Could Apple be preparing to surprise consumers — and the growing competition — with a Retina Display packing iPad 3 at this September’s traditional iPod event? Daring Fireball’s John Gruber is guessing they might while TechCrunch is saying they’re hearing it’s on the table. DF:

How could Apple release a third-generation iPad just six months or so after the second one? Maybe it won't be an actual next generation model. Maybe it's more like an iPad 2.5, or iPad 2 Pro — a new higher-end model that sits atop the iPad product family, not a replacement for the iPad 2 models (which, of course, haven't even been released yet).

Or: an iPad 2 HD. What if that's the source of the conflicting reports of a retina display next-gen iPad? I am nearly dead certain the iPad 2 is going to have the same display resolution and size as the current iPad. I am not so sure at all, though, that there won't be a double-resolution 2048 × 1536 iPad in 2011.

TechCrunch:

We've now heard that this "fall surprise" is related to this would-be iPad 3. We don't have any more concrete information beyond that. But, as of right now, the plan is apparently to release one iteration of the iPad in the next few weeks. And then blow the doors open with another new version in the fall.

So far iOS device releases have been once a year, the same time of year. iPad hasn’t had an update yet so anything is possible. It would definitely push the pace in the face of competition from Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets, BlackBerry PlayBook and HP TouchSmart. Would mainstream consumers feel burned? Would you be upset if you bought an iPad 2 in spring and Apple fielded an iPad 3 in fall, or do you just want new Apple tech as fast as possible?

[Daring Fireball, Techcrunch]

Apple preparing iPad 3 for September? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

iPhone Live! podcast is tonight people and we want you to show up and chat with us! 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am GMT so you better be there!

We’ll be announcing the Verizon iPhone winner, talking Verizon iPhone launch, checking out the new HP competition, and checking out all the week’s news and apps.

http://live.tipb.com/live/

If you have any questions or stuff you want us to make sure we cover tweet them to @TiPb, email them to podcast@tipb.com, or leave them in the comments below!

Bring it!

iPhone Live! podcast tonight! (And we’ll be announcing the Verizon iPhone winner live!) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

HP held their Something Beyond event today where they announced the new, tiny Veer, the beefed up Pre 3, and their iPad competitors, the TouchPad. (And I’ll note with sadness it was HP, and no longer Palm that announced them.)

The Veer replaces the Pixi as the mainstream fashion phone, only now it packs the Pre slider form factor shrunk down to credit-card size (don’t call it MiniPre!). I’ll miss the iconic front-facing QWERTY that made the Treo famous but for slider fans there’s a lot — read: a little — to like here. Check out PreCentral.net’s Veer hands on for more.

The Pre 3 is the Pre on Hulk serum. Bigger screen and far more powerful internals. If HP can nail the build-quality they could realize every dream original Pre-users have had. I’d have liked a slab form factor here, but I have an iPhone so HP is at least sticking to Palm’s guns on hardware keyboards. Check out PreCentral.net’s Pre3 hands on for more.

The TouchPad is HP’s answer to the iPad, with identical display size but quadruple the RAM, a front-facing camera, and webOS 3.0 which really shines on the big screen. The UI doesn’t scale automagically (it was unrealistic to think it would) but HP has moved some controls to the top, made notifications into a hybrid drop down, and cards and stacks just look gorgeous on a tablet. Check out PreCentral.net’s HP TouchPad hands on for more.

HP also promised webOS as an ecosystem on everything from printers to webOS PCs to devices, all tied into the cloud. (They even showed TouchShare, where they “bumped” a web page from Pre3 to TouchPad by touching the devices together.)

It wasn’t a home run — Palm-now-HP has to start delivering more, faster if they want to keep up. But it was a solid at-bat in a game that’s nowhere near the end yet. (2 hours was also long for an event, half the time would have made the highlights twice as dense.)

The lack of firm release dates or pricing info was disappointing, as is the nebulous state of webOS updates for previous generation Palm devices. And while the Pre3 and TouchPad specs look solid we’re weeks away from iPad 2 and months away from iPhone 5, so HP has a heck of a pace to keep up with. HP has money, however, and that buys time (see Microsoft, Nokia) and at the very least they’ve shown webOS isn’t dropping out of the race.

Check out all the videos linked above and then come on back and tell us what you thought of HP’s Think Beyond event, does it raise the bar for Apple’s 2011 iOS lineup? What’s the threat level?

HP (not Palm!) announces Veer, Pre3, webOS 3.0 TouchPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Cut the Rope has been updated with a new Valentine’s Box that includes 25 levels. In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, the candy is split in half and you must join the two pieces before feeding it to Om Nom.

• A new Valentine’s Box with 25 gorgeous holiday-inspired levels.
• Addictive new “split-candy” gameplay that’s both romantic and fun!
• Wonderful new artwork featuring a Cupid-inspired Om Nom, Valentine’s levels, and more, with full Retina support.
• An awesome new Valentine’s icon. (Perfect for gifting the game to a loved one!)
• Lots of optimization and tiny bug fixes.

If you pick this one up, let us know what you think!

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

Cut the Rope updated with Valentine’s Box is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

The Skype app for iPhone and iPod touch has received a small update today with support for making video calls to more Skype clients, specifically Skype for TV:

You can now make video calls to a wider selection of Skype clients and devices, such as Skype for TV.

Skype for TV is a service Skype made available earlier last year that lets Skype users make and receive video calls from their TV using hardware from manufacturers like Panasonic and Samsung. Skype recently added video support for WiFi and 3G calls, so with this latest update it appears they’re moving faster than ever with hopes of dominating the mobile VoIP arena.

Any readers out there excited for the new feature? Better yet, has anyone actually heard of Skype for TV? Let us know in the comments!

[Free - iTunes link]

Skype for iPhone updated to support Skype for TV is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Walmart has announced that it will be carrying the Verizon iPhone 4 in its retail stores all across America starting tomorrow on launch day. They will be selling the device in roughly 600 of their retail stores and will also have many accessories to get you started and out the door with a brand new Verizon iPhone. Gary Severson, senior vice president, Home Entertainment, Walmart U.S. said:

We’re excited to bring iPhone 4 on the Verizon Wireless network, one the most anticipated mobile phone launches in recent history, to Walmart customers. As customers continue to embrace smart phone technology, we’ve added nearly 20 smart phone models to our assortment, including the new Verizon Wireless iPhone 4.

So if your nearest Walmart is closer than the Verizon store you can now save yourself the drive and check out your neighborhood Walmart first. I would recommend calling the store prior though to ensure they will indeed be carrying the Verizon iPhone at your store before skipping the Verizon store if you want yours in hand tomorrow. Let us know your plans for tomorrow and if you will utilize Walmart now instead!

[ Market Watch ]

Walmart will carry Verizon iPhone 4 starting Feb. 10 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

The mophie juicepak air for iPhone 4 is a lighter charging solution for highly mobile users. If you need to keep going but want the minimum of bulk to slow your down — if you need a case that can give your 70% of a charge at just about 70% of the size and slightly less cost than a juicepak plus, then here’s your solution. To see how it held up for me under the rigors of CES 2011, read on for the review after the break!

As I said in my mophie juicepak plus review, trade shows are the ultimate test of any battery for me. I’m on the go for 18 hours a day and my iPhone 4 is my lifeline to the world. It keeps me in contact, it lets me help run TiPb, and on top of all of that it lets me shoot all the show video and photos you see here on the site. It’s bad enough AT&T hits my iPhone 4 battery like a freight train but the constant usage would run any device down. Luckily the mophie juicepak air packs some extra charge in a fairly unobtrusive package.

Hardware

The mophie juicepak plus is black with a painted silver band meant to match the aesthetics of your iPhone. Mophie told me at CES that they’d done a lot of engineering work to prevent breaks around the cutouts and increase protection and it shows. It is a slider case and there have been some worries about slider cases scratching the glass but I didn’t have any problems. (I also wipe down my iPhone before sliding.) Also, it sometimes takes a few, wiggling tries to get the iPhone dock port lined up and properly seated.

There are cutouts for the 3.5mm headset jack, rear camera and flash, the mute switch and sleep and volume buttons. The cutouts are deep due to the size of the juicepak but didn’t interfere with usage. Not having button extenders like the juicepak plus was a different kind of compromise — less worry about them not depressing properly but you still have to dig for them sometimes.

The micro-USB charger is at the bottom right. Not using a dock cable to charge means you have to carry a separate micro-USB cable around with you, and doesn’t let you use your existing dock-compatible car or video cables while the mophie is on. Understandable given the size of a 30-pin dock port but still annoying at times.

On the handy side there’s a series of battery level lights so you can always tell how much of a charge your mophie is packing with the touch of a button

Usage

The juicepack air is the lighter, slighter charging solution in mophie’s stable. It weighs less than the juicepak plus but it also provides less power. About 70% of a regular charge. That’s still a good boost, though not as good as the plus given it’s still significant size.

In my CES tests those results weren’t just marketing. It’s really tough to judge consistently since usage patterns always vary but when I slapped on the juicepak air I could pretty much go as long as I had on the iPhone-only charge. (I carried a juicepak plus with me as well — them were long days!)

When you charge the mophie via micro-USB it passes the charge on to the iPhone as well, so at night you can charge them both without having to plug in multiple charges for each one, or get up and switch.

Conclusion

The mophie juicepak air is still bulky but not as much as the juicepak plus. It extends battery life but not as much as the plus. It doesn’t cost as much either. If you’re a hardcore road warrior the difference in bulk and price isn’t a big deal — get the juicepak plus. If you’re light user who only needs a little boost now and then, save yourself a few ounces and bucks and go for the air.

Get your mophie juicepak air for iPhone 4 now from the TiPb iPhone 4 Accessory Store…

Pros

• Convenient case form factor
• 70% recharge for iPhone
• Pass-through recharge for simultaneous charge
• Solid construction

Cons

• Uses Micro-USB so not compatible with dock accessories
• 70% charge still means big case

TiPb review rating

Photos

mophie juicepak air for iPhone 4 – battery charger review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Beginning February 15, Last.fm will require a subscription to stream music to your iPhone and it will be ad-free. Here’s what Last.fm’s VP of production, Matthew Hawn had to say:

On the Last.fm website an ad-supported, free-to-listeners model is what supports our online radio services in the US, UK and Germany. In other markets and on emerging mobile and home entertainment devices, it is not practical for us to deliver an ad supported radio experience, but instead, we will migrate to what we believe is the highest quality, lowest cost ad-free music service in the world.

Interestingly, streaming to mobile apps and on home entertainment devices will become an ad-free, subscriber-only feature with the exception of Windows Phone 7 and Xbox users. The ad-supported model will also still be available on the desktop app.

A Last.fm subscription is reasonably priced at $3 per month. You can sign up here.

For the cost of a fancy coffee, a Last.fm monthly subscription allows you to listen to radio across all platforms, on all your devices, and without commercial interruptions.

Any Last.fm listeners planning to subscribe?

[wpcentral]

Last.fm will soon require subscription to stream to iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

New Nokia CEO Steven Elop, who formerly ran Microsoft’s most successful business unit, has written one of the most brutally candid and forthright state-of-the-enterprise memos the mobile industry has ever seen, including an assessment of their position post-iPhone. Their “platform is burning”:

In 2008, Apple’s market share in the $300+ price range was 25 percent; by 2010 it escalated to 61 percent. They are enjoying a tremendous growth trajectory with a 78 percent earnings growth year over year in Q4 2010. Apple demonstrated that if designed well, consumers would buy a high-priced phone with a great experience and developers would build applications. They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range.

The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don’t have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.

Nokia makes brilliant hardware, arguably the best in the business, but they’ve been slow to adapt to the capacitive multitouch, app-centric, ecosystem-driven new smartphone world. And their software strategy has been fractured and frustrating. Elop clearly recognizes the issues and plans to start addressing them. Our own resident Nokia Expert, Matt Miller says:

Nokia will be holding their Capital Markets Day on Friday where Mr. Elop will reveal his future strategy. There are rumors that he might partner with Microsoft and release Windows Phone 7 devices or go with Android in an HTC-like multiple platform approach. As a fan of both Nokia and Windows Phone 7 you know what I would prefer. If Windows Phone 7 is brought to Nokia hardware then get ready to see a LOT more writing here on Nokia Experts as WP7 is my personal preferred platform at this time.

Will Nokia go with Windows Phone 7 or Android, try to relaunch MeeGo or Symbian at a faster pace with better user experience, or do something else entirely? And how, if at all, will it effect competition with iPhone? We’ll find out Friday.

[Engadget via Nokia Experts]

New Nokia CEO offers brutally honest assessment of their post-iPhone future is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

So now that anyone and everyone can order a Verizon iPhone online… shall it be yours today? Would you rather wait and line up at the Apple Store tomorrow for the full iPhone experience? Did you already get a Verizon iPhone on pre-order or are you waiting for the Verizon iPhone 5? Could you be AT&T iPhone for life, or just not interested at all?

Give us your vote in the poll above and then share all the details in the comments below!

Poll: Are you ordering a Verizon iPhone today? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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