As the week is drawing to a close, and with WWDC starting on Monday, things are really coming down to the wire. Yesterday, the SMS Updater went live, and if you haven’t already, please sign yourself up! Today the liveblog is up at its final resting location. You can now access the liveblog at live.theilife.com. Bookmark this address now for our live coverage beginning on Monday! Remember to stay tuned for the latest updates here at theiLife.com!

TheiLife.com is proud to formally announce that we will be liveblogging from the WWDC 2008 Keynote. This time around, we have refined our AJAX app from Macworld to be less server heavy so we can serve more users. The AJAX updater is still being tweaked, so it should be available by the end of the week. However, the SMS Updater is now live, so if you want to sign up to be updated with the latest urgent updates from the Keynote via SMS (expect about 10-20 messages), click here or the big shiny button below. Stay tuned for the latest information about WWDC here at theiLife.com.

It is already the second day of June and WWDC is fast approaching. TheiLife.com will be attending this year’s World Wide Developers’ Conference and providing pictures, videos and live coverage, as we did for Macworld 2008. Our ultimate goal is to run another AJAX-based liveblog from the Keynote on June 9th. However, because our hosting provider threatened to terminate us after the heavy load from Macworld, we need to make sure the new AJAX app will be able to handle a large number of users without seriously compromising the server. We have also hooked up with theDigitalLifestyle.tv to provide video updates throughout WWDC. We would, of course, love to hear from you — what do you think? Are you going to WWDC and would like to help provide coverage for theiLife? We want to hear from you — please contact us!

When Apple posted the new 10.5.3 update earlier this week, investigators on the MacRumors forum have located a curious iPhone icon added with the update.

If you are running OS 10.5 Leopard and update to 10.5.3, this new iPhone icon is sitting in your system. Once you have updated, navigate to the Finder, click on the “Go” menu, click on “Go To Folder” (or Command+Shift+G) and paste in the following (or simply follow the path):

/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/

Once you are in the Resources folder, you will see something that looks like this:

Locate the iPhone.icns file and double click it to open it. There should be 5 different iPhone icons, of varying sizes. You are looking for the file named ‘iPhone.icns-3’.

While this iPhone icon is clearly different from the current iPhone (and other iPhone icons in the folder); if you look at the model revealed on iPhoneclub.nl recently, the model and the icon bear a striking resemblance. Both iPhones exhibit the rumored bezel and body changes, which make the iPhone more curved in your hand, but appear to be square. The earpiece seems to be readjusted, which is part of the rumored sensor rearrangement and addition of forward facing camera. The two iPhones are shown side by side below. You can read the orginal iPhoneclub.nl post here.

While this icon may seem promising, it could just be a remnant or reject from the original iPhone icon. Apple is rumored to introduce a new iPhone model next month at its annual WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference); which starts on June 9th. Stick with theiLife for continuing coverage regarding the new iPhone, liveblogging from the Keynote and any other WWDC related announcements.

The closing of the Fifth Avenue Apple Store on Thursday may mark the beginning of a new advertising campaign for an as of yet unknown product. Equipment being brought into the store as well as other reports indicates that film production company Anonymous Content will be producing the advertisement.

AppleInsider reports that director David Fincher, listed as a featured director on Anonymous’s website is tied to the project. Fincher is best known as the director of Fight Club, but is also a popular producer of commercials, including the Gears of War trailer, “Mad World”, and has done work for HP and AT&T. The only other times that the Fifth Avenue Apple Store has been closed were for major product launches, and the only advertisements filmed at Apple store were filmed at this location, for, fittingly enough, the iPhone.

The majority of Apple’s marketing campaigns, including the well received Get a Mac campaign, have been produced by TBWA\Media Arts Labs. However, Apple has in the past used other firms, or allowed third parties to advertise joint product launches using their own ad firms. Anonymous Content fits the bill for this kind of campaign, having produced commercials for a wide variety of corporations, the most relevant being AT&T and Intel. It is rumored that Apple is filming a commercial for the upcoming 3G iPhone. The reasoning behind filming at the Fifth Avenue retail store is still unknown, as an Apple Store could easily be replicated in a studio. The lighting equipment outside indicates that emphasis may be on the 32 foot cube outside the store. More details to come soon!

This is the third part in a series of WWDC rumor articles, exploring the various case leaks for the new iPhone model- speculated to launch at WWDC 2008. Click here to check out the first and second articles about the rumored iPhone.

Click on the images to see a larger version.

Yesterday, the Apple rumor mill was abuzz with a story from iDealsChina Insider, an otherwise unknown website who posted leaked pictures of Griffins new case mold for the upcoming iPhone. The pictures, shown above, shows a larger opening for the supposed addition of a front facing camera, which supports the rumored claims of videoconferencing on the upcoming iPhone. The leaked photos are said to be of Griffins upcoming silicon Flex GRIP case.

More after the jump! Read more…

This is the second part in a series of WWDC rumor articles to come, exploring the possibilities of the new second generation iPhone speculated to launch at WWDC 2008. Click here to look at the first article reviewing the possibilities for the new iPhone.

The next iPhone to have GPS built in?

Over the past week, the new iPhone has seen a fair share of new rumors, findings and speculation.

Today, AppleInsider is reporting that TeliaSonera just announced a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia later this year. TeliaSonera is the dominant carrier in those regions, with over 106 million subscribers. This adds to the ongoing list of new international deals for the iPhone:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Italy, India, Jamaica, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Portugal, Slovakia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden, Romania, Turkey, United States and Uruguay.

ImportGenius last week believes the 3G iPhone may be enroute to the United States, if not already here.

“Since mid-March, Apple Inc. and its logistics partners have imported 188 ocean containers of a product type never before declared on its shipping manifests.”
“On March 19 Quanta delivered 20 ocean containers of merchandise, described on the Bills of Lading as “electric computers,” to Apple, Inc. Neither Apple, Quanta, nor any other company has ever used this product description for any shipments to the U.S.”

ImportGenius noted that the declaration of “electronic computers” is in addition to the regular shipments Apple receives of desktop computers (which haven’t decreased over these past few months), which means this is not just a renaming of a current Cupertino product for customs.

The GPS has been rumored to be put into the iPhone for some time now. Recently, findings by AppleInsider might hint at the existence of GPS in the upcoming iPhone model.

The latest iPhone 2.0 build new location findings, images from AppleInsider

The images, shown above, are of beta iPhone 2.0 firmware, build 5A292g, that was distributed to a select group of enterprise testers last week. The new shots show new preferences for location based services for the Camera and Google Maps applications, and user prompts for the permission to find their current geographical location. “”Maps” would like to use your current location” “Don’t Allow” or “Ok”.

The addition to the Camera application implies the addition of geo-tagging, which adds meta data to the photograph that includes the coordinates that the picture was taken. AppleInsider notes that the tipsters say that there seems to be no addition of geographical meta data to photos taken from the Camera application at this time.

The addition to the Maps application is even more interesting, however. In the current iPhone and iPod Touch firmware, Apple has added a “Locate Me” button which allows the user to be located by cell triangulation or through Wi-Fi hotspots. This could simply mean that Apple is re-integrating your location into the Maps application or that the addition of GPS hardware could enhance the application even more.

Finally, last Wednesday AT&T announced that it is wrapping up the deployment it’s 3G infrastructure.

“By the end of June, connecting to AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband service will be as speedy as logging onto the high speed Internet service that many consumers enjoy at home.”

By rolling out HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) and HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access); AT&T customers will be able to achieve 1.4Mbps download speed and uploads speeds up to 800Kbps. AT&T also notes that 75 percent of the phones sold by the company are 3G compatible; with “more 3G-enabled smartphones in the summer and fall of 2008”. The cell phone carrier has spent over $20 billion in network upgrades over the past few years.

It should be noted that the iPhone 2.0 firmware is intended to be released across both the current generation iPhone and the upcoming generation iPhone. Apple revealed in March the release date of June for the firmware, which could coincide with the WWDC 2008 conference starting on June 9th. The most hotly anticipated features of the iPhone 2.0 firmware are the App Store, which will allow for 3rd party applications; and the new enterprise features such as Exchange support and VPN.

Stay tuned for more rumors and predictions to come.

Sidney San Martin online at Macworld 2008 for theiLife.

This year, over 5000 developers are attending WWDC and Apple has announced that for the first time ever that they have sold out of tickets. As usual, Steve Jobs will be kicking off the conference with a Keynote, taking place on Monday June 9th. We at theiLife.com are proud to announce that Sidney San Martin, theiLife regular, will be in attendance. This means coverage similar to Macworld 2008- which included videos, pictures, liveblogging (from the Keynote and Expo) as well as regular blog coverage. Regarding the liveblogging there will be more details coming soon- we are not sure if it will be AJAX based, due to the heavy load it puts on our servers. Stay tuned for more details coming soon, and certinally if you would like to offer any suggestions, please contact us or leave a comment below!

This is the first part in a series of WWDC rumor articles to come, exploring the possibilities of the new second generation iPhone speculated to launch at WWDC 2008.

A supposed spy shot of the new iPhone

For years rumors have been flying about an Apple phone. Finally, last year at Macworld 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. Ever since the January 9th release, rumors and speculation have run wild regarding everything from rumored firmware updates to hardware revisions and even new iPhone models. Now with a little over two weeks until WWDC, the iPhone rumors have exponentially increased- and everyone seems to be unanimously shouting one thing- 3G iPhone.

The first generation iPhone is held by some as one of the best cell phone ever created. Both users and critics agree that the iPhone is close to perfection- or at least a step up for cell phones. However, some of the of the cons with the iPhone are the touch screen keyboard, slow EDGE connection (no 3G) and the lack of third party applications. With the rumored second generation iPhone, it appears that Apple is out to fix two of those three flaws for sure- 3G and third party application support with iPhone firmware 2.0 (already revealed).

Ever since the public release of the iPhone in June of 2007, the iPhone has been rumored to be getting a 3G chip in a future update. For a time, some speculated September 2007 (coinciding with iPod updates), then others thought Macworld 2008, but now it seems like an iPhone with 3G is impending for WWDC 2008. Here is some proof:

In April, AppleInsider reported that references were found in the latest iPhone 2.0 betas to the Infineon chipset, SGOLD3H. The SGOLD3H is a cellular chip that supports 3G cellular data access via HSDPA to up to 7.2 megabits/second. The chip even supports the WCDMA technology which is needed in countries such as Japan or Korea. Currently, the iPhone uses a SGOLD2 to power 2.5G (EDGE) cellular communications.

Last week, 3G settings were found in the latest betas of the iPhone 2.0 firmware.

Over the past few weeks, there have been a number of annoucments regarding the worldwide release of the new iPhone, and it appears that Apple is gearing up for a widespread International launch much larger than the one with the current iPhone. In April, Rogers announced that it was going to bring the iPhone to Canada later in the year. Last week SingTel announced it would be offering the iPhone in parts of Australia and Asia. France Télécom’s Orange announced it would be offering 3G iPhones in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland, its current African markets. America Movil announced that it would be offering the iPhone in Mexico and other parts of the region later this year. Telecom Itaila stated that it would be carrying the iPhone in Italy. Telefónica announced they were bringing the iPhone to Spain, and is rumored to launch on June 18th, with the iPhone 2. Finally, in a statement last week, Vodafone said:

“Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network.”

Over all, these following countries, listed in alphabetical order, will be getting or currently sell the iPhone: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Egypt, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Italy, India, Jamaica, Jordan, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Portugal, Slovakia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Romania, Turkey, United States and Uruguay.

Not only is the current iPhone nearing its first public birthday, but it is very hard to find at the moment. As reported in April with the then temporary shortage of iPhones, today the iPhone is very hard to come by. Since last week, a quick check to the Apple Online Store shows the product “Currently Unavailable”. iPhones are also in very limited quantities in both Apple Retail Stores and AT&T Retail stores. These are definitly indicators that Apple is readying an update and has sold out of the remaining inventory of iPhones.

While 3G is the likely next move for the iPhone, there is still much speculation of other changes Apple might want to make. The next few topics are debatable and the evidence is not nearly as solid as it is for 3G.

iPhone Videoconferencing developed by Ken and Greg Aspeslagh for the Iron Coder Live

Videoconferencing: There have been many rumors that the second generation iPhone will have two cameras; a camera on the back and a hidden forward facing camera to be used for video conferencing. This rumor is not supported by anything solid except that the SGOLD3H cellular chip supports live recording and videoconferencing, where as the SGOLD2 cellular chip (found in the current iPhone) does not.

Flush Headphone Jack: Another complaint about the current generation iPhone is that the recessed headphone jack makes it very hard or impossible to plug third party headphones in. It would only be logical for Apple to revise the case and mount the headphone jack flush for this next update.

GPS: Built in GPS would certainly compliment the Google Maps application. By allowing the iPhone to give a precise location fix, dynamic turn by turn directions, geotag pictures, and more.

Material Change: By switching the back case of the iPhone from anodized aluminum to plastic; the iPhone could become lighter and allow for better wireless signal reception- especially if adding GPS. One possibility is that Apple will remove the aluminum backing and use a similar material to the black plastic piece at the bottom of the current iPhone (which is there for the antennas for the cell and 802.11 wireless).

Curvier Body: The current iPhone, while rounded, seems almost square in your hand. When holding an iPhone in your palm, you generally only feel the edges of the phone. It is rumored that the back of the iPhone will be more rounded for that reason.

Verdict: We will certainly see a new iPhone launched sometime before the end of this year with 3G. Gizmodo, Tuesday morning is reporting that Apple will launch the new iPhone on June 9th, for immediate worldwide release; which is a fairly reasonable claim.

Keep tuned for theiLife’s predictions in the days leading up to WWDC.

While the iPhone will probably be the center of attention at this years World Wide Developers Convention, at this point, it isn’t unreasonable to assume that there is going to be something relating to the Mac. If you haven’t already, check out Part I.

WWDC 2008 Invitation.

WWDC is often a very difficult keynote to accurately predict. While this can basically be said about any Steve Jobs keynote or Apple event, WWDC is often more unpredictable than the others and usually centered around one thing. For example, in 2005, after presenting some sales numbers, Steve Jobs spent the entire keynote discussing the transition to Intel processors. In 2006, Jobs introduced new Intel based replacements for the Power Mac G5 (now Mac Pro) and Xserves and demoed 10 new features planned for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

This year it wouldn’t be surprising to see both a software announcement accompanied by a hardware announcement. Like Macworld is primarily for the Mac, the developers would appreciate a keynote that includes something other than the iPhone. So at this point, the second generation iPhone will probably be released at a later date. However, we definitely should see information about the iPhone 2.0 software update, the App Store and, some examples of what developers have done over the months with the SDK.

As for the hardware, at this point, it looks like a laptop revision is in order for the MacBook and MacBook Pro. Coincidentally, both products are due for a redesign- both haven’t seen any hardware changes since the introduction of Intel processors. AppleInsider ran a story recently about the MacBook line redesign, how both laptops will get a style change similar to the new iMacs or MacBook Air. Apple seems to be moving away from White products- first seen last fall with the 6th Generation iPods. WWDC would be a very appropriate place to reveal new MacBook Pros.

While it is really way to early to predict what might happen at WWDC, we can tickle our imaginations for now. As it becomes closer, things will become more certain and the predictions can become more accurate. But, lets let it sink in. What do you think?