A few days ago, we told you about some new iPhone cases on the way from Belkin. Well, regarding one of those cases, the guys over at Crave noticed something interesting. Something almost conspiratorial.

The case in question is Belkin’s new “Micro Grip” for the 3G iPhone. It’s basically a bunch of interconnected Zune logos. Conspiracy aside, I’m not sure this is the case to go with, since it’s more or less a rubber web and won’t offer complete protection. Plus, it’s got me paranoid now and I’m not sure where my allegiance should be. Apple or Microsoft. Or is this saying that it’s alright to be both? I’m confused. And probably being watched.

When Apple announced the iPhone 3G this week it was a given that cases and accessories would be deluging us in the next few weeks. One of the things that most iPhone 3G buyers cone July 11 will be looking to buy at the same time will be a case to protect their shiny new phone.

To that end Belkin has announced a complete line of nine cases specifically designed for the iPhone 3G. The cases are supposed to protect the iPhone 3G and add looks to the device at the same time. The Belkin line includes silicone cases, arm band cases and polycarbonate cases in multiple colors, patterns and styles.

In case you haven’t noticed, Apple has a new phone. Something about an iPhone 3G something or other. The question is, will you be getting one? We want to hear from you. Yay or nay? Or could you care less? And is Steve Jobs alright? He was looking a little thinner then usual.

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.

Love it or hate it there is no denying that the Apple iPhone has made a big impact in the mobile phone market. Since the introduction of the iPhone most every major cell phone maker has come to market with touch enabled phones and devices. Some of the devices are good and some of them not so good.

Despite the fact that Apple is widely expected to announce the new iPhone today at the Apple WWDC, iSkin is announcing a new case for the first generation iPhone. The case is called the Fuze and despite the fact that first generation iPhone’s are hard to come by in most parts iSkin promises the Fuze is the best case around for the iPhone.

Is Apple getting into solar power? It looks that way. According to Tradethenews.com, the company filed a patent involving placing solar cells on portable devices. This means that Apple’s iPhone or other devices could have photovoltaic cells stacked underneath LCD touch screens, which maximizes the area available for harnessing and soaking up the power of the sun.

According to the filing, performance info in regard to the performance of a device’s solar cells could be displayed on the main screen next to battery power, which makes sense. It could also appear on top of the actual cells, which could be displaying the Apple logo. Imagine less charging of devices. Then one day no charging at all. Nice.

I find that I surf the Internet and watch YouTube videos on my iPhone much more than I ever thought I would. The bad part is that it seems like if I watch a few videos the phone is dead before I know it. Since the iPhone has no user replaceable battery you are out of luck when it goes dead and a charger isn’t handy.

Richard Thalheimer of The Sharper Image fame (or is it infamy?) has a new website where he sells gadgets called Richard Solo. While the site is apparently named after Han’s little brother, one of the first products is interesting. The Battery Backup for iPhone/iPod retails for $49.95 and is a 1200mAH lithium-ion that charges 100% in 3.5 hours via USB. The battery weight is 2.76 ounces and it measures 1.77” x 2.83” x 0.49”.

Napster has walked onto Apple’s beach and kicked sand in the face of iTunes. Napster now claims to have the largest MP3 store around with 6 million tracks. Napster also claims that its tracks are iPhone and iPod compatible.

Napster says that its MP3 store is 50% larger than any other MP3 store and has the largest major label catalog of any digital music store. It also claims to have the largest catalog of independent music available as well.

Here’s a cool iPhone hack. Some of you would really love this while others would really hate it. VistaPerfection 2.0 is a complete re-skinning kit for Apple’s iPhone that lets it mimic a Windows Vista machine. Why would you want to? Hell if I know. You create things like this just because you can.

The install comes with wallpapers, sliders, sound effects and over 90 Vista-themed icons for everything from the computer to the recycle bin, plus all of the standard iPhone apps. It even gives you a simulated version of Vista’s Sidebar and Start menu. If this appeals to you, go ahead and get the full download and instructions.

Apple has put out an official announcement that Steve Jobs and a number of other suits from Apple will be kicking off the Worldwide Developers Conference this year in San Francisco. The press release says that this years conference will showcase both the OS X Leopard and the OS X iPhone, but we’re thinking there will be a new iPhone announcement, too.

The event meets the expected timeline for the launch of the 3G iPhone, the UK has run out of iPhone stock and we wouldn’t believe that Jobs would launch the 3G version overseas before launching it stateside first. WWDC 2008 runs for five days from June 9th to June 13th with the keynote from Jobs and crew on the 9th starting at 10am; we’ll be listening.

Smartphones are fast becoming an important tool for both businesspeople and the common Joe. We can thank the iPhone for much of the improved sales of smartphones as other makers rushed out tons of devices to compete with Apple’s gem.

At CTIA 2008 Motorola announced the Moto Q 9c smartphone and Verizon Wireless announced today that the phone is now available for purchase. The device runs Windows Mobile 6 Standard and has access to POP3 and IMAP4 email accounts.

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

Apple has recently announced the beta release of the 5th version of the iPhone SDK, which contains the framework, tools and compilers for making your own custom applications for Apple’s iPhone operating system. It provides also provides a simulator to run your apps on, which represents both the iPhone and the iPod touch. There doesn’t appear to be a lot of changes to this kit other than bringing it up to the latest OS version, but the download is free and there’s no sense working with the older version.

iPhone Developers

Those looking for a nice alternative to the iPhone may have found Apple’s biggest competitor in the smartphone market with HTC’s recent launch of the Touch Diamond. The Diamond is the latest in High Tech Computer’s line of Touch smartphones, and looks to be the best one yet.

The Touch Diamond runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and in addition to the many common features of popular smartphones it has some custom applications built in for watching YouTube video and taking advantage of Google’s mapping service. To top it off, HTC has included a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen which they claim brings near print quality viewing.