The Apple Store at West Town Mall here in Knoxville has ropes set up, ready for an iPhone line to form tomorrow morning.

UPDATE: According to the Mac Genius I spoke with, the mall isn’t allowing people to line up overnight, but they’ve gotten enough calls from people asking about when the line starts that he expects people will probably start showing up as soon as the mall opens at 7:00 AM. (But will anyone bring a MacBook and use the Apple Store’s Wi-Fi connection to set up a “LineCam”? You know I would, if I had a MacBook and if I was going to be buying an iPhone tomorrow…)

P.S. Why was I speaking with a Mac Genius, you ask? Well, I brought in my broken AirPort Express, and — voila! — my latest Apple saga had a quick, happy ending. Although the AirPort Express itself isn’t under warranty anymore, the Genius said the AppleCare plan for my PowerBook covers one base station, so I can get service under the PowerBook’s plan. I’m not sure if that’s actually true or if he’s stretching the rules for me — I sort of suspect the latter — but either way, I’m certainly not complaining. Anyway, he confirmed that the unit is broken, and he’s going to “swap it out” for a new (or rather, I think, refurbished) one that should arrive in 3-5 days, at no cost to me. Sweet!

P.P.S. You know, I could come to the mall at 7:00 AM (or shortly thereafter) with my BarBri books in tow, get in line, spend the whole day studying for the bar in the mall, and then be one of the first people to get to play with with iPhones — and perhaps become the first blogger in the whole blogosphere to send a photo directly from the iPhone to my blog — even though I’m not going to buy one. Hmm… ;)

According to leaks from an internal talk given today by Steve Jobs, all full-time Apple employees, and part-timers who have been with the company for at least one year, will recieve a free iPhone at the end of July.

The talk also included some hype for upcoming Macs, a comment about OS X on an iPod (perhaps a phoneless version of the iPhone?) and a few other things, such as the reason for the 6pm launch of the phone — click the link for the answer to that one. :)

The Knoxville News-Sentinel’s “Connected” blog outlines the local details for Friday’s iPhone mania. (Hat tip: Jay.)

There’s a chance I might be going to the Apple Store with Jay on Friday, if he ends up buying an iPhone. If so, I will of course have blog coverage. If nothing else, I’ll probably head over before 6:00 PM to take pictures of the line. :)

Incidentally, you may or may not have noticed that my left-hand sidebar was counting down to the wrong day (tomorrow instead of Friday). I just fixed it.

P.S. A question occurs to me. Some airlines have policies that forbid the use of cell phones, even in “airplane mode,” which I presume is because otherwise it’s pretty much impossible for flight attendants to effectively enforce the rule against cell phone use in flight. (I remember once chafing at the factual inaccuracy of a pre-flight announcement stating, “There is no such thing as airplane mode.”) Well, with Steve Jobs calling the iPhone “the best iPod we’ve ever made,” I wonder if those airlines will start changing their tunes now. (The iPhone does have airplane mode, in case you were wondering.) If the airlines don’t allow people to use their iPhones in flight for listening to music and watching movies, they are going to have some seriously ticked-off passengers on their hands. If I paid $600 for the “best iPod ever” and then couldn’t use it on a flight, especially a lengthy one, I’d be one unhappy camper. In fact, if I were an iPhone owner, this would almost certainly become a consideration in which airline I fly.

How much is it gonna cost you per month to use all those cool features in Apple’s upcoming drool-inducing iPhone? Turns out it’s not too much:

Essentially you are paying an additional $20 over AT&T’s regular plans and getting unlimited data, 200 SMS messages, and the visual voicemail feature. AT&T’s SmartPhone Connect, which includes unlimited data, doesn’t provide you with text messaging and costs the same — tack on an additional $5 for the 200-message package and the iPhone package is a bit cheaper. Assuming you wanted the data plan if you got a smart phone, you’d save $120 by going with the iPhone over the two years of the contract, which oughta make that initial higher cost slightly easier to take.

EDIT–ADDITION BY JAY JOHNSON– I didn’t really think this warranted a new topic, and don’t want to step on David’s toes, but I found something else about the iPhone monthly plan pricing that could be important to possible consumers. If you are already an existing AT&T customer (as I am, and unlike some, I’ve been very pleased with the service), the rates to add an iPhone to your package is even less than the chart posted above. In fact, it’s a LOT less. The three packages, from left to right above are $20, $30, and $40 respectively. There are also discounted rates available for customers with a “family plan” with multiple iPhones. Effectively, if you’re an AT&T customer already, it’s almost a no-brainer, if you can swing the $499-$599 for the unit. With what the machine can do (iPod, mobile internet/email machine, phone, camera), I think the price is not heinous. Especially, if it’s only going to cost me another $30 a month in service.

Becky and I just got back from West Town Mall, where we watched Evan Almighty at Regal Cinemas. It was okay, but not great. It had its moments, but among other things, it suffered from a problem that I think an increasing number of movies, especially comedies, are suffering from these days: overexposure in its own trailers. I felt like I knew 80% of plot, and had heard at least 50% of the good jokes, before I even walked into the theater. Memo to Hollywood marketers: when you give away a bunch of your best laugh-out-loud moments in the trailer, your movie turns into a collection of mildly amusing scenes that everybody already knows the punchlines to, thus seriously diminishing the viewing experience. Save some stuff for the actual movie!

It also suffered from a plot problem that bothers me in many works of fiction: a tendency to exaggerate the degree to which people will disbelieve supernatural, paranormal or spiritual interpretations of observed events that blatantly have no plausible earthly explanation. This is something that’s bugged me about the TV series Kyle XY as Becky and I have gotten caught up on the first season on DVD, and it bugged me about Evan Almighty, too. I’m sorry, but if a previously normal guy suddenly started being followed around by hundreds of animals — wild animals with no business in the D.C. area, no business behaving in a docile fashion, and no business traveling in pairs — my reaction when he explains that God told him to build an ark because a flood’s coming wouldn’t be, “Haha, that guy’s a coot, clearly there’s nothing unusual going on here, la-di-da.” It would be more like, “Hmm, well, that seems outlandish. On the other hand, he’s being followed around by hundreds of inexplicably docile wild animals, traveling in pairs… and his facial hair is growing at a literally impossible rate… and he’s been surrounded by a demonstrable series of extremely odd coincidences involving the numbers 614 (as in Genesis 6:14)… and his clothes just magically changed themselves, like POOF!, while the cameras were rolling and he was on live TV… so, while his explanation for these events sounds a bit batty, I actually can’t think of a better one… maybe he’s not so crazy!”

Oh, and the fact that he supposedly ran for Congress while still a news anchor bugged me a little bit — no conflict-of-interest issues there! — but that’s probably just me. :) On the bright side, Morgan Freeman is great as God, again.

In any event, the trip to the mall was worth it just to get a peek at the new, drool-worthy storefront display at the Apple Store:

Mmm… giant iPhone.

Not like I’m actually going to buy one, but still… it’s cool.

With one week until the iPhone debuts, The Onion gives us a sneak peek at some of its key features. Heh. (Hat tip: Briandot.)

As long as I’m at the Apple Store (for reasons I’ll elucidate in a new post later), I might as well point out Apple’s new TV ads for the iPhone, which comes out on June 29. I think this is the coolest one:

Will any of y’all be buying an iPhone? I won’t, because a) I can’t afford it, b) I’m under contract with Sprint until next May, and c) as cool as it looks, I’m skeptical of whether the touchscreen with no tactile feedback would work for me. Besides, I figure it’s better to wait until the initial kinks have been worked out. I’m sure iPhone ‘08 or iPhone ‘09 will be even cooler. :)

Apple and Cisco have settled their dispute over the name “iPhone.”

Cisco is suing Apple over the iPhone. Turns out, they’ve owned the trademark since 2000, and they already have a product called the “iPhone.” Oops.

Methinks Steve Jobs owes them an iPology, and probably some iMoney. :)

UPDATE: ZDNet’s “Between the Lines” blog has excellent coverage of the dispute.

Ladies and gentlemen… the iPhone.

We wants it, precious. We needs it. *gollum*

UPDATE: Here is the official Apple web section on the iPhone.

P.S. Gizmodo calls it the “Jesus Phone.”

Engadget notes that today’s iPhone announcement caps “literally years of speculation on perhaps the most intensely followed unconfirmed product in Apple’s history — and that’s saying a lot.”