A great 1 minute ad on the iPhone based around NYC.

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It appears that stories circulating the internet about eBay iPhone scams made some waves in the eBay waters. eBay is now banning all pre-sales of the popular iPhone to prevent fraud.

 

A note on their website gives the specifics:

Apple iPhone Pre-Sales are prohibited. This highly-anticipated device will be in high demand after the US release on June 29th, 2007. Prior to the release of similar high-demand electronics, we saw a high number of well-intentioned sellers unable to meet their pre-sale obligations to buyers due to restricted supply, as well as an increase in fraudulent listings for these items. To prevent similar problems with the iPhone, eBay is prohibiting all pre-sales of this device. Source: eBay

For a product that's famously unavailable until June 29th, the iPhone has launched an incredible cottage industry on eBay–as I blog this, there are 365 auctions with the word "iPhone" in their names.

True, the vast majority of auctions that come up when you search for iPhone are for cases, screen protectors, and the like. Yup, the iPhone-protection market is hopping even though nobody has an iPhone to protect yet.

Me, I'd be a little cautious about buying a no-name iPhone case that was presumably designed and manufactured by a company that hasn't actually touched an iPhone.

Before you buy your iPhone case, you could use…an iPhone. And eBay has them. Maybe. Sort of. Well, not really.

Some auctions claim to be for unlocked 8GB iPhones preloaded with songs and available now. Which, unless the seller is Steve Jobs, sound awfully suspicious. eBay seems to be shutting these down–this one was live when I began writing this post, and is gone now:

Others are for iPhones to be delivered on or after June 29th. This one has reached $760, but hasn't met the reserve. Presumably at least some of the sellers offering these will come through, but I'd still worry about the possibility of them failing to acquire the iPhone they're selling you, even if their intentions are nothing but honorable.

Not ready to pay an obscene premium for your iPhone? For $5–a mere 1 percent of what Apple wants–you can buy a paper iPhone that, at least in this photo, looks pretty cool:

The tantalizing "Amazing 2 iPhones Mystery Auction" seems to be some sort of pseudoraffle in which everyone gets a prize. Some may get as little as a penny in an envelope, but two fortunate souls will win…iPhones!

Quite a few auctions are entirely virtual–listings like this offer packages of iPhone-related domain names. When I checked, winners such as these were still up for grabs:

PreorderAniPhone.com
I-Phone-Games.com
iPhoneUSA.mobi
EasyiPhoneUnlock.com
CheapiPhone4You.com
…and the particularly alluring BeckhamsiPhone.com.

And hey, if you can afford the $29,9999 starting bid, one seller is offering a bundle of 18 names, including the impressive SwarovskiiPhone.com.

Even if you don't need an iPhone-related domain name, you may be hankering for an iPhone-related free Webmail account. (Yup, free–the folks offering these are trying to make money on an investment of $0.00). Here are a few up for bid:

thebestiphone@bk.ru
all-for-iphones@gmail.com
apple.iphone.06.29.07@gmail.com
iPhone.pre_order@yahoo.com
used-apple-iphones@hotmail.com
iPhone-Palace@hotmail.com

(Hey, I just registered MyiPhoneIsCute@gmail.com–anyone wanna make me an offer? It's priceless!)

But my favorite iPhone-related auction? It's for Apple's L-Phone–a product that's apparently so top-secret that Steve Jobs hasn't told us about it. Dig the description:

"You are looking to buy a Brand New Apple L-phone. It is LIKE the apple iphone, Not original. This phone is very amazing and attractive, It has almost all the features of the Apple iphone, Best of all, it comes with a 2 MegaPixel Camera! The thing that I like about this phone is that it has a very Loud Speaker. But this Phone may not work in the U.S.– Make sure your provider uses 900/1800 Frequency. All phones turn on and work with full english, full touch screen, full functions, AN AWESOME PHONE!"

And the sexy photo:

As of June 29th, a new sort of eBay iPhone auction will debut–ones that are for real iPhones that are actually available. I wonder how much they'll go for?

For all of the complaining that has tripped down the wire about Apple's total lack of an SDK for the iPhone, a couple of entrepreneurial developers have already created iPhone apps to try out in Safari.

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I think twitter is perfectly suited for the iPhone, and sure you could use the standard Twitter page or you could use something like this. Its only a concept at the moment, but it shows how it could be displayed.

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Apple Inc. has sent an e-mail to consumers interested in the iPhone telling them they will need an account on its iTunes online store to set up the device.

The message, titled "Get Ready for iPhone," was sent this week to people who signed up for news about the product, said Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple. The iPod-based mobile phone will be released in the U.S. on June 29.

Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said the iPhone will be Apple's third main business, alongside the Macintosh computer and iPod music and video player, which each ring up annual sales of about $10 billion. Apple expects to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008 to capture a 1 percent share of the mobile-phone market.

"When your first iPhone is coming to the end of its life, and you are looking at what to get next, you will be more likely to get an iPhone again because your media flow is on iTunes," said Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray & Co. in Minneapolis. "Forcing people to set up an iTunes account gets iPhone users to standardize on iTunes."

An iTunes account is "necessary to set up your iPhone," the e-mail said.

Apple advises prospective buyers to also begin preparing contact and calendar information and their music and photos for transfer to the device.

The company will start selling the iPhone in its retail stores at 6 p.m. on June 29 in each U.S. time zone, Jobs told attendees at the company's annual developers meeting this week. Apple will offer a 4-gigbatye version for $499 and an 8-gigabyte model for $599.

AT&T Inc., the largest U.S. mobile-phone service provider, will also carry the phone, which requires a two-year service contract. The San Antonio-based company said the iPhone has attracted interest from more than 1 million customers since Apple unveiled it in January.

Anticipation for iPhone sales helped propel Apple's market value above $100 billion last month for the first time in the company's 31-year history.

We weren't sure if we heard right during Monday's keynote, when Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that the iPhone would be available Friday, June 29 at 6 pm. But it's true, an Apple spokeswoman said.

So this ain't one of them midnight openings. No matter what time zone you're in, the iPhone will go on sale at 6 pm.

Of course, you can go line up now if you want.

It's much more than just a phone! Check out some of its additional functions.

From the beginning, the Apple iPhone launch date has been a moving target: first rumored to be as early as January, it then skipped around June, from June 11 to June 22 to June 20. In Steve Jobs' uncertain speech at the D conference last week, it sounded like the very end of June. But who could be sure? Finally, this morning, a rumor with some teeth from Engadget: June 29 was the date. And then the confirmation: the television commercials, one of which featured the all-important June 29 date, were posted on Apple's web site. And a few minutes after I drooled over the photos, there the date was on my very own TV (NBC, if you're wondering).

As a first-time Apple fanatic (the iPhone will be my first ever Apple purchase, and I've been drooling since January 9), I'm disappointed that I have to wait until June 29, when I was oh-so-hoping I'd have it by mid-June at the latest (I'm eight months pregnant and very much expecting to deliver the news of my new baby's birth via iPhone). But, as my husband says while watching the dripping-with-touch commercial: "boy, that's a cool phone!" and I'm predicting great things and long lines to secure one of these beautiful specimens.

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) will score big on this one, and even though the date is later than hoped, at least it's not delayed beyond the fuzzy target of "late June" and at least the iPhone is real, it's really almost here.