Is the glass backing of iPhone 4 susceptible to scratching and breaking when used with a slide-on case under certain conditions? GDGT, the gadget-centric social site run by Peter Rojas and Ryan Block has sent out their latest newsletter with an article titled “With Antennagate over, is Glassgate next for the iPhone 4?” In it Block claims:

According to my sources both inside and outside Apple, after Antennagate the iPhone engineering team identified another potential design flaw that appears to have sent them into a quiet lockdown, and has them working behind the scenes in what’s been described to me as something of a quiet panic to preempt any further tarnishing the iPhone brand. Apple has apparently found that non-bumper style cases — specifically those that slide onto the iPhone 4, which are occasionally prone to particulate matter getting caught between the rear of the phone and the case — can cause unexpected scratching that could quickly develop into full-on cracking or even much larger fracturing of the entire rear pane of glass. To put it another way: Apple is afraid you might buy a standard slide-on iPhone case, put it on your phone, and then discover the next time you take it off that the entire back of your device has been shattered by no fault of your own.

He claims Apple engineering has gone into lockdown over the matter and Apple’s trying to make sure no more slide-on cases make it into circulation, if possible.

Now I’ve used several slide-on cases for my iPhone 4 over the last few months and I keep in in my pocket where it gets all manner of particulate matter, and I’ve never had a problem nor has anyone here at TiPb (and we know our cases). However, even a few antenna videos became a huge PR problem for Apple and this could just as easily be another one depending how it pans out and how — or even if — Apple responds.

Of course, Georgia’s been asking from the beginning why Apple would go with a glass back given all the associated risk that comes with it, even from an accidental drop.

In the meantime we’re asking you, if you use a slide on case, have you had any problems?

Slide-on cases scratching, breaking iPhone 4 backs? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

A picture circulating the internet, while not a glimpse at iPad 2 future, turns out to be a glimpse of current iPad past — an idea Apple might have turned away from at literally the last minute according to Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky:

According to a trusted Engadget source, what the image actually shows is a rejected concept from the current generation iPad. The story goes that originally there had been plans to feature two dock connections, but close to the last minute a design decision was made to kill the landscape port.

Given how much Apple dislikes ports or buttons or anything that interferes with their clean, crisp lines, I’m not surprised it went and doubt anything so “ambidockular” will return, but would you have wanted it?

[Mission Repair via Gizmodo via Engadget]

iPad originally had 2 dock ports, portrait and landscape? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Moments ago, prominent Chronic Dev Team member Joshua Hill (p0sixninja) announced via twitter that “Things have progressed to the point where we don’t expect anymore roadblocks. ETA for greenpois0n is 10/10/10 at 10:10:10AM.” This hotly anticipated Jailbreak should bring another large contingent into the Jailbreaking community as many new iPhone users who have not been able to jailbreak 4.0.2 and 4.1 will now be able to jailbreak their device.

While details of the jailbreak, such as whether it will be tethered or how it will be implemented have not been announced, that information will likely be given shortly… As a reminder, it is a good idea to save your SHSH blobs with TinyUmbrella if you have not already done so.

[Joshua Hill's twitter page, Tiny Umbrella Tutorial]

by Farbod

Greenpois0n iOS 4.1 Jailbreak announced! [Jailbreak] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe via iTunes

Verizon iPhone could be real, Apple’s latest iPhone ad, Apple TV, AirPlay, and the war for our living room, do Androids outsell iPhones, and Phil from Android Central talks openness. This is iPhone live!

Credits

Thanks to the TiPb iPhone accessory store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

iPhone live 120: Verizon horizon 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 October now and still no white iPhone 4 in sight — but are you still waiting on one?

Apple originally announced the white iPhone 4 along with the black one but production delays have now put the release date off until the end of 2010. Are you dead-set on sticking to your previous iPhone or other handset until Apple finally gives you the color you want? Or has your desire for immediacy trumped your fashion sense and made you by, if not the right iPhone, then the right-now iPhone?

Vote in the poll up top and let us know just how long you’ll hold out for the white iPhone, or just how over it you are, in the comments below.

Are you still waiting on a white 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

The Wall Street Journal has updated their article from yesterday and made it 100% crystal clear that they’re not talking about some random CDMA iPhone but an iPhone for Verizon’s CDMA network. If they’re right, it’s done folks. AT&T exclusivity is over.

Verizon Wireless has been meeting with Apple, adding capacity and testing its networks to prepare for the heavy data load by iPhone users, according to one person familiar with the matter. The carrier is seeking to avoid the kind of public-relations hit that AT&T took when the boom in data-hungry iPhones overtaxed its network, especially in New York and San Francisco.

iPhone-on-Verizon users, however, would be even more eager to avoid locked down search, bloatware, locked down aGPS, Verizon app stores, etc. And if Verizon even hints at putting iPhone on BOGO Steve Jobs will be reaching for his ninja stars faster than you can say “Whoosh!”

That’s where it goes back to what TiPb has been writing about all along — the technology is in place, it’s the Apple/Verizon deal that’s the hold up. It’s something they couldn’t do in 2007 when Apple was an unknown in mobile and Verizon wanted to own the music store, and now that Apple has a hit phone and Verizon has the Droid line, what gets it done in 2010?

With Android, Google has given Verizon a platform powerful and far more malleable than than iOS will ever be, and that would seem to make them far less likely to bend in face of Apple’s desire to own the end-user experience. It’s why I still think it’s possible Verizon will roll their own, Android-derived V-OS — or just make a UI like Sprint ID — in the future.

If the iPhone on Verizon deal is done as WSJ suggests, it’s one of three ways:

1. Verizon has insisted on doing with iPhone what they’ve done with Android, Palm, and pretty much every other smartphone they’ve ever gotten their claws on, and Apple blinked.
2. Apple told Verizon they’re selling the phone as-is, just like the AT&T iPhone but with a different radio, and Verizon blinked.
3. A compromise was reached, similar to Apple holding back on MMS and Tethering for AT&T or removing Wi-Fi from the original China Unicom iPhone, and they both blinked… a little.

Option 3 seems the most likely, an iPhone as we all know and love it with a few concessions to make Verizon happy. As a consumer I’m hoping Apple stands up to Verizon as they’ve stood up to past carriers, and Verizon users get the same iPhone pretty much everyone else has.

iPhone as-is makes tons of money for Apple and AT&T. It’ll make tons of money for Verizon too. Hopefully that’s the bottom line here.

[WSJ]

Apple, Verizon, and iPhone control: who’ll blinked? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

During a press event today, Facebook announced new Groups, which aim to simplify and make social interaction more communal, data portability which sounds like it takes a little of the wall off Facebook’s garden, and application control, which should let you better decide who gets your data.

Mashable’s got the goods on all of it:

Groups are closed by default (but can be secret or open) and are designed to be spaces where small groups of friends share information, with each group controlled by the entirety of its members — an important new direction for Facebook. The group chat feature is just as it sounds; members can participate in back-and-forth IM conversations with everyone in the group at the same time.

On the data portability front, Facebook has now made it possible to download all of the content and information that you have added to Facebook. This means that you can download your photos, videos, wall posts, conversation threads and status updates.

How — and of course when — we’ll see groups implemented on the iPhone Facebook app is anyone’s guess, as is when — or if — we’ll see a Facebook app for iPad. We did get Places fairly quickly in the US and more and more countries are rolling out every week, so it could be on it’s way.

While we wait and see, what do you think of the changes in general?

[Mashable, Mashable]

Facebook announces new Groups, data portability, application control is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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