MacRumors points us towards the Associated Press‘ announcement that they’re setting up a new digital unit to target “next wave of Internet-connected devices such as Apple’s iPad”.

The AP’s iPad app could compete with offerings from some of its member newspapers, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, which also are believed to be mulling whether to sell subscriptions on the iPad to take advantage of its format. [...] The plans reflect the news media’s hope — still untested — that consumers will be more willing to pay for content on the iPad and similar handheld devices than they have been on traditional computers that depend solely on Web browsers to surf the Internet.

There’s no definitive word on pricing, though it’s suggested it might start off free. Subscription, however, remains the goal of newspapers in order to support their news-gathering business.

Whether or not the continued talk of individual newspaper apps for the iPad, like the New York Times, means the odds for an Apple-centric solution like iBooks is diminishing is unknown.

Let us know which future you’re looking forward to, diverse App Store offerings, or a unified iNews Store?

Associated Press App Coming to iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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A high school student had her iPod explode on her desk yesterday and luckily not a single student was injured. This is not the first time we’ve heard of exploding iPods or iPhones but this particular case seems to be a little different so don’t be so quick to blame Apple. Gizmodo points out that another student has told the true story.

“The iPod did not just explode. It was broken so a kid took the entire thing apart and was rubbing wires against the battery, which became very hot, then exploded. This is not a faulty product that caused a danger to people. This was bored kids, in a classroom with a substitute all week, who found a dangerous way to entertain themselves.”

Moral of the story, if you don’t know what you are doing and it can be dangerous… don’t do it!

[Via Gizmodo via Newburyport Daily News]

Student Makes iPod Explode During Class is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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We’re moving TiPb’s Facebook presence from the old group and page to a newer, shiner, and — soon to be — better, unified TiPb Fan Page!

The bad news: since we can’t rename the old iphoneblog.com page or transfer the group to go with new, we have to apologize for asking everyone to move over with us, but we’ll do our best to more than make up for the hassle — that’s a promise!

So, please jump on over and become a fan of our new TiPb Facebook Page — we’re waiting for you!

THE GOOD NEWS: the TiPb iPhone Accessory Store has been gracious enough to let us give away a brand new Motorola H17 Bluetooth Headset [$89.95 - TiPb Store link] to one of our Facebook fans to help ease the transition. The give-away starts now and ends Monday, March 1st, 2009 at 12pm PST so get to it!

(And this being Follow Friday, if you’re kind enough to follow @TiPb on Twitter and subscribe to our iTunes and YouTube feeds, we’d appreciate it — and you just might get in on some additional, upcoming give-aways to boot! Shhhhhh!)

TiPb Give Away: Motorola H17 Bluetooth Headset for a TiPb Facebook fan! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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A little while ago TiPb asked if the Apple TV should be switched over to the iPhone OS, but what about the Mac? Coincidentally, a recent Apple job offering was discovered by ComputerWorld that hinted Apple was seriously considering pushing the iPhone OS from phone, MP3-player iPod touch, and tablet iPad to further devices:

The Core Platform team within Apple’s Core OS organization is looking for a talented and inspired manager to lead a team focused on bring-up of iPhone OS on new platforms. The team is responsible for low level platform architecture, firmware, core drivers and bring-up of new hardware platforms. The team consists of talented engineers with experience in hardware, firmware, IOKit drivers, security and platform architecture.

Now the New York Times blogs quotes a former Apple engineer musing about whether or not the iPhone OS could be implemented as a special layer on top of Mac OS X, the way Front Row or Dashboard work today. Push a button, the multi-touch iPhone OS screen zooms in, you flick and swipe and pinch though what you want to do, then tap and go back to your mouse and keyboard.

We’re all fans of the iPhone OS here, do we want to see it everywhere else as well?

(ComputerWorld and New York Times blogs via MacRumors, twice)

More iPhone OS on Mac and Apple TV Talk is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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George Ponder over at sibling site WMExperts brings word that AT&T’s Microcell — the device you plug into your home cable/DSL connection to boost your phone reception — is being rolled out to Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, San Diego, and Las Vegas.

If you are lucky enough to live in these areas, all you need to do is visit AT&T’s 3G Microcell website and enter your specific zip code to see if the Microcell is available. If you are in one of these trial areas, you will be provided with a list of retail locations where you can purchase the Microcell. There was no mention on the pricing for the Microcell itself but it appears, in reading the fine print, the service will run $19.99 per month. There are still rumors that bundled discounts will be available to lower the monthly cost.

UPDATE: Per wxbrad in the comments, here’s what those discounts looks like:

You buy the Micro-cell for $150 if you buy a calling plan you get a $100 rebate. The plan allows you and up to 10 3g devices to make unlimited calls off your Micro-cell. IF you have other AT&T services this plan rate drops to 9.99 a month.

While many might gaff at the idea of paying AT&T for the privilege of using their home internet connection to fix AT&T’s coverage, for others — especially in business who just. need. a. signal — this rollout likely can’t come fast enough.

If you’re in one of those markets and take the Microcell for a whirl, let us know how it works for you. If you’re not, how eager are you for it to get to your market?

AT&T Microcell to Boost iPhone Reception in 5 More Markets is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Okay, that headline about how an analyst thinks Apple should lower the price and add new features next June/July when they release the 4th generation iPhone (not iPhone 4G, that’s a couple years and an LTE network away) is only semi-facetious. Apple has lowered up-front costs and increased features on every generation of iPhone, after all. Last year the iPhone 3G dropped to $99 and the iPhone 3GS added video recording, hardware encryption, voice control, and a host of other things — never mind iPhone 3.0. According to AppleInsider, however, Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley has two things more specific in mind.

“We expect Apple to launch new iPhones in June that offer both a lower total cost of ownership and new functionality, potentially including gesture-based technology.”

We’ll leave the part about gestures alone; just file it under “reads the same patent applications we do” and move right along. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), however, is interesting because in 2008, even as the iPhone 3G was offered at $199, the cost of the AT&T data plan rose to $30/m making the overall TCO (over the course of the 2-year contract) higher.

Now, if Apple wants the iPhone to battle it out with Nokia in emerging markets, TCO is vitally important. But Apple hasn’t historically chosen to battle it out in the low-end PC space, and their answer to netbooks wasn’t cheaper MacBooks but the iPad. Makes it tough to see them doing it with discount iPhones.

In the US, big, colorful charts show how much you can save in terms of TCO on other networks and devices. With the iPad coming, and tiered AT&T data plans coming with it, maybe it’s not unreasonable to think a reduction in TCO is in order — not just “everything unlimited” but “overall less expensive”. Then again, AT&T isn’t hurting for subscribers or iPhone sales, so where this downward pressure would come from, if not Apple or our simply wishing it so, is unclear.

What do you think? Any chance Apple will pull “magical new plans” out of AT&T for the 4th generation iPhone?

Analyst: Apple Should Lower Price, Add New Features for 4th Gen iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Consume [$0.99 on sale - iTunes link] is the awesome little app for the those of us who don’t have unlimited anything on our iPhones… or ISPs. Yes, tiered data is a reality in some parts of the world, and we have to watch our MBs/GBs as closely as we watch our voice minutes. While I’ve been using Consume to do that on Rogers for a while now, their latest update — version 1.6 — improves support for existing providers and adds support for:

• Comcast in the US
• T-Mobile (Vertrag) in Germany
• Vodafone (Pay Monthly), T-Mobile (Pas As You Go), Tesco Clubcard in the UK
• Airtel Mobile (Postpaid), Airtel Broadband, Airtel Landline in India
• Bell (Broadband) in Canada
• Simyo (Prepaid) in France
• XNet, Snap (Prepaid), Subway Subcard in New Zealand
• SJ in Sweden
• Easy Way Tea’s in Australia

They’ve also added a new “Package Tracking” category for USPS, AAE (Australia), TNT Express (Australia), and Apple Order Status (now if Apple would just release those new MacBooks for us to track!)

And yes, it’s made by Bjango who do the great iStat [$0.99 also on sale - iTunes link] app (among others) for iPhone, and widget and menu system for the Mac. If you give it a try, let us know what you think!

Consume 1.6 Hits App Store, Goes on Sale is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog