As Jason Snell points out at Macworld, Apple doesn't want people thinking of the iPhone as a computer. At least, not the way geeks like you and I do. As iPhone product marketing manager Bob Borchers told Jason, "...it's just faster, better, quicker, snappier, and a great experience."

Apple doesn't want us worrying about the "how," but many of us do, which is why we're interested in a blurb at T Mobile's Netherlands site which lists the iPhone 3G S as having 256MB RAM and a 600 MHz processor. Of course, we can't verify these specs yet but some have suspected, including myself, that the new model would hold 256MB RAM.

I understand the logic behind Apple's move. John Q. Customer is uninterested in the iPhone's innards and cares only that it works. For many, terms like processor, RAM and MHz only make the thing sound complicated and foreign.

Geeks like us, however, can't resist.

[Via MacDailyNews]

In its sometime role as a broadsheet hybrid of Us magazine and the New England Journal of Medicine, we have an update tonight from The Wall Street Journal on the condition of everyone's favorite iCEO. Steve Jobs, according to the story (subscription required on the web, free to read on your iPhone), is recovered from his health crisis and on track to return by the end of June. While some speculate that he might choose to surprise the audience at WWDC with a One More Thing moment, two sources for the WSJ story say that the plan is to wait a bit longer.

Steve's return is likely to be coordinated with a product launch or other public event later in June, say the sources. That event probably won't be the announcement of the next-gen iPhone, which the paper pinpoints for the keynote address on Monday with availability close to the two-year anniversary date for the original iPhone purchasers (pretty sensible; anyone who bought a first-gen for the premium price is a likely candidate to shell out for a replacement). The WSJ cites someone who has seen the new phone in person, reporting a faster processor and the expected video editing capabilities.

Equally importantly, the story points out that the long Steveless months with Tim Cook at the helm have shown investors and customers that the Apple train is still on track. AAPL is up 68% since Steve announced his leave of absence in January, vs. a 24% uptick for the NASDAQ index. Granted, Apple stock took a bit of a hit around the announcement of the leave, dipping to a low of 78.20 on 1/20, but it's up at 143.74 as of today's close.

[via Macrumors]

If you own and iPod touch or an iPhone, you might have bought an app, deleted it for whatever reason and then downloaded it again from the App Store. Since Apple keeps a record of your purchases, you were presented with a dialog box saying that you could re-download that app for free.

According to iPodNN, some developers with preview copies of iPhone OS 3.0 have seen a dialog box (pictured at right) prompting them to either re-download a missing app for free via their computer, or simply buy it again via their iPhones. Who knows why this could be, or if it will even make the final version of iPhone OS 3.0 -- one might think it's to save AT&T bandwidth, but why not restrict the option to WiFi?

In any case, we'll find out soon enough.

The iPhone blogs says they've uncovered the very first photos of a brand new version of the iPhone (the pictures are watermarked from a site called UMPC Fever), and while there's no actual indication that they're real (at the very least, it wouldn't be hard at all to make a picture and load it on the iPhone stream), they are worth a look, if only as ideas. The pictures hint at what's basically a dream roundup of new iPhone hardware: a camera with autofocus, a digital compass, and there are hints at a CPU log as well (which may be a developer function of some kind).

A few people note that there is a percentage near the battery, but that's actually a known function of 3.0, and it's been possible on jailbroken iPhones for a while as well.

To add to the mystery, commenter Dstreelm in the comments over there took a look at the metadata on one of the photos (the one supposedly taken by the iPhone), and it was taken near Hong Kong, just a day or so ago. It's definitely all rumors, so take it all with a grain of salt, but it does lend more credence to the idea that we'll be seeing a new version of the iPhone hardware very soon.

Update: Our bad... the date on the MacRumors comment was in late April, and this recycled up into our queue due to an editing mixup. Apologies –Ed.

There's a new iTunes beta version out in developers' hands straight from Apple, and a forum poster over at Mac Rumors found a little something fun in the About screen: a reference to Gracenote's ability to identify Blu-ray discs. Gracenote is the service that IDs your CDs when you import them into iTunes, so you don't have to sit there and type all the track names and artist information in. Apparently Apple is mentioning that not only CDs and DVDs, but also Blu-ray discs, will get information from Gracenote in the latest version of iTunes.

This doesn't mean that Apple will adapt Blu-ray as a standard (though it would probably be about time, don't you think?). But it should mean that the future version of iTunes will include Blu-ray support, so if you happen to have a Blu-ray drive hooked up to your Mac, you'll be able to read or play the discs via iTunes.

It could just mean that Apple has upgraded the Gracenote version in their app, however, and that they have no plans to actually use it -- the text in the About screen could just be a boilerplate cut-and-paste from some required Gracenote documentation that happens to include "Blu-ray." We'll have to wait and see just what shows up in 8.2 when it eventually releases to the public.

We're getting close to Mac OS 10.6 release time, I can feel it. MacNN is reporting that Apple has issued a code freeze on Snow Leopard APIs. What that means is developers who are using the current build, number 10A354, are able to write code assuming all major components of the OS are in place. Minor changes in this build include Chinese handwriting recognition for multi-touch trackpads.

For now, your guess is as good as ours as to when Snow Leopard will be released. In the meantime, you can browse Apple's Snow Leopard web pages (which went up in June of '08 believe it or not) or catch up on other rumors.

I think the whole "Apple buying Twitter" rumor floating around is about as much of a crock as the "Apple buying EA" one. But I give slightly more credence to this conclusion: that, despite the painful experience of Pippin, Apple is once again putting together a game console. Why? Let the evidence from BNET convince you.

First, Apple is picking up game execs and console chip makers left and right. Second is a whole slew of recent patents, for everything from mixing up media and game environments to management of games acquired from a media server. And third, though BNET doesn't actually connect the dots and say it, we will: Apple is sitting on what might be the best library of independent games anywhere, and it's sitting right in front of us in iTunes' App Store.

For years, console makers have depended on the mercy of publishers to keep their hardware going -- they sell the hardware at a loss, and then rely on the software sales and licensing to make it all back up again. But think of what Apple could do here: improve the AppleTV or Mac Mini, throw in some kind of Wii-like interface, and then break the whole thing open in the same way they did with the App Store: let developers in with a really low cost of entry, give them the tools they need to create solid games, and just take a nice cut from all of the tiny transactions flowing back and forth.

BNET claims that the iPhone's interface wouldn't work on a larger console, but why not? All Apple has to do is figure out a way to translate the iPhone's gestures and taps into a console system, and then they can practically run the games natively. Sure, the resolution would be a little low with a straight port, but that's a small problem to fix. Apple already has the makings of a game console with the iPod touch, and while the rumors may still just be rumors, there's never been a better time for them to leverage what they've already got.

The Street is reporting on a rumor today that AT&T is planning to drop the cost of the entry-level iPhone plan in the US from $69US per month to $59 per month. The suspected drop will take place when new iPhone models are released, as early as "...next month."

What's AT&T's motivation here? To attract price-conscious customers, woo Apple away from a rumored Verizon deal or simply clear inventory for the next-generation iPhone? As a person who's on this plan, I honestly don't care why -- I just hope it happens.

The change would trim $120/year off of the current plan, reducing the overall cost of the 2-year plan to $1,760. [The original $240/year mention was due to an editing error. -Ed.]

[Via The Apple Blog]

There's a thin rumor at AppleInsider suggesting that Apple will introduce less expensive MacBooks and iMacs this spring. Unfortunately, the article doesn't mention pricing or what concessions will be made to reduce the cost.

While it's easy to assume that Apple is reponding to the Microsoft ads that depict their machines as too expensive, AppleInsider's source suggests that the price reduction is a response to the popularity of netbooks (Acer has been showing growth).

Apple typically starts the back-to-school sales at towards the end of the summer, and has bundled an iPod with computers sold to students. That offer plus a low-cost Mac would be powerful.

In addition to the earlier reports regarding a potential alliance between Apple and Verizon, BusinessWeek has released a story where Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam reveals that he has been in discussion with Steve Jobs in the past six months.

The result, the magazine claims, could be two iPhone-like devices using Verizon's CDMA network. One would be a lite version of the iPhone, the other a 7" screen "media pad" -- which would let users listen to music, view photos and high-def videos and place calls over WiFi. The media pad, according to BusinessWeek, is supposed to be smaller than Amazon's Kindle, but with a bigger touchscreen. The so-called iPhone lite would be smaller and thinner than the existing handset. One of these devices could be introduced as early as this summer.

It's not clear if either or both of these hypothetical devices would get around the AT&T exclusivity for the iPhone by being 'different enough' from the existing model. Still, the media pad concept aligns nicely with reports from manufacturers that a new portable product is in the works.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

If USA Today says it, it must be truthy -- hence the enthusiasm for today's report that sources close to the discussions are confirming an ongoing confab between Apple and Verizon on the topic of bringing everyone's favorite smartphone to America's most popular cell carrier. The future prospect of a Verizon iPhone, originally rumored and countermanded for this year, has perked up the ears of AT&T naysayers around the USA.

Although the paper cites Verizon's CDMA network as the target for the iPhone deployment option, most other observers (including Verizon executives) have noted the upcoming LTE/4G network, built atop the GSM standard that the iPhone already knows and loves, as the likely deployment environment. Robert swooned over the possibility of an LTE-enabled iPhone back in February; of course, way back in 2007, Verizon's attitude towards Apple's phone was far less conciliatory.

Even though AT&T is eager to hold onto its exclusive deal for iPhone in the US as long as it can -- and there's plenty of financial motivation already -- there's enough meat to this report to make me believe that Verizon-Apple negotiations are more than a stick to push the incumbent carrier toward a better deal. Getting earlier access to LTE (AT&T's buildout is at least a year behind VZW's) and more domestic options for the phone would be a win for Apple, as would a more generous revenue sharing plan with AT&T.

What's not clear to me is the percentage of would-be iPhone buyers who have so far avoided the phone because of carrier exclusivity and the two-year contract requirement. If having Verizon as a choice would flip you from the 'no' to the 'heck yeah' column, pipe up.

Update: Just discussed the Verizon rumors with Randall on TechVi.

Sunday night on the Talkcast, we approached the rumors of a 10.5.7 release coming soon, and all pretty much agreed that yes -- whatever is in it, it's very likely coming soon. Here's another rumble of thunder that hints at the storm: Nvidia announced a brand new card recently for Macs, called the Quadro FX 4800 -- it offers "ultra fast performance," "realistic effect," and tons of triangles and all of the other things that comes along with a video card that looks more like a Flip Mini than an actual set of circuits.

But most importantly, under "Drivers and Downloads," you can see that the Mac drivers require Leopard 10.5.7. Combine that with all of the other speculation flying around, and odds are that we'll see a new version of the OS in Software Update as soon as later today.

Thanks, Daniel N!

Our weekly interactive podcast goes live on the air tonight at 10pm Eastern time over on the Talkshoe page, so if you're around and ready to talk some Unofficial Apple Weblog news with us, please come by and join in. I'll be hosting this evening, and Dave Caolo will be along for the ride with us, as well as a slew of other familiar names and voices from TUAW and our community. And we'll be welcoming Alykhan "AJ" Jetha as our special guest for the evening -- he's the CEO of Marketcircle, makers of Daylite and Daylite Touch, business productivity management apps for the desktop and the iPhone. Our own Stephen Sande reviewed their products here on TUAW earlier this week.

Also tonight on the show, we'll talk about all of the new iPhone hardware rumors floating around, and try to separate the wheat from the chaff there. There's also rumors of an OS update that we'll try shaking down, and the iPhone 3.0 beta has hit a new milestone, so we'll look that over as well. iTunes prices are up, and sales are down, so we'll try to figure out why. And since this is the eve of the release of Tweetie for Mac, we'll talk about which clients we've used for Twitter on the desktop before and if Tweetie will be everything that everyone else is saying it is. Should be a lot of fun -- tune in promptly at 10 Eastern to give us a listen.

To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only interface, or you can stick with the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in so we can hear your dulcet tones. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VOIP lines (take advantange of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. SIP or Gizmo users can connect directly to Talkshoe by following the instructions here. Talk with you then!

Recording support for the talkcast is provided by Call Recorder from ecamm networks.

Update: EA has noted that The Sims 3, due in June, will require Mac OS 10.5.7. At least we know it will be by then.

Several outlets are reporting today that Mac OS 10.5.7 is due to drop any time now. Build 9J47 was released on Friday, less than a week after 9J44, and build 9J50 is said to have been distributed on Tuesday. Until now, these updates have been delivered weekly. This accelerated distribution, along with a shortening list of fixes (the latest build only addresses three) are clues that 10.5.7 is nearly ready.

Additionally, some customers have reported that the ATI Radeon HD 4850-equipped iMacs that they ordered have had their ship dates bumped up to this week (there's a rumor that the graphics card requires 10.5.7).

We'll let you know when this shows up, and report any changes (or problems) we experience after installation.

Once again, the folks at DigiTimes have leaked information about a forthcoming Apple product. Citing "Industry sources in Taiwan," they've published an alleged parts list for the next generation iPhone.

Standout items include the 3.2-megapixel CMOS image sensor from OmniVision, which seems in line with the rumored video features in iPhone OS 3.0. Also listed is NAND flash from Samsung and Toshiba and Mobile DDR DRAM from Samsung.

Most interesing is what missing from the list. Namely, the processor. So far, there are no solid rumors on what this could be, so it's really anyone's guess. We think it's safe to say, however, that Apple will release new iPhones this summer. Those who purchased original phones two years ago will have their contracts expire in June, just around the time that iPhone OS 3.0 and WWDC will drop. Here's to this summer!

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

[via theAppleBlog]