Most if us are already familiar with the standard mobile phone deal where you sign a two-year subscription with a service provider and you get a nice handset with either a large discount or totally free of cost.

There were some rumors being passed around, however, that Apple's hyped-up iPhone just might carry some different options.

Instead of the usual post-paid service where you rack up bills and get charged at the end of the month, the Pay As You Go and Pick Your Plan options could soon be made available.

The pre-paid Pay As You Go option allows subscribers to purchase credits and use them up as they go without having to worry about exceeding budgets and hidden charges.

The Pick Your Plan option on the other hand, lets users choose their own monthly allowable credit set, where they pay a fixed bill at the end of each 30-day cycle. The only drawback is that the phone of their choice may not come free. As a matter of fact, users will have to pay for the handset's full price.

Click on Full Article to read more on this rumor, plus the source of it all.

It has been suggested before by analysts that Vodafone would be the iPhone's official carrier in Europe, but AppleInsider reports that Vodafone may not be the only European wireless carrier under consideration.

According to AppleInsider, MarketWeek reported last week that Germany-based T-Mobile is being favored as the sole outlet for iPhone sales in the continent. Other European such as O2 and Orange were said to have been in the running but were unsuccessful in reaching the later stages of contract negotiations.

Some analysts suggest though that it might be in Apple's best interests to get more than one operator to distribute the iPhone in Europe because "the European market is more fragmented than the U.S."

Now we're pretty skeptical about the claim, but it appears that a video brewing with "Mr. Notecards" and the almost intelligible mention of "iPhone" and "first" in the same sentence has appeared, so we decided to give it a chance.

Now you may not all remember the notecard shuffler, Stan Stigman, back when Steve Jobs first revealed the Apple iPhone, but he was apparently a 1970 West Texas A&M University graduate and handed over an iPhone to the current WTAMU president, Dr. J. Patrick O'Brien.

What was AT&T's Wireless' CEO doing in WTAMU, you ask? Well, he was marketing "the new Cingular" company, AT&T Wireless, over a commencement exercise for WTAMU's graduates for this year. In conclusion to his speech (which you can't hear very much of in 42 seconds of audio distortion), he gave Dr. O'Brien what appeared to be a phone, mentioning it was the "first ... iPhone in the state of Texas."

Apple's online store iTunes is still lacking one important thing: The Beatles.

As you are all aware, rumors have been going around since time immemorial that the much-loved band will be making its presence felt there. The last one of which was the alleged Valentine's Day gift to fans but it's already May and no "Blackbird" or "Norwegian Wood" made its way to the store.

Anyway, hopes are running high once more as unconfirmed reports state that Paul McCartney's latest album will be available on iTunes as a pre-order next week. Aside from this, the reports added that the Rockstar plans to make his entire back catalog available soon as well.

So what does this has to do with The Beatles aside from the obvious fact that McCartney belonged to that group? Back in April, computer company Apple Corporation and British music label Apple Inc. had already come to terms regarding the use of trademarks whenever necessary.

The settlement stated that the Cupertino-based company can now use the word "Apple" on its products and iconography. Likewise, the music label company is now allowing Apple Corporation to use digitalized content.

Some new speculation over at Think Secret has pegged a possible MacBook Pro update for next month. The update is rumored to about the new LED-backlit 15-inch displays and could come within days of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' keynote during the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 11.

According to Think Secret, their sources tell them that Apple's order for the displays called on a delivery schedule of mid May. Based on the standard schedule that the company has used in the past, there will be a three to four week window for manufacturing and shipping.

The final date would coincide with Jobs' keynote address on June 11 in San Francisco. Says Think Secret, that's where Apple is likely to announce a new MacBook Pro using a LED backlight display. Think Secret also says that according to the same sources, Apple will be targetting a Q3 rollout of their low-end 13.3-inch laptops.

Intel's Centrino Pro (codename Santa Rosa) has just been released yesterday and already, companies Lenovo and LG, as well as other lesser known PC vendors, have laptop offerings carrying the fourth-generation Centrino platform.

Apple consumers are now wondering when they will see this technology in their MacBooks. Gadget site Gizmodo reports that one of its chain partner revealed that a new model of MacBook is coming out next week.

It is believed that Apple will eventually shift to Centrino Pro as well but we wonder if that they will be able to do so in seven days. It should be remembered that it took them three months after Core 2 Duo was released to shift platforms.

As you know, Apple will be holding its annual conference - WWDC - this June and if they are indeed making the shift, it is highly possible that they will announce it during the said event. After all, the initial shift to Intel was announced in WWDC 2006. Apple will change platforms, there's no question about that. The only vague thing here is when.

Just so you know, Santa Rosa Centrino Pro features an updated mobile Core 2 Duo microprocessor. The Front Side Bus speed of the chipset has been increased to 800 MHz but it can also be altered to save power.

According to Mac News Network, Apple's recent patent application clued in a couple of images detailing the Mac OS X Dashboard and its ability to be manipulated in a 3D fashion. In addition to being able to flip the Dashboard to reveal several other faces of multiple Dashboards, each new face will sport different assortments of widgets as defined by the user of the system.

While it's a novel idea, the concept looks just as similar to Beryl, a breath-taking interface modification for users of supported flavors of Linux. In a similar fashion, Beryl allows Linux users to flip their entire desktop to reveal other different faces of the cube, and each new face also sports a different assortment of windows as set by the user.

Mere "coinkidink"? We'd like to say yes, but then the Apple patent doesn't rip off the concept of "Vista-killer" desktop interface to level against Microsoft's Aero interface. You can hop to the article in MacNN through the "Read" link below, but before you do, check out a demo of just what Beryl does and judge for yourself. Thanks to w00styl3 for the video.

An internal email addressed to AT&T employees notes that the company encourages its staff to schedule their vacations before June 15 and after July 15. This is to ensure that during the said time period they are properly staffed to take advantage of what could be their "biggest selling period" in a few years.

While we all know that Apple's iPhone is set to debut this June, at least now we have hints at a more specific window for the handheld's release.

While Apple has noted that the iPhone is on track to see a late June release and this email gives us a narrower window, others have even gone as far as to speculate that the handheld will indeed be launched on the 15th itself.

Let us know what you think of this after you check out that alleged "AT&T employee email" that's currently circulating the Internet.

To:              All Company Owned Retail Employees
From:          [Name removed]
Subject:      iPhone Launch Period
Date:          May 4, 2007

As previously announced, Apple and AT&T will soon debut the iPhone,
which combines a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and
breakthrough internet communications into one small and lightweight
handheld device.  The new AT&T has a multiyear, exclusive agreement to
provide U.S. service for the iPhone.

To ensure proper staffing during the product launch period, Sales personnel
planning to take approved time off are encouraged to schedule their
vacations before June 15 or after July 15 to participate in the iPhone
launch.

Previously approved vacation will be allowed where voluntary rescheduling
is not feasible

No additional vacation requests will be approved during the launch period
(6/15 Â? 7/15).

I want to thank you in advance for your understanding as this is likely to
be the biggest selling period we have seen in a few years.

Happy Selling,

[Name removed]

 

Mobile Guerrilla recently found a couple of images on Flickr by way of Google. These images were supposedly taken with the Apple iPhone. The product is still yet to be released by the Apple Corporation, so these must either have been taken by an Apple employee or they could be downright fake. Anyway, these are the supposed specifics of the shot:

Camera: Apple iPhone
Aperture: f/2.8
Orientation: Rotated 90 degrees clockwise
Date and Time: 2007:04:21 10:23:45
Color Space: sRGB
Tag::EXIF::0xA500: 11/5
Compression: JPEG
Image Width: 1600 pixels
Image Height: 1200 pixels

Considering that the Apple iPhone should only have a 2mp cam, the first shot looks good. The second one is pretty bad. Makes us wonder if they were taken with the same camera. If there's any truth at all about these shots being from the iPhone, we hope the first shot shows its true capability.

 

According to MacRumors, Apple is building a stand-alone iWeb Pro application that will fit snug into the iLife software suite to enable small and medium enterprises to publish web content with ease.

For starters, the rumored product is a supposedly higher-end version of its predecessor. One can speculate that if it's integrated in iLife, it should be able to give users an easier time with multimedia content.

The details on the iWeb Pro buzz are still scarce. Will it be revealed in time for the Leopard's release? What new features does it carry? For now, we can only speculate. We'll give you a heads-up as soon as new word is forthcoming.