The large amount of patents Apple applied for on behalf of the iPhone makes you expect that this should lead to an exclusive device. However; Continental Mobiles are not satisfied with the exclusivity of the Apple iPhone, and that's why they have their own version of the much-discussed iPhone; a special 24 carat gold iPhone. Even though the Apple iPhone in itself is already a unique device, the combination with the additions of Continental Mobiles ensures that you, as a user, are guaranteed not to meet a similar device. The iPhone, much-discussed even before it came out, had a lot of people in suspense for a long time, after all it is not just a mobile phone.

• Read our full Apple iPhone review.

As crowds of tech savvy consumers flocked to Apple stores around the country last week for the release of the new 3G iPhone, some savvy entrepreneurs also got into the action. Freeiphoneswap.com street teams, consisting of sales representatives and models, were strategically placed in cities around the country to offer existing Apple iPhone owners the chance to trade their old iPhone for $200 and the opportunity to upgrade to the new 3G phone for free.

Polka, the first and only secure aggregation and collaboration service for managing health, announced its new iPhone Emergency Card application is available on the Apple Application Store. Polka’s iPhone Emergency Card provides essential life-saving information on the extremely popular Apple iPhone and iPod touch devices.

The New York Times announced the release of the NYTimes iPhone application, which gives NY Times readers offline reading capabilities, a photo browser with links to the related articles and personalization options for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch models. Available for free at the iPhone App Store, the NY Times iPhone application allows users to take advantage of the advanced capabilities of the iPhone and iPod touch user interface.

AirStrip Technologies, a pioneer in medical software applications for handheld devices, announced it is in the advanced stages of development for its innovative AirStrip OB medical application for the new Apple iPhone 3G. AirStrip, which is already available for use on PDAs and Smartphones, will allow obstetricians to use their iPhones to remotely access virtual real-time and historical waveform data for both the mother and baby directly from the hospital’s labor and delivery unit utilizing only a cell phone connection.

Apple announced that more than 500 native applications will be available on the iPhone’s App Store when Apple’s iPhone 3G goes on sale tomorrow. The Apple’s iPhone provides a breakthrough mobile platform for developers, who have created an incredible array of innovative applications such as stunning action games, advanced medical applications and robust productivity tools for the enterprise. These apps will be available on Apple’s revolutionary new App Store, enabling customers to wirelessly download them directly onto their iPhones and start using them immediately. More than 125 applications are being offered to iPhone customers for free.

Make Your Day Media announced availability of its new time management application, RemindYou, for the Apple iPhone mobile phones. RemindYou is a simple, yet powerful application which turns the Apple iPhone into a time management dynamo by significantly increasing access to the user’s appointment schedule. RemindYou syncs iCal, Outlook, or Entourage events to the lock screen of the iPhone and displays upcoming appointments every time they use the mobile phone.

Ifbyphone, the telephone application platform company, announced the new Ifbyphone Voice Broadcast application for Apple iPhones. Ifbyphone’s Voice Broadcast application for Apple iPhones enables users to send recorded messages to as many recipients as they wish without using any of the users’ calling-plan minutes. The Ifbyphone telephone application platform delivers the broadcasts either immediately, or at a future scheduled time.

The newly announced Apple iPhone 3G combines all features of the iPhone with 3G networking, which is twice as fast as the first generation iPhone, a built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. The Apple iPhone 3G runs the hundreds of third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK.

With the imminent launch of its 3G iPhone, Apple has a window of opportunity to have a significant impact on the mobile TV market, according to the latest report from Analysys Mason, the premier advisers on telecoms, IT and digital media. There is considerable speculation about what next to expect from Apple’s iPhone ahead of CEO Steve Jobs' keynote at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco on Monday.