Summer Crave: The iPhone.

Photo: Courtesy of Apple

If you've been living under a rock for, say, the last six months, you already know that Apple's much anticipated foray into the cell phone market, officially launches today at 6pm. The Apple marketing maelstrom has reached category 5 force and folks are lining up at Apple and AT&T stores around the country in a frenzy to be the first on their block to get their hands on the phone that promises to change the way you use your mobile phone.

Apple's iPhone offers faulous features like a touch screen interface, a built-in iPod, Google Maps, a real web browser (instead of those crappy ones that relegate your mobile browsing experience to the equivalent of DOS), and my favorite...visual voicemail. If you don't know visual voicemail, imagine not having to sit through 4 or 5 messages to listen to the one you want to hear. You just choose the message that you want to hear and Presto! It starts playing.

It goes without saying that this phone is the Summer Crave. In fact, I will personally crave the phone until it becomes available on other networks (hopefully it will have any first-generation bugs worked out by then). For the first two years (rumor has it. don't quote me), only AT&T mobile customers can use the phone.

The pricing plans are quite affordable, though the iPhone's price tag is not so friendly ($499 for 4GB model and $599 for 8GB). According to Apple's website:

"Individual plans are priced at $59.99 for 450 minutes, $79.99 for 900 minutes and $99.99 for 1,350 minutes. All plans include unlimited data (email and web), Visual Voicemail, 200 SMS text messages, roll over minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile and a one-time activation fee of $36."

Apple iPhone, $499 for 4GB, $599 for 8GB.

For more information, visit Apple.com and watch Engadget for news updates.