We shoulda know the moment we lamented the lack of 4th generation iPhone (not iPhone 4G!) rumors that along would come our most mythical of rumored beasts — the iPhone on Verizon. But this time it’s no less than the Wall Street Journal that’s mongering.

Citing the elusive “people briefed on the matter”, the WSJ says Apple will likely release another GSM model this summer, just like clockwork, manufactured by the usual suspects at Hon Hai Precision Industry. A second iPhone of CDMA flavor (compatible with Verizon and Sprint) is said to be set up at Pegatron Technology Corp. for manufacturing in September.

What’s with the wonky timeline? We don’t know and no one in a position to know is talking. So take this with an iPad-sized grain of salt and speculate away in the comments!

[Thanks to Jeremy for the tip!]

WSJ jumps on the 4th gen iPhone on Verizon Rumor bandwagon! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Phew! Here’s some good old 4th generation iPhone (don’t call it iPhone 4G!) rumors to help cleanse our iPad-swamped palettes. BGR links to a video from SmartphoneMedic of what they claim is the 4th gen iPhone screen assembly fresh off the spare parts line (or wherever such things come from).

Real, fake, or really fake — check out the video after the break and let us know what you think!

[Thanks to @phufuung for the tip!]

YouTube link

4th Gen iPhone screen reportedly caught on camera is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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The iPhone and Facebook and Twitter go together like chocolate and peanut butter but just like there are a lot of tasty desert combinations, there’s a lot of ways to keep up with your social networks on the go:

• The web. Hey, it’s where most social networks started and because the iPhone has the excellent Mobile Safari web browser, you can just point it towards facebook.com, twitter.com (or any other social-network.com) and get your status on. Both Facebook and Twitter provide iPhone-optimized versions of their websites as well, though you can tap-through to the full sites.
• App Store apps like the official Facebook app [Free - iTunes link] or any of the excellent 3rd party Twitter apps. The Facebook app really came into its own with version 3.0. Version 3.1 added the much-requested push notifications, though it brought with it numerous, aggravating bugs… Twitter clients on the other hand are many and varied, from the write-centric Birdhouse [$1.99 - iTunes link] to the read-centric Reportage [$1.99 - iTunes link], with the uber-popular Tweetie [$2.99 - iTunes link] and Twitterrific [Free or $4.99 - iTunes link], and push-centric TwitBit [Free or $2.99 - iTunes link] and many others making us the envy of the platform space.

And with either of those options there’s still several things you can do with them:

• Share your status. Telling your friends who you’re with, what you’re watching, where you’re going, why you’re ticked off, and how it’s all some other friend’s fault is probably the oldest, most common use of social networks. There are even apps like qStatus [$0.99 - iTunes link] that specialize in updating them.
• Share your photos. Flickr uploads, Twitter pics, Facebook galleries — people like to show other people their family, funny, even freaky photos and social networks make it easy. Sure you can email a photo to a few people, but you can post it to as many friends as you have
• Share your gaming. “I just walked 3 meters and fell to my grisly death in…” is all over our social status’ thanks to games that offer built-in auto-Tweet and auto-Facebook options. Whether it’s for your crops, your castle, your drag-race, your FPS, or any other of a dozen games in a dozen genres, they can instantly let al your friends hear you brag (or complain!)
• Combine your logins. Facebook Connect and Twitter’s login services let you use your existing social network ID at a variety of other sites, either add-on services/apps to Facebook or Twitter, or other social networks. Hey, some people don’t want to have to remember multiple user names and passwords, you know?

We’d love Facebook to fix the 3.1 trunk, we’d love Twitter to add an official push-API, and we’d love Apple to let us multitask them all, but the iPhone remains a premiere platform for social networking and we’ve only just scratched the surface. Web or App, and what for? Tell us — how you use your iPhone to keep up with your social networks? (And if you don’t use social networks at all, let us know why not!)

How do you use social networks like Facebook and Twitter on your iPhone? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Apple.com has just dropped the megaton bomb of pre-launch hype — 11 guided-tour videos of iPad software, including Safari, Mail, Photos, Videos, YouTube, iPod, iTunes, iBooks, Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and the nuclear option — watch all. (We’re doing that one right now!)

Was Public Enemy wrong — is it time to believe the hype? Watch the videos and let us know!

[Apple via 9to5Mac]

Apple.com Launches iPad Guided Tour Videos is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Apple wants to make sure we don’t forget that their magical and revolutionary new iPad hits US Apple Retail Stores and select Best Buy big boxes this Saturday, April 3. and they’ve brought along a quote from Steve Jobs just to show they’re serious:

"iPad connects users with their apps and content in a far more intimate and fun way than ever before," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We can't wait for users to get their hands and fingers on it this weekend."

And if you still aren’t convinced, they want to make sure you know you’ll get your experience’s worth:

Apple retail stores will offer a free Personal Setup service to every customer who buys an iPad at the store, helping them customize their new iPad by setting up their email, loading their favorite apps from the App Store, and more. Also beginning Saturday morning, all US Apple retail stores will host special iPad workshops to help customers learn more about this magical new product.

TiPb wants to remind you we have a complete iPad preview, a “should you buy and which version” guide up, and an iPad discussion forum going just in case you’ve still got questions…

Apple Reminds: iPad Arrives this Saturday! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

It’s pretty much a guarantee that Apple will release a new version of iTunes to coincide with this Saturday’s iPad launch, and now MacRumors has a source claiming it will be iTunes 9.1 and contain iPad support, integration of ePub for iBooks management, Genius Mix enhancements, and bitrate conversion.

According to the source, the existing “Audiobooks” entry in the iTunes Source list will be replaced with a broader “Books” section. A similar change will made to the sources for managing content on connected devices such as iPhones, iPods, and iPads. The revamped “Books” section for connected devices will reportedly display all book content compatible with a given device for easy content management.

The bitrate conversion, which would previously automagically make 128-bit AAC files for iPod shuffle is said to be rolled out across devices in this new version.

Will we see it before Saturday? Apple would be wise to spread out the server load for this and the iPad App Store launch, so we certainly hope so!

iTunes 9.1 to Bring, iPad and iBooks ePub Support, Genius Enhancements, Bitrate Conversion? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Looks like Apple has begun to ship out pre-ordered iPads for delivery on April 3. At least many of you out there are getting your shipment notices at long last. While it likely won’t take the guys and gals in trucks a full 6 days to get to your house, Apple almost certainly has holds for delivery in place to make sure no one gets an iPad early. Still, we can dream.

Let us know if your iPad is on its way! (And what app, if any, you’re using to track the package).

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in, and appreciation to everyone in shipping-land who has to lug tons of iPads around for delivery this week!]

Apple Begins Shipping iPad. Is Yours On its Way? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Brightcove is the latest in an increasingly long line of major video outlets now offering HTML5 video for playback, in this case in-browser HTML5 for the iPad (they already support QuickTime player video for the iPhone and iPod touch). They’re going a step further, however, announcing that the Brightcove Online Video Platform is ready for HTML5 and the iPad as well.

Their platform will allow for automatic device detection, native HTML5 playback of H.264 video, and of course, specific mention that it’s ready for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. That means the New York Times, Time Magazine, and other major media outlets who already use Brightcove to render and monetize interactive video are now open to Apple’s mobile devices.

According to MacRumors]:

The new HTML5 support comes at no additional cost to existing Brightcove customers. A list of existing customers is available on Brightcove’s website and includes a large number of magazine publishers, newspaper publishers and broadcasters. It seems HTML5 has to be purposefully implemented by the customer sites as not all the same features have been deployed to Brightcove’s HTML5 implementation. However, the company has a roadmap to deploy all the same features over time.

So yeah, those bright blue lego blocks of Flash fail we saw on the New York Times site during the iPad introduction might just be a thing of the past. And as more and more sites offer HTML5 alternatives (and Adobe offers a way to compile Flash apps for iPhone), will the complaints shift from “no Flash on iPhone!”, to “where’s my HTML5 Hulu?”

Brightcove Announces Platform, Gives New York Times, Time Magazine In-Browser HTML5 Video for iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Live from GDC 2010 Rene talks to Arthur Humphry, founder of Last Day of Work about Virtual Villagers [$1.99 - iTunes link], Virtual Families [$1.99 - iTunes link], and Fish Tycoon [$0.99 on sale - iTunes link] for iPhone and iPod touch, and soon for the iPad.

One of our longer interviews, it touches on a lot of developer-centric issues like how to make a successful business given the low price-points of iPhone games. Watch along!

YouTube link

TiPb Apps 7.1: Last Day of Work (GDC 2010) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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TechCrunch links up Carnegie Mellon student Richard Hong and his pretty much pixel-perfect looking rendition of Apple’s Mac OS X Dashboard widget platform… on the iPad! The video shows not only the widgets working, but being added from the web and managed on the iPad as well.

We don’t know if Hong will submit this to the App Store, and given that the rights to many if not all those widgets are owned by other people, we’re not even sure if it could be submitted, but we do know we’d like to see something like that from Apple (given the rumors). Hey, it’s been rumored. If not, an old-school “desktop” style app using another, open widget platform would be nifty to see as well.

Video after the break. (Tap the link below the box if you’re on your iPhone or iPod touch).

Dashboard on iPad from Rich Hong on Vimeo.

Mac OS X-style Dashboard App for iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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