We’re getting used to the idea of celebrities using the iPhone. It’s slick and one of the most beautiful handsets on the market today. However, we were kinda surprised to learn the former U.S. president Bill Clinton is an iPhone user — that’s because we’ve never seen him as too tech savvy. It’s Al who had all the gadgets around his belt.

Anyway, TUAW’s reader B. Ioffe got his iPhone signed by the Bill, when former president shared this info with him. Apparently Bill got the iPhone from Jobs himself, which is kinda strange considering Bill’s buddy from the presidential days Al Gore is on Apple’s board.

Steve is a smart fellow and something tells us he bundled Bill’s iPhone with the most expensive plan to get something in return.

[Via: TUAW]

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Tags: cell phone, iphone apple, gadget, iphone cell phone

Pretty cool…

Tags: iphone, apple, mobile phone, iphone cell phone

Not satisfied the battery life of your iPhone? You can always grab one of the battery extenders. Previously, we wrote about the juice pack, and now it’s the iPowerRush that promises to boost the battery life of your beloved handset for another 10 to 15 hours. As you can see from the image above, simply plug it to your iPhone and enjoy four more hours of talk-time, three more hours of mobile Internet, 3.5 hours more video, 14 hours more music playback, or stand-by time of 120 hours.

The iPowerRush is powered by 6 AAA batteries and also has an indicator to tell you how much power is left in it. Finally the price — $30 and that’s without the AAA batteries.

[Via: MobileWhack]

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Tags: mobile phone, iphone mobile phone, iphone apple, iphone cell phone

We previously reported that the largest wireless operator in Japan has been in talks with Apple to bring the coveted iPhone to the island-nation’s NTT DoCoMo network. Well, today we get confirmation straight from NTT DoCoMo that Apple is indeed working with the Japanese network to bring those edgy-Japs a bit of minimalist-style.

“It is true that Mr. Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. and our president (Masao) Nakamura held a meeting,” an NTT DoCoMo spokesman said in a statement to the Agence France-Presse,. Unfortunately, NTT DoCoMo wasn’t all that forthcoming with information regarding the timing of the iPhone’s Japanese debut or even what Apple and NTT DoCoMo were talking about.

Now, we are also hearing that Apple is in talks with another Japanese network operator, presumably to hedge their bets and make sure the iPhone makes it to Japan one way or another. Softbank Corp., Japans No. 3 carrier, has been rumored to have made business trips to Cupertino to discuss the iPhone exclusivity deals. Apple could be working both sides of the Japanese market to make sure they can land the revenue-sharing deal that’s turned the whole manufacturer-carrier model on its head.

We’re not going to expect a Japanese iPhone launch before the middle of next year, perhaps in line with the Asian launch that we’re looking for in China. Ears to the ground, folks. Ears to the ground.

[Via: Yahoo]

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Tags: cell phone, iphone apple, apple, iphone

The iFrancis team has launched WiSync 1.0.1 and they are particularly proud of their lastest work. The software has a brand new user interface and improved control over what gets sync and when.

“This version runs completely from the GUI, no terminal windows as promised, and for the first time, we have included a native app - wiToggle - that allows you to control the app’s behaviour from the iPhone, and allows you to manually synchronize whenever you want!” (iFrancis team)

Permalink | Comment | Uberbargain | Uberphones

Tags: iphone, apple, iphone apple, iphone mobile phone

“It is true that Mr. Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. and our president (Masao) Nakamura held a meeting,” (NTT DoCoMo spokesman via Agence France-Presse)

But DoCoMo isn’t the only operator that Apple is talking to. Softbank Corp, the third largest operator in Japan, is also part of the talks, which is logical, if Apple wants to negotiate the best deal for their royalties.

Now it’s quasi-certain that the Japanese iPhone will launch in 2008, but two questions remain: which carrier? Will it be the upcoming 3G iPhone?

Permalink | Comment | Uberbargain | Uberphones

Tags: gadget, iphone apple, iphone cell phone, mobile phone

There was an article floating around on Digg a while back of some guy on an airplane being a prick and telling the pilot that his claim of intolerable weather conditions were false since his iPhone said that was bullshit. Well someone made an iPhone parody ad of that and it’s funny:

Update: Dusan posted a few more parody ads last week, but no one commented on them, what is wrong with your LOLmeter folks?

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Tags: iphone, cell phone, mobile phone, iphone apple

On the outside, Apple Inc.’s iPod touch looks a lot like its iPhone. On the inside, there’s a strong resemblance too—but a dissection conducted by iSuppli Corp.’s Teardown Analysis service reveals the touch sports a distinct design and unique advancements compared to the iPhone.

The 8Gbyte version of the iPod touch carries a Bill of Materials (BoM) cost of $149.18, according to iSuppli, based on pricing in October. The BoM has decreased somewhat since October due to declines in pricing for memory semiconductors and other components in the iPod touch, with the cost falling to the $147 level during the intervening period.

When adding the iPod touch’s direct-conversion cost of $5.86—consisting of manufacturing, assembly and test expenses—to the $149.18 BoM, the total cost is $155.04.

The 8Gbyte version of the iPod touch sells for $299. Apple’s iPods traditionally have been sold at retail pricing that is about twice the level of their hardware BOM and manufacturing costs, based on iSuppli’s extensive teardown analysis of devices in the product line. The iPod touch is no exception, with its price nearly double its materials and manufacturing cost, at 92.9 percent higher.

iSuppli’s estimate of the iPod touch’s costs is strictly limited to expenses for components and other materials and manufacturing. The estimate does not include costs for software, intellectual property, accessories and packaging. The BOM figure also does not include research and development costs, because such data cannot be derived from a teardown and component analysis.

The attached table presents iSuppli’s estimate of the iPod touch’s BoM and manufacturing costs.

An iPhone minus the phone?

Functionally, the Apple iPod touch is an iPhone minus several features, including cell-phone capability, Bluetooth and certain software elements. Otherwise, the core features of the iPhone user experience are all present in the iPod touch, including orientation sensing, web surfing via Wi-Fi and the product’s signature feature: a 3.5-inch diagonal touch screen with multi-touch sensing. These advanced features place the iPod touch right at the top of Apple’s iPod line.

“The iPod touch likely represents the future of the high end of the iPod line,” said Andrew Rassweiler, teardown services manager and principal analyst for iSuppli. “Click Wheel-interface and Hard-Disk Drive (HDD)-based versions of the iPod are expected to wane in favor of touch-screen and flash-memory-equipped models like the iPod touch. But despite its functional and physical outward resemblance to the iPhone, and the fact that its internals borrow heavily from the iPhone, the iPod touch is no iPhone clone, and has its own unique design.”

Family resemblance

Rassweiler estimated the iPod touch and iPhone designs have a 90 percent commonality in terms of components. For example, the key Integrated Circuit (IC) at the core of both the iPod touch and iPhone is Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s video/applications processor, a chip based on an ARM microprocessor core and employing stacked on-package memory. Costing $13.19 based on iSuppli’s October estimate, the Samsung processor accounts for 8.5 percent of the iPod touch’s total cost.

Another common part between the two products is a power-management IC from NXP Semiconductors Netherlands B.V., costing $2.61 and accounting for 1.7 percent of the iPod touch’s cost in October.

Design departure

However, the iPod touch’s design differs from the iPhone in that it is uniquely optimized to meet its form-factor and cost requirements. To cut space usage, the iPod touch makes use of some advanced packaging for its components not seen in the iPhone, including 0201 diodes and passive components in 01005 enclosures on the touch’s WLAN module.

“This is the first time iSuppli has seen these components in a product we’ve torn down,” Rassweiler said. “Apple products always seem to push the envelope in terms of space savings, and therefore we often first see the newest, most-compact components in Apple products.”

The iPod touch design also pushes the envelope in terms of memory density. The high-end version of the product includes 16Gbytes of NAND flash memory, more than any product in the Apple iPod line. In contrast, the high-end iPhone offers only 8Gbytes of NAND flash.

Another notable difference is in the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design. The iPod touch employs a single PCB as opposed to the iPhone’s modular two-PCB design.

Other differences between the touch and the iPhone include a new set of components to support the iPod touch’s Wireless LAN (WLAN) functions and the location of the touch-screen circuitry on the main PCB—rather than on the touch-screen module.

Production outlook

Based on the history of the various Apple iPod products, iSuppli has assumed a total lifetime of one year for the first-generation iPod touch. iSuppli estimates that if Apple follows its historic product pattern, it will manufacture about 8.5 million first-generation iPod touches during the approximately one-year period from the third quarter of 2007 through the beginning of the third quarter of 2008. At that time, iSuppli expects the first-generation touch will be replaced by a new product in the third quarter of 2008.

However, this forecast could be impacted if Apple chooses to replace the iPod touch sooner to coincide with the introduction of a new model of the iPhone. Furthermore, if the product lifetime extends to two years, production could increase to as much as 20 million units. The arrival of the flash-memory-based touch will have major implications for the rest of Apple’s iPod line, iSuppli believes.

“The touch, along with the nano, may drive Apple’s HDD-based iPods close to extinction in the near future,” said Chris Crotty, senior analyst, consumer electronics, for iSuppli. “While not a dollar-for-byte match for HDDs, flash now offers sufficient capacity that many consumers are willing to trade off storage for advanced displays and features.”

Tags: cell phone, iphone, mobile phone, iphone apple

The iphone GPS module allows jail broken iphones to finally have GPS functionality. This module is in development and will be shipping in February. All software is open source and more applications are being written every day. This module gives you the ability to explore all the benefits that GPS on a platform that is small enough to put on a keychain. Plans are already underway for a stylish plastic enclosure as well.

Features:
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Channels: 16
Update Rate: 1 sample / second
Acquisition Time: Hot: 4 Seconds, Cold: 45 seconds, Indoor: A long time
Serial Output: 1 Serial, 1 USB
Position Accuracy : 2.5m
Protocol Support: NMEA 0183 ver 2.3
Iphone Software: Requires Jail Broken Phone (tested on firmware version 1.1.2).
Software will be open source/community based

First prototype (on iphone with 1.0.1 firmware)
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Prototype Software Screen Shots
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Rendering of the production version of the iPhone GPS Module
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Disclaimer: This product electrically interfaces to the iPhone, as such there is always a potential risk of damage to your phone. Although we thoroughly test our products, damage resulting from use of this hardware or any software modifications on the iPhone shall not be the responsibility of Part Foundry.

Price: $89.00 USD (Shipping February 2008)

Tags: mobile phone, iphone, iphone mobile phone, apple

About This Video
Here is a little movie of ProRemote in action connected to a ProTools LE rig. The developer (Alex le Lievre) did this one a bit closer up for folks who thought his previous video was a fake. I did not write this software, I found it on the internet and posted it to share.

Just to clarify, ProTools is NOT running on the iPhone, the iPhone is running a “skin” of sorts to allow you to control your rig via WiFi from your iPhone.

Tags: iphone apple, gadget, apple, iphone cell phone