TiPb iPhone Forum user shaolinfinest let us know last night, and many others have since confirmed, that Best Buy was starting to give away InvisibleShielf protective side films for iPhone 4:

I’m not sure if this has been discussed but Best Buy is starting to receive Zagg kits called “iPhone 4fix” or something like that. Basically Zagg sent us a bunch of invisishield sides to put on customers iPhone 4’s and they are free. The only disclaimer on the kit is that it says shield and install is free but install is up to the associate if they want to put it on or not. Before going in, call your local Best Buy if you are like me and don’t want to put a case on it. I installed the sides today and it was easy to put on and feels ok so far.

Whether or not InvisibleShield provides any protection from signal loss if you’re prone to such things in your area is debatable, but it’s interesting to see how other retailers are competing with Apple’s free bumper program.

Speaking of which, the TiPb iPhone 4 store has the full on front-and-back-protecting InvisibleShield and BodyGuardz in stock, and the Case-Mate Clear Armor available for pre-order. Just don’t use as much liquid to apply it as Dieter did…

We’ve also started to hear that folks are receiving their free Apple bumpers, in some cases a month or more ahead of the previously suggested delivery date. Those who asked for 3rd party cases instead haven’t had any such luck so far.

Of course, Apple’s free bumpers are pretty much restricted to black, and the TiPb iPhone 4 store has more cases in more colors than you can shake a gyro at, so check out Leanna going red, or pick out a color all your own.

See Apple and Best Buy, you don’t get to have all the fun!

[Okay, that was snarky enough to earn a "sponsored" tag]

Apple bumpers arriving, Best Buy giving away free side film for iPhone 4 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

You know the drill, come 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am BST, we’ll be taking over the front page of http://www.tipb.com to talk everything iPhone…

…and Android Central’s Phil Nickinson will be joining us to talk about Apple’s little Droid X antennagate video. Fun. Fun.

Be here, and be ready to chat. We want to hear from you.

iPhone live tonight, 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am BST is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

MediaMemo is saying Time Inc. is having trouble setting up their own subscription service for a Sports Illustrated iPad magazine app:

Last month, the publisher was set to launch a subscription version of its Sports Illustrated iPad app, where consumers would download the magazines via Apple's iTunes, but would pay Time Inc. directly. But Apple rejected the app at the last minute, forcing the Time Warner (TWX) unit to sell single copies, using iTunes as a middleman, multiple sources tell me.

First, at the iPhone 3.0 event in 2009, Apple showed off App Store subscriptions for magazines alongside in-app purchase, but while in-app purchases are now fairly common, I’m hard pressed to find a showcase example for App Store subscriptions. What happened to them? Are publishers not eager to embrace them or has Apple not provided the mechanism?

Second, it looks like Time is trying to go around the App Store for subscriptions, kind of like what Amazon and Audible do for users who buy books via Mobile Safari on the web but can then download their library in-app. Is Time trying to do something similar to that but not getting their app approved?

So what happened? The Time Inc. insiders I talked to don't have a clear answer, presumably because they can't get one from Apple itself. One theory: Apple is concerned about the publisher's plans for the consumer data it would collect with each subscription. A darker one: Steve Jobs loves the idea of digital magazines and wants to control the market for himself.

“Darker” certainly scores the melodramatic points, but Apple had no problem rolling out iBooks while still allowing the aforementioned Amazon Kindle app and a host of other competitors. They’ve let streaming music and video apps in to vie for music money against iTunes.

Due to the opaque nature of the App Store approval process, and Apple’s secrecy surrounding unannounced features and technology, there’s never an easy way to tell if a delay is political, business related, or because Steve Jobs will be announcing some new magazine-focused API for subscriptions in September.

These are huge companies, there’s a lot of money on the table, and a critical amount of personal user data behind it. I’m sure we’ll see a lot of foot stomping and fist shaking, and press leaks to spin the story. I’m sure we’ll hear cries that evil Apple is denying big publishers their control, and big publishers are gouging users for digital copies. Fine. At the end of the day I want what I think most end users want — an easy, secure, privacy-protecting way to get my magazines (and comics!) on my iPhone and iPad at a fair price. Apple wins. Publishers win. We win.

Let’s figure that out, shall we?

[MediaMemo, thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Apple and magazine publishers at odds over subscriptions? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

If you’re looking for a thin, durable, and stylish skin case to add a splash of color to your iPhone 4, the Case-Mate Gelli Case for iPhone 4 may be exactly what you’re after. It’s thermoplastic material feels great in your hand and it’s chic design is sure to make heads turn!

The Case-Mate Gelli is made from a thermoplastic translucent material that Case-Mate claims is lighter, softer and more resilient than silicone and rubber cases. It adds just enough traction to prevent your precious iPhone from sliding on surfaces, yet smooth enough to allow your iPhone to be easily removed from tight jean pockets.

This case offers great protection to the iPhone 4 while still allowing easy access to all ports and controls. The spaces between the dock connector and mic/speaker phone are also exposed allowing 3rd party cables to easily plug into the iPhone 4.

The fit of the Case-Mate Gelli is very snug and thin. However, since the material is thin, the lip that curls around the sides of the iPhone 4 and onto the screen can be easily pushed off the screen. This allows for dust to easily collect under the case and I catch myself wiping out dust several times a day. However, I have not experienced and scratching to the screen because of this.

The Case-Mate Gelli is a very fashionable case and is available in 6 colors. Pink, Aurora (yellow), and Tomato have the kaleidoscope design (see pictures for a closer look). Teal Blue, Clear, and Gray come in the checkmate design. This style has squares and triangles instead of circles.

If you're looking for something thin, stylish, and protective, check out the Case-Mate Gelli Case for iPhone 4 available now from the TiPb iPhone 4 accessory store.

Pros

• Thin, flexible, yet protective
• Fashionable
• Access to all ports and controls

Cons

• Collects dust on the edges of the screen

Case-Mate Gelli Case for iPhone 4 – accessory review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

The Street is claiming that the reason Apple has delayed the white iPhone 4 until “later this year” is due to light leaking around the edges of the glass. This according to the ever popular “person familiar with”, in this case the manufacturing process.

As the source described it, if it were a metal or plastic material, a simple coating would fill in the gaps and block the internal light. Glass is an entirely different issue.

Take this with a white iPhone 4-sized grain of salt, of course.

[TheStreet]

White iPhone 4 delays caused by light leak? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Apple has just announced an update for Safari 5 that enables extensions (plugins), something Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome have had for a while now. We’re happy for our big desktop brothers, of course. Really. Truly. But in our minds a lot of the stuff you’ll read about after the break would be even better suited on mobile devices like iPhone and iPad. That’s where convenient extensions like password managers would shine.

Maybe iOS 5?

Read on for the good bits from the presser.

[Apple PR, Apple Safari Extensions Gallery]

"Safari 5 has been a big hit, and user response to the innovative new Safari Reader has been fantastic," said Brian Croll, Apple's vice president of OS X Product Marketing. "We're thrilled to see so many leading developers creating great extensions and think our users are going to love being able to customize Safari."

"Millions of our customers already use Amazon Wish Lists to store items they want to buy for themselves or receive as gifts," said Gianna Puerini, vice president of Worldwide Design and Community at Amazon.com. "With Safari 5, we were able to quickly build the Add to Amazon Wish List extension that lets customers add items from any website to their Amazon Wish List with the click of a button."

"We're excited to continue working closely with Apple to bring visually compelling Bing experiences to Safari," said Jeff Henshaw, general manager of Bing User Experience. "The Bing Extension for Safari brings Bing search intelligence to everyday browsing with Safari. When a user selects text in Safari, Bing instantly recognizes what they might need and pops up helpful, informative tips, from real time maps and driving directions to real time translations to direct web search results."

"Using web standard technologies and Safari's extension builder, we developed an MLB.com extension to give fans another way to consume up-to-the-moment baseball content, including live look-ins to games, right from the Safari toolbar," said Noah Garden, executive vice president, Commerce and Sponsorship at MLB.com.

The Safari Extensions Gallery is accessible from the Safari menu or at extensions.apple.com. Users can download and install extensions from the gallery with a single click, and there's no need to restart the browser. Extensions can be automatically updated and are easily managed within Safari. Users can enable or disable individual extensions, or turn off all extensions with one click.

Safari Extensions are built with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript web standards, and can have all the power and functionality of advanced web applications. Every Safari Extension is signed with a digital certificate from Apple to prevent tampering and to verify that updates to the extension are from the original developer. Safari Extensions are sandboxed, so they can't access information on a user's system or communicate with websites aside from those specified by the developer. For increased stability, Safari Extensions run solely in the browser. "Our extension for Safari is a great way for readers to get all of the latest breaking news and all the important stories, blogs and columns they want to see," said Denise Warren, general manager, NYTimes.com at The New York Times Company. "While you browse other sites in Safari, our extension checks for updates and slides in new headlines and thumbnails, so you won’t miss a thing."

"Creating our Twitter extension in Safari couldn’t have been easier," said Jason Goldman, vice president of Product at Twitter. "By providing features like the ability to tweet about a page and view trending topics, we’ve created a simple way to deliver relevant, interesting content to people regardless of where they are on the web."

The Safari Extensions Gallery is accessible from the Safari menu or at extensions.apple.com. Users can download and install extensions from the gallery with a single click, and there's no need to restart the browser. Extensions can be automatically updated and are easily managed within Safari. Users can enable or disable individual extensions, or turn off all extensions with one click.

Safari Extensions are built with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript web standards, and can have all the power and functionality of advanced web applications. Every Safari Extension is signed with a digital certificate from Apple to prevent tampering and to verify that updates to the extension are from the original developer. Safari Extensions are sandboxed, so they can't access information on a user's system or communicate with websites aside from those specified by the developer. For increased stability, Safari Extensions run solely in the browser.

Apple releases Safari 5 extensions for Mac/Windows. Can we have it for iPhone and iPad as well? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

With iOS 4, the built-in Notes app gets the ability to sync with multiple IMAP accounts, including MobileMe and Gmail. When you set up MobileMe or Gmail (not via Google Sync/ActiveSync/Exchange but via the Gmail button) there’s a toggle to turn notes sync on or off.

If you enable notes sync for multiple accounts, you get a new Accounts button at the top left of the Notes app. Tapping it takes you to a new screen where you can choose to view All Notes, just the notes on your iPhone, or just the notes that are synced via IMAP to your email account(s).

Those notes then appear in your desktop and web-based IMAP clients as well, like Apple’s Mac Mail.app (in Marker Felt, ugh!) and Gmail.com.

If you’re using multiple IMAP Notes accounts, let us know how it’s working for you. For more features, see our complete iOS 4 walkthrough.

iOS 4 features: Sync multiple IMAP accounts with Notes 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 been a little while now since iOS 4 was released so we thought we’d check back and see how it’s working (or not) for those of you with the 2008 iPhone 3G?

My iPhone 3G (above, yeah, cracked perhaps a tad poetically) really chugged away at first, but after a clean install (not restored from backup) and turning off Spotlight Search, it’s working much better now. Of course, if you’ve gotten used to an iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS, it’s obviously slower but if its your one and only — or newly acquired hand-me-down, it’s almost as fast as it was under iOS 3.x.

Let us know your experience, and if you’ve come across any other speed tips we’d love to hear them.

How’s your iPhone 3G on iOS 4 working? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Apple Peel 520 is an adapter case that just might hack your iPod touch into something closer to an iPhone, courtesy of a VoIP client, SIM card, and a dream:

Powered by an Infineon baseband chip, this adapter not only offers voice calling and text messaging (presumably requiring a jailbroken iPod touch for the apps; GPRS not possible yet), but it also doubles up as an 800mAh battery and provides 4.5 hours of call time or 120 hours of standby juice.

Whether this ever hits the market in Asia — let alone North America — is anyone’s guess but if it did show up, would you want?

[Engadget]

Apple Peel case attempts to turn iPod touch into iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

We’re guessing Apple will get an AT&T Captivate (or similar Samsung Galaxy S-class device) death-grip video up sooner or later, but in the meantime… Scoble to the rescue!

He shows both devices in the same area on the same network dropping bars and, he says, calls. We get it. Manufacturers aren’t perfect. Phones aren’t perfect. How many more videos will we get before this meme dies like bars beneath watery flesh?

And no, it’s not an outsource, just yet another video making its hits off the antennagate saga where no phone, on no carrier is safe. Now before anyone cries “yeah, but iPhone 4 only needs a death-touch, not a death-grip!“, we’ve already seen other videos showing the Galaxy getting killed by a single finger as well.

Of course, iPhone 4 is iPhone 4 in every market and on every carrier, so if anyone has a problem it’s very easy to find out about everyone else who has that problem. With other devices, if someone has a problem with a Captivate will that get tracked to someone else with a problem on a Vibrant on T-Mobile, or a Galaxy in Europe?

No doubt Consumer Reports is on top of that.

[@scobleizer]

Scoble death-grips Android Captivate before Apple is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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