Amidst announcements of a number of new iPod products and product upgrades, Apple made a surprising move today by cutting the price of its iPhone, likely much to the dismay of early adopters. Apple is now selling the larger 8GB version of its iPhone for $399 which is down $200 from the original $599 price only a couple months after the products initial launch.

Apple also said it is going to discontinue the 4GB model of the iPhone altogether, now selling it at $299 until the supplies run out.

Steve Jobs and Apple announced today that they will have a new version of iTunes which will be released tonight that supports ringtones for the iPhone.

The new version of iTunes will have a little “bell” icon next to the songs that can be created into a ringtone (about 500,000 initially) and will let you select your own, up to 30 second excerpt from the song to create your ringtone.

In the month of July the Apple iPhone accounted for 1.8% of all handsets sold in the U.S., making it the leader in smartphone sales for the month. In it’s first full month the new mobile multimedia handset from Apple managed to outsell popular, long-standing competitors such as Blackberry and Palm devices. Whether or not the iPhone will continue to hold a true market share will remain to be seen, however. Much of the initial sales could easily be attributed to the hype that Apple is so good at building prior to the phone’s launch.

According to the market research firm iSuppli, the “real proof” of Apple’s ability to hold onto the market share it saw in July will come in the next few months leading up to the holidays. But, the number of sales that Apple was able to generate out of the gate for such a relatively expensive device is impressive, nonetheless. ISuppli is predicting that Apple will ship 4.5 million iPhones in 2007, and as many as 30 million by 2011.

Today Steve Jobs has a new reason to start sweating: Apple’s iPhone has officially been unlocked by a team of five hackers, a move that can free the device from the exclusivity contract between the computer company and AT&T, the iPhone’s service provider.

The process by which you can unlock your iPhone has been posted on the blog of one of the five hackers, a 17-year-old New Jersey native named George Hotz. Hotz has posted a 10-step process on his blog which requires about two hours of your free time and a soldering iron to unlock the iPhone.

Hotz and his four accomplices (two of which live in Russia) came up with the method via online collaboration. Also, all of the features seem to work after the device is unlocked save for the iPhone’s visual voicemail. Hotz, who is about to start his …

Apple’s iPhone update, which by the release notes indicated that there was only some security fixes, also came some new unexpected features. The 1.0.1 update for the iPhone also added on a BCC option when sending email which was previously not an option. It also now gives you up to an hour to request the password when the phone is idle which was before limited to a minute. According to MacNN there have also been users reporting some enhanced stability in general along with a resolved issue where the battery would not fully charge.

Not surprisingly, Apple and AT&T are seeing their first class action lawsuit over the iPhone regarding its internal battery. According to the filed suit the allegations state, “The battery enclosed in the iPhone can only be charged approximately 300 times before it will be in need of replacement, necessitating a new battery annually for owners of the iPhone.”

The Plaintiff claims that he did not know, nor was disclosed to the public prior to purchase, that the iPhone battery was in a sealed unit with the battery soldered in place. I don’t know how far this will really go since Apple’s website states that the battery will retain 80% of its original capacity after 400 charging cycles. Either way we all knew it would happen eventually and the non-removable battery in iPods and iPhones have been a …

If you’re an iPhone owner that’s already stressing out about the impending $85 battery price and having to send in your iPhone for a couple days then iPodjuice just may be able to set you at ease. That is if you’re not concerned about using a 3rd party battery on your iPhone. The company provides battery replacement kits for iPods and now has one for the iPhone as well.

iPodjuice says that the replacement iPhone battery is comparable in providing playtime to the original iPhone battery and that they have them for both the 4Gb and 8GB iPhones. For as little as $45 you can send them your iPhone to have it replaced or if you feel you can solder it in yourself you can remove the installation line item from your order and they’ll just send you the kit, sans instructions or …

The guys over at HackTheiPhone have come out with another one, with this hack changing the iPhone so that you can use it with your old AT&T/Cingular SIM card from a different phone. This allows you to use the voice services of the iPhone without having to start a new contract.

So, to take advantage of this hack you’ll need an iPhone, another phone with an AT&T SIM card that you can use and enough time to follow the 19 step process to make your old SIM card work with your new iPhone. Note that this process does look a little easier than the iPhone ringtone hack as there appears to be about four fewer steps involved.

via CellPhoneBeat

There is a weird story developing on the The Unofficial Apple Weblog that seems to be impossible but, well, there it is. The TUAW guy claims to have used an application called iASign and a prepaid AT&T card, taken it down to his UK-based Vodafone retailer, got them to recognize the sim card inside an o2XDA phone he brought with him, went back home, popped out the AT&T card and put it inside his iPhone. And now he’s making phone calls on the Vodafone network using the Apple iPhone. Supposedly this should be impossible to do. There has been a couple of hiccups; he’s had no luck getting video or visual voicemail to play on the iPhone via Voda’s network but he can mail images. It’s not quite an unlocked iPhone but time well tell if other international sim cards can also …

Could the first gen iPhone already be in danger of extinction? That’s the latest rumor to spread and it comes courtesy of a Chinese outlet called the Commercial Times. According to the publisher they’ve heard reports from Apple partner manufacturers Quanta and Wintek that the next gen iPhone is already in the prototype phase and that the finished model could be ready for sale by as early as September. It may even retail for less than June’s iPhone, clocking in somewhere between $250 and $300.

September is just a short two months away and for Apple to make a move like this so soon after the launch of the first iPhone doesn’t seem to add up. We have no doubts that Steve Jobs has secret plans in motion in Cupertino but the past history of Apple has demonstrated that they like to wait and pounce …

It looks like some folks have found a way to add custom ringtones to your iPhone by following some steps and using a couple programs called jailbreak and iPhoneInterface. Currently the steps only work for those that are using Intel Mac’s but from the description it probably won’t be long until someone makes an interface to broaden the reach.

The instructions are listed over at HackiPhone and involves a lengthy 23 step process. The steps involve backing up and restoring your iPhone from iTunes and they have a few warnings before you start that stating that this process could totally brick your iPhone if it doesn’t work out. (They are considerate hackers.) Once your done you must also be sure you added all the ringtones you wanted or you’ll need to follow all the steps again to add more.

If you want custom ringtones for …

A little over a week after the launch, Apple’s iPhone is still creating quite a buzz from both those who like it and those who don’t. One particular point of contention coming from a number of consumers and particularly the Foundation for Consumer and Taxpayer Rights are some concerns with the battery replacement program for the iPhone.

This system is nothing new to Apple as they’ve had an similar existing situation with the line of iPod’s which, like the iPhone, have an embedded battery. Due to this, owners themselves cannot order and swap out a new battery but must send the product in for a battery replacement from Apple. The foundation has recently sent a letter to Apple on two fronts, one of which being the battery replacement process for the iPhone.

According to details on Apple’s website the …

Jon Johanson has been a fairly well known hacker of consumer electronics gadgets for years, and has now claimed that he has found a way to activate a new Apple iPhone without signing up through AT&T’s service. Using the iPhone without AT&T’s two year plan is not allowed by the agreement made with Apple and AT&T since the company is the exclusive carrier for the iPhone.

According to Johanson’s blog post entitled “iPhone Independence Day”, the hack will activate the phone to enable the iPod functionality and WiFi, but it doesn’t have any phone capabilities. This is good for someone that uses the iPhone outside the U.S. where the voice service wouldn’t be available anyway.

In response, AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said “Any other use of the device is not authorized and we can’t …

We had posted a few months ago about what we thought might be an iPhone Nano product from Apple, and here’s another one that could easily fit the name filed at the USPTO.

The patent digram shows a click wheel similar to existing iPods with a touchpad that shows the graphical images of a phone dial-like wheel with numbers and letters. It would make sense that just like the iPod has gotten smaller with time, Apple could cut out a few features and make a smaller, simpler but equally cool mobile phone. An iPhone nano type device might even capture a larger segment of consumers who like Apple products and the iPhone but don’t want to shell out $500 - $600 and don’t need all the bells and whistles.

via Unwired

According to a recent report from Rheinische Post, Apple has just signed a deal with Deutsche Telekom T-Mobile to make Germany the next stop for an iPhone launch on November 1 of this year. The report is a preview to an alleged announcement planned for tomorrow where T-Mobile will be unveiled as the exclusive provider of the iPhone for Germany, selling the famed gadget for about 450 euros ($612).

While no sources of the news were cited and no comments from the involved parties were made this isn’t really set in stone but we’ll be watching tomorrow for an official word.

Source: Reuters