White iPhone 4, long delayed, finally gets the monkey off the back

The white iPhone 4 will surface “later in 2010″ which doesn’t tell you anything beyond the fact that it’ll be sooner rather than later. Apple didn’t say “later this summer” and it didn’t say “fall 2010″ – so if one reads between this lines, the real message is that Apple doesn’t expect the white iPhone to emerge any time soon. And while this is not the news that those who had been waiting for the white iPhone 4 had been wanting to hear, it’s likely the best in the long run. Those who want an iPhone 4 now, but had been waiting indefinitely for the white iPhone model, finally now know enough not to continue waiting; to do so would be to miss perhaps as much as half the iPhone 4’s lifespan (worst case scenario, by Apple’s estimates is that the white iPhone 4 doesn’t surface until just before Christmas), as Apple traditionally releases a new iPhone generation each June or July.

While fans of the white iPhone 4 certainly didn’t want to hear that it had been delayed again, this time for the long term and indefinitely (particularly after Apple had confirmed just a week earlier that it would be arriving by the end of July), the disappointing news does finally get the monkey off the back of those who had been held hostage by the delayed white iPhone 4 model, and now frees them up to go ahead and buy a black iPhone 4 after all. While plenty of people will end up buying the white iPhone 4 once it comes to market, these will be people who are at that time just getting around to wanting an iPhone; those who want an iPhone now aren’t going to wait until… well, whenever it finally arrives.

Why Verizon? iPhone outselling Droid and all Moto phones combined

The iPhone needs Verizon compatibility in order to keep up with the rapidly ascending Droid and the rest of the Android platform, the claim goes. The iPhone’s AT&T exclusivity is causing Verizon customers, even if they would prefer the iPhone, to settle for an Android-based phone available from Verizon instead, the headlines proclaim. But the sales numbers say different. Not only is the iPhone outselling Motorola’s Droid line of phones according to the latest sales numbers, the iPhone is single-handedly outselling all of Motorola’s phones combined, says Apple Insider. In fact, the big picture numbers say that since the iPhone launched three years ago, Motorola’s total number of phones sold has plummeted, thus painting the current success of the Droid and Droid X as perhaps a mere anomaly for a company whose fortunes in the cellphone industry have been dwindling for years.

And before you go blaming Motorola’s misfortunes on the bad economy, the company is now selling a mere one-fifth as many cellphones as it was selling back when the iPhone first launched. With death-spiral numbers like that, it begs the question of just what Verizon was thinking when it chose a flagging partner like Motorola to build its flagship Droid line of phones. The move suggests Verizon was in a panic to come up with an iPhone competitor of any kind, even if that meant saddling up with a dying company like Motorola. It also strongly suggests that Verizon knew the Droid thing wouldn’t be a permanent one, more aimed at forcing Apple to bring the iPhone to the bargaining table under terms that favored Verizon more than they favored Apple itself.

While the Droid is far from the only Android-based phone on the market, Verizon has spent more than a year positioning the phone as its most visible flagship product. But even with all that effort, the iPhone is outselling the Droid and every other Motorola phone combined. It makes you wonder why Verizon isn’t pushing harder to get its hands on the iPhone than it is – or perhaps that’s exactly what’s going on behind the scenes.

“We Farm” now available for iPhone and iPad!

Are you ready for another addictive social game from Ngmoco? First there was TouchPetsDogs, then we got We Rule, and then Godfinger. And now, Ngmoco launched the new We Farm worldwide, and it’s becoming a hit!

If you’re addicted to games like “We Rule,” you’ll enjoy the new We Farm game as well. It’s a great alternative to Farmville, especially if you have an iPad. The graphics are marvelous and the game play is pretty fun.

It’s similar to “We Rule” with the familiar graphics and game layout, but of course, you get to take care of a farm instead of a kingdom. Additional tasks include petting your animals to keep them happy. This turns them into prize-ribbon-winning animals!

Check out the game trailer:

Because games like these are popular, you may experience some server connection problems and downtime. Be aware of this before you start playing. Hopefully they have a fix for this soon.

The game is available for free for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. For more information, see their official website at Ngmoco.com A full review to come soon.

Ellen DeGeneres Idol departure crashes Twitter – Jennifer Lopez next?

Twitter has crashed in the wake of Ellen DeGeneres’ announcement that she’s leaving her role as judge on American Idol. Ellen was atop the social network’s trending topics list at the time the trending list was disabled altogether, and then several minutes later the entire Twitter network was brought to its knees. This evening’s Twitter meltdown, the site’s first major burnup since the World Cup soccer tournament ended, likely cost Jennifer Lopez her opportunity to make it into the trending topics for what might have been the first time in the site’s four year history. Rampant rumors and gossip this evening have J.Lo taking Ellen’s place as the new “friendly” American Idol judge. The move would mark a return of a veteran musician to the judging chair vacated by Ellen, which had previously been occupied by Paula Abdul.

Twitter has since sporadically returned to life, but the trending topics list is still missing in action.

Ellen DeGeneres Idol replacements led by Perez Hilton, Bret Michaels

The newly announced departure Ellen DeGeneres from American Idol gives the show not one but potentially two judges’ chairs to fill, with Simon Cowell also having departed this offseason. Various public figures have already been rumored for Cowell’s seat, with some of those storylines having been a direct result of the celebrity in question openly lobbying for the gig. With two openings, the number of stars lining up for the gig is set to double or more. While Cowell’s job has all along been expected to fall to someone who can play the role of resident meanie by telling contestants what they need to hear (or worse) no matter how impolite the message may be, Ellen’s role (and that of Paul Abdul before her) was largely one of friendliness and encouragement. This now opens the door for Idol’s producers to cast any two opposites they like in the two vacated roles.

Two of the most prominent individuals who’ve been campaigning for the gig are Bret Michaels (Rock of Love, The Apprentice, and a little band called Poison) and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. Michaels is everyone’s friend, and a new generation of Americans have fallen in love with him now that he’s had a reality show resurgence this decade after having been one of the most prominent rock stars of the eighties. Perez, on the other hand, is the guy that everyone loves to hate because he’s never hesitated to throw celebrities (or anyone else) under a bus on his blog. Perez could fill Simon’s snarky role, while Bret could take over Ellen’s nice guy role, and if nothing else, the pairing of those two along with current judges Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi (assuming they both return next season) would have people talking.

Both Michaels and Hilton have had recent ties to the show. Perez used one episode to essentially launch the solo career of his protege Travis Garland, while Bret performed the Poison classic Every Rose Has Its Thorn with contestant Casey James on this season’s finale. The fact that Michaels did so a few days after having had a stroke and a hole discovered in his heart, and a brain hemorrhage a few weeks before that, has led some to question whether his recent spate of health issues might be too big a risk. However, with Michaels now touring the nation as a solo musician and having no health troubles for it, that risk now appears minimized. And whereas his friendly nature might not have worked as a replacement for Simon, the contrast of having Perez (who’s arguably even meaner when he wants to be than Simon) on the same judging panel would balance out the nice-to-mean ratio of the panel.

For his part, Perez has taken to Twitter and his blog in the past hour to relentlessly campaign for the job, asking his celebrity pals to help him out. Michaels hasn’t yet had anything to say on the matter, but he will coincidentally be performing on the Simon Cowell-produced America’s Got Talent on August 4th. Speaking of Cowell, he’ll be looking to assemble a panel of judges of his own for his upcoming American version of X-Factor, which he left Idol to launch.

So what do you think? Would you be more likely or less likely to tune in for American Idol this upcoming season if Bret Michaels and Perez Hilton join the ranks?

Ellen DeGeneres votes herself off American Idol, half of judge panel now gone

Ellen DeGeneres says she’s leaving American Idol after just one season on the show’s panel of judges. In a statement released through Warner Bros, DeGeneres blames both the workload of doing two television shows (Idol and her own Ellen Show) along with an aversion to hurting lesser contestants’ feelings. Ellen’s departure comes on the heels of the departure of fellow judge Simon Cowell, who announced his own exit long before the end of the most recent season. The move leaves Idol faced with the task of filling one or both suddenly empty judges’ chairs, as the show could cast two new judges to remain at the current total of four, or it could simply bring in one new judge and go back to the show’s original three-judge format. As it stands, Randy Jackson is now the only remaining original judge (that’s if he himself remains with the show; apparently nothing Idol-related is certain at this point), along with Kara DioGuardi, who’s been on the job for two seasons.

Among those who’ve openly lobbied to replace cowell have been Poison singer Bret Michaels and blogger Perez Hilton. With Ellen’s departure, there might now be room for both of them.

Ellen’s official announcement on the matter via her Twitter account? “Dim the lights…I’ve voted myself off American Idol.” That’s right, she led with the joke before any of the rest of us could come up with it.

Bumper Bummer: iPhone 4 free case app won’t install on some iPhones

Those who don’t yet have an iPhone 4 but are curious as to which free iPhone 4 cases are being offered to users by Apple are out of luck. Users of the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G can’t even officially take a peek at the offerings (which include several third party options in addition to Apple’s own Bumper case), as Apple is running the free iPhone 4 case program through a free App Store app – and while the app can be downloaded onto any computer via iTunes, it won’t even so much as sync to to an older iPhone (or for that matter, an iPad or iPod touch). Even though the free case app is technically compatible with all of the above, Apple has flagged the app such that it can’t be installed on anything but an iPhone 4.

Part of this is due to the fact that the app confirms you actually have an iPhone 4 by examining the device it’s been installed on (thus also ensuring a limit of one per customer) without putting anyone through the hassle of manually producing a receipt or even a serial number. It’s a clever and efficient idea, but it does keep current users of Apple’s older iPhones from being able to browse the app to see which free case they might want to pick out if they do end up buying an iPhone 4 before the expiration of the free case program (September 30th for new purchases; August 22nd if you bought your iPhone 4 prior to July 23rd). Fortunately, we’ve done hands-on tests with the highest rated (Speck PixelSkin HD – full review here) and the lowest rated (oddly enough, Apple’s own Bumper – full review here) and we’ve got the reviews for your perusal.

Christina Perri performs on Jay Leno show tonight

Christina Perri has just announced that she’ll be performing on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show tonight (apparently a late addition, as television listings show Stone Temple Pilots as the musical guest). The singer rose out of obscurity literally overnight when a demo of her song “Jar of Hearts” was used on So You Think You Can Dance earlier this summer; she since returned to that show to perform the song live. Perri recently signed a major label record deal with Atlantic Records, with as of yet not publicly stated plans for a release date for her debut album. Other guests listed for the Tonight Show tonight are Jennifer Aniston and Jason Schwartzman. We’re still not sure what the story is with Stone Temple Pilots, but Christina Perri has offered photographic proof that she’s really going to be on the show. NBC.com also now lists Perri as the musical guest.

Verizon iPhone 4 in 2010: top six questions and answers

Verizon customers (and to a lesser extent, current iPhone users fed up with AT&T) want to know when the iPhone is coming to Verizon. Good luck with that one, as there is no official information on that particular question one way or the other. But aside from the one unanswerable question, here are the answers to the rest of the Verizon iPhone puzzle:

Would a Verizon iPhone in 2010 be the same as the current iPhone 4? Yes and no. Because AT&T and Verizon have incompatible networks (the incompatibility actually has nothing to do with Apple itself), the current iPhone has an AT&T-compatible antenna built in. Although Apple has reportedly been trying to develop a cross-compatible hybrid antenna since 2007, there’s still no such thing. So if a Verizon-compatible iPhone 4 does come to market, it’ll look the same as the current iPhone 4, but it’ll have different antenna technology built in – meaning that a Verizon iPhone 4 wouldn’t work on AT&T’s network.

Will it be that way forever? Not quite. Both AT&T and Verizon are expected to move to 4G networking technology in sometime in 2011, meaning that once it happens, a future iPhone model could theoretically include one antenna that would work on either network. But that would still leave questions of backwards compatibility for those areas in which a 4G signal wouldn’t be available. Consider that at present, the prevailing 3G network is still only available in more urban areas, with those in the middle of nowhere relying on the previous generation networking for connectivity; the same could happen with 4G prevailing in populated areas, but 3G still being the only signal available in smaller towns.

Would current iPhone 4 users switch over to Verizon in 2010 in droves? No, at least not at first. With iPhone users under contract with AT&T for a period of two years forward from the purchase of their iPhone (meaning that most iPhone users are still under contract) and an early termination fee of as much as $325, it’s unlikely that more than a few AT&T iPhone users would immediately jump to Verizon. That could change as those users’ AT&T contracts begin expiring, but studies have consistently shown that iPhone users don’t have nearly as many problems with AT&T as Verizon customers seem to think iPhone users are having with AT&T. There’s also that compatibility thing; current AT&T iPhone users might have to buy a different iPhone model just to switch to Verizon. Welcome to the state of cellular networks in 2010.

But what about that 2012 AT&T exclusivity date that keeps getting tossed around? Could that be bypassed in 2010? It was true back in 2007, but that’s about all we know for sure. Documents recently surfaced showing that the original Apple-AT&T exclusivity contract was in fact a five year deal, but no information has surfaced regarding whether the original 2007 deal has since been altered, or whether there are any out-clauses on Apple’s end, or what they might be. Can Apple buy its way out of the deal any time it wants? We don’t know. Has the deal perhaps already been automatically voided or shortened by the fact that AT&T has come up so short on so many iPhone related goals? We don’t know that either. The fact that the original deal was intended to run through 2012 is just one more piece of information that may or may not still be relevant here in 2010.

Does Verizon still want the iPhone here in 2010? Of course. Verizon has done alright for itself with the Droid, but the iPhone reigns supreme in the hearts and minds of most consumers, even those who don’t own any smartphone. We hear all the time from Verizon customers who are still using a flip-phone and want an iPhone (and have no interest in the Droid) but are still still willing to stick it out a little longer on Verizon to see if the iPhone finally comes their way. If not, they say they’ll eventually bite the bullet and move to AT&T just to get the iPhone. Verizon knows these customers exist in large numbers, and obviously doesn’t want to lose them.

Will Verizon be the first U.S. carrier to get the iPhone besides AT&T? No way of knowing. Verizon is far larger than Sprint or T-Mobile, making it the more sensible carrier to expand to first from a pure number standpoint. But there are other factors involved, including a carrier’s willingness to work with Apple on things like ensuring that the carrier is willing to provide iPhone customers with adequate access to decent amounts of data bandwidth (which AT&T has fallen down on), additional features (which AT&T has also fallen down on), and just importantly, a network strong enough to support the massive influx of data-chewing iPhones without bringing the whole network to its knees (come to think of it, not AT&T’s strong suit here either). A carrier’s ability to provide Apple with guarantees about quality of experience are not the same thing as said carrier’s willingness to do so.

So when is the iPhone coming to Verizon? Will it happen in 2010 Nice try, but you already asked your six questions. Suffice it to say that if anyone claims to know for sure when it’s going to happen, it’s probably best to ignore that person completely – unless his name is Steve Jobs. But even Jobs, who would ultimately be the one to make the decision on this, sounds like he hasn’t made his mind up based on the few intentionally cryptic comments he’s made on the subject. provided No store-level or support-level employee of Verizon, AT&T, or Apple would have any accurate knowledge on this topic whatsoever – so if any employee tries to claim otherwise, it’s either because they read and believe the rumor sites, or because they’re trying to make a sale and they’re hoping you’ll believe whatever made-up information they’re feeding you. So while we can’t answer your question about when the Verizon iPhone might be happening, if it’s any consolation, rest assured that neither can anyone else.

iPad and iPhone users unlikely to see Android wallpaper app breach

One of the fundamental differences between the iPhone and Android platforms is that while Apple manually tests and approves every third party iPhone app before it becomes available to users (more than 95% of submitted apps are ultimately approved), the Android “app store” is more like the wild west. And while breaches can and do happen on the Apple side of the fence (on the Fourth of July, a rogue individual posing as an iPhone app developer hacked the App Store to briefly push his own phony eBooks up the App Store sales charts), millions of Android users have now been hit by what reads like a Kindergarten-level hack: a simple wallpaper app available in the Android app store was downloaded by millions before anyone caught on to the fact that the app was rigged to steal users’ data and send it wirelessly back to the unscrupulous app developer.

There’s no way to know for sure that Apple, with its stringent testing and approval process for third party apps for its iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch platforms, would have caught such an app before it went live – but it’s doubtful that it would have gotten past Apple’s testers. While geek-leaning Android users brag about the “open” nature of their platform (in other words, they find it to be more recreationally hackable), the flipside of that “openness” is that malware thinly veiled as a harmless wallpaper app is far more likely to be a problem for Android users than iPhone users. While Apple has approved about a quarter million free and paid third-party apps for the iPhone and iPad, none of them have ever been a free wallpaper app that steals users’ data.

Source: Venturebeat, relayed by @lvdjgarcia via Daring Fireball’s @gruber

iPhone 4 Bumper case is worth its free price tag, not much more

Apple is offering a free Bumper case to any iPhone 4 user who wants one, an appropriate move considering that in-house tests show the Bumper to be worth nowhere near its original $29 price tag. iPhone 4 users are receiving the free Bumper (or a limited choice of free cases from other vendors) because Apple is looking to make the overblown-yet-persistent iPhone 4 antenna headlines go away. But as it turns out, the Bumpers are essentially just a piece of rubber which wraps around the iPhone’s outer edges but provides no protection for the device’s front or back – and is only compatible with the iPhone sync cable Apple provides, whereas most other cases can be used in conjunction with third party iPhone sync cables, which tend to have a taller neck.

On the plus side, the Apple Bumper for iPhone 4 does come in a wide choice of colors, which makes up for the fact that the iPhone 4 itself only comes in a choice of black or white – and even then, the white iPhone 4 model has been delayed indefinitely. As a $29 product, our in-house tests have rated the Bumper a mere three stars out of five. But as a free throw-in, you can’t beat the zero dollar price tag. Here’s our hands-on Apple Bumper case review.

However, in-house reviews have shown some of the third party iPhone 4 cases included in Apple’s free case program are likely to make for more suitable options for most users. Other pptions include free iPhone 4 cases from Belkin, Speck, Incase, and Griffin. Here’s a review of our highest rated free iPhone 4 case.

iOS4 on iPhone 3G slowness comes to a head; you heard it here in June

Apple’s new iOS4 mobile operating system runs atrociously on the discontinued iPhone 3G model, something we first warned readers about a full thirty-one days ago. With the iPhone 4 antenna nonsense finally dying down in the headlines, it appears the “iOS4 runs poorly on an iPhone 3G” storyline is set to become the primary iPhone related headline from tech pundits for the foreseeable future. The iPhone 3G story has finally been picked up on this week publications including the Wall Street Journal, and the story is the same as what Beatweek first reported back in June: while iOS4 runs fantastically on the iPhone 4 and even the iPhone 3GS, those who install it on the iPhone 3G (introduced mid 2008, bargain-binned in mid 2009, discontinued in 2010) have found varying degrees of what can most easily be described as suckage: while a handful of aspects of the interface are sped up on the iPhone 3G, it’s more than erased by random extended delays in which tapping on the screen can occasionally take up to ten seconds or more for the command to execute. This can range from launching an app to pausing your music to answering a phone call, all of which are things that you’d probably rather not wait several seconds to have happen.

These problems, which we simultaneously discovered in house and were notified of by our readers and Twitter followers who have an iPhone 3G, resulted in our recommendation that iPhone 3G users not install iOS 4 unless they really, really want a unified email inbox or folders; those who want iOS 4 that badly are better off simply upgrading to an iPhone 4. The subsequent release of iOS 4.0.1 made the iPhone 3G problems only about half as severe, but has still left iPhone 3G users fuming – not so much because the the new OS doesn’t run well on their discontinued device, but because iOS 4 was served up to iPhone 3G users as an automatic, prompted update in iTunes, with no warning of how potentially unsuitable it was for their device. The problem is even more compounded by the lack of a simple method of downgrading an iPhone 3G back to the previous OS 3 software. As if the slow speed weren’t bad enough, iOS 4 can also cause an iPhone 3G to run noticeably hot to the touch and to chew through battery life several times faster than should be the case.

Tooting ones own horn too often, even when having been proven right, is unbecoming. But it’s worth pointing out that Beatweek readers with an iPhone 3G were made aware of this problem within a few days of the iOS 4 launch, and saved from unwittingly installing software on their device that would render it less usable.

Mike Posner performs “Cooler Than Me” on America’s Got Talent

Mike Posner is set to perform on America’s Got Talent tonight on NBC. Posner, who has scored a top five hit on the iTunes pop charts with his debut single Cooler Than Me, will release his debut album entitled 31 Minutes To Takeoff on August 10th. He signed a record contract while still in college at Duke University but returned to school to finish his degree before launching his album. Mike Posner released his first mixtape A Matter Of Time in 2009, and has performed on the same stage as 50 Cent and Drake. The rest of tonight’s America’s Got Talent episode will center around solidifying the roster for the show’s top twenty-four, and will also feature a performance from JabbawockeeZ.

Motorola’s iPhone 4 attack is comical, ridiculous

Motorola is spending a lot of money to attack the iPhone 4 over supposed antenna issues, by running full page ads declaring that its smartphones don’t need a case in order to get strong cellular reception. Set aside for the moment the fact that the iPhone 4 doesn’t need a case for such purposes either (as unequivocally demonstrated by the fact that 99.4% of iPhone 4 users had never made a complaint about their phone’s antenna or reception, even before Apple started shoveling free cases at iPhone 4 users just to make the overblown headlines go away). The comedy gold here is the fact that Motorola has perhaps the spottiest antenna and reception history of any cellphone maker in the market.

Just ask a user of one of Motorola’s RAZR cellphones how their reception is, and they’ll tell you the same thing: it’s so weak that many RAZR users have half-jokingly questioned whether the phone even has an antenna – and there are other Motorola phones that are no better. I should know, because I used to be one of those users. For better or worse, I’ve been an AT&T customer since 2005. My first phone with was a RAZR, whose reception was so awful that it literally had no signal anywhere inside my townhouse, and I would have to go out on the balcony just to make a call or check for voicemail. Within a few months I’d moved on to Motorola’s SLVR phone (the proverbial “iTunes phone”), whose reception was every bit as awful. I was tempted to blame AT&T, as at the time I was living in a medium-sized and tightly packed suburb in which there should have been no reception issues.

Then I moved to the heart of Los Angeles, and I assumed my Motorola SLVR reception on AT&T would get better on account of it being a more urban area, but it barely did. I could only get reception in some corners of the apartment but not others. Not too long after that, the first iPhone went on the market and I immediately bought one. To my surprise, reception in my apartment went from awful to perfect – and in that moment I learned that I’d wrongly been blaming AT&T for the fact that Motorola couldn’t build an antenna to save its life. AT&T certainly has its issues, but Motorola’s design incompetence is the reason why its phones like the RAZR and SLVR are little more than trendy bricks; you can’t reliably make phone calls with them, and they have no other features anyway. Contrast that with the iPhone, which study after study after study shows that most iPhone users have no AT&T reception issues of any kind and never have.

Granted, I’ve been on the iPhone platform for three years now and I’ve mercifully never partaken in any of Motorola’s smartphones. But anecdotal reports that I hear would appear to confirm the fact that Motorola still does not know how to build a cellphone antenna. So for Motorola to publicly go after Apple (or for that matter any competitor) over reception issues is nothing short of farcical. It would be like Geocities attacking Facebook for falling behind the times, or AOL attacking a legitimate broadband provider for not being fast enough. I’ve spoken off the record with a few former Motorola employees (who’ve quit in disgust) who’ve told me that it’s difficult to even describe how poorly the company is run, which explains why so many Motorola products are flat-out garbage. It probably also explains why Apple had to stop using Motorola as its supplier for Macintosh computer microprocessors a few years ago, after Motorola’s chips had fallen embarrassingly behind the rest of the industry in terms of speed. And it might explain why Apple ended up cutting Motorola out of the initial three-way “iTunes phone” partnership (which also included AT&T) in favor of a two-way deal, sans Motorola, when the real iPhone went into action.

As many times as Apple has dumped Motorola over the years, it’s easy to see why Motorola is now lashing out at Apple so publicly; revenge is a dish best served cold . But seeing as how each of those dumpings was because incompetent Motorola had screwed Apple yet again, first with lame computer processors and then a lame iTunes phone, you’d think it would be Apple publicly lashing out at Motorola for incompetence, not the other way around.

Even though we now know that the iPhone 4 “antenna issue” was overblown by the media to the point of being almost a hoax, Apple still has a few things to answer for, like how they allowed the iPhone 4 to go out the door with buggy proximity sensor software (which it now say it’ll fix via software update), why it’s doing such a poor job of keeping up with black iPhone 4 inventory, where the hell the white iPhone 4 went to (it’s just been delayed again and now has no launch date), and why iOS 4 runs like such trash on an iPhone 3G (if anything, this is the real controversy, all but missed by headline writers who were too focused on trying to create the antenna controversy). But Motorola, with its history, is not in a position to be attacking any competing cellphone vendor for any reason.

iPhone 4 Bumper is far from the best free iPhone 4 case choice

Apple makes the phone you like, but it doesn’t mean Apple makes the case you want. There’s reason why the company is offering iPhone 4 users other options beyond its own “Bumper” case, and that’s because it’s not much of a case. Beatweek’s own in-house testing reveals the Bumper to be a mere three star product (out of five) with pros and cons that add up to a fairly mediocre product (full review here). While the Bumpers do a nice job of protecting the iPhone 4’s top, sides, and bottom, and come in a wide choice of colors, the product falls short when it comes to protecting any other aspect of the device – and it has to be removed in order to plug the iPhone 4 into most of the third party iPhone accessory cables you might come into contact (for instance, the cable from a third party car charger for your iPhone).

So what’s the top rated option among the other free cases being offered in Apple’s free iPhone 4 case program? The other cases come from Belkin, Griffin, Speck, and Incase, all known for making respectable accessories for iPhone and iPod products over the years. But our in house tests reveal the Speck PixelSkin HD (full review here, not to be confused with the “Speck PixelSkin” without the “HD” in its name) to be not only the highest rated iPhone 4 case we’ve tested among the freebie options, but also the highest iPhone 4 case period – so far, at least, as iPhone 4 cases from various vendors are arriving on the market and at our offices in rapid fashion.

Just because a product tests out the most strongly doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the most suitable for you, so as with all things, in the end it comes down to the judgment of each individual user (our reviews are to help you make educated choices, not to tell you what’s right for you). We’ve heard from iPhone 4 users who like their Bumper case just fine, so there’s no shame in going that route if it’s the one that appeals to you. But before you make your choice, be aware that there are a number of different cases from different vendors available through the free iPhone 4 case program. Happy shopping – it’s not every day you come across a slew of iPhone cases each with a zero dollar price tag.

Verizon iPhone: three reasons to root for it, one to root against

Verizon wants the iPhone. Any carrier wants to offer its customers the option of using the most popular smartphone on the planet. And Apple wants Verizon to have the iPhone. An increased number of carrier options for the iPhone means more iPhones sold. Technical, strategic, and contractual reasons have prevented the Verizon iPhone from happening – so far. But (nearly) everyone should root for it to happen whether they themselves would want to use one or not, and for more reasons than might immediately come to mind:

Bandwidth: this might be the most obvious, but even if relatively few current iPhone users end up switching over from AT&T, the existence of a Verizon iPhone would stem the flow of longtime Verizon customers who’ve been coming over to AT&T just to get the iPhone (a far more popular trend in 2010 than the headlines might suggest). This will slow down the number of new iPhone users on AT&T, giving the carrier’s overburdened network a chance to catch up a bit. So the mere existence of Verizon iPhone would likely improve the quality of the iPhone experience on AT&T.

Competition: AT&T has iPhone users over a barrel on pricing, because iPhone users don’t leave the platform – and AT&T knows it. This means that the carrier can not only charge iPhone high-end pricing for basic voice and data services, it also means that add-ons like tethering arrive years late and come with asinine price tags, all while AT&T eliminates unlimited data plans in an attempt to make sure that all iPhone users are being overcharged, not just some of them. Verizon treats its own customers no better. But if the iPhone became available from both carriers, new iPhone buyers (who aren’t already under contract with one or the other) will be able to choose between the two, meaning that both AT&T and Verizon will have to at least make some feint attempt at offering vaguely competitive monthly pricing for iPhone users. This could end up saving existing iPhone users on AT&T a bit of money.

Economy of scale: Economics 101 says that the more iPhones that Apple sells, the cheaper it can manufacture them for – and the cheaper it can sell them for. And the larger the platform becomes, the more app developers get involved, which means not only more apps to choose from (as if there weren’t enough of them already) but also increased competition among app developers, which is a win for consumers. And a Verizon iPhone would likely means tens of millions of new iPhone users within the first tens of minutes of its availability.

So who should be rooting against a Verizon iPhone and why? The answer is fairly straightforward:

Verizon meltdown: Those Verizon customers who mistakenly brag about their network being significantly superior to that of AT&T are in for a rude awakening the day Verizon gets the iPhone, as those tens of millions of new iPhone users will put a major strain on Verizon’s network – which in technological terms, is as woefully outdated (CDMA) as that of AT&T (which still uses GSM). Even if most Verizon iPhone purchases are already Verizon customers, a major portion of them will be upgrading from a generic flip-phone which didn’t have any data functionality (email, internet, Twitter, Facebook, and so on). With all of those Verizon flip-phone users simultaneously upgrading to a phone with which they can chew through data at a healthy rate, the impact on Verizon’s CDMA network is would be anything but healthy (when Verizon and AT&T both go 4G in presumably 2011, this could be a different story)

We get asked about the Verizon iPhone a lot, and the answer is always the same: the only thing you can be one hundred percent sure of is that anyone claiming to know anything about an arrival or launch date is full of it, unless that person’s name happens to be Steve Jobs – and with his continued cryptic comments on the matter (such as his recent quip “the future is long”), it’s not even clear that he himself is sure when or if a Verizon iPhone might happen. But depending on which of the above categories you fall into, at least you know whether you should be rooting for it to happen sooner rather than later. Here’s more on the Verizon iPhone.

AGF Vandelay Case with Holster for iPhone 4: quick look

AGF is coming out with an iPhone 4 case that promises to be ‘top of the line’ and come in sixteen different designs in order to cater to a multitude of personal styles. This is the Vandelay Case with Holster for the iPhone 4.

The Vandelay is a stylish, two piece shell offering which gives amazing impact protection. It also comes with an extremely durable AGF Holster.

Things to keep in mind:
- Bottom removes for easy docking
- Access to all controls, ports, and camera
- Includes holster with kickstand
- Can face either in or out

This case is not yet available for sale, but will retail for $34.99 on AGFindings.com. We will have a full review of this case coming up in the next few weeks.

iPhone Coasters now available in various sets

iPhone Coasters are now available for purchase! Wouldn’t you want to geek out your dining room with these amazing coasters? They currently come in three sets — The Core, Home, and Media sets. Each set depicts 6 of Apple’s default iPhone apps and may be purchase for £19.99.

For more information, see iPhoneAppsCoasters.com

iPhone jailbreaking now legal, still means you bought the wrong phone

Hacking your iPhone via a method that such hackers commonly refer to as “jailbreaking” is legal after all, says the U.S. Library of Congress. The process is most commonly carried out by geeks and hackers for the sake of turning their iPhone into something of a blank slate which can then be mutilated into a device which doesn’t function much like an iPhone but rather more like an Android or other hobbyist phone which can loaded up with amateur apps written by the hackers themselves. The word “jailbreaking” was a propaganda term originated in 2007 by said hackers in an attempt to imply that iPhone users who don’t hack their devices are “in jail” due to the fact that they’re limited to choosing from the mere quarter million apps available in the App Store, many of which are free to begin with.

With the debate over the legality of jailbreaking now set aside (unless another ruling body picks up the trail at some point), the debate now shifts back to the more important issue. Neither the government not Apple nor AT&T was ever going to bust down your door and seize your jailbroken phone (unless it’s a prototype you bought from a guy who found it in a bar), so the more important question is whether you should jailbreak your phone. The answer comes not in the form of a “yes” or a “no” but rather along these lines: the iPhone has always been aimed squarely at mainstream consumers, at the expense of the geeks, and Apple couldn’t be any more clear that it has no interest in making the iPhone a hacker-friendly or even particularly geek-friendly platform. In other words, if you have to “jailbreak” your iPhone to get it to do what you want, that’s a pretty clear indication that you bought the wrong phone to begin with. And if you believe that iPhone users who don’t hack their iPhone are “in jail” as far as usage, then you really bought the wrong phone. While the iPhone is the clear cut choice for nearly all mainstream consumers, it’s rarely the right choice for uber-geeks who feel that they have to fundamentally alter the nature of the iPhone just to suit their preferred usage patterns.

While Apple has quietly taken various steps over the years to nudge such hackers off the iPhone platform, the legality of such hackery has always been open to debate – until now. In the greater scheme of things, there’s essentially no mainstream impact to the “jailbreaking” part of the Library of Congress ruling. While some insider pundits who’ve lost track of reality have comically claimed that “most” iPhone users jailbreak their iPhones, common sense says that ninety-something percent of iPhone users have never even heard of jailbreaking, let alone would have any interest in it if they did. So while the sudden clear-cut legality of jailbreaking has no direct impact on the mainstream and never will, it does mean that Apple can’t put a stop to such practice among the statistically tiny percentage of iPhone users who do want to hack their iPhone into oblivion. But while geeks are now legally free to buy an iPhone and hack it to their heart’s delight (not that the lack of clear cut legality was stopping them before), it doesn’t change the fact that it means they’re on the wrong platform. While the Android platform is not recommendable to mainstream consumers over the iPhone under almost circumstances, hackers are one subcategory of users who would likely be much better off considering the Android.

Common sense says white iPhone 4 delay is not antenna related

Pundits have suggested that the last minute delay white iPhone 4 is because Apple plans to “fix” the white iPhone 4’s antenna before shipping it. Common sense says this is an absurd notion. With 99.4% of iPhone 4 users having never repotted any antenna related issues to begin with, just what would Apple be “fixing” to begin with? Beyond the fact that iPhone 4 users aren’t complaining to begin with (the rush of antenna related headlines turns out to have been counter-indicative of how the userbase actually felt), for Apple to have two iPhone models on the market simultaneously, identical but with differing antenna hardware, would be a color-coded disaster. Apple would have to go back and explain to existing black iPhone 4 users why their iPhone, which never had an antenna problem to begin with, was suddenly being left behind in favor of a white iPhone 4 with a different antenna. And that could prompt existing iPhone 4 users to suddenly feel wronged and want to trade their black iPhone 4 in for a white one, even though they never had a problem with the black one.

Launching a white iPhone 4 with different antenna technology would create a perception problem among iPhone 4 users, whereas up until now that perception problem has only existed among tech journalists and those who believe every word written by said journalists. The iPhone 4 antenna controversy is over, despite the continued (and in some instances increasingly desperate) attempts on the part of some tech pundits to keep it alive by all but begging their readers to return their iPhone 4 for a refund. The idea that Apple would take a non-issue that’s already died down, and choose to reignite it in a much more concrete fashion, is absurd.

With Apple’s continued vagueness as to the specific nature of the “manufacturing challenges” it keeps referring to in its continual delays of the white iPhone 4, speculation will continue as to just what is really going on. But if there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that when the white iPhone 4 does finally ship, it’ll have the same antenna technology as the black iPhone 4. Anyone who claims otherwise is merely attempting to cover up for the fact that they went overboard with the antenna non-issue in the first place and must now attempt to keep the controversy alive in order to save face.

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