Its design was a dead giveaway that you wouldn't be swapping batteries willy-nilly. But now comes confirmation via iFixit that the iPhone 3G battery, while not exactly user-replaceable, isn't soldered on!

This means that if you're good with tiny tools, and there's a third party out there providing replacement batteries like they did for older generation iPods, then you might, just might, be able to change out the power pack when your iPhone 3G croaks after a few minutes of talk time.

Take a look at some more interesting discoveries from the first known iPhone 3G teardown here. Ghastly!

And if you need something else to obsess over then it might please you to know that the iTunes App Store is semi-officially open for business.

[via Engadget]

Update: MacRumors has a direct link to the iPhone 2.0 firmware (to make use of those lovely apps; iPhone ONLY). Upgrade at your own risk.