Apple was very clear when it announced that iPhone OS 3.0 would be released on June 17, but the company didn't say what time the iPhone and iPod touch update would show up in iTunes. Hopes that the update would hit at at 12:01 AM on Wednesday led to disappointment and ultimately concern when rumors surfaced that Apple was delaying the release by a day.

The rumor that iPhone OS 3.0 release was being delayed until June 18 turned out to be nothing more than a misunderstanding stemming from time zone differences. The time zone difference problem stemmed from the fact that Apple's Singapore Web site listed June 18 as the launch date, leading many to assume that Apple chose to delay the update even though the company's U.S. Web site still touted the June 17 release date.

The saddest thing an iPhone owner could see at midnight.

Some news organizations ran late night stories about the delay and later corrected their articles to show that the software release is still on schedule. Twitter was an iPhone OS rumor hotbed, too, with overnight trending topics that included "OS 3," "iPhone," "Apple," and "Arrives Today."

iPhone OS 2.0 hit the Internet at 8AM eastern when it was released, so if Apple follows the same time schedule this year, iPhone and iPod touch owners could potentially start their updates some time this morning. The company didn't however, commit to a time of day, so we may be left to wait for the update until the evening.

iPhone and iPod touch users have been impatiently waiting for the software update for months. The update will include support for copy and paste, system-wide Spotlight searches, system-wide landscape keyboards, push notifications, Find My iPhone, voice memos, note syncing, and more.

For information on preparing for the update, check out TMO's iPhone OS 3.0 Upgrade Guide.