The white iPhone 4 is finally coming this spring, again

Apple's Philip Schiller has just confirmed the white iPhone 4 will be launched this spring, ahead of the iPhone 5's announcement. We know it's not the breaking news you were hoping for, but it's still news.

Philip Schiller is Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing. A user asked him on Twitter about the white iPhone (4 for sure) and he answered this:

@airickanderson Hi Eric. The white iPhone will be available this spring (and it is a beauty!).less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhonePhilip Schiller
pschiller

We saw that news before, but it's the first time we hear it from an Apple rep. It seems the white fella will be released after all and it will go public even before the iPhone 5's announcement. Usually better late than never is a good thing, but we are afraid that's not Apple's case. Really, is there anyone out there left waiting for it and willing to buy it a month or two before the iPhone 5 gets out? Yeah, we thought so, too.

Next gen iPhone won’t feature NFC support

There's always been immense speculation surrounding the next generation iPhone - will it feature that or the other, will it have a bigger display, will it have a better camera, etc. And now that the iPad 2 is out, we're actually seeing some of the hardware to power the next iPhone too.

The Independent claims that the next iPhone won't have an NFC chip contrary to initial rumors. NFC stands for Near Field Communication, which basically enables your device to make really-short distance transactions just by waving it in front of a NFC reader.

The transactions can be various types - from paying your bus fair, through buying a snack at McDonalds to even checking in in Foursquare. It's all possible thanks to the NFC technology and when you combined it with a readily programmable NFC chip such as the one in a smartphone, it has the potential to revolutionize how we make those microtransactions in our daily lives.

The reason for the lack of NFC in the next iPhone seems to be that Apple are concerned that there is no clear standard for NFC across the industry. Another rumor suggests Apple is in the process of making its own NFC-driven technology. This way or the other, NFC is not coming to the iPhone 5.

This cannot be confirmed, though, so take it with a pinch of salt.

Dive in later to know more .

ColorWare outs custom colors for the Apple iPhone 3GS

If you're anything at all like us, you were just a tad disappointed by the color "options" of Apple's newest foray into the world of mobile phones, the iPhone 3GS. After all, who wants to be limited to just black and white these days? Not us, that's for sure -- and ColorWare's just announced a fix for all that. Pricing for these customs jobs runs $150 for the back of the handset, $20 a piece for the bezel frame and button, and $15 the SIM holder. They'll also do up your earbuds for an additional $15. A small price to pay for beauty, no?

Find My iPhone reunites true nerd with lost iPhone

You know, we might be inclined to disbelieve this exciting tale of derring-do if it weren't for the highly improbably heroics and ingenuity displayed by its three protagonists -- you just can't make this stuff up. Probably. Kevin, Ryan and Mark were in Chicago minding their own nerdness out at Brickworld when Kevin left his iPhone behind at a dive bar. When they went back for it just minutes later the phone was gone, and instead of calling the cops like a bunch of suckers, Kevin and co. did the right thing and pulled out a Sprint 3G dongle and a MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, Find My iPhone couldn't get a lock on his phone at all -- it was either off or out of data range. The next day at lunch he finally got a delivery confirmation message from me.com, which kicked off a wild, dangerous chase into the wilds of Chicago. We won't spoil the ending for you (he finds the iPhone), but Kevin does raise a couple good points about the service functionality: you need to pull up MobileMe on laptop to use the service (instead of perhaps another iPhone), movement updates aren't pushed, ringer volume impacts alert volume whether the phone is on vibrate or not, and there should be an option for controlling the phone in more nefarious ways like taking pictures. We're glad it all ended up well, but those moments of Lego bliss that Kevin and his friends missed out on are gone forever.

Apple unleashes iPhone 3G S on well-prepared US public

As the international date line swung around to the States and rain finally stopped in NY, a few hundred people lined up outside the Fifth Avenue Apple Store today for Apple's new iPhone, with the those The iLife guys up front descending into the store at 7AM to the sound of applause from the cheery horde of Apple Store employees. It was a far sight from the mayhem of previous launches -- the whole line was able to be contained in the elevated portion to the right of the store, no sidewalk necessary -- but it was still a fairly impressive turnout for a spec-bumped phone and a rainy night.

iPhone 3G S gets the quick and dirty tear apart treatment, already (update: could do 833MHz and 720p video)

Well that was fast. Orange Boutique in Paris, France did a midnight release of the iPhone 3G S, and the gang at Rapid Repair were there to pick one up and subsequently rip their new toy to shreds. There isn't much here in terms of analysis of parts yet, it's more so just a quick and dirty job to get it out to the world, but hey, if you're into watching someone rip apart brand new, expensive gadgetry, we've got just the gallery for you.

Update: They've identified the chipset as the SoC S5PC100 from Samsung and thus confirm an ARM Cortex A8 running at 600 MHz (operates at up to 833MHz though) and the ability to record 720p video and handle real-time video conferencing should Apple choose to go in that direction (iPhone 3G S records VGA only). PowerVR SGX graphics and 256MB of RAM too as expected.

iPhone 3G S global launch sees smaller lines, quieter reception (update)

What a difference 18 months makes, eh? The relative short line for today's iPhone 3G S launch at Apple's flagship Regent Street store in London could be attributed to any number of factors: the economy, the steep cost of upgrade for iPhone 3G owners, or the fact that Apple allowed for advanced iPhone 3G S orders with home delivery. Or maybe people just aren't willing to wait in line for a bump in speed, improved graphics, and video recording. We wouldn't call it apathy but the iPhone halo doesn't seem as shiny beneath a spotlight now shared with Android and the new Pre. Regardless, the iPhone 3G S is now on sale in the UK and a few more European countries with North America up next after a few degrees of the Earth's rotation.

Update: According to O2, sales for the 3G S have already surpassed numbers for the iPhone 3G during last year's launch. So it's possible that the pre-orders were in full effect here. However, you have to remember that Europe and O2 in the UK in particular had very serious problems meeting demand at the time of the iPhone 3G launch last year. So this statement likely says more about inventory management than it does the demand of the 3G S vs the 3G.

iPhone 3G S review

If it ain't broke, don't fix it -- right? We know countless reviews of the iPhone 3G S may begin with that cliché, but there's little chance you'd find a better way to describe the strategy that Apple has just put into play with its latest smartphone. In many ways, the 3G S is a mirror image of the iPhone 3G; externally there's no difference. It's inside where all the changes have happened, with Apple issuing a beefed-up CPU, new internal compass, larger capacities for storage, and improved optics for its camera. More to the point, the release of the 3G S coincides with the launch of iPhone OS 3.0, a major jump from previous versions of the system software featuring highly sought after features like cut, copy, and paste, stereo Bluetooth, MMS, tethering, video recording, landscape keyboard options for more applications, and an iPhone version of Spotlight. At a glance, what Apple seems to be doing is less a reinvention of the wheel and more like retreading the wheel it's already got (and what a wheel, right?).