The iPhone has made it’s first big, official splash at CES 2010, courtesy of the iLounge Pavilion, set up by the fine folks at the site by the same name. I’ve only spent half a day walking around so far, but you can’t throw an iPhone without hitting a major player at a big booth showing off some amazing new iPhone accessories.

Here’s a quick rundown of what I’ve seen so far:

• Etymotic, well known for their high-end in-ear headsets has incorporated the 3-button iPhone/iPod-style controller onto their cables giving you full volume, pause/play, etc. They’re also offering an entry-level model without the same system, but with excellent sound quality.
• HyperMac is offering a new external batteries with USB-out for iPhone.
• ExtremeMac is doing a range of charging as well, lots of options.
• Seidio is bringing the vibrant colored case love.
• Case-mate is offering a design-it-yourself option for cases, also a no-squirt-liquid-required body skin, and Hug, a non-proprietary inductive charging solution where you can buy their case and pad, or from another member of the consortium so you can mix and match. Nissan cup holders will also support it!
• Gelaskins is bringing in National Geographic and Marvel Comics licenses.
• Music skins is bringing Beatles licenses.
• Otterbox is offering lighter, but still armor-like solutions for those who want a little more convenience.
• Incipio is going with multiple materials and bold designs.

ics after the break!

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

CES Day 01 Gallery — iPhone Accessories at iLounge Pavilion

For the past week or so I’ve been playing this new game from OstinGames, Zepi [iTunes Link - $.99] and it turns out it does belong in the “New and Noteworthy” section of the App Store. It’s quite an addicting little game that’s premise is simple, build the longest chain of bubbles of single color as fast as possible by tapping them. The longer chain of bubbles you have, the more points you receive.

• Bright, colorful skins (3 skins currently available)
• Global score ranking system (as well as local)
• Support of accelerometer: you can hold the device in a way which is comfortable for you
• Easy gameplay: even for kids

For $.99 this is definitely a game to check out and be sure to keep an eye out for an update that contains new new skins and sounds as it should be released soon.

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

Quick App: Zepi for iPhone and iPod touch

According to TheStreet.com, Apple has struck a deal with San Diego based chip maker, Qualcomm, to supply the EV-DO chip for the rumored Verizon CDMA iPhone. Apple originally showed interest in a chip that would combine both wireless technologies, GSM and CDMA, to make it a world phone but then settled for CDMA when Qualcomm and other chip manufactures could not pull it off.

“Apple has chosen Qualcomm as its chip supplier [3G wireless technology chip for EV-DO] for the new version of the iPhone headed to Verizon this summer, according to Northeast Securities analyst Ashok Kumar,” Moritz reports. “Kumar confirmed the decision with the manufacturers and suppliers involved with the phone.”

Of course at this particular moment in time Apple has no comment but it just adds more fuel to the fire for the long awaited Verizon iPhone. This is Qualcomm’s second big win this week as they are supplying the Snapdragon chip for the much hyped Google Nexus One.

[Via TheStreet.com]

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

Rumored Verizon iPhone to Contain Qualcomm EV-DO Chip

Microsoft and Ford were showing off the third version of Ford Sync at CES, and Casey and Phil from Android Central and I jumped in and got a demo. The good news is that it works great. It plays your music, makes your phone calls, and alert the authorities in case of accident, and more…

The bad news is the “and more” doesn’t apply to iPhone and iPod touch owners since Apple hasn’t properly implemented all the Bluetooth control protocols. Also, SMS to voice isn’t implemented for the iPhone, and I’m guessing that has to do with the current SDK as well.

Still, the system looks slick and solid, supports multiple phones and music players, and lets you focus on your driving rather than fiddling with your devices. As more places make hands-free mandatory, it’s also going to be increasingly important.

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

Ford Sync at CES 2010 — Very Slick, but iPhone Offers Only Partial Support

While I look for iPhone stuff at CES, Dieter and the PreCentral.net crew went over to Palm’s presentation, and got the goods on 3D gaming, video recording, Verizon, and more — PreCentral.net’s Here are the highlights:

• Palm CES live blog coverage
• webOS 1.4 coming in February
• Palm Pre Plus, Palm Pixi Plus exclusive to Verizon with tethering
• Flash 10.1 for webOS
• Video recording for webOS
• 3D gaming with native APIs(plug-in development kit).
• Open distribution for webOS apps
• AND… PreCentral webOS App Gallery goes LIVE! (Congrats guys!)

Check it out and let us know what you think. Big news for Palm? Too incremental? Competitive enough for 2010?

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

Palm at CES 2010: 3D Games, Video webOS 1.4, Recording, Verizon, and PreCentral — The Competition

I saw Microsoft’s massive booth at CES and a giant Bing sign so, optimistically, I went on over to talk with them while our friends from WMExperts hit up the devices. The Bing folks were great, but had no specific knowledge about Bing for iPhone other than there was an app and it did stuff but was kinda beta outside the US. Fair enough. So I headed over to the main reception and asked if there was anyone there from the Microsoft iPhone team. And that’s when it got funny. “What iPhone team?”

Eventually they sent me over to the Windows Phone counter, who just laughed at me and got annoyed that I was sent there.

Why am I posting this? Microsoft is one of, if not still the, biggest software maker in the world. Whether they offer a competing mobile platform or not, there are probably approaching 70 million iPhones on the market, and Microsoft provides Exchange ActiveSync, and apps like SeaDragon (okay, Microsoft Labs, but still), and Bing (which they’d like to be a big deal). That there was no one from Microsoft’s iPhone team at Macworld last year was silly but understandable. That there’s no one here at CES 2010 this year — or at least if there is, they’re not at all discoverable — is just dumb.

If you’re not going to do integrated offerings, if you’re going to be the “network nervous system” that services everyone, if you’re going to offer software and services for other popular platforms — show up and evangelize them. If you want to compete against Google and be taken seriously, if you’re going to be in the game — have some players show up.

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

Microsoft at CES 2010… What iPhone?

Since the entire SPE team was here at CES in Las Vegas, it made perfect sense to take some time away from ogling gadgets and chatting up our friends in the blogosphere to record a podcast. We talk up what we’ve seen so far, including the Nexus One and Motorola Backflip; we also chatted a bit about what we’re hoping to see at Palm’s event today.

As you might have guessed, the show was recorded and hosted by our pal Mickey Papillon of TCPJ. Give it a listen!

• The Cell Phone Junkie
• Subscribe with your favorite client
• Subscribe via iTunes
• Listen via phone with Podlinez: 510-495-6352
• Download the show directly

[Rene apologizes for quality of iPhone-taken pano, but felt the behind-the-scenes peak made up for the lack of photography skillz]

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

Smartphone Experts at CES: The Podcast

No sooner did Facebook 3.1 [Free - iTunes link] finally bring push notifications to Facebook’s iPhone app… then a few bugs popped up. Proving Apple’s iTunes App Store can turn around updates with lightning speed when they decide to, an update has already been released to squash those bugs and get everyone updating, friending, event inviting, and otherwise getting social with it as fast and furiously as possible.

Does Facebook 3.1.1 fix things for you? Let us know in the comments. And if you’re still having issues, let us know that as well!

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

Facebook 3.1.1 for iPhone… Brings Bug Fixes!

Digital Experiences is an event held the eve before CES 2010 officially kicks off, and as we’ve come to expect — there was a lot of iPhone in the room. From EA showing off their latest games to Sonos showing how completely they’ve gone in on iPhone, from Speck to Griffin to XtremeMac giving us sneak peaks at their upcoming gear from Powermat’s inductive charging solutions, all the way to Google’s massive Nexus One booth (okay, everything except that maybe!) the iPhone was in full force.

Check it out, after the jump!

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

Digital Experiences iPhone Gallery — TiPb @ CES 2010

Orbit aims to do for your iPhone what Syngergy does for Palm’s webOS — aggregate all your contacts and their status — but with an equal and opposite focus on notification management.

So, not only can you link together your friend’s contact info along with their Facebook, Twitter, etc., you can group them into various “orbits” (and each contact can be in more than one “orbit”), create all manner of filters, and raise or lower the “volume” of notification you receive.

So, you can set the volume of your raging editor in chief to “high” and your in-laws to “low”.

TiPb has discussed this before — after the rush to Push Notification, we have devices pinging and poping at us all the time and that can become as useless as no notifications.

Orbit [Free -- iTunes link] has just gone live in the App Store, check it out. Video after the break!

[YouTube video link]

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

Orbit Social Phonebook for iPhone Hands-on — TiPb @ CES 2010