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Remember two days ago when I published the BlogPulse Trends chart showing how many people were blogging about the iPhone? That was before the iPhone was released, but showed the trend just about to jump into the stratosphere.

Fast-forward two days, and look at it now (above) – well and truly in the stratosphere! All other mobile phone companies have been left for dust.

I also talked about how Motorola were nuts in releasing their Motorola Z8 at the same time as the iPhone, and this graph proves it. You can see how high the iPhone trend line is (blue) – and the Motorola trend line (green)? Flat. Completely and utterly dead. If Motorola wanted any column inches on their Z8, they reallty should have picked a better day…come to think of it, they really should have picked any other day!

[Source: BlogPulse]

At first glance, the iPhone doesn’t bear much resemblance to the Nintendo Wii. However, in terms of the way they’ve shaken up their respective markets, both gadgets are implementing remarkably similar strategies.

Despite a much poorer technical specification on paper, the Nintendo Wii is succeeding in a hugely competitive market at the expense of its more traditional competitors – which is exactly what Apple’s hoping to achieve with its iPhone.

Motorola have done what no other phone manufacturer has dared, and released a brand new mobile phone at the same time as the iPhone.

The phone in question is Motorola’s “media monster”, the Motorola Z8.

The Z8 was announced a few months ago, and Motorola have been trying to hype it up ever since.

It does offer new features that haven’t been seen on a Motorola before: 16 million colour screen, HSDPA and a huge storage capacity of up to 32GB.

But compete with the iPhone? It doesn’t stand a chance!

Worse, by releasing the phone at the same time as the iPhone, Motorola have guaranteed it will get virutally no press coverage at all (well, except for this post of course!).

There couldn’t be a worse day this year to announce a new mobile phone – way to go, Motorola!

Couldn’t resist this – I won’t be seeing an iPhone for a few months, and neither will anyone else in the UK, so for those of you wondering what all the fuss is about, here are the iPhone technical specifications.

(Actually, all the fuss is about the iPhone’s stunning user interface, but the specs aren’t bad either – apart from the lack of 3G)!

Full iPhone technical specs after the jump.

Today is the day that the iPhone is released, and the world has gone mad over Apple’s new device. Not only is everyone in the US seemingly queueing to buy one at this very minute, but blanket coverage of the new phone is dominating the blogosphere and even the TV news alike.

With this much hype, the iPhone sure has some living up to do. We UK users won’t get our hands on on one for another few months, but at least that’ll give Apple time to iron out any flaws (and also add 3G, with any luck!)

If there was one thing the iPhone didn’t need it was yet more hype – so here it is! If the thought of Nintendo games on the iPhone wasn’t enough for you, now Playboy has jumped aboard the bandwagon and announced iPlayboy – a free set of twelve sexy non-nude Playmate wallpapers, a photo album with twelve additional Playmate photos, a one-hour episode of Playboy Radio’s The Playmate Hour and a Playboy Cyber Girl video, all customised for the Apple iPhone.

Explaining Playboy’s shameless leap onto the iPhone bandwagon, John D. Thomas, Playboy.com’s editor, said:

“We have always tried to stay ahead of the curve by delivering the fun, sophistication and sexiness of Playboy to our fans on the newest and hottest media platforms. And with so much buzz surrounding the all-in-one Apple iPhone, we knew we had to develop something specifically designed just for this device.”

As if fanboys weren’t excited enough!

[Source: MobileEntertainment]

iPhone hype is reaching explosive levels, so what else there to do but stoke it some more? Lucky New York Times columnist has had an iPhone for a few weeks now, and he’s created an amusing video showing it off.

He does list some of the drawbacks of Apple’s new wonder-phone: the fact that it’s tied to AT&T, the battery is sealed and can only be replaced by sending it back to Apple, and there’s no external memory; but he also gives a neat demonstration of the iPhone in action.

That said, looking at the iPhone in action, you have to pinch yourself that the device is real, and not just a mock-up of some “future product” concept phone. Everything seems to work so seamlessly, and the user interface is simply glorious.

Speculation surrounds which mobile network operator will be carrying the iPhone in the UK, as they’ve all been keeping rather quiet. Whichever operator it is, you’d think they’d want to make a grand announcement themselves in order to jump onto the fast moving iPhone bandwagon in the hope that some of the hype rubs off on them.

Well it seems that UK phone retailer Phones2UDirect might have let the cat out of the bag, as they’re currently displaying an Apple iPhone page listing Vodafone as the carrier, and the iPhone’s UK price as being just £35 – £40 per month depending on tariff.

Something’s happening tomorrow…what was it again? Oh yes, the launch of the iPhone!

Apple’s new wonder-machine is being released tomorrow (June 29th) at 6pm amidst the biggest load of hype since the launch of the Motorola ROKR (the ill-fated and much criticised “iTunes phone”). Indeed, so much coverage is being give to the iPhone at the moment, that other manufacturers are running for cover and hiding their new releases until the hype blows over.

With the iPhone set to be released on June 29th (at 6pm, if you need the exact details), the rumour-mill is going into hyper-drive. The latest rumour suggests that none other than Nintendo are going to partner with Apple to release Nintendo games on the iPhone.

According to the rumour (which apparently comes from an “anonymous source” – hmmm, so that inspires confidence then!), the Nintendo games will be released through the iTunes store for a whopping $29 a pop.