It sure helps to have friends in high places. Just ask Verizon who made friends with Apple and then went on to activate 2.2 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2011, the first in which it offered Apple’s phone.

AT&T on the other hand, which had previously had an exclusive on the iPhone in the U.S., activated 3.6 million iPhones during Q1. Remember, Verizon only started selling the phone in February, so their total only spans two months of availability. Verizon must be feeling pretty good right now.

We recently heard through an official statement from Verizon that the launch of the iPhone 4 broke all of the companies previous first day sales records, although we don’t have any specific numbers. Now according to analyst Phil Cusick from JPMorgan, it looks like Verizon may have sold as many as 500,000 iPhone 4′s on the first day when it was made available to pre-order to existing customers.

The previous record holder for first day sales at Verizon was the Motorola Droid, which sold 100,000 units on the first day. For now we should take this with a grain of salt since these 500,000 iPhone 4 sales are based on analysis rather than facts from Verizon, but it sounds reasonable to us.

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.

With Padracer your gaming console is an iPad as a display and iPhones as controllers. How cool is that? Though if you don’t already own these things, it could get a bit expensive for you. Basically the iPad is the race track and the iPhones are turned into controllers once connected via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

All you have to do is steer your race cars by turning an iPhone like a steering wheel. The game is just five bucks at the iTunes store.

PayPal has released an update for its iPhone/iPod Touch app. You can now “bump” money from your PayPal account into a friend’s if they are close by. If you both have PayPal accounts, you don’t all need iPhones to “bump” your money. You can still send money the traditional way by loading up the app and entering an email address, or choosing from a recent contact.

But if you have two iPhones running PayPal, it’s easier to set a dollar amount, move them close, then confirm that the “bump” means you’re transferring that cash.

With every release the iPhone and iPod gets more powerful and Apple just might be looking into integrated micro projector technology for future iPhones and iPods. It would allow your media to be shared with your family and friends whenever you wanted. It may just happen if you believe the Taiwanese rumor site DigiTimes.

According to them Foxlink, a subsidiary of Apple’s iPhone manufacturing partner Foxconn, is currently developing its own micro projector technology that should begin making its way into integrated devices as early as this year. Apple is on the list.

According to an analyst with the Canadian research firm Canaccord Adams, three new iPhones will appear in 2009. According to a report on Seeking Alpha, analyst Peter Misek identifies the most lavish of the trio as a 32GB iPhone 3G that will be available in a variety of colors. Then there’s a lower-cost handset based on the 2.5G iPhone, which is targeted for China and India. Third is a smaller version of the phone, about one-third the size of the 3G iPhone that will cost 40% less and we should see that one by year’s end.

The rumor seems to be gaining traction, and it fits with some of what we’ve been hearing, but we are taking it with the usual grain of salt until we hear more.

Here is a simple solution to a minor problem. On the iPhone 3G, we’re always covering up that single tiny speaker with our huge hands. That’s where SoundClip comes in, a $7.95 attachment that will give you a slight sound boost.

It’s not exactly an amplifier, but TenOneDesign says that it passively enhances the sound by a noticeable 10 decibels. It attaches to the iPhone’s dock connector and should serve as a good reminder to keep your meaty fingers away from it. It clips onto the USB cable you use to charge your device, so it won’t get lost.

Lionsgate said today it is working with Apple to make use of the latter’s Digital Copy for iTunes so select DVDs will also be available for digital viewing. The first Lionsgate film to get the iTunes treatment will be Rambo on May 27th.

Lionsgate said that by using Digital Copy for iTunes, those who purchase select DVDs or Blu-ray Discs will be able to insert the disc into a computer. The customer then enters a unique code into iTunes, and the movie is automatically copied to their iTunes library.