Interesting. Clearly, your phone has this new button. Just as clearly, mine doesn't. (Even after a power cycle, which seemed a likely trigger.) And yes, my phone is at 1.0.1.

Does one have to do something on one's account on mac.com to activate the gallery? Were there two versions of 1.0.1?

Imagine waking up one morning to find that the usual "AT&T" network logo has been replaced with, say, T-Mobile. Or any other carrier you fancy.

i have downloaded the new update but this does not appear as an option on my iphone photo - what's the deal??? Is there something more I need to do to update?

"somehow time locked to not appear before yesterday’s event—makes sense..."

Well, I would disagree with the "makes sense" part but it's not correct.

I have done the 1.0.1 update and my iPhone doesn't have the Send to Web Gallery” option.

Have any of you turned your iPhone off and then back on (I haven't)? That would trigger the update - just like on other cell phones we've used in the past.

So, whether or not it's "creepy", it looks like Apple is simply doing what other phone manufacturers/vendors have done for years - "updating" your phone without your knowledge or permission.

So the "Send to Web Gallery" option just magically appeared on your phone yesterday?
Mine doesn't have that option...just checked. Perhaps it's because I synch with PC....very smart indeed...
Will be interesting to see what happens when i switch to a Mac in Nov when Leopard comes out. Will it suddenly appear?

I just checked my phone and I have only the 1st 3 buttons, no send to web gallery

If it was a time locked part of the 1.01 update, I got jipped because I got the update and after double checking just now, I don't have that 4th option.

Do you need to have a .mac account for the option to appear?

Remember, this service is tied to .mac, so if you don't have a .mac account, it may not be available to you.

My guess: installing iLife '08 updates the iPhone software. Anyone have any evidence of that?

I also don't have it.

Nice to see you here again Shawn.

For others asking: mine was updated yesterday afternoon sometime, but not immediately. After reading about it, I checked, and saw nothing. Later in the afternoon, I did see it there. I assumed they updated via EDGE.

Other facts. I do have a .Mac account, and it is already upgraded in size, even though their admins told us it would take up to the 14th of August for everyone to be affected. I did connect to iTunes for a sync.

Maybe it was updated with 1.0.1, and was dormant until iTunes gave it the “go-ahead.” A safety net in case the event didn’t happen?

Given all the posts after mine and what I see (yes, I do have .mac), my current best guess is that the current iTunes notices the presence of a suitable iLife version and changes a variable on the phone upon next sync. (iTunes doesn't even need to look for iLife on the disk, as the iLife installer could easily set a value in the iTunes preference file.)

(My new iLife is somewhere in Apple's shipping operation. I'm playing with iWork via the downloadable 30-day trial; for those who haven't noticed.)

"My guess: installing iLife '08 updates the iPhone software."

Nope - my wife and I were in a pub last night when I told her about the new "button" on the iPhone. She looked and it wasn't there.

I told her to turn her phone off and then back on and voila - there was the updated button - we weren't updating iLife in the pub. :)

The only difference between our two phones is she has a .Mac email address setup and i don't. Maybe, as others have said, that's the trigger.

But it still begs the question - was the button there all the time but hidden or was the iPhone covertly updated in the background?

I suspect the latter.....

Some clarifications for my part. I don't have iLife '08, so that's clearly not the trigger. I do have a .Mac account setup for my mail, and that makes sense. I don't remember, however, if I restarted my phone yesterday; it's possible.

Either way, I would be unsurprised to see a knowledge base article about this pop-up if it does require a restart. Well, it'd be nice anyway.

OK, I have a .Mac account and it's set up on my phone, but I haven't updated iLife yet. I just powered down my phone and restarted and the button appeared.

the "on/off" did it for me! It still took a minute to come up. First check it wasn't there, then **** there it was!
Good luck to all of you!!

Hmmm, I have a .Mac account, have iPhone update 1.0.1, have my .Mac address as my main iPhone address, and have shutdown and restarted my iPhone, but no fourth button.

Synced the iPhone to iTunes ( possibly first time since the event yesterday ), still no fourth button.

Shutdown and restarted the iPhone again, still no joy - maybe it's because I don't have any photos/albums on .Mac?

Definitely a mystery!

Mine appeared as soon as I added my .mac account onto the iphone. I do not have iLife 08 installed.

You've all got it wrong. Apple's R&D group has successfully cloned Steve Jobs, known internally as SJ-Mimis, and have been biologically implanted into the internal workings of all iPhones. Once a new feature is due to be released, your local SJ-Mimi receives a signal via EDGE/WiFi to get to work and reconfigure. Just hope that your SJ-Mimi never gets the flu because things could really get crazy then.

I don't have a clue how they did it either, but my iPhone showed the new button when I checked it *during* the announcement. I went to send a picture at around 10:30 Pacific on Tuesday, and there was the button! No sync, no iLife '08.

I have a .Mac account, the 1.0.1 firmware, and no other good intel. :)

Regarding Iphone mystery updates.

Those are nothing ...

I still worry that someday my car will get spammed into submission.

Shawn Kalin

John Baxter on Aug. 8 referred to a downloadable 30 trial of iWork 08. I cannot find this on Apple's website. Could you tell me where I can download this free trial version? Can I buy and download it online?

One of our iphones has been sim card-less for a couple of week (temporarily moved to another phone). I updated the phone to 1.01. Restarted it, etc. It is active on our wifi network (gets mail etc). It has a .mac account configured as well and the synched computer has been updated to ilife '08. The new send to web gallery option has not appeared so, seems to me to be edge enabled. I'll find out next week when we put the sim card back in. Our other sim card containing iphones all have the new option available.

If you have your .Mac email address set up on your iPhone, then you will have the button. If you don't have a .Mac address SET UP on the iPhone, then you will not have the button. It doesn't have anything to do with iLife '08.

My phone didn't have it. I set up a .Mac account in my phone, and immediately the new buttom was added. Four days later, I purchased and installed iLife '08 - so it defintely doesn't have anything to do with that software app.