Earlier this week, Apple released a firmware upgrade for the iPhone (and the iPod Touch) that allows you to set any web page as a “Web Clip” (basically, a shortcut icon) on your phone’s start screen.When you do this however, the default image it uses is just a thumbnail of your homepage – which, to be honest, is kind of boring.

Thankfully, Apple has allowed web publishers to create their own custom icons. And it’s easy to do – fire up your image editing program and create a new document that is 57 x 57 pixels. Once you’ve finished your design, save the image as a PNG and title it “apple-touch-icon.png” (no quotes). Then just upload it to the root folder of your web site. Safari will now choose your icon instead.

I decided to do this for FOREM. Here’s what I came up with:

iPhone users, if you want to see it on your phone – hit this site in Safari and the tap the ‘+’ button to add FOREM to your start screen.

Look how much better it looks than some of the other sites I bookmarked…

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With my new iPhone firmly planted in my pocket wherever I go now, I’m fully convinced the long term impact of this product should not be underestimated (and yes, I’m painfully aware of all its shortcomings).

1000watt Blog has this to say:

Mark my words, one day, people will be in their cycle class surfing homes for sale on their iPhone and texting their agent. Or not. It’s up to you to create your future. Starting today, brokers, make sure your development team makes every corner your web presence Safari compatible. From agent sites right up to the corporate site.

It reminded me of what I wrote earlier this year, in my post House Hunting On The Go:

House hunting seems to me to be an inherently mobile activity but as yet all of the house hunting options we have require you to root yourself in front of the computer.

Despite its hefty pricetag, the iPhone is going to take smartphones to the streets. lf the line waiting inside my Apple Store for an 8gig iPhone was any indication (retirees, big-haired women, suburban soccer moms, even kids!) this gadget is going to be in a lot of people’s pockets.

While none of what it offers is new (my BlackJack can and did do more, with faster Internet speeds to boot), the iPhone just does it slicker. It does what Apple has always done, package up existing technologies and make them appealing and easy to use for the masses.

Realtors are going to love this thing. But more importantly, the average Joe is going to love this thing. And for that reason more than any other, the iPhone could be what really kickstarts mobile real estate.

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