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Cnet's News.com is reporting via their Gadgets Blog that Apple's (AAPL) iPhone will be released on June 11. Cnet did things the old fashioned way and called Cingular customer service and got the scoop!

"Now Cingular is confirming that the release date will be June 11. A customer service manager at Cingular (we called 800-947-5096 and were transferred to sales) gave us that date late Thursday, but, alas, said he didn't have any additional information beyond that."

Whether or not it's true remains to be seen... all we can say is don't hold your breath... but you MAY want to start your countdown timer and start saving your money!

As we reported yesterday, the iPhone made an appearance over at CTIA 2007 in Orlando, Florida.

The heavily gaurded phone was shown off by Cingular/AT&T COO Randall L. Stephenson. While Stephenson didn't use the phone while delivering the keynote, he did joke that it was the first time he had held the most wanted phone in the world, the iPhone.

Another person who spent time with the iPhone was Kevin Martin, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, who got to play with the iPhone backstage before it was whisked away by security.

Stephenson joked, "He spent more time with it than I did," Stephenson said. "It seemed like he wouldn't give it back." And who'd want to? If we had our paws on that beautiful phone we'd want to have a lot of face time with it as well!

Remarkably, Tuesday was only the second time Stephenson had held or seen an iPhone!

"I held it one time in a Cingular board meeting," but that unit wasn't operational, he said. "Today was the first time I could navigate it."

The answer is a resounding "yes!" if you asked AT&T COO Randall L. Stephenson. Stephenson who gave the keynote at CTIA stated that AT&T has had a million requests to be notified when the phone is available. Granted these are not sales but if the interest in this product is this high, many are speculating it may just lead to sales.

At the CTIA keynote, Stephenson held, for the first time an Apple iPhone in his hands. While there was no real life demo of the phone, they did show a pre-made video of what the iPhone can do.

Online auction website eBay (EBAY) pulled from it's site 6 auctions purportedly selling iPhones. eBay's reason: They weren't confident the seller could deliver the yet-to-be-released phones within 30 days.

Bidding was going nuts on these auctions as the top bid had reached $1125 before the auction was stopped.

"Thanks for informing us of the Apple iPhone listings. As we understand, the Apple iPhone will not be commercially available until June. Any listings claiming to be selling the Apple iPhone are in violation of eBay's pre-sale policy which requires sellers to guarantee shipment within 30 days from the date of purchase. All postings violating eBay's pre-sale policy will be removed." an eBay spokeswoman said via an email to Computerworld.

Computerworld contacted the highest bidder who said he entered the auction because he was planning to use PayPal, which offeres insurance for fraud up to $2000. His boss had given him $1500 to bid on the phone so he figured he was protected.

Now I dunno about any of you, but before bidding, I'd want to know just how this seller was planning to get the iPhones? Does he know Steve personally?

For a few months now, many have speculated about the rumors that Google Inc. (GOOG) was working on an iPhone Killer but Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has once again stepped up to the plate to reveal what he thinks. Munster believes that Google will work with Apple (AAPL) instead of against it.

"We spoke with one person with knowledge of the situation, and believe the SideKick hires were 5 to 10 people, with a focus on software. We believe Google is building mobile applications for search and location that will work with the iPhone, and other mobile phones." Munster said.

This would seem to be jibe as Job's himself stated that Google and Apple were collaborating to bring Google tech to the iPhone.

In an article in Business2.0, Jon Fortt wrote a short about his encounter with Steve Jobs. Seems that Fortt was writing up an article 6 years ago about Apple's first retail outlet. Fortt, not knowing anything about real estate, got the info about Apple's lease agreement wrong... and Steve Job's sent him an email to let him know about it!

The story goes on to say that Job's was quite gracious about the whole incident when the store finally opened. At the opening Job's stated:
"One of our reporters in Silicon Valley wrote a story over the weekend about the store opening, and got our lease payment twelve times too high, not realizing we pay annually, not monthly. That just goes to show how much we tech folks have to learn about retail."

The writer wonders if Apple should be a little more humble when approaching the mobile phone market just as they were when they entered the retail market.

Read more here.