Perhaps one of the most anticipated phones ever, the long awaited Apple iPhone will finally be released on June 29th in the United States, much to the envy of us Bruneian fans, and perhaps everyone else outside the States.

The innovative fusion of a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod and a breakthrough Internet device has managed to woo mobile phone lovers and tech enthusiasts all around the world.

But what makes it so special? The music player, camera, Internet and email browser, and mobile phone are quite common in some of the modern, newly-released phones, so what makes this phone different from the rest?

Apple's ability to combine all these elements with many cool technological innovations and the company's distinctive beautiful design sense is what made the world buzz with excitement and enthusiasm.

Perhaps the most obvious feature of the phone is that there isn't a physical keyboard. The user interface relies heavily on a high-resolution touch screen which uses finger taps and gestures to navigate through the wide range of available services and applications.

The iPhone also boasts sensors that track light and movement and proximity, to prompt the phone to control screen brightness and other aspects of its operation. For example, when the phone is placed next to the user’s face, the touch screen is automatically turned off to avoid unnecessary taps.

The iPhone’s accelerometer detects when you rotate the device from portrait to landscape, and automatically changes the contents of the display, so you immediately see the entire width of a web page or a photo in its proper landscape aspect ratio.

An ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light, thereby enhancing the user experience and saving power at the same time.

With the modern world's ever-increasing need to connect to the Internet from anywhere and at any time, the iPhone boasts a rich HTML email client and Safari, which Apple claims to be the world's most advanced web browser ever on a mobile phone. The fully multitasking phone lets you read a web page while downloading your email in the background, over a Wi-Fi or EDGE connection.

Since it was first introduced in January, the iPhone has seen quite a significant amount of improvements. Perhaps the most important update announced so far is that the iPhone will feature up to 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback or 24 hours of audio playback. In addition, it will feature up to 250 hours (more than 10 days) of standby time. The 3.5-inch display has also been upgraded from plastic to optical-quality glass for superior clarity and scratch resistance.

As of today, Apple has just announced that users will be able to enjoy YouTube's originally-created content on their iPhones once its released. A new Apple-designed application will wirelessly stream YouTube content to the iPhone and play it on the 3.5 inch display.

As the world awaits the release of this exciting new product, we will just have to wait and see how much of a hit it really will be, especially in the Bruneian market. One thing's for sure, no matter how bad or good the previews are, people will still be camping and queueing up for it when it hits the US stores come June 29th.

The iPhone will be released in Asia in 2008, and there's no word on when it will hit our Bruneian shores. In the meantime, all we can do is enjoy, and drool over the ads..