14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that with the official date of release for the iPhone coming from Apple, the rumor mill has gone into overtime and all sorts of things are making rounds around the Internet. Some of these rumors simply contradict statements made during iPhone presentations, while others are speculation, but the majority of them seems to be negative for some reason.
One of the first rumors is the one that the iPhone will not be usable as a removable drive for data store, instead interaction being limited through programs such as iTunes and iPhoto. This makes no sense whatsoever, since Apple has no reason to prevent the usage of the device as storage. What are you going to use to get your documents and PDFs in there?
Next up is the SIM card, which according to these rumors will not be accessible in any way whatsoever. How or why anyone would come up with something like this is unclear, especially since it was clearly said during the MacWorld announcement that iPhone will have a SIM slot at the top.
Then there is the popular removable battery rumor. After several reports that the battery would be removable, now rumors are saying that it will be impossible to remove because there are no external latches, release buttons, or clips. Whether or not the battery is extremely easy to remove remains to be seen, but clearly, unless Apple is somehow growing the batteries inside the cases, the battery will be removable.
Moving from hardware to software, the big rumor is that there will be no iChat available for the iPhone. While it is still very unclear exactly what programs will be available for the iPhone initially, not having iChat among them would have little impact for many users. Since the camera is on the back of the iPhone, video chat would not be possible; furthermore, since iChat only works with AIM and Jabber, it is not a comprehensive instant messaging solution. If Apple does include iChat, it is going to be Yahoo and MSN messenger users who will be complaining about being left out.
As the 29th of June draws closer, no doubt more and more rumors will surface, each more extravagant than the last and while some rumors do turn out to be right, most turn out to be nothing but speculation.