To continue our recent theme of iPhone related posts, I thought I’d comment about the iPhone availability. Recent reports have stated that the iPhone was sold out across most of the Apple and At&t stores .

If you are one of the few lucky individuals that plan to purchase an iPhone and still have some available at your local Apple store, be prepared to wait in line. Long lines.

Today, I ventured to the Apple Store in Tysons Corner Virginia to see if they had any iPhones left available.. And I was shocked to see a line of over 100 people waiting in front of the Apple store waiting for the phone. I didn’t expect that many people to be waiting in line in the middle of a Friday, but Apple store employees were helping invididuals in a few at a time to purchase and activate their iPhones.

So, while supplies are short at many Apple stores, it appears that the stores that still have an iPhone, have plenty of them to sell.
If you’d like to check to see if your local store has iPhone available to purchase, visit the Apple Availability site after 9pm to see what stock is available for the next day purchase. Additionally, it appears that new iPhones are being delivered almost every day.

Taking screenshots on the iPhone and iPod touch have gotten very very easy after the 2.0 software update.

To take a screenshot on your iPhone or iPod touch:

1. Hold Down the Home Button
2. Tap the power button on the top of your iPhone or iPod touch

You’ll know that the screenshot has been taken because the screen will flash all white. This works while watching video and doing almost everything else on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Once the screenshot has been taken you can access it in your Photo app. From here you can email it or send it via mobileme back to your other computers.

So, if you’d like to share with everyone you know how awesome it is to have the new iPhone and updated iPod touch then take those screenshots and send them everywhere.

I’m sure many of you have heard that Apple really struggled with their iPhone 2.0 launch. It seems like everyone had trouble getting their phones activated and their iPod touches updated to the latest version yesterday as their were issues with iTunes store server.

I personally felt like Apple was mocking me as periodically through the day iTunes would tell me that a new software version 2.0 was available to upgrade. But, as soon as I clicked upgrade it opened a window to tell me that 1.1.4 was the latest version.

Fortunately everything seems to be working again this morning. I’ve been able to update my iPod touch to the latest software version 2.0 and even sign up for a free 60 day trial of MobileMe.

Check back here soon for a review of both.

Although I have still yet to purchase an iPhone (I’m waiting until after the mass hesteria that will ensue Friday morning at Apple stores and AT&T outlines around the country) I thought it was interesting that the folks over at macrumors.com have discovered the location of the iPhone 2.0 firmware.

Yes, it is true, that you can download the iPhone 2.0 Firmware here:

iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw (download link).
According to the article at macrumors, the firmware is slightly higher than previous builds they’ve seen and will require a bit of attention while installing.  It appears, that for the install to function properly that all media on the iPhone will be erased.   Luckily, iTunes will allow you to back up all your media onto your Mac or PC before the installation.

Additionally, to install this firmware you must hold the Option key while pressing the “Check For Updates” in iTunes.

Head over to macrumors.com for more details.

The folks over at The Apple blog posted a few articles today about status on the iPhone. We’ve mentioned previously that AT&T has recommended use of the 3G network with the iPhone but now some details about the new phone coming soon come straight from Apple themselves.

First, the 3G iPhone preference is included in the Beta 5 Firmware for the iPhone. This is a feature that you can turn on or off and instructions list that using 3G will decrease battery life.

Second, the online Apple Store is currently listing that they are out of 8gb and 16gb iPhones. This usually means that Apple has stopped selling the current model as the new model is just around the corner.

With the developers conference still being a few weeks away, I find it hard to believe that Apple will just stop selling iPhones for most the month of May. Of course… they may just be waiting on the next shipment from their manufacturers.

Either way, I hope to see new 3G iPhones sooner rather than later.