Kensington unveils Battery Pack and Charger for iPhone / iPod

Sure, there are already a handful of options out there for extending the life of your iPhone / iPod battery, but since when have we been ones to gripe about a little competition? Kensington has just introduced a standard and miniature version of its Battery Pack and Charger for iPhone / iPod, which unsurprisingly provides juice to your device's internal battery and can be recharged simultaneously. As you could likely guess, the only differences between the two contraptions are the size, price and battery life; the 0.22-pound standard model extends play time to up to 100 hours (music) / 6 hours (talk), while the even tinier mini version livens things up for another 30 hours (music) / 3 hours (talk). Each is available now for $69.99 / $49.99.

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How to Do a Fake iPhone 2 In Five Easy Steps

A Quick and dirty tutorial to create your very own fake version of the Iphone 2
It's Do your Fake iPhone 2 Leaked Photos Season, and everyone is trying to trick everyone else with crappy, noisy, allegedly-leaked images. But why read about stupid rumors when you can make your own—and even send them to our contest? "How" you ask? Easy, just follow the easy 5-step tutorial after the jump, and get some inspiration from some examples I've made just for you (warning, my dog's genitals may be NSFW in the Great State of Minnesota).

More and further information via Gizmodo

Leaked AT&T memo points to 3G iPhone release in late June?

A friendly neighborhood AT&T employee forwarded us a purported memo for AT&T retail store employees that could provide a rather telling clue about the next-gen iPhone's release date this summer if it proves true. A similar memo went out last year around this time requesting that employees not take any vacations between June 15 and July 15, and this year those dates are June 15 and July 12 -- which seems suspiciously early, but that's what the man says. The memo cites "an exciting Summer Promotional Launch," which we're guessing doesn't refer to some new Motorola flip phone. Also telling is the fact that employees might be able to take some vacations later within that window when things die down a bit, which seems to imply that Apple could be aiming for a launch date right around the iPhone's one year anniversary of June 29th. How romantic.

• via Engadget

Vodafone releasing iPhone in Australia, Italy, India, and seven other countries

Vodafone's just got a tiny, minor, insignificant announcement to make this morning: it's signed with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten markets, including Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy (so much for Telecom Italia), India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. Expect the phone later this year -- that's all we know for now. Score one (or ten?) for Voda.

More from Vodafone

AP launches iPhone-targeted news service

It’s like a newspaper in your phone. I like the idea of location-targeted news from the Associated Press coming straight to my iPhone (and probably iPod Touch); it’s like the local page from your newspaper, but without the cow-tipping updates.

A lot of the big news corporations are on board, which means you won’t be getting locked out of good local content. There will, of course, be ads, but you’ve got those in real 3D newspapers too. They say they’ll be launching a service “Monday,” and today is Monday, so go check.

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Alleged 3G iPhone Looks Like Le Fake, Le Merde

Some frogsters* with no track record are claiming that this piece of scratched plastic—which in the photo looks like a cheapo LG cellphone clone wannabe—is the new iPhone 3G. Although it matches the rumored all-black and specs, we don't believe it's the real thing. The reason: these photos have been up since 12:04AM Central European Time and it's now 4:04PM. That's 16 hours up with no Cease and Desist order—and Apple Europe is as aggressive with leaks as Cupertino. In any case, check its back and tell us what you think after the jump.

Read More via Gizmodo

2 new conflicting iPhone reports support “multiple iPhone models” rumor

What are your thoughts? Will Apple create multiple iPhones tailored for different users, just as they have for the iPod and MacBook lines?

more and info via Maceinstein

AT&T WiFi hotspots free to iPhone owners, anyone with a brain

by Joshua TopolskNow that AT&T has full control of wireless hotspots like Starbucks and Barnes and Nobles, it looks like they're doling out freebies to their favorite customers: iPhone users. Apparently, if you've got one of Apple's devices, you can hop on the WiFi networks for exactly zero dollars provided you enter your phone number at a login screen. Great for iPhone owners, but a raw deal for everyone else, right? Not so fast, apparently a dumb hack gets you the service on the house too -- just switch your browser's user agent to Mobile Safari, and presto! Free internet. We can't imagine this is a hole that won't get plugged real fast, so get it while the gettin's good.

[Via TUAW]

• Read - AT&T Providing Free Wi-Fi Access to iPhone Users
• Read - Hotspot hack

iPhone on the farm

Yeah, we too are hoping that these overseas impostors will have to start changing up their game if they still want to ape the iPhone in just a few months, but as it stands, the Toggolino Phone actually does a fantastic job of shaming itself. Apparently this handset, er, device comes packaged with some form of German kit meant to teach kinder a few things about words, animals and the equitable distribution of wealth throughout social classes. Okay, so maybe that last bit isn't in there, but seriously, those animal apps look way more interesting than stocks, weather and company email.

Read

• via Engadget
  

AT&T's 3G iPhone Is $199 This Summer

According to Fortune, AT&T's going to further subsidize the iPhone down as much as $200, making the final retail price a scant $199 with two-year-contract. The rumor is that the $200 bonus will only be available in AT&T stores, not in Apple stores, so people buying and exporting or using it with T-Mobile will be paying the higher price. Current first-gen iPhone users probably won't get this $200 subsidy when upgrading either, unless perhaps they renew for another 2 years.

More via Gizmodo »

Video: iSwish puts the iPhone UI on any Windows Mobile phone

While you can argue that Windows Mobile is feature-for-feature and spec-for-spec superior to OS X on the iPhone, Apple's mobile UI is certainly more fun to use. So if you're running WinMo with a hankerin' for rubber band-like scrolling, jiggly icons, screen flicking, SummerBoard themes, and even simulated multi-touch pinching of photos then you're in luck. Flick Software Research is set to release its iSwish interface and iZoom pinch software in beta come "early May." Hey Flick, here's a hint: Dell Axim != sexy demo hardware... or maybe that's the point. See the action after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Video: iSwish puts the iPhone UI on any Windows Mobile phone

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• via Engadget
  

Colorware's Matte Black iPhone Fools Friends, Bloggers

It's not the 3G iPhone, but Colorware's Stealth iPhone trades in the silver trim and brushed metal back for an entirely matte black motif. It's also extraordinarily expensive, weighing in at $675 and $775 to the stock model's $399 and $499. Colorware does throw in a matte black iPhone dock and pair of earbuds, but even that probably doesn't justify the increased cost. Then again, some people really love black.

[@Colorware]

iPhone excels in US customer satisfaction

Apple's iPhone customers are happy punters, US survey reveals

Jonny Evans

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Alongside climbing sales, the iPhone is achieving record levels of customer satisfaction, new research reveals.

A mobile phone customer survey conducted by ChangeWave Research earlier this month shows the iPhone now leads the pack in terms of customer satisfaction among its US customer base.

An unprecedented 82 per cent of iPhone owners reported being Very Satisfied with their purchase, up five points since the previous survey in July and by far the highest rating of any mobile manufacturer.

The researchers spoke with 3,645 mobile phone users who confirmed the impact of Apple's must-have device is being felt across the industry. iPhone market share climbed to 2 per cent (from 1 per cent in July), the research reveals.

And while Motorola remains the leading mobile phone manufacturer with 30 per cent of the US market, its dominance fell one point form 31 per cent in the previous survey - suggesting that its Motorola which is most keenly feeling iPhone's competitive pinch.

Motorola (33 per cent) was next to last among mobile manufacturers in customer satisfaction, with Sony/Ericsson (31 per cent) at rock bottom.

Apple seems firmly set on an upward trajectory in the months ahead - the research found 16 per cent of respondents who plan to purchase a phone in the next six months saying they'll buy an iPhone - placing Apple up at the top among all manufacturers.

"There's no longer any doubt about the staying power of the iPhone," said Tobin Smith, founder of ChangeWave Research, who added, "The continuing embrace of the iPhone by the public is a stellar example of how a new product can forever alter its own playing field."

In related news, AT&T continues to attract new customers, gaining one point of market share to take 29 per cent of the US market, closely on the tail of the dominant US network, Verizon. This is the third consecutive quarter of market share growth for At&T.

Steve Jobs in a Box

It’s a stunning box, a wizard object with a passel of amazing features (It’s a phone! An iPod! A Web browser!). But for all its marvels, the iPhone inaugurates a dangerous new era for Jobs. Has he peaked?

• By John Heilemann

Illustration by Default (Photo: Harald Franzen/Zuma Press)

He saunters out onstage, and the first thing you think is, man, Steve Jobs looks old. The second thing you think is, no, not old: He finally looks his age. Well into his forties, Jobs appeared to have pulled off some kind of unholy Dorian Gray maneuver. But now, at 52, his hair is seriously thinning, his frame frail-seeming, his gait halting and labored. His striking facial features—the aquiline nose, the razor-gash dimples—are speckled with ash-gray stubble. A caricaturist would draw him as a hybrid of Andre Agassi and Salman Rushdie. The senescence on display is jarring, but it’s also fitting. After three decades as Silicon Valley’s regnant enfant terrible, Jobs has suddenly, improbably, morphed into its presiding éminence grise.

The stage in question is at the Four Seasons in Carlsbad, California, where Jobs has come this afternoon in May for The Wall Street Journal conference “D: All Things Digital.” Dressed in his customary uniform—black mock turtleneck, faded 501s, running shoes—Jobs sits across from Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg, who commences with a simple question: Having recently changed its named from Apple Computer to Apple Inc., exactly what business is the company in?

“We’ll very shortly be in three businesses and a hobby,” Jobs replies, projecting the mildest affect he can muster—yet still the crowd is goggle-eyed, as if Bono were in the house.

The cliché of Jobs as rock star is, of course, hoary to the point of enfeeblement. From the start of his career—which is to say, for his entire adult life—he has radiated a mesmeric presence, his “reality-distortion field.” But as Jobs makes clear today, Apple’s reality is no longer in need of much distortion. On the back of the first two businesses he names, the Mac and the iPod-iTunes tandem, Apple racked up $21.6 billion in sales in the last twelve months, and $2.8 billion in profits. Its stock price has doubled in the past year; last month, AAPL was named to the S&P 100, making it a bona fide blue chip. With what Jobs dubs a “hobby,” Apple TV, the company has invaded the sanctum sanctorum of living-room entertainment. Then there’s that third, impending business, which revolves around a gorgeous sliver of palmtop gee-whizzery that you may have heard about: the iPhone.

Ten years ago, when Jobs retook the reins at Apple, the suggestion that the company would be where it is today would have seemed a fantasy—or a joke. Apple was bleeding cash, bleeding talent, bleeding credibility. Its laptops were literally bursting into flames. Its war with Microsoft had devolved into a self-lacerating pathology. Today the Mac is, albeit slowly, gaining ground on Windows. And the iPod, which in less than six years has sold north of 100 million units, has Microsoft choking on its dust.

Mossberg notes this astonishing achievement and inquires of Jobs how many copies of iTunes software are in circulation. At least 300 million, Jobs answers, prompting Mossberg to follow up: “Does the scale of this surprise you?”

Nodding sagely, Jobs responds, “The scale of a lot of things we’re doing surprises me.”

The Steve Jobs story is one of the classic narratives—maybe the classic narrative—of American business life. Its structure has been rigorous, traditional, and symmetrical: three acts of ten years each. Act One (1975–1985) is “The Rise,” in which Jobs goes into business with his pal, Steve Wozniak; starts Apple in his parents’ Silicon Valley garage; essentially invents the personal-computer industry with the Apple II; takes Apple public, making himself a multimillionaire at age 25; and changes the face of technology with the Macintosh. Act Two (1985–1996) is “The Fall”: the expulsion from Apple, the wilderness years battling depression and struggling to keep afloat two floundering new businesses, NeXT and Pixar. Act Three (1997–2007) is “The Resurrection”: the return to Apple and its restoration, the efflorescence of Pixar and its sale to Disney, the megabillionairehood, the sanctification as god of design and seer of the digital-media future.

The consistent thread running through all three acts is Jobs’s singular persona. His messianism has been present from the start: “He always believed,” says Wozniak, “he was going to be a leader of mankind.” Yet the most common descriptor applied to him, by friends and foes and even Jobs himself, is “asshole.” (Running neck-and-neck for second are “genius” and “sociopath.”) His abrasiveness is legendary and omnidirectional. Asked by a writer from Wired, “If you could go back and give advice to your 25-year-old self, what would you say?,” Jobs erupted, “Not to deal with stupid interviews—I have no time for this philosophical bullshit!” Given an early glimpse of the Segway high-tech people-mover, he bellowed, “I think it sucks,” then later called the company’s founder, trashed his CEO as a “butthead,” and said his marketing chief “should be selling Kleenex at a discount store in Idaho.” Implored by the government to take part in the federal antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, he snapped at the United States assistant attorney general, Joel Klein, “Are you going to do something serious? Or is it going to be dickless?”