The reason is this, tomorrow sees the beginning of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, or WWDC (Don’t ask us where the extra W came from). This conference brings some of the top developers in the world, as well as those just starting out, into one place for a few days of workshops, seminars, lunches, and I assume parties. But of recent years it has become a very important event for all Apple fans over the world. As the keynote that it opens with, normally pesented by Steve Jobs but opened this year by Phil Schiller, is the couple of hours where we get a first look at the ew Mac OS and… the brand new iPhone.

Now unless you have been hidden under a rock, inside a faraday cage, in the amazon rainforst; you will have probably heard one or two or 20 rumours about what people are expecting in the new iPhone. Video recording, front facing camera, magnometer (compass), repositioned speaker and headphone socket, camera button, video calling, matte/rubberised back, no more chrome frame, and coffee dispenser (I admit I made that one up myself); are all just a taster of what rumours are flying round the internet at this moment in time. There is even a rumoured name floating around: the iPhone Video.

As an iPhone fan, and owner, I am currently counting the hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds until the keynote starts (6pm GMT, Monday 8th June) so I can watch it online and drool over the iPhone if it is announced.

Now some of you are problably thinking “How can you be sure there will even be a new announcement?”, well there are a few clues:

1. Apple are very predictable when it comes to when they announce product refreshes, with Phil Schiller himself saying at Macworld in January that the iPhone’s refresh cycle is June/July each year
2. O2 has started to withdraw current iPhone 3G avertising here in the UK. Stores are replacing iPhone POS with adverts for the new O2 Joggler, where iPhone adverts have been for almost a year, national newspapers are no longer carrying the iPhone 3G ‘There’s an app for that’ advertising on the backs of some of their supplements, again replaced with the O2 Joggler.

This second point is the biggest hint. O2 have actively advertised the iPhone 3G since before it’s July 11th launch last year. With adverts in stores, newspapers, television, the internet. For them to start to retract some of these means that something must be happening in the world of the iPhone.

We will be taking photos and video throughout the two days we are at the event, as well as trying to secure some cool interviews with tech companies, and hopefully the presenters themselves. bitcolumns will also be bringing you the latest news and product information that we can get from the show floor, and presenting this on the site as soon as possible. Photos and audio will be uploaded at the end of each of the two days, with video being onto the site as soon as we can edit and compile it.

You may remember the distaster that happened with Stuff Live, pretty much nothing,. But I guarantee we have learnt from our mistakes and have made sure we have much lighter kit (easier to carry around and use) as well as computers and a room with internet access.

This video aims to explain the history and developments that led to our modern Internet, and we think it is pretty nifty.

“History of the Internet” is an animated documentary explaining the inventions from time-sharing to filesharing, from Arpanet to Internet.
The history is told using the PICOL icons on www.picol.org. You can already download a pre-release of all picol icons on http://blog.picol.org/pre-release-picol-icons

You can see the credits and more information on this movie on

http://www.lonja.de/motion/mo_history_internet.html