We’re only eight months (or so) from the release of the 4th Generation iPhone. And since the iPhone 3GS was essentially an internal makeover (new CPU, GPU, etc.) of the 2008 iPhone 3G, it’s a safe bet that the next iPhone model’s design will be changed. 

The question is: what will it look like?

An Italian web site, iSpazio, has posted renderings from Japanese tech-artist Isamu Sanada showing one design direction Apple might take.  The result is a sort of iMac-esque aluminum shell with screen “glass” that goes from edge to edge.  This version is slimmer, flatter and sleeker than existing models, but maintains the same easily identifiable iPhone look. 

Given Apple’s history and the success of the iPhone, I can’t help but think that a significantly updated design will indeed be coming our way next year, if for no other reason than to keep things fresh.  Artists’ predictions of future technology often bear no resemblance whatsoever to the product that eventually hits store shelves, but in the case of Apple one can never be sure. And while these latest 4G iPhone concept renderings are almost certainly nowhere near spot-on, they do give us the opportunity to ask:

What design changes would you like to see in the 4th Gen iPhone?

Isamu-Sama nails it pretty well for me.

via Ty’s iPhone Help

M. Nichols, Products Editor

The Pocket PC Central Hands-On Sound ID 200 Review has been posted in both the Windows Mobile Review Center and the iPhone Edition Review Center.

The Sound ID 200 was tested with both Windows Mobile Smartphones (Touch Pro2, Samsung Intrepid) and the Apple iPhone 3GS.

Bibliophiles take notice!  If you have eBook files on your PC or Mac, chances are you can read them on your iPhone or iPod touch.

All you need is Stanza installed both on your iPhone/iPod and your computer, a wireless network and Stanza-compatible eBooks.

Interested?  Take a look at our latest iPhone tutorial: How to Transfer eBooks to the iPhone to Read in Stanza

This one’s an oldie but a goodie.  Air Mouse Pro [iTunes Link] transforms your iPhone into an over Wi-Fi mouse for both PCs and Macs.  Just install a utility on your computer and Air Mouse connects and gives you control.

The top section of the Air Mouse screen is the mouse – right and left clicks, scroll, etc. – and the bottom is a series of preconfigured buttons allowing you to quickly control music and video playback, your web browser and more.  The app is accelerometer enabled so you can move the iPhone around in the air to move the pointer on your computer’s screen.

Turn the iPhone to landscape mode and the entire screen becomes a touchpad with multi-touch gesture support (scrolling and right-click).

View/Download Air Mouse Pro (Opens in iTunes)

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Photo sharing on the iPhone is possible through built-in options and a wide range of third-party apps, but today’s App du Jour is a new favorite. 

PhotoScatter [iTunes Link] from UniqueApps allows you to upload photos to popular social networking and photo sharing sites like Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, Photobucket and Flickr.  Just input your account settings for each of the services you use, take a photo (or select a photo already in your Camera Roll), give your photo a title and description (if you wish) and send it to the selected service(s). 

PhotoScatter makes sharing photos pretty much a no-brainer.

View/Download PhotoScatter (Opens in iTunes)

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Although it’s far from perfect, PDF has become the cross-platform document distribution format of choice.  Almost anyone, anywhere can view a PDF file, whether using a computer or a smartphone.

Scanner Pro [iTunes Link] is a PDF document creator for the iPhone; the app transforms the iPhone’s camera into a scanner (of sorts), allowing you to “scan” and create single or multi-page PDFs, adjust their brightness and contrast, email them, transfer them to a PC or Mac over Wi-Fi, and even upload the PDF files you create to MobileMe’s iDisk and other WebDAV storage services.  You can also password protect your PDF files in cases of sensitive material.

View/Download Scanner Pro (Opens in iTunes)

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The iPhone Edition Hands-On Altec Lansing inMotion Max iMT702 iPhone Speaker Review has been posted in the iPhone Edition Review Center.

Could this be true?  According to the 9 to 5 Mac blog, Apple is working on a new FM radio app for the iPhone and iPod touch, an app which uses now-dormant hardware already tucked away inside these devices.  We must have missed this when it was first discussed, but the post states as well-known fact that the iPhone 3GS and the latest generation iPod touch have wireless chipsets that support FM reception and broadcast (i.e. FM transmitter), but that these functions haven’t been made live by the OS. If this is true, a future software update could bring FM radio to the iPhone 3GS.

Apple added FM radio to the 5th Gen iPod nano, but with the touch and the 3GS having built-in Internet connectivity, it’s not difficult to imagine being able to purchase a song you hear on the radio right in the on-device iTunes store, now is it?

We have no idea if this story is true, but there’s always something magical about software updates awakening previously sleeping hardware.  If only we could keep our Fingers Crossed app running always in the background…

Source: 9 to 5 Mac via TUAW

If you’re a news junkie (who’s not a shut-in), it makes you a little sad that there are periods in the day where you’re too busy to check the wires for any big news stories that just broke. 

Nodding in agreement?  You need Push News [iTunes Link].  This iPhone app uses iPhone 3.0’s Push Notification service to send you breaking news in real time.  The service is powered by CNN, the New York Times, BBC, ESPN, CNBC and Google News (the next version of the app will add Fox News and USA Today).  Just select the news sources you’d like to receive alerts from and you’ll never be out of the news loop for more than a few minutes again. 

Other features include the ability to put the service to sleep (like during the night when you need some sleep yourself), customizable alert sounds, duplicate blocking, a built-in Safari window for quick reading of full articles, and badge counts of newly pushed stories.

View/Download Push News (Opens in iTunes)

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Looking to lose a few pounds?  Want to be sure you’re meeting your daily nutritional requirements?  Like barcodes?  Then have we got good news for you!

DailyBurn, a web site dedicated to tracking your diet and fitness data, has released the FoodScanner app [iTunes Link], which gives you the ability to scan food items’ barcodes to quickly update your daily intake of fat, calories carbs and more.  If you’ve ever tried entering nutritional data manually, particularly on a smartphone, you know what a great idea this is.

FoodScanner uses the iPhone’s camera as a barcode scanner.  Point the camera at a food item’s UPC and the app does the rest.  DailyBurn has over 200,000 food items in its database, and if you happen to run across something not yet listed, you can input the data within the app.  Eating something like fruit that rudely doesn’t include a UPC?  You can search the database for those foods, too.

If you have a DailyBurn account and an iPhone, this seems like a serious no-brainer to us.

View/Download DailyBurn FoodScanner (Opens in iTunes)

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