The language might be dry but the subject matter is red-hot. That's the bureaucratic go-ahead for one of the year's hottest consumer releases, the Apple iPhone, which yesterday received the required certification from the Federal Communications Commission for sale to the public.

While the FCC's action was not a surprise, it is nonetheless a critical step on the road to Apple's participation in the burgeoning mobile phone market. FCC approval is required before a company can begin selling a device that uses the public airwaves.

Not surprisingly, Apple was delighted with the news. "The iPhone has passed its required FCC certification milestones and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned," Natalie Kerris, Director of Apple Music PR, said in a statement. "We can't wait until customers get their hands and fingers on it."

Features Under Wraps

As part of its filings with the FCC, Apple submitted a letter from Robert Steinfeld, the company's EMC & Wireless Compliance Manager, requesting that photographs of the iPhone and the user manual remain temporarily confidential.

"Although Apple has begun to market the device publicly," Steinfeld said, "these documents reveal technical and design information that has not been publicly disclosed in such marketing and that is protected by Apple as confidential and proprietary trade secrets."

However, a few features of the upcoming phone were mentioned by the documents the FCC made public. As indicated in the opening sentence, the phone will come equipped with both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. However, the FCC documents indicate that the phone will operate in the 850-MHz and 1,900-MHz bands for the U.S. markets; the documents do not mention that it will be a quad-band world phone, a capability that Apple has been promoting.

The filings did confirm the widely reported assumption that the phone will use the EDGE wireless data standard. That standard is already lagging behind more recently implemented wireless data transmission rates, including those of AT&T/Cingular, the iPhone's sole carrier.

Rebound from Rumors

Nonetheless, the FCC decision is helping Apple rebound from a rumor, first reported by the tech blog Engadget, that the release date for the iPhone was being pushed back until October. The original Engadget report sent Apple stock crashing on Wednesday to the (i)tune of $4 billion. The stock largely recovered later in the afternoon, after it was discovered that the e-mail was a hoax.

A subsequent (and legitimate) e-mail was issued by Apple: "You may have received what appeared to be a Bullet*News from Apple. This communication is fake and did not come from Apple. Apple is on track to ship iPhone in late June and Mac OS X Leopard in October."

In a lengthy post at the end of the day, Ryan Block, the Engadget contributor who posted the original report, explained the thinking behind the post and the steps that Engadget will take to prevent similar mistakes from happening.

"We have learned a very serious lesson yesterday," Block said. "We will work very hard to earn back the trust we have lost and to do our best to be what we have always strived to be: a trustworthy source for the latest on gadgets, consumer electronics, and personal technology."