Pocket Picks :: The coolest things for the coolest phones

It’s obviously been a busy weekend for iPhone news over the States, so we thought we’d round some of what’s been happening in one big post.

AppleInsider reports that Steve Woziniak (right), Apple co-founder and famed tech guru refused Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ offer of a free iPhone and instead kept his promise to be first in line at the Valley Fair Apple store in California. Woz, as he’s known, bought the maximum allowed two handsets and promised to be back for more when he could.

Macworld has run a feature on the quality of the iPhone as an iPod, and found that in many ways Jobs’ promise that this was ‘the best iPod we’ve ever made’ held true. However, one major difference the writer found is that it’s not possible to manually manage your music on iPhone, which will be a big drawback for people who have separate libraries of music at home and work. Connect the iPhone to a new computer and it will ask you if you want to delete and replace all the content on the device. Apple had better not do the same thing with the next iPod…

Also noted in the Macworld piece is that the recessed headphone socket on the iPhone makes it impossible to connect some thirdparty headphones, but apparently companies are working on adapters to solve the problem.

The first batch of iPhone accessories have appeared on the US Apple online store, including the combined headset & iPhone charging dock shown right. It’s priced at $49 (£25) and includes a USB charger.

TUAW found a video of Steve Jobs himself turning up at the Palo Alto Apple store on launch night, but seemed altogether less friendly than his co-founder.

AppleInsider also notes that BMW has announced it will be the first car maker to offer integrated iPhone support.

AT&T claimed that almost all of its 1800 own-brand retail stores had sold out of iPhones over the weekend, according to MacRumors.

Snap-happy Just Another Mobile Phone Blog has been posting copious pictures of unboxing its iPhone.

MacRumors readers have been posting their impressions of iPhone over the weekend, with one saying that, ‘I haven’t found a single element of the iPhone user interface that doesn’t feel super-snappy.’ The notes application isn’t very impressive — but are they ever? Switching between apps using the ‘home’ button is really cool, apparently, but never having to quit or exit (as you do on S60 handsets) takes a bit of getting used to.

Apparently there were a lot of problems activating iPhones via the new 7.3 version of iTunes but that some of those issues have now been resolved (more on that at the Boy Genius Report). We’re guessing the whole system must have been under a lot of strain — it’s impressive that nothing more serious has broken… Yet.

LoopRumors notes that the iPhone has now appeared on the Apple US online store, but has a delivery time of 2-4 weeks (most Apple products are available in 1-2 business days).

Reuters ran a nice piece covering some of the people waiting in line in San Francisco, including one guy who was being paid to wait by his boss.

Textually reports that documentary maker Michael Moore accused Apple and AT&T of trying to divert attention from the opening night of his new film about the American healthcare system, Sicko.

Apple Phone Geeks went to try and buy an iPhone from a local AT&T store and found a long queue, slow service, and not enough 8GB models to go round. Apparently when everyone realised that only 4GB version was left most of them went home empty handed. APG had better luck at the local Apple store, and managed to walk straight in and buy the 8GB version without queuing.

Last but not least, LoopRumors has posted its own hands-on video review of the iPhone, which you can watch by clicking here.