This video describes the new features of the iPhone 4. I want one!

Video calling
High resolution display
HD video recording
Backlit camera sensor
LED Flash
Gyroscope

This weekend I was fascinated with the coverage of the next iPhone. Many pictures and videos were produced of a product that many are feeling is a misplaced prototype of the iPhone that will be launched in June. What’s amazing is not so much the iPhone itself, but the story about the coverage, the “exclusives” and the inevitable backlash from Apple that this all happened. First it was the Engadget exclusive pictures, and a confirmation that the iPhone was in a previous leak picture of the iPad. Then Gizmodo launched a full review of the product – they had it in their hands (albeit disabled from Apple). Finally tonight Gizmodo spilled the beans on how they came to get the device (leaving out the crucial detail if they paid for the phone or not).

It’s a soap opera.

UPDATE: Apple has asked for it back – meaning they claim ownership of the device – meaning it’s real.

UPDATE 2: David Letterman posted this to his “Excuses of the Guy Who Lost His iPhone Prototype.”

• 10. “Couldn’t call Apple for help because I lost my iPhone.”
• 9. “I’m more of a Kindle guy.”
• 8. “You mean besides being drunk out of my mind?”
• 7. “Distraught Kate Gosselin kicked off Dancing with the Stars”
• 6. “Thought there was an app that would whisk it back to my house.”
• 5. “It must have fallen out of my iPants.”
• 4. “Volcanic Ash! Run!”
• 3. “Let’s Just Blame Goldman Sachs.”
• 2. “At least I didn’t lose my finger like that iPad guy.”
• 1. “It didn’t work, anyway—it uses AT&T.”

Well, the hits against the iPad keep coming. If you thought the device would tether with the iPhone, you were wrong. Engadget confirmed it yesterday.

Gizmodo listed these quotes from 2007 before the launch of the iPhone. Most of them from Apple’s competitors, and how they predicted the iPhone was doomed. Were they honestly surprised by Apple’s success, or were they posturing because they knew that it would dramatically change their business?

Go to the full article to see a video of Steve Ballmer laughing at the iPhone.

John C. Dvorak

Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone… What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong. If it’s smart it will call the iPhone a ‘reference design’ and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else’s marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures… Otherwise I’d advise people to cover their eyes. You are not going to like what you’ll see.

Jon Rubinstein, Palm CEO

Is there a toaster that also knows how to brew coffee? There is no such combined device, because it would not make anything better than an individual toaster or coffee machine. It works the same way with the iPod, the digital camera or mobile phone: it is important to have specialized devices.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO

There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.

Ed Colligan, ex-Palm CEO

We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.

Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia Chief Strategist

The development of mobile phones will be similar in PCs. Even with the Mac, Apple has attracted much attention at first, but they have still remained a niche manufacturer. That will be in mobile phones as well.

Jailbroken iPhones all have one thing in common, the SSH application is installed on them. This is used as part of the jailbreaking process. Thing is, someone can use this to log into your phone and wreck havoc on it. Especially since the default password is well known.

Follow this tutorial to change the default password of your Jailbroken iPhone. If you’re not jailbroken, don’t worry, you are safe.

If you’ve been lamenting that you can’t get an iPhone because you are with Bell or Telus, next week everything is going to change. On Nov. 4th, Telus starts selling the iPhone, and Bell will follow suit.

Prices are exactly the same as Rogers, and come with a 3 yr contract. There is a non-contract price but I don’t think many people will be willing to go for it.

• 8GB 3G for $100 or $600 without contract
• 16GB 3GS for $200 or $700 without contract
• 32GB 3GS for $300 or $800 without contract

According to this article by the Globe and Mail, Bell and Telus may soon announce the availability of the iPhone to their customers. This is a boon for existing customers that have wanted the iPhone but haven’t switched to Rogers yet.

While this is great news for Bell and Telus customers, I think this will play out more of a retention strategy than a new customer acquisition strategy. Many of the pro-iPhone users have already left Bell and Telus for Rogers, by offering the iPhone, they will prevent more from leaving. Likely they will match the Rogers price, rather than beat it, in order to lock all users onto new 3 year contracts, right before Wind Mobile goes live. I bet the top benchmark at all three companies will be percentage of customers on long-term contracts, which will try to prevent people from leaving based on price competition from new entrants.

Google has provided a mechanism for iPhone users to get Push Email functionality. Apple is still dragging it’s feet for allowing the iPhone to support it natively, so Google has enabled mail to be synced via the ActiveSync mechanism that is available on the iPhone.

However, there is one limitation. iPhone users that already have an ActiveSync account enabled (e.g. for work email) will not be able to use this option. This is because Apple only allows a single ActiveSync account on the iPhone. This is an Apple limitation, not Microsoft or Google.

Boy Genius Report posted a great overview of the upcoming Blackberry 9700. This device will come to Rogers and AT&T in October or November so if you can wait, definitely do so. This model gets rid of the failure-prone trackball and replaces it with a touchpad. It’s smaller, lighter and thinner and will be the next “it” device from RIM. Expect the existing Bold device to be lowered in price, and this device to fill it’s pricing void.

For years, Rogers has allowed users of their cable internet service to check their usage. Even more recently, they gave alerts to people as they neared their usage cap and about to be charged more.

Well, tracking your wireless data has now become easier. Rogers added this functionality to their website this week. If you have a data plan, definitely check this service out because it could save you a lot of money.

Better instructions to navigate to this page can be found at Boy Genius Reports.