At lunch we're trying to secure ourselves a place in line.

We interrupt our overly obsessive iPhone coverage to make an important announcement.

Ida Millie Chapman was born yesterday!

Congratulations to Matt and Jackie!

Our week long fidgiting party is inching ever closer to the brushed metal finishline. Just 2 more days until we have the pleasure of handing over many, many dollars to our friends at Apple and "The New" AT&T.

Now that the press embargo has been lifted (?) CrunchGear has a nice roundup of iPhone reviews.

The Wallstreet Journal says:
"Expectations for the iPhone have been so high that it can't possibly meet them all. It isn't for the average person who just wants a cheap, small phone for calling and texting. But, despite its network limitations, the iPhone is a whole new experience and a pleasure to use."

USA Today reports:
"IPhone's saving grace for data is Wi-Fi, if you have access to a hot spot. It automatically determines the fastest network it comes across (Wi-Fi or Edge)."

Newsweek quips:
"the iPhone is a significant leap. It’s a superbly engineered, cleverly designed and imaginatively implemented approach to a problem that no one has cracked to date: merging a phone handset, an Internet navigator and a media player in a package where every component shines, and the features are welcoming rather than foreboding."

As counterpoint: Crunchgear also has an article by The Futurist about why the iPhone will bomb.

The feeding fenzy is heating up friends...

iPhone rate plans are announced by Apple and AT&T.

It's just soooo tempting to substitute a "p" in the word "rate" but I've resisted, for you. Anyway, from what I can tell, you buy the iPhone, then you sync it to iTunes and use that program to sign up for AT&T. You'll use iTunes to set up everything through AT&T including how many minutes you'll want, and adding more text messages, if that's your thing.

At least this means we won't have to deal with any salivating cellphone rate plan salesmen

The city of Sao Paulo, Brazil passed an ordinance last year banning all outdoor advertising. Over the course of the last year city workers have been removing all advertisements around the city. (via metafilter)

Photographer and artist Tony de Marco has been documenting what's left once all the ad pollution is stripped away. It's weird. But it would look weird to us, because here in Atlanta we use Corporate Advertising as landmarks for giving directions, even going so far as to regard these ads as if they were State Monuments.

Furturist and Fluxist Motivational Legend Bill Hicks has this to say about Marketing:
(adult content warning)

Not due out until the 29th of this month at 6:00pm...

An iPhone was spotted in the wild by the guys at Engadget on the CalTrain commuter rail line that runs from SF to our Beloved Motherland. (Cupertino, CA) Independant confirmation appears to back up this sighting and it is believed to be real.

*swoons*

We've also recently caught wind of a memo stating that the iPhone will ONLY be available at Apple stores and "select" AT&T stores. Of the five AT&T stores in metro Atlanta NONE are getting iPhones. (we called them all) This means that if we want one the day of, we'll have to hump it down to the already overcrowded Lennox Mall Apple Store. Just like the rest of the Apple nerds. Boo.

Don "Mr. Wizard" Herbert died at the age of 89 on Tuesday. The L.A. Times has a nice article on his life and his awesome television show.

The painting I sent to Coudal.com's Super Summer Swap Meat got written up and posted to their Selected Swap Meat Items page! Sweet!

We've been a big fan of Coudal Partners since we discovered the Chicago based design firm's Photoshop Tennis Fridays. Photoshop Tennis is a back-and-forth designer battle intended to push the participant's design skills and encourage quick turn around. Each designer takes a turn making an image based only on the image previously, you keep building on images and ideas until you've played out all the turns. (some games go as far as 20 turns!) The images are voted on and one designer is declared winner.

We're totally honored that the guys at Coudal took the time to talk about my painting, we're even more eager to see what cool thing we get in return.

Website Double Viking believes that Patrick Swazey's Roadhouse is secretly a brilliant film. We couldn't agree more. Here's our favorite yoda-esque line delivered by Swazey's wisened philosopher turned throat-ripper Dalton:

"If somebody gets in your face and calls you a cocksucker, I want you to be nice. Ask him to walk. Be nice. If he won't walk, walk him. But be nice. If you can't walk him, one of the others will help you, and you'll both be nice.

I want you to be nice until it's time to not be nice."