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A lot of speculation was dished out leading up to the launch of the latest iteration of the iPhone, and plenty more has followed since it has started landing in the hands of early adopters. I was one of the lucky few that managed to secure a pre-ordered phone, but wasn't able to get it shipped to my home. Instead, I woke up and the crack of dawn and stood in line for several hours to get my iPhone 4 - meeting several great people during the process. Since having time to play and experiment over the weekend, I've been surprised by several things - good and bad, big and small - about the phone and the new OS.

This morning, much of the tech world stood still as Steve Jobs delivered his keynote address at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, introducing the next-generation iPhone. As usual with a "Jobsnote," Steve took some time to let the audience know where the company stood with a few back-patting statistics. Jobs said the iPad has added 8,500 native apps since launching two months ago - a growth rate nearly three times that of the iPhone and iPod Touch two months after the launch of the AppStore in 2008.

On Saturday Apple let the public get their hands on their newest creation, the iPad, setting off a flood of hype and media coverage which has likely yet to reach its peak. Yes, this is yet another post about the iPad, and my apologies go to those who are tired of being choked by the frenzy of stories surrounding the iPad launch, but a few things I learned from this weekend might come in handy for undecided developers.

After a surprisingly short wait in line at our local Apple Store, where about 100 people lined up for their reserved iPads - and another 100 who didn't have a reservations - we finally took possession of our very own Apple tablet. We will take a closer look at all the apps, hardware and iPad-optimized web sites over the course of the next few days, but here are our first impressions after spending some quality time with the iPad.

Later this month, iPhone and iPod application developers can expect to see sales drastically increase by as much as 300 or 400 percent over the course of a couple days.

They'll also be unable to change their applications, change marketing materials or download sales reports during much of this time. iTunes Connect, the interface that allows developers to manage all their applications in the App Store, will be unavailable from December 23 - December 28, 2009.

European music service Spotify is one of the most highly anticipated applications coming to the U.S. The service, best described as a streaming music version of iTunes, consists of both desktop software as well as complementary mobile applications for Apple's iPhone and the Google Android platform. Already, the service is wildly popular overseas in its current markets which include the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Spain, Norway and Finland where it has accumulated over 5 million users. There, the company offers two versions of its service - a free application and a premium, ad-free subscription version.

According to recent reports, however, Spotify may do things a little differently when it reaches the States. Says Andres Sehr, Spotify's global community manager, the company is considering going the "freemium" route for the U.S. market.

When Radiohead keyboardist / guitarist Jonny Greenwood shrugs off the issue of audio fidelity, indie musicians should take note. Given that Radiohead is perhaps one of the biggest proponents of alternative music monetization, it's ironic that Greenwood is discrediting one of the industry's key price differentiators. Musicians with tracks on iTunes, Amazon and DIY stores like Bandcamp have often chosen to price MP3s at lower rates while higher quality recordings have fetched more per track. In a recent article with The New Yorker's Sasha Frere-Jones, Greenwood admits there is little reason for the MP3 generation to look for a higher quality experience.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has the Midas touch. In anticipation of the company's US launch, the on-demand music streaming site is finalizing what is rumored to be a $50 million dollar round of investments. According to the Financial Times, if Spotify closes the round with Wellington Partners and Li Ka Shing Foundation, the Swedish company will be valued at $250 million dollars.

It looks like live streaming could be coming to a future generation of the iPhone and/or iPod devices. We've just come across this IETF submission containing Apple's spec for HTTP Live Streaming which describes a protocol for transmitting unbounded streams of multimedia over HTTP. According to the document, the protocol supports encryption of the media and the provision of alternate versions of the stream. The media data can also be transmitted after it's created, allowing it to be received in near real-time.

Could this mean live streaming is coming to our iPhones?

"The future of 'networked warfare' requires each soldier to be linked electronically to other troops as well as to weapons systems and intelligence sources," says a new report in Newsweek, and the product of choice appears to be the iPod Touch.

According to Newsweek, both the iPod Touch and to a lesser degree the iPhone are increasingly being used by the U.S. military because of their versatility, ease of use and comparative low cost.