A few months back, we mentioned that The Beatles' songs are close to making their way on Apple iTunes. Fast forward to the present and there are still no Beatles tunes in iTunes, but since the iPhone has already been revealed and some people are running low on Apple rumors, the Beatles-iTunes deal is once revived.

This new rendition of the Beatles-iTunes rumor says that Beatles songs are going to be available in iTunes as soon as February 14, Valentine's Day of this year. Citing "unnamed sources", a popular Beatles fan website reports that it is most likely that the group's latest album, Love, will be made available through iTunes.

Hmmm, perhaps Steve Jobs playing "Lovely Rita" while introducing the iPhone also added fire to this speculation. Oh well, we guess we'll know if this is true come Valentine's Day.

Regardless of  the lawsuits and what the critics and analysts said, a lot of people we're thrilled when Steve Jobs finally took the wraps off from the Apple iPhone. Well-off consumers are not the only ones who are happy about this development, the $1 billion accessories market also embraces this as good news as the iPhone poses a new opportunity and challenge for them.

Even if Apple carry its own line of cases and other accessories, no one can deny that the third party accessory makers are basking in financial success thanks to the success of Apple products, specifically the iPod. Now, they are ready to work and earn their paycheck with iPhone accessories. Andrew Green, VP for marketing and design of Digital Lifestyle Outfitters said that the iPhone and its specs are  the "the worst kept secrets in the industry," and as a result, most had already begun working out design and development ideas way before it was unveiled.

Scott Huskinson, CEO of iFrogz, another iPod case maker mentioned that when it comes to making and developing accessories for the iPhone they "are not privy to the specs...But the rumors were out there about the touch screen and bigger display. The important thing is to get the specs right."

Indeed, third part accessory makers are watching Apple's every move.

While technophiles the world over got worked up and hyperventilated at Steve Jobs' announcement of the iPhone, the Japanese simply looked up a while from their keitai, then went on with their business. And the reason for this? The fact that the iPhone has nothing new to offer to them.

While Jobs boasts of the iPhones new interface, the Japanese are finding it hard to believe that it is a "revolutionary product" that will "change everything". Apple also notes that the iPhone can be used to download music and surf the internet, as well as support one-way conferencing in the future. Over at Japan, the whole population have already been doing all this for years. On top of that, most phones can support five-way video conferencing, and their mobiles can also be used to buy train tickets, pay for taxi rides, design a webpage, update a blog, pay for puchases at the convenience store, book hotel reservations, watch a movie or the latest baseball game, use GPS, get exclusive content by scanning a barcode on the seats at the baseball stadium, and an entire plethora of other features and uses which Apple still seems to be clueless about (they should probably start off by checking out Strap-Ya, or something).

All this can again be attributed to one main attribute that Apple is missing, and that would be 3G technology. At the moment, the iPhone is still on a second-generation network.

So, when Japanese retailers were told about the amazing, new iPhone and its features, one shopkeeper merely laughed and said, "Sounds like business as usual".

So, after an entire year of waiting, speculating, theorizing, and guessing, Apple then unveils the much-awaited iPhone (though they might want to consider a name change soon, with Cisco breathing down their necks. iCell doesn't sound so bad...).

So with that entire year in mind, Gizmodo has compiled a gallery which showcases the number of iPhone renditions which were done by people who hoped that the then-mysterious product would look the way that they envisioned it. After all, sparks went flying when we first saw it on the back of a magazine in March 2006, and then the deluge started.

So how close was everyone's guess to the actual product? See for yourself.

View the rest of the non-iPhones after the Jump!

We really don't want to start a flame war, but offending comments like this is just too news-y to pass up. Time has a report on the launch of the Apple's iPhone, and within that lengthy report is this paragraph:

To witness the iPhone launch from behind the curtain (or under the towel) is to see the controlling hand of Steve Jobs, for whom this is an almost mystically significant year. He's 50 years old. It's been 30 years since he founded Apple (with Stephen Wozniak), and 10 since he returned there after having been fired. In that decade Apple's stock has gone up 1,000%. Neither age nor success (nor cancer surgery in 2004) have significantly mellowed him, though some of the silver in his beard is creeping into his hair. All technologists believe their products are better than other people's, or at least they say they do, but Jobs believes it a little more than most. In the hours we spent talking about the iPhone, Jobs trash-talked the Treo, the BlackJack, the Sony PSP and the Sony Mylo ("just garbage compared to this"), Windows Vista ("It's just a copy of an old version of Mac OSX") and of course MicrosoftÂ?s would-be iPod killer, Zune.

The PSP and the Sony Mylo, garbage compared to the iPhone? To be fair, the Mylo might, and we stress, might, deserve a comparison with the iPhone since they're both in the same category of tech products. But to compare the iPhone to the PSP? Really now.

What? Are there supposed to be games of PS1 or higher quality set to be released for the iPhone? Will it be rigged to play DS games?

The iPhone is a very pretty and very savvy multi-functional handheld device that can be used as a phone. (Yes, we want one ourselves.) The PSP is a very pretty and very savvy multi-functional handheld device that can be used (or is primarily used) to play games, or given the homebrew community, used for a whole lot of things.

Garbage? Someone's being a bit too hasty, or a bit too boastful.

After an entire months-long game of hopscotch, peek-a-boo, and "What Will Jobs Do Next", Apple finally reveals the... iPhone. Steve, you can be quite the stubborn cookie - we shall now have to differentiate between the Apple iPhone and the Linksys iPhone. Anyway, what's probably interesting about the iPhone is not what it has out of the box, but what it DOESN'T have, for a phone that costs as much as a PS3 - 20GB and 60GB.

Let's keep it short: no 3G. As a cellphone, that could potentially be crippling to the iPhone (especially when Steve wants 10 million on the streets by next year). And if he tries to sell the phone to Japan - that country is true-blue (or blood-red) 3G country - it's going to be murder, so we're thinking that Apple might want to keep this as a North American release for now.

Still, the global (let alone NA) cellular industry isn't Apple turf - the iPhone is not going up against late entrants and also-rans (e.g., Zune), but against the monoliths of the cellphone industry: Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola. Steve Jobs says that the iPhone is five years ahead of any other mobile phone. Well, not in the 3G department, most definitely.

But we're not going to simply surrender to the belief that Steve Jobs' fair-haired boys didn't think of this when they drew up the iPhone's specs. They could always market it as a luxury product (at that price, it better well be). But for a company that has made its mark as a mass market trend-setter (even given the price of the 5G iPod), that could be a bit odd.

But we still think that the iPhone is, as our gaming cousins in the QJ network put it, FTW!!! 1st post W00t!!!. Find out why after the jump.

Okay, so there's a new iPod in town. It's big, it's bad, and it can call your girlfriend and whisper sweet nothings into her ear, so I'd worry if I were you. Kidding. This writer has argued that the new iPhone might actually be the newest generation of the iPod - I mean, God, the touchscreen, the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the web browsing, and yeah, it calls your girlfriend, too. It might as well be the sicth, or seventh, or somethingth-generation iPod in the near future.

Permit me to raise my hand and ask the obvious question, then: What now of the current iPod lineup?

It was only last year that Apple unveiled the latest iPods (+ Nano and Shuffle), now with video capabilities, aluminum shells (Nano), and small enough to become a really weird earring. Or clip your homework with (Shuffle). Then again, they've been upgrading iPods like Nintendo upgrades Game Boys, the iPhone wouldn't be too out of pattern. Although coming in at a hefty US$ 600, which does limit the number of early adopters, and with less memory (8GB max), features-wise the iPhone just blew away its entertainment-centric cousins. Talk about paling in comparison.

No, the iPhone won't spell the end of the iPod as we know it, if only for costing as much as a 60GB PS3, plus only having 8GB max memory. But if the price drops - and knowing Apple's history with its gadgets, and if memory storage can be improved, oh boy will they drop and become more tempting?

This depends on two things - how Apple markets the iPhone now and in the coming months, and how quickly the market will be willing to trade in their cellphones AND iPods for an iPhone. Still, none of our potential scenarios predict the end of the iPod as we know it. But they all do point to a change in how Apple markets the iPod.

Consider the iPhone the newest, and most certainly, high-end iPod, a position previously (or currently, depending on how you look at the iPhone) held by the video-capable iPod. We're betting that once Apple's got a good flow of iPhones moving down the assembly line and in the street, future pricing will be scaled to the iPod lineup (with extra charges, since it does have a cellphone built inside). This means that when the iPhone's price drops, the prices of the other iPods may drop as well. The current gen may become the mass-market iPod of the future at this rate.

Okay, a $ 600 iPod that calls my oft-neglected girlfriend. Suddenly, the idea of a stand-alone iPod sounds... more romantically safe. More after the jump.

All this talk about next-gen consoles has us looking at the other side of the spectrum of home entertainment. This generation's next-generation of digital media players, the "iTV," has been clouded with many rumors recently. Lo and behold, Steve Jobs pulls yet another, well, Steve-Jobs-job on us.

Surprise, surprise. As announced in the MacWorld Expo, the Apple TV is now available for pre-ordering. Shipping starts this February, so you better make sure your living room is prepared for the invasion of the iTunes-to-TV player. Here's the long and short of what you can expect for the US$ 299 price tag:

• Mac + PC support
  
• Wi-Fi 802.11 wireless connectivity
  
• 40GB hard drive for up to 50 hours video
• Apple Remote included

This device allows you to play any media content - music, podcasts, movies, TV shows, etc. - stored in your computer onto your widescreen TV. Every time you update your iTunes with new content, Apple TV automatically updates itself. An easy-to-navigate menu is incorporated into the device to allow easy browsing and streaming of media files with the Apple Remote.

From the man, Steve Jobs, himself:

Apple TV is like a DVD player for the 21st century -- you connect it to your entertainment system just like a DVD player, but it plays digital content you get from the Internet rather than DVDs you get from a physical store. Apple TV plays the same iTunes content that users enjoy on their computers and iPods, so now they can even watch part of a movie in their living room, and watch the rest later on their iPod.

You can place your orders and learn more about the Apple TV in the official Apple website found behind the "Read" link below.

With all the speculation going about as to "What will Steve Jobs do next (in MacWorld 2007)?", it's a wonder the organizers don't move it from San Francisco to Las Vegas. Not only would it make a good pool for bookies, we could probably recoup some of our budget after blowing the iPhone naming bet.

Mac Rumors specializes in Mac rumors (well... doi), and with MacWorld 2007 just around the corner, they wanted to run up the final running pool of all the Apple-related rumors having to do with new product showcases that could potentially be announced or detailed in an event like MacWorld. All these rumors should sound so familiar to you guys by now, so we'll just provide a list format, a quick summary of Mac Rumor's thoughts, and then our own quick thoughts as well.

• What used to be the iPhone: possibly an announcement, but the more credible rumors suggest that there WON'T be a launch at MacWorld (Probably a new name, though, we think). Fair enough, we say. When it was first announced, same thing with the...

• iTV: more details expected. We think even a potential launch/availability date.

• Mac Pro: is there a potential eight-core Mac Pro coming out sometime in 2007? One rumor suggested one should have launched back in November, but this did not come to pass. Another report suggests a January release. Hey, we know there are quad-core chips quickly coming into the manufacturing stream, so there's nothing stopping Apple from making at least a quad Mac. Mac Rumor's thinking the same thing, citing the pending availability of a 2.0Ghz quad-core chip at US$ 690/chip.

• OS X Leopard: yet another demo preview of Leopard, but no exact dates for final release, let alone in MacWorld. Hey, they're just getting into the groove of Bug Month right now...

• New iPod models? If it's not the iPhone (oops, used to be), it's the full-screen Video iPod. Mac Rumor's latest resources say "early 2007" release. If that's true enough, we think MacWorld 2007 would be a perfect venue to show a demo of the device. And if it's not... well, how many iPods does it take to float an Apple?
  

Hmm... strange Mac Rumors hasn't mentioned the MacBook Thin. Then again, it would have been swamped by the used-to-be-iPhone alone, worse if an eight-core and iTV were included.

We don't know if it is just us, but have you notice how things get loud for a product whenever they're about to get launched or something? Rumors, for all we know, could be a marketing strategy employed by companies to keep people talking about their upcoming product.

Take the iPhone for example. Wasn't it just yesterday when we reported a rumor about its launch date? Today, we found another rumor and we hope you are all ears. For this could be a preview after all. According to Rebecca F. Runkle, analyst from Morgan Stanley, she's banking that the iPhone will be released soon. She mentioned, "We expect Steve Jobs to announce the iPhone at MacWorld or early next year."

Runkle then got bolder when she mentioned specifics about iPhone. Without citing any sources, these are the numbers provided by the analyst:

• iPhone will cost US$ 599 for a 4GB model and US$ 649 for an 8GB model
• iPhone will be wider than iPod Nano and thinner than the Video
• iPhone comes with 3.5 inch LCD screen
• iPhone will be made out of metal and will be available in multiple colors (black, white, silver, etc.)
• Cingular Wireless will be its carrier in the U.S.

What do you think of Runkle's "analysis?" Sounds good enough? Oh well, we're pretty much banking we will all know about the iPhone if and when Steve Jobs make the official announcement this coming expo. Until then, we'll just post this one under rumors...