So we heard some really over-eager folks have decided to get a jump on the iPhone 3G line -- a really, really big jump. Obviously, we had to head down and see if it was true... and it is. Right now, about ten people have started a line outside of Apple's flagship store on 5th Avenue in New York. Word is that the family at the head of the queue are attempting to break some kind of record which involves their baby -- which kind of sounds a little intense if you ask us. On the other hand, you didn't hear Greg Packer complaining, right? We're going to wrangle some of these cats for an interview and video, so stay tuned! For right now, check some more pics after the break.

Update: We got a chance to speak with group leader Daniel on video, who let us in the gang's desire to break the world record for waiting in line, as well as some... er, broad political ideas. We also learned that the baby probably won't be forced to stay outside of the Apple Store all week. See it for yourself in the clip after the break!

[Via GearDiary]

Apparently someone at Apple HQ got a little trigger happy on shipments of MobileMe. According to reports, the company mistakenly mailed boxes of the all-syncing, ever-loving software to at least a couple of current .Mac users ahead of schedule. When Apple was alerted to the gaffe, the user was told that a courier would be by to pick it up the next day. One question: why would you tell Apple?

Daaaamn, talk about clout. If DigiTimes' sources are correct, then Samsung, the world's primary supplier of flash memory, just told its non-Apple customers to suck it in favor of a "large batch of orders" it received from Cupertino. The order is said to be for 50-million "8Gb-equivalent" (we assume they mean gigabyte, or GB) NAND chips "mainly for use in Apple's iPhone." This order follows a June procurement for 25 million of the same chips. In response, Samsung has reportedly told its lesser customers that it would "sharply cut supply" of NAND to them while the order is being fulfilled. The shortage is compounded by Samsung lowering its manufacturing output in April and May in an attempt to reduce oversupply. Still, if these numbers are true (they seem high and DigiTimes can be hit or miss with its Apple sources) then the world is about to be awash in iPhone 3Gs come July 11th.

Update: We've given the Gigabits vs. Gigabytes a bit more thought. If it's 50 million 8Gbit chips as stated, they would divide evenly across about 2.1 million 8GB iPhone 3Gs plus another 2.1 million 16GB models. A reasonable production run for Apple's global launch but an order which shouldn't be so taxing on Samsung's production capability. Something doesn't add up.

Finally, a piece of news we can actually do something with. AT&T today announced its pricing structure for the next iteration of Apple's iPhone -- which you can plunk down money for come 8 am, July 11th. There's not much that's surprising here -- new customers and those eligible for an upgrade will be able to nab the phone for $199 (8GB) or $299 (16GB), while "early upgraders" will have to fork over $399 or $499, all with a two year contract and $18 upgrade fee, of course. The telco says a no-commitment version of the phone will be available for $599 and $699, though it looks like that will come after the initial launch. AT&T appears to be leaning pretty heavily towards the all-in unlimited plans, but there are options if you don't want to go that route. We've sorted out the basics after the break, and included AT&T's "iReady" video -- certainly good for a few chuckles.

If you've been scouring the dictionary for sour grapes, chances are you'll find Ivan Seidenberg's picture. Verizon Communications' chairman and chief executive recently sat down for an interview with Financial Times, and while he spent the vast majority of his time boasting of just how amazing Verizon is, he did stop to remark about Cupertino ever so briefly. Granted, he did start off by admitting that Apple was a "great company," but that didn't stop him from pillorying the iPhone as well as Dear Leader himself. He actually accused the interviewer of "declaring [Apple] a winner before it had earned it on the field," suggesting that the iPhone wouldn't become a mass-market handset simply because the next iteration will be subsidized. He also stated that "Mr. Jobs had no monopoly on innovation," and took the conversation even further off track by blurting that "Steve Jobs eventually will get old." At least Keystone knows where to find its next bitter beer face, right?

[Via The Inquirer, image courtesy of Pace, thanks Frank]

C'mon, you knew this was coming. Apple just posted a video walkthrough of it's brand new wonder-device, replete with the familiar (yet somewhat creepy) iPhone dude. You know the score, so hop on over to Apple's site and see it all in a glorious, sprawling internet video.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Looks like the latest Leopard update, 10.5.4, just landed. Nothing big, but all the details are after the break; Mac users, you know how to snag it.

Well what do you know, ZDNet's German bureau has apparently released a functioning overclocking tool (ZDNet Clock) for Mac Pros and Xserves. Vater Steve doesn't look kindly upon such things, but with a little luck (and a lot of cooling) you might be able to eke out a few hundred extra MHz from your aluminum clad box without tipping off any Geniuses the next time you bring it in for repair. Unfortunately, for the time being it only appears to work on newer Pros and Xserves -- not laptops or iMacs -- running the latest release of Leopard.

[Via Computerworld]

Who would've thought that rumored iControl app would not only turn out to be real, but survive the inevitable internal politics, delays, and feature cutbacks to make it all the way through to a summer release? Sure enough, iTunes 7.7 has been pushed out to developers in the past several hours, and the installer encourages iPhone and iPod touch owners to "use the new Remote application for iPhone or iPod touch to control iTunes playback from anywhere in your home -- a free download from the App Store." No further details are given -- and it's not clear whether the "iControl" name seen earlier has been scrapped altogether -- but we can guess that it'll use WiFi to hook up with your mainframe, which really makes the idea of an AirPort Express appealing all over again.

On another note, Apple has released Beta 8 of the iPhone SDK and is using the occasion to kick off acceptances of applications to the real, live App Store in preparation for its July 11 launch. It appears that Beta 8 is actually required to complete the process, so don't go jumping the gun now -- goodness knows the rest of the iPhone-toting world doesn't want your half-baked apps in a couple weeks, you shady developer, you.

Read - iPhone / iTunes Remote app
Read - Applications to App Store now being accepted

The fact that the iPhone doesn't securely erase user data when you select "Erase All Content and Settings" has prompted a lot of hand-wringing (and given rise to a lot of complicated manual workarounds) as people get ready to flip their old phones and upgrade to the iPhone 3G, but it looks like there's a simpler solution coming: AppleInsider says the iPhone 2.0 software now securely erases user data. The process is apparently similar to Leopard's Secure Erase Trash feature, and it'll unlink data and overwrite it with random bits, making your personal info impossible to recover. Of course, that'll take some extra time -- you're looking at an extra hour of progress bars in your life. That's not so bad -- and if it keeps anyone from checking out our super-embarrassing 80s pop playlists, we're all for it.

[Thanks, Mark]

Consider yourself an Apple fanatic? Gotta have the latest and greatest the moment it's available? Ok... prove it. We have it from a trusted source that the world's first iPhone 3G will be on sale at 00:01, Friday July 11th, in New Zealand -- that's still Thursday, July 10th at 5:01 in the AM in Cupertino or 13:01 hours in London. At that precise minute, Vodafone NZ will swing open the doors of its Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch shops to your overeager HSDPA jones. So, now that you know, the next move is all yours.

Read -- 00:01 NZ time calculated globally

Don't take a vacation day just yet or anything, but early word has it that Apple's iPhone 3G will actually go on sale at 8:00AM (local time, most likely) on July 11th. If you'll recall (how could you forget, right?), the original iPhone didn't go on sale until 6:00PM on launch day, but considering that the whole checkout process will likely be a fair bit more involved this go 'round, we'd say it's a smart move to get the line rolling early.

Our money is on the one with more G's, but that's just us. The folks at iLounge managed to nab a comparison shot of the original iPhone next to its 3G successor, and while the differences aren't anything you couldn't have guessed, it's still nice to see the two in the flesh -- at least we think they're in the flesh, this could be just a shot of the iPhone 3G's rear case, which has been floating around iLounge of late.

As tnkgrl mentions at the outset of this hack, the MacBook Air SuperDrive is a nice little slice of hotness, retailing for a mere $99, and doing the whole external drive thing with Apple's sense of style. Unfortunately, it only works with the MacBook Air due to a proprietary IDE to USB bridge, as tnkgrl discovered. For a mere $9 she was able to find a replacement part, and after pushing some internals around she had her self a Mac mini and HP Mini-Note-friendly USB disc drive. We've all been laboring under the assumption that Apple needed more than the standard USB power draw, so it comes as a bit of a surprise that she was able to pull this off with a regular part, and we demand Apple start selling $108 SuperDrives-for-all immediately. Er, please?