iPhone 3.0! iPhone 3G S! iPhone ZOMG!

Just as the eagerly-awaited iPhone 3.0 software update became available, AT&T made an announcement that some subscribers' upgrade eligibility would be bumped up just in time for the iPhone 3G S launch this Friday.

AT&T addressed the subscriber frenzy today and said that any customers who would otherwise be eligible for an upgrade between July and September will be given their upgrade pricing effective tomorrow. This means that rather than make these customers wait one to three months, or otherwise force them to pay the full price of the new iPhone (an additional $200), they will be given amnesty, and be allowed to buy the device at its discounted upgrade price of $399 for the 16 GB model, or $499 for the 32 GB model when it goes on sale on Friday.

To accommodate the additional customers this will add to the crush of line-waiters, Apple announced this afternoon that its stores will open early at 7:00 am on Friday to hand out the pre-orders (perhaps they'll want to think of another term for those now), and then open to the general public at 9:00 am.

And for those not quite close enough to their upgrade to the 3G S, today's free 3.0 software update provides more than a hundred functionality enhancements to the iPhone 3G to play with. Unfortunately, MMS and tethering are still not available among them.

Even with the 3.0 upgrade, AT&T still says that the ability to send picture and video messages will not be available until "late summer," similarly, the operator has said that tethering will indeed be available, but it has no announcements regarding when customers will be able to add it to their subscriptions.