With their upcoming tablet, Apple may be offering the flexibility that many prospective U.S. iPhone owners have wished for: carrier independence. According to a Broadpoint AmTech analyst, Apple will be offering 3G wireless data networking on their Tablet with multiple providers with Verizon support a “certainty”.

This would mean that customers will be able to choose from a number of mobile providers for their Tablet’s data service when not near a Wi-Fi hotspot. This would allow Tablet users to browse the web, check their email, and more wherever there was 3G service. Such connectivity is taken for granted on mobile phones such as the iPhone, but is increasingly expected for other mobile devices. Read more…

Apple on Tuesday revealed that more than 3 billion applications have been downloaded worldwide from its App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch.

“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months — this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs. “The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”
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As Apple and Verizon are rumored to be in negotiations for a summer 2010 CDMA iPhone launch, the nation’s largest wireless carrier and the handset maker are believed to be at odds over pricing.

In a new note to investors Tuesday morning, Maynard J. Um of UBS Investment Research said that a new iPhone is expected to launch in mid-2010. Whether that phone would be available for Verizon’s CDMA network remains to be seen.

“We believe a CDMA-iPhone is also in the works,” Um wrote, “though believe Verizon Wireless and Apple may currently be apart on pricing.”
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All Things D claims that Apple’s rumored media event will actually take place on Wednesday, January 27th rather than the 26th as originally rumored.

Sources in a position to know tell me Apple (AAPL) is indeed planning a media event later this month at which it will announce a major new product. The gathering is to be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, a space Apple often uses for media events like these. According to other sources, it will occur on Wednesday Jan. 27, not Tuesday Jan. 26, as had been rumored.

Apple is, of course, rumored to be launching a new Tablet that may be called the iSlate.

Via macrumors.com

In a brief report [Google translation], French site Mac4Ever claims that Apple’s special media event now reportedly scheduled for January 27th will see both the introduction of the company’s much-rumored tablet device and the launch of beta versions of iPhone OS 4.0 and the associated Software Development Kit for developers.

According to the report, the SDK will include a “simulator” to assist developers in adapting their existing App Store applications to support the tablet’s screen resolution. The deployment of tools for supporting multiple screen resolutions could also pave the way for a higher-resolution iPhone in the future. Read more…

Apple will not return a stolen iPhone to to the original owner after the thief took the phone in to get serviced due to the victim’s failure to file a police report.

After getting her iPhone stolen, one reader relayed to Consumerist the tale of her failed attempts to try to get it back from AT&T and Apple. The crime happened on the subway in New York city, after which the victim promptly called the police who searched the area to no avail.

Several weeks later the victim received an email from Apple notifying her that someone had filed a request to replace her broken phone through Apple Care. Read more…

FOXNews.com claims to have received confirmation from a “source inside Apple” that the company will in fact be holding a media event on January 26th in San Francisco. According to the source, the “big” event will focus on the “mobility space”, suggesting an iPhone, iPod touch, or, as many people expect, tablet announcement.

Following a Financial Times report that Apple has scheduled a special media event for January 26th in San Francisco, I’ve spoken to a source inside Apple who confirmed a “big” event for January.
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DigiTimes reports that OmniVision Technologies has secured orders from Apple for 5-megapixel camera sensors destined for the next-generation iPhone. Sources report that the OmniVision is expected to supply Apple with 40-45 million sensors in 2010 for the new iPhone, reportedly set to launch in the second half of the year.

OmniVision Technologies is expected to see CMOS image sensor (CIS) orders for Apple’s iPhone devices grow to 40-45 million units in 2010 from 20-21 million estimated this year, according to industry sources. The sources said OmniVision has secured 5-megapixel CIS orders for the next-generation iPhone model, which will hit shelves sometime during the second half of 2010. Read more…

Further fueling a whirlwind of tablet-related speculation Wednesday, some app developers have reportedly been told by Apple to prepare new versions of their software for a “full screen resolution” demo next month.

“Apple is preparing to show off a new, larger mobile device with a higher resolution display in January — probably a version of the Apple tablet we’ve been hearing about for months — according to a plugged-in source in the mobile industry,” Silicon Alley Insider reported Wednesday.
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TUAW loves our iPhones and we love our NES games. We’ve been convinced for some time now they are two great tastes that would no doubt taste great together. Tonight I settled in to write a post about how exciting it was that you could play old school public-domain and freeware Nintendo games on your iPhone now, thanks to Jonathan Zdziarski and Nescaline, the app he built to do just that. Ah, Kid Icarus and Ninja Gaiden and Zelda and Mario, all my old friends back again (if I had legal licenses to the ROM images, of course). I was excited to relive my pixelated past, but it was not to be. Jason updated his site this evening saying Nescaline had been pulled: Read more…