Because it's actually a blogging requirement to write something about new Apple hardware when it's announced.

One of the more important features of the new iPhone may be the least-widely heralded by the tech punditry: it has a compass.

This matters not because now you'll always know which way is North with the iPhone, or even because you can make a quick-and-dirty metal detector with it. It matters because it finally opens up the iPhone to real augmented reality. In that august position, it joins the ranks of a handful of other smartphones, including (in particular) the Android G1 and the Nokia N97.

Of course, I say that about the Nokia N97 simply due to tech specs and early reviews, not because I have my hands on one. Just saying.