Gearlive (via BGR) is reporting that Apple will not only announce the third generation “iPhone video” (that’s the name they use, so we’ll mirror it here) this Monday, June 8, but actually have it available for sale at Apple stores the same day.

it will be available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB models. A 4GB model is in the works as well, but it won't be available on Monday, and when it is released, it won't be sold in Apple Stores. All the things you've been seeing about an auto-focus camera, compass, etc. are all true. A camera on front along with a camera on back, that is the real deal - although it may just be for you to take video of yourself, and not for iChat video communication (although that would freaking rock.) A faster processor is also a lock (although I have heard nothing on additional RAM, it would make sense.)

Gearlive basically thinks Apple was going to release in July, but are rushing it up in an effort to counteract the release of the Palm Pre tomorrow, June 6.

TiPb isn’t so sure. Last year’s iPhone 3G was announced at WWDC on June 9, was cleared by the FCC that same day (presumably to prevent leaks), and went on sale July 11. Could iPhone video get announced, clear FCC, and hit the streets all in one day?

Also, last year Apple announced their carrier partners at WWDC, and those carrier partners spent the next month unveiling rate plans, upgrade paths, etc. Has AT&T, or any carrier, breathed a word about an MMS plan for iPhones? A way to upgrade from the iPhone 3G to the iPhone video? Would releasing the iPhone video not create an immediate customer service nightmare for Apple and AT&T as everyone showed up, nothing but questions to ask?

We don’t know. Only Apple does. We know we want it though, and figure you do too. But could Apple really release the iPhone video this Monday?!

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

Ultra Rumor: Could “iPhone video” be on Sale at Apple Stores June 8?!

Stuck Genie Forum Review by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!<

Big entertainment company Warner Bros. has recently released a couple apps, one of which is Stuck Genie. This is a cute little puzzle game where you must collect all the balls on the board by sticking them to each other. The concept is very simple but not necessarily always easy to complete.

Game Play and Controls

Before you can play Stuck Genie, you must enter your name. There is a horizontal scrolling list of the letters at the top and you must drag the letters down to the line to spell your name. I think this is a cute idea, but I hate it. The letter you want must be highlighted and half the time when I attempted to drag a letter, the letters scrolled instead or the game didn’t even register that I touched the letter. It is much faster to just type my name with a keyboard and not nearly as frustrating. I think Warner Bros. would be better off creating a custom keyboard with the bubbly letters.

Once you enter your name, you’re ready to play. There are three tutorial levels that teach you the controls of the game. They are optional and don’t need to be completed before playing the actual game. When you begin level 1, a genie tells you his story with scrolling text in a speech bubble. This text scrolls VERY slow and there is no way to speed it up. I find it aggravating to have to pause my reading mid-sentence waiting for the text to scroll into view.

The game board is a grid with a single yellow ball, any number of blue balls, and various obstacles. The object of the game is to get all the balls stuck together. The yellow ball is the one you control. To move, slide your finger anywhere on the screen in the direction you want to go. As you slide your finger, the squares in front of the ball will turn white. When you release your finger, the yellow ball follows the path of white squares. The one other control is rotation. At the bottom of the screen, there is button that rotates your cluster of balls clockwise when tapped; counter-clockwise is not an option. That’s all there is to it!

Under the game board, you will notice a horizontal bar that fades from green to yellow. This is a time bar. There is no minimum time limit for a given level, but if you’re fast, you can earn 4x, 3x, or 2x the normal point value. Sometimes, you may do a sequence of moves that result in the puzzle being impossible to complete. If so, there is an option to reset the level in the menu. However, this does not reset your time bar.

The first series of levels are, in my opinion, quite easy. This is expected in any puzzle game; however, I nearly lost interest in the game and was initially planning to write my review emphasizing that the game would be great for children. After completing fifteen levels, the first genie is released and you advance to the next series of levels. I immediately noticed a significant change in the difficulty level and this is when the game became fun for me. I wish there was a way to skip ahead to these levels without first completing the first set. What makes this game challenging is that as you collect more balls, you may be unable to fit through areas of the board or rotate. If you attempt to randomly collect balls, you will fail; a strategy is needed to be successful.

Conclusion

Stuck Genie is a great little puzzle game for both kids and adults. It stimulates the brain and makes you think. The game runs great and not once did I experience lag. The music is nice and sound effects are subtle. Don’t let the cute, smiling, dancing genie and child-like design fool you, any adult can have fun playing Stuck Genie and I recommend you give it a try!

Pros

• Simple Concept
• Easy to play
• Challenging (eventually)
• Multiple profiles

Cons

• Cannot listen to iPod while playing
• Must complete 15 levels before they are challenging
• Slow scrolling text

TiPb Review Rating

Stuck Genie is available for $1.99 from the iTunes App Store.

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

App Review: Stuck Genie for iPhone

If there is one truth in the inter-verse, it’s this: Give Google time, and their WebApps will blow. your. mind. Some are brilliant, like Google Maps or Gmail. Some are tragic, like contacts, but all of them push the browserspace further and faster each and every time.

Their latest is Google Wave, revealed at I/O last week and built by the same brothers that kicked off the AJAX explosion with Google Maps. It asks the simple yet profound question: what if internet communication hadn’t been architected 40 years ago with email, but was imagined today?

Highly configurable, fabulously interactive, and — of course — entirely web-server centric, Google Wave lets users connect and work with other users via any browser and many devices. And you know the iPhone was front and center (alongside Android).

YouTube seems to be suffering lately (I blame Dieter’s Palm Pre videos for clogging the hubs!), and at an hour and twenty minutes long, the video above is time consuming to say the least, but if you watch even the beginning of it, win, lose, or draw, the glimpse it gives into the future of WebApps and especially mobile WebApps is fascinating.

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

Quick WebApp: Google Wave for iPhone (and Everything Else!)

TGRBlog (via iSpazio) has put together a graphical representations (above) of all the major third generation iPhone (iPhone 2,1) rumors, color-ranked by likelihood. Very nice!

Could WWDC be any closer…?

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

Friday Fun: Third Generation iPhone Rumors Diagramed!

Remember that brouhaha over the Palm Pre syncing with iTunes? (Check out PreCentral.net’s massive Palm Pre review for more on it from a functional perspective.)

Well, DVD Jon’s nanocr.eu site (via Engadget Mobile) says he’s confirmed that:

the way [Palm Pre] hooks to iTunes is very shady indeed. Turns out that the Pre identifies itself as an iPod when it’s in Media Sync mode, but only on the system’s mass storage interface; the root USB node still comes through as a Palm Pre.

This leads them to believe it might be something Apple could more easily block, if Apple so chooses to. We’ve already gone over the reasons why we think Palm’s decision to sync directly with iTunes (as opposed to with the iTunes library XML file like RIM and Nokia do) is ballsy but ultimately bad for Apple (since they’ll get blamed for problems by consumers who don’t understand the hacky nature and limitations), Palm (since they will have to work at maintaining unlicensed compatibility), but most importantly consumers (because the experience is flawed and unreliable).

Here’s hoping Palm finishes their strut around the launch-day press lines and the next update contains something closer akin to a non-shady, yet still iTunes and user friendly solution for everyone…

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

Palm Pre Hack: Pretends to be iPod to Interface, not Node

We’ve gone round and round on this before. I think Dieter and I may have mentioned this as one of a hundred guesses on the last Phone different podcast, but discounted it as being, like iPhone Extreme, something that fits into Apple’s brand but doesn’t really feel like a direction Apple would go.

TUAW was tipped to it being — briefly — on the AT&T website, however, so we have to consider it, don’t we? (If the screen cap is for real).

Once upon a time Steve Jobs said no one wants to watch video on a tiny screen. Then Apple released the iPod video. So, there is precedent. Also, Apple named the iPhone 3G after its “killer” feature — access to a faster cell network. So, if Apple considers video shooting, editing, and sharing to the the third generation’s “killer” feature, iPhone video would certainly throw the spotlight on it (better than iPhone Compass, at least!)

That’s the same thinking that was behind my betting the farm on iPhone HD last October. While Apple doesn’t seem eager — yet! — to give me my 480×800 screen resolution, Microsoft has jumped on the moniker with Zune HD via its support for HD Radio and 720p dock-enabled output. If Apple includes new AV cables that let the newer, faster, more powerful CPU, RAM, and GPU push 720p as well, and HD is now off the table thanks to Microsoft’s accelerated announcement last week, could iPhone video be a similar (if not quite as sexy) option?

What do you think?

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Rumor: Third Generation iPhone 2,1 to be Called iPhone Video?!