There are a lot of techies, Apple-owners and Apple wanna-be owners who are drooling over a certain small device coming out June 29. (This is despite some anxiety -- even from Apple execs -- that the device in question won't live up to all the hype.)

If you really want an iPhone but you aren't sure you have an extra $500 or more in your personal technology budget, Fast Company blogger Brian Reich is offering some tips and advice on how to get your company to buy one for you.

The blog post came out early this week, which is unfortunate because it would have helped me a lot on Friday afternoon. Note: Casually asking your boss about your department's technology budget is not a good way to start the conversation. (Sorry about that, Randy.)

On a more newspaper-related note, it will be interesting to watch how people use the iPhone. If it's really as sophisticated as Apple makes it sound and the adoption is as fast as the iPod, will we see a spike in mobile Internet use? And will that spur more newspaper companies to make their Web sites more mobile friendly? What about mobile and local search -- will that increase, too?

Or is this all just hype-prompted speculation that Apple is really bringing to market an industry changing device?  

Answers to come June 30.