Camera Phones Plaza

Get ready to mark your calendars, because after weeks and months of rumors regarding the official iPhone launch date, Apple has finally confirmed it: the iPhone will start shipping on Friday, June 29.

The confirmation came from the three new iPhone TV ads posted on the Apple website, which pretty much failed to show us anything new except for the date.

Both Apple and AT&T will be selling the 4GB iPhone model for $499 and the 8GB for $599 with a new 2-year contract.

After AT&T got the exclusive rights to sell the most expected phone in recent history, the Apple iPhone, for the next five years, Verizon is trying to come up with something to keep up with AT&T. In a recent interview with USA Today, Verizon COO Denny Strigl stated that the carrier will have a response to iPhone by late summer. So what's it going to be?

Well, most probably it will be the recently introduced LG Prada (or its geek name, the LG KE850). The sleek handset from LG is similar in look to the iPhone and it supports GSM network, Flash user interface, 2 megapixel camera featuring Schneider-Kreuznach lens, music and video player, Bluetooth 2.0, EDGE and microSD card slot.

The Apple iPhone features a 3.5 inch touchscreen and offers a wide range of innovative features when it comes to music, audiobooks, TV shows and movies. Moreover, it supports email, widgets, Wi-fi and EDGE services at top quality.

As for the price, the iPhone will cost around $500 while the LG Prada is expected to retail for around $600. Verizon is giving a lot of attention to this issue as AT&T will record a major tide of costumers after the launch of the iPhone, which will be next month, and they need to cope with that.

Is Verizon going to succeed? We would say no. Why? First of all, the iPhone will be out next month, in June, while Verizon Wireless will only start to sell their "counter phone" in the late summer, and second of all, we don't think the LG Prada, even if it's a superb phone, will have the ability to resist, after all the recent buzz around the iPhone. But hey, who are we to tell? We'll wait and see.

We've got some bad news for those waiting for the Apple iPhone. The most expected phone of the last years will not have CDMA support. AT&T will be the only carrier to sell the iPhone for the first 5 years, so the phone will only come in GSM network. That's a long time to sign an exclusivity contract if you ask us, but business is business.

The Apple iPhone features a 3.5 inch touchscreen and offers a wide range of innovative features when it comes to music, audiobooks, TV shows and movies. Moreover, it supports email, widgets, Wi-fi and EDGE services at top quality.

Finally, the Apple iPhone got approved by the FCC but as it was expected, no new information is revealed by them. Expected to launch in late June with AT&T, the first Apple's device will feature 4 or 8GB memory, 2-megapixel camera, quad-band GSM/EDGE and WiFi.

The only thing that FCC shows is the aluminum back housing, which protects the non-removable battery, similar to an iPod.

Read the FCC report here.

The Apple iPhone will be available for US$499 or US$599 for the 4GB and 8GB models respectively with a two-year service agreement from Cingular/AT&T. Apple states that the iPhone will be available in the US from June this year through its exclusive agreement with Cingular/AT&T, in Europe during Q4 this year, and in Asia from 2008.

Through Apple's collaboration with Cingular Wireless, the company has been able to include some interesting carrier services, such as random access voice mail. Random access voicemail is a first that allows you to see a list of all your voicemail messages, showing the caller and the time and date of the call, so that you can jump right to the voicemail you need rather than have to listen to each and every one in turn.

Via engadget.