News

Cellular company SingTel announced<> yesterday in a brief (and unusual) press release that they would be carrying the iPhone in multiple countries, along with several other wireless carriers. SingTel wrote in the press release: "SingTel, Bharti Airtel, Globe and Optus today announced that they have signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Singapore, India, the Philippines and Australia later this year."
[via MacRumors]

Google has released a new iPhone-optomized version of their beta RSS web app, Google Reader. The new version offers many of the same features available in the normal version while allowing users to quickly and easily view and manage information and updates from various online sources via RSS.

Community art space deviantART has just announced that the web site has recently been optimized for iPhone compatibility. Users can check out the site on their iPhone or iPod touch by clicking over to the web site and enjoying that coded optimized smoothness.

[Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

According to sources close to the story, HBO, Time Warner's premium television subsidiary, is reported to have reach an agreement with Apple to make its content available for purchase on the iTunes Store within the next few weeks. The deal reportedly contains a stipulation wherein for the first time, Apple has agree on a separate and distinctive pricing structure for the television show provider within its iTunes Store structure.

Straight out of left field and with little to no warning, wireless carrier AT&T is now offering a second model of the iPhone among its listed devices. The finding was discovered by an AppleInsider reader today and may add credence to rumors that Apple's second-generation, 3G-capable iPhone may feature a black plastic shell as opposed to the traditional aluminum casing.

Most of the rumors out there have pointed to some time in June (probably around WWDC) for the launch of the 3G iPhone, but SwitchToaMac.com thinks otherwise. They believe that Apple will be announcing the handheld in May and launching it the next day, considerably earlier than suspected. Instead of the 3G iPhone at WWDC in June, they claim, Apple will be launching a new portable device.

If this turns out to be true, then this might be the most conclusive evidence of an impending 3G iPhone launch we've seen yet. A blog post at the Chronic Productions Blog writes that firmware 2.0 Beta 5 Network.plist file contains prefrences for 3G networks that can be activated somehow. Screenshot and transcript after the break.

So the Wi-Fi hotspot situation has everyone (including us) pretty confused and a little frustrated at this point. Fortunately Saul Hansell of the NY Times decided to place a call to AT&T spokesman Fletcher Cook to get some answers. He says that the offer on their website that was posted and then promptly removed was "a human error".

Checking Apple's UK and US Online Stores today reveals that the iPhone is "Currently Unavailable". Apple phone sales will tell you the same thing, "we're all out of iPhones". We asked a few telesales representatives when they'd have more available and they're honestly not sure; Apple telesales has never been completely out of them before. As we mentioned on last night's podcast, Apple usually depletes a particular product's supply before releasing a new revision. We think that's exactly what Apple is doing with the iPhone.

Join Michael Johnston and special guests Jeff Gamet, Adam Christianson, and Bill Palmer for episode three of the iPhone Alley podcast. This episode we discuss Sprint's anti-iPhone ads, free AT&T wifi, wireless .Mac syncing, and much more! Show notes can be found at iPhoneAlley.com/podcast. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, email us at Podcast[at]iPhoneAlley.com.

Here's something cool. Alex Bratton and the gang at Lextech are working on a cool little project that will turn your iPhone into something that James Bond might use. They're working to pair an iPhone to a surveillance system, letting you use the iPhone's touch screen instead of the standard joystick or mouse.

Having a difficult time keeping track of all the 3G iPhone release rumors? It's understandable considering another one is posted nearly every day. To help keep track of it all, one user at TMO's Apple Finance Forum under the username CdnPhoto has created this handy graphic to help you remember all. (image after the break).

International mobile game company Simiotica has released aMaze!, a new native iPhone game. The game revolves around rolling a little ball around a maze using the accelerometers to control it's direction without letting the ball fall into a hole, occasionally collecting bonus points on the way. The first 10 levels are free, but the other 70 require you to register for a $9 fee. The demo can be found in Installer.app under "Games".

A user by the name of Duckfin at the TiVo Community Forum has created a native application that turns your iPhone into a TiVo remote. The app, named TiVoRemote, utilizes the TiVo's Telnet control feature to give you complete control of your TiVo right from your iPhone.

If you live in Switzerland, Spain, or Poland, we have some good news. According to various sources, all three of these countries could be getting the 3G iPhone in by this summer. According to French news site Le Matin Online, a source at Swisscom has said that Switzerland will be getting the 3G iPhone some time this summer.