The case is made of a polycarbonate crystal material and covers the back, front, screen, and sides only leaving the ports and buttons open for easy access. So, your iPhone will look sleek, shiny, fashionable, and the bling factor of it doesn’t go over the line so you don’t have to worry about looking like a bafoon.

The case costs $35 but saves you the cost of a separate screen protector which is often necessary with other iPhone cases. Shipping is $5.95 in the US, and it’s a pretty badass case if you ask me as it will allow you to maintain the ease of access of just throwing it in your pocket, but with added protection.

[via IvySkin]

Then there is the reports of 10 million new 3G handsets being ordered for sale this year alone, a contract won by Hon Hai in Taiwan. Then Bank of America, a company whose predictions regarding the iPhone have all come true so far, predicted a Q2 release of the 3G iPhone.

Add to all of that the fact that Apple won the right to use the trademarked “iPhone” name in Japan, a land where there are no EDGE networks, only tons and tons of 3rd and 4th generation networks and the 3G iPhone is shaping up to be an almost guaranteed product of the summer of 2008. Predictions for an actual 3G iPhone release range from Early May in Spain to sometime in the second quarter which ends in September, so that’s a pretty broad range, but me, myself, and I are banking on the WWDC in June.

[Via 3G iPhone has mounting evidence for its upcoming release - SlashGear]

There isn’t a contacts search function, although they proposed that it might be because they don’t have too terribly many contacts, so it might require a contact least of more length for that feature to kick in. There is also no two pane mail client (mail list in one, message in the other).

The app store was there though, even though all it did was error code out saying that it couldn’t connect. There were also a couple of button icon changes, including the calculator button and the iTunes Store button. Other than that, nothing really important to see here, I’m just really, really hoping that Firmware 2.0 lands on Hardware 2.0 with a new shiny 3G chipset, I know other users are pushing for a whole list of other new hardware features, and those would be nice, but just a new 3G chipset would make me happy.

[Via Hands On with iPhone 2.0 - new changes abound like Spring cleaning - SlashGear]

Word is there will be several other touch screens throughout the vehicle, the iPhone (or two) is just going to be one of the many. This new LRX is a 3-door coupe SUV (weird sounding, but it looks so good).

Concept cars are so bittersweet because they are a genius convergence of all the latest technology in the auto industry, but they rarely, if ever, make it to production even half as nice as they were when they were a concept car. Oh yeah, by the way, I guess our own Vincent Nguyen will be at the Detroit Auto Show next year where they are unveiling this work of art.

iPhone at the heart of the Land Rover LRX Concept [via slashphone]

This case is about the music being sold at the iTunes store being tied to the iPod and about how music from other online stores can’t be put on the iPod, which is incorrect. So Mr. Black, do your research, there are now several places where you can buy DRM-free tracks that you can put on any MP3 player, including iTunes, and the best part, they now no longer charge extra for DRM-free tracks from the iTunes store.

So, good luck in your future endeavors Mr. Black, but I am sure Apple covered their ass a little better than you might think, in fact I’d be willing to wager that if you are suing due to music purchased prior to iTunes selling DRM-Free tracks that Apples nice little iTunes Plus upgrade service should take care of that. And there is probably some fine print protecting Apple even if you should choose not to use that tool.

Apple Hit with Yet Another Lawsuit: iPods Illegally Tied to iTunes [via wired]

On the other hand, if one of those features that is coming with the new firmware is important enough for you to give all that added functionality up, you might want to do a restore today so that the update doesn’t brick your iPhone tomorrow. A quick run-down of what’s included in the update, more language support, TIFF exploit patch, probably some other minor bug fixes, access to the Cloud Wi-Fi for UK users and that’s about it that’s confirmed.

There were a couple other things rumored, such as Apple’s very own internet radio application and maybe a voice notes app, we’ll see though. So, prepare yourself for tomorrow, and if you have the spare change, go and download some money to the iPhone Dev Team since they’ll be the ones to hack the latest firmware, again.

iPhone Firmware Drops Tomorrow, Apple Confirms [via gizmodo]

iRadio grants you access to a fairly long list of MPEG streaming internet radio stations. Its in beta, so it need some work, and you should be cautious about installing it. And yes, before you ask, it is reported to work over EDGE as well

Really, the only area in my opinion that it needs work, is with the data it displays, there are names in the far left column, but you can’t read the full names, and there isn’t any inclination to what type of music the station is playing. Furthermore, all the numbers and stuff in all the other columns, well I have no clue what they are for. However, they mostly have it locked down, functionally the app works, it has a volume knob built into the app, it plays even when your device is locked, and it really does stream music from the internet, it just needs some user-friendliness tweaks.

iRadio for your iPod Touch [via apple-touch]

I am especially listening since its risky business talking negatively, or too positively, about a pair of companies who both have handsets either in production, or in the works that are based on his processors. The iPhone has several ARM chips, and we found out during the Android conference call that the minimum requirements for the Android based OS is a 200MHz ARM processor.

Mr. East does have some good points though, citing the very distant release of any Android based phone as a major downside, for a couple reasons, first, other companies will have plenty of time with both the info and the SDK to create their own version of the OS, and secondly because the chances are high that Apple will have another iPhone out by then. Smartphone sales this year have hit 200 million this year, and with a new iPhone and the GPhone we could see 300 million by the end of next year, and if Apple has their way, at least 10 of that will be from their handsets alone.

ARM exec: Google no threat to iPhone [via electronista]

I get that Balda, the German company whom is rumored to be the supplier of the iPhone screens, saw this large of an order for their products as a way to get out of the pattern of losses they kept having to report, but when you are the supplier of a major component for one of the best selling products of the year, you don’t cut corners. Most importantly you don’t do anything that gets you any unnecessary attention.

I won’t go into the details of what they did, mainly because it’s all a bunch of financial garb, but the gist of it is, they are doing some things that are generally considered bad business practices, which could net them undue attention from governing authorities if they don’t have a good explanation. In the end, there are a few other manufacturers capable of supplying the necessary screens for the iPhone on par with the quality of the ones Balda was supplying, so if they fix things, Apple will probably switch.

iPhone touchscreen supplier under scrutiny [via macnn]

Well, Fake Steve Jobs isn’t scared want to know how not scared he is? Read the following quote:

“Reason #2 — the only companies that join consortia are the ones who are too stupid or shitty to make a great product on their own. It’s like, Hey, we’ve got forty spazzo companies that can’t fuck their way out of a paper bag; let’s put them all together and maybe they’ll magically become some kind of big bad powerhouse.”

That quote, straight money, then he goes on to liken such a monster more to Frankenstein, constantly drooling and tripping over itself. He really does have some good points, he even brings up the fact that chances are great that by the time the first Android based phone drops, sometime in the middle of next year, Apple, a single company, will have released at least one other mind-blowingly awesome product, probably more than one, but at least 1. Anyways, one last quote from Fake Steve, this one really puts the icing on the cake, “Companies don’t form alliances and consortia when they’re winning.”

It’s not a phone, it’s an alliance [via fakesteve]

They are even boasting the ability to view full, HTML email messages how they were originally sent, and the ability to send and receive email attachments, let me reiterate, they claim to be able to do all this without installing anything on the iPhone. Furthermore, the directory services will apparently work with the iPhone in such a way that you can click on their number and it will dial, email address and you can email them, and physical address and it will give you directions.

This is all coming to Europe on Friday, and will be free to use for 60 days. Its apparently already available here in the US though. It looks like the software installs on your desktop or PC that is connected to your corporate network, and then from there I assume you use the Safari browser to actually access your Visto account, I still don’t know how the whole sending attachments thing would work though.

Visto Brings Secure Corporate Email to Apple iPhone in Europe [via webitpr]

The tip came from the code in iTunes 7.5 which had some sort of syncing program for a Voice Notes app, but its been in the code since 7.3 and we have yet to see a thing from it. We might even be getting disk access granted from Apple.

Disk access would be kind of great, especially if we didn’t have to fight for it. However it does kind of suck that this update will also brick your hacked iPhone, that’s why my recommendation is still not to update especially since everything so far that’s useful to most of us in this update can be had through the intaller.

iPhone Update 1.1.2 to add Voice Notes, other stuff? [via 9to5Mac]

They even supposition the idea of up to a 64GB SSD, sure, that sounds great, but right now that would push this device into the same price range as the larger MacBook Pro’s maybe even higher. Personally I think a device with about half that storage, but a larger multi-touch screen, a faster processor and some dedicated system RAM as well as more ports and a fuller version of OS X would be great.

It wouldn’t have to be a full on tablet, just something closer to an actual Mac with a more fully featured OS would be great. Regardless of what I think, I regard Apple as the knowledgeable authority on multi-touch technology and great mobile design, so I trust that when the time comes they will make their tablet the best that it can be.

Is this the Apple Tablet? Check out the iPad Touch concept [via techdigest]

I wonder how dumb they will feel protesting without a reference point for what they want. They can’t protest for the device to follow EU regulations, it already does, so basically they are protesting because the iPhone doesn’t follow their own prescribed standards.

I bet they use paper products and wood posts for their picket signs, and they will probably use some sort of ink that more environmentally un-friendly than the iPhone. So go ahead, have your little rally and prove to everyone just how unreasonable you are, in the meantime those iPhones will still be selling like crazy on the 9th.

Greenpeace to protest at UK iPhone launch [via pocket-lint]

iTunes adds the ability to activate the iPhone in more locations than just the US. There is also a new interactive music game that only works with new Nano, the iPod Classic, and the 5G iPod, its called Phase. There are also some bug fixes for iTunes included.

Other than that, there is better support for making mobile Safari compatible web content and bet JavaScript support for the QuickTime Web plugin. That’s pretty much it, not much else to report here.

Apple releases iTunes 7.5, QuickTime 7.3 [via macnn]