The Apple iPad touch screen tablet is not yet out but we are already finding ourselves swamped with rumors and speculations about the upcoming iPhone 4G. While a tablet device is a new and curious thing, it seems like people still prefer their smart phones far more.

Anyway, the Apple iPhone 4G has been in the rumor mill for quite some time now and it has generated quite a buzz over the past few months. Here’s a quick summary of everything that we have found out so far.

First off, this device will be a touch screen smart phone with an HD capable screen. Obviously, the iPhone will have a capacitive touch screen; and while Apple has not exactly confirmed that the handset would indeed have HD quality resolution, it is expected as HD is quickly becoming the new standard for displays.

Next, the device is being rumored to have a removable battery. Now, while many of us would love to see this come to be, we would like to hold back any expectations until Apple proves this. This is because Apple has a habit of making closed devices and there is simply no reason to believe that they would change this practice for the iPhone 4G.

The touch sensitive casing on the other hand may sound pretty quirky, but this is one thing that we can probably count on Apple for. The company has led the way with touch screen technology with the previous iPhone, it makes perfect sense that they would want to develop something new to stay on top of the game. In any case, it would be fun being able to play a game where you will not have to obscure the view by tapping the screen.

Find out more about the various rumors and speculations regarding the Apple iPhone 4G at Tech Radar.

While many would be inclined to think that all forms of marketing done through electronic mail or email would be immediately be sent into a spam folder, UK company Thrillist is showing the world otherwise.

By directly getting people to sign up to relevant newsletters and article, this company is getting plenty of profits from marketers who want to get their products directly advertised to their target audience. The concept is simple, by providing geo-specific news, articles and updates that are relevant to a person’s interest, more and more people are willing to read through the daily emails being sent by the company.

In an interview with Ben Lerer, co founder of the company, he stated that many people usually refer to magazines when it comes to checking out places to eat, hang out, clothes to buy and accessories to get. But the problem with magazines is that the information tends to be very general –as published materials do tend to cater to very wide audiences.

But for people who are looking to read up on what’s hot at a more local scene, there is hardly anything online that can provide relevant information.

The solution comes in getting local writers who provide excellent guides and tips about specific locations. These writers can tell readers about the pulse of the local scene because that is where they are. And it is this information that makes people want to read Thirllist’s newsletters.

At the same time, this is what makes companies want to advertise their products as well –people would read the reviews and actually go to the store because it is right there. Naturally, services such as this provide an excellent help for many small businesses that are not usually covered by larger publications.

Get to know more about email newsletters at Times Online UK.

The hacker Geohot (or, formally, George Hotz) has been quite busy as of late. Not only was he the one responsible for jail breaking the iPhone with the blackra1n method, he was also responsible for hacking the PS3 recently with the hopes of “igniting the PS3 scene”. Now, he has come back with a vengeance on the iPhone and has overcome another hurdle in jail breaking the device.

The common method of jail breaking requires a PC connection to the iPod Touch or iPhone, but with Geohot’s method, a direct hack on the iPhone itself is now possible. He also claims that the method he devised is also applicable on the iPad which means that Apple will have a lot of work on their hands to counter this exploit.

On George Hotz’ iPhone blog, he detailed what his hack can do:

“The jailbreak is all software based, and is as simple to use as blackra1n. It is completely untethered, works on all current tethered models (ipt2, 3gs, ipt3), and will probably work on iPad too.”

A video was released to the public although the release date for Geohot’s jailbreak technique is a no-show at the moment. The hacker does emphasize that it will come when he wants it to:

“Don’t ask about a release date. You won’t make it happen any sooner.”

The problem with this is that the pending iPad release date might just be pushed back to provide additional security measures. This spells out bad publicity for Apple’s new device but there is a slight possibility that Geohot will choose not to release the exploit in time in order to leave Apple wondering about his method. As for just how people can access the jail break, it may be an online download or a webpage process with a big fat Paypal donate link, who knows.

Watch the video at Geek.

There is a new Android smart phone in town and Samsung is ready to join the big Android squabble against rival manufacturers HTC and Sony Ericsson (and also against the Google phone). T-Mobile has just announced that it is offering the Snapdragon Android devices from HTC and Sony Ericsson (the HTC Desire and the XPERIA X10). Samsung is hoping to add more in its offer by using the new super AMOLED touch screen display technology on the Galaxy S.

It has also been confirmed that the Galaxy S is getting certified for DivX, making it the first HD capable smart phone compatible with the popular video format.

The new device is the third phone from the Korean manufacturer that makes use of the new super AMOLED technology. The first phone to have the touch screen display is the Samsung Wave smart phone which also utilizes the new Bada mobile platform. The other device with the high end screen is a yet to be named Windows Phone 7 device that is still in the works.

Back to the Galaxy S, this smart phone follows the basic aesthetic style of the original Galaxy series. The display is a large 4 inch capacitive touch screen and it will be running on a 1GHz CPU. The phone is also confirmed to be equipped with a 5 mega pixel snapper.

Aside from having good hardware, the phone also has a few extra features; the TouchWiz user interface is back and the Wave’s Social Hub application will also be installed in the phone. New to this phone are the Smart Life and ThinkFree applications. No exact release date has been given, but we can expect to see this phone on store shelves later this year.

Find out more about the new Android smart phone from Korean manufacturer Samsung at Tech Radar.

T-Mobile has announced that it is now offering the XPERIA X10 and the HTC Desire to clients on its website. The HTC Desire will ship out after 7 days of ordering and the XPERIA X10 will be available after 10 days.

Both smart phones have been long anticipated by the Android community since they were announced last year.

The XPERIA X10 was originally announced as the Rachael before SE confirmed its name and specs. The device was one of the first Android phones to be confirmed running on a 1GHz Snapdragon processor. Sony has spared no time in preparing other Android devices, during the Mobile World Congress where they showed off the X10, they also featured two new Android smart phones; the X10 Mini and the X10 Mini Pro.  The two 600MHz smart phones will be SE’s offering to the mid range market.

Back to the XPERIA X10, this high end device will come with a 4 inch capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. The device also has an 8 mega pixel camera with LED flash, autofocus and geo-tagging. This high end device comes in a classic black finish though an exclusive white version has been announced for Orange Mobile.

The HTC Desire was part of the leaked 2010 roadmap for the Taiwanese company. The list of devices showed off not only the Desire, but also the upcoming Legend as well. The phone was finally shown off by HTC at Barcelona last month.

Running on a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, this Android device really works as an alternative to the Nexus One. Not only do the two phones share the same manufacturer, but their specifications are also similar as well. Aside from the 1GHz CPU, both devices come with 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screens and 5 mega pixel camera.

Find out more about T-Mobile’s latest offerings at Know Your Mobile

According to the Telegraph UK, about ten thousand Britons have banded together to oppose the Digital Economy Bill. All over the internet, there are thousands more opposing the passing of the new Bill and with it, the government’s bid to control internet activity.

The reason for the opposition is simple; the bill is a potential threat to the privacy and well being of every free citizen in the UK. Part of the fundamental rights that every citizen is granted under Great Britain is that each person would have the right to privacy in their home and with communications. This is the right that protects letters, text messages and even phone calls from being exposed, this is also the very same right that protects our emails, chats and other internet based communications.

With the Digital Economy Bill granting the government access to all our activities online, even private correspondences will not be safe.

According to Lord Erroll, even the actual proceedings regarding the bill are no respecting the proper procedures. With the elections not too far away, there not enough time for an adequate debate which will allow the parliament to properly examine the Bill. Add to this the unnecessary pressure from many groups that are blindly pushing for the bill, and we have the recipe for disaster.

Groups such as workers unions are easily swayed by survey results –such as the recently released survey that points a cold hard finger at piracy costing the UK over a million jobs by 2015 –an assumption that has no backing since the cost of pirated material was equated to the cost of originals and the value was then marked as a “financial loss” which was then calculated with current trends in cost reductions in order to create a prediction regarding job loss.

But in truth, the monetary value of pirated material is close to practically nothing, and while the practice is illegal, people who support creative industries will continue to purchase original content despite already having pirated copies –which means that the media industries would never be in a deficit and effectively, no jobs will be put to risk.

Get to know more about the protest against the Digital Economy Bill at the Telegraph UK.

The iPhone has no doubt encouraged people to make their own tributes to the iconic device. Some may have uploaded YouTube videos, other made user FAQs. Maybe a few have tried their hand at making custom apps and fiddled around with Apple apps, but none have even come close to making an iPhone font.

The font works pretty much like a mosaic picture. It is able to trick the eyes into seeing the whole font with the use of similar-looking palettes. The letters are formed by using color coded icons and utilizing a variety of app icons in order to make the shapes of each letter in the English alphabet. Who would make something like this you wonder? It is actually an architect who had too enough time on his hands to find a total of five hundred forty icons. The patient author was able to cohesively arrange the images to make this Apple masterpiece.

In the video showcasing the app, the English alphabet is unfortunately missing one letter. The letter “W” is nowhere to be found and the icons used seem to all be free apps. The iPhone of the author (simply called as Urikane) seems to be jail broken and it left people to wonder just why he did not use 25 pixels to make the tricky letters like “M” or the missing “W” to look better. But hey, he gets an A for effort just because he found something that no one has bothered to make as a tribute to the iPhone. Plus, it is very colorful.

Considering the fact that other than the app count, there is no other information supplied by the author, the only way to know how or just -why- he made the app in the first place is by contacting him through his website at www.urikane.com.

Check out the video and read more about the iPhone font in Engadget.

Apple has already made its declaration. And while the courts are now determining whether the patent infringement lawsuits are valid, HTC has taken up a defensive stance to protect their interests and innovations.

HTC has been around since the early days of the Pocket PC. While Apple has been concentrating on the computer market, it was HTC that was making lots of innovations with Pocket PCs. Microsoft has formed a tie up with the Taiwan based manufacturer and helped HTC reach the global market

In the mobile phone industry, HTC found its place as a member of the Open Handset Alliance and the maker of the first Android device. They would also become the manufacturer of the first Google branded smart phone.

Apple’s lawsuit against HTC is more than what it seems, with Google being Apple’s primary competitor in the industry, the timing of this lawsuit could not have been more perfect –many of the devices in question are Android phones. Google has reacted by stating that they will stand behind their Android developer partner HTC in this case.

HTC also released a statement: “HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself. HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible.”

“From day one, HTC has focused on creating cutting-edge innovations that deliver unique value for people looking for a smartphone. In 1999 we started designing the XDA and T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, our first touch-screen smartphones, and they both shipped in 2002 with more than 50 additional HTC smartphone models shipping since then.”

Read more in the original Associated Press article at Google News.

There are plenty of reasons why the smart phone apps industry is continuously growing. In fact, some people have even said that by 2012, apps will sell be selling more than audio CDs. With software downloads becoming more and more convenient for getting bits of digital content, more and more people find themselves preferring to just purchase online instead of heading to the closest brick and mortar store.

The reasons are simple; first, downloading is quite easy. Smart phone operating systems have access to online stores that provides users with thousands of available content. Users simply need to go online, browse for apps, and download their preferred content. Of course, apps are worth downloading because they provide much of that added functionality that users need. Aside from practical functions, apps are also a good source of games and entertainment.

The growing number of smart phones also helps. With more and more people switching to smart phones over regular devices, the value of apps for these phones becomes more and more evident.

Aside from apps, downloadable music content is also causing the sales of CDs to decrease. After all, with the ability to choose specific tracks to download, people no longer have to spend the extra money just to buy the whole album.

Of course, the retail industry has nothing to fear. Despite the many advantages of digital content, nothing beats actually having your own copy of an album or cherished soundtrack. Music fans would certainly bulk at the idea of sticking with pure digital downloads –the same goes for movie addicts, after all, not streaming download would ever match having your own copy of an epic movie on Blu-Ray. Apps may outsell CDs, but they would never replace the industry.

Get to know more about the app industry on the Guardian UK.

Just a couple of days ago, we got treated to seeing some of the most promising developer tools –from a consumer’s perspective. With particular focus on the XNA Game Studio and the Visual Studio for gaming apps, it seems like we will get to see some pretty inventive new gameplay mechanics using the motion sensitive smart phone and the Microsoft Xbox game console.

Now, further demonstrations on the new features for WP7 have revealed that aside from the first set of phone functions shown at the Mobile World Congress, new features are still being added in. The most prominent of all the new additions is the inclusion of an Application page –missing in the original demo.

New Apps for the OS are based either on Silverlight which delivers impressive web based displays and the XNA studio which is geared more towards games. Speaking of Silverlight, there is a new Media Diary function that looks utterly impressive –it is reported to be created from the ground up using Silverlight.

The Microsoft Location Service will provide geo-sensitive news feeds and other similar data. Users can also hunt down specific feeds to be used for this. Combined with the Microsoft Notification Service, this creates a steady stream of real time news updates. In addition to these new features, WP7 will retain all of the original functions announced with the device.

The new OS was first unveiled last month and is due to be release late this year. The LG Panther and a yet to be named Samsung super AMOLED touch screen smart phone are already confirmed devices that will be using the new mobile platform. It is also reported that HTC is working on its own Windows Phone 7 device.

For more details about the new WP7 features and applications go to GSM Arena.