Apple's listed a few things to have at hand when heading in to purchase and activate one of these smartphones:

Should you already own an iPhone, sync it with iTunes one last time before you get a iPhone 3G. This will back up all the data on your original iPhone. That way your info will be saved and ready for when you link your new iPhone to your PC or Maqc for the first time.

Unlike with iPhone 1.0, you can't activate the new model through iTunes in the comfort of your home, unforunately. Activation must occur in the store. There's been some concern that this would create long waits in line.

According to reports, however, the whole iPhone 3G activation process should take only between 10 and 15 mintues. Not the swift five-minute in-and-out of the store of last year, but still pretty reasonable.

Apple's plans to accomidate more than two-dozen people at time, according company retail head Ron Johnson. Speaking with Bloomberg.com, Johnson said "Apple stores will handle about 30 customers at a time. While the company will make sure the activation process is quick."

Here are some additional recommendations from Apple on what you can do to organize your content in preperation for a new iPhone:

Contacts: iPhone syncs with the address book you already use on your computer — Address Book or Entourage on a Mac, or Outlook or Outlook Express on a PC. If you keep your contacts on the web using Yahoo! Address Book or Google Contacts, iPhone syncs with them, too. To get ready for iPhone, organize your contacts in one of these applications and make sure they’re up to date with the latest phone numbers and email addresses. If you don’t have contacts on your computer, you can enter them directly into iPhone.

Calendars: iPhone uses iTunes to sync with the calendar application you already use on your computer — iCal or Entourage on the Mac, or Outlook on a PC — just as it does with your contacts. If you don’t already use one of these applications to manage your appointments, now is a great time to start, so you’ll be ready to sync when your iPhone arrives. If you choose not to use a calendar program, that’s OK. You’ll be able to enter appointments directly into the iPhone calendar.

E-Mail:iPhone works with the most popular email systems — including Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, AOL, and MobileMe. iTunes makes email setup on iPhone easy by automatically syncing the settings from email accounts stored in Mail on a Mac or Outlook on a PC. Don’t worry if you’re not using one of these email services: iPhone also works with almost any industry-standard POP3 or IMAP email system.

Photos: iPhone uses iTunes to sync your photos from iPhoto on a Mac or Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Photoshop Album, or any picture folder on a PC. You can carry thousands of photos on iPhone, but you can start by creating an album or two with 50 to 100 of your favorite photos, so that when you first sync your iPhone, you can show off your best shots.

Music & Video: If you already use iTunes, try creating a playlist of a few hundred of your favorite songs. If you don’t have the latest version of iTunes, download it now and start a music and video library. That way, when you sync your iPhone with iTunes, you’ll be able to take your favorite music — as well as a few of your TV shows and movies — with you wherever you go.

iTunes Account: To set up your iPhone, you’ll need an account with Apple’s iTunes Store. If you already have an iTunes account, make sure you know your account name and password. If you don’t have an account, set one up now to save time later. To set up an account, open iTunes, select the iTunes Store, and click the Sign In button in the upper-right corner. iTunes will walk you through the rest.