Wow…a new dawning has arrived. Life is different now…the Apple iPhone is coming, and nearly here! Or something like that.

Just think: if you lived in San Francisco, you could be living in the “iLine” right now…

San Franciscans waiting in line for the iPhone to go on sale at 6pm local time

Of course, us northern Michiganders aren’t exactly going to be on the ‘inside’ of this party. “We don’t get no” iPhone, at least not in the sense that we can buy one and use it like regular people.

Being as Apple has an exclusive relationship with AT&T (that’s the Cingular cell people), and being as AT&T has no local service to northern Michigan, we’re sorta out of the loop on all the hysteria. So we don’t get the spectacle of folks camped out in front of the local mobile phone providers. Man, we miss all the good stuff living up here!

The iPhone genuinely looks like a very cool product. What must be remembered, however, is that this is a first generation product. What you are buying now will be very different from what is available in just a few months.

And it isn’t cheap. $500-$600 to get the ball rolling, with a two year commitment in all cases.

All that being said, if what you are looking for is to have the multimedia bases covered, this looks to be an excellent device. For corporate/business users: not as much to get excited about, at least not in this newer version. Maybe down the line it will have more to offer.

Here is Tim’s take: this is just like a BlackBerry, and maybe specifically the BlackBerry Pearl or curve, but exactly the opposite. Got that?

Here is what I mean. The BlackBerry is excellent for a business user. There is no two ways around that: it is a terrific device when work is the focus.

The BB is a great phone, has great battery life, and has the best setup going for wireless handheld corporate email communication. When it comes to email, and the ability to send and receive email like you are at your desk at work, you can’t beat the BlackBerry.

But normal BlackBerrys don’t even have a camera, let alone any way to play music. So RIM (the BB people) came out with the “Pearl” and “Curve”; they have a camera and a media player. And the camera and media player in the Pearl and Curve is…OK. Not bad. Better than not having one. But you won’t be thinking “now I don’t even need an iPod”. They are still, at heart, a BlackBerry product: great at email and phone, with some media friendly stuff thrown in.

And the iPhone looks to be the opposite. Great media device: just like a video iPod for music, video, and photos. Fast, pretty, intuitive. Very cool device. It has an excellent Internet browser (but is stuck with the one-generation-back AT&T system, which isn’t the fastest for mobile Internet browsing).

Oh, and it’s a phone, too. Not the best phone, but an OK phone. And somewhat OK for email (remember, no keyboard; the KB is ‘virtual’, where you will touch pictures of keys on the screen to tap out a message). But lousy for direct syncing with your corporate email server (for most of us, that’s our Exchange server back at the office)(more about that below).

And geez…you can’t even carry an extra battery. The battery is basically permanent, and once the battery completely dies where it won’t accept a charge you send the entire unit back to Apple and they replace the battery. Business friendly it ain’t.

Plus, and for us business IT types, this is a big deal: the security on the iPhone isn’t much. Biz IT isn’t going to be thrilled to have iPhones connected to the business network, at least not unless and until Apple works out some of the connectivity issues. And that remains to be seen. (More in the links below.)

Now keep in mind that as I said, this is a first-generation device. Apple will get better at this. That’s their track record anyway, and I would suspect that’s what we’ll see here, too.

There is no denying that Apple does make very cool devices. And that really is my take: the iPhone is a sports car next to BlackBerry’s tool box. Sports cars are, all in all, way cooler than tool boxes. It’s all about what you need.

Here are some good reviews and takes on the iPhone:

From John Dvorak This is a fun one banging on all the hype

From eWeek This column rips on the security and corporate IT issues relating to the iPhone

From eWeek Here is a good-to-know bit about a new MS Exchange patch that will make it easier for the iPhone to talk to the email server

From CNet Great story on what the iPhone means to current technology

From CNet A FAQ on “what exactly is the iPhone, anyway?”

So from here…welcome to the Apple iPhone!

“MPack Trojan Attack Claims 10,000 Web Sites”

Lots of talk out there on this ‘MPack’ trojan attack. Keep your eyes peeled on this one.

This is a ‘drive-by’ attack, where just visiting an infected site can grab your computer for the virus writer’s rotten motives. And as it says above, there are now 10,000 infected sites (as of yesterday, June 18).

The eWeek story says:

Researchers at Trend Micro are reporting that as many as 10,000 Web sites have been infected with malicious code that redirects unsuspecting users to a server booby-trapped with drive-by exploits—part of a wave of attacks originating in Italy and now spreading through Europe.

Read the eWeek story here

We saw this last month, too, and it caused some big problems. If you receive an email claiming to be a Microsoft Security Alert, it isn’t.

Here is the main part of this story:

The e-mail messages claim to describe a “Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer” that fixes a critical security flaw in the browser. It comes with a link entitled “Download this update.”

When users click on this link, they are taken to a server that attempts to install malicious software known as Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Agent.avk.

PC World describes it here

PC World (and others) are noting how there are auctions for iPhones and iPhone accessories on eBay, but of course, the iPhone isn’t available and won’t be released until June 29.

So I guess these are “vapor-auctions”?

Fun story — see it here