iPhone fever: Friday

iTunes 7.3 on the way in time for iPhone launch

The Apple iPhone's specification page reveals that you'll need iTunes 7.3 in order to work it properly. This is likely to mean that iTunes version 7.3 is imminent ahead of tomorrow's Apple iPhone launch.

Reportedly, the new version of iTunes will include ringtone support that will allow you to convert any song available through iTunes to a ringtone to use on the Apple iPhone. The cost is set at 99 cents, MacRumours reported.

RSS reader for iPhone

Apple has developed an RSS reader for the Apple iPhone as an AJAX/Web 2.0 application. It will bring your favourite RSS feeds to the Apple iPhone, ThinkSecret reported .

Rent a prankster to get hold of an iPhone

A group called 'Over Here, Jerks!' has made its services available for rental ahead of the Apple iPhone launch. It will apparently distract the entire queue by releasing a wild animal or doing some other stunt so that you can jump the queue all the way to the front.

"You might even have time to grab a few lawn chairs, sleeping bags, and sandwiches amid the mayhem!", the group's Craigslist ad said, ITnews.com.au reported .

AT&T: iPhones limited to one per person

AT&T has said that it will limit Apple iPhone sales to one per person during launch day, according to AppleInsider.

4% of all internet searches for iPhone

Internet searches for the Apple iPhone have increased by nearly 600 per cent ahead of the launch tomorrow. Web monitoring firm Hitwise tracked Apple iPhone related searches and found that searches had gone up by 583 per cent in the past four weeks. Visits to electronics websites were also up by 185 per cent, ITnews.com.au said .

WEDNESDAY

iPhone may not rock music industry

You won't be able to use the Apple iPhone to buy and download music over a wireless network. Instead you'll have to buy music via your computer and then download the tunes to the Apple iPhone. This is putting many potential buyers off buying one, t he Associated Press reports .

"I'm not the type of person that likes to wait until I get home," said one heavy downloader. "If I hear it, I want it there and then."

If music fans refrain from buying the Apple iPhone for this reason, the optimism initially expressed by record companies over how the Apple iPhone would make people buy more music may be short-lived.

First Apple iPhone reviews emerge

Various US newspapers filed their reviews of the Apple iPhone this morning. The Wall Street Journal called it a "beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer", despite some flaws and feature omissions.

The New York Times saw both good and bad things about the imminent Apple iPhone. "Much of the hype and some of the criticisms are justified. The iPhone is revolutionary; it's flawed. It's substance; it's style. It does things no phone has ever done before; it lacks features found even on the most basic phones."

Newsweek was more cautious. Whilst it was impressed with the Apple iPhone itself, it noted the "risky venture" buying one, due to high costs and possible inflated hopes from consumers.

It thought the most important aspect of the launch would be how other manufacturers would react to it. "Even those who never buy one will benefit from its advances, as competitors have already taken Apple's achievements as a wake-up call to improve their own products."

USA Today wrote: "After months of hype, Apple has delivered a prodigy - a slender fashion phone, a slick iPod and an internet experience unlike any before it on a mobile handset." It was largely impressed on the whole, even with the reported problems about short battery life.

Apple shares fell after pricing details released

Apple's shares fell by more than 2 per cent yesterday following the announcement of the new pricing plans for the Apple iPhone, the Financial Times reports .

Apple and AT&T revealed that Apple iPhone customers would have to pay between $60 and $100 per month in service charges, on top of the Apple iPhone's $499 price tag.