Details have come to light regarding a new Apple patent which could see the iPhone and iPod Touch used as digital tickets for concerts and events. The patent was filed in September 2008 and reveals that the system would use near field communications technology. Your iPhone or iPod would be simply swiped allowing you to enter the concert or event.

Rumor is that if you like the show and are a female, you can also use your iPhone to digitally throw a pair of panties not onstage, but from your iPhone to the band’s iPhone. Okay, I made that part up, but it certainly opens up some interesting possibilities.

Just over a year after iPhone OS 3.0, Apple has unveiled the big revision of the OS that powers the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It ships this summer, and the developer preview will be available today. iPhone 3GS and new-gen iPod touch will get all the features, but some of those features won’t make it to the iPhone 3G, the original iPhone, and older iPod touches. Sorry Charlie.

The biggest new feature is the multitasking, which is said to be the “best” implementation in the smartphone space. App switching is activated by double tapping the home button, which pulls up a “dock” of currently running apps, and apparently it can do this without hurting battery life or performance for the front app.

Right on the heels of the new iPad release, Apple has announced an event for later today to discuss the release of “the future of iPhone OS” and what will be coming in the iPhone OS 4.0. What new features will be available with the updated OS is anyone’s guess at this point but as usual there is plenty of speculation leading up to the 10AM PST event.

If history is any teacher this announcement will be to set things up for a release later in the year, probably closer to the Apple Developers Conference, and Apple will use this opportunity to release features that it might not have in the past when it didn’t have as much competition from things like Google’s Android.

Here are the numbers. 300,000 iPads were sold, leading to 1,000,000 app downloads, and 250,000 ebook downloads from the iBook Store.

The original iPhone sold 270,000 units in the first 30 hours. So 300,000 is pretty impressive. Remember, many are holding out for the 3G version next month and this was a US-only launch. Not bad at all. But then we knew they would have no trouble selling them.

Apple launched it’s new iPad tablet on Saturday, meeting long lines of individuals anxiously waiting, some for many hours, to purchase the new mobile device. The release of the iPad is the most anticipated product Apple has released since the iPhone launch in 2007, with almost as much hype surrounding it.

The iPads going on sale Saturday are the WiFi-only versions and are priced from $499 to $699 depending on the storage capacity desired, which ranges from 16GB to 64GB. Apple will release a 3G version of the iPad later in the month with prices ranging from $629 to $829, again depending on storage capacity.

The iPad devices are a small tablet-like device with a 9.7-inch touch screen (on screen keyboard) and they run an operating system very similar to the iPhone or iPod touch. They have the ability to download and play music and videos from Apple’s iTunes library, read books e-books with Apple’s new iBook application and use thousands of applications from the Apple App Store for the iPad.

Many of us were wondering if the Kindle app would show up on the iPad and here it is. You can still purchase ebooks despite the fact that it competes with Apple’s iBooks app and store. Pretty nice of them I guess.

It is all official now. The app lets users select from over 450,000 books from the Kindle Store on iPad and features Amazon Whispersync technology that saves and synchronizes things like your last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across your Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, …

Merge an iPhone with your standard flip-phone and you get this thing, which looks like a cross between an iPhone and the Star Trek communicator. It’s the N933 smartphone. There’s no branding As far as we can tell, but it also has Apple’s iPhone interface.

When the flip is down, it looks just like any budget phone. Nothing great here when it comes to features. If you want one, it will cost you $129.99.

iPhone rumors are flying fast and furious this week. To add some fuel to the fire, here’s some speculation from UBS analyst Maynard Um. He claims that the new iPhones may have a touch sensitive back, which is something that people have speculated about for some time. Some other possible features include a 5-megapixel camera, 64GB of storage, AMOLED display and longer battery life.

All of those would be nice, but we will see what happens. Apple could turn the back of the iPhone into a touch-sensitive surface, similar to the Magic Mouse. It would make the iPhone even more versatile. But we just don’t know.

The iPhone OS is the king of smartphone traffic and the mobile web share right now, but the Android OS is catching up and nipping at it’s heels. Maybe it’s because of the slew of Android-powered devices that were rolled out recently or maybe less people are paying for iPhones and iPod touches these days.

RIM, webOS and Windows Mobile have a long way to go if they want to catch up. Do you have a prediction as to who will come out ahead?

You’ve been dying to know what the App Store is like on the iPad, right? Well, here ya go. App tracking and analytics site AppAnnie discovered these shots while “searching for clues” on the device and is sharing them with the world.

One thing that you will notice is that Apple will be using HD to mark applications that have been tweaked in a special iPad version, or have had their resolution upped. You might also notice some apps that aren’t available on the iPhone right now, like the $49.99 OmniGraffle.

Pioneer’s VSX-920-K, VSX-1020-K and VSX-1120-K 7.1-channel systems for the iPhone and iPod are being readied for their release this May and June. All come with a compatible USB port which will play Apple devices and charge them.

The 1020-K and 1120-K come with support for the iControlAV app (available for free in the App Store) which will steer the receivers, including multiple audio or video zones, balance tuning and input selection. Aside from that, all three feature an iPhone Control button which offers control on the touchscreen display instead of the receiver.

One thing that has been missing from the App Store since it debuted was a way to pay for apps to give as gifts to other users. The only way to do it was to get the user a gift card before. Apple has added a new gift option to the App Store.

The option is found in the drop down menu beside the buy button. When you hit the Gift this App option you enter the persons mane and email that you want to give the app to.

The rumor was that Apple was due to begin selling a contract-free version of the iPhone soon “at list price.” It’s true, you can now pick one up for $499 (3G), $599, or $699 (3GS). They are still sadly locked to AT&T, like a pretty girl chained to Jabba The Hutt, but whatever. Technicalities.

We all know it takes like two seconds to jailbreak an iPhone. The assumption here is that you will do so I guess. The Apple store will be selling them at one unit per person per day.

Looks like Apple and Amazon can share some common ground with eBooks. Amazon has outed its Kindle Apps for Tablet Computers, which also supports Apple’s iPad. It functions just like the iPhone Kindle app, with Whispersync technology and it will let you access all of the books you have purchased for the Kindle.

What this means for the future of Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader, we have no idea, but if we had to guess, we’d say that Amazon is cutting their losses and staying in the market however they can.

This has got to be one of the ugliest iPod docks we’ve ever seen. Obviously it’s made from some rusty old electrical industrial parts. The product page says it will make a great engagement or wedding present. But that’s only true if you’re a redneck.

But hey, it does support two Apple devices instead of one. It’s compatible with any generation of the iPod or iPhone and even the Nano. Do you want one?