The white iPhone 4 is probably launching tomorrow. I say probably because you wouldn’t know it from Apple. After being announced and showcased at WWDC 2010 — some 10 months ago — and then being delayed, delayed again, and unceremoniously removed from every product and store page since, the white iPhone 4 is yet to return. You can’t see it on Apple.com. You can’t find it for pre-order at Apple Online. Apple hasn’t even seen fit to put out a press release saying the white iPhone 4 is finally going on sale tomorrow.

Could everyone have gotten it wrong and Apple isn’t going to pull the trigger tomorrow or this week even? We’ve seen the white iPhone 4 show up in online inventory systems in Europe, the US, and Canada. We’ve seen reports of the actual boxed devices arriving at resellers — even getting sold prematurely. Given that’s why Apple doesn’t like unreleased products sitting in uncontrolled inventory, it’s hard to imagine it not going on sale and soon.

Could Apple be embarrassed it took so long and just want to get the white iPhone 4 out the door with as little fuss and attention as possible? Apple is a company, not a person. They don’t have emotions, they have sales goals. Not announcing is not how you move product, especially not product you’ve spent significant time and money to bring to market. Especially not product that a percentage of your customer base has been waiting for.

Could Apple simply not want hype or crowds or excitement or lines this time? Given the difficulty in bringing the white iPhone 4 to market, could they not have ramped up production capacity? We’ve seen with previous launches that Apple doesn’t like to send potential customers home disappointed. By not announcing the release they limit the amount of people who know about it, artificially constraining demand to meet existing supply.

I’ll be heading over to my local Apple Store tomorrow. Hopefully there will be some white iPhones for sale. Hopefully there will be enough if a lot of you folks do likewise (though it doesn’t look like you’re planning on it.

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

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

TweetDeck hasn’t launched an all new version of their popular Twitter client for iPhone — they’ve launched a whole new app. It supports a ton of features:

• All major Twitter features are supported: Sending updates, retweeting (native and old-style), favourites, mentions, direct messages and searching
• Posting to multiple Twitter accounts is a breeze
• Facebook status updates, notifications, wall posts, Likes and comments are all at your fingertips
• Configurable, combined Home, Me and Inbox columns are standard, bringing all your feeds and notifications together
• Fully flexible custom columns allow the combination of any number of different feeds, from all services and all accounts. You decide what you want to see, just pinch a column and start configuring.
• Innovative navigation of Twitter profiles helps you discover new feeds that can all be added as columns at the touch of a button
• See the conversation in context with tweets above and below in detail view.
• Easily send long posts thanks to full Deck.ly support
• Clean & clear compose window features image uploading, geo-tagging and username autocomplete for @mentions. Press and hold a link to auto-shorten using j.mp
• Login with your TweetDeck account to speed through the setup process, or just provide a Twitter or Facebook account and get started.
• Jump to the top of a column with a quick tap of the iPhone status bar.

With features, however, comes complexity — starting at login and going from there. No doubt a lot of users will love the power but many more will probably shake their head and go back to something that acts more like an Apple app, or something simpler in general.

Like we said up top, it’s not a new version so it won’t show up as an update — you have to hit the link below and install the new app. If you do, let me know what you think — the Twitter client of your dreams or… of your nightmares?

[Free - iTunes link]

TweetDeck for iPhone, take 2 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

It looks like AT&T is continuing the crackdown on unofficial tethering as readers have reported another round of text messages from AT&T this morning:

AT&T Free Msg: We’ve noticed you’re continuing to enjoy the tethering feature with your smartphone service. Remember, you need a tethering plan ($45/mo, incl. 4GB) to use this feature, so we’re planning to update your line with the required plan soon. Visit att.com/dataplans or call 888-860-6789.

Last month AT&T sent out text and email notifications to iPhone users who used MyWi to tether their unlimited data plan. AT&T threatened to switch their plan over to the Data Pro 4GB tethering plan unless they called in, and some users reported success in keeping their unlimited plan when claiming they used large amounts of data from apps like Netflix and Pandora and weren’t using the tethering feature.

It appears AT&T is pretty serious about putting a stop to unofficial tethering at this point and won’t be letting up anytime soon. In addition, it was previously speculated that one of the tracking methods they used was simply targeting high data users (10GB seemed to be the threshold), but some users receiving the message have used tethering extremely sparingly, keeping their monthly data usage well below 10GB since the original message was sent last month.

Have you seen any new messages from AT&T regarding unofficial tethering? And more interestingly, do you think it’s fair for AT&T to strip users of their grandfathered unlimited data plans for using the data they’ve already paid for in an “unofficial” way? Let us know in the comments!

AT&T continues crackdown against unofficial MyWi tethering 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 upped their previous $7.9 billion in purchasing commitments to a whopping $11 billion.

That's a 39 percent increase and a record for the March quarter. Why the sudden uptick? Two reasons, most likely: The tight supply environment caused by recent calamities in Japan and the expected increases in iPad shipments.

Apple COO, Tim Cook previously said they were selling every iPad 2 they could make, comments echoed in previous conference calls about the original iPad and iPhone 4 as well. Analysts have asked Apple why they still can’t meet demand for their most popular products. These extra billions should go a long way towards answering that.

What it will mean for competing manufacturers and products and that don’t have Apple’s cash and economies of scale is uncertain. They can probably match price but will have a tough time matching margins at those prices, further increasing Apple’s profit lead and ability to make pre-payments such as these.

[Digital Daily]

Apple ensuring supplies with $11 billion in purchase commitments is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• Worldictionary: Point your iPhone's camera at any word and Worldictionary will instantly define and translate it. [$4.99 - iTunes link]

• It Happened Here: This app reveals the hidden secrets of a city by detecting a user's location and highlighting fascinating events that have occurred nearby. Now with New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. [$2.99 - iTunes link]

• Tweetbot: Update brings speed improvements, support for Posterous and Readability, and more! [$1.99 - iTunes link]

• Splash Math: A fun and innovative way to practice math. All of the included problems are aligned with state standards for 3rd grade. [$4.99 - iTunes link]

• 2Do: Update with many new features and fixes. [$6.99 - iTunes link]

Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think!

New and updated iPhone and iPad apps for Tuesday, April 26 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Are you getting a white iPhone 4? If rumors are to be be believed, tomorrow is the day you can finally get your hands on the very nearly mythic device. Almost 10 months after Apple announced it at WWDC 2010, it should be going on sale at Apple Stores, Best Buy, and a variety of carrier stores world wide.

Have you waited this long to update? Will you be swapping your nearly identical black iPhone 4 for white? Or do you have absolutely no interest at all in this and just want Apple to get on with iPhone 5 already?

Vote in the poll and give us the details in the comments!

Poll: Are you getting 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

Sony has just unveiled two tablets to take on the iPad 2. The two models will be known as the Sony S1 and Sony S2; both will run Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb. The S1 is aimed squarely at the iPad form factor and comes with a 9.4-inch screen. It will feature a Tegra 2 processor and will have 3G/4G cellular data and WiFi. An IR (infra-red) port is included as standard, to control Sony's line of Bravia televisions. Sony's Playstation Network will also be accessible.

The S2 is the interesting model as the form factor is totally different to anything we have seen before. It has two folding 5.5-inch screens that can work together or independently.

Not many more details are available at this stage as Sony say specifications are subject to change. The two models are slated for a release in the fall of this year.

Take a look at the short promo video after the break, then pop back here and let us know what your think of Sony's tablets in the comments!

[Android Central]

Sony announce two tablets to take on the iPad [the competition] 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 are a huge Steve Jobs fan and also can't get enough of the Star Wars film franchise, then your dreams may have just come true. Society 6 has just released a rather unique iPhone case that has Steve Jobs cast in a carbonite case.

The case is meant to resemble Han Solo being frozen and imprisoned in carbonite by Darth Vader, in the film "The Empire Strikes Back", this time however, it is Steve Jobs instead of Han.

The case is available now from Society 6 and comes in  iPhone 4, 3GS and 3G flavors. It is manufactured in one piece from impact resistant flexible plastic. Society 6 also do a few other similar products including t-shirts and laptop / iPad skins.

Now if anyone fancies picking one of these up, they should do so quickly. We can't see Apple or Steve being too impressed with these!

[TUAW]

Steve Jobs cast in carbonite, an iPhone case for Star Wars and Apple fans is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

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Georgia, Chad, and Rene kick off a whole new year of iPad by talking… PlayBook and Xoom? Plus iTunes Streaming, Samsung countersues, locationgate redux, and the week in apps. This is iPad Live!

Complete show notes for the week in iPad after the break!

Apple results

• Apple Q2 2011: 18.65 million iPhones, 9.02 iPods, 4.69 million iPads
• iPad online availability drops to 1-2 weeks

iTunes Streaming

• iTunes cloud storage and streaming service all ready for launch?
• iTunes music streaming service already approved by two major music labels?

News

• Samsung countersues Apple for patent infringement
• Apple time-based location tracking a bug, will be fixed?
• iPhone 6 to support LTE in 2012 via Qualcomm MDM9615? (Talk about what it means for iPad).

Apps

• Real Racing 2 HD updated with 1080p video-out
• HBO Go to bring Game of Thrones, Sopranos, movies, more to iPhone and iPad
• Sony releases Crackle, free movie and TV streaming app

Hosts

• Georgia (@GeorgiaTiPb
• Chad Garrett (@ichadman)
• Rene (@reneritchie)

Credits

Thanks to the TiPb iPad Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

iPad Live 53: Season 2 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Getting into iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad gaming and curious how to start a multiplayer online session with your friends? iOS has become a huge platform for gaming so it comes as no surprise Apple created Game Center to fill just that multiplayer need. Hit the jump to find out how to get in on the action!

Setting up Game Center

First you’ll need to create a Game Center ID if you don’t already have one. Simply register via the app. Now you’re ready to add friends. You can search for them via their e-mail address too. If you want random opponents, you can choose that option as well. Or if you’re looking for new friends, check out our TiPb Game Center ID thread in our forums.

Creating a multiplayer game

This is where some users seem to get confused. You won’t actually create a multiplayer game via Game Center. You’ll create it through the actual game app you want to challenge someone in. In Fruit Ninja, for example, one of the game modes is multiplayer. Once you select that, you can choose to play a random opponent or you can send an invite to a friend. It will load all your Game Center friends in-app. Your friend must also have the app installed.

You can see what gaming apps you and your friends have in common within Game Center. Simply choose your friend and see what games you have in common. If the game supports multiplayer, you can then proceed to the app of your choice and invite them to battle!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you'd like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it's especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we'll even give ya a reward…)

Daily Tip: How to create a multiplayer game via Game Center is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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