During his keynote speech at Apple’s World Wide Developer (WWDC) conference held earlier this month, CEO Steve Jobs dropped a “one more thing” bombshell. The company would provide a way for third-party developers to create applications for the iPhone — not by giving access to the device’s operating system, but instead through the web. Since the iPhone runs a full web browser, Jobs said that developers would be able to build web-based applications that, with Apple’s help, would look and feel just like regular apps. This was met with disappointment among the audience gathered at the Moscone center and developers around the globe.

However, ten days later, and we’ve already seen plenty of developer activity, with a number of prototype web apps being built which are designed specifically to fit the iPhone’s screen, and utilize (as much as possible) the device’s multi-touch interface. I’m calling these applications prototypes because most people have yet to get their hands on an iPhone, and only those developers who paid the entrance fee to WWDC have been privy to guidelines on what is and what isn’t possible.

Whenever Apple CEO Steve Jobs talks about the company’s soon-to-be released iPhone, you can guarantee he’ll mention the device’s Internet capabilities. Like a doting father he boasts, this isn’t the “baby” web, this is the real thing — never seen before on a mobile phone. From the very first time Jobs made such a claim, I felt (in fact I knew) he was being disingenuous. Nokia’s Series 60-based handsets run a full web browser based on Apple’s own WebKit source code — something which Jobs would be well aware of. However, one thing the iPhone can claim to be doing is raising the bar of what consumers can expect from the mobile web — after years of industry hype and bitter disappointment.

Enter Opera’s new version of its mobile web browser: Opera Mini version 4. The upgraded software (currently in Beta) brings in a whole host of features which will naturally bring about comparisons to the iPhone’s browser.

With any other mobile phone manufacturer or model, an increase in battery life prior to release — however slow a news day — just wouldn’t be news. But this is Apple’s iPhone, one of the most anticipated new products in the mobile space we’ve ever seen — and certainly the most hyped.

In what veteran Mac journalist, Jason O’Grady, calls the company’s “under-promise and over-deliver philosophy“, Apple stated in a press release today that when the iPhone hits stores in just under two weeks time, it will have an increased battery life (up to 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback or 24 hours of audio playback) and a more scratch-resistant screen than was originally announced.

CEO Steve Jobs is quoted as saying:

“… iPhone’s battery life is longer than any other ‘Smartphone’ and even longer than most MP3 players… We’ve also upgraded iPhone’s entire top surface from plastic to optical-quality glass for superior scratch resistance and clarity. There has never been a phone like iPhone, and we can’t wait to get this truly magical product into the hands of customers starting just 11 days from today.”

Did Jobs just liken the iPhone to magic?

Remember it was science-fiction author, Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Only 11 more days. Let the hype machine continue…

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