After a global launch that saw the iPhone 4 land in Japan, Germany, France, and the U.K., U.S. customers had their chance to get their hands on Apple’s newest smartphone Thursday morning. And, despite early shipment to some customers and limited iPhone supplies, the crowds still turned up at Apple Stores across the country for the iPhone 4′s official release.

In New York, hundred lined up outside of the flagship Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, with the line stretching for blocks amid a festive atmosphere. But that same scene played out at other Apple Stores as well. In Farmington, Conn., the lines outside the Westfarms Apple Store stretched halfway down the mall where the store is located. According to General Manager Kevin Keenan, as of 7 a.m. local time “over 500 people” had lined up to purchase Apple’s newest iPhone. Surprisingly, both reserved and standby lines were equally long, curving and twisting around the mall’s second floor.

Jerod Dikeman and Bill Brookshire, a pair of friends from Torrington, Conn., were the first in the reservation line-where they had been standing since 7 p.m. the night before. “Gotta be part of the party, right?” said Dikeman, gesturing to a series of Red Bull soda cans on the floor.

The pair didn’t bring sleeping bags, “just soda,” and slept for a combined total of 45 minutes while protecting their coveted position. “Not too bad, we made some friends,” Brookshire said, glancing back at the rest of the line with a smile.

That didn’t take long. Just one day after iOS 4 was officially released from Apple, the iPhone Dev-Team has already released a hack to jailbreak and unlock iPhones using the software.

There are a few important caveats with the latest release. PwnageTool 4.01 will work fine with an iPhone 3GS as long as it was previously jailbroken with the old boot ROM and you didn’t use the Spirit method. However, if your 3GS has the new boot ROM, you will not be able to use PwnageTool.

A previously jailbroken iPhone 3G should be fine with the new PwnageTool, as well, if you didn’t use Spirit.

The new hacks only support the official iOS 4 release and not the developer release issued at WWDC.

The Dev-Team said that currently the iPhone 2G, iPod Touch, and iPod Touch 3G are not supported by their software. They are working on ways to fix this for future releases.

Baseband unlockers–the method that allows you to use an iPhone on carriers other than AT&T–are reportedly working for all basebands from 04.26.08 and up. The unlockers currently support the iPhone 3G and 3GS.

That Bluetooth remote has landed at the FCC and is one-step closer to your living room. The remote is called the TiVo Slide QWERTY Bluetooth remote and has the familiar remote control shape. Flip the thing on its side like a smartphone and slide and a full QWERTY keyboard is revealed.

The keyboard looks to be decently sized and has a circle on the left for navigation and a number pad on the right. This thing should make searching for movies faster than having to use arrow keys alone. The remote sounds cool and right now, there still isn’t any word on when it will ship or what it will cost.

There’s also a 3-inch LCD display and the company’s True II image processor as found on the Sigma DP-series of cameras. A 77-segment AE sensor and AFE (Analog Front End) round out the main specs, and images are saved to SD card.

The Sigma SD15 will apparently arrive on June 25th 2010, but the price has risen in the intervening period. Having initially been expected to drop at €899 ($1,082), the SD15 now has an MRSP of €1,199 ($1,443).

The technology behind the MotoCzysz E1pc isn’t just the future for motorcycles, it’s the future of electric vehicles. When you have 10x the battery power of a Prius and 2.5x the torque of a Ducati it’s easy to see why.

Michael Czysz, the man behind the machine, has made the MotoCzysz E1pc so advanced that all the major parts of the E1pc—from its motor to its battery packs to even its aerodynamics—are all new and class leading. The battery, obviously key in any electric vehicle, is connected without wires and thus can be easily swapped out in seconds. The batteries are hand assembled by a company that develops for NASA and its electric motor runs at nearly 500 volts which is powerful enough to turn a wrench into a pile of molten metal. The motor, called “D1g1tal Dr1ve,” offers a nearly direct connection between the throttle and rear wheel, which allows it to be nastily fast.

How fast? During practice this week:

[The E1pc] reached a top speed of 140 MPH-besting its closest electric competitor’s 102 MPH. The E1pc also clocked a 94.6 MPH lap, tantalizingly close to the 100 MPH goal. Yes, it completed that lap. But that’s not the amazing thing; the E1pc ran that time while using, on average, less than 40 percent of its throttle and crossed the finish line with, according to Czysz, with “plenty in reserve.”

The MotoCzysz E1pc is set to race this week in the 37.7 mile of twists and turns that is the Isle of Man TT, a race that is designed to break motorcycles and its riders and if completed gives a motorcycle instant credibility. We’re not kidding, the Isle of Man TT is so tough that 227 people have died in its 91-race history.

But if all goes to plan, and hopefully it will, we’ll see no deaths at the race and instead witness the birth of the future of electric vehicles.