Who said the price doesn't matter, if you're talking about something good enough? No matter how good may be the iPhone, its price surely counts, and the latest price drop in the UK is the perfect proof to that! Well, dropping the price is something, but to see the results of this action, that's a completely different matter, so let's check this out, shall we?


According to reports, O2 stores in London, Birmingham and Newcastle ran out of iPhones on the 16th of April. After a few "dry" days, the stocks have been recently replenished, so if you were disappointed by missing the big deal, you can go ahead and try to catch another cheap iPhone, before the new stocks run out!

It seems that sales were twice as good as usual, in some places, as it happened at Carphone Warehouse's Oxford Street store in London. Well, that's not surprising, considering the fact that the official Apple Stores still have expensive iPhones, and the £100 price drop is subsidized by O2, the official UK carrier chosen by them for the smart phone.

Well, that's everything. If only I were in the UK...

What do you think about using instant messaging on your mobile? For me, this is pretty useless, but I know a lot of people who do it, and a large part of them really needs such a feature. Well, being given the above, it's no surprise that this is one of the most heavily requested features for Apple's mobile since its debut, but the Cupertino-based company didn't add it yet. Unfortunately, I can't tell you when is this going to be added, but since Apple filed for a patent related to this, this is a move worth being observed closer.


The patent I mentioned above was published back in March, and describes an interface similar to that currently used for the SMS interface of the iPhone, but with a bunch of key changes, including a list of suggested keywords, and since the drawings included with this patent points to "Instant Messages" in a lot of places,everything looks obvious to me.

Just check the abstract: "A portable electronic device for instant messaging is disclosed. One aspect of the invention involves a graphical user interface (GUI) on a portable electronic device with a touch screen display. The GUI has a set of messages exchanged between a user of the device and another person. The set of messages are displayed in a chronological order. In response to detecting a scrolling gesture comprising a substantially vertical movement of a user contact with the touch screen display, the display of messages are scrolled in accordance with a direction of the scrolling gesture. The detecting of the scrolling gesture is substantially independent of a horizontal position of the user contact with the touch screen display."

Considering the above, I think there's no doubt - the iPhone will finally get instant messaging features, but we have no idea yet about the time when we'll see it happening. Anyway, I am sure Santa won't catch us without instant messaging on our iPhones, but this may even happen as soon as June, together with the release of the 3G iPhone.

Remember the great iPhone deal in Germany? Well, ladies and gentlemen, today I have to tell you about a new excellent deal on the iPhone, but this time it's happening in the UK. Unfortunately, we're talking about a limited promotion, and a smaller price cut, but this is good news, anyway, so let's see what do we have here, shall we?


According to Mobile Today, the localized version of the 8GB iPhone will sell in the UK for £169, down from a previous £269, so basically Apple and its UK wireless partner, O2, will sell the iPhone for only $333, compared to its current $399 price tag, in the US.

Unfortunately, it seems the 16GB iPhone will remain at £329, about $645, but the price cut of the smaller model revives the rumors regarding the upcoming 3G iPhone.

Considering the above, I guess the US users should also expect some cuts in the near future, but I can't really tell. If you're in the US and you know something, or at least if you want to say something about this, please feel free to drop us a comment, we're here to listen, and we're anxious to hear your opinion!

The iPhone, as it is, can't be considered "the best smart phone in the world," but it surely has its unique capabilities and, above everything else, Apple managed to turn its first mobile phone into the most notorious smart phone in the world, and I guess most of you agree with that. If you don't, you can drop a comment below, of course, but first let's find out about an iPhone ten times better in terms of storage and battery life(!!), shall we?


Unfortunately, we can't speak of such a device yet, but the new form of digital storage technology currently under development at IBM could, at least according to the semiconductor giant's claims, provide 10 times the storage capacity and battery life of handheld gadgets, as the iPod or iPhone!

IBM's "racetrack" memory is said to store data inside the walls that exist between magnetic domains - those arranged on the silicon wafer's surface, in this case. According to IBM, the future implementations of this technology could lead to portable media players able to hold half million songs, or even more, run with a single battery charge for weeks and, best of all, have lower production costs than today's models.

Stuart Parkin, the leader of IBM's research team at the centre in San Jose, California, said "The promise of racetrack memory - for example, the ability to carry massive amounts of information in your pocket - could unleash creativity leading to devices and applications that nobody has imagined yet."

So...are we supposed to wait for another decade or so until this technology becomes reality? Let's hope not, but since the racetrack memory could lead to "three-dimensional micro-electronics', breaking with the tradition of scientists trying to fit an ever greater number on transistors on an ultra-thin piece of silicon shaped like a wafer," probably this is only the beginning...

Released about two years ago, the Nike+ Sport Kit allows your iPod to communicate with an accelerometer embedded in a shoe(or attached to it), and display various information, such as the elapsed time of the workout, the distance traveled, pace, and even calories burned by the individual wearing the shoes. There was only one major problem with this kit so far - its lack of support for any other iPod than the Nano. Now, things are getting much better, with the Nike+ updated version.


The most interesting part of this update is that, while the older Nike+ iPod Sport Kit requires you to turn back to your computer and upload data online, from now on, you may be able to use the Wi-Fi capabilities of the iPhone or the iPod Touch, and even the 3G capability of the iPhone, when that is going to become available. Unfortunately, this is not official yet, but comes "from the inside," so the updated Nike+ is more than just a rumor, since there are even a lot of pictures available with it.

At last, it should be noted that this successful product may be killed by Apple's upcoming digital lifestyle fitness companion, which promises to arrive with much more features than the Nike+ offering, but until that one arrives, there's still enough time for Nike+ to enjoy its status...