How big is the buzz around Apple’s forthcoming iPhone?

That's what Fortune is trying to find out today by searching for "3G iPhone" on Google Trends.

You can notice that the rise in interest gets higher as Steve Jobs’ June 9 keynote approaches. You can also notice the fall-off in “News reference volume” in the bottom graph. Although interest continues to grow for the new iPhone, it seems that the tech press may have developed a case of 3G fatigue. It is totally understandable. The only writing we can find about the 3G iPhone are just rumors and speculations. I can understand journalists are getting tired of it...

The US Patent and Trademark Office recently published a pretty extensive patent application, apparently for features related to the new 3G iPhone and software version 2.0.

The document says that the device supports a variety of applications, such as , a video conferencing application, an instant messaging application, a blogging application, a digital video camera application and that the device will also support Flash and Windows Media Player.

Photo Credit: Mac Rumors

AT&T announced Wednesday a more than 20 percent increase to the typical download speeds across its 3G wireless network and a 50 percent increase to typical upload speeds.

Users can expect to see download speeds between 700 kilobits per second and 1.7 megabits per second, up from 600 kilobits per second to 1.4 megabits per second. Upload speeds should increase from 500 kilobits per second to 1.2 megabits per second, up from 500 to 800 kilobits per second on average.

AT&T says its 3G mobile network is available in more than 275 major U.S. metropolitan areas, adding that later this month it will become the first U.S. carrier to have fully deployed High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology across its entire 3G network. The company also stated that it plans to offer 3G service in nearly 350 major metropolitan U.S. areas by the end of 2008.

TUAW apparently received tips that the iPhone 2.0 firmware might ship a little later than expected, probably late June, early July. This is because of Apple's deal with the cell carriers. Per their agreements, Apple has to give the cell carriers a chance to look at the new firmware before it can ship. This normally takes 1-2 weeks.

According to TUAW sources, the 2.0 firmware went out to cell carriers this week, meaning that they will review it for the next 2 weeks. If everything is fine with the firmware, Apple will release it to the public. Otherwise, Apple will have to fix the problems and start the process over again.

If you’re looking to make a few bucks on Apple in advance of the new iPhone announcement next Monday, you're already too late!

Fortune writes today about a chart published by Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster that shows how Apple's stock performed in the past just before and just after Apple milestone events.

On average, Apple shares

fell 0.7% the day of the event rose 0.4% from the day before to the week after the event rose 4.2% from one week before to one week after

In other words, if you wanted to play the odds around next week’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, you should have bought Apple 2 days ago. Well, at least now you know for next event, hehe.

Japanese mobile carrier Softbank Corp. said Wednesday it has a deal with Apple Inc. to sell the iPhone later this year — the first such agreement in Japan for the hit cell phone.

Softbank spokesman Naoki Nakayama said no further details, such as pricing and dates, were available, and he said it's not clear if the deal is exclusive.

According to Christina at TUAW:

Although not detailed in the press release, I expect that the Japanese iPhone will be very different, internally, from its counterparts from other parts of the world. Not only will the phone have to be W-CDMA (GSM is not deployed in Japan, though some other SoftBank phones are dual-band GSM/W-CDMA for international roaming), there may be other locks tying the phone to the carrier.

Per the rumor mill, Apple is expected to open its long-awaited App Store at the beginning of the Worldwide Developers' Conference next Monday. A source close to the story cited that the online store will launch and be up and running that day with Steve Jobs giving the keynote address at the event.

A Monday launch of the iTunes App Store would also imply an immediate release of the iPhone 2.0 Firmware which would be much earlier than expected.

iPhone Atlas is reporting that Apple is apparently hurrying to sign up individuals into the exclusive $99 iPhone Developer Program prior to the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco next week, where Apple is expected to present the iPhone 2nd Generation.

iPhone Atlas apparently received info from a developers registered for WWDC who have only received acceptance letters in the past few days, although they had applied to the program a while back.

When Apple first started the program, they allowed only a few developers into the program, sending disconcerting letters that were taken as rejection letters to most applicants. But acceptance increased within the last couple months, and it now appears to be expanding even more.

This one comes from MacRumors who unfortunately can't guarantee the authenticity of the picture...

This is a rumor we actually haven't heard about but I am pretty confident that the new version of the iphone will have the copy/paste feature. Why? Well, Apple is pretty much releasing this new phone for business customers, competing directly with blackberry. Apple knows that if they want to gain market shares on business customers, they will have to cater them with features they want (push email, ability to save attachments, and of course, copy/pasting).

I reported this morning that their was rumor of a version of the iPhone at $200. Well, another rumor that came from Gizmodo is also saying that the new device will be 22% thinner.

There is also speculation Apple could bow to a cellphone industry practice and offer a subsidized iPhone, an arrangement where AT&T could kick in a couple hundred dollars to make the devices more affordable. AT&T already gives Apple a slice of the monthly service fees it gets from iPhone subscribers.

Browsing the web for iPhone stuffs, I found this list of the different misspellings of the iPhone. There are some funny stuffs in there!

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