Following last week’s crazy screen rumor that iPhone 3.0 would add movie and TV show direct, on-device downloads to the current music and audio and video podcast downloads, Apple Insider reports that they have:

…learned from people familiar with Apple’s training program that new self-guided training materials being distributed to familiarize AppleCare agents with the features of iPhone 3.0 software “definitely covered” the ability to directly download movies and TV shows on the device itself, rather than just syncing video content through iTunes.

And points out that “Apple never puts out product training this far ahead of a product launch.”

So what’s going on with that? We figure it’ll be Wi-Fi only, but could there be anything else going on here?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Return of the iPhone 3.0 Direct Movie + TV Show Download Rumors!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered our Make Us a TiPb-themed YouTube video intro contest!

The winning entry, courtesy of llofte, is embedded above, and be sure to check out some of our other favorites from Alli, sil3ntrid3r11, iLoveiPhones, and Bela, below the fold!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Friday Fun TiPb Birthday Bash Videos!

Apple is gearing up their 2009 university student-targeted promotion, and it turns out this year is a lot like last year:

A Mac has everything university students need for school. And now it includes something extra special. When university students buy a qualifying Mac, they’ll get a free iPod touch after mail-in rebate. And they save even more with Apple education pricing. This offer is for a limited time and is available only at the Apple Online Store, Apple Retail Stores, and Apple Authorized Campus Stores.

Rumor was we’d see an iPhone option this year, but no such luck. Let jokes about mail-in rebate success levels begin!

(Thanks to everyone who sent this in.)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Edu Promo: Buy a Mac - Get a Free iPod touch

Daring Fireball has posted a bitingly satirical look at Apple’s iPhone App Store review process which, like the best of comedy, is firmly rooted in both tragedy and truth. That Apple hasn’t posted clear guidelines for developers is frustrating enough. That they apparently haven’t imposed them on their own internal staff raises the flabbergast bar to dizzying new heights.

With 35,000+ apps and a billion downloads Apple is well on their way towards building that next great platform. Until they fix the app approval process, however, that building is a house of cards.

Enough of the choir preaching. Here’s Gruber bringing the painful funny:

MONDAY MAY 18: The dude who wrote that game with the iPhone icon seems very upset. Says that the iPhone image is used to explain that the user must tilt the device in order to play the game, and so how can he show this visually without using an image of an iPhone. And he has a list of other apps already in the Store which use similar graphics. I reply with the exact same message as last week, word for word. Spend the rest of the day playing Flight Control.

Read the entire Excerpts From the Diary of an App Store Reviewer via Daring Fireball…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Daring Satire: Excerpts From the Diary of an App Store Reviewer

nanocr.eu (via MacRumors) has a theory on how the Palm Pre is managing to sync so seamlessly with iTunes. Read the full post for details, but their conclusion is a tad concerning:

• When you select "Media Sync" on the Pre, it will switch its USB interface to use Apple's Vendor Id and the Product Id for a specific iPod model
• The Pre exposes a filesystem through Mass Storage Class that mimics the structure of an iPod
• The Pre responds to Apple's custom USB command and returns XML info about the device

They warn — like we have — that this will be pretty simple for Apple to intentionally prevent, uncaringly break, or accidentally bug up (they’ve done all three to jailbreakers in the past, after all, and expecting Apple to devote time and engineers to maintaining compatibility for unlicensed devices is just this side of silly).

Their advice? Anticipate Palm Pre iTunes sync to go the way of the dodo and fast. Then get a copy of DVD Jon’s DoubleTwist and sync your hearts out that way…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Is the Palm Pre Syncing with iTunes by Pretending to be an iPod?

It was not that long ago TiPb passed along some warning signs we’d seen about AT&T cracking down on iPhone users who currently not on an iPhone data plan. Well they’ve gone and given all of you rebels out there one more warning for good measure.

After some digging around in AT&T’s myWireless application, we have found yet another dose of legalese from AT&T that states they can and will change your data plan and charge you accordingly if you are currently using an iPhone with any data plan other than the iPhone data plan.

While this is nothing earth shattering, we figured we would pass it along so, if AT&T started following up on the warnings, our readers wouldn’t be caught by surprise.

Switch to the appropriate data plan or possibly end up with a larger than normal bill? We know iPhone data use is hammering AT&T’s network, but is this the best way for them to go about things?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Another Warning From AT&T to iPhone Users with Non-iPhone Data Plans

As Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak paid rapt attention (via Engadget), Palm’s new dynamic duo, Jon Rubinstein and Roger McNamee took turns amazing, informing, and stupefying the crowd at All-Things Digital’s D7 conference. Our sibling site, PreCentral.net has complete coverage, but from an iPhone perspective there were a few things worth drawing attention to…

The good: Ruby and Mac, straight and funny man respectively, were an awesome combination in the best, most comedic sense of the term. Palm should make sure their contracts say they need to co-host all future events. Presentation Gold. Ruby controlled the message and acted the responsible corporate governor while Mac was left to make outrageous claims and obfuscate the tough questions. And it worked brilliantly. Their opening video alone, which self-deprecatingly poked at Mac’s history of grandiose statements all the while letting him slip in even more jabs, such as the terminal “[Palm Pre] eats iPhone’s for breakfast.”

The bad: when demonstrating the previously mentioned Palm Pre iTunes sync, comments were made about Apple being “monopolistic”. Puh-leeze. Palm has an absolute right to make their own desktop client (they already make Palm Desktop for example). They don’t have the right to hook into Apple’s without license, even if Apple has the most popular media client on the planet. To make it simple for them, no matter how popular McDonald’s is, they have the right to serve their own fries with their Big Macs. Burger King DOES NOT have the right to set up a stall inside McDonald’s and hook up Whoppers next to the MacFries machine — unless McDonald’s says it’s okay.

Tangent: Telling Palm Pre users they can hook up and sync with iTunes, even if you specify “DRM free music, photos (?!), and videos” is all fun and games until a) users can’t transfer their iPhone apps and blame Apple, b) a routine (or not so) update to iTunes breaks Pre compatibility and users blame Apple.

The ugly: Great as Ruby and Mac were together, Ruby couldn’t stop Mac from fully inserting his foot into his mouth towards the end. In a painfully, painfully drawn-out exchange with Kara Swisher, Mac began by saying the Pre had a mirror for woman, which Swisher immediately took exception to. Unrelenting, Mac continued to press the point about women being an ignored segment of the market, then took exception to Swisher’s exception, and basically ended up writing the title for this here blog post, casting the Palm Pre as the “iPhone for Ladies” — insulting women and potentially turning off a segment of their male audience as well. Sad, given the great start to the show.

So that was likely the last big Palm song and dance before release, and it was a mixed bag and perhaps a changing of the guard as well. A lot was made of Ruby’s Apple pedigree and experience — and we couldn’t help but notice that after Ruby’s comments that he basically rescued the Pre from resistive hell, Palm founder Ed Colligan was nowhere to be seen. If the Palm Pre is Ruby’s iPhone, maybe we’ve just met the new iPalm?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Official: McNamee Casts Palm Pre as “iPhone for Ladies”