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In an ongoing attempt to cash out from the hordes of consumers offering up their wallets for iPod compatible accessories, 3rd parties have created every known addon to man and then released it about a couple dozen times. While you can buy cases, dock holders and even a bed for your iPod, we’ve yet to see this thrown at the iPhone with a raging desire for more opportunities to rebrand consumer goods with the almighty “Made For iPhone Label”.

DLO on the other hand disregarded everything and fused a pair of speakers to the iPhone in an abnormal fashion ruining an already good design. For $50 you can probably increase the iPhone’s loudness but to have the audacity of labeling these egg shaped oddities with the word “portable” makes about as much sense as using a lawn mower for flight. The possibility is there but should never be done lest someone in the marketing and design department decided that instead of bailing from a failing job created a horrible “Made For A Device That Starts With A Lowercase i” product to extract some sort of imaginary revenge.

Via: more...

USAToday takes a close look behind the driving force of the iPhone’s pseudo GPS function and the technology needed to accurately pinpoint a user.

Before using the less accurate method of Cellular Triangulation, the iPhone if on Wi-Fi uses data from SkynetSkyhook. Skyhook works by tracking Wi-Fi access points and mapping them out to pin point a location

Via: Mac Rumors

After their recent and bold statement at CES about considering a filter placed on their Internet services, AT&T is imposing a 5GB cap for data on mobile devices.

The cap although low is not meant to trap customers into paying outrageous fees or into void their contract but to warn customers that they’re overloading AT&T’s servers and that by paying more of an even more unlimited plan might be in order.

However, the cost of data plans should drop down to $30 which is the same charge for the BlackBerry Personal plan. Also, text messaging will be broken from data bundles allowing even more savings. These changes should supposedly happen in a few weeks.

Via: Electronista

The iPhone went on sale a little over a month ago in France right after being made available in Germany and the UK. The numbers fall short compared to US sales: only 70,000 sold in the first month.

To put this in perspective, Apple sold over 100,00 units during launch weekend. It took 5 days during the French launch to sell 30,000 iPhones and then the rest of the month to round off 40,000 more for a total of 70,000.

The numbers are surprising but also says a lot about the target audience in the US and Europe. Advanced technologies already prevalent in European phones not found in the iPhone hamper sales.

Via: TUAW

In compliance with French law, Orange allows consumers to unlock iPhones after the first 6 months of their contract have expired. To take advantage of those who want an Orange free iPhone, the carrier is allowing customers to unlock the handset early which 20% of buyers have opted for.

The price for a locked handset is 399 Euros for a 2 year contract while a contract free iPhone will cost 549 Euros. An unlocked handset will cost 649 Euros.

Via: Macrumors

We all know visual voicemail. Most of us use it quite often, and of those that do not a big percentage have unlocked phones. Could visual voicemail be an idea from someone else other than Apple or ATT? Klausner Technologies seems to think so, because they are suing both companies for a total of $360 million for copyright infringement. Klausner Technologies holds patents for retrieving messages from a menu which displays the caller, their number, and other such info. Sound familiar? What is worse is that they have successfully sued both AOL and Vonage over the same patents.

Basically, it looks as if Klausner Technologies will get a pretty large settlement. How this will affect both Apple and ATT has yet to be determined.

What are your thoughts on the suit?

[via Gizmodo]

Rumors have been swirling about the Blogosphere about China Mobile turning down Apple and the iPhone due to revenue sharing agreements but a report from Blomberg states otherwise and reports from the press of have been denied. As of now, it looks as if China Mobile is still in talks with Apple.

Bloomberg states:

Apple Inc., the maker of the iPod music player, increased $2.77 to $187.06. China Mobile Ltd., the world’s largest wireless-phone operator by subscribers, said it is still in discussions to offer Apple’s iPhone handset, denying a newspaper report that talks between the two companies have ended.

Which right now is the only hard evidence we have. There is always the possibility of Apple turning to other mobile telecoms in the country.

Via: Engadget

A report coming our way from the Spanish newspaper El Pais claims that a 3G iPhone will arrive on Telefonica sometime in May 2008.

The source, SevenClick cites information coming from Telefonica management when asked about a possible 3G iPhone. Once a 3G iPhone is available, the Cellular Carrier will be quick to launch it during the Springtime months.

Via: Macworld

The iPhone’s arrival in Europe came and went without much fanfare or anything close to the number of sales in the US, but that didn’t stop Vodafone from preventing any confrontation with customers looking to switch to O2 and cancel contracts. They shut down their support lines.

According to Engadget, Vodafone’s support lines have been down since the iPhone’s launch late Friday. Instead of reaching a live person, users are presented with an automated message informing them they should try again later although an ETA has not released.

Via: Macworld UK

The iPhone launched over the weekend in the UK as well as Germany and numbers are trickling out but nothing official or major. O2 reports 8,000 activated iPhones on launch day while T-Mobile claims 10,000 sold on launch day.

8,000 activations is paltry compared to the US launch of the iPhone but O2 seems thrilled, an insider who reported to Arstechnica stated the Cellular Carrier was expecting around 3,000 activated units.

T-Mobile on the other hand, sold 10,000 iPhones that afternoon according to Reuters.