The iPod classic’s popularity has been on the decline for some time. After all, wouldn’t you rather have an iPod Touch? Well, it’s popularity continues to decline daily more and more as reflected by its stock at several retailers.

On Apple’s online store, the silver iPod Classic will ship in one to three days, compared to 24 hours just last week. Best Buy’s website notes that the same color has gone from one-day shipping last week to being backordered by one to to two weeks. That says a lot. It says that very soon the device will be left alone to completely rest in peace. Obviously the iPod classic line will be phased out very soon. It’s sad really.

As usual, the folks at iFixit have torn apart a new gadget. This time it is the Verizon iPhone 4. Of course they found the expected differences, but they also found that the phone has a slightly lighter battery than its counterpart, that the mechanical vibrator has been redesigned and moved from the top right corner to the bottom right of the phone and that the phone has a Qualcomm baseband chip.

The chip is a Qualcomm MDM660 chip that supports HSPA+ data rates up to 14.4 Mbps, and is the same chip used in the Droid Pro. So the chip technically supports both GSM and CDMA, although Apple has decided not to take advantage of that capability for whatever their reasons are.

If you own a Mac it can be a pain in the neck, or the fingers, always pressing the ‘fn’ key to access the f1-12 keys on the keyboard. But now there is an application called FunctionFlip that allows you to program the keys and their functions to your requirements.

FunctionFlip individually controls your MacBook or MacBook Pro’s function keys, turning special keys back to regular F-keys, or vice-versa. It’s compatible with all MacBooks and MacBook Pros, recent Apple external keyboards, iBooks, and PowerBooks. This will make life just a tad easier.

Just when you thought that they couldn’t get any more restrictive, it looks like Apple is tightening its iron grip in their iTunes App Store. The company has reportedly rejected Sony’s eBook store app – the Sony Reader Store from the iTunes App Store.

The reason for the rejection was changes in Apple’s App Store policy: All in-app purchases will now have to go through Apple. Apparently apps that sell their own content will not be allowed in the App Store in the future. Apple also may be planning to get into in the eBook business. Apple’s The Daily announcement is happening tomorrow, so we will see if they shed any more light on this.

Remember the HyperDrive? It’ an external hard drive that can be connected to your Apple iPad using Apple’s camera connection kit. Well, HyperDrive has now launched a new version, this time with a nicer price. It starts at $99.

You do have to add in your own hard drive. That’s why it doesn’t cost more. The HyperDrive hard drive for the Apple iPad can hold up to 1TB of storage and the built in internal battery is only good for about 40GBs of transfer/read from the HyperDrive after that you’ll need to recharge it or connect it to a 5v power supply.

Lately RIM has been saying that its PlayBook slate would have “comparable” battery life to the iPad, but now it is going one better. The company’s senior business marketing VP Jeff McDowell has promised that the PlayBook will offer “equal or greater” battery life than Apple’s device, while using a smaller cell size. It’s an impressive boast.

If they can deliver what they claim, then the iPad needs to pay attention. Many people consider the battery to be one of the iPad’s greatest strengths. They have until that March launch to turn this claim into a reality.

If you like to get all science-nerd on your skin, check this out. Handyscope is an optical attachment that transforms your iPhone into a dermascope. That’s what a dermatologist uses to examine your skin. The gadget uses its own app, which lets your iPhone multiply its magnification power.

You’ll be able to check out your zips or other skin irregularities. The handyscope is scheduled to arrive in February when the app can also be purchased at the Apple app store. I wouldn’t recommend it for hypochondriacs.

The iPhone is a hot commodity even after all this time. Apple is making a ton of money on it, smugglers too. When they can get away with smuggling the goods anyway. An Israeli women was caught at Ben-Gurion International Airport, while attempting to smuggle 44 iPhone 4 smartphones under her clothes. Apparently they were everywhere, including her stockings.

The woman, who is in her 60s, was returning from London when one of the airport’s full-body scanners detected the load of smartphones that she was hiding under a traditional Georgian outfit. Officials had also noticed that she appeared to be walking with difficulty, which is what made them notice her in the first place.

Last week the App Store hit its 10 billionth download and Apple was to give the person who downloaded the 10 billionth app a $10,000 gift card. The lucky downloader of that 10 billionth app was Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK. She is a very lucky woman.

But when an Apple rep called Davis and started telling her that she had won, she hung up thinking that it was a prank. “I thought it was a prank call. I said, ‘Thank you very much, I’m not interested’ and I hung up.” But her kids told her that it was for real and luckily the Apple rep called back again. That was a close one. Her kids would have never forgiven her.

Last week there was word that the elusive White iPhone 4 had appeared on the inventory system of Vodafone Germany, and now it looks like the white iPhone 4 has also turned up in AT&T’s inventory. When last we heard from Apple on the subject of the white iPhone 4, they said it would be available in Spring 2011, so I guess we can expect the white iPhone 4 to go on sale very soon.

Seems like Apple wants to sell the white iPhone 4 to customers before they announce the new iPhone 5, and that announcement is expected in May, so we think the white iPhone 4 will finally be available soon and we can put this whole issue to rest.

The Cropmark LMP Bluetooth Keypad is designed to be used with any Bluetooth-enabled Macintosh computer. It will elegantly fit the Apple wireless keyboard and the keypad gives you 28 keys for entering whatever figures, tables, and calculations you need to enter.

The Cropmark LMP will play nice with any Bluetooth-enabled Mac running OS X 10.5 or higher and comes bundled with a pair of rechargeable AA batteries. The Cropmark LMP Bluetooth Keypad will cost you just $39.99.

There is hardly a day that goes by where we don’t have an iPad or iPhone rumor. Here is today’s. Apple’s overseas manufacturing partners will apparently start production of the iPad 2 next month, while they will also be building the fifth-generation iPhone in May.

Take this with the usual grains of salt until we have something more concrete. One thing is for sure, no matter when they start production, it won’t be soon enough for Apple fans.

The other day we told you how close the App Store was to reaching the 10 billion mark and now it has happened. 10 billion individual apps have now been downloaded. The lucky 10 billionth person will get a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. MacPhun is also giving away $5,000 to the same person.

This is a huge milestone for Apple, not to mention a great prize for the lucky winner. I wonder how long it will take for Apple to double this number?

The new verizon iPhone 4 has a slightly different design than the original iPhone 4, which seems to have fixed the iPhone death grip issue, but now the original iPhone 4 bumper case will not fit the Verizon iPhone. And so Apple has released a new universal bumper case to fit both phones.

The main difference on the Verizon iPhone 4 is that the mute switch sits slightly lower than on the original iPhone 4, so the new bumper design makes sure that it will work with both versions of the iPhone 4.

The full catalog of Playboy, from the first issue in 1953 to its latest, is coming to the iPad in March. And it will be uncensored. That comes straight from Hef himself. It doesn’t make a lot of sense when you consider Apple’s App Store rulings and Steve Jobs’ comments on keeping adult material off of mobile devices, but whatever.

It will be interesting to see how they do this and how it shapes what else is allowed on the iPad.