Well, no big surprise, but more and more companies are confirming the 3G iPhone is coming in the next few months. Various telecom operators are stating they will be announcing the next generation of iPhone in the coming weeks. It also appears that Apple may be launching an Internet Tablet type device in June too. Apart from having a more powerful processor, the rumours are suggesting a 720×480 screen size, in a slightly larger form factor than the current iPhone.

Here’s an interesting snippet of information. Google have released an updated version of their iPhone version of their Google Reader, and it’s been noted that any device can access the URL, which is http://www.google.com/reader/i/. This version works well on both Symbian S60 smartphones, as well as the Nokia Internet Tablets, both of which seem to benefit from the additional effort Google has put into the user interface. It offers a better interface over the traditional mobile version by offering you easier access to each post. If you are a regular Google Reader user, and have never got on with the mobile version, then give this version a go…

According to Engadget, who have apparently seen an internal O2 memo, the iPhone 8Gb, which was recently made £100 cheaper, has now gone End of Life, and will not be stocked anymore. Whether this is simply a move by Apple towards higher capacity devices like the 16Gb version, or whether it’s in anticipation of the oft-rumoured 3G iPhone no one is quite sure, although we’re likely to find out in June…

An enterprising individual is looking to create a cheap GPS addon for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and is even looking at providing an Open Source software solution for accessing the GPS data. To be able to produce the GPS addon boards, he needs a minimum order quantity of 1000 modules, and he’s currently half way there. Head over to his blog to see more and vote if you are interested in purchasing one (or more).

Story courtesy of Pocket GPS World.

Although you’ll need a jailbroken iPhone (until we get the formal SDK and new firmware), fring is now available for the iPhone, bringing support for VOIP calls (Skype), and IM (MSN Messenger, ICQ, GTalk, AIM, and Yahoo!). More details, including how to setup the pre-release version, are available from fring.

Along with all the general rumours over the release date of the 3G iPhone, it appears some websites are claiming that the new 3G iPhone will contain a GPS Broadcom chip, providing built in GPS functionality. We’ve no idea if this is true or not, but hopefully we’ll find out in the next few months…

As from today, the iPhone should be £100 cheaper, ie it now costs £169 plus a contract. This should apply to both Carphone Warehouse and to O2 shops. Although stocks have been limited over the last few weeks, this seems to support those theories that stocks are being finally cleared out for the 3G iPhone to appear in June…

For those who have bought an iPhone in the last 30 days from a Carphone Warehouse store, even better news; “Launched 10 years ago and already responsible for customers receiving millions of pounds, the Ultimate Price Promise means The Carphone Warehouse will automatically give vouchers to the value of £100 to anyone who has purchased an iPhone from the store in the last 30 days.”

Here’s an interesting rumour we’ve picked up on via the internet. It appears that Nokia might be trying to beat Apple to the launch of the first 3G touchscreen smartphone, by announcing the 5800 Tube in advance of the iPhone announcement in June. Although they’ve both been beaten to touchscreen mobiles (like the LG Viewty), it would be an interesting turn of events if Nokia beat Apple to this crown. It’s unlikely, but an interesting rumour nonetheless…

Just Another iPhone Blog has released information and screenshots about Twinkle, an iPhone Twitter client, which is currently in beta, and should be available for sale soon. One of the key features is the built in geo-location support for both adding your location to your tweets, but to also receive tweets from all other people in the same approximate location. Head over to read more.

In rumours and news that does not surprise many, it appears we are likely to see an announcement (and possible actual release) of the 3G iPhone within the next few months. The exact date is likely to be the June Developers Conference, and the launch of third party applications using the SDK.

In the last few weeks, there have been all sorts of agreements over various technologies on mobile devices, so we thought we would summarise them all…

• Adobe has announced it will be producing a Flash player for the iPhone, despite Steve Jobs not being happy with it (claiming Flash Lite was too light, and normal Flash was too “bloaty” for the iPhone)
• Nokia has announced the new Microsoft Silverlight technology will become available on Nokia Symbian S60 devices, traditional S40 devices, and their range of Internet Tablets.
• Microsoft has signed a deal with Adobe to bring Flash Lite to Windows Mobile devices, which will be used within the Internet Explorer Mobile browser. The deal also includes Adobe Reader LE for reading PDF documents.

It’s nice to see the main competitors supporting each other’s technology, and not limiting us users, and ensuring each technology has a future irrespective of your chosen mobile device.

The iPhone Dev Team have announced they have already managed to jailbreak (allow running of additional programs) and successfully SIM unlocked (allowing use of other SIMs) the new iPhone v2.0 firmware, which was only released as a beta (as part of the SDK beta) last week. This bodes well for the formal release in June.

Combining the skills of the user development community with the possibility of Sun releasing JME for the iPhone and you start to wonder how long Apple will be able to continue to really control the iPhone applications we can install.

Story and picture courtesy of Engadget.

Although it’s mainly just a rumour right now, it’s believed Sun is working on a version of Java Mobile Edition for the iPhone, using the now released SDK. It’s likely to be released in June or July, not long after the SDK itself is fully released. This should open up a whole range of applications for immediate access on the iPhone, and if available, may limit Apple’s control over what applications are available for the iPhone.

Amid all the Apple announcements yesterday, the BBC updated their website so that they now have iPhone support for their iPlayer. This will allow UK iPhone users the ability to watch selected BBC TV programmes again for up to 7 days after broadcast.

Story courtesy of Berble.com.

Last night, Apple announced that the SDK would be available in June, including an iPhone simulator than runs on Mac devices. A Beta is available now, and some large Enterprise customers will even get access to the new v2 iPhone Beta firmware too. The new firmware brings a number of new, key features for corporate customers:

• Push Email, Calendar and Contacts
• Exchange ActiveSync support
• Cisco IPSec VPN
• Network Authentication (WPA2, 802.1x)
• Security Policies and Enterprise Configuration Tools
• Remote Wipe

Developers will generally be happy with the SDK and the sales model Apple have selected for people buying applications from iTunes or the new App Store option on the iPhone. Basically the developer sets the price the user should pay for the software and Apple will simply take 30% of the revenue as and when it occurs - if the developer sells nothing for months on end, Apple will not charge. Should the developer go one step further and offer the application for free, Apple will not charge anything at all to distribute that application.

Apple have indicated certain types of applications will not be allowed; unlocking tools, illegal items (eg hacking tools, malicious software, pornography).

EA Games, Salesforce.com, and AOL’s AIM were example applications at the launch.

As with the previous enhancement announcement, the new firmware will be provided for free on the iPhone, although there will be a small charge for the same new functions on the iPod Touch.

Some information courtesy of Engadget.

NavNGo have announced plans to release their iGO MyWay 8 SatNav software for the iPhone. It was either use the gomite LogoGPS hardware module to provide the GPS data, or will use their WiFi GPS unit, which allows the iPhone to pick up the location information via WiFi (allowing the GPS unit to be hidden and hardwired into a car, for example). NavNGo already provide a similar solution as part of the Sony PSP solution, so are well used to working on a variety of platforms. Although this has been announced in advance of the iPhone SDK (rumoured for announcement later today), it’s likely to be using the SDK, and may even feature as an example of an approved 3rd party application in Apple’s presentation.

There’s a short YouTube video about this solution here.

The picture is a mockup of what the software may look like, courtesy of Engadget.

Sony have announced this iPod / iPhone Dock / Clock Radio, with the catchy model name of ICF-ClipMK2, which will be available in the US in May for around $100 in both Black and White. No word on UK availability though. Interesting that a main brand like Sony is to support a rival’s device like this…

Well, with the Apple event (to show the iPhone SDK and Roadmap) due on Thursday, what are the main snippets of information that are likely to be announced…

1. Firstly, Apple mentioned an “Enterprise” element to the event. Now, despite many people guessing weird and wonderful things that this could be, we wonder if it’s not the Lotus Notes support announcement that we first covered here and here.
2. The SDK itself will be announced, but rumours are suggesting it won’t be until around June when it will be complete (and possibly to coincide with the launch of the 3G iPhone), so some advanced function may not be available, which may well limit some third party apps from being considered for a while.
3. Again, the rumours are saying that Apple will limit which apps can be installed on the iPhone / iPod Touch, via the use of a chargeable verification scheme (limiting the freeware authors from releasing apps). However, with the iPhone easily unlocked, we wonder if a solution to this will be found soon enough.

We’ll know more for sure on Thursday…

If you are in the market for an external battery pack for whatever device you own, be it an iPhone, a Nokia smartphone, an iPod, or you just want to be able to spend more time away from your device plugged into the mains for charging, then you may be looking for an external battery pack. Berble.com have reviewed one, and the review is here.

Business Week (in the US) has reported that the release of the iPhone SDK, and Apple’s support of third party applications will now not happen in February as first expected, but is still likely to occur in March.

[Via Engadget]