Resembling one of those mysterious black monoliths from 2001: A Space Odyssey, an iPhone has landed in the Lava Row office. And it is truly life-changing.

Believe the hype. (And for residents here in Iowa, ignore all those rumors about the iPhone not being available until 2009, or that AT&T’s wireless service won’t extend well to our state. I am excited to say that both are false.)

What’s great about the iPhone? Browsing the real Web with Safari. Painlessly putting together a conference call within seconds. Streaming YouTube content in full glory. Earbuds with a built-in mic. This list goes on and on. Finally, it’s now possible to deliver rich entertainment and information to a mobile device.

How can the iPhone improve? Unfortunately, the device is locked down, making it difficult for developers to build customized software applications on top of it. Apple should go open source with future versions. Not that that’s stopped anyone: Today on Salon, Farhad Manjoo posted a great article about hackers who have already cracked open the iPhone.