A reader on The Verge, Timothy Collins, had recently posited an interesting theory on how Apple might implement a 4-inch screen in the iPhone 5. Basically, he thought that they could cram a larger touchscreen without changing the basic iPhone 4 chassis or altering the Retina-grade pixel density. Another forum-goer picked up the theory and went to town describing how apps would be reformatted and how fullscreen video would be cropped. The display would maintain the 1.94-inch width, but be bumped up to 3.49 inches long, resulting in a 640 x 1152 resolution. That changes the aspect ratio from 3:2 to 9:5, which is significantly more widescreen-friendly. Such a display would fit on the 4.5″ x 2.3″ footprint of the current iPhone while providing 20% more screen space, though the home button and earpiece might need a bit of reworking.

Now, this wasn’t much more than a neat hypothetical idea until Jon Gruber commented “Methinks ‘Colin’ wasn't merely guessing or idly speculating.” Developers might have a few changes to make in order to adapt to the new screen size, but overall, the idea is pretty sound, if only in theory. Let’s put it this way: could Apple reasonably release another iPhone while keeping the display size at 3.5 inches? What are the odds that they’re willing to increase the physical dimensions to do so? Right now, screen real estate is my biggest complaint about the iPhone, and though I’m not asking Apple to release something the size of the Galaxy Note, it would be nice to see something in the 3.7 – 4-inch range. What do you guys think? Could this theory fly?

Source: Daring Fireball, The Verge

All Things D has announced that Apple CEO Tim Cook has been appointed as the opening-night speaker at its 10^th All Things Digital conference.

Walt Mossberg and I could not be more thrilled to announce that Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, will be the opening-night speaker at our 10th D: All Things Digital conference. It will be Cook's first appearance at D, as well as his first time being onstage at an event not run by Apple or for investors since he was named CEO last August.

Cook will follow in the footsteps of the late Steve Jobs who made half a dozen appearances at the All Things D Conference over the past ten years; his last appearance was in 2010. Cook will be joined by a host of other high profile speakers; already confirmed are New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz. The All Things Digital conference will take place between May 29 and May 31, 2012.

Source: All Things D

AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint have agreed to create a shared database of stolen cellphones in order to lock them down and reduce resale value. Once a phone is identified as stolen, carriers would be able to block it from getting service from any of the service providers. Over the next six months,  AT&T and T-Mobile will develop databases like the ones Sprint and Verizon already have in place, then in the following year, they’ll all be integrated, and smaller regional carriers will follow suit afterwards. We all know that the iPhone is a hot commodity in the shady crowd, and with LTE becoming more prevalent, it makes simply unlocking a phone and popping in a new SIM card very easy.

It’s entirely possible that anyone unwittingly buying a stolen iPhone may be unfairly cut off from service, but at least this shared database should deter anyone from knowingly purchasing burgled handsets. If SIM cards are going to be tied to particular devices, this system also has the potential to block legitimate SIM-swapping, but the details of the shared database have yet to be nailed down.

Research data shows that of the 26,000 electronics robberies in New York in the first 10 months of 2011, 86% were of cellphones.

The U.K., France, Germany, and Australia are already implementing something like this, and have seen some reasonable success in reducing phone theft. Apple’s Find my iPhone app has already proven useful in recovering stolen iOS gadgets, but it’s not enough if a thief is wily enough to keep it powered down before popping out the SIM card. That said, do the pros of a shared database of stolen iPhones outweigh the potential con of further-restricted SIM card slot?

Source: WSJ

Stephen Hackett of 512pixels.net fame used to work as an Apple Genius and he’s chosen to share his exploits and adventures behind the glass, wood, and aluminum curtain in Bartending: Memoirs of an Apple Genius. He’s also used his considerable prowess as a writer to do so in insightful, humorous form. Here’s the teaser, and it’s a good one:

Being one of the most successful companies in the world has made anything Apple-related newsworthy and special, including working in its retail stores. The truth is that selling computers at the Apple Store isn't that much different from selling them anywhere else, but it is better.

It's better because Apple is different than most other companies. Despite its monstrous success and growth the last few years, the company has not lost its focus on providing excellent experiences for its customers.

The Apple Store is the place where those experiences are made far better or far worse. Being on the front lines means gathering some great war stories. Stephen is here to share a few of his.

From the opening salvo of a young college student who ruined a MacBook in the most unfortunate way, to the trials and tribulations of being on the front end of the iPhone 3G and the MobileMe launch, Hackett pulls few punches. By the end of the book, the Apple Genius will be a little less mysterious, a little more human, and every bit as impressive.

Bartending: Memoirs of an Apple Genius is available now in Amazon Kindle and ePub (iBooks compatible) formats for just $4.99.

Get it now at GeniusMemoirs.com.

XMG Studios announced the first official Ghostbuster game for mobile at PAX East 2012 last week. Ghostbusters: Paranormal Blast is ambitiously going to tackle both augmented reality and location-based genres; different spots around town will have a random ghost inhabiting it, and your job is to, well, bust it. After starting your ghost hunt, you point your iPhone or iPad around to find your target, and try to neutralize it with sweet, sweet proton ray justice. The ghost moves around a fair bit, so you have to stay sharp, but once they’re sufficiently weakened, you can throw out your trap to end the maligned spirit’s tiny reign of chaos. You earn experience points and gather unlockable items as you go, such as virtual collectible cards and new guns. Achievements with Game Center support should also be ready for launch.

As nice as it would be to form a team with your ghostbustin’ buddies, it doesn’t sound like multiplayer support will be available in the initial release. It sure would be fun to try avoid crossing streams with friends, but something tells me it’s hard enough to get one person waving their iPhone around at lunch in a spat of augmented reality dorkery, nevermind two at the same time, barking orders at one another in the middle of a diner. Still, XMG has longtime experience making augmented reality games, and Ghostbusters doesn’t look like it’s going to disappoint.

Expect Ghostbusters: Paranormal Blast out this summer for $0.99.

The SGP GLAS.t Screen Protector is simply the best iPhone screen protector I’ve ever used. By far.

If you switched from a phone with a plastic screen to the iPhone’s spectacular glass screen, then you know how different the feeling is. It’s like night and day. Glass is just so much easier to slide, swipe, pinch, flick and use than plastic. For everything from basic navigation to good old game plat, glass is the feeling you want. And it’s exactly the feeling the SGP GLAS.t Screen Protector for iPhone gives you.

Although I’ve used a lot of screen protectors and films over the years, I’ve never stuck with any of them precisely because they made my beautiful glass iPhone screen feel like cheap, sticky plastic. Every swipe just felt wrong. The SGP GLAS.t Screen Protector suffers from none of that. It feels almost exactly like the iPhone screen. The reason for that is simple — GLAS.t has a hardness of 8-9H, which they say is three times stronger than regular PET film.

That also makes it incredibly scratch resistant, so contact with keys, loose change, and other common pocket objects isn’t a problem. It is a high-density material, however, so if you drop it from high enough it could chip — but better the inexpensive, easily replaceable GLAS.t than your expensive, not easily replaceable iPhone screen and digitizer, right? The GLAS.t is also specifically designed to break into small, non-sharp pieces so it’s not as dangerous as a traditional glass product.

The GLAS.t sticks to your iPhone by virtue of a strong silicon adhesive and once in place it transfers capacitive touch input effortlessly between your finger or stylus and your iPhone. I noticed no missed multi-touch moments or any lag whatsoever. Because it’s a solid layer, it will add slightly more thickness (0.4mm) to your iPhone than the almost two-dimensional plastic films, but the difference in tactile feel more than makes up for it. It eclipses it.

Because of the thickness, however, SGP includes several Home button extenders that you can use to make the Home button easier to press. You don’t have to use them, they just turn — for lack of a better term! — your iPhone Home button from an innie to an outie. You get black, white, pink, and green options. I much prefer the basic black one.

The GLAS.t is also oleophobic, just like the iPhone screen, so it repels oil and finger smudges and is much easier to keep clean. (SGP nicely includes a microfiber cloth to help with just that.)

The good

• Feels just like iPhone glass — spectacular!
• Oleophobic for easier cleaning
• Scratch resistant

The bad

• Not as thin or chip-resistant as plastic.

The conclusion

The feel of glass is just so much better than the feel of plastic that once you try the SGP GLAS.t I don’t think you’ll ever be able to go back. It’s easy to put on, easy to clean, it’s scratch proof, and it just looks and works so much better than a plastic screen protector. The best compliment I can give the GLAS.t is that after a while it doesn’t feel like you’re using a screen protector at all, it just feels like you’re using the same silky smooth glass surface you’ve always been using.

It’s the best screen protector I’ve ever used (and a lot of us here at Mobile Nations are now absolutely hooked on them).

$29.95 – Buy now

Being in a gritty far-future sci-fi universe with big honkin’ guns doesn’t mean politeness goes out the window, just wait your turn to blow the bad guy away.

Hunters 2 is a relatively new game for iPhone which corners a very specific (but hardcore) niche. It’s a turn-based tactical combat game where you tailor futuristic mercenaries with your choice of skills and gear over the course of several harrowing missions. You have a squad of troops that are set up on terrain with a square grid, who each take turns moving, shooting enemies, healing, defending, and engaging in all sorts of other maneuvers. As you play your soldiers gain experience points, eventually allowing them to level up and giving you the option to tweak their specialties. You also win cash for completing levels, which can be spent on upgrading gear. Of course, you can always buy in-game money with real cash through in-app purchases if you’re the impatient type. You can also win in-game money and loot for clicking on mobile ads. Overall, I found Hunters 2 wasn’t too pushy with those kinds of microtransactions, which is always nice. Once you’ve plowed through the single-player campaign, there are five fresh missions available daily. Unfortunately, there’s no multiplayer just yet, but honestly, the AI is challenging enough as is. It’s a Universal app, so you can play it on both iPhone and iPad after buying it once, plus there’s full Game Center support for leaderboards.

The story of the game takes place in a dystopian future where corporations rule the galaxy, and mercenaries are hired to implement their will. Early on, your ragtag team is double-crossed by an employer, and they quickly get roped into a conflict against a burgeoning alien menace. Throughout the game, you’ll deal with vicious aliens in close combat as well as other soldiers competing for your contracts. The story isn’t what really makes Hunters 2, though – it’s the fine-tuned gameplay. Seemingly insignificant strategic decisions, like moving that extra square or not facing the right direction while defending can make or break a mission. Establishing line of sight is a huge part of the game, and often you’ll encounter tight passages where your own allies will block off support.

Veteran gamers familiar with older titles like the original Fallout, X-COM, and Syndicate, will be well-versed in the turn-based combat/role-playing playstyle. What really differentiates it from the more casual games like Hero Academy is that your characters progress, gain skills, and expand their equipment over time. It doesn’t take long before you become really heavily invested in team members; after playing Hunters 2 for a few hours, you’ll be visibly wincing when your favourite guy goes down. Personally, I like spending time meticulously deliberating on my next move, but some may find that pace of gameplay too slow and plodding. Replay of campaign missions might also not be quite up to snuff, since enemy positions remain more or less the same. Rodeo Games offers increasing difficulty levels, including a hardcore mode where soldiers die permanently if they go down in a mission, but I find it challenging enough as is that I have to repeat most levels at least twice. The real replayability comes from the daily missions.

The amount of customization adds a ton of depth to gameplay, but may be a bit too much for casual players. Let’s take talent trees for example. There’s one generic set of talents that you can pick for any of mercenaries. They span the usual areas – increasing hitpoints, increasing damage, etc. Every soldier has access to two other skill trees with more specialized abilities, such as scouting, survival, or support. Depending on which combinations of talent trees a soldier has access to, they get a cool (but mostly useless) title, like Arbiter, Devastator, Stalker, or Sentinel. What this boils down to is that every time one of your soldiers levels up, you have to pick between at least 14 different talents, on top of equipping new weapons you’ve found, bought or crafted. Multiply that by however many soldiers leveled up in a given mission, and you can be quickly overwhelmed with options.

The music in Hunters 2 is subdued and ominous, and is wonderfully paired with graphics ripe with gritty textures. Although the game itself takes place in a mostly-unimpressive 2D plane, zooming in and rotating the map is extremely fluid, the wide array of high-tech gunfire has impressive lighting effects, and the 3D models used in gameplay and on the title screen are very impressive. Though there are a lot of things to manage between missions, the user interface has been laid out intelligently, and lets you kit out your team with minimal fuss.

The good

• Deep, rich gameplay
• Excellent sound and graphics, despite 2D layout
• Unobtrusive but beneficial microtransactions

The bad

• Complexity may be overwhelming
• Pacing may be too slow for some
• A little on the pricey side

The conclusion

Overall, Hunters 2 will appeal to hardened turn-based strategy gamers, but may offer an overwhelming array of options for more casual players (who should probably stick with Hero Academy). As soon as this game gets multiplayer support, I could see it keeping a permanent spot on my iPhone.

$4.99 – Download Hunters 2 Now

If a carrier, like AT&T, wants to improve profitability on iPhone sales, it has to do so by reducing the subsidy. The only way to reduce the subsidy is to get Apple to drop its pricing, or to sell at a higher contract price

Yesterday, on Wall Street, we saw something rare. An Apple analyst downgraded the stock from a "buy" to "neutral" rating. Most analysts who cover Apple are incredibly bullish. So it's interesting to think about why this analyst, Walter Piecyk from BTIG Research, disagrees.

I haven't seen his research report with my own eyes, so I'm relying on the good reporting done by AllThingsD here. The crux of the downgrade reasoning seems to come down to subsidies.

Apple sells its latest iPhones for over $600. This is well known by most industry pundits. This is how Apple can make such healthy margins compared to most other players in the market. Analyst speak for this price is ASP, or "average selling price".

Carriers then subsidize the phone. In the US, typically the sticker price to a consumer is $199 on a two year contract. So the carrier is forking over more than $400 just to bring the customer onto their network.

This wouldn't be a problem if the $400+ subsidy was a one time thing. But it isn't. Every two years, customers are eligible to resign a new contract, and grab another subsidized phone. Many carriers, like AT&T, also allow you to upgrade early (before contract expiry), at a higher price. But that higher price still bakes in a huge subsidy on the phone.

Piecyk says, "We expect post-paid wireless operators to remain firm in their plan to stunt the pace of phone upgrades in 2012 and we expect to see some initial evidence of their success in the current quarter."

He estimates that AT&T will implement stricter upgrade policies, and other carriers may follow suit. This could lead to fiscal Q3 iPhone sales of only $27.5 billion, or about $1 billion less than the average estimates (the Street calls this "consensus"). Remember Q3 is Apple's June quarter since its fiscal year ends in September.

I don't think it makes sense for carriers to spend tons of cash to let customers upgrade such an expensive phone one year into a contract. And beyond this, I think the average consumer doesn't want to upgrade that early. While Piecyk may have a valid argument for a short term weakness in Apple stock, I want to think about this longer term.

I think the real risk to Apple could come from ASP pressure, not a small change in upgrade pricing. The carriers don't like paying $600+ for iPhones. Most competing high-end smartphones cost less.

If a carrier, like AT&T, wants to improve profitability on iPhone sales, it has to do so by reducing the subsidy. The only way to reduce the subsidy is to get Apple to drop its pricing, or to sell at a higher contract price (say $299 instead of $199).

Both of these will be incredibly hard to execute. Unless there is collusion between carriers, it is hard to imagine that one of them would be willing to raise the iPhone contract price on its own. It would be a sure way to drive all customers to the other carriers. Apple may well have a contract with carriers that defines contract pricing, too.

Apple is also unlikely to respond to requests for better pricing from carriers. Apple sees itself in the position of power, which also happens to be an accurate view. They sell a premium product at a premium price. End of story.

I'm still bullish on Apple. I realize pricing will probably drop over time, but I expect this to occur alongside an expansion into many more markets around the world where customers can't afford $600 for a phone. The iPod used to be a highly priced product too. As Apple perfected ways of introducing cheaper versions, it did so. The real risk to Apple comes if the company needs to lower prices in response to competition rather than as a way to expand global addressable market.

Another longer term risk is HTML5. I still think it will be a couple of years before iOS developers see a good reason to shift to HTML5. But when it happens, Apple could lose some of its control over customers, and the range (and quality) of apps on the App Store versus competing stores could narrow. As the user experience moves to the web instead of the OS, Apple products could be less "sticky" with those of us who don't consider ourselves exclusive to the Apple ecosystem.

Obviously Apple stock has risks. Piecyk points out a short term risk. I've highlighted a couple of potential longer term risks. There are always risks. But from where I sit, I still think Apple has a lot of growth left.

For today only the iMore iPhone accessory store has the Speck Products CandyShell for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 on sale for only $19.95! That’s a whopping 43% off!

Shop Speck Products CandyShell for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 now!

The Speck Products CandyShell combines both hard shell and soft rubbery protection in a one-piece flexible iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4 case.

The sleek, hard outer shell protects against impacts, plus slips easily in and out of your pockets. The rubbery lining absorbs shock and also extends to a bezel, which protects your screen if it falls screen-first, and gives it no-slip stability when you place it face down.

The two-layered protection also makes for some sweet two-toned color options.

Features:

• Custom fit for iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4
• Co-molded construction
• Polycarbonate and soft rubber TPE
• One-piece design
• Flexes on and off device
• Raised screen bezel
• Rubberized button covers

I’ve been using mobile devices since the Handspring Prism and switched to the iPhone in 2010 when it first arrived in Canada. Slowly but surely, I’ve come to rely on it more and more, not only for blogging here on iMore, but for managing my day job as a therapist.

My iPhone’s built-in alarm wakes me up in the morning. With eyes still half closed, I fumble for it, and peer at Intelliscreen X, my jailbreak Lock screen extender, to see if any urgent SMS messages or emails have come in over night. If nothing’s there, I freely admit to hitting snooze and getting as many more winks in as time and family will allow.

Since I spend most of my day seeing clients at my office, where I’m offline and petty much unreachable while in session, I depend on SMS and email to stay in touch and keep track of any scheduling changes and additions. I can’t have sound alerts on so unobtrusive visual notifications are really important to me. In between sessions I need to be able to look and see a list of everything that’s come in while I’ve been busy, and respond as quickly and efficiently as possible. I use BiteSMS for jailbreak to handle my SMS heavy lifting. It lets me quickly see and reply to SMS messages even if I’m busy using another app (or game, shhh!) at the same time.

Since I’m often in a rush to get out of the house in the morning, I’ve come to rely on the Nexia Home Security System so I can do everything from lock my doors to turn on or off lights no matter where I am.

On my way to work I listen to music in the built-in Music app. I actually listen to music all the time. Whenever I’m out and about and hear something I like, I use Shazam [Free - Download now] to identify and buy it, and musiXmatch so I can — yes, I can’t believe I’m admitting this! — sing along!

I’m also constantly taking photos with the built-in Camara app. I take photos of everything — beautiful skies, outfits that look interesting, nail polish I’m testing out, hairstyles I’ve tried. You name it, I shoot it. I haven’t gotten into any of the App Store photography or sharing apps, but I have used the amazing olloclip to do wide-angle, fisheye, and macro shots.

If I have to set Reminders or create quick Notes while traveling or in between sessions, I use Siri. I’ve played around with a number of jailbreak Siri extensions, but I don’t use any of them regularly.

At work my iPhone becomes — steady now! — a phone! I use it to make an return calls. (And yes, I still remember phone numbers and use the dialer to place calls…) I also use the built-in Calculator for book-keeping. I have some events in the Calendar app but those are mostly for family and personal appointments. I still use a good old fashioned agenda book for client appointments.

Whenever I have a free moment, I love to decompress with casual games. My current favs include Draw Something and Zuma’s Revenge [$1.99 - Download now]. It’s not exactly the same as my long, lamented Stoneloops, but it’s close.

I now use the awesome iMore app to keep up-to-date with the site, and Tapatalk to read and reply to the iMore forums. I don’t use Twitter much, but when I do I’m now using Tweetbot. I also use Notes to rough out my reviews.

When I finally get home, I switch to the iPad and enjoy surfing the web, gaming, and watching videos the bigger screen. When I go to bed, however, it’s back to the iPhone. Nothing can beat its mobility.

I’ll check my schedule for the next day, catch up on any remaining emails and texts, maybe play a few more games. Then I set my alarm and catch as much sleep as I can before repeating it all the next day!

Interest in seeing how other members of the iMore nation use their iPhones and iPads at work? Check out the full series! Want to share how you use your iOS device? Add your story to our official iPhone at Work or iPad at Work threads in the iMore Forums!

Crunchy Logistics has demonstrated its latest innovation designed for the iPad, the Padzilla Too Interactive Case which lets you use your new iPad together with a Microsoft Kinect and a huge high definition display.

This is the largest interactive reproduction of an iPad in the world spanning 24 feet wide and 12 feet tall. The giant iPad display is constructed through the newest 3.5mm LED wall matrix display technology. 3.5mm is the thinnest LED separation currently possible for this type of LED matrix display which increases pixel density to possible "Retina" display quality at typical viewing distances. Padzilla now enables the user to interact on a large scale from a multitouch reproduction platform and is now multi-input gesture capable. This gives a great deal of flexibility on an already popular platform with thousands of apps for entertainment and business presentation purposes.

This is not the first time that we have seen a very impressive demonstration by Crunchy Logistics, last year we saw the original Padzilla Case. The problem with all of these innovations will be the initial cost of the hardware. The original Padzilla was rumoured to cost around $30-40,000; so we can only imagine that this one could cost a little bit more than that.

However, it would be a very impressive presentation tool or interactive advertising billboard. Of course if moneys no object, it could also be a way to impress all of your friends when you fire up a game of Fruit Ninja on that huge screen!

Source: Crunchy Logistics

After the big news that Facebook acquired Instagram, some users rushed to delete their Instagram accounts because they were unhappy about the deal and don’t trust Facebook with their photos. But where are these users to go? I set out on a hunt for a good alternative to Instagram for these users and found picplz.

Like Instagram, picplz is a social photo sharing app that includes several filters that can be applied to your photos. You can follow your friends from Facebook and Twitter, “like” photos, and leave comments.

One of the things I like about picplz is that you are not restricted to square crops. In fact, picplz includes a slew of editing tools, including cropping. Additionally, you can rotate, add memes, draw, adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, and colors, add text, repair redeye and blemishes, whiten teeth, blur, sharpen and flip. There are 9 different filters to choose from, either with or without a frame. picplz displays them as 18 different filters though, instead of just have an option to trigger the frame on and off for each filter. This is annoying and gives you the false impression of having more filters to choose from than you do.

The Interesting tab in picplz is similar to Instagram’s Popular tab and displays the photos as thumbnails. Tapping on an image will display a larger version of the photo with the caption above it. The font size of the caption is rather large, and with long captions, it’s not very visually appealing. Underneath the photo, you’ll see the buttons to “like” the photo and add it to a collection. If you keep scrolling, you can leave a comment at the end of the list of usernames have liked the photo. As you can imagine, sometimes this list can get rather long.

When you’re ready to share your photo, in addition to the picplz network, you can share your photos to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous, Foursquare, and Dropbox and check-in to Foursquare.

Another thing I really like about picplz, is that when someone clicks on your link from a computer, the browser window that it opens in allows picplz users to “like” and leave comments on your photo without having to use the app.

The Good

• Lots of editing tools
• 9 filters
• Can include location with photo uploads
• Can create collections
• My Network, Interesting, and Activity tabs
• Check into Foursquare

The Bad

• Captions have too large of font
• List of “likes” has the potential of being very long and annoying to scroll through
• Cannot select a photo from camera mode. You must instead navigate to your Camera Roll from the more tab. It’s unintuitive.
• Filters aren’t clearly labeled unless selected

The Conclusion

picplz is not Instagram. It’s not as good as Instagram. But it has great potential as an Instagram alternative. In fact, it has some features about it that are better than Instagram. The UI needs a little work, but it’s still a great app, and if you’re an ex-Instagram user who is not happy with their deal with Facebook, you should give picplz a try.

Free – Download Now

With Facebook buying Instagram, the world’s largest social network site scooped up one of the fastest accelerating social network apps. The cost for the acquisition was $1 billion in stock and cash. That’s roughly twice what many thought Instagram was worth, which raises the question — why?

It wasn’t for the technology behind the social platform or the raw numeric user base. Facebook is the social network already, with a footprint larger than many terrestrial landmasses. It wasn’t for the photos or fancy filters. Facebook is already the largest online photo repository on earth, and larger by such a degree that very little else can be seen outside their shadow. And a company one one-millionth the size of Facebook could come up with their own filter pack, or just clone Instagram’s, faster than even the Google Play Store would approve the app. It wasn’t for that app either. As buggy and beleaguered as Facebook for iPhone is, Instagram isn’t exactly a user interface or user experience triumph. Viewed simply as a camera replacement, it’s serviceable but not inspired, usable but not delightful.

Taken piece by piece, it’s hard to see anything particularly attractive about Instagram that warrants a $1 billion pay day. But taken together? Taken as the sum of its parts? More than serviceable, more than inspired, and absolutely delightful.

Facebook just bought an incredibly fast growing social network with a passionate, engaged user base — that’s entirely mobile.

In a way, it’s like IBM buying Microsoft just as DOS was about to get going. Or Yahoo! buying Google just before AdSense became a cash cow. Or Google buying Facebook back when a billion dollars would still have been cool.

Instagram was by no means poised to replace Facebook in any way resembling any of those previous generational shifts, but it was specifically poised to cause Facebook a huge amount of pain in areas where Facebook is extremely tender.

By easily letting users share photos in a way much funner, cooler, and mobile-centric than Facebook, like IBM with Microsoft, Yahoo! with Google, or Google with Facebook, Instagram left Facebook ill positioned to respond.

While it’s almost terrifying to think of Facebook as the old guard or the establishment, the acceleration of mobile has made Facebook exactly that. Where IBM was a mainframe company at the dawn of PCs, Yahoo! a directory company at the dawn of ad-auctioned search, and Google a search company at the dawn of social, Facebook is a web company in a world increasingly dominated by mobile apps.

Other than as a way to enable cross-platform sharing and account management, and to serve as a billboard encouraging app downloads, Instagram barely even has a website in the traditional sense.

The more users go mobile, the more photos are shared on Instagram, the more friends tharey made and comments are exchanged there, the less time users have to spend on Facebook. As much as Facebook intercepted and walled off traffic that might have gone to Google (through an “open” web filled with Google served ads), Instagram was beginning to intercept and wall off social photography traffic that might have gone to Facebook.

No one ever sees their own disruption coming, but smart companies can act the moment it first shows up on their radar. Instagram was certainly showing up on Facebook’s radar, and what better way to beat them than to buy them?

Facebook gets an injection of young, hip blood. Instagram gets deep pockets to either continue whatever strategic vision they had pre-acquisition (if they had one other than acquisition, that it), or to bring them into the greater Facebook experience. Right now Facebook claims they’re going to keep Instagram “as is”, but it’s best never to trust giant corporations still in the heat of new purchase. For every YouTube there’s a Flickr, for every Siri there’s a Jaiku.

Either way, it’s almost certainly business as usual for Apple. With iOS, Apple is already incredibly well positioned in mobile and while Photo Stream isn’t a great mobile photo solution, Apple has the capability to improve it on their own. The increased quality of the cameras on both the iPhone 4S and iPad 3 show photography is a priority for them, as did the comments from Steve Jobs on photography still being in need of innovation.

While the idea of an alternate universe “What if Apple had bought Instagram instead of Facebook?” story isn’t without it’s theoretical appeal, it’s also without any apparent upside. Sure, Instagram built into iOS would have given the iPhone filters like many Android interfaces have, and a social network on the opposite end of the hip spectrum from Ping. However, it wouldn’t have helped Apple do the only thing Apple exists to do — make more money for Apple.

A Facebook owned Instagram, as long as the app stays available for iOS, is pretty much the same as an independently owned Instagram. If Apple had, or ever would plan to integrate Instagram into iOS the way they did Twitter, previous differences with Facebook could now make that less likely, but certainly not impossible. And if Facebook ever scraps the iOS version, say to make it exclusively for, and central to, an Android-forked Facebook phone, it wouldn’t be too hard for Apple to roll their own filters and turn on some form of commenting system. (Make all the Ping jokes you want, but hundreds of millions of users with sudden access to a Twitter-integrated social network for photons would fill an immediate gap, if nothing else.)

For iPhone users, the situation is pretty much status quo as well. You can export your Instagrams and kill your account if even the whiff of Facebook is too much for you. But day to day, photo to photo, it’s going to be business as usual for everyone involved, and it’ll likely remain that way for the foreseeable future.

Facebook bought Instagram precisely because they weren’t Facebook, but could become something… next. While Instagram may or may not be worth $1 billion, being ahead of the disruption curve certainly is. And the best way to ensure that continues is to keep Instagram as not Facebook.

It sounds like off-contract iPhones aren’t the only ones AT&T has begun to officially unlock — they’re also quietly offering unlocks to on-contract members of the US Armed Forces on active deployment. MacRumors says they’ve confirmed what’s taking place.

Carriers are required by federal law to suspend service without penalty for deployed military personnel upon presentation of their military orders, but AT&T is not required to unlock the phones of deployed service members. Instead, the company is choosing to do that on its own.

AT&T wouldn’t comment on the story. If you’re a member of the US Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines and you’re on deployment, and want your iPhone unlocked, give AT&T Customer Service a call.

Source: MacRumors

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