June 2007 Archives

One hour to go in our area...

Holding breath!

Apple posted 5 separate tech notes which detail known issues with the iPhone.

- Unable to send mail
- iPhone not recognized in iTunes
- iPhone is frozen or unresponsive
- SMS text messages
- Connecting to the internet with EDGE or Wi-FI

Apple published the iPhone Users Guide so those of you who don't have an iPhone yet can read about every little detail!

Get it here.

We're in line now. There are 40 people or so ahead of us so we're pretty cool. It's inside a mall so theres AC and wi-fi which is very nice. We'll be waiitng and posting!

iPhone fever has hit. We're planning to start scouting the local sites for spaces in line. Stay tuned for more iPhone fun once we get our hands on one!

ThinkSecret has posted never before seen screenshots from an iPhone in the wild!

Go see them here.

ArsTechnica has an article about the 11am Apple company-wide meeting that Steve Jobs conducted today. The article notes that Jobs "discussed the gravity of the iPhone on Apple's business as well as how he perceives the parts played by the rest of the company."

He also hinted about next generation iPods that will have Mac OS X operating system built in. At the end of the speech, Steve Jobs became Santa Claus and stated that all full-time Apple employees would be given a free 8GB iPhone by the end of July. This is probably when Apple hopes to have initial demand taken care of.

If you work at Apple, you're gonna be waiting for your iPhone for over a month!!

Apple has released the Apple retail availability tracker which allows iPhone seekers to find iPhones in their area. A green dot will mean in-stock, a red dot means it's sold out. The tracker will only be updated on a nightly basis, so we're not sure how useful this will be.

Probably a good idea to call the store but we think you'll be hard pressed to get a person on the phone to speak with.

iPhone arrives at 6pm in your time zone tomorrow... if you live in the USA. But where should you buy the iPhone?

We all recall last month when Steve Jobs told a fellow blogger not to go to the Apple Store, but rather go to an AT&T store since it won't be a mad house there. We're not too sure about that.

While AT&T may be less crowded than an Apple Store, we really think that the Apple Store will get the lions share of the iPhones for sure. Today Apple announced that it will allow 2 units per person on a first come first served basis. This leads us to believe that Apple will have more than enough inventory per store to sell to the public.

From todays press release:
"All 164 Apple retail stores in the US will stay open until midnight, and customers can purchase up to two iPhones on a first come, first served basis."

"Beginning Saturday morning, iPhone owners can learn how to get the most out of their new iPhone with free, in-depth workshops offered throughout the day at all Apple retail stores. Every Apple retail store will offer free support for iPhone at the Genius Bar and personal training through Apple’s new One to One program.

“Apple retail stores were created for this moment—to let customers touch and experience a revolutionary new product,” said Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail. “With our legendary Genius Bar support, free workshops and our One to One personal training, we’re here to help customers get the most from their new iPhone.”

We're still debating which we'll be heading to tomorrow. There is a nice Apple Store in our area that is located inside a mall with air conditioning and carpet. The AT&T locations in our area are not and lately, it's been really, really HOT!

Just how much money is Apple projected to make on iDay, the day the iPhone is released?

Well, I'm feeling in a math mood tonight, so let's run the numbers.

There are approximately 1800 AT&T stores.
There are approximately 162 or so Apple Stores.
Total Stores: 1962

Let's be generous and estimate 200 iPhones per store. That comes out to 392,400 units if all are sold out on the first day. If we average both models (4 gig and 8 gig), we get a cost of $550 per iPhone.

Total revenue for the day if all iPhones sell out is $215,820,000.00!!!!!
For one day.

Mind you, this does not count iPhone sales over at Apple.com's online store.

So there you have it. Apple's going to rake in the bucks. If you have Apple stock, hold on for a fun ride.

Sure the Apple iPhone is a slick convergence device, and probably the most anticipated consumer electronics product in history... but are you sure you REALLY want that iPhone? And even if you REALLY WANT it, can you afford it?

Looking at things with some real numbers is what most people won't do because the iPhone frenzy has hit and no one's reeally thinking about the actual cost of this product.

Let's take a look at what it's gonna cost to purchase a 4 gig iPhone and a 2 year "low end" plan:

Apple iPhone - $499.99
AT&T voice and data plan - 450 minutes monthly for 24 months: $1,439.76
Activation Fee: $36.00
Accessories: none
Tax: varies
Total: $1974.76

So to put it in tangible terms, for about $24.24 more you can get the low-end 15" MacBook Pro for what it will actually cost you to get the 4 gig iPhone.

Also take into account a few other things: taxes, accessories and the fact that if you ever go over 450 minutes you will get clobbered when your phone bill shows up. Also take note that this is a version 1.0 product and Apple probably won't let iPhone sit too long with out an update. In fact, we would COUNT ON an update 6 months from now to the iPhone. iPhone version 1.5 and 2.0 is already being worked on. It has to be.

If you're a gadget freak like we are and just have to have the latest and greatest and have the bank account to afford it, the iPhone may be for you. Just remember that in the tech world, what's new today is old news next week. Be prepared to be jealous with envy when iPhone v. 1.5 comes out. Hopefully Apple and AT&T make it as easy as upgrading to a new iPod. We can hope right?

In an email sent to customers, it seems AT&T will limit one (1) Apple iPhone per person on Friday. This is probably to prevent hoarding of the device and will probably stop a lot of folks from grabbing 2 or more to sell on eBay. Good job!

Apple posted a Q&A section regarding their iPhone. The Q&A covers using an iPhone, setting up iPhone, Accessorizing the iPhone. Read more here.

AT&T has posted their iPhone FAQ prior to it's release this friday.

Important note: there is no wireless insurnace, but they will offer a 14 day return policy with 10% restocking fee.

See entire FAQ after the cut.

Apple has just posted yet another daily iPhone update. This time focusing on the keyboard. Check it out here.

Here are some links to iPhone reviews we've found around the web:

USA Today - Apple's iPhone isn't perfect, but it's worthy of the hype
New York Times - The iPhone Matches Most of it's Hype
Wall St. Journal - The iPhone is a Breathrough Handheld Computer
Newsweek - At Last, the iPhone

Uncle Walt Mossberg's review of the iPhone is out! After using the iPhone for three weeks, the verdict is finally in. The topic we were most curious about was the keyboard, which even he was skeptical of.

Walt says:
"The iPhone's most controversial feature, the omission of a physical keyboard in favor of a virtual keyboard on the screen, turned out in our tests to be a nonissue, despite our deep initial skepticism. After five days of use, Walt -- who did most of the testing for this review -- was able to type on it as quickly and accurately as he could on the Palm Treo he has used for years. This was partly because of smart software that corrects typing errors on the fly."

Among other interesting comments in the review:
- iPhone lived up to its battery life claims
- no way to make songs ringtones.
- camera takes great shots but no way to shoot video
- no way to copy and paste
- no week view in calendar mode

Read the whole article, it's really good! Here.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball has chimed in on his 80 gig iPhone hypothesis:

(a) The demo screencast was recorded using a super-secret pre-production iPhone 2.0 with 80 GB hard drive; or (b) the original 4 and 8 GB iPhones are still so secret that the screencast was recorded using an 80 GB iPod hacked to resemble an iPhone in iTunes.

John thinks the later is possible. Someone emailed us and suggested that perhaps the iPhone has on the fly compression but we think thats would be kinda off the wall since most music and video is already compressed... not to mention if they can squeeze 80 gigs into 8 gigs that would be pretty incredible.

After watching the iPhone Activation and Sync video today, we notices something interesting when John Appleseed was showing us how much space is left on our iPhone:

Apple's new iPhone Activation and Sync video shows that the iPhone connected to iTunes has a 75 gig capacity. Notice it says Capacity 74.40 GB. Which iPhone has 75 gigs built in?

Is this yet another surprise waiting for us or a demo mistake? Perhaps the next gen iPod?

Apple today revealed it's iPhone Activation and Sync Video posted here.

Activation is done in iTunes and the video shows how easy it will be to activate your iPhone. This is how Steve Jobs plans to get people out of the store quickly and ensure that none of the Apple Store staff activates phones for anyone on the opening day perhaps?

While the video makes it look simple, we're hoping that it proves to be that easy when iDay rolls around and that the activation net isn't jam packed and clogged. Perhaps this is the reason Jobs wanted the rollout to be at 6pm for each time zone to allow a staggered activation queue.

Syncing the iPhone is just like syncing an iPod. It's all done in iTunes. Address book, Calender, email, and safari / IE bookmarks, iTunes playlists, iPhoto photos, podcasts, and videos.

Finally! Straight from the horses mouth. Apple and AT&T finally reveal their voice and data plans.

Individual plan:

Family plan:

Existing customer plan:

What we found interesting is that you'll need a 2 year activation for the phone including iPod. That means you can't use the iPod functions without getting a 2 year activation on the device.

More here.

The iLounge has a listing of over 60 iPhone Add-ons as well as a warning:

"iLounge’s editors have strong reason to believe that existing iPod accessories—and even some recently touted as “iPhone-compatible”—will not work as expected with the iPhone. We have made this point as clearly as possible in several articles on the site leading up to the iPhone’s launch. Unfortunately, because iPhones have not been provided to developers for in-house electronic or physical testing, it will be unclear until after the iPhone’s launch which accessories will have issues, and how serious those issues will be. We have been told that it is possible that certain iPod chargers may break when connected to iPhone, and that it is likely that noises from iPhone will create audio interference with older iPod speakers.

If you are concerned about possible damage to your past accessories, we strongly recommend that you await “safe for iPhone” postings on manufacturers’ web sites before connecting them to your iPhone. Brief tests may not be enough to reveal certain types of issues, and since many electronically different revisions of accessories are out there, it is all but impossible for anyone other than the manufacturer to guarantee that all versions of a specific product will work. We’ll continue to monitor official word from manufacturers, and from Apple, as the iPhone launch nears and passes. "

To see the complete list of possible iPhone add-ons and iPhone accessories, click here.

Apple's retail outlets will offer about two dozen accessories for the upcoming iPhone on Friday, sources tell AppleInsider.

Most of these products will be cases or protective gear, along with offerings from Apple: the standard stereo headphone with mic which is included with the iPhone ($29) and the bluetooth headset which will go for a reported $129 (thats expensive!)

There may be a few more suprizes left... only 4 days away!

Apple Insider has reported that the first shipments of the iPhone have arrived over the weekend at various drop locations.

According to the article, the security precautions are over the top:

"Awaiting the freight at each location on Sunday were armored (sic) personnel, who were reportedly hired by Apple through its courier's ground handling agent and then cleared by the Transportation Security Administration. Armed guards are extremely unusual for freight coming out of the Asian sector, those familiar with the matter explained, and are typically reserved for shipments containing riches such as gold and diamonds.

Once on the ground, the iPhone shipments were to be broken down under the watch of the armed personnel, who would then observe the loading of the freight onto ground vehicles and become party to its transpiration outbound."

In addition, Apple management informed staffers on Sunday that there would be no devices with cameras allowed in the backrooms of it's retail outlets. This includes cellphones, and Macs with built-in iSight.

Feast your eyes on these guys! The clear case will be the first i'll be picking up...

So far there's a rubberized iphone case, a clear plastic iPhone case and a luxury looking iPhone, holdster...

Wonder what other accessories will be waiting for us when we visit the Apple Store?

Reports are coming in that suggest that AT&T is in full swing to prepare for the iPhone in what they call "iDay". AppleInsider is reporting that AT&T will be asking existing staff to take on new roles to help out during this day. This includes marketing, sales and regional staff to help with crowd control and other front line duties.

To stop AT&T employess from buying iPhones for themselves, there will be no employee discount for the iPhone. Employees will have to purchase them at the retail price like everyone else.

Employees will be receiving "need to know" info as the Friday launch date draws closer. This must be a high stress time for AT&T employees. We can't wait to get our hands on this phone so we can think about other things!

While snooping around the newly installed 10.4.10 today, we found this iPhone icon in Image Capture:

We found it here:

/System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/PTPCamera.app/Contents/Resources/Apple iPhone.icns

A file that says "This script has only been tested on Cingular Network" in here:
/Library/Modem Scripts/WWAN Support

EDGE via bluetooth anyone?

These are updated just for iPhone we think....
/Applications/Internet Connect.app/Contents/Resources/AirPort.bundle/Contents
/Applications/Internet Connect.app/Contents/Resources/AirPort.bundle/Contents/Info.plist
/Applications/Internet Connect.app/Contents/Resources/AirPort.bundle/Contents/MacOS/AirPort
/Applications/Internet Connect.app/Contents/Resources/AirPort.bundle/Contents/version.plist
/Applications/Utilities/Bluetooth File Exchange.app/Contents/Info.plist
/Applications/Utilities/Bluetooth File Exchange.app/Contents/MacOS/Bluetooth File Exchange
/Applications/Utilities/Bluetooth File Exchange.app/Contents/version.plist

Who knows what other hidden gems there are in OS X 10.4.10?

From Apple's iPhone tech specs webpage:

1. 1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less.

2. Talk Time: Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhones and software. All talk time testing was done connected to a 1900MHz network. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the WiFi feature Ask to Join Networks was turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.

3. Standby: Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhones and software. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the WiFi feature Ask to Join Networks was turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.

4. Internet over WiFi: Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhones and software. Internet over WiFi testing conducted using a closed network and dedicated web and mail server, simulating browsing to 20 popular URLs and checking mail once an hour. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the WiFi feature Ask to Join Networks and Auto-Brightness were turned off; WPA2 encryption was enabled. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, WiFi connectivity, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary. Internet over EDGE: Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhones and software. Internet over EDGE testing conducted over a 1900 MHz EDGE, using a dedicated web and mail server, simulating browsing to 20 popular URLs and checking mail once an hour. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the WiFi feature Ask to Join Networks and Auto-Brightness were turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, EDGE connectivity, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.

5. Video Playback: Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhones and software. Video content was a repeated 2 hour 23 minute movie purchased from the iTunes Store. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the WiFi feature Ask to Join Networks and Auto-Brightness were turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.

6. Audio Playback: Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhones and software. The playlist consisted of 358 unique audio tracks, a combination of content imported from CDs using iTunes (128-Kbps AAC encoding) and content purchased from the iTunes Store (128-Kbps AAC encoding). All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the WiFi feature Ask to Join Networks was turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.

Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information.

Apple (AAPL) updated their iPhone web page with all new info including a 20 minute video guided tour of the iPhone and more!

So far most of what we've seen on the page is a redesign and lots of press kit info with more photos of the iPhone.

20 minute video play by play

- side of the iphone has volume up and down and silent ringer switch
- top of the phone is the sleep wake/button, headphone jack and what looks like a sim card slot
- bottom of the iphone has speaker, mic and iphone connector
- home button on the center on the front
- lock the iphone by pressing the sleep/wake button
- turn off the iphone by pressing and holding sleep/wake button then slide dinfer across screen to confirm.
- iPhone syncs with your address book and you can use this info with google maps, safari and mail.
- while you are on a call you can access the address book or any other applications
- favorites list for one tap dialing
- list of missed calls shows up in a list in red
- very easy to add contacts to address book
- visual voice mail allows you to listen to voice mail in any order. New vm's are in blue. Easy to call back from voice mail list.
- easy to swap calls or merge them with easy onscreen button interface.
- ipod section sorted by artist, album, songs, videos and more
- coverflow looks really cool
- videos play in landscape, can play in anamorphic or full screen as well.
- "more" allows you to choose how you want to organize your ipod navigation
- headphones have a button attached to it to act as a remove control to the iPhone. It also allows you to answer phone calls. music fades out when a call comes in. One click answers the phone. Another click will resume music.
- iPhones photo album is awesome. Assing photos to contacts or use them as wallpaper.
- Safari can sync bookmarks from a pc or mac. Very easy to get to websites
- Double tap to zoom in or out
- Google is default search, tap in the URL field then a screen comes up with a google search. You can change this to Yahoo search.
- new pages can be open in safari
- keyboard has a .com button for easy url input when in safari
- supports rich html email for inline images
- very easy to delete emails
- email can open .doc (microsoft word documents)
- in email: tapping on a url launches safari, tapping on a phone number launches the phone.
- sms's look like iChat along with iChat sounds
- sms's will pick up where you left off
- stocks and weather applications use network to get the latest data
- google maps works just like you'd expect
- zoom out by tapping with two fingers
- maps has bookmarks too so you can bookmark your home location
- car button is for traffic conditions, green means things are running smoothly, yellow is trouble ahead.
- step by step instructions are given to get to your destination
- You tube defaults to the most popular videos
- can bookmark and email YouTube videos to your friends
- Settings: can turn off network, has airplane mode - no iphone or bluetooth
- choose ringtones, looks like standard mac sonds as well as a few new ones.
- can choose wallpaper from wallpaper album or one of your own photos
- can change how often iphone checks email
- also change font sizes in mail
- other config settings shown: usage (how long your phone has been used) sounds, brightness, wallpaper, general, mail, phone, safari, ipod and photos
- go to Apple on June 29th to actually use one or buy one!

Thats it!

Oddly missing: iPhones built in camera phone. How does it work?? What kind of photos does it take? How many megapixels? Does it take video?

Looks like the iPhone will be available at the Apple Store Online. At the bottom right of the iPhone page it says: "Buy online. Browse, shop and buy your iPhone online. Coming soon."

-----
We'll go over the video with a fine tooth comb and list any other interesting things we find.

We're not sure how this company is gonna get away with this, but wow. They even have the guts to put the Apple logo on this fake. We highly doubt anyone will be fooled by it but if you like this kind of cheap stuff... this might be right up your alley!

Expect Apple attorneys to get into full swing now that this is out in the wild. Enjoy!

Technical details about Apple's iPhone was leaked on the web today by a University of Washington technology group, which was soon yanked from the site. The group confirmed that the iPhone would not support Adobe's Flash, but rather use QuickTime to display audio and video. Also, Safari, the browser in the iPhone will only be able to keep 8 webpages in memory at a time.

The University of Washington's technology team got this info from a iPhone session they had at WWDC last week. Here are some details that they let out:

- No support for Flash, Adobe's multimedia Web content format.

- No Java.

- JavaScript runtime limited to five seconds.

- QuickTime used for audio and video.

- A maximum of eight documents loaded in Safari on the iPhone.

- Links to video on a Web page take users directly to full-screen playback.

- Support for PDF through Apple's own DisplayPDF code, not Adobe.

- Multiple gestures automatically available to Web sites viewed through iPhone without any additional coding, including pinching content to shrink, double-tapping to zoom, and two-fingered scrolling.

University director of technology Oren Sreenbny said they decided to remove the post because someone pointed out that they were in violation of the non-disclosure agreement.

By now, most folks have seen Apple's commercial about the iPhone stating that it's not a watered down version of the web, but rather the full web. I've been reading a lot of pundits saying that Apple can't really make these claims because it's still missing a few components, namely Flash and Java.

I'm curious how Apple will deal with not having Flash available to Safari on the iPhone as many websites have taken up Flash as a web standard and created their entire website on that software. I'm guessing that a Flash based website doesn't qualify as a "real" website to Apple?

The bigger question is this: what about advertisers? Advertisers have been quick to start using flash in a lot of their advertising on websites. If these ads won't run on the iPhone, will advertisers start screaming? We ponder this as the iPhone has the potential to become a new type of customer for potential advertisers.

Another consideration is that many sites use Flash for navigation and various web apps. These sites will probably not work in Safari as well.

We think the issue of Flash is not going to go away. Apple will eventually need this technology on the iPhone. So let's just be patient and wait because theres no use crying about Flash not being in the iPhone when we don't even have an iPhone in our hands yet.

Newsfactor's Leslie Cauley has a story today on top secret testers of the Apple iPhone. In an interview with Balsu Thandu, newsfactor uncovers what went on behind the scenes and probably right in front of us during this testing period. Utilizing about 200 field technicians which logged more that 10,00 hours on the phone invluding 5000+ hours of voice calls, AT&T tested the iPhone for over 10 weeks!

from the article:
"Doing dry runs with the world's most anticipated cellphone has been challenging. Tests had to be done in places frequented by wireless Relevant Products/Services users. Under strict orders to keep the phone under wraps, technicians had to hide or disguise the phone when in public, Thandu says.

The disguises took many forms: an iPod "sock" was sometimes slipped over the iPhone. Other times, he says, testers kept the device inside a newspaper or pants pocket and used a wireless headset. "

Read more of this facinating stuff here.

One of our staff members was getting a bit antsy and did his weekly calling around about the iPhone. After speaking with a Cingular store representative, he uncovered a few details:

- You must buy a data plan with the iPhone.
- Data plan package is $40. This includes Unlimited Internet surfing and 1500 text, SMS or photo messages.
- You may increase your text, SMS or photo messages for a higher price
- You may choose your voice plan among the various ones they have available currently.
- Most likely 2 year contract will be required.
- No info on pricing for current subscribers with AT&T / Cingular but you will have to be qualified for an upgrade to purchase one.
- They had no details as to how many they were going to get in stock.
- They will close at 4:30pm and reopen at 6pm to sell the iPhone
- No waiting list. First come, first served.

Looks like everything out in the grapevine is true and this all came from a Cingular/New AT&T representative.

Also new today is a video of GoogleMaps that shows the addition of the small car icon and the up and down arrows on either side of the apps navigation at the bottom.

We're not sure we've seen this before, but in today's updated iPhone webpage on Apple's site we noticed something different:

The iPhone Safari screen showed multiple pages of open websites and the ability to scroll throught them, choose another, or open another page. See pic below:

Apple (AAPL) today updated their iPhone webpage and showcased some of the iPhones new features.

First up is YouTube on the iPhone:

The video shows YouTube as a REAL application with it's own icon widget, and then how it works.

Check out the video here.

Apple (AAPL) announced today that iPhone users will be able to view YouTube's videos on the iPhone when it begins shipping on June 29. An Apple Designed (NOT a web 2.0 webpage) application will allow YouTube vids to wirelessly stream content to the iPhone via WiFi or EDGE network.

"iPhone delivers the best YouTube mobile experience by far. Now users can enjoy YouTube wherever they are-on their iPhone, on their Mac or on a widescreen TV in their living room with Apple TV." said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.

All of this is accomplished using the H.264 format which allows the iPhone to have longer battery life and higher video quality. The iPhone is the first mobile device to use the H.264 encoded video as well.

"The combination of H.264-encoded videos plus iPhone's built-in Wi-Fi networking, stunning 3.5 inch display, and custom YouTube application with its multi-touch user interface results in the best YouTube experience on any mobile device."

There should be over 10,000 You Tube videos available on June 29, and more available every week until YouTubes entire catalog is available in H.264 this fall.

Could this be Apple's way of nixing Adobe Flash? We kinda doubt it. Flash would still be needed on the iPhone to play back interactive menus and websites. We'll see what happens next in that respect.

Blogger Will Mon dissected the demo of the iPhone doing SMS messaging and decided that it would be just fine for typing out messages, even though it has no physical keyboard.

from his blog:
"It would[n't] be fair to just say that the iPhone is unsuited for use while driving due to the lack of a keypad without mentioning why it'll be quite comparable to typing on a physical keyboard for sighted people.

From left to right:

1. a finger hovers over the letter 'u' (another is over the letter 's')
2. the finger touches the screen, prompting visual feedback before the input is actually registered
3. on release, the letter us is registered and appears in the text input field. Until the release, you get the chance to correctively reposition your finger in the event that 'u' was not your intended keystroke.

The visual feedback you get from letter magnification combined with 'on release' behavior instead of 'on click' behavior suggest that typing will be a breeze on the iPhone. Multi-touch, or the ability to touch different parts of the display at the same time, means fast two (or more) fingered typing."

Fascinating stuff! We can't wait to see if it really works... (actually we're pretty sure it will).

Apple today came out with the news that their highly anticipated iPhone will now boast 8 hours of talk time up from 5 hours originally claimed in Janurary. Further, the dimunitive phone will sport 24 hours of music playback and 6 hours of internet browsing or 7 hours of video playback. Standby time is claimed to be 250 hours ~ 10 days!

Apple claims that this is the most capable devices in the phone industry. "With 8 hours of talk time, and 24 hours of audio playback, iPhone’s battery life is longer than any other ‘Smartphone’ and even longer than most MP3 players," Apple's CEO Steve Jobs says.

The other big news is that the screen has been upgraded with lens-quality glass which will help visibility and make it resistant to scratches. Just don't drop that iPhone on it's face!

We'll take the iPhone battery life claims with the grain of salt as always. Apple's real world battery life don't always live up to the claims made so your millage may vary.

We were wondering just how Apple and AT&T were going to do crowd control on the debut day of the iPhone. Surely they'd have a stampede on their hands if people were allowed to wait in the store to purchase one. Not to mention how it would probably be way too crowded for anyone to shop.

What we've been hearing is that Apple as well as AT&T will be closing shop at 4:30pm to clear out the store. They'll then begin prepping the new displays, then re-opening the stores at 6pm. This is the most likely scenario and will allow them to do business during the day.

We're not sure how people will reserve a space in line for this event but rest assured we'll be standing in a line somewhere to get our hands on one!

With so much buzz and hype over Apple's (AAPL) iPhone, is a backlash waiting in the wings? Maybe say some bloggers who've been following the news about the most anticipated phone in the history of mobile telephony.

Apple and AT&T have been slowly letting info out about the iPhone, which is set to be released on June 29, 6pm across all time zones. Very little is known about mobile phone plans and this is making some nervous. On top of the little info available, no one outside of Apple (unless you're Walk Mossberg) knows how the iPhone will perform on the important things such as call quality and battery life.

In order for the iPhone to be successful, it will have to have average battery life. The large screen will be the biggest power drain, but hopefully Apple has already incorporated LED technology for that screen to save power and extend battery life. The iPhone will have to have talk time of at least 60 minutes and about 8-10 hours standby/casual usage. We're guessing that people will be satisfied by this in the first generation of the phone.

If Apple cannot deliver this, we're expecting a lot of trash talking and returns. Customer service will also be important in order for Apple to succeed. We're hoping that the AT&T and Apple Store folks are already hiring more people in the customer support departments to handle the traffic should there be any sort of glitches (and we're expecting a few). Let's hope there are no hardware issues requiring returns or exchanges, but because this is such a new product and is so untested, we won't hold our breath.

Apple will have to be already working on the next iPhone if they're going to keep up in the game. Various rumor sites say that iPhone 2.0 is already in the works. In order to compete outside of the U.S., Apple must bring out a phone that can do 3G, GPS and more to woo asian and european customers away. Most folks outside of the U.S. already have all of these features and VOIP. It will be a tough market but we're anxious to see what Apple has in store.

The big debate, even before anyone has even TRIED an iPhone is whether or not the keyboard will be easy to use. With only one button on the front of the iPhone face, you're left with a lot of screen realestate, and Apple plans to have you learn to use a their onscreen keyboard with predictive text.

Walt Mossberg was told by Steve Jobs that you have to give it a shot and learn to trust the onscreen keyboard, also it would take about a week to get used to it. Having used many, many PDA's with various sized keyboards I realize that tactile feel is important but getting accustomed to the keyboard is most important.

“The tactile feedback of a mechanical keyboard is a pretty important aspect of human interaction,” said Bill Moggeridge, a founder of Ideo, an industrial design company in Palo Alto, Calif. “If you take that away you tend to be very insecure.”

I think what may be a bigger problem than having no tactile keyboard is that there are no real buttons on the iPhone. This would be important when you are in a situation where you can't look at the phone, while driving for instance. I have speed dial numbers that I dial sometimes while driving by "feel". The iPhone won't allow you to do this at all. The other option is voice recognition but this doesn't seem to be in the plans when the iPhone arrives on June 29.

We'll take this as a rumor since there is no confirmed source from the information we're getting.

Triston McIntyre claims he's been speaking to an "anonymous" AT&T store manager, and this manager claims:

"...visual voicemail, Google Maps, or any of the other main features will be available only through a contractual AT&T data plan."

We're not sure if we buy it or not, so we'll have to roll with this until someone says otherwise. If it's true, we'll be paying for a dataplan we'll hardly ever use since we're surrounded by wi-fi constantly during our work day.

If this is indeed the plan, then it would make sense that AT&T would try to milk iPhone customers over the 2 year plan since they can't make it on the hardware itself.

The Apple (AAPL) iPhone may face shortages of four to eight weeks at it's June 29th launch. This is according to Dr. Simon Croom of the Supply Chain Mangement Institute as told to ZDNet. Croom has indicated that the company might face strains since it's components are of a global nature.

From ZDNet, quoting Croom:
"My view about the fulfillment and supply chain challenges of the iPhone are as follows:

The bottom line is that the launch of the iPhone is a high risk supply chain challenge."

So the big concern for many folks that read this news blog: Will there be a stampede to get the iPhone?

We feel the answer is "maybe".

There's a huge difference between talking about a product and buying a product. Many, many folks are talking about the iPhone, but we're wondering how many would actually buy one on the first day that it's out?

Aside from the Apple / Mac / tech geek, who's going to buy one of the most anticipated pieces of technology yet? How is the iPhone any different from, say the Sony PS3 or the Nintendo Wii?

Well allow us to play "Devil's Advocate" for a moment and list a few "barriers" that the iPhone may have going against it.

High price point
At $399 - $499, the iPhone is priced out of most people's range for a cellular phone. Most folks walking the street have a Motorola RAZR phone which they either got for free or perhaps $5 with a 1 or 2 year contract. We're very skeptical that the average person is willing to plunk down $399 - $499 for an iPhone AND sign a 2 year agreement. We could be wrong. We were with the original 5gig iPod. Those things sold lots.

Contract Term
Many people carrying around those new RAZR phones are locked into an existing contract. Most of them at 2 years. If they aren't with AT&T/Cingular, they'll have to either find a way to give their existing contract to someone else to pay, continue to pay for that contract or pay the contract off somehow. Will they be willing to jump ship to AT&T if they're on say, T-mobile? We THINK the average person probably won't at first.

Not built for Enterprise
From the start, we were convinced that the iPhone wasn't built for business but rather for the consumer. It really is the best iPod you can buy that also has a phone built into it... and a calendar, and an address book and a real web browser! But the iPhone won't really replace the Blackberry just yet as it isn't targeting that market. There doesn't seem to be any way to sync with corp email (exchange server) or other embedded MS products that big companies use. So we're hessitant to think that the enterprise market is going to jump on the iPhone at first.

This isn't a gaming platform (yet)
So why would some stand in line to get a Sony PS3 and not an iPhone? Well for one thing, the iPhone is unproven. Has anyone tried one yet? The Sony Playstation had 2 previous iterations and they were both successful. The public knew what to expect and there was of course intense demand for the product. Price point aside, the PS3 doesn't have a 2 year contract that goes with it when you buy it, nor do you have switch to a different network if you aren't already on theirs.

Bottom line: the gaming console and phone are very different consumer items. Once you buy a gaming console, sure you're locked into paying for games just for that console, but you can do so when you want, if you want to. With the iPhone, you'll be paying a monthly charge on top of the $399 - $499 price you paid upfront for 2 years.

So who's going to buy an iPhone?
That's easy to answer: Mac diehards will. People who are out of a cell phone contract and want a better phone and are willing to shell out bucks will. Techies will. Folks who have wanted a Blackberry or Windows Mobile type phone but didn't like the limitations will.

See you in line.