MacRumors

The Apple 2.0 Blog claims that the first official iPhone reviews should start trickling out tonight at 6 p.m. PT (9 p.m. ET).

From what we've heard the reviewers are going to be generally positive but will not shy away from pointing out the parts of the iPhone experience that were disappointing -- mostly revolving around typing difficulties and sluggish downloads over AT&T's current cellular network.

Apple has provided review iPhones to select journalists ahead of time to allow them time to use and review the units for the iPhone launch. Walt Mossberg received his iPhone on June 11th.

Besides announcing rate plans today, Apple has also posted a video demonstrating how to activate and sync the iPhone.

The iPhone is activated through iTunes. Activation works for both existing and new AT&T customers, and allows users to transfer their existing phone number to the iPhone.

The syncing portion of the video demonstrates how to sync email accounts, address, safari bookmarks and more.

Apple and AT&T Inc. today announced that iPhone users will be able to activate their new iPhones using Apple's popular iTunes software running on a PC or Mac computer in the comfort and privacy of their own home or office, without having to wait in a store while their phone is activated. Activating iPhone takes only minutes as iTunes guides the user through simple steps to choose their service plan, authorize their credit and activate their iPhone. Once iPhone is activated, users can then easily sync all of their phone numbers and other contact information, calendars, email accounts, web browser bookmarks, music, photos, podcasts, TV shows and movies just like they do when they sync their iPods with iTunes.

Several readers have noted that the syncing video shows "74.40 GB" capacity at one point, but this most likely represents an editing error.

Apple has released details of the service plans that will be available for the iPhone. Six special monthly plans are available:

- $59.99 for 450 voice minutes
- $79.99 for 900 voice minutes
- $99.99 for 1,350 voice minutes
- $119.99 for 2000 voice minutes
- $169.99 for 4000 voice minutes
- $219.99 for 6000 voice minutes

All six plans include unlimited data (email & web), Visual Voicemail, 200 SMS text messages, roll over minutes and unlimited mobile to mobile calling. Plans have a $36 one-time activation fee and are two year contracts. Family plans are shown on Apple's site. In addition, any standard AT&T service plan may be chosen.

iPhone goes on sale at 6:00 pm local time on Friday. Apple Stores will be closing at 2:00 pm on Friday in preparation.

Update: Apple has posted more details about Family and Existing Customer rate plans.

It appears that Sun's Jonathan Schwartz may have known what he was talking about when he claimed that ZFS support was coming to Mac OS X at WWDC.

WWDC came and went, however, with no ZFS announcement from Apple. Instead, Apple's Brian Croll flat out said ZFS is not happening. He later clarified that ZFS for Leopard was present but "read-only" -- meaning that Leopard was unable to write data to ZFS volumes.

Now, according to published reports on the internet, Apple has actually seeded developers with a ZFS Read/Write Beta for Leopard. The new ZFS Read/Write beta enables full read/write capabilities to Apple's Mac OS X (Leopard).

9to5mac.com posted what looks like three iPhones with docks.

They flippantly say they aren't real, but have previously posted another image that appears to be a real live iPhone.

Also notable from the site is an earlier claim that the iPhone would have Quicklook for Word and Excel files as well as OSX-Level VPN. The Quicklook for Word and Excel was essentially confirmed with Apple's iPhone Video Tour. Regarding VPN, they said:

The iPhones will have the standard OSX VPN client when they ship next week. This will allow connecting to Macintosh and Windows VPN Servers on L2TP or PPTP over IPSEC. The client is very simple and will be set up from its own settings pane.

The first iPhone campers have established their place in line at the New York City 5th Avenue Apple Store. Gizmodo has posted a brief video interview:

Meanwhile, we've heard that some Apple Stores have already started receiving iPhone shipments.

Update: It seems he has a Blog.

Boy Genius Report claims that their sources indicate that the iPhone's data plan will be around $34.99-$44.99 per month and feature unlimited data transfer. The text message allotment appears to be up in the air between either 2000 text messages or unlimited text.

Boy Genius Report also states that FedEx will be holding deliveries to retail stores until Friday itself, so stores will only be stocked immediately before the iPhones go on sale.

One AT&T spokesperson had claimed that they would be releasing voice and data plans prior to the Friday launch, but no information has yet been announced. A Page 2 story noted that the AT&T wireless store did go down for maintenance earlier today, but has since come back up with no obvious changes.

With only 4 days until the iPhone launch, the build up continues.

We are collecting iPhone Questions for early adopters in our active iPhone Forum.
For those unwilling to wait in line for an iPhone on Friday, Craigslist offers ads for people willing to wait in line for you.
CultofMac claims that Apple employees are being a bit free with their iPhones in public, with another photo of an iPhone at use at a party over the weekend.
Per Appleinsider, the first iPhone shipments have reportedly arrived in the U.S. with armed security.
Apple Store security is at an all time high, and there are reports that Apple may prohibit overnight camping and even line formation until later in the day.
Someone posted a Youtube video of the iPhone kiosk at AT&T stores.
Engadget claims to have a 1st hand report: essentially keyboard hard to use, EDGE is slow.

Meet up with other MacRumors members on launch day:

North East: New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Boston, MA, Philadelphia, PA, DC & NoVA Area
South East: Orlando, FL, Miami,FL , Richmond, VA, Georgia, Charlotte, NC, Norfolk, VA
Mid West: Kansas City, Denver, CO, Columbus, OH, Michigan, Chicago, IL, Iowa / Illinois, Minneapolis, St. Louis, MI, Jackson, MI
South: Dallas, TX, Oklahoma City, Austin, TX, Birmingham, AL, Houston, TX
South West: Southern California, Bay Area, CA, Central Valley, CA, San Diego, CA, Roseville, CA, Reno, NV, Las Vegas, NV, Tucson, AZ, Phoenix, AZ
North West: Seattle, WA

MacScoop claims to have procured the Mac OS X "Leopard" development roadmap running up to the software's October release.

Major build milestones are said to include a build by early July which will include some fixes for Airport, UI, API, and Developer Tools issues. A following build in August will be feature-complete, adding minor features and adjustments. MacScoop believes that the build handed to developers at WWDC was only mostly feature complete, and that Apple may still polish the user interface, including the menu bar and Dock.

Final Candidate stages are said to arrive in early September, with 4-6 weeks of testing until the Gold Master is certified, with a release in late October.

A Flickr account, presumably by an AT&T store employee, shows some of the early iPhone accessory arrivals. Despite Apple's claims that the iPhone will be relatively resistant to scratches, it is expected that carrying cases and protectors will be one of the hot-sellers.

Of course, iPhone will also work with Bluetooth headsets, including its own Bluetooth headset, which an unconfirmed rumor points to a $129 pricetag for. iPhone also includes Apple's 30-pin dock connector, so most existing iPod accessories should work as well (car chargers, FM transmitters, etc).

Update: Multiple reports from MacRumors sources are pointing to a $129 price point for Apple's Bluetooth ear piece accessory.

Someone posted video clips to Brightcove demonstrating Apple's Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard (WWDC Build).

[Removed per request of Apple]

The videos appear to have been recorded with Ambrosia Software's utility Snapz Pro X 2.1.0 which was just released with both Universal Binary and Mac OS X

The USA Today article we had previously referenced also contains an interesting sidebar interviewing Balsu Thandu, one of the individuals who has been field testing the iPhone over the past two months.

Approximately 200 field technicians have been secretly testing the iPhone for 10 weeks, logging over 10,000 hours on the phone, including over 5,000 hours of voice calls and 5 gigabytes of data usage. This is reportedly twice as much testing as other phones.

Users worried about durability can rest easier that testing included dousing the iPhone in water, dropping it onto concrete and bouncing it off sidewalks. Real life usage testing was also a big focus:

"Many people don't realize it, but walking gives you the worst channel conditions," Thandu says. Cell signals tend to bounce off buildings, causing interference, and background noise is a constant problem in cities.

Apple reportedly made ongoing adjustments based on the feedback, including improving audio quality which was originally "not loud or clear enough".

According to the article, Thandu feels comfortable that the iPhone is ready for launch.

Apple has released an update to its Safari browser, Beta 3.0.2 for Mac and PC via its website and Software Update.

Changes in Safari 3.0.2 for Windows beta:
- Latest security updates
- Improved stability
- Fixes for text display, non-English systems, and start-up times

Changes in Safari 3.0.2 for Mac OS X beta:
-Latest security updates
-Improved stability
-Improved WebKit support for Mail, iChat and Dashboard

Also released today is Security Update 2007-006 for Mac OS 10.3.9 and Mac OS 10.4.9 and later. The update addresses two vulnerabilities in WebKit, one of which could lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. More information on the update can be found here.

Though still in beta, the initial release of Safari 3.0 had seen 8 vulnerabilities discovered within 24 hours of its release, some of which were cross-platform. Apple quickly released Safari 3.0.1 for Windows which addressed some of the Windows-specific vulnerabilities discovered.

As reported on iLounge, iTunes is now the US's 3rd largest music retailer with 9.8% of music purchases covering the first quarter of 2007. Apple still trails behemoth Walmart (sitting at #1) and Best Buy. The top 5 stands as follows:

1. Walmart (15.8%)
2. Best Buy (13.8%)
3. Apple iTunes (9.8%)
4. Amazon.com (6.7%)
5. Target (6.6%)

Since its inception in early 2003, iTunes quickly became the leading digital music store. In November of 2005, Apple breached the top 10 US music retailers (for both physical and digital sales).

As noted by forum reader CoolOSXApps, Apple has posted an online guided tour of the iPhone on their website today. The 20 minute tour Quicktime movie may be viewed in small, medium, and large formats or downloaded for later viewing.

Meanwhile, Apple has redesigned their iPhone pages again.

From the tour:
- you can view Excel, Word and PDF email attachments.
- driving directions and traffic information

Boston.com is reporting that iPhone subscribers will have to pay $175 to break their two year contract.

Even though AT&T isn't subsidizing the iPhone's hefty price -- $499 to $599, depending on the storage capacity a customer chooses -- the company will charge a $175 termination fee for iPhone users who want to break their two-year contracts.

Early cancellation fees are typical for mobile phone contracts in the U.S., but the article points out that these fees typically help cover the phone subsidies that mobile carriers offer on new phones. The iPhone, however, has been heavily rumored not to benefit from these retail discounts. Regardless, AT&T spokesperson Mark Siegel justifies the fee by noting that

"There are certain fixed costs we incur in serving every customer who establishes service with us."