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There have been numerous reports about how Apple has hidden a remote blacklist that supposedly can remotely disable rogue iPhone apps previously distributed through the App Store. The discovery of this so called blacklist made by Jonathan Zdziarski has caused widespread controversy over whether or not Apple has your best interests in mind.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball puts an end to all the speculation over this supposed blacklist site and clears the air on what it actually is:

Apple has no reason to hide such a configuration in a sneaky place. If it's "tucked away in a configuration file deep inside" the Core Location framework, doesn't it seem more likely that this list has something to do with, say, Core Location? Even the URL of the file in question hints at this:

https://iphone-services.apple.com/clbl/unauthorizedApps

An informed source at Apple confirmed to me that the "clbl" in the URL stands for "Core Location Blacklist", and that it does just that. It is not a blacklist for disabling apps completely, but rather specifically for preventing any listed apps from accessing Core Location -- an API which, for obvious privacy reasons, is covered by very strict rules in the iPhone SDK guidelines.

So let's put this one to rest okay? Read more on Gruber's findings here.

A sneaky someone found a link to the iPhone software v2.0 before it's been released here in the US! You can download iPhone software v2.0 here

Software build 5A347

NOTE: If you are using Safari to download this, it will uncompress and dump the original file into the trash. The original file is named iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw.zip You need to retrieve the file from the trash and rename it. Simply remove the zip portion of the file name.

Before you update, please read Apple's support document: Updating and restoring iPhone and iPod touch software.

To install the update, simply connect your iPhone to iTunes then go to the summary screen. Hold down the option (alt) and click "Check for Update". Then select the file iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw.

Be sure to make a backup of your phone! The update takes about 10 minutes.

We'll be following along with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to WWDC this year. Maybe next year I'll be able to get there...

Here are some sites that will have live info as the show progresses:
http://www.macrumorslive.com/
http://www.engadget.com/
http://www.macnn.com/
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php
http://www.macworld.com/
http://www.macscoop.com/
http://arstechnica.com/index.ars
http://www.thedigitallifestyle.tv/blog.html

See you tomorrow for some awesome news in the iPhone world. Can't wait!

Apple released the fifth public beta of its software developer kit for the iPhone and iPod touch on Wednesday. The new SDK includes bug fixes and adds support for the latest iPhone OS.

According to Apple's iPhone Developer Center Web page, the "fifth beta version of the iPhone SDK includes Xcode IDE, iPhone simulator with Open GL ES support, Interface Builder, Instruments, frameworks and samples, compilers, and Shark analysis tool."

"Upon further examination, I'm getting a much stronger vaporware vibe from this. For something due by September, they're awfully short on details. Their screenshot gallery is entirely comprised of mockups, not actual screenshots or photos from an actual prototype. (Unless the Nüviphone is going to pack a 1400 × 795 display, which is pretty unlikely.) When Apple pre-announced the iPhone six months in advance, they had real screenshots and actual prototype hardware. No word at all on how you type, what OS the device is using, Mac/PC connectivity or synching, or what rendering engine the web browser users. Whole things smells less-than-half-baked. Update: Engadget has "hands-on" photos, but none with the prototype turned, you know, on.

Garmin also seems to be implicitly encouraging direct comparison to the iPhone and Apple: the hardware is obviously iPhone-esque; the screenshot mockups are entirely set in Myriad (the iPhone uses Helvetica, of course, but Myriad is Apple's branding font); and even the name, "Nüvifone", contains the substring "ifone"."

"Motorola is already said to be suffering, and in the fourth calendar quarter of 2007 reported a 38 percent drop in its mobile device sales compared to the same period a year ago -- a stark contrast to an industry widely agreed to be growing over time. The departure of Ed Zander from Motorola's chief executive spot in mid-quarter is understood to have been partly driven by the increasingly poor results.

Most of the reasons behind the plummeting welfare of the Motorola division are understood to stem from its emphasis on individual devices. By ignoring software and the platform as a whole, Motorola has essentially given Nokia a two-year lead..."

The folks over at Inventive Labs have created Tabulate: a bookmarklet for the iPhone. What's the big deal about it? Well Tabulate brings the convenience of 'open in new tab' to Safari on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Using a cool looking hovering widget that you invoke from the bookmarks menu, Tabulate works it's magic! There is also an option of queueing up several links to open in new tabs with just one click.

You're just gonna have to try this out yourself to understand how cool it is. And no, you won't have to jailbreak your iPhone to use Tabulate! It's a bookmarklet after all!

• Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone 200: 200 SMS, Domestic Data (web/email), Visual Voicemail, $45/month.
• Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone 1500: 1500 SMS, Domestic Data (web/email), Visual Voicemail, $55/month.
• Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone Unlimited: Unlimited SMS, Domestic Data (web/email), Visual Voicemail, $65/month.

• 20MB Data Global plan (20MB of usage within 29 countries) for $24.99 per month.
• 50MB Data Global plan (50MB of usage within 29 countries) for $59.99 per month.

The company says that if users setup mail on their iPhones simply by tapping the "Gmail" icon, the v1.1.3 upgrade will convert access from POP to IMAP. The result is that messages read on an iPhone will also appear as read in the Gmail web interface and any deletions will move messages to the web Trash bin, where they will be permanently deleted after 30 days.

• Create a 57x57 PNG.
• Name the png "apple-touch-icon.png"
• Put it in the root folder of your website

• Maps
• Mail
• Notes
• Stocks
• Weather

• Enhanced Maps
• Rearrange icons on your home screen
• Make WebClips of your favorite websites
• SMS multiple recipients
• Chapters for video
• Karaoke mode and available lyrics

"Through it all, Jobs maintained the highest level of secrecy. Internally, the project was known as P2, short for Purple 2 (the abandoned iPod phone was called Purple 1). Teams were split up and scattered across Apple's Cupertino, California, campus. Whenever Apple executives traveled to Cingular, they registered as employees of Infineon, the company Apple was using to make the phone's transmitter. Even the iPhone's hardware and software teams were kept apart: Hardware engineers worked on circuitry that was loaded with fake software, while software engineers worked off circuit boards sitting in wooden boxes. By January 2007, when Jobs announced the iPhone at Macworld, only 30 or so of the most senior people on the project had seen it."

1. Set up a cycle region that covers the area you wish to use in the GarageBand song. Note: This area must be 40 seconds or less in length.
2. Once the cycle area has been set, choose Share > Send Ringtone to iTunes.

Fortune has a great interview with Greg Koswiak, Apple iPod and iPhone marketing chief. The interview covers all of the iPods, including the iPhone. There are some juicy things said about the Apple iPhone SDK and what Apple is trying to do with the SDK, namely digital signatures.

I think the software development kit (SDK) that’s going to be available for the iPhone is very interesting, because we think that with the revolutionary multi-touch interface and the phenomenal product that the iPhone is, and certainly having OS X underneath it, that it’s going to be an unbelievable platform for developers.

Of course what we want to make sure we’ve done is keep the phone safe and reliable, and that’s why it’s taken us a little while to get this SDK out. Especially now that we’ll have a real SDK which means legitimate developers are going to come into the space. There are all kinds of fantastic and great things that they’re going to do.

on digital signatures with iPhone SDK

One of the things Steve talked about in his open letter is something Nokia’s doing, which is requiring a digital signature. That way if there’s something wrong with an application, you have a way to track it back to where it came from. So one of the things we want to do, again, is create a development environment that is going to maintain the security and reliability of the iPhone yet at the same time offer developers some really cool things that we can do.

Developers see the opportunity already. You only have to look and see how many were creating iPhone applications without permission, when they actually had to break it, as it were, to do it. I think that was a good indication as to how much the developer community loves the iPhone, how much they see an opportunity to create great things. With the SDK, I think it’s going to bring more legitimate developers into it, as well as having the grassroots, small developers, which I think is awesome. Sometimes these one- or two-person teams have created the most dramatic things.

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch.

What's really going on? It's like this. We threw Fred and Nancy under a bus, and said that I was completely innocent due to my utter ignorance of all things related to stock and money and finances. So the SEC says, Okay, well, Steve, then we'd like you to help us build our case against Nancy. How about you come in and answer some questions. Tell us all about how you knew nothing and it was all Nancy's idea. No problem if we put you under oath, right?

It's called a perjury trap. Oldest trick in the book. So how did I respond? That part I can't tell you. [via The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs]

"If they bought it this morning, they should go back to where they bought it and talk to them," he said. "If they bought it a month ago, well, that's what happens in technology."

"We're in high-volume manufacturing, and we're pretty good on the costs side. We're also willing to be more aggressive. We think we have a real winner, and customers love the iPhone. The product's been extremely well accepted; we want to put the pedal to the metal. A holiday season is approaching; we'd have to wait another year for another one."

The patent appears to take a page from Jobs' keynote speech in January, pointing out the inherent need for a flexible touchscreen interface. Since the keys and screen on traditional cell phones are fixed in place, the interface can rarely change to accommodate new features; developers often have to add physical buttons or overload existing buttons with special features, the patent explains. In return, users often can't change the interface themselves to fit their own expectations, typically forcing them to memorize obscure commands.

Apple's solution would rely heavily -- but not necessarily -- on a touchscreen interface virtually identical to that of the iPhone. By dragging an on-screen icon with a finger or stylus, users could either move icons to a static tray on the screen, replacing an earlier icon, or shift them around in their existing sections. In that latter case, neighboring icons could move aside gracefully to reorder the interface on the fly and make it clear where an icon will land when the user lifts their pointing device.

Another iPhone lawsuit has been filed. This time a small Florida based firm is suing Apple Inc. (AAPL) saying that the on screen touch keyboard infringes on their patent.

From AppleInsider:
The 7-year-old filing describes a "method of providing a user interface for receiving information from a user using a user immutable graphical keyboard linked to an input area, [...] invoking the graphical keyboard on a touch screen display to receive input from a user, and [...] maintaining the graphical keyboard on the touch screen display such that the user cannot move, resize, remove, or close the graphical keyboard through the user interface while the input area remains and requires input."

During my stay in San Francisco last week, my iPhone AC Adapter started going wonky. At first I thought it was the USB cord, so I did my usually troubleshooting routine by swapping it our of the AC brick and then plugging it into the laptops USB connector. Doing that charged the iPhone. Using the brick did nothing. No chime or batter charging display.

I took the brick with me to the downtown San Francisco Apple Store and had a genius check it out. Strangely, the Brick worked with no problem. We plugged in my iPhone and it worked! The genius seemed troubled because I told him the steps that I did to recreate the problem, yet it showed no evidence of being broken at the store. To be safe he swapped it out with a new one which he tested and was sure it worked. We were out of the store in 10 minutes.

Now we're reading reports across the net about others having the same problem. Has your iPhone brick stopped working or become intermittant? In any case, it seems like Apple will replace it fairly easily.

Let us know!

Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster is at it again. Today in a research note, Munster said Apple will soon be turning their actions once again toward the iPod. Munster predicts the company will release it's next generation iPod by the time of next January's MacWorld. The next gen iPod would feature the current iPhone's interface and Mac OSX underpinnings, minus the wireless phone and internet connectivity.

We think the next gen iPod will hit in Novemeber... just in time for Christmas. It's been a long, long time since the last new iPod hit Apple shelves. We think the timings just about right.

If you live in Pittsburgh, you MIGHT be able to pick up an iPhone today. That's according to Apple's own iPhone availability tracker. Yes folks, America and has bought just about every remaining iPhone for work, play and of course, craigslist and eBay.

Folks who bought their iPhone via the Apple Store online the day it came out have reported that they shipped out yesterday and are due to arrive by next week Monday. No one knows for sure if everyone who placed an order that day will get theirs, but a few friends who placed orders within the first 5 minutes have all confirmed that they got shipping notices from Apple.

If you'd like to see the list but can't because it's past 9am in your time zone, just simply set your clock to anytime before 9am to fool Apple's web app.

DVD Jon, better known as Jon Lech Johansen has cracked the iPhone and come up with a way to use it without service from AT&T. Johansen, who is known as DVD Jon because he broke the DeCSS encryption on DVD's, has found the secret to unlocking the iPhone by editing key hexadecimal numbers in Apple's software and redirecting the server request in order to trick the device into switching into it's normal mode. When done, the iPhone will not be able to make any calls but will function as a WiFi device and iPod.

So far the software to perform this operation has been tested on Windows only.

If you want a WiFi only iPod, just be patient is what we say. There is no doubt that the next gen iPod will feature a majority of the iPhone features minus the phone.

Over the weekend Apple sold over 700,000 iPhones which went well beyond what analysts had predicted. This shatters AT&T's record of selling more iPhones in 3 days that Motorola's RAZR did in an entire month!

Apple is sold out of iPhone in about 10 states according to Bloomberg. AT&T is totally cleared out of iPhones and 95 of 164 Apple stores sold out by Tuesday night, this includes Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, and Washington.

Apple Inc's (AAPL) Stock price is currently up +5.91 (4.87%) 127.1 as of this writing.

In the unfortunate event that your iPhone needs repair, you will want to read the iPhone Service FAQ. The FAQ has some interesting tidbits about iPhone warranty, iPhone servicing and iPhone rentals. The FAQ details just about everything you could possibly want to know about what it will take to get the phone fixed. Let's face it... we're all going to have to get a new battery sooner or later, which means the iPhone will need to go back to Apple since the battery is soldered onto the logic board. Click to see a picture of the battery soldered to the board here.

Some highlights:
Will I be given an iPhone as the AppleCare Service Phone or will I be given a different type of phone?
AppleCare Service Phones are iPhones, so you can enjoy the use of an iPhone with all of your data while your iPhone is being repaired.

I just sent my iPhone to Apple for repair and forgot to transfer the SIM card to the AppleCare Service Phone. What do I do?
Please contact your local AT&T store to obtain a new SIM card. As Apple cannot guarantee that your SIM will be returned from the repair center, please explain to the AT&T representative that you lost your SIM card. The AT&T representative can transfer the proper account information to a new SIM card that you can use in your AppleCare Service Phone and then put back into your phone once it’s returned from being repaired.

Will I be able to load my content from my iPhone to the AppleCare Service Phone?
Yes, simply sync your AppleCare Service Phone with your computer using iTunes. All of the data that you synced from your iPhone to iTunes will now sync to the service phone for you to use.

Can I move my new and updated contacts and content from the AppleCare Service Phone to my iPhone?
Yes, simply sync your repaired iPhone with your computer using iTunes. Any data that you synced from your service phone to iTunes will now sync with your newly repaired iPhone.

Will I have to activate my AppleCare Service Phone?
No, there is no need to activate the AppleCare Service Phone. Simply transfer the SIM card from your iPhone to the AppleCare Service Phone and you will be able to make and receive calls. The first time you connect to iTunes with the service phone, you will need to provide your phone number, ZIP Code, and the last four digits of your Social Security number.

Will I lose any data from the iPhone that needs repair?
Apple will clear all the data on your iPhone during service. In order to preserve your data it is important that you backup the data on your computer by syncing your iPhone with iTunes. Data that has been added to your iPhone but has not been synced with iTunes will not be preserved.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Apple Inc. (AAPL) sold about 525,000 iPhones at Apple and AT&T stores during the first weekend launch of the iPhone.

Half of the Apple Stores on the U.S. West Coast were sold out of the devices on the first day. Both Apple stores in Honolulu, Hawaii were sold out by the middle of Sunday.

Neither Apple nor AT&T were available for comment on this story.

And yes, that photo is taken with the iPhone.

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

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!

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

Go see them here.

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.

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!

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.

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

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?

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.

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!

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?

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.

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!

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.

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.

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).

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."

Today at WWDC, Steve Jobs said: "The iPhone ships on June 29th, that is just 18 days from today. I believe it's 6pm in the evening it will go on sale..."

What's up with the 6pm time? Is that a joke? Probably not.

From a few Apple Store sources, we're told that FedEx holds their shipment of new merchandise to stop eager beaver employees from getting to it before launch. This may be the case with the iPhone and Apple may be trying to be sure that the devices get to the dealers before the riots start.

We're not sure how this is going to work though. We had planned to camp out the night before and be there when the store opens, but now, we may have to do more than that!

We're still not sure if that's 6pm Pacific time, or 6pm in all time zones. Either way, we'll be there!

If you have any info, please let us know. Also, we'd love to hear your thoughts!

This is for those of you who currently have a Windows Mobile compatible phone and are itching to get your hands on an iPhone. Or it could also be for those of you who don't want to switch but would love that cool slide to unlock feature that the iPhone will have.

You're in luck! A freeware app called pocketpc slide2unlock is now available. This startup screen for Windows Mobile allows similar functionality to Apple's iPhone "slide to unlock" feature. Download freeware Windows Mobile slide2unlock here.

We don't know whether to classify this as rumor or news... but we'll file it under news. Gizmodo says that they've got a "proven inside source" which got to play with the iPhone. Here's what he had to say:

• "It does have email and it is already set up for AOL/GMAIL/HOTMAIL etc.. and you can use your own POP email address."

•"Not worth the $500-$600 IMHO maybe half that."

•"I must say it has very fast response to input and very good resolution on the LCD it is very crisp and vivid."

•"...it has a place to put your SIM. It looks to not have an easily replaceable battery (like the IPODS no battery door)."

•"The phone has a super top secret feature that I can't even be told what is."

•"Web browsing is pretty fast as well."

•" The phone has to be carried around in a pouch there is no other way around it. "

•"One thing that struck me was that there are constant firmware updates. I'm talking nearly daily. I hate to see that the firmware is being tweaked so much 3 weeks before its release."

That's a pretty detailed account there. It's good to read these things, but again, we'll take it with a large bowl of salt. We're curious if he was trying the phone with Wi-fi or over AT&T's network? Also the comment about it not being worth $500-$600 is a matter of opinion. Some of us said the same thing about the iPod when it first came out. We're pretty sure the price will come down in a bit.

The word is out! The iPhone will be arriving in stores on June 29. The world will never be the same.

Apple posted 3 brand new TV ads featuring the upcoming iPhone in all it's glory. If these ads don't make you drool just waiting for one... something might be wrong with you!

Check them out here!

The ads quickly go through the main features of the iPhone: iPod/music/video, email, web browsing, google maps, photos and of course taking a phone call. It really is something to see. Like all things, in 3 months we'll be taking all of this eye candy for granted, so lets savor the moment and watch these videos over and over again shall we?

http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/

At yesterdays D Conference, Walt Mossberg and Steve Jobs sat down and talked a little about the iPhone. One of the questions was about 3rd party applications for the iPhone. Jobs hinted at the possibility of third-party applications as soon as Apple deals with security and making sure that nothing will crash the iPhone or allow it to be hacked.

Steve Jobs: "I think sometime later this year we will find a way to let third parties write apps and still preserve security. But until we can find that way, we can’t compromise the security of the phone. Nobody’s perfect, but we sure don’t want our phone to crash. We would like to solve this problem, if you could be just a little more patient with us, I think everyone can get what they want."

The iPhone is here. But it's not the Apple iPhone.

Here's just one of many iPhone rip offs to come, but this one comes out even before the launch of the Apple iPhone. Is it an iPhone copy or an iPhone clone? Maybe...

This is the P168 from a Chinese Manufacturer. It features six (6) onboard speakers for 3D surround sound (3D sound on a phone? Really?). It also looks like the P168 has 5 buttons to control it's functions. It has a 3.5 inche touchscreen with QVGA resolution. It also looks like it supports dual SIM's and a removable SD card. To make this fake even faker, they claim 2.0 Megapixels but it is clearly a 1.3 megapixel camera since the maximum resolution supported is 1280 x 1024. It also has a USB slot.

Lots more photos after the cut....

TheStreet.com has stated that Verizon will launch an iPhone Killer in the states this summer. The Prada phone is said to be set to launch in order to stem the tide of customers that may jump ship to AT&T / Cingular for the iPhone.

Supposedly Verizon will pull out the stops and go heavy on the marketing, but will it really be able to keep customers away from the iPhone? Maybe... maybe not. The iPhone is really set to shake up the cell phone market and the way that it operates. The iPhone will not be subsidized (at least we doubt it will be in the very beginning) and with all the cool features it will bring, it really raises the bar (pardon the pun) on what is going to be expected of future smart phones and cell phones.

We think the main factors against the iPhone will be price and the fact that it's only on AT&T currently (and for the next 5 years if we believe everything we read). But even the iPod was expensive when it first came out... and before we blinked, everyone had to have one. Will Verizon be able to stave off the I-gotta-have-one factor? We'll find out for sure this summer!

USA Today is reporting that AT&T will have exclusive rights to the iPhone for 5 years. This most likely means that there will be no CDMA handset during that time. So unless you're with AT&T, you probably won't get an iPhone with your provider until 2012.

Over 1800 Cingular outlets and kiosks will be transformed overnight to AT&T as the telecom giant revamps its image and rebrands itself for the iPhone.

Cingular it seems, is being banished, never to be seen again once AT&T's new logos appear all across the nation."Our branding campaign is performing at and above projected levels and customers response has been very positive," said Randall Stephenson, AT&T's chief operating officer. "We are excited to move into the next phase of transforming AT&T into the only communications provider our customers will ever want."

The iPhone is set to change a lot of things in the wireless playing field. AT&T's new branding strategy in store and out is just the beginning of it all. It will be interesting to see how AT&T does financially once the iPhone is out and people adopt this new standard.

The FCC has approved the iPhone for sale in the US. An AppleInsider article tells of the heavily redacted FCC info.

"The Apple Inc. A1203 GSM Cellular Telephone with Bluetooth and Wifi, FCC ID: BCGA1203, is in compliance with the limits for general population uncontrolled exposure specified in FCC 2.1093. The device was tested according to the measurement standards and procedures specified in FCC OET Bulletin 65, Supplement C (Edition 01-01) and IEEE p1528/D1.2, April 21, 2003."

Apple requested that many things be omitted for a "short term" due to confidentiality reasons, so there are no External photos, no internal photos and no user manual to be seen.

Apple is still set to release the iPhone in late June.

This was found by a reader! It seems that theres yet another internal AT&T memo that was let out into the wild. It basically states that the iPhone is not available for pre-sales or orders at all.

For those that have bad eyesight like most of us at the blog do, we've transcribed the critical information part for you:

* "iPhone will be available sometime in June. The exact date has not been announced, specific dates should not be provided to customers.

* Two models of the iPhone will be available, a 4GB will retail at $499 and have an 8GB will retail at $599. If asked what the price will be, answer that the prices have been announced as $499 for the 4G, and $599 for the 8G, respectively. There should NOT be any additional speculation/discussion about pricing."

Still nothing firm as far as how Apple (AAPL) will be selling the iPhone next month. We'll probably be standing in line for a long, long time in order to get one!

This was just brought to our attention: Theres a few people on eBay that are guaranteeing that they will get you the Apple (AAPL) iPhone within 30 days of the start date of the listing.

Previously, eBay has yanked auctions for the iPhone "pre-sale" because the company did not feel confidant that the seller could make good on getting the iPhone to a customer in 30 days. The particular one we looked at last night seems to have already ended with a final winning bid of US $925.00.

We hope that the winner gets their iPhone within 30 days! Apple has been known to under estimate their potential for a product and that has led to shortages but hopefully this won't be the case with the iPhone as it's probably the most anticipated device at the moment.

Apple iPhone is set to ship on June 15th. Exactly how Apple will be selling it remains to be seen.

A patent filing revealed last week shows either the next gen iPhone or possible the iPhone Nano that many rumor sites have been talking about.

The compact design saves space by putting the scroll wheel on the rear of the phone and the full touch-screen interface in the front of the phone. This is a work of genius, and again Apple comes through.

Now we're not sure exactly how small this device is meant to be, but we're pretty sure it can't get too diminutively small without losing some ergonomic feel. If you care to read through the legal jargon, check it out here.

We're just happy to have a picture/diagram to look at.

Sun Microsystems (SUNW) debuted what many are calling the jPhone at yesterdays JavaOne. The new software for high-end cellphones looks similar to the Apple (AAPL) iPhone. The software is still in development and is months away from being a reality but it is designed as a full software stack.

"We are providing a full software stack for the cellphone like the Nokia Series 60, so I guess we are in competition with them," said Tim Cramer, executive director of customer solutions in Sun's software group.

Read more about this via Information Week

Are you ready for the iPhone to be released? AT&T is rumored to be getting ready... with whole new demo booths just for the iPhone!

According to this report, AT&T is in the final stages of getting their iPhone demo booths in place for the big debut. The demo booths are said to be much larger than any that have been on display before. Also of note is that each display will require exceptional power requirements with a separate power supply. While we're not sure why this is a big deal, we're sure you can come up with a good reason.

Retail chains will need to have ethernet cables indicating that they'll be showcasing the fact that iPhone has Wi-Fi connectivity. What isn't known is if the displays will ship with the demo iPhone units or not. We're pretty sure they'll ship sans iPhones for sure.

This is news to us! Apple Inc. (AAPL) just released a statement that their eagerly awaited update to Mac OS X is going to be delayed until October due to using software engineers to work on the eagerly awaited iPhone.

Apple Statement

iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October. We think it will be well worth the wait. Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones. [Apr 12, 2007]

We at the iphone news blog believe that this was a smart move by Apple to utilize the best people to work on critical products when needed. Better late than full of bugs we say.

Scribd has uncovered an Apple doc that showcases a diagram depicting the internal operations of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone.

What we know from this document:
Internal architecture is name Aloha!, Core Audio and Video, running on an ARM processor, there is mention of a Games Emulator.app and the GUI is called Onyx.

From the meta-data, this document looks to be real as it was created by Bertrand Serlet, senior vice president of software engineering at Apple.

April Fools! It's all a joke.... see this.

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.