Prototype iPhone 4 being auctioned on eBay for US $999,999

An iPhone 4 prototype has found its way into someone’s hands who wasted no time in putting it up for auction on eBay. Although initially the phone was going for around $810, the price has now shot to an unbelievable $999,999 the last time we checked.

The device is similar to the one that was leaked last year by Gizmodo. In the pictures you can see that it has seen some wear with scruff marks on the metal band. The volume control buttons don’t have the '+' and '–' symbols just like the previous prototype we have seen. On the front and back panels are the letters ‘DF1692’ printed, which corresponds to an Apple employee who would ideally be in charge of this phone. On the back the device has XXXXX printed instead of the model number and other details.

The seller mentions that the device cannot be activated with iTunes nor can it be used with an AT&T SIM. The only parts about the phone that work are the display, vibration and all the buttons. The device cannot be used for calls or for anything for that matter and is permanently stuck on the connect to iTunes screen. Whoever buys this will only have the bragging rights of owning a prototype iPhone.

Now it remains to be seen how long this goes on before Apple steps in and claims the device. Then again it’s an old device so they probably won’t be in any hurry to do so.

iPhone sales in the US up while others stagnate

According to the latest survey by Nielsen, 38% of mobile phone users in the US now own a smartphone. Also, out of all the people who purchased phones in the last three months, 55% purchased a smartphone, up from 34% last year.

The current leader in terms of sales is Android with 38% market share of all the smartphones in the US. In second place with 27% users is Apple with their lone iPhone and in third place is RIM with 21% users.

An interesting observation made by Nielsen suggests that contrary to popular belief it is the iPhone that is driving smartphone sales in the US with the maximum amount of growth in the last three months. Android sales, on the other hand, have flattened over the same period of time, despite new phones being launched every week.

The reason for the growth in iPhone sales could be attributed to the launch of the Verizon version, along with the white model. Now with Apple selling unlocked versions of the iPhone 4 in the US the numbers are likely to go even higher. However, the real growth will be observed later in the year during the last quarter, when the next generation iPhone goes on sale. Google too would be launching Ice Cream Sandwich, hopefully along with a new Nexus phone. Meanwhile the likes of RIM are likely to continue getting the lukewarm response unless they come up with something groundbreaking.

Unlocked iPhone 4 heading to Apple Stores in the US

If you are in US and if you have to buy an iPhone you would have two options. You could either get it on contract from either AT&T or Verizon or you could buy it without a contract. However, in each case the device would be locked to the network. So far Apple only sold the iPhone unlocked in select countries, which made them a popular shopping destination for those who wanted to use an iPhone on a network other than those that Apple approves. But now it seems the unlocked versions of the iPhone 4 are officially coming to the US.

According to a tweet by Chronic Wire, member of the popular Chronic Dev team of iOS hackers, unlocked iPhones are currently heading to Apple Stores in the US and will be available as soon as this Wednesday.

Unlocked iPhones headed to Apple Stores for Wednesday: MC603 (16GB, Black) MC604 (16GB, White) MC605 (32GB, Black) MC606 (32GB, White)less than a minute ago via Twitter for Mac Favorite Retweet ReplyChronic Wire
chronicwire

This includes both the black and white models in 16GB and 32GB respectively, however no mention of iPhone 3GS was given. No prices were mentioned as well but we are guess it will be same as the current no-contract iPhone prices, i.e., $599 for the 16GB and $699 for the 32GB iPhone 4. With the next generation iPhone not far from launch now, we wonder whether it makes sense to invest so much in a model that will soon become outdated.

Speaking of next generation iPhone, we are also hearing news that the next generation iPhone has reached final testing stages and also that it will have FaceTime over 3G, however, Verizon won’t be supporting that feature this year.

iOS 5 beta is barely out the closet, already jailbroken

The jailbreak was done using the LimeRa1n exploit, which is used from iOS4 up until 4.3.3. Still it's only a tethered jailbreak, meaning that each time you reboot your iDevice you'll need it hooked up to a computer to work the jailbreaking magic anew.

Naturally, people are hoping that an untethered jailbreak will be available for iOS 5 even before it launches in the fall. But it seems that Apple has removed the possibility of jailbreaking iOS 5 (the untethered way) by patching the current ndrv_setspec weak spot in it.

This was revealed by a dev - i0n1c in a tweet, saying that if this is true, then "unthether is dead". Maybe he should have used "unthether in its current form is dead". We'll have to wait and see.

Still, the already available tethered jailbreak will remain available for the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4th generation, as closing its loophole requires a change on a hardware level. But with an upcoming iPhone 4S or 5 and next generation iPod Touches, it's highly likely that Apple will close it for good meaning next-gen iPhone hackers will have a new challenge ahead of them.

Gresso's iPhone 4 Time Machine edition packs six Swiss watches

Apple didn’t announce a new iPhone yesterday, so we have to look to Gresso to get our "new iPhone" fix. The Gresso iPhone 4 Time Machine features six Swiss mechanical watches on its back and yet is amazingly thin.

Gresso are well known for their tenacity to slap mechanical watches onto mobile phones - it matches their sense of classiness, we guess. Their new offering is not a new phone but a modified iPhone 4 called Time Machine (and yes, it has nothing to do with Apple's Time Machine).

The usual glass back of this new iPhone 4 is replaced by a mineral glass with diamond coating and houses six independent mechanical Swiss watches, each taking hundreds of man-hours to construct and days on end of accuracy testing. The watches keep the time at the six leading business centers from across the world - New York, London, Paris, Moscow, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Gresso iPhone 4 Time Machine

Amazingly, Gresso claim that the iPhone 4 Time Machine is only 1mm thicker than a vanilla iPhone 4 (which measures 9.3mm). Now, either this is some ad-speak that tries to conceal the actual thickness of the device, or Gresso has freed up some room inside the iPhone 4.

Or maybe it's just that we don't know anything about making mechanical watches, but 1mm for glass + watch mechanism sounds impossible.

Anyway, the Gresso iPhone 4 Time Machine is coming out in 2011 (vague, we know, but you can't rush perfection) and it will set you back $6000. Pricey but you can update it to iOS 5 and use iCloud - that's more than can be said about some of the other Gresso offerings.

Apple unveils iOS 5, brings notifications but little else

This year's WWDC keynote saw no new hardware announcements and instead it was iOS that took center stage. Apple unveiled the next major release, iOS 5, for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, which packs over 200 new features or say they say.

The greatest new feature of iOS 5 is the notification area, which comes to replace the annoying pop-ups. Taking a leaf of Google's Android book, the company has added a dedicated screen that you open by pulling from the top of the screen downwards. It contains all your notifications and if you click one of them it takes you to the app responsible for it.

The new notification area

Clicking on the X icon on the right removes the notification. We didn't see an Android-like button for clearing all notifications, or quick radio settings (i.e. Wi-Fi, GPS or Bluetooth toggles) though. By the way the Notification center, as Apple likes to call it, also features stock updates and weather information. Also visually, it looks like quite a ripoff of David Ashman's popular LockInfo app available as an unofficial tweak from Cydia. But is Apple running out of fresh ideas?

Next came Twitter integration, which covers Contacts, Safari, Photos, Camera, YouTube and Maps. You can now Tweet from all those apps and your contacts are automatically synced with their Twitter accounts. It's a rather strange move from Apple adding Twitter integration, when fans have been asking for Facebook for what seems like ages. makes us wonder if perhaps there's some grudge going on between the two companies.

Twitter integration is fine, but what we really wanted was Facebook

The company is also launching the iMessage service, which is basically an IM client built-in right into the Message app. It supports sending texts, photos, videos, contacts to both single users and groups over encrypted connection. And yes, this time it works over both Wi-Fi and 3G from the start.

iMessage is the iOS version of BlackBerry Messenger

Reminders were also unveiled, bringing all your to-dos together and allowing you to set-up, well, reminders. The good news is that the app is location aware so it can now remind you of events based on where you are. It’s nothing that you couldn't achieve with an app anyway, but it's always better when things come built-in (for free!).

Reminders

The camera department got an upgrade, too, with a dedicated camera shortcut landing on the lockscreen and some settings finally making their way to the UI. You now get the option to add grid-lines to your viewfinder, lock exposure and focus by pressing on the screen and using the digital zoom by pinching in ala Galaxy S II.

The camera got its due update

Oh, and you can now use the volume key for taking photos - it's not as good as a dedicated two-position camera key, but it's way better than nothing. And yes, it's the same tweak that Apple banned from the AppStore a while ago.

The Safari browser was arguably the app to get the most significant update, but alas, those were mostly for its iPad version. The Apple slate got tabbed browsing, bringing it on par with the competition. The Reading list plug-in for both the iPad and the little iOS devices allows you to save pages for reading later. Those get synced between devices too.

Safari was probably the app to get the most significant update

A particularly cool-sounding new feature of the Safari, called Safari Reader, Safari Reader lets you see web articles sans ads or clutter so you can read without distractions. It also supposedly merges multi-page articles in one big page for more convenient reading.

Moving on, the iOS5 brings the Newsstand app - it gathers all magazine and newspaper subscriptions in one place, making it easier for you to access them.

The Newsstand app

The photos app gets image editing, allowing you to crop and edit images straight on your iOS device. Editing boils down to red-eye removal and Auto-enhance so don't get your hopes too high, though.

The Game center is another one of the iOS key features to benefits from iOS 5. The new version of the platform will enable posting of profile pictures, new friends recommendations based on the games you play and the players you already know. New overall achievement scores are introduced, too.

iOS will also Apple decided to break the computer-chains imposed on their iOS devices. You will no longer need to connect your iPhone/iPad/iPod to a computer before your first use or for each firmware update. Starting with iOS 5 updates will be pushed over the air and they will come in smaller sizes thanks to the implemented Delta encoding. While it sounds good, it sure sound like it's going to make the job of jailbreakers all the harder.

Among the other noteworthy updates are a system-wide dictionary as well as rich text formatting and flagging of messages in the email app.

iOS 5 will be pushed to end users this Fall, which seems like a pretty long wait considering that it isn't the major step forward that everyone was expecting it to be. At least that gives us a rough estimation as of when we should expect the next iPhone - be it iPhone 5 or 4S. Obviously a late September release is the best we can hope for.

The iDevices eligible for an upgrade are the iPhone 3GS and 4, the iPad and iPad 2 and latest two generation of iPod touch - 3rd and 4th.

The good news is that Apple announcements didn't end with the iOS 5. The company introduced its iCloud online synching service, which might as well be more beneficial to iOS users than the firmware update. Check out what that's all about here.

In case you feel like getting a dose of video demos, you can check out the iOS 5 new features coverage in our blog.

HTC Sensation suffers from death grip, iPhone 4 caught snickering

Looks like there might be trouble in paradise for HTC fans. Nordic Hardware’s tests have proven that the new HTC Sensation also suffers from the same dreaded death grip as the iPhone 4 but this time it also affects the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity of the phone.

The problematic area is the back cover. As we discovered a few days back, the Sensation does not have a true unibody design as HTC claims it does but instead uses a large removable battery cover which is mostly made out of metal and has plastic areas that work as antennas. Unfortunately, when these pieces are covered by your hand, there is a substantial drop in the performance of the radio units within the device, particularly of the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios.

Next-gen iPhone to have a curved glass display?

As the WWDC comes closer and closer the rumor mill keeps churning details of the next-gen iPhone. This time we got word that the smartphone that will be named either iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S might have a curved glass display. The rumor was fueled by the reported purchase of between 200 and 300 glass-cutting machines by Apple.

The supposed reason behind this purchase is the fact that manufacturers are hesitant to purchase such machinery due to their high costs. The Cupertino-based company is said to be trying to speed up manufacturing of curved glass as it will be needing it for their next iPhone.

Currently the machines are being stored and will be assembled once yield rates for the production of curved glass reach a satisfactory level.

If this rumors turns out true the iPhone 4S will be Apple's second curved glass device, following the iPod Nano. In the smartphone world the curved glass debuted on the Samsung-made Google Nexus S.

There's still no word on the availability of the next iPhone or on when will it be announced or anything, really. But this is the Apple way of doing things and we'll just have to wait for it to be announced, or lost in a bar somewhere.

The Android Market will overtake Apple's App Store by August 2011

It's been a strong possibility for some time now but the Android Market looks like it'll finally overtake Apple's mighty App Store by August 2011.

The culmination of the decelerating growth on Apple's App Store paired with the Android Market's growth still tenaciously accelerating, have meant that analysts have been able to predict this monumental shift.

App store analytics company Distimo were one of the first groups to predict the Android Market's overtake with another organisation, Germany-based research2guidance having information that complemented the original research stating that Android Market will overtake the App Store by August 2011, assuming it hits its target of 425,000 new apps by the start of the month. In April 2011, Android Market added 28,000 new applications to its ranks, whereas Apple's App Store only managed a comparatively small 11,000.

This is good news for Google in terms of offering a greater choice, but in the grand scheme of things, just how much does this affect anything? The majority of the apps on both stores go unnoticed with the 'cream usually rising to the top', quickly. And having the store with the most available apps does not mean the majority revenue, especially for developers. The research conducted by research2guidance actually discounts this and sways towards the opposite, the idea that; "success of an app store is negatively correlated to the success of an average developer. All analysis on the early months of an app store including the Android Market shows that average download numbers decrease dramatically after the first months or even weeks after the launch of the store. The long tail gets longer and longer while the top 5% gets richer and richer."

Also, one might argue that the majority of apps between both stores are geared toward different users. iOS and its apps, aimed at a premium market and as such, charge a premium for their services with Android going for a more mass-market approach.

White iPhone 4 has different camera lens and proximity sensor

It seems that the white iPhone 4, launched less than a week ago, has more differences from the black one. Apart from being thicker by 0.2 mm, it also has a more recessed camera lens and different-looking proximity sensor.

It was namely the back camera lens that is said to have caused the nearly one-year delay of the Great White. Reportedly, there was an issue caused by the white semi-translucent glass and the flash. This must be the reason behind the more recessed 5 MP camera lens.

The proximity sensor has been changed too. Maybe it's to address the issues with the semi-translucent white front panel as well. We are yet to learn if there are any changes in the camera quality or in the proximity sensor performance.

Samsung Galaxy S II scores twice the iPhone 4 pre-orders in Korea

Samsung has just published some numbers reflecting the interest its latest Galaxy S II flagship is enjoying at the start of its sales and things are looking pretty good. The 4.3” Super AMOLED Plus-packing smartphone took over 200,000 pre-orders in the manufacturer’s homeland, beating the achievement of the iPhone 4 nearly twice (the Apple smartphone got about 110,000 pre-orders when in launched in Korean last August).

The dual-core Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II recorded 10,000 pre-orders in the first 29 minutes after it appeared on the Korean telecom’s websites and doubled that number over the next 64 minutes. As is to be expected the country’s largest carrier, SK Telecom, had the largest chunk of pre-orders – over 160,000.

With that kind of interest we can’t help but wonder if Samsung wasn’t too conservative in its estimates for the Galaxy S II sales. The company targets 10 million units for 2011, which should equal the results of the Galaxy S II predecessor, the I9000 Galaxy S, in its debut year. Yet the original Galaxy S was released a month later (in June) and didn’t get nearly the same amount of pre-orders (or overall interest for that matter).

And we’ve got some exciting news for those of you waiting for the Galaxy S II to hit their local stores. According to the popular Korean website Danawa.com the handset retails for 455,000 Korean wons sim-free, which equals €290 or $425.

Of course, the smartphone will be pricier in Europe due to the higher taxes and import fees, but once retailers are done milking the eager early adopters, it should settle to levels lower than those of just about every competitor the Galaxy S might face.

Apple Suppliers Gear Up for IPhone 5

Taiwan-based Pegatron, an Apple supplier reported a 50 percent drop in profits for the first quarter, the latest evidence that Apple is reducing orders of the iPhone 4 to prepare for the iPhone 5.
Pegatron, which had originally planned to ship 10 million iPhone 4s in 2011, reporting a loss of $19.4 million and now expects to ship half around 5 million before the end of the year.

"To improve the situation, Pegatron is already in negotiations with its clients about raising manufacturing quotes and has already received good feedback," Chang noted.

Whether Chang’s statement suggests Pegatron will make the iPhone 5 as well is not yet clear. What is clear is that consumer demand for the iPhone 4 is waning as expectations rise for the iPhone 5. Apple sold 60 million iPhone 4s last year but projects that consumers will snatch up more than 100 million iPhone 5s in 2011.

The iPhone 5 is rumored to be both a CDMA and GSM phone, so Apple can sell just one model universally. It is also expected to have a Qualcomm chip with NFC mobile-payment capabilities, a wider touch screen, and possibly an 8-megapixel camera.

Apple usually releases new products in June, but the iPhone 5 is projected to arrive sometime this fall.

In March 2010, reports surfaced that Pegatron was planning to mass production the Verizon iPhone in September.

Could the iPhone 5 look like a beveled iPod touch?

See that up there? That could be your next iPhone -- or it could be a tear-shaped dream. It's a mock-up of what is said to be the iPhone 5, according to anonymous sources quoted by Joshua Topolsky. A continuation of the concepts laid out in our post-CES look at what's next for Apple, the design here is said to be thin, metal-backed, tapered, and sporting a 3.7-inch display with the same 960 x 640 resolution in the iPhone 4's retina display -- resulting in a slight drop from that phone's vaunted 326ppi density. The home button is quite obviously enlarged, possibly adding some thumbable gestures into the mix. Internals are said to include a "swipable" area, possibly meaning NFC, along with a Qualcomm Gobi chipset with support for CDMA and GSM, so this could be the one phone to rule all the carriers. Or, it might wind up only ever having domain over a single .PSD file. To us, well, it looks a little too thin to be packing all that and a bag of antennas as suggested and, with all the weight at the top, we can see these things flying out of hands left and right. But, we're certainly willing to be surprised. Place your bets in comments below.

Update: The source has been updated with a note indicating that the bevel may be "a little exaggerated" in the above mock-up and that the back may not be metal after all.

The white iPhone 4 is thicker, won't fit in some cases

It turns out we were wrong yesterday and the white iPhone launch was not all sunshine and roses after all. As disappointed users point out, the Great White is a fraction thicker than the black one.

What's the big deal, you ask? After all the difference is really small as seen on these comparison pics. Well, the issues come when you try and slip some protective casing on the whitey. In other words, some tight iPhone 4 cases won't fit on a white unit.

Phil Schiller from Apple is quoted saying this about the manufacturing of the white iPhone 4: "It's not as simple as making something white. There's a lot more that goes into both the material science of it - how it holds up over time…but also in how it all works with the sensors".

This might explain the added thickness to the white iPhone 4 - they've may put some extra stuff behind the white glass.

It would have been better if Apple mentioned the new thickness on its specs page, no matter how small. Surely the "actual size and weight vary by configuration and manufacturing process" disclaimer is enough to keep the complaints out, but the users will definitely appreciate any heads-up about the potential incompatibilities.

IDC releases Q1 2011 shipments data, Apple doubles marketshare

According to the analysts from IDC, the global mobile phone market grew by almost 20% compared to Q1 of last year. This is mostly due to the skyrocketing in smartphone sales, especially in emerging markets all over the world.

The 20 percent difference in units shipped amount to some good 61.3 million handsets. It's a record number and a huge leap, proving that the mobile phone business is out of the financially challenging woods.

According to the IDC, the smartphone market grew in the Asia/Pacific, Africa, Latin America and Middle East regions, boosting the number of overall shipments.

Smartphones are quickly gaining ground over feature phones and demand for them will keep increasing. But IDC is skeptical about feature phone extinction as there's still high global demand for them.

In the US and Canada smartphones, like the iPhone, Blackberries and Android devices were the top selling phones in Q1 2011. The iPhone 4 and HTC Thunderbolt were the most wanted gadgets there.

The market in Western Europe was good for Android and iOS too, as they were the main focus of buyers attention.

Check out the top 5 chart with detailed information on units shipped and market share percentage over the course of the last year.

Manufacturer	Q1 2011 Shipment volumes	Q1 2011 Market share	Q1 2010 Shipment volumes	Q1 2010 Market share	Year-to-year change
Nokia	108.5	29.2%	107.8	34.7%	0.6%
Samsung	70.0	18.8%	64.3	20.7%	8.9%
LG Electronics	24.5	6.6%	27.1	8.7%	-9.6%
Apple	18.7	5.0%	8.7	2.8%	114.9%
ZTE	15.1	4.1%	10.4	3.3%	45.2%
Others	135	36.3%	92.2	29.7%	46.4%
Total	371.8	100.0%	310.5	100.0%	19.8%

Nokia still remains at the top of the mobile food chain, although it did lose some 5.5% of market share year-to-year. LG also gave up some ground with its market share going from 8.7% down to 6.6%, but this will probably change as its new 3D-capable devices hit the shelves in mass numbers.

Apple doubled its market share due to their consecutive record quarter.

Reports: White iPhone 4 thicker than black version

The black iPhone 4 next to the newly released white version.

(Credit: Tipb.com)

After a long wait, the white version of Apple's iPhone 4 finally went on sale today. Color aside, it's the same device, just with a white front and back. However reports are coming in that there is, in fact, a difference between the two versions.

A MacRumors reader, iLounge, and Ryan Cash of Marketcircle who posted pictures of the two side-by-side, have found that the white version of the device is ever so slightly thicker than the black version. How much? "A hair," Cash said. Blog TiPb got a little more precise, measuring the difference at "roughly 0.2 mm."

Apple lists the depth of both devices at an even 9.3 mm on its iPhone 4 specs page. TiPb, which measured the difference, listed the white version at 9.5 mm. The depth increase is said to be small enough not to affect a number of cases both TiPb and MacRumors have tried out on the two devices, though iLounge points out that snug cases made out of hard materials without give could be problematic.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the whether there was a size difference between the two models.

In an interview with All Things Digital yesterday, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller said that in making the white version of the iPhone 4, the company found it needed to rework its manufacturing processes to make it more durable. That included extra protection against UV. "It's not as simple as making something white," Schiller said. "There's a lot more that goes into both the material science of it--how it holds up over time...but also in how it all works with the sensors."

The white version of the iPhone 4 sports a clearly noticeable version of the proximity sensor, which sits just above the top speaker grille. On the black models, this is a detail that disappears with the rest of the bezel. Early imagery of the white iPhone 4 had that sensor appearing as a fine mesh of dots, akin to the way the company hides notification lights on its notebook computers.

Other small changes picked up by iLounge include that the headphone and dock ports in the white version get a color treatment, with Apple opting to use a gray plastic material, presumably to better blend in with the company's bundled headphones and dock adapters.

White iPhone 4 took so long because its hard to make: Schiller

The mythical, highly-anticipated white iPhone 4 from Apple is finally available for purchase today, but why did it take so long from the time it was announced last year to come out? An interview by All Things D with Apple CEO Steve Jobs and senior vice president Phil Schiller has revealed some details as to why the white iPhone 4 took so long to hit the market.

"It was challenging," said Schiller. "It's not as simple as making something white. There's a lot more that goes into both the material science of it?how it holds up over time?but also in how it all works with the sensors."

Apparently, the white color presented a lot of challenges with UV protection and interactions with other components of the phone. Schiller went on to say that by waiting and refining the development of the phone, Apple was able to provide a product to its customers that lived up to Apple's reputation of quality and reliability. Jobs chimed in to say that the work Apple had to do to produce the white iPhone 4 benefited the company in other product areas as well. "We obviously think about this in a generic way because you have a white iPad," said Jobs.

The white iPhone 4 is now available in the U.S (and worldwide) for $199 and $299 for the 16GB and 32GB models, respectively.

Android Market surpassed the Apple App Store in free app count

Apple’s App Store has held the top spot pretty much since the dawn of app stores but the times they are a-changin’. The Android Market has already surpassed the App Store in terms of free apps and analysts from Distimo estimate it will soon overtake it in terms of total apps too. Well we'd be more conservative in using words like "soon" but the guys over at Distimo might have a point there.

The Android Market has 134 thousand free apps on its virtual shelves, while the Apple App Store for iPhone offers 121 thousand free apps. Still, the iOS store has the lead in total count, having about three times as many paid apps as the droid store.

Free vs. paid apps and total app count for the various app stores

The iPad section of the App Store holds about 75 thousand apps, 30% of which are free. iPad-only apps number 34,000. App Store for iPad grew by 12% in March, but paid apps in there are getting pricier and apps with in-app purchases are declining.

The iPhone and iPad sections of the App Store combined hold 367 thousand apps and they are still growing. The Android Market is expected to overtake it in total apps soon – in five months or so, by Distimo’s estimates.

Android Market is set to overtake the Apple App Store

The smaller app stores will have their day too - BlackBerry App World is expected to shoot ahead of Ovi Store by the end of next month and a couple of months after that, the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace will get pass the Ovi Store too.

Many developers have also gone multi-platform, posting their stuff on not just iOS but Android, Ovi, App World and the rest. This also chips away at the iOS advantage.

App Store for iPad statistics (US, March 2011) • Chart of top multi-platform developers

What do you think - are free apps more important than paid ones? Does the total number of apps even matter or do you need just a few essentials?

Apple answers location recording fears, promises a software fix

In the last few days Apple took lots of negative feedback concerning the location tracking affair. Today Apple released a Q&A statement, which admits to the tracking and calls it a 'bug'. An update to fix it is on the way though.

There are ten Q&A's in Apple’s statement concerning the iPhone location tracking problem, its purpose, bugs and solutions. We won’t bother you with the official statement, we’ll just cut to the chase.

Apple is indeed collecting location information from all iPhone users via GSM base stations and Wi-Fi hotspots. Since Apple uses this information to assist and speed up the regular GPS location services for all users, it constantly polls that info from users and hence the reason the iPhones records this sort of information wherever you go.

Apple also admits the location recording continues to work even if you turn off Location Services and that the iPhone will have stored your location history ever since you bought your phone. According to the Q&A, both things are newly discovered bugs and will be 'fixed' with the next software update. It will disable backing up the location database to your computer, and your iPhone will log your location for only about a week back in time. You will be able to turn the feature off altogether by disabling Location Services.

Besides this location data, Apple also collects anonymous traffic data to provide “iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years”.

In the end Apple respects your privacy and will continue to work in that direction. A "magical" fix is on the way that will solve all these problems. You can check the full Q&A at the source link below. In the meantime you can also watch Steve Jobs talk about mobile location privacy at last years D8 conference. It's funny how those things can get right back at you.

Exclusive: Apple testing iPhone for T-Mobile USA

That’s right, you’re looking at photos of an iPhone prototype with T-Mobile USA 3G bands. The actual internal model is N94, and if you remember, the Verizon model is N92 while the standard GSM variant is N90. We have verified that the phone itself is running a test version of Apple’s iOS, much like the one we saw in those videos from Vietnam, and it includes internal Apple test apps like Radar and Apple’s employee directory app. Additionally, the front of the white iPhone pictured looks a little different from the photos of the retail white iPhone 4 that surfaced recently — specifically, the proximity sensor has changed on the retail version. Combined with the fact that it wouldn’t make sense to release an iPhone 4 on T-Mobile at this point in time, we’d wager that Apple is just testing the new T-Mobile-friendly radio with its current iPhone 4 hardware, possibly in preparation for integration in a future device. It’s also entirely possible the internals on this iPhone prototype are being disguised in an iPhone 4 shell, though we doubt it. Let’s see what happens with the iPhone 5 and if that makes it way to T-Mobile. If that AT&T acquisition gets approved though, the iPhone will eventually make its way to T-Mobile customers regardless.