Music phones and smartphones are two of the biggest categories of handsets today. Music fans can get one device that lets them make and receive phone calls while listening to music. Without a phone that can play music, users end up needing to carry a MP3 player and a mobile phone. Finding a place to stuff an extra gadget can be a big problem for some users.

The LG Rhythm is an interesting phone that features a built-in FM transmitter that can send music playing on the phone to a FM radio up to ten feet away. That means in your car you can listen to music from the phone on your car audio system without resorting to accessories. The handset has an integrated 3.5mm headphone jack and can change between music and phone calls automatically.

In Australia at least, nobody seems to want the white iPhone? It looks like all of the late arrivals in Sydney were being told earlier that they might have to take a white 16GB version because they were running out of the black model.

Now, if the same thing happens here I imagine some of you are going to be not too happy about it and you’d rather have no iPhone at all. I wouldn’t want white. White is for Wiis. I’m not sure what the ratio of white to black iPhones being shipped to stores is, but judging by this video we showed you here, it looks to be about 50/50. If that’s the case, we have a problem.

I think most of our readers probably know that nothing like this is really ever free, but O2 has announced that when the new iPhone 3G launches in the UK on July 11 they will be offering it for free with certain monthly tariffs. Both the 8GB and the 16GB models will be given away if you want to pay a little more each month for an 18 month contract.

The new tariffs from O2 in the UK are already published and are offering the 8GB iPhone 3G free with a £45 (~$88) or £75 (~$146) monthly plan, and if you are going with the £75 plan you might as well get the 16GB model since it comes with that plan at no cost as well.

Steve Jobs and Apple officially announced the new iPhone 3G today set to ship July 11, Shortly after the 2nd version of the popular mobile handset appeared on the Apple Store giving some long-awaited answers and putting many rumors to bed about the changes to the iPhone.

Lots of applications and lots of games were highlights of the presentation today for the iPhone, showing off what can be done and what has been done with the iPhone SDK. Also included in this model is GPS mapping, support for more business-centric applications like Microsoft Exchange and of course the faster 3G wireless connection. Based on these features it’s very apparent that Apple was listening to requests and complaints after the launch of the original iPhone. Major issues like a maps with no GPS and an internet browser with too slow of a connection to use are no longer, or at least much less of an issue.

Today at WWDC Steve Jobs made the official announcement we’ve been waiting for – the 3G iPhone. For the most part the new model looks very similar to the original, but along with the high speed connection Apple did add in some other improvements.

Some of the new features highlighted today include a full plastic back, improved audio, a flush headphone jack, even thinner edges, solid metal buttons, GPS and all of this for a $199 price tag for the 8GB model. Apple is boasting that with the new 3G connection web pages load 2.8 times faster than the previous iPhone model and is faster than both the Nokia N95 and the Treo 750. The battery is expected to give 5-6 hours of web browsing, 8-10 hours of talk time (5 hours of 3G talk) and 24 hours of audio playback on a single charge.

The Touchwiz a.k.a the SGH-F480, is obviously an iPhone wannabe from Samsung, featuring an improved and super user friendly UI controlled with your finger, and a 5Mp AF camera with auto focus and a CMOS video lens.

It sports 8GB or memory, and even an FM radio. The F480 makes use of a new and unique img4.gif UI, with specially designed widgets to customise and personalise the use of your phone. It’s a slick looking phone. Talk time is 3hrs. It will hit the European market shortly. Not sure when we’ll see this in the U.S.

We had already seen some iPhone price cuts overseas for what many felt was to help clear out the non-3G inventory of phones in Europe, but now it appears that O2 has complete run out of stock with the 8GB and 16GB iPhones. We’ve still seen no official word on the release date, price or specs of a 3G iPhone but we can’t imagine it could be far off now that the inventory in the UK is depleted.

O2

Goldstriker knows a thing or two about making devices more beautiful, the iPhone is no exception and the Solar Star edition is their latest attempt. It features 24 carat gold plating on both the front bezel and Apple’s rear logo, while the rest of the case is the ultra luxurious Balloon White paint found on a Lamborghini Gallardo.

The white-and-gold color scheme is sex to the eye and looks nice to touch. It comes with updated firmware 1.1.4 and is unlocked for worldwide GSM use. You’ll get 16GB of flash memory inside. The $1,477 price tag is not for everyone. Some of us would rather save the money for a 3G iPhone, despite how beautiful this one looks.

In anticipation of a new iPhone model coming to Germany, T-Mobile has drastically slashed the price of the existing 8GB model from €399 to just €99 for German customers. This lower price equates to approximately $155 USD, where the 8GB iPhone is currently going for $399 with a 2 year contract in the United States.

The €99 iPhone is being offered for a limited time from April 7 through June 30 and comes with a 2 year plan for 89 euros a month. The 16GB model price appears to remain untouched with a price of €499. Apple has been rumored to have a new, faster 3G version of the iPhone in the works and this promotion may be a way to unload some of the older models prior to the launch. Alternatively it could also just be a promotion for Apple and T-Mobile to unload some of their inventory due to poor sales of the iPhone in the area due to the heavy competition of mobile handsets that are 3G enabled.

O2 has put out an official announcement that they will be bringing Apple’s iPhone to Ireland with the handset launching on March 14. Prices are listed at €399 ($590) for the 8GB model and €499 ($740) 16GB. Contracts range from 175 minutes a month up to 700 minutes and all come with 1GB of data transfer, with the pricing ranging from €45 ($67) to €100 ($148) for the 175 minute plan.

Today Apple announced the release of a new 16GB iPhone giving double the storage capacity in the device. The Apple store was down for a while this morning, just in the U.S., which especially on a Tuesday indicates the company had something new coming. When the site came back up the Apple store now shows two models, one with the original 8GB capacity for $399 and a new 16GB iPhone model for $499. All the specs aside from the increased storage capacity appear to be the same, and no, there was no 3G added into the 16GB model.

In addition to the iPhone getting some more storage, the iPod touch also saw an increase in its capacity to store music, pictures and video with Apple also announcing a 32GB version today as well. The 32GB iPod touch was added to the Apple store this morning retailing for $499, along with the existing 16GB model priced at $399 and the 8GB model going for $299.

In response to complaints about dark screens on the new Apple iPod Touch the company admitted last week that some of the screens that left manufacturing facilities were defective, and Apple is looking for a way to remedy the situation.

According to reports from various blogs and Apples own iPod Touch discussion board, the screens on the new 16GB iPods from various weeks of production have a darker than normal display, and with some darker video scenes are almost unwatchable. Since these issues weren’t as notable with the original iPhone it brings up suspicions that the new Touches were designed with a possibly inferior, or at least different, display than the iPhone.

A leaked advertisement from T-Mobile Germany gives some inside information that the iPhone may be launching in Europe in November, with tri-band HSDPA and a larger storage capacity.

According to the ad the iPhone will have a launch date of November 12 with T-Mobile, which we knew Apple was planning a launch before the holidays but not exactly when. The iPhone will go for 499 Euros, or about $687 USD, which is higher than the US original price of $599 and way higher than the recently cut price of $399. But, it looks like this model will have 16GB of memory which is twice the largest 8GB model available in the US. It wouldn’t be surprising if Apple started offering this larger capacity in the US before the holidays as well, which would make sense with the lower price on the 8GB and the discontinuation of the smaller 4GB version.

Apple did what many people thought it would do today as it unveiled a new generation of iPods by debuting one which shares the same touch screen interface as the iPhone. Enter the iPod touch, set to be available later this month in an 8GB model for $299 and a 16GB model for $399.

The iPod touch sports a 3.5-inch widescreen display which is touch sensitive and the heart of controlling this iPod’s features. Users touch the screen to select features they want, be it music, videos or digital photos. There’s also a lot more under the hood on the iPod touch, including Wi-Fi wireless networking for downloading music and browsing the Web, Cover Flow display for browsing music by cover art, a built-in ambient light sensor and up to 22 hours of audio or five hours of video playback.

A lot of us don’t have enough extra cash laying around to throw at a new iPhone much less enough to get one just to take apart, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to. Luckily others do have that kind of bank and are willing to take some pictures and share what they find.

A company called Portelligent makes a living out of taking apart gadgets, seeing what they are made out of and trying to figure out who made it and for how much. The company did just this with Apple’s iPhone after its release and through some educated sleuthing found out some pretty interesting stuff.