hotspot. This makes it easy and safe to connect to trusted Wi-Fi servers, and you’ll get a line-item for that data service on your cell bill. Basically you won’t need a home data modem service anymore,” continues Morris.

OK, so does this mean the new tablet will act as a hotspot, much like Novatel’s MiFi?  Perhaps we’re talking about the Cable Internet access killer here?

Full article here.

AT&T says it’s fixed mobile Facebook problems now.  Pretty sloppy session identifier issues from the sound of it.  The average user will not understand this explanation, and AT&T and Facebook  both owe it to everyone to explain in detail how ridiculously easy it seems to have been for users to be able to access total strangers’ accounts.

Brooke Crothers wrote an article today questioning Apple’s lack of 3G mobile support in its laptops.  In it he says this:

• I’ve said this before. But I’ll say it again. There are consumers–including those potentially opting for laptops from Hewlett-Packard or Dell–who would like to buy a MacBook with 3G built in. Let’s hope Apple sees the light with the expected upgrade to the MacBook Pro line.

Crothers has it wrong.  Apple’s always been about having maximum control over the computing environment, and the hell they’ve gone through trying to drive AT&T Wireless (or any other company that just doesn’t get the Apple DNA) is why.

If you built great products, would you associate yourself with any company who doesn’t do it your way unless you had to?  Exactly.

Selling a product requiring a third party (the iPhone) is entirely different than selling one that doesn’t (a notebook that’ll pull WiFi anytime you’re able to use it).

More from Crothers’ article: HP, Dell offer 3G in laptops, so why not Apple? | Nanotech – The Circuits Blog – CNET News.