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Fortune reports that AT&T expects to launch Apple's new 3G iPhone either on, or very near to, the June 27 anniversary of the original handset's 2007 launch. Citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter, the magazine said AT&T intends to heavily subsidize the new smartphone, giving anyone who signs up for a two-year contract a $200 discount on the iPhone's retail sticker price.

Currently the least expensive iPhone is the 8GB model for $399, which could make the price $199 with the subsidy.

AT&T's strategy, Fortune said, is to use a discounted 3G iPhone to entice subscribers away from rivals Verizon and Sprint. AT&T CFO Rick Lindner recently told investors that AT&T continues to see users flocking to the iPhone. "Over 40 percent of those customers are new to us," he said.

Lindner also said AT&T had not seen any slowdown in demand for the original iPhone in advance of the carrier's impending release of a 3G version. "Through the first quarter, it was pretty stable," he said.

A Potential Opening

According to Fortune, AT&T's introduction of a new 3G Blackberry from Research In Motion is being delayed by several months from its original June delivery date. This would appear to provide Apple with a potential opening to make inroads at AT&T in both the consumer and enterprise markets.

Still, some industry observers think Apple still has a long way to go before it can challenge the Blackberry's supremacy in the enterprise. "For enterprises, it's really about typing and the keyboard," said Brownlee Thomas, a principal analyst with Forrester Research.

"The iPhone gives a wonderful user experience for viewing photos or looking up a phone number," Thomas observed, but its touch-sensitive screen "is not something you can type a long e-mail on." And it will probably take Apple "a couple more generations before that...

Fans of the Windows XP operating system will have to wait for the latest -- and possibly last -- service pack update. Microsoft said Tuesday that further release of Service Pack 3, which had been made available through Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center the same day, was being delayed because of a recently revealed problem.

Microsoft cited a "compatibility issue" between SP3 and the Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System for small and midsize businesses.

'Best Possible Experience'

In a statement distributed to news outlets, Microsoft said it had "decided to delay releasing Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center" so that it could make sure "customers have the best possible experience."

Microsoft said the delay will let it put up a filter, preventing XP SP3 and Windows Vista SP1, which also has issues with Microsoft Dynamics RMS, from being downloaded to users with Dynamics. A fix for the Dynamics incompatibility is reportedly in the works.

The SP3 update includes a variety of bug fixes and minor enhancements to XP. Several Vista features are in SP3, including Network Access Protection, "black hole" router detection, the Microsoft Kernel Cryptographic Module, and other enhancements. Each successive service pack also includes all previous fixes.

The supported operating systems include Windows XP, Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Home Edition N, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional Edition, Windows XP Professional N, Windows XP Service Pack 1, Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows XP Starter Edition, and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. The download size, depending on selected components, is between 428KB and one megabyte.

XP's Planned Demise

Laura DiDio, an analyst with industry research firm Yankee Group, said there's no evidence that Microsoft rushed the new service pack into release without adequate testing. She pointed out that software can have bugs even when it's been adequately...

When you release a game that celebrates beatings, shootings, carjackings and other forms of social mayhem, it had better work properly. If the official forums for Grand Theft Auto IV are any indication, the programmers at Take-Two and Rockstar North should avoid lingering in dark alleys for the foreseeable future.

Dozens of disappointed GTA IV players have reported that their gaming consoles have frozen at various points in the game. Most of the reports are from PlayStation 3 owners, but some Xbox 360 units have also been affected.

"GTA4 Freezes all the time., Heeeeelp" is the morose heading of the largest forum thread, with more than 45 separate messages and more than 6,000 views. The thread was started by an Australian gamer on Monday and offers a typical complaint: "I got GTA on Sunday and it freezes and I have to restart the console it happens every hour or so, I thought it may be a dodgy disc, so I took the disc back to the shop and got a new one and almost 40 mins into the game and it froze on me again."

Damage Control

By all accounts, the Rockstar North support group is taking withering fire from angry and frustrated GTA IV buyers. Brian Crecente, a contributor to Australian gamer guide Kotaku, one of the first media outlets to report the freezing problems, spoke to an "obviously unhappy" company representative on Wednesday, but didn't learn anything substantive about possible fixes.

"He ended the call by saying that they really have no idea when a fix will be coming," Crecente wrote, "because they can't figure out what is exactly causing the problem and then once more apologized. 'I feel terrible about this.'"

The challenge for Rockstar North's technical crew is that the problem is somewhat erratic. The bulk of the problems have been reported...