I’ve been keeping up with the latest

I’ve been keeping up with the latest iPhone news but I haven’t been telling you about it…partially because my poor pal Merlin is about to pop an artery due to all the hype. Anyway, it’s Friday and he’s got all weekend to clean that up, so here we go. The big thing is a 20-minute guided tour of the device, wherein we learn that there’s a neat swiping delete gesture, you can view Word docs, it’s thumb-typeable, the earbuds wires house the world’s smallest remote control, Google Maps have driving directions *and* traffic conditions, and there’s an “airplane mode” that turns off all the wifi, cell, and Bluetooth signals for plane trips. It looks like the iPhone will be available online…here’s the page at the Apple Store. What else? It plays YouTube videos. iPhone setup will be handled through iTunes: “To set up your iPhone, you’ll need an account with Apple’s iTunes Store.”

• Apple
• Google
• Google Maps
• iPhone
• maps
• Merlin Mann
• telephony