9to5Mac has some sources that claim that Sprint is currently in the late stages of testing the Apple iPhone for its network. So it looks like Sprint might be getting some iPhone action too.

Apparently the device is making the rounds at Sprint’s research and development department. Sources also say that talk of a 4G variant of the iPhone for Sprint is coming along, but the first generation Sprint iPhone that is currently in testing does not feature support for 4G bands.

It’s looking as if those rumors about a smaller, thinner iPhone with a larger edge-to-edge screen might be true. At least the CEO of France Telecom/Orange thinks so. Talking about Apple’s smaller SIM card, he confirmed that carriers, including Orange, are working with Apple on the new initiative and said that Apple’s next-generation iPhone will be smaller and thinner.

He specifically says the “next” iPhone, as in the fifth-generation iPhone, but the comment could just be a guess based on the smaller SIM card developments. But the other way to take the comment is that the next iPhone is actually an all new, thinner, smaller design. Can you tell that the wait to find out is killing us?

If you want to make smaller phones, you need to make SIM cards smaller right? That’s just what Apple is doing. Apple has submitted plans for a smaller SIM card to the European Telecoms Standards Institute (ETSI) and has also received the backing of a number of major mobile operators including Orange.

The development and approval process will take a few months, maybe longer, but there seems to be a broad consensus among members of the standards committee, so that should speed up the process. Aside from making devices smaller, this standardized SIM card would also be used by other companies. This is odd for Apple since it usually restricts its developments to its own products.

During an earnings conference call last year, Steve Jobs hinted that Apple had tested several designs for the iPad during its development process. One of these possible designs may have surfaced in a patent application recently approved by the USPTO and now we get to see what might have been.

This patent shows off a Wi-Fi+3G iPad with an extra USB slot for landscape connectivity. The auxiliary USB slot would let you place the iPad in a dedicated landscape dock and dock it in portrait mode while syncing using both slots. Apple holds a patent for the design, but we will likely never see this in an upcoming iPad model. Still, it always nice to see how things might have been.

According to advertising firm WPP’s “BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands” report, Apple has now moved past Google and taken the number one spot as the worlds most valuable brand. Apple’s brand has seen some amazing growth, growing 859 percent since 2006, with an increase of 84 percent to $153 billion this year alone. That growth is phenomenal. No wonder they were able to overtake Google.

The BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study, commissioned by WPP and conducted by Millward Brown Optimor, ranks the world’s most valuable 100 brands by their dollar value.

Where would we be without colorware? Our gadgets would be just a monochrome void. Now it is the Apple iPad 2′s turn to get the Colorware treatment. You can make it as beautiful or as ugly as you want. Just be prepared to pay a premium.

It will cost you $910 for the base 16GB WiFi configuration and you’ll need to wait about 4 weeks for it to arrive. Once it does, your device won’t look like everyone elses and your friends will all know that you are down about a grand.

Good news iMac fans. Apple is refreshing the iMac lineup today, with prices starting at $1,199 for the 21.5-inch (1,920 x 1,080 pixel IPS panel) model with new 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor and 512MB of AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics.

After that prices go up to $1,999 for a 27-inch (2,560 x 1,440 IPS) model with 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 CPU and 1GB of AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics, or optional 3.4GHz quad-core Core i7 processor and 2GB of HD 6970M graphics.

Good news for magazine readers. Time Inc. has made a deal with Apple to allow print magazine subscribers to access the company’s iPad editions for free. Starting this week, those who subscribe to print versions of Sports Illustrated, Fortune, and Time will be able to download the iPad versions at no cost, directly within the magazines’ apps, as it should be.

iPad users still won’t be able to purchase exclusively digital subscriptions to Time Inc.’s publications. Time wants to incorporate digital subscriptions to its iPad model, but negotiations have hit some snags, mostly due to how Apple shares subscriber data. Publishers claim to need that data to apply the TV Everywhere model to magazines, but Apple says that the subscriber information should only be shared on an opt-in basis. It doesn’t seem like they will agree anytime soon.

As we all know by now, you can’t keep Apple products down. They assimilate society like the Borg and spread across the globe, just not in large cube-ships. So it is no surprise that Apple will launch the iPad 2 in 13 more countries next week.

We aren’t sure which countries these are, but so far this month Apple has launched the device in places like Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea. There’s just no stopping the iPad 2. The company’s international push started on March 25th.

According to some people in the know, Apple’s next-generation iPhone will have a faster processor and will begin shipping in September. Production of the new device will start in July/August and it will be very similar to the iPhone 4.

That’s great news for Apple fans and it still leaves us plenty of time for more rumor and speculation. Put your thinking caps on and start guessing at what we can expect from the iPhone 5.

Everlight Electronics has reportedly delivered samples of its LED backlight products to Apple, according to China Times. Since Everlight’s products are intended for use in tablet-style devices, it makes sense that Apple is exploring the idea of using the company’s LED backlights for the iPad 2.

Apple has steadily expanded the availability of the iPad 2, launching it in new countries and adding new retailers in the U.S., but component supplies for the iPad 2 are reportedly constrained, so Apple is looking various ways to meet the demand. This also might help to cure the bleeding backlight issue in some iPad 2 tablets.

Looks like Apple feels the need for speed, and so they have given a speed boost to the solid-state drives in newer MacBook Air models. Most batches were using Toshiba’s X-Gale SSD, but now a more recent model has been spotted using a Samsung-made 470 series drive.

The 128GB drive is of course much faster in reads and writes, taking things from about 210MB per second and 176MB per second in the old Toshiba SSD to 261MB per second and 210MB per second in the Samsung version. The upgraded drive, which Apple identifies as SM128C, also supports Native Command Queuing to optimize how it reads and writes to the drive. The X-Gale lacks that feature. Good news for those looking in a MacBook Air.

Yesterday we heard the latest rumor that the white iPhone 4 is currently in production. Well, now it is official. Apple says that the white iPhone will be released in the spring. The company had previously indicated that manufacturing problems had delayed its release.

Good news for those of you waiting on this snow white phone. It gives everyone something to look at while we are waiting for the iPhone 5 too. So are you buying a white iPhone or will you wait for the new iPhone 5?

We had heard talk of the white iPhone 4 possibly shipping in April and now it looks like we can narrow down the timing thanks to the latest rumor. Both AT&T and Verizon will get the long-delayed and long-awaited white iPhone by the end of the month. Bloomberg stated that the manufacturing issues they were facing were worse than everyone thought and that the original white paint had been peeling when exposed to heat.

Apparently, a sensor was also a problem, according to one tipster. It might have been the proximity sensor on the front, but that isn’t confirmed. So, we will hopefully have an end to the white iPhone saga very soon.

According to a report, Apple could launch an Internet-connected high-definition television set by the end of 2011, expanding into the $100 billion LCD TV market. Analyst Brian White with Ticonderoga Securities said in a note to investors that he picked up “data points” that point toward a “Smart TV” launch by Apple, possibly as soon as by the end of this year.

If Apple does want into this market, (which seems inevitable) will an Apple HDTV take the world by storm like their other products? Maybe. It could be paired with a subscription service to iTunes, allowing users to access content and services at a flat subscription rate so that a cable box and digital video recorder will no longer be needed. That would make a lot of folks happy.