Consumers want touchscreens. Consumers want more media on their mobile phones. The iPhone's making everyone risk being "left behind" (said not once, but twice). But it's good for the industry. Some executive names in the entertainment industry are tossed around.

That's all dandy, but it's all dandiness we've heard before. More importantly, what does any of it have to do with the headline? Nothing, as far as I can tell. How is Hollywood seeking ways to get into the iPhone's world? I don't know any more now than I did five minutes ago. Gee, thanks New York Times.

Hollywood Seeks Ways to Fit Its Content Into the Realm of the iPhone [NYT]

Hit the jump for the full list of 16 ways the iPhone has grown up, which range from the useful—message previews in the mail screen—to the mundane—the home icons are in a different order. No hair in funny places, though.

1. Bluetooth icon shifted to top right
2. Time font is less bold
3. Home icons have changed order
4. Web home button changed to Safari button
5. In iPod mode the icons and order have changed, and Podcasts added
6. The incoming call screen includes Wi-Fi status
7. Photos screen changed from glossy grey to glossy dark blue (possibly different color schemes available)
8. Includes number of picture in album next to name
9. Photo album screen does not include number of photos at the top
10. Mail screen's top right button changed from "vertical or horizontal view" button to edit button
11. Mail screen shows first sentence(s) of message
12. Bottom bar of mail screen includes the time mail was last updated
13. Mail message view screen changed with the sender now above the subject and date sent
14. Arrows and the number of messages have changed positions in the top bar
15. Back arrow to the inbox includes the number of unread messages
16. Ring tone has changed

16 ways the iPhone has changed [The Simple Web Solution via digg]

On top of no pre-orders, Merrill Lynch (respectable analysts, but analysts nonetheless) is estimating that Apple will only be punching out around 200-300 thousand iPhones a month initially before speeding up to a million by the end of the year, for a total of four million shipped this year.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

If you want to skip the riots, patience might pay off with ML pegging 12 million as the number for '08. Granted, that assumes that Apple would still only pump out a million a month—if demand is too insane, we imagine they can ask God to speed up his monthly deliveries to Earth. – Matt Buchanan

Merrill Lynch: iPhone shipments to total four million this year [Digitimes via New Launches]
Image via Flickr

Not enough for some, the speculation began to wander into new territory: that Quanta would not be building the same iPhone that another company, Foxconn, is already allegedly building for the initial product launch, but another phone, one "similar in function to those from Foxconn but with a different outer design to fit different markets." Further baseless speculation wandered in the obvious direction, namely, 3G highspeed wireless connectivity and supersized chunks of flash memory.

What's really happening? Steve only knows. – Wilson Rothman

Quanta stock leaps on iPhone order reports [Yahoo News]
Quanta reportedly enlisted as second iPhone contract maker [Digitimes via iTWire]

There are other things — you have the widgets, some of the Google applications that are coming — there are just so many things here that the price will not be an issue.

Q: One point of skepticism is the price. That BlackJack is pretty nice, and it costs $500 less than an iPhone

A: Here's how I'd explain it. The most popular iPod, a 4-gigabyte Nano, costs $200. If you've got a RIM BlackBerry or Palm Treo, you probably paid $200 minimum. Then you've got a phone that you got for free or paid maybe $50.

You're at $450 or $500. The question you've got to be able to ask yourself is, is this device going to be able to replace those three, so you carry one? That's the question.

So, this is the trick to getting the market to bear more. I've got a great idea. Just put some diamonds on it, and charge $10,000. People can use them for engagement rings.

I think when people get their hands on it and really experience it — the touch screen is phenomenal, this touch screen is like nothing you've ever used — to experience that, the skepticism, I think, around some of those things will go away.

Maybe the bigger question is, what basic apps do we need access to before we stop being annoyed that you can't install 3rd party stuff on the iPhone? I'm hoping for a snowboarding/sailing condition widget, for starters. What else should we wish for? – Brian Lam

Leading the charge on iPhone [Seattle Times]

No iPhone Preorders [Boy Genius Report]

The least minor of non-events was the discovery of two buttons in the iPhone Google Maps app interface, shown in the above left panel of iLounge's illustration. You'll notice that one button features "a couple of wavy lines" (to quote one of my favorite movies). The other button shows a little car. People are quite certain that one of these buttons will launch the already discussed Traffic feature. Steve Jobs is the only person who knows what happens if you push the other button.

OK, I'll tell you: you get $200,000 tax free, and someone you don't know dies.

You'll notice that Cingular (shown on the older image at right) has been changed to AT&T. Could this be the very moment when we kiss Cingular goodbye forever? Hey, I will as soon as The New AT&T stops using it. Come on, whoever you are, this is confusing!!

The photo appeared in an iPhone promotional e-mail sent out by the aforementioned New AT&T, who apparently didn't read the market research we have, that says between 1 and 100 people out of 100 has already bought an iPhone in their minds.

No, seriously, there's a lot of serious serious, like super serious market research going on. At this very moment, between 6 and 9 percent of breathing humans claim to plan to intend to buy an iPhone, according to an assortment of reports, while two-thirds of more or less the same population says, "No flippin' way." (That's a headline writer's call, since you can flip that same data into good news pretty quick, with 33.333% fully giddy about iPhone.

This just in: In a survey I just took, 100% of people in this immediate vicinity are unsure of whether or not they will buy an iPhone, but that is subject to change.

You'll also be happy to hear that the iPhone is still scheduled to ship in June, according to people who just last week said that the iPhone is still scheduled to ship in June. When pressed for details, they revealed that Halloween is still October 31, Christmas is still December 25, and while no one really knows when Easter and Passover will happen next, they are likely to occur at around the same time.

If at this point you are confused, blame Steve Jobs, not me. – Wilson Rothman

Continuing iPhone Coverage (and Non-Coverage) [Gizmodo]

After some days on Larry's yacht, we have finally reached Kauai. Awesome. iPhone and I needed some time alone at Hanalei Bay. You know, chill out, eat tempura tofu, drink Margaritas, ride those glassy waves from time to time and watch the morning sun together.

Boy it's beautiful here. My shiny friend and I may even take some photos of the amazing scenery. You know, real iPhone pics, not that EXIF-altered stuff. Although who knows, maybe those are real too according to evidence compiled by some Remington Steele wannabes.

You can catch more waves after the jump.

But hey, I guess those not-so-private dicks are also part of the 6% of cellphone owners who would like to buy an iPhone, so who cares. Ballmer must be really going ape again, though: someone told me he was gloating about how my glossy pal here will be a failure with just 3% market share. It seems that between the Symbians and the iPhone, he will have a hard time holding on to that 17% share they have today.

Some people say that NVIDIA and PortalPlayer will be happy about that however, since they could have one of their chips inside my gleaming mate here. I don't know who told them that. As far as we know, nobody really has a clue. – Jesus Diaz

The supporting facts are that the photo's res is correct for a 2MP cam at 1600 x 1200, and that various comments across the internet point to the Flickr user as an Apple-ite. The EXIF data metadata makes for a fine hint to the photo's source. It is, however, not proof. EXIF data is easily edited by programs like Reveal, so plenty of people can do things like take the first shot of a kitty not taken with an Apple iPhone:

What's nice is that the photo (of the hair man, not the kitty) seems to have relatively low grain in fair indoor lighting. This second shot, taken against a window, looks bad, in the grain department, but its got fair shadow detail for something taken against ham-filtered sunlight. Looks like the iPhone's camera will work fairly well. (If this is indeed the real deal.)

This is why we call it Non-News.– Brian Lam

First Pictures Taken With an Apple iPhone [Mobile Guerilla]

Don't feel bad about not being invited, though. You see, many other people aren't coming to this mighty ship. Like that Fred Anderson traitor (Note to Diane: call Fred, maybe he should come and we'll play "Walk the plank" with him when we reach international waters.)

There are others too. See Al, that hippie over there playing the bongos? He just told me that Steve Ballmer won't come either because he can't bring his own ZunePhone. In fact, Al says that there won't be any ZunePhones at all. I don't know what he's smoking. I mean, who cares about the ZunePhone anyway? He also says that Steve got all fed up with us, saying that the idea of the iPhone is silly, that his Windows Mobile phones rule and that he will add Zune-like software to them. Maybe he means a Windows Mobile cellphone with music playback that will have the same raging success as the Zune. Dunno. Let me ask Al again. Hey! Gore! Yo! Can you tell me what Steve means with "we can put Zune into Windows Mobile" and "we can pour everything in?" Hey you! Treehugger! I'm talking to you!

Damn bongos.

Anyway Ballmer, those words from you just made Billy's "Zune skirting" pop into my head. And let me tell you mate, it's just not funny. Call me when you can to explain, yes? Thanks.

Another one who is not invited to the party is that MarketCircle developer dude. Somehow he hasn't learned yet that the iPhone is a closed system... but you know, maybe we will have to invite him because I like him. I do. I mean, he just said that the stuff Microsoft is saying about the iPhone is just FUD! FUD! FUD!. Check it out:

"The one thing Microsoft seems to forget is that the iPhone has the multi-tasking Mac OS X at its core. Mac OS X already trumps Microsoft's desktop OS, never mind its mobile OS. You can already read MS Word documents with Mac OS X out of the box using TextEdit. As a developer, I can tell you the .doc reading capabilities are right in Cocoa. You can open PowerPoint documents in Keynote and I'm sure Apple has something up its sleeve for Excel."

He's exactly right. As a developer you can do all that. But only if we give you the manual and the keys to Daddy's car. Hmmm... maybe I should ask Avie if he knows something we haven't told anyone yet when he comes back from the bridge. I believe he was hacking the radar a minute ago.

Anyway, Jerome just called to tell me that some more people want to party with us: seems like young users are hitting Apple's site more than anyone else lately—and it's all because of the iPhone! They'll probably never return after they see that our pages don't have embedded music and flashing multi-colored text scrolling against pink backgrounds with embossed Christina Aguileras. So if you are a teenager reading this, let me tell you one thing: piss off. This is an adult party and I am starting to get drunk already. Oh, you girls brought a bikini. Nice. OK, you can come in. Is that a G-string? Boom! You too then. Eric there will serve you all Shirley Temples.

The AT&T people won't come either because they are throwing a party of their own. Cheap and massive. In your own home too: They will grab all your data to spam the hell out of you if you want to get notified when the iPhone comes out. Enjoy the cheap beer! Or just the cheap. No beer.

Now my friends, you are probably asking yourself how to get into the A-list and join the fiesta. Well, if you really want to spend a summer on Larry's big boat with all these 18-year-olds who just came in, maybe you should think about applying to work with us as an iPhone Sales & Service representative. After all, remember that:

"As an iPhone Sales & Service Representative, you're at the core of the customer's experience. This newly created position (like a true pioneer) will fuel the iPhone revolution!"

It's a revolution! So go ahead and ring our number. We guarantee you that at least 1 out of 10,000,000 calls will get a place in Larry's sunny love cruise while the rest of you will spend a whole summer in customer support hell. Look at it this way: in any case you will have an unlimited supply of Odwala juice. Wait. Scratch all that and write "all straight to hell, no juice."

By now, maybe you are asking who will come to this party. Well, I can tell you that a few guys from the iPhone team will because I am very happy to report that we are on track to ship iPhone in late June 31st and a few just came back from Taipei. Unlike the Mac OS X guys, who will stay chained to their desk until October.

And now that you ask, I have to confess that I am thinking about calling that Oppenheimer guy too. I know he's a little bit of a bore, but I heard he has a nice collection of feline-themed Speedo Turbos. And he has established new clear accounting strategies, so we can deploy free features in the iPhone and AppleTV without charging extra money, unlike the 802.11n on MacBooks disaster.

And Phil? People, Phil's Phil. Phil's The Man. Phil will be doing wireless demonstrations and videoconferencing with us from our destination, Hawaii, while having piña coladas and foot massages. All. Day. Long.

OK, I lied.

Phil has to stay in Cupertino guarding the castle. But I gave him my Porsche and the iPod with all my Beach Boys albums, so he can cruise down to L.A. from time to time. Hmm. OK, so maybe that's not true either. I just made him a playlist. That's it. A motivational playlist with AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. Three songs. On repeat.

And loads of Milli Vanilli. Phil loves them. He just does.

I think.

Whatever. I must get a refill now. Pronto. – Jesus Diaz

For all the iPhone Non-News you can handle, read on.

Going Corporate: Apparently Cingular is trying to sell the iPhone to IT departments. I don't think "awesome music phone with quasi keyboard" is going to fly with the accountants. Palm and BBerry have this territory nailed, fellas.

Earnings Today: Have iPod sales dipped without news of a new model and in anticipation of the iPhone? The webcast is later today, and you can hear it live. Or you cannot, as Fake Steve says.

Just put those shares away someplace safe and forget about them. Come back in 10 years and be prepared to smile.

iPhone Non-news [Gizmodo]

Excitement over the appearance of an iPhone-like device on Lost is exactly what Brian meant when he slammed iPhone non-news.

Yes, we as bloggers and fanboys admit to being guilty of following the unfurling iPhone story well beyond news and facts into the realm of rumors and hearsay.

We're not going to stop covering rumors and hearsay. However, as the iPhone frenzy begins anew, we will be sequestering items that to us feel particularly like hot air, to share with you under the heading of non-news. (Is this some sort of having-our-cake-and-eating-it-too maneuver? Oh, yeah.)

So come now, follow the jump, ye lemmings, for some iPhone non-news!

•iPhone on target for end of June launch, AT&T says - In a nutshell, AT&T COO Randall Stephenson echoes Apple's recent statement, something we already heard. It's good press for Stephenson, and for the AT&T brand, which will be/is/has already replaced the Cingular brand for the company's wireless division:

"Our expectations are good. Our testing has been good," said AT&T Chief Operating Officer Randall Stephenson. "The iPhone is on target to launch in June."

It's like the thumbs-up of the pilot on his way out of the hangar. He's pretty damn sure the flight is going to go smooth, but once he's up in the air, anything can happen. Plus, what the hell does AT&T have to do with the iPhone's development? Nothing! Absolutely Nothing! (To steal a phrase from Lord Helmet.)

•Apple, Cisco try to make iPhones compatible - You've probably already seen this one from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on a bunch of other sites. We blame the excitement on the headline writer. The head suggests that Cisco is exploring a way for the two iPhones to work together (what, as in, become able to make calls to one another?), but the body, covering a press conference with Cisco's Chief Development Officer Charlie Giancarlo, states specifically that it is not about that:

"The talks aren't centered on making Cisco's iPhone, an Internet-based home phone, compatible with Apple's. Cisco wants the Apple iPhone to work with its corporate phone systems, Giancarlo said."

•Microsoft slams iPhone as "irrelevant" - OK, we covered this. But let's be honest, it is shocking. I mean, how could Microsoft, maker of operating systems, consumer software and a smartphone platform, openly criticize Apple, maker of operating systems, consumer software and a don't call it smartphone platform. It's not like they have a historical rivalry or anything. Again, this was just a smart exec taking advantage of reporter face time:

"It's a great music phone, and I'm sure it will be fantastic and have an interesting user interface," Microsoft's Asia-Pacific head of smartphone strategy Chris Sorenson told press during a recent visit to Australia. "However, it's a closed device that you cannot install applications on, and there's no support for Office documents. If you're an enterprise and want to roll out line of business applications, it's just not an option. Even using it as a heavy messaging device will be a challenge," the executive added.

Show of hands: How many people would rather have a manageable phonebook, an easy-to-use media player and an attractive browser rather than a version of Excel running on their phone? I think I see 100 million hands.

•iPhone on Lost? - This one is just cute. I mean, it's non-news, but we are really impressed that someone—two people actually, one named David and the other named Loki—took the time to run a photographic comparison between what he saw on TV, and what is posted on Apple.com. Seriously, David, it is people like you who keep us all motivated. News or not, it was fun.

Had enough? No? There's always tomorrow.– Wilson Rothman

Our Full, Complete and Perhaps Unnecessary iPhone Coverage [Gizmodo]