I got my iPhone 4 this week, and many of you did too.  It is still an object of curiosity; I traveled to Miami this week and was stopped by many people who saw me using the iPhone 4 — both friends and strangers — to ask about it.  But I saw that I was not alone, with many other people using iPhone 4’s, and all of them had a story about what they went though to get it (difficulty in pre-ordering, waiting in line to get it, etc.).  Apple announced this past weekend that they sold almost 2 million iPhone 4’s and I suspect that they are well over 3 million by now.  Here is the iPhone news of the week that caught my attention:

• Earlier this week, I talked about the funny and well-designed Scoopertino website.  What I didn’t realize at the time is who is behind that site; check out my update to that post and you may be as surprised as I was.
• West recently updated the Black’s Law Dictionary app (which I reviewed last year) to work better with iOS 4 and the iPhone 4.  West also says that it is working on an update to the Black’s Law Dictionary app, due this Fall, which will include the content of the 9th edition of Black’s Law Dictionary (the current print edition which was released in 2009); the current version of the app contains the contents of the 8th edition of Black’s Law Dictionary (released in 2004).  Click here for Black’s Law Dictionary ($49.99): 

  

• Clayton Morris of Fox News was trying out the camera on his new iPhone 4 when he realized that he was taking pictures of a thief leaving the scene of a crime so he called the police and followed the criminal, and justice was served.
• Michael Johnston of the We Have Communicators podcast lost his iPhone when it slipped out of his pocket while he was on a ride at Six Flags.  Using the Find My iPhone feature, he tracked the iPhone’s location, learned that an employee had stolen it and sold it to someone, and with the help of the police was able to recover his phone, and once again justice was served.  Get the full story on this week’s edition of the podcast.
• Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas was the victim of a theft when someone broke into his house and stole lots of items, including his iPad.  According to KTLA news, Will.i.am used Find My iPhone to tell the police where his stash was located, and even more justice was served.
• James
  
  Galbraith of Macworld tests battery life on the iPhone 4.  In short:  it is better.
• I am a big fan of LogMeIn Ignition, an app that allows you to control a computer from your iPhone.  It is a great way to access your home computer when you are away, connect to a relative’s computer to troubleshoot, etc.  The app was updated for iOS 4 not too long ago, and a second update this week brings fast app switching support so that you can leave the app and come back within a few minutes and stay connected to the computer that you are controlling.  So now you can answer the phone, check an e-mail, or look something up in Safari without having to reconnect to the computer.  It’s a great update to an already great app.  Click here for LogMeIn Ignition ($29.99):

  

• For $9.99 a month, you can get Hulu Plus on your iPhone, allowing you to view a ton of new and old television shows.  Ben Drawbaugh of Engadget has a review.  You can download the app for free to check out some sample content and decide if you want to pay for the service.  Click here for Hulu Plus (free): 

  

• How many apps can you put on an iPhone running iOS 4?  David Pogue of the New York Time investigates.
• Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times discusses using iPhone apps to find restaurants.
• Fastcase is one of my favorite iPhone apps and a must for any lawyer using an iPhone.  The American Association of Law Libraries just named the app the New Product of the Year.  (Link via Robert Ambrogi.)  Click here for Fastcase (free): 

  

• Lawyer Jeremy Horwitz of iLounge reviews the iMovie app for the iPhone 4.  Click here for iMovie ($4.99): 

  

• Jim Dalrymple of The Loop reports that AT&T has upgraded its network in New York City.  About 4% of iPhone J.D. readers are in New York City, and if you are one of them, I’d love to hear whether you are seeing a difference.
• Jeff Gamet of The Mac Observer explains how to put a phone call on hold using an iPhone 4.
• What should you know about the iPhone 4’s improved camera?  Ted Landau of the Mac Observer wants you to know about ten things.
• If you are a current iPhone owner and upgrade to iPhone 4, will your existing iPhone accessories work?  Dan Frakes of Macworld tackles that question.
• And finally, what would it looks like to attach your iPhone 4 to a balloon and set it free?  Apparently, something like this:

Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners is one of the guys primarily responsible for the Palm Pre.  When the Palm Pre debuted, McNamee boasted to Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal that the back of the Palm Pre had a reflective surface that one could use as a mirror, stating:  “Never before has a device like this been designed for a woman.”  He got a lot of grief for that statement, but I suppose there may be times when you need a mirror and all you have with you is your phone.  For those of you contemplating buying a Palm Pre over an iPhone because of that mirror (ahem), rest assured that the iPhone 4 now has you covered.

Apple added the front-facing camera on the iPhone 4 so that you can participate in video chats using the new FaceTime software.  Nevertheless, if you ever find that you have a sudden need for a mirror, you can use that same camera to get a quick look at yourself.  Just launch the Camera app.  The screen will display an image from the camera on the back of the iPhone, but if you tap the button at the top right of the screen the Camera app will switch to the front camera.  Now you can see yourself.  Fix your hair, make sure you don’t have food stuck in your teeth, or heck, just admire yourself if you want to.  Your iPhone won’t judge you.  At least, not yet.  Who knows what Apple has planned for iPhone 5.

With iOS 4, we can now create folders to group similar apps.  One folder that I created on my iPhone contains the apps developed by Apple that I don’t use very much.  Some are apps included with the iPhone that I rarely use but cannot delete, such as Stocks and Compass.  Others are apps that I sometimes use but don’t use very often, like Voice Memos and Find my iPhone.  Then there is the YouTube app:  I almost never launch it directly; I just let the iPhone take care of launching it when I click on a movie link on a web page or elsewhere.  I like the idea of storing all of these Apple-created apps in one folder so that they don’t take up valuable space on my Home Screen.

What should I call this folder?  I could just call it “Apple,” but here is a tip for instead giving the folder a more distinctive identity by using the Apple symbol  for the name so that it looks like this:

How do you do this?  The Apple symbol is not on the iPhone keyboard, so you can’t just type it.  Instead, you need to use the free Glyphboard web app created by software developer Neven Mrgan.  As I’ve previously noted here and here, to use Glyphboard, go to this address on your iPhone:  http://mrgan.com/gb/  Then follow the on-screen directions and press the plus sign at the bottom of your Safari screen to Add to Home Screen.  Then click on the icon that you just added to your home screen to start the web app, and you can copy a special character from Glyphboard and then paste it someplace else, such as in an e-mail.  Glyphboard includes 48 special characters, including the Apple logo:

After you have Glyphboard installed, you just launch it and hold your finger down on the Apple symbol until you see the option to copy.  Copy the Apple, then create a new folder, and in the name field for the folder, delete the default folder name and paste that Apple icon.  There you have it! 

Feel free to also create folders called things like ☺ or ♥ or ♪.  For you intellectual property lawyers out there, you’ll relish having folders called © or ™.  Use an umbrella for your weather apps and use an airplane for your travel apps.  And for fans of Daring Fireball, just look at the bottom right corner of Glyphboard and you’ll know what to do.

[UPDATE 7/5/10:  Click here for a follow-up post on how to use color Emoji icons in your folder names.]

I woke up early this morning and arrived at my friendly neighborhood AT&T store two hours before the 7am opening, making me first in line (although only by about a minute).  I brought work with me, so the two hour wait actually went by very quickly and was quite productive.  By 7am, there were almost 50 people in line behind me, and the rumor was that the store only had 50 phones, so hopefully those in the back will get one.  By 7:15, I left with my new iPhone 4, and it is syncing with my computer and loading up all of my apps as I type this.

I haven’t tried it enough to have any real opinions yet, except to say OH MY GOODNESS THIS SCREEN IS BEAUTIFUL.  I look forward to getting to know this new iPhone over the coming days.

There are three new reviews of the iPhone 4 that are notable and that have gotten me excited to play with mine.  First, Jason Snell of Macworld published his review yesterday, and as is to be expected, it is a well-written, useful review.  Second, late last night, Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times published his 6,000 word review that is perhaps my second favorite review so far, behind only Joshua Topolsky’s excellent review for Engadget.  Ihnatko’s review is packed with details and fun to read.  If you can only read two reviews, read the ones by Topolsky and Ihnatko and decide which review you like best; I can’t decide.

Finally, Jason Chen of Gizmodo — yes, that Jason Chen of that Gizmodo — published yesterday afternoon what he calls a “review” but what is really more of an essay or a short story describing the first day in his life as an iPhone 4 owner.  Given Chen’s history with the iPhone 4, it makes sense for him to do something different.  I don’t agree with all of his complaints about the iPhone 4.  For example, I don’t think it is a problem that the iPhone doesn’t come with free turn-by-turn navigation because that would hurt competition and I like that we have several compelling alternative commercial apps to provide navigation assistance.  Indeed, I wonder if part of the reason that Apple still hasn’t updated its simple Weather app is that the third party weather apps are numerous and sophisticated, so there is nothing to be gained and much to be lost by Apple competing in that space.  Nevertheless, Chen’s article is a good read and does provide some interesting perspectives.  For example, when discussing FaceTime, he notes:  “The camera and screen are so close that they create the illusion of a
camera behind Matt’s eyes—so I really feel like we’re talking face to
face.  When Skyping someone on a laptop, they’re always looking at me on their
screen—away from their webcam.”  I hadn’t thought about that.

I loved my original iPhone (the one pictured at the top of this website), I loved my iPhone 3GS even more, and now I can’t wait to start using my new iPhone 4.  I just wish it had finished syncing before I got to the end of this post!

If you like to read Apple news and also like to laugh, have I got a great site for you.  I recently learned of Scoopertino which describes itself as “an independent news organization devoted to ferreting out the most
relevant stories in and around the world of Apple, whether or not they
actually occurred.”  This source of “unreal Apple news” is consistently funny.  Here are the headlines and some quotes from some of my favorite Scoopertino stories related to the iPhone:

• If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em:  Apple launches Prototype Store:  “Beginning immediately, the online Apple Store will feature a new
  
  Prototype Store where customers can do their prototype shopping from
  
  home — without having to search through bars, cafés and restaurants.”
• Redwood City bar flooded with lost prototypes as others try to create Apple-like buzz:  “The Redwood City beer garden, Gourmet Haus Staudt, has become ground
  
  zero for every company hoping to get the same buzz generated by Apple.”
• Rumor:  feature free iPhone shuffle due in June:  “iPhone shuffle is designed first and foremost as a phone. It syncs
  
  automatically with your computer contact list. With its single button,
  
  iPhone shuffle provides two ways of making calls. In Sequential
  
  mode, it calls the numbers in your contact list in order, from A to Z.
  
  In Shuffle mode, it calls contacts randomly.”
• Apple blinks:  new iPad XL to offer Flash capability:  “Their engineering team has invented a mobile
  
  power generator that, according to Apple’s press release, ‘integrates
  
  perfectly with iPad in form and function.’  Just insert iPad into the
  
  XL’s side-mounted socket. The
  
  diesel-powered generator starts up automatically, providing ample power
  
  to run Flash-dependent websites for up to 22.5 hours on a single tank.”
• And most recently:  Apple introduces iHand: the right way to hold your iPhone: “Responding to complaints that the new iPhone 4 loses signal when held by
  
  a human hand, Apple today launched iHand — a synthetic appendage that
  
  makes it easy for anyone to ‘get a grip’ on iPhone and remain connected.”

And it’s not just the articles that are funny.  Pay attention to the ads on Scoopertino, many of which are fake and humorous. 

Scoopertino is a cross between Macworld and The Onion.  The site reminds me of the days when we had two great daily Apple-related humor sites, Jack Miller’s fantastic As the Apple Turns and John Moltz’s Crazy Apple Rumors Site (which still lives on with occasional posts, but is not the daily site that it used to be, although Moltz is still quite funny on Twitter).

If you are looking for an Apple-related laugh, check out Scoopertino.

UPDATE 6/29/10:  I just learned that the guys behind Scoopertino are Michael Rylander (an art designer who has done work for Apple) and Ken Segall.  The name Ken Segall might ring a bell if you read this Wired article back in 2009.  Segall used to work for Apple’s advertising agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day, and he not only authored the Think Different campaign, he also came up with the name “iMac,” which makes him in some way responsible for every Apple product to follow with an “i” including, the iPhone.  So when this guy makes a joke about Apple, he really knows what he is talking about!

It will not surprise you that the news this week was pretty much all about the iPhone 4 and iOS 4.  Here is the news that I found of note:

• Jenna Wortham of the New York Times writes about people waiting in line for an iPhone 4 yesterday.
• Late this week we saw several good iPhone 4 reviews, such as this one from Peter Cohen of The Loop.  Also worth reading is Harry McCracken’s Initial Random Thoughts on the iPhone 4, and David Chartier of Macworld notes some of iOS 4’s hidden features.
• To get a gaming perspective, Eli Hodapp writes for Touch Arcade about what the iPhone 4 means for games.
• You can download the iPhone 4 user guide (243 pages) in PDF format here.
• Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times discusses iOS 4, as does Roy Forchgott of the New York Times.
• iSmashPhone looks at the Best 64 Features of iOS 4.
• Tom Kaneshige of CIO writes about the benefits of iOS 4 for enterprise customers.
• Could iOS 4 be even better?  Michael deAgonia of Computerworld suggests five ways that iOS 4 could be improved.
• If you and someone else with an iPhone 4 are talking to each other on your phones, you are of course using your AT&T minutes.  What happens if you start using FaceTime to switch over to a video call?  Apple confirmed to Dan Frommer of Business Insider that your cell call ends at that point and the call takes place solely over Wi-Fi.  Thus, you are no longer using your AT&T minutes.
• How long can you use FaceTime?  Jeremy Horwitz says that you use about 30% of the iPhone 4 battery life for every hour of FaceTime, so you get just over three hours of videochat before you need to recharge the battery.  I suspect that using FaceTime is the most battery-intensive task you can do with an iPhone 4.
• If you are having trouble with reception on your iPhone 4, it might be because of the way that you are holding the phone.  The official statement from Apple, quoted by Joshua Topolsky of Engadget, is:  “Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna
  
  performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on
  
  the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless
  
  phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it
  
  in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black
  
  strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.”
• Antenna expert Spencer Webb writes
  
  about the iPhone 4’s unique antenna built in to the outside of the case
  
  and explains why the 3G antenna is at the bottom of the iPhone, and most other phones.
• Should your law firm have its own iPhone app?  That question is explored in this article by Slyvia Hsieh of Lawyers USA, which quotes me and several other bloggers who discuss the iPhone and the law.  For what it’s worth, I agree completely with the opinions of Kevin O’Keefe and Dan Friendlander in that article.  If you aren’t going to offer anything unique in your app (for example, if the app is just a version of your website) then I don’t really see the point.  Having said that, one thing that I did tell Hsieh but which didn’t make it into the article is that I do think it is smart for law firms to create iPhone-friendly versions of their website that are nicely formatted on the small screen of an iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc. to make it easier for current and potential clients to navigate a law firm’s website when they are on the go.
• 
  I talked earlier this week about the ways to get an iPhone 4.  I forgot to mention one method — as iPhone Savior notes, you can also get an iPhone 4 by being the President of Russia and visiting Steve Jobs in person.  (Picture at right is from the new official Twitter feed [English version] of the President of Russia.)
• I don’t use a GPS app when I drive very often, but when I do I use MotionX
  
  GPS.  That app is only $1 up front, and then $3 a month after that,
  
  but you only have to pay during those months that you use the app.  I
  
  mention the app because it was just updated for iOS 4 and can now work
  
  in the background.  It is also supposed to have a more accurate GPS when
  
  your iPhone is plugged in (which of course it usually is when you are
  
  driving).  Click here for MotionX GPS Drive ($0.99): 

  

• My favorite Twitter client for the iPhone is Twitterific, and the
  
  app was just updated to version 3.0.  Technically, the iPhone app wasn’t
  
  updated; instead the iPad app was updated to work on both the iPad and
  
  the iPhone.  Thus, if you currently have Twitterific installed (either
  
  the free or premium version) you wont be alerted that an upgrade is
  
  available.  Instead, you’ll have to download Twitterific anew from the
  
  App Store, unless you already have the iPad version.  The app is free,
  
  but you can pay $5 within the app to remove the ads (which I did). 
  
  Click here for Twitterific 3.0 (free): 

  

• My favorite app to remind me of things to do in the future is NotifyMe, and it was updated to version 2.0 for iOS 4.  It includes lots of new features such local notifications, a new interface, and tons of other tweaks.  Click here for NotifyMe ($5.99): 

  

• Christopher Breen of Macworld discusses Apple’s new iMovie app for the iPhone 4.  Click here for iMovie ($4.99): 

  

• I’ve written in the past about the AT&T 3G MicroCell (1, 2, 3), a way to use the Wi-Fi in your home or office to boost the AT&T cell signal.  Chris Ziegler of Engadget notes that the MicroCell is now available nationwide.  And George Ponder of WMExperts posted a recent review of the MicroCell.
• Lee Ann Enquist writes for iPhone Life magazine about how more and more attorneys are buying iPhones.
• Dan Moren of Macworld reports that Apple has now sold over 3 million iPads.
• And finally, Dilbert explores the compulsion to buy iPhone apps:

The iPhone 4 officially goes on sale today, so if you pre-ordered last week or you stand in line today,  you will soon be the proud parent of the hottest piece of electronics on the planet right now.  Congrats!  (And if you were really lucky, like this guy, your shipment arrived early back on Tuesday.)  On the other hand, if your AT&T plan requires you to upgrade only through AT&T, and if AT&T refused to process your pre-order last week because of all of the chaos, and then AT&T stopped taking pre-orders and now says that they won’t have any new iPhones at all this week except for pre-orders … well then you and I are in the same boat and we won’t be getting a new iPhone 4 until, well… hopefully some time before Apple releases the iPhone 5.  But no.  I’m not bitter.  Ahem.

So what might you want to know if you are getting an iPhone today, or soon thereafter?  Well, hopefully you read all of the reviews I noted yesterday, especially the great Engadget review.  If you don’t have a pre-order and want to stand in line, Serenity Caldwell of Macworld has the full details on what you can do.  (In short:  don’t go to an AT&T store; Best Buy and Radio Shack are poor options; and an Apple Store is likely your best option.)  Be prepared for more chaos because, as Jonathan Seff of Macworld notes, it was a disaster last week and could be just as bad today.  Miguel Helft of the New York Times explains that Apple doesn’t expect any white iPhone 4 models for another month, so hopefully you want black.

Once you get your iPhone, what do you get?  Heather Kelly of Macworld has pictures of what it looks like to unbox an iPhone 4.  While you are marveling at the new screen, you might want to check out this Engadget post featuring photos taken under a microscope of the new screen.

So now what do you do with your old iPhone?  Christopher Breen of Macworld runs down some options.  Breen doesn’t specifically mention any of the websites that buy old iPhones, so I’ll tell you to keep in mind that Gazelle (a reputable company that purchases old electronics including iPhones) will pay you up to $212 for a 32 GB iPhone 3GS with all of its cables in perfect condition.  Since a 32 GB iPhone 4 costs only $299, that nets out to be a pretty inexpensive upgrade.  Even a two year old 8 GB iPhone 3G will get you $95.  Of course, you can always just share the love and pass along your old iPhone to a friend or family member.

And finally, once you get your new iPhone 4, how do you resist the urge to tear it open?  Well, the real answer to that question may involve seeking professional help, but hopefully this will get you through until you do so:  the experts at iFixit posted tons of pictures from their taking apart an iPhone 4.  There were able to determine lots of technical information about what is inside, if that is of interest to you.  Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, gave me permission to post three of the pictures here, so this will give you a taste of what it looks like inside of the iPhone 4.  Head on over to iFixit to see more.

 

 

As usual, Apple sent early review units of its new hardware, this time the iPhone 4, to select journalists.  Their reviews are now in, and boy are they positive.  If you had any doubt about whether you should get an iPhone 4, these reviews will likely convince you to do so.

• Joshua Topolsky of Engadget has an incredibly well-written review, full of details, facts, pictures and videos.  And he loves the iPhone 4, concluding:  “We’re not going to beat around the bush — in our approximation, the
  iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market right now. The combination
  of gorgeous new hardware, that amazing display, upgraded cameras, and
  major improvements to the operating system make this an extremely
  formidable package. Yes, there are still pain points that we want to see
  Apple fix, and yes, there are some amazing alternatives to the iPhone 4
  out there. But when it comes to the total package — fit and finish in
  both software and hardware, performance, app selection, and all of the
  little details that make a device like this what it is — we think it’s
  the cream of the current crop.”  If you only read one review, read this one.
• Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal writes that the iPhone 4 is a “big, well-designed update that, in my view, keeps it in the lead in the
  smartphone wars.”  He criticizes the AT&T network, but otherwise concludes that “Apple has built a beautiful smartphone that works well, adds impressive
  new features and is still, overall, the best device in its class.”
• David Pogue of the New York Times writes that the iPhone 4 is “amazing” and that it “feels solid and Lexus-like.”
• Ed Baig of USA Today writes that the iPhone 4"demonstrates once again why Apple’s handset is the one to beat.”
• Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing especially loves the new camera, and has posted some great pictures taken with the iPhone 4.
• Boy Genius Report — who I suspect did not get an official review unit from Apple but instead got their hands on one yesterday from one of the few people to get an early iPhone pre-order delivery — reports that the screen is “stunning,” that you feel like you are “holding a luxury item,” and that the speed is fast and the camera is great.

One thing I find interesting about many of these reviews is that they conclude that the new design of the iPhone 4 is so amazing that it makes it hard to go back to an iPhone 3G or 3GS.  As Xeni Jardin writes:  “It feels really nice to hold. Once my hand got used to it, the 3GS body
felt more like a toy, and I didn’t much feel like holding it anymore.”

Yesterday, Apple released iOS 4.  I’ve only just started to kick the tires, but on my iPhone 3GS this is a great update.  The features I previously touted are all there and are welcome.  For example, I love organizing apps into folders.  I now have a single folder containing my different weather apps, two folders containing all of my legal reference apps, a single folder containing calculators (the built-in one, some date calculators, and the great Convertbot app), a folder containing photography apps, etc.  I figured that I would like folders and other marquee iOS 4 features, and so far I really do.  I wish more of my apps supported multitasking (such as fast app switching), but it looks like tons of apps are being updated every day to add support for iOS 4.

In addition to what I knew I would like, I’ve already come across some nice surprises.  First, I didn’t expect the speed increase to be so noticeable.  Everything seems much more zippy.  I expected to see more speed on the iPhone 4 with its enhanced processor and extra internal memory, but it is nice to see that the operating system itself is also more efficient on both an iPhone 4 and a 3GS.

Second, the mail improvements for an iPhone, especially one that syncs with Microsoft Exchange, are very nice.  We’ve long known about the unified Inbox and the ability to view threaded messages (so you can follow prior e-mails with the same Re: / subject line in one set).  Those additions are nice.  But it was also a pleasant surprise to see pictures at the top of e-mails for those senders who have pictures in the Contacts on the iPhone. 

Better yet, I love that you can now tell the iPhone which folders to push to the iPhone.  In the past, only the Inbox was pushed, but now you can tell your iPhone to also keep your Sent folder or any other folder up to date.  In the past, when I wanted to see a recent e-mail in my Sent folder, I’d first have to wait for my Sent folder to sync since the last time I checked it … which sometimes was weeks earlier.  Now, I can always keep my Sent folder up-to-date.

I also like the improvements to Contacts.  When you are editing a info on a contact, more space is made available for you to enter contact info (first name, last name AND company name, different e-mail addresses, etc.) on the main page without having to move over to sub-pages, making it faster to edit and update. 

I’m sure I will be discovering many other great new features, and I’ll be sure to share them here as I find them.  To learn more about what is new, I recommend that you read the following articles released yesterday containing lots of information and tips:

• Macworld has a ton of great posts, including What you Need to Know, a complete review by Dan Moren, and spotlights on new folder features, multimedia, Mail and Photos.
• Jeremy Horwitz of iLoung has a great review of iOS 4 with tons of great screen shots.  
• Rene Ritchie of TiPb wrote this great
  
  article that I mentioned yesterday.
• Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica has a detailed review.
• Gizmodo notes a bunch of new features in this post.
• [UPDATE] Adam Pash of Lifehacker has a great list of iOS 4 Shortcuts.

Apple’s newest operating system for the iPhone will be made available for download today is available now.  iOS 4 comes installed on the new iPhone 4, which some of you will be lucky enough to get this week.  iOS 4 will also work on an iPhone 3GS, and a 3GS can take advantage of just about all of the new features.  If you have an iPhone 3G, you can install iOS 4 but some of the great new features which require more horsepower, such as multitasking, won’t work.  iPhones earlier than the iPhone 3G cannot run iOS 4.

If you want an overview of the reasons that you should install iOS 4 on your iPhone, read my post Why Lawyers Will Love iPhone software 4.0.  If you want a great and detailed look at all of the iOS 4 features, Rene Ritchie of TiPb wrote this great article.  Apple’s website also has this page on the new features in iOS 4.  And perhaps of some interest, Jeff Gamet of The Mac Observer offers his tips for upgrading an iPhone to iOS4.

What time today will iOS 4 be available?  Rene Ritchie noted in this post that last year, iPhone OS 3 was available at 10:30 am Pacific / 1:30 pm Eastern.  We’ll see whether Apple follows a similar schedule this year.  [UPDATE: Apple was just a little bit earlier this year.  The update became available shortly after 10 am Pacific / 1 pm Eastern.]