Apple iPhone: New Details, Good and Bad

With less than six days left before the Apple (AAPL) iPhone arrives, there's a flood of press coverage but new details about how the gadget actually works are hard to find. A few drops of news are dribbling out, however.

The 24 minute "guided tour" Apple released late last week (see here) is basically an infomercial designed to head off any negative feedback from independent reviewers. Mostly it delivers the same information contained in the TV commercials, but at a glacial pace. But Jason Chen at Gizmodo scoured the video for fresh information and offered this summary:

• Confirmed in-line viewer for PDFs, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel docs in email. Microsoft complained about lack of support before. This is a huge deal, even if it is read-only.
• Turning off the phone requires you to slide your finger across the top (like unlocking it) to confirm.
• You can rewind voicemail like a sound file.
• You can finger-scroll through contacts using the alphabet on the right.
• The special iPhone headphones have volume and call control.
• IMAP/POP support confirmed
• Typing with two thumbs actually looks manageable
• Limited amount of ringtones can be selected from the settings menu. Doesn't look like songs can be used.
• Confirmed turn by turn directions and up-to-date traffic info for Google maps. (link)

Over at rival Engadget, Ryan Block pried a few less-than-flattering reactions from "a very trusted source" who has spent time with a pre-launch iPhone. Excerpts:

• "It won't replace a BlackBerry. It's not good for text input. It's just not a business product."
• The browser "worked well" but page load speeds on EDGE were just as slow as expected. It sounds like 3G users will have a tough run with this.
• Users must scroll through the address book (or use the alphabet-drag on the side) -- one cannot bring up the keyboard and type in a name, as many of us are used to.
• Shocker: YouTube over EDGE didn't work well at all, and will basically necessitate use of WiFi. (For the full list go to Engadget here)

Finally, there are these observations from Balsu Thandu, one of the 200 AT&T (T) field technicians who reportedly spent the past 10 weeks putting the iPhone through its paces incognito (see here). According to Mobility Today,