Appletell

Phonenews.com may not be the most appropriate site to be spreading this rumor, but we can’t discount the fact that it still is a reputable site that won’t spread rumors which have no certain extent of possibility to it. Anyway, the site is reporting that a new MacBook Air’s release is imminent, even citing that national retailers are being alerted to prepare for the upgrade. As this is a non-disclosure announcement, Phonenews.com could not disclose their source.

Jump past the break to learn what to expect from the new MacBook Air.

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If you love your iPhone 3G so much that you are willing to spend more to get a cool-looking leather case than what you paid for the unit itself, then Noreve’s iPhone leather case might be your thing. Thanks to diamond ornaments embedded on an expensive leather material, the Noreve will set you back no more than $15K a piece.

What makes this leather case ultra-expensive are its 6.8K diamonds between 18 to 22 points of VS1 quality and G color. With such an expensive leather case, you would expect it to fully accomadate all of the iPhone’s stock form. Unfortunately this leather case just lets you slip your iPhone inside the case. This leather case is available in 15 different colors, and is said to feature 272 pieces of diamonds. The case does not come with a belt clip, but at this price, who would want to slip it onto a belt, anyway?

So, does your iPhone deserve an expensive case such as this one from Novere?

Product [Noreve] Via [I4U News]

As soon as it was announced that the iPhone 3G is coming over to some other countries on Aug. 22, a local mobile distributor in the Philippines, Globe Telecom, put up its official product site. It was pretty exciting to learn that we Filipino Apple fans are finally getting the iPhone in a legit way, having been skipped during last year’s first generation iPhone launch. Unfortunately, Filipinos will have to pay too much to get themselves an iPhone unit as soon as it comes out. How much? A whooping $1,000 plus for the plan-free 16GB iPhone unit. That amount was computed based on a US dollar-Philippine peso exchange rate of $1=P44.3.

Details after the break.

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Word on the street says Apple is contemplating releasing the 4th generation iPod nano in a slightly wider size than its first three generations. The increase in size is necessary for the new iPod Nano to have a larger screen than its current 2-inch LCD. The new 4G nano would also have an aspect ratio similar to the iPod Touch.

Now, here’s the interesting part. Given the design of the current nano, the redesign would make it a larger-screened version of the second generation Zune media player. The basic difference would be the 4G nano’s click wheel navigation instead of the Zune’s touchpad.

Further speculation after the break.

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Taking the lead off Six Apart’s Typepad application for the iPhone, Automattic has released the WordPress application for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The application is now available in the iTunes Apps Store as a free download. Although you still can’t add links or remotely hosted images, nor can you use the good old paragraph formatting features that users have grown accustomed to, the WordPress application features some useful functionality that you can use on your iPhone and iPod Touch.

The WordPress mobile application features full support for tags and categories, support for camera phone pics and library photos, support for multiple blogs, password protection and auto-recovery of posts if you get interrupted by phone calls.

The WordPress mobile application works with both WordPress.com hosted blogs and self-hosted blogs on versions 2.5.1 and later. You may download the application here (link will direct you to the iTunes Apps Store).

Product [WordPress for iPhone]

Since releasing its own application for the iPhone and iPod Touch last week, Google has been tweaking it some more and has just introduced some new features. Specifically, the Google.com portal for the iPhone and iPod Touch has improved to twice its original speed, whether users are connected via 3G, Wi-Fi or EDGE. Google has also optimized Google.com for fast searching, which is the main characteristic of its web version.

This is in addition to the easy access to Google applications such as Gmail, Calendar, Reader and others, which can be accessed by tapping on the More tab in the iPhone or iPod Touch. Google has also enhanced the user interface, creating more room on the page for search results. When clicking on a search result, the destination site now opens in the same browser window in which the search was conducted, allowing users to just press the back button when going back to the Google home page.

And to bring their iPhone and iPod Touch application in tune with other applications, Google has created new icons for all the available Google applications. Users can now easily add these icons to their iPhone’s Home Screen.

Via [http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2008/07/new-updates-to-googlecom-for-iphone.html” title="Google Mobile Blog">Google Mobile Blog]

Belkin has announced its portable GoStudio device, which lets you record audio content onto your iPod and have it shared with your blog readers, Facebook or MySpace friends. The GoStudio is a pretty simple device which lets you dock your iPod, then connect it onto your PCs to enable you to upload your recorded Podcasts, interviews, music, and short audio clips to iTunes.

In addition, the Belkin GoStudio lets you record directly to your iPod in 16-bit 44kHz digital audio quality, play back your recordings from your iPod through GoStudio’s built-in speakers, and directly monitor your iPod’s volume control. It comes with two combo microphone inputs, a 3.55mm mini-jack microphone input, two built-in omnidirectional stereo microphones, and a tripod mount.

The GoStudio will be available sometime in September/October with an SRP of $119.99.

Via [Business Wire]

AOL has joined the iPhone 3G frenzy with the launch of three of its very own iPhone OS applications which are now available for free download at the Apple App Store. These applications are the instant messaging client AIM, the online radio service AOL Radio and the video search engine Truveo. All these applications were built using the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK), hence providing full-featured applications for the new iPhone.

Details after the break.

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This could possibly bring the anticipation over the iPhone 3G one notch higher, as three top tech journalists gave their initial reviews of the new iPhone 3G two days before the highly anticipated product goes public. Walt Mossberg of WSJ , Edward Baig of USA Today and David Pogue of NYT all gave their praises on the new iPhone after testing their units.

Both Walt and David highlights the iPhone 3G’s fast web browsing through the 3G network and the phone’s improved audio quality. Other highlights of the iPhone 3G features noted by the reviews include the fact that the Exchange ActiveSync is working well, improved overall physical design, and crystal clear calling features. But of course, iPhone 3G is not without some flaws as well, as noted by the three journalists. Particularly, weak 3G signal on some locations, and quick battery draining especially when the 3G is used. The weak 3G signal though is more of a network problem, while quick battery draining is a common flaw among 3G-enabled phones.

Generally, the three journalists commended Apple for coming up with a product upgrade which certainly improves on its predecessor. But we may have to wait for more realistic reviews from actual users once the iPhone 3G lands in the hands of mobile phone users before we could say that the iPhone 3G is indeed worth all the wait we’ve devoted into it.

Via [Apple Insider]

Just in time for the release of the iPhone 3G in a week, Google has released a new version of its GTalk client for the iPhone and iPod Touch browsers. Google Talk works similarly to the web version, except when receiving instant messages. In this case, the application needs to be open in the Safari browser. Likewise, when you navigate away to another browser window or application, the IM status will be changed to “unavailable.” But, it will revert back to “available” status when you return to the GTalk window.

For its iPhone interface, Google Talk remained faithful to the web version when using your desktop. Most of the features of the desktop version were retained, including quicklist of contacts that you connect with the most, contact searching and managing multiple conversations.

To start using Google Talk on you iPhone or iPod Touch, just point your browser to www.google.com/talk.

Via [Official Google Mobile Blog]