Every little detail about the iPhone is littering the headlines in news sites all over the web. My feed reader is probably sick of the word ‘iPhone’. I know a lot of people are, too. I suppose a lot of it has to do with iPhone unlocking and hacking, but that’s half the point. It’s such a hot item at the moment. All the cool kids have one.

If you had asked me six months ago whether I’ll be getting an iPhone, the answer would have been “probably not”. I was always interested in the device, but iffy with the touch screen. See, I have this thing about touch screens. It’s absolutely awesome technology…. BUT, only practical in instances where you’re constantly looking at the touch screen to interact with it. If you have to rely on a touch screen to change a music track, for example, its practicality goes downhill. What happens if its in your pocket, and you just want to feel for the buttons to change the track? No can do, you have to take the device out of your pocket, do the touch screen thing, and put it back again. Sure, over time you can learn where to touch the screen without looking, but this isn’t the most practical solution.

Anyway, regardless of my feelings about touch screen technology, my interest in the iPhone sort of crept up on me over time until I found myself - just a couple weeks ago - saying “Y’know, I really want one of those”, and then going wide-eyed, having surprised myself with my sudden outburst of consumerism. I’m not sure why I want one now and I didn’t then - perhaps it’s Apple’s always-clever marketing, perhaps the sheer amount of popularity that the iPhone seems to attract. Or perhaps it’s just that the iPhone is really, really nice.

I need to say here that whilst I love Apple products, I don’t view Apple as God, or Steve Jobs as my saviour, and I definitely do not think that Apple products are without their faults, as this person seems to think of the majority of Apple fans (I know more Apple haters than lovers, so I realise that these loud and obnoxious fanatics aren’t just relevant to Apple). But I do know a quality product when I see one, and Apple seem to have a lot of those.

So now with the release of the iPod Touch not too long ago, I face a dilemma, as many other people outside of the USA also do. Import the iPhone and risk it becoming a brick, purchase the iPod Touch while awaiting the iPhone’s release in Australia, or just wait until the iPhone is released in Australia and do without in the mean time (which requires a certain level of patience I’m unsure that I possess). Now is probably not the best time to import an iPhone, risk-wise. But it could also be argued that now is the time to import an iPhone due to the current exchange rate. There’s actually more Aussies importing iPhones than I first realised, and most of them are doing okay at avoiding any problems by being careful.

There’s also 3G to consider - future iPhones, perhaps even by the time they’re released in Australia, will be 3G capable. And then there’s the 16GB in the higher capacity iPod Touch vs the 8GB iPhones.

As for all this freakin’ iPhone hype - It just goes to show that Apple are doing something right. Love it or hate it, it’s better than having a ‘don’t care’ attitude. Any kind of passionate response is good for keeping the iPhone in the news headlines. And I don’t see it disappearing any time soon.