iPhone Live! comes to you tonight (Wednesday, August 26) at 8pm ET/5pm PT.

If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to address, let us know in the comments below or tweet them to @theiphoneblog.

We’ll be discussing the week’s news, and offering up a MOTOROKR S305 Stereo BT Headset give-away (for live viewers only!) so join in via http://www.tipb.com/live

Chat with you soon!

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

iPhone Live! Tonight 8pm ET/5pm PT - With Stereo BT Headset Give-Away!

Apple holding it’s annual iTunes- and iPod-focused music event on Sept. 9th is looking increasingly likely. Never mind that last year’s event was held on September 9, or that 9/9/9 holds some numerological magic, it just makes the kind of sense that does, right?

For their part, AppleInsider claims they’ve managed to get independent confirmation of the event from “people familiar with the matter”, and also expect the afore-reported iTunes 9 with social networking, 3rd generation iPod touch with camera, and iPod nano with with camera to be in the lineup, along with other pieces “to this year’s iPod story.”

“Cocktail”, which would try to bring back the album format, including artwork, lyrics, and other bonus material, the perennial Beatles on iTunes rumors, and of course iPhone OS 3.1 are also in the cards.

UPDATED: Forgot that little story about the iPhone 3GS (and presumably the iPod touch third gen) being able to output 720p and 1080p video… How about that for the music event?

(And commenters, please as per usual feel free to call for AT&T announcements — or their heads.)

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

Apple iTunes and iPod Special Music Event on Sept. 9 Seconded?

The Motorola MOTOROKR S305 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones [$49.95 - TiPb Store link] for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G are great for enjoying your music on the go. Whether you’re on your daily jog or spending some time in the gym, these headphones are the perfect fit that will not hurt your wallet.

Read more after the break!

I’ll be honest and say I have never been a fan of Bluetooth stereo headphones but Motorola’s S305 has recently made me a fan. All of you active people out there can put these headphones to good use. Heck, with what these headphones actually bring to the table, you can take full advantage of them while lounging around your home.

In the box you get the S305 wireless stereo headphones, microUSB travel charger, and getting started guide. Syncing to your iPhone is a breeze and once you are all set up you can enjoy your music and phone calls with high performance and remarkable wireless sound up to 33 feet - priceless.

For those of you who are not a fan of in-ear earbuds, you are in luck with the S305’s very comfy setup. These headphones are extremely lightweight and fit comfortably with the out of ear 1.2-inch pods. On the outside of one of the pod’s housing you get some controls - audio track navigation, volume, and call controls. Along with the comfortable fit you also get a excellent battery life. Expect a talk time of up 6.5 hours, music time of 6 hours, and standby time of up to 4 days.

The Motorola MOTOROKR S305 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones are not too shabby. With their very low price point of $49.95, you can’t go wrong.

Learn More and Purchase via TiPb’s iPhone Store >>

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

Motorola MOTOROKR S305 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones for iPhone 3GS & iPhone 3G

Could Apple eventually gain monopoly status in one or more businesses, and become as “evil” (or worse) as Microsoft was when regulators went after them in the 1990s? Windows pundit Paul Thurrott thinks so, and thinks it’s time to act now before it’s too late.

Now, Thurrott is an interesting dichotomy, well-balanced on his Windows Weekly podcast yet Dvorak‘ian in link-baiting on his blog. He’s pro Microsoft all the way, but has still been unable to find anything as compelling as the iPhone or iPod in their respective spaces. So, assuming we’re dealing with the more even handed podcasting and iPhone-using Thurrott, and we’re not just biting his baited link, his argument here is this:

until very recently, Apple was the underdog, and they’ve been the underdog for almost their entire existence. This creates a certain mindset, and under Steve Jobs especially, it’s created a very aggressive competitive spirit. This aggressiveness is fine when you are literally the underdog, just as was the case with Microsoft early in its career and it was trying to wrest the PC industry from IBM, Lotus, WordPerfect, and other tech dinosaurs. But once you have a dominant market position, that aggressive behavior–so important for an up-and-comer–isn’t just bad, it’s illegal. It’s just hard to turn it off when it’s been part of the corporate psyche for so long.

His answer?

With this obvious comparison of two very similarly belligerent companies–Microsoft of the mid-1990s and Apple of today–in mind, I think the time has come to rein Apple in. To examine Apple’s exclusive relationships with wireless carriers. To force it to open up iTunes to competing players, and its iPhone and iPod devices to competing software and services. If we don’t do this now, it will only be more difficult in the future. All you have to do is look at Microsoft’s never-ending antitrust saga–which has now stretched on for 15 years, involved regulatory bodies on three continents, and gone on far longer than its actual bad behavior–to see why it’s time.

The problem?

Apple is not yet a monopoly in any real business. They may own the Mac and the iPhone outright, but those are tiny blips in the big PC space and the increasingly vast smartphone space. Apple likely will never be a smartphone monopoly, and artificially defining a “consumer smartphone” is like defining a “Redmond MP3 player” space and pondering Zune regulation.

Speaking of MP3 players, in that space Apple could arguably be approaching monopoly status, though the market according to Apple themselves is now fading (hence their development of the iPhone). Even if Apple does mathematically hold an effective MP3 monopoly at some point, that’s not illegal. Abusing such a monopoly would be, for example forcing Best Buy not to carry Zune’s if they want iPods.

Otherwise, much as I (and Thurrott himself) find the notion of the EU’s constant browser bashing of Microsoft ridiculous given the advances of Firefox and WebKit (Safari and Chrome), the idea of forcing open what’s essentially content management software like iTunes is equally silly. (Note: Not letting iTunes run on Windows is a specious parallel, iTunes is an app, not a platform). What’s next, PS3 isn’t getting a fair shake so we have to force Nintendo to allow PS3 games and license Mario? Sigh.

As to movies and TV shows, if Big Media would drop their consumer-hostile DRM schemes, then just like MP3 both Apple and Microsoft (and others) could sell unlocked movies and TV Shows that users could play on or move between any device. That’s not an Apple problem, it’s a Hollywood problem, and consumers should channel that rage appropriately (especially towards legislators who are heavily funded and lobbied by Hollywood to “protect” their content from us evil customers).

Personally, I never left Microsoft because I thought they were “evil” (IE6 aside, of course), I left because I found better device(s) to suit my needs from another company (while Microsoft was being punished by the DOJ and EU, fancy that). If that happens again with Apple, I’ll likely move again.

Maybe to Android. Oh, wait, Google is a monopoly in search and online advertising, and is slowly ensconcing themselves on every device and harvesting my data for… what? Maybe they’re evil and should be stopped right now as well?

Slope, meet slippery.

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

Act Now or Apple Will Be the Next Microsoft Monopoly?

Yesterday we asked you if Apple should 1) keep on improving the App Store, 2) eliminate the App Store and let people side-load applications from any source, or 3( do both by keeping the App Store but adding side-loading as an option.

As commenter Shallomon pointed out, however, we technically already have option 3, with the App Store and Jailbreaking.

TiPb’s mentioned before that Jailbreak is easily something Apple might consider “expert mode” or “iPhone pro”, a second state of the device for those users willing and able to break the root jail and install their own apps, yet also something Apple doesn’t have to offer or support as a second SKU.

Likewise, complaints that Jailbreak could potentially reduce battery life or stability are covered by users doing it — or undoing it — themselves, thus taking on that responsibility (and lets face it, my previous smartphone, a Palm Treo 680 crashed multiple times a day when making or receiving calls, and that was with standard apps installed…)

Apple can make legal arguments against the EFF and the idea that Jailbreaking shouldn’t be made an official exception to the US DMCA laws, but they can also continue to ineffectively prevent it, much like they do with the Apple TV. Win, win?

It would leaves most users happy with the App Store, and those itching to go deeper with Jailbreak as an option.

GV Mobile is already there, after all…

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

Poll: Is Jailbreak the Answer to App Store Woes?

TextExpander touch [$1.99 on sale, $4.99 after Sept. 9 - iTunes link], is the iPhone (and iPod touch) version of Mac favorite TextExpander, an app that takes short bursts of text and expands them (get the name?) into longer passages.

TUAW has the details, especially on how the lack of background multitasking for 3rd party apps means the iPhone versions works (and works around) a limitation it doesn’t face on the desktop.

Check it out and let us know what you think. Or let TextExpander embiggen your thoughts. What’evs.

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

Quick App: TextExpander for iPhone