Earlier today, Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone had a tremendous change of rules.

As almost everybody knows, the iPhone is under contract with Cingular (”The New AT&T”) for about two years, where only AT&T (T) will have rights to sell phone service for the device. For many prospective consumers, Apple’s decision to have a singular provider of service was a slap in the face. The very American idea of enabling phones for one company was supported by one of the least likely companies.

Immediately after this news came about, Apple and iPhone junkies began making attempts to “hack” the phone to enable multiple carriers. Now, the brilliance of a 17-year-old has prompted a worldwide commotion. He has actually uncovered the ability to unlock the phone, at least for one other carrier. The new hacked iPhones can now run on the T-Mobile wireless network.

The hack clearly removes AT&T’s grasp upon the iPhone and should be taken into account for future earnings. Unless, Apple updates the iPhone and removes the ability to hack the phone with the current method employed. No details about the plausibility of a patch/update to fix this hack has been mentioned, so prospective buyers should have no reason to stand back and wait any further.

Apple and AAPL should become quite bullish in the next couple of weeks as more details are released about the phone hack. If investors bought stock at the lowest levels, they’ll be in for a nice return in only a short while.

Disclosure: Long Apple (AAPL) and AT&T (T).

As the minutes counted down to the iPhone release, all that could be heard was the yelling and utter excitement of plopping down $600 plus monthly service fees for a phone on steroids. The cult has no concern for overbought conditions (for better and for worse). Message boards and rumor sites alike, battle back and forth over the stock price and latest announcements. Both sides, shorts and longs, both accusing each other of being pumpers and dumpers and paid pushers. All this over a company that barely survived the tech boom.

Apple (AAPL) was reinvented by the invention of the iPod and there is no consumer, company, or investor that can disagree with that. Hundreds of millions of iPods have been sold, not to mention some one million iPhones have been sold in under two weeks. As the days roll by, and the Apple investor crowd slowly transitions from iPhone rumors and thoughts to what catalysts are left for Apple, many investors may be in for an interesting surprise.

At MarketMatador.com, readers have long known about the excitement and ever-expanding possibilities surrounding Apple, but few have followed the advice. A long-time reader of the site sent us a message kicking himself in the head for missing Apple’s big move to $125 from $100. All we can say is, Apple’s not done yet. Earnings estimates and current analyst sentiment is pointing to marked increases in revenue and earnings, but many estimates aren’t accurately taking into effect the power that the iPhone will have on earnings.

It’s interesting that until just yesterday, many of the bigger stock and finance blogs had yet to cover Apple. At TheBullTrader.com, Steve Abraham just explained many of the issues at hand. Steve believes Apple should earn over $4 per share in earnings, while most analysts are stuck at a $3.75 earnings estimate. Among the post are some suggestions that investors could hear about a stock split in the next quarter’s earnings report on July 25th.

Apple has been on a non-stop rally since announcing exceptional earnings results and the attention grabbing iPhone. Now is the time to look further down the road for Apple’s stock and see that the bullish story isn’t quite over. The next two to three earnings results should be especially strong and the continued optimism around the ongoing revenue received from AT&T (T) wireless plans (AT&T agreed to share revenue made from the iPhones wireless plans with Apple) should only add to Apple’s market cap.

Disclosure: Long AT&T (T) and Apple (AAPL).

On today’s episode of Mad Money with Jim Cramer, Jim recommended selling out of all but a quarter of positions in Apple (AAPL). Unfortunately for Jim, he may have completely missed the boat on this one, because AAPL is headed much higher.

“I do believe the stock will get its head handed to it the day that the stuff gets out.” (SOURCE)

The comment was in response to a question posed by a watcher of Mad Money, and Cramer made it quite clear that he believed AAPL would hit a top, at least in the short-term, after the iPhone is released. In reality, the release of the new iPhone should just be the start of the Apple Inc. revolution. Here are some key dates that all investors and consumers should know.

The Wall Street Journal will host the “D: All Things Digital” conference starting the 29th through the 31st of May. Inside the conference will be a historic joint appearance with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs,which is being tauted as the highlight for the entire event. The Gates/Jobs event will take place on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007.

Next up is the WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference), which runs between June 11th and 15th. One the first day of the event, Steve Jobs will be expected to deliver the traditional keynote address and beta test copies of Apple’s new operating system, OSX Leopard. Also, rumors are beginning to emerge about a possible update to the Apple line of MacBook Pros.

Last, but certainly not least, is the event that consumers and investors have been waiting quite some time for, the release of the all-new Apple iPhone. The closest estimate to the release of the iPhone is slated towards a late-June release. Rumors about a possible WWDC release of the iPhone have also made sense, but here’s a look at a few key dates for the possible release of the phone:

• iPhone Training (AT&T (T) and Apple employees will be highly trained and knowledgeable about the release): May 30-June 20th
• AT&T Vacation Blockout dates (employees have been asked to refrain from going on vacation due to estimated large customer service call volumes): June 15-July 15th
• Confidentiality on FCC Documents (user manual, photos) expires June 30th

All these details lead to only one conclusion, a bullish scenario for Apple’s stock, potentialy well into the Summer season. Looking further into the future, Apple’s stock should have an enormous rally surrounded by the Christmas buying season, which may ultimately be highly dependent on the initial reviews of the iPhone. Jim Cramer may often have his wits about him when stock picking, but this semi-bearish sentiment sounds just plain wrong.

Disclosure: Long Apple Inc. (AAPL) and AT&T (T).

Update: Apple revealed today that they will be introducing a 160GB Apple TV for $399. Apple TV is slated to have YouTube by mid-June as well.

Earnings for Apple Inc. (AAPL) are do in after the bell today. Estimates are coming in at around $0.64 per share. Nervousness around this 2nd quarter has been because of some speculation that this quarter could be significantly worse than expected due to the delay of Leopard. Fortunately for investors, this most recent quarter isn’t the be all and end all.

• 1 million + people on waiting list for iPhone
• An estimate of up to $30 billion added to market cap related to iPhone
  and
• The future release of Leopard greatly increasing hardware sales

On a side note, AT&T (T) has been projected to get up to 60%+ new customers because of Cingular (The New AT&T) being the sole wireless provider.

Disclosure: Long Apple Inc. (AAPL) and AT&T (T)