Yeah, we're iPhone obsessed around here -- and I've been biting my digital tongue to keep from blogging incessantly about the rumored new 3G iPhone to be announced in early June.

Well, now I have an excuse, albeit an annoying one. See, part of the fuel behind the idea that a new model is coming out is that there are no more iPhones for sale through Apple. That means that the only way to get one legitimately is to buy a refurb from AT&T, the sole US carrier for the phone.

Big deal. Why not wait a couple weeks? Because our dev team is working on an iPhone app that will make our soon-to-relaunch mobile edition location-aware. That means that while everyone will easily be able to access our databases from anywhere, iPhone users will be able to find the things closest to them without entering address info.

And you can't test the software on an iPhone, which is dependent on the still-unreleased firmware, without "bricking" it. (For the layman, that means making it unable to function other than for testing purposes-- no calls, emails, etc.)

David's been trying to buy a refurb iPhone so we can test and submit our app. But nearly 10 days and 5 long phone calls later, all he's been shipped is an empty bag. He's started a blog at wheresmyiphone.blogspot.com to chronicle his woes, and judging from early comments posted, he's not alone.

Anybody know somebody at AT&T who can straighten this mess out?