The report notes that the iPod and applications developed for the iPhone perform many functions in this time of “networked warfare.” The devices helping as intelligence resources, such as aerial images from drones and translation software. Included is a program called Vcommunicator translates spoken and written Arabic, Kurdish, as well as two Afghan languages.

One application developed for the iPhone allows soldiers to take a photo of a street sign, upload it and immediately receive intelligence on the local area, such as water and sympathizers. The report from Newsweek detailed that as new recruits were already familiar with how the iPod and iPhone work, it has been easier to train soldiers on loading content. Not to mention, the cost is significantly better than other military purchases.

[via CNET]

Speaking in an interview, Seidenberg said that the company is not interested in getting into the wireless retail business in other countries. Rather, pursue deals that improve its enterprise-level business. He also noted that while Verizon Communications would like to own 100% of Verizon Wireless, it is unlikely that it will buy out partner Vodafone.

Seidenberg also said that he believes Apple will be more willing to work with Verizon in the future on an LTE-equipped version of the iPhone. According to Seidenberg, Apple never considered building a CDMA version of the iPhone due to CDMA’s more limited distribution footprint.

[via Wall Street Journal]

If a home-cooked meal is not that easy to find, then an energy beverage might be more the ticket. The Morphie Juice Pack is a rechargeable lithium polymer battery that says it will add up to an additional six hours of talk or surfing time to the iPhone. The pack adds about a centimetre of thickness to the phone while still offering a pass-through USB for syncing and charging.

The Morphie Juice Pack is available through selected retailers in Australia or online.

[via CNET Australia]

Today Truphone added the Truphone Anywhere functionality to their iPhone application, enabling users to make international calls for as little as £0.03/$0.06 per minute even when not connected to the internet. Truphone also added inbound calling on the iPhone for the first time.

Truphone currently works in 33 countries around the world to save iPhone users money on international calling when not on Wi-Fi. Unlike calling cards, there is very little to placing a call. Whenever an international number is dialed from outside a Wi-Fi area, Truphone Anywhere will ask if you would like to make a Truphone call and you accept or decline.

“No-one likes big mobile bills, and they don’t come any bigger than for international calls” said Geraldine Wilson, Truphone’s new CEO.  “But for iPhone users, that no longer needs to be the case.  They can choose either to pay standard international call rates, or to reduce them to as little as 3 pence or 6 cents per minute.  It’s as simple as that, no catches.”

Truphone has added a new presence feature to see which one of their other Truphone using contacts are online. Now for the first time users can place a free iPhone-to-iPhone Truphone call. The new inbound call capability means that iPhone users can avoid inbound call charges – for example, when abroad – provided they are connected to a Wi-Fi network, enabling significant cost savings. Here is a list of benefits those who do not know the benefit of using Truphone for the iPhone:

• Truphone routes calls over the Internet whenever possible, saving loads of money both on international calls from a user’s home country and on calls when connected to Wi-Fi abroad

• Truphone routes calls over the Internet, so customers don’t need to worry about poor mobile reception.  Calls are crystal clear and voice quality is superb from almost any Wi-Fi zone

• No monthly line rental, subscription or other hidden charges.  Truphone customers only ever pay for the calls they make.  Additional credit is simply purchased online, or an account may be set to top up [refill] automatically when it falls to a certain level

• Truphone is free to download via the iPhone App Store and takes seconds to install.  New customers receive £1/$1 [UK/RoW] free calling credit to get them started

• With Truphone’s American Tru Saver bundle, calls within and to the USA and Canada can be as low as 0.75 pence/1.5 cents [UK/RoW] per minute

• Calls within and to 40 countries (including UK, Australia, Brazil and most of Europe) are £0.03/$0.06 [UK/RoW] per minute to landlines and £0.15/$0.30 [UK/RoW] per minute to mobiles

• Making a Truphone call couldn’t be simpler: open the Truphone application and dial as normal.  Truphone uses the iPhone’s own address book.

Puerto Ricans can be especially happy about this news. The 3G coverage there is ready for the device, so you should have no problem getting a signal there. However, the U.S. Virgin Islands are another story altogether. There isn’t any HSDPA there yet, so that’s a real bummer.

However, AT&T doesn’t want you feel down in the dumps about the general lack of 3G there. In fact, they want you to go head and get that iPhone 3G anyway on October 17th, so you can be “iReady.” For some reason, I doubt being ready for 3G is going to make anyone feel any better about the lack of the service, now.

[via Engadget Mobile]

At the beginning of the week, we found out that the home activation available for the first-generation iPhone would be reinstated, at least in part, for iPhone 3G purchases. And then, we got the details of the new purchasing system Apple has put in place so you can buy the iPhone 3G from your home, input all of your information and simply go to your local Apple retail store to pick it up and have it activated.

We also learned that the iPhone 3G could reach sales of 5 million in Q4, which is exciting news. And an unlocked version of the phone is now available in Hong Kong, though at a significantly higher price than if purchased through a carrier. To continue Apple’s plan for rolling out the iPhone 3G across the world, Russia will be getting the device on October 3rd.

iPhone Firmware version 2.2 entered Beta 1 for developers only this week and while details were a bit sketchy at first, we eventually learned that MobileSafari would be getting a bit of a facelift. App Store rejections letters are also apparently under the NDA developers sign to upload their apps to the store. Whether this was also a stipulation or a recent addendum in response to the frequent posting of these letters on online forums is unknown.

And last but not least we had a comparison of the iPhone 3G and the recently announced T-Mobile G1. Even though I would have loved to pick a clear cut winner, I found the playing field uneven, especially when you consider that Apple is bringing their own hardware and software to the table and the T-Mobile G1 features hardware and software from different makers.

Estimates now indicate that 150,000 units of the iPhone 3G will sell by the end of the year in Russia. And it seems the start of the sale will begin during the wee morning hours of October 3rd at all carriers.

The major carriers that will carry the iPhone 3G in Russia include Vimpelcom, MTS and MegaFon. You can currently pre-order the phone so you can be sure to get it on the day of release. The iPhone is swiftly spreading across the world, which just goes to show Apple is keeping to their initial plans for rolling out the device.

[via MacRumors]

 
The unlocked prices are, as you might have expected, rather high with the 8GB iPhone 3G selling for $5,400 HK, which is about $692 and the 16GB costs $6,200 HK, which is about $794. Users can activate their phones with any wireless carrier and Apple is allowing it so long as a SIM card is installed before you try to sync it with iTunes 8.

Interesting stuff, really. And to think just today China Mobile decided to sell an iPhone 3G without, well 3G, or even WiFi because China would prefer a local 3G protocol like the TD-SCDMA instead of HSPA.

[via MacNN]

Lots of Apple industry news to report. First, a pay-as-you-go plan for the iPhone 3G is set to launch on the carrier O2. The eastern European sales figures for the device have been rather disappointing on the global scale and China Mobile and Apple are still in talks to try and figure out how to bring the iPhone to the country.

Best Buy is officially going to be a retailer for the iPhone 3G, and they will even set up the phone for you and your email for free, that is, if you buy an accessory package. Another angry iPhone user is suing the company but the reasoning this time is rather interesting. They are claiming Apple and AT&T knowingly sold more iPhones than their network could allow, making for shoddy service all around. Apple has also filed a patent for a multi-touch plus function that would combine touch gestures with other actions like speaking.

EA Mobile will be bringing Spore Origins to the iPhone shortly along with a variety of other EA games like The Sims 3. Two new home automation control systems have also come to the iPhone this week, allowing those with home automation devices like Control4 or Crestron Control to manage the systems by means of an app on their phones. Some developers have been getting their apps rejected from the App Store because their creations have “limited utility.” Plus, the Phonofone II is a super expensive iPod dock that nostalgia lovers and gadget enthusiasts alike will adore.

We also found out that an Apple iPod event is set to happen on September 9th. Much speculation has covered iPhone Buzz about what that event will or will not contain, but we do know a completely retooled iPod nano should make its debut and the iPod touch will get a minor facelift. Dimensions of both devices leaked this week, as well. We also learned that iPhone 2.1 firmware may be released as well as iTunes 8.0. And be sure to check in on all the happenings by watching our live coverage of the iPod event on Tuesday at 10 a.m. PST at http://live.slashgear.com/.

Last year, Wang said he was uncomfortable with the revenue sharing model that goes along with the Apple iPhone. Even so, China Mobile would be good for Apple. After all, they are the largest mobile carrier in the world with over 420 million subscribers.

If an agreement can’t be met with China Mobile, Apple may very well utilize smaller mobile carriers to distribute the phone in China. Only time will tell, but the wait has already been a lengthy one.  

[via iPhone Central]

The App Store was in the spotlight once again this week as several new apps were announced. iVerse Comics will be coming to the App Store soon, which allows users to access comic books via individual icons on their iPhone home screens. An LED football game, that is very reminiscent of the old handheld games is on the way, too. BeeJive, which was formerly called JiveTalk, offers a more functional IM experience and is even outfitted with background notification should Apple activate it.

We got our hands on a leaked video that showed Last.fm v2.0 in action and Sharpcast’s SugarSync was revealed to be a MobileMe alternative for those who are fed up with the Apple cloud. Most interesting of all, however, is a possible Steve Jobs email that revealed an official tethering function might be coming to the iPhone soon.

The reception issues that dominated last week’s news carried over into this week when a series of independent surveys revealed iPhone 3G performance varies over regions and the networks themselves are what need fixing, not the phone’s internal antenna. Over the course of these tests, Orange France admitted to capping their 3G speeds, but now promised to raise them. We also got a good look at just why the 3G is so slow. It seems all iPhone users need to update to the latest firmware version–otherwise the users with the old version will continue to bog down the network.

Two new international data plans from AT&T were made available to iPhone users on Wednesday and though its intent was to lower prices, it’s still rather steep. A security flaw was revealed this week as well that made it so even password protected phones could be hacked by a few taps of the home button. But not to worry, Apple has admitted to the flaw and will include a fix in the next update.

If you’re keeping up with the Dev Team, you already known Pwnage Tool 2.0.3 is already out. Plus, a brand new iPhone magazine will be released on September 9th called iPhone Life that gives readers the scoop on the latest news, reviews and more.

Finally, this week we featured a review of the BlueAnt V1 Voice Control Bluetooth Headset, which features voice activation functions. And though the audio wasn’t quite as good as it could be, this headset offers functionality like to other.

iPhone users that want to travel abroad previously faced serious expense when trying to use the Internet in other countries. However, these new data plans should help keep costs down, at least to some degree.

One plan runs $120 a month for 100MB of international data. The other plan is $200 a month for 200MB. These amounts are piled on top of your existing data plan and voice plan. These new plans apply only to 67 countries, however, so make sure your destinations are on the list. You don’t have to commit to these pricey plans for the long-term, however. You can add it or remove it at any time you’d like.

[via iPhone Central]

Shortly thereafter, the iPhone 2.0.2 update was released with hopes to provide numerous bug fixes and clear up some of those reception problems. We also posted a side-by-side comparison video of the iPhone 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 software, of which it would seem the update really produced a speed boost. Jobs also admitted to the numerous third-party app crashes users are experiencing and promised a fix for those as well.

On the business side of things, Apple seems to be geared up to produce 40 million iPhones next year. Plus, the iPhone is set to release in Turkey from Turkcell and in Russia in October. It was also determined that if you have a jailbroken iPhone, you can “kill” the kill switch fairly easily.

We had several fun things of note this week as well, including two reviews of free apps like PapiJump and Tris. We got a look at the Nike+ app, however it seems the screenshots may have been fakes.

A video demo showed up online of Real Racing, which is a networked multiplayer game for the iPhone. An app that simulates a hologram is also supposedly in the works. You can get your hands on a Mobile Phone Telescope for your iPhone as well, though it seems to be intended for paparazzi looking to get off a couple of quick photos.

The logic behind this marketing scheme is that whole “keeping up with the Joneses” thing. After all, if people are willing to wait in line for it, you automatically will want it, right?

Kind of loses some of its steam when you find out those are actors lined up though. In fact, it just makes Orange Poland look sort of desperate. They must have their hands on some estimated sales figures that don’t look too hot. While else would they pull such a stunt?

[via The iPhone Blog]

Apple has their sights set high and if their business plans are accurate, we can expect to see the company producing 40 million iPhones next year. And while some analysts think this number is appropriate to keep up with global demand, others aren’t so optimistic.

According to BusinessWeek:

Many analysts expect Apple (AAPL) to sell around 11 million iPhone 3Gs in 2008 and another 25 million in 2009. But perhaps the most optimistic forecast is from Piper Jaffray (PJC) analyst Gene Munster, who expects the company to sell 13 million this year and 45 million next year.

This is interesting because much of these higher sales figures depend on Apple’s ability to quickly solve some of the device’s problems such as the 3G connection issues. Even so, it is safe to say, sales will be big regardless, now that the iPhone will be available across the world.

[via BusinessWeek]