Was it a slip of the tongue? ZDNet.de reports that Intel Germany CEO Hannes Schwaderer, speaking at an Intel 40th anniversary event at Munich's BMW World, confirmed that there is an iPhone that will be using Intel's new Atom processor. The new device is "slightly larger" than the current iPhone, raising speculation that this new member of the iPhone family may be the long-rumored Apple mini-tablet with a 720 x 480 display.

Schwaderer also mentioned that an upgraded version of the current iPhone with the same form factor would be a 3G model. With iPhones out of stock in the US and UK, and Steve Jobs scheduled to give the keynote at WWDC 08, new iPhones and the mini-tablet might be right around the corner.

What do YOU think about Herr Schwaderer's comments and the rumored mini-tablet? Take our poll! A big thank-you hug to Erica Sadun for the poll answers!



Update: If you had "Intel disavows knowledge of future iPhone products" for $200, you win.

[via ZDNet.de, MacRumors]

Obama and Lindsay Lohan are far from the only people rocking the iPhone lately -- a new site called "Coolspotters" claims to track brands and the celebrities that use them, and the iPhone is pretty cool lately. 32 celebrities have been spotted -- everyone from Mike Tyson to Heidi Klum to Rose McGowan (pictured, though that really could be anyone, couldn't it?). In fact, the Apple iPhone is actually the most popular product on the site right now -- one spot above something called the Omnipeace t-shirt (yes, but does it have a multitouch screen?), and two spots above the MacBook Air.

Because everyone knows you need a site to tell you that what you own is cool, right? Of course, they are cheating a little bit -- I don't think the fact that Steve Jobs is using something necessarily makes it cool. Otherwise, we'd all have seen celebs toting around Newtons.

Still, if seeing celebs use the same product you have is your thing, the iPhone's got you covered there, too. Can't say it influenced my purchase much, but good to see that the rich and famous are catching on to what's been TUAW's favorite tech-cessory for a while.

[via Kottke]

While the Inuit people of Alaska and Canada probably don't have more than a dozen words for snow (rather than the hundreds attributed to their language), it seems to me that we're well into the century mark for different ways of saying "the iPhone 3G is right around the corner." Today's example of iPhonius FirstGenerationic Obsoletum comes from Boy Genius Report, which reprints an urgent email to AT&T Retail staffers: no more than 1 iPhone per customer, please.

If availability constraints around the globe, the reappearance of refurb devices and the steady drumbeat of rumors wasn't enough for you, well, here you go. Those who were planning to pick up a bushelful of iPhones at firesale prices will now have to go in disguise.

We love you anonymous tipster! Thanks for letting us know about these insanely good iPhone refurb deals direct from AT&T. I bought one of these up last time round. This time, you can pick up a 16 GB iPhone for just $349 or an 8GB for only $249. Free shipping and a full one year warranty (Be sure to check out our previous post about checking your warranty coverage).

And yes, you can use one of these babies to get yourself set up with that $240/year unlimited data plan I wrote about.

If you don't plan to set up a new account, hacktivation using iLiberty+ or one of those zithings will be required. Caveat hackteur.

This is pretty much genius. Like Albert, I have a bunch of "membership cards" in my wallet -- they're those cards with a barcode or number on them that you get from places like the local grocery store, or some other retailer. They're useful to have around, but they tend to pile up after a while, and pretty soon, your wallet gets to be a brick of barcodes rather than anything you'd actually want to carry around in your pocket. Albert's solution was to scan all of his barcodes into the iPhone, front and back, as an iPhoto album. And lo and behold, just like the paperless boarding passes we posted about a while back, it worked. All of the barcodes were scannable, which means no more countless membership cards -- just a gallery in your iPhone.

We've already heard of barcodes reading both on and off of the iPhone, of course, and we'll hopefully see more of this when the SDK drops in just about a month here (maybe, in the future, someone will write an app to generate barcodes from numbers, so you don't even need to get a clear scan). But even without an external app, this is pretty handy solution to clearing up some of the clutter in your wallet. Obviously, for anything important (driver's license, credit cards), an iPhone scan won't do. But just to get the membership prices down at the Jewel-Osco, scanning wallet cards into an iPhone seems to work just fine. Very nice.

[via Waxy]

Website deviantART has been the source of quite a bit of eye candy for Mac users. Mike from deviantART informs us that they are "huge" fans of Apple products, so it's no surprise that -- as of quite recently -- visiting the site on your iPhone will yield a new, iPhone-friendly browsing experience.

Feel like checking out the latest or most popular work by the deviantART community while you're on the go? Point your iPhone (or iPod touch) to http://www.deviantart.com.

Recently, several of you tipped us on this video of US Senator Barak Obama quickly checking something on his iPhone (it happens around the 1:00 mark). It got us thinking of our favorite celebrity Apple product sightings.

• Back in July of 2006, it was reported that Pope Benedict XVI had received an iPod nano from employees of Vatican Radio. The phrase "To His Holiness, Benedict XVI" was engraved on the back.
• Britain's Queen Elizabeth II purchased an iPod mini back in July of '05.
• U.S. Presidential adviser Karl Rove was seen using his iPhone in August of last year.
• Actress, singer and all-around role model Lindsay Lohan whipped out her iPhone shortly after they were first released in the U.S.

So welcome to the club, Senator! You're in good company. We think.

While there still hasn't been an official announcement from Apple (as of this writing), Fortune has reported that Steve Jobs will don the black shirt and blue jeans to deliver a keynote address on June 9, kicking off WWDC '08.

It's not a surprise, of course, as Steve typically talks during the show. Also expected is the announcement of a 3G iPhone, as well as plans for international distribution, as rumors have been at their usual pre-event levels for a couple of weeks.

If you can't wait for all of the fun to begin, download the Countdown to WWDC Dashboard widget and stare at it obsessively.

I am one of the few people left in the country that owns and uses a rotary-dial telephone. Call me old-fashioned, but I just like the sound of that bell instead of an electronic noise when the phone rings.

Now you can extend part of that experience (at least the labored dialing part) to your iPhone. Minnesota-based CodeMorphic has released RetroPhone, an application that simulates the rotary dial mechanism on the screen of your iPhone.

Their website doesn't have a whole lot of information yet, but you can watch a video of the software in action at the St. Paul Pioneer Press's Your Tech Weblog. Of course, RetroPhone doesn't replicate the satisfying tactile response, but all the joy of spending two hours to dial an international phone number can be entirely yours.

Thanks, Julio.

AT&T has been teasing us with free iPhone wifi. First it was on then it was off, and AT&T didn't seem to be saying anything. Well the New York Times finally got somebody to say something official and apparently the launch of the service was "human error" but AT&T "has long planned to offer free Wi-Fi to customers with iPhones and other phones that have Wi-Fi capability" as a "way of differentiating the AT&T network and giving customers another reason to choose us over a competitor."

The upshot: free iPhone (and other smartphone) wifi is coming from AT&T, but they're not saying when. My guess is that they may roll it out to coincide with the launch of the 3G iPhone.

[via Gizmodo]

You'll have to jailbreak your iPhone using ZiPhone, and the actual steps involved seem fairly involved...but hey, if you're a Linux user, you're probably cool with both fairly involved technical tweaking and voiding warranties.

Go forth, brave adventurer.

Planning some activities out on the town this weekend, or searching for a Mother's Day dining option? The fine folks at Schmap have a treat for you -- they'd like TUAW readers to have the first whack at their new iPhone City Guides and Local Search before the Mobile Safari-optimized site goes into official beta on Monday, May 12.

Point Safari on your iPhone or iPod Touch to www.schmap.com, then enter the pre-launch preview access code: 724627. Once you're in the site, pull up a Schmap Guide for your favorite city for info, maps, and more. Some of the search features aren't wired in yet, but they should be done soon.

Schmap's website has several Flash demos of the features of the Schmap Guides for iPhone. Check it out!

Thanks to Donald at Schmap for the invitation, and Kyle for the tip.

Reader Alex Bratton over at Lextech let us know about a fun iPhone project they're working on. Most high-end surveillance systems use a joystick or mouse to control those cameras that we see all over the place. Lextech has done some work using the touchscreen of the iPhone to replace the old 70's UI tech.

To pan the surveillance camera, you scroll the screen left or right using the traditional iPhone finger drag; tilt is done by dragging a finger up and down. Want to zoom in for details on the bad guys? Use the iPhone "reverse pinch" gesture to get the close-up. And if you want to zoom back out to get the big picture, it's a simple pinch on the iPhone display.

Videos demonstrating the control system are on the Lextech site and on YouTube.

While the UK has been reporting a run on current-model iPhones recently, Gizmodo says that the shortage has reached across the pond to New York City. According to an anonymous staffer at the West 14th street Apple Store, "it's been out of stock all week." And to think, you were only worried about rice and flour.

If you check out the picture on Gizmodo, you'll see a line of about 30 people who are waiting for an iPhone at the West 14th street store. These people will probably be very upset in a month or two.

[Via Cult of Mac]