iLounge

Apple has issued cease-and-desist letters to 11 UK online retailers selling iPods imported from outside the country. According to a Channel Register report, the retailers were buying iPods in the US for less than they would pay in the UK, and then reselling them back in their own country. Apple has requested that the retailers stop selling the grey market iPods and provide details of the state-side suppliers that sold them.

Colorware has launched its new “Stealth" matte black iPhone coloring option. The Stealth color option (pictured) is available only on new units ordered through Colorware, and includes the new matte black finish on the back, logo, frame, home button, dock, and earbuds. The Colorware Stealth iPhone is available now and sells for $675 (8GB) and $775 (16GB).

According to a Commercial Times report, Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (also known as Foxconn) has been instructed by Apple to begin preparing material supplies for the 3G iPhone by the end of May. Citing sources at foreign institutional investors, the paper says that shipments of the 3G iPhone are expected to top 3 million units in June alone, and will likely reach a total of 24-25 million units by the end of the product’s life cycle. A previous report indicated Hon Hai had been awarded an exclusive contract to build a more advanced iPhone; the company is currently the sole manufacturer of the first-generation iPhone.

A member of the Handbrake forums has released Muxo, a utility for Mac OS X that allows users to add soft subtitles to mp4 files. Soft subtitles, which are supported on both the iPhone and iPod touch, can be turned on and off, instead of being hard-encoded into the video. The tool is currently in the early stages of development (the latest version is 0.3.3), and it requires a valid SRT file. More information can be found in this forum thread; Muxo is available as a free download from this link. [via TUAW]

The Chicago Tribune’s RedEye is expressing concern over buying iPhone accessories before the launch of the 3G model, expected later this year. “I can’t buy those headphones because I have no way of being 100 percent sure that the plug will fit into the next iPhone,” RedEye’s Scott Kleinberg writes. “And this problem isn’t just with these headphones, of course. I can’t see myself purchasing an iPod speaker or any special kind of dock. The pin connector at the bottom could change drastically between now and the 3G iPhone launch.”

An illustration found in a newly-published Apple patent filing covering the handling of “Structured Electronic Documents” on a portable device - websites, in other words - shows a “Share” feature of the Safari browser yet to appear in any iPhone software release. The feature, which is shown as accessed via a button labeled “Share” appearing in the upper-left corner of the screen when entering a URL, would allow users to send a link to the URL via email or SMS, or email the content of the page. It is unknown whether this feature will appear in a future release of the iPhone software, however, the features appear to have been dropped for practicality reasons, and Share transformed into “+” for the current-generation iPhone software. [via MacNN]

Given the iPod’s decelerating sales growth, New York Times editor Saul Hansell has written an article explaining how Apple is preparing for an iPod slump. Hansell first points to the continuing stream of revenue generated by current iPod owners in the form of music and accessories — a category which brought in $881 million for the company last quarter. This, Hansell believes, combined with the transition of the iPod from a media player into a pocketable computer like the iPod touch, along with strong iPhone and Mac sales, will help Apple overcome any decline in iPod sales it would otherwise face.

Shaw Wu, analyst with American Technology Research, recently told Fortune that the average iPhone user consumes a considerably greater amount of data bandwidth than the typical cellular device user, to the extent that it could affect Apple’s dealings with carriers. “Our sources indicate that the success of iPhone with its Safari web browser is putting strain on AT&T’s EDGE network in areas with higher user density. We have been told that iPhone users are consuming ‘well over’ 100 MB per month (compared to Blackberry around 10 MB,” Wu said. The analyst suggests that carriers will offer fewer incentives to potential iPhone customers because of the additional data burdens they place on the networks.

Apple will report its results for the second fiscal quarter 2008 later this afternoon, and will also offer a webcast of the conference call discussing the results that will begin at 5pm EDT.

A number of fifth-generation iPod users are reporting playback problems with some recently-released TV episodes from the iTunes Store. According to several users in a lengthy Apple Support discussion thread, the offending episodes transfer to other iPods correctly, and can be played in iTunes and on other video-capable Apple products, but not on fifth-generation iPod models. [via AppleInsider]

Sony Corporation of America has announced its acquisition of Gracenote, Inc. for approximately $260 million. Gracenote, formerly known as CDDB, powers iTunes’ “Get CD Track Names” feature, and also provides services to Yahoo! Music jukebox, Winamp, and products from Alpine, Panasonic, Sony, and others.

Apple has confirmed an agreement to purchase microprocessor design firm P.A. Semi. The 150-person company is known for its design of sophisticated, low-power chips, and is said to have been purchased for around $278 million in cash. Though there has been speculation that the acquisition is intended to provide a new iPhone processor, and the company’s patent and design portfolios may eventually aid in pocket-sized products, P.A. Semi’s past work has focused on chips best suited to laptops. Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told Forbes, “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not comment on our purposes and plans.”

Apple has received a patent covering messaging on portable touchscreen devices (such as the iPhone), which goes beyond SMS to cover web-based instant messaging as well. Published in March, the patent is titled “portable device for instant messaging” and includes images depicting a user interface much like that of the iPhone’s SMS application, with patent claims covering the device’s unique ability to use a contacts database to group together all messages from one person, regardless of the phone number or electronic addresses he issending the messages from.

A new Apple store-within-a-store has been unveiled at a Shanghai area Best Buy. The store-in-store, Apple’s first in mainland China, was awarded to the Xuhui Best Buy due to that location being the leading retailer of Apple products in China in 2007. According to reports, the store-within-a-store occupies a total area of about 50 sq. meters, and displays more than 60 different Apple computers, devices, and accessories.

Programming from ITV has been added to the iTunes Store in the UK. Currently available programs include ”Lewis," ”Brideshead Revisited,” ”Captain Scarlet,” ”Goodnight Mr. Tom,” ”Cold Feet,” and ”The Saint.” The Store’s ITV page also suggests that more shows will be added “soon.” [via Macworld UK]

Apple has begun aggressively pursuing iPhone clone dealers, according to a TG Daily report. Simon Rimmer, managing director of UK reseller Digital Playground, said that Apple’s legal team sent it a letter threatening legal action. Apple said Digital Playground had infringed on its designs by importing, marketing, and offering cloned iPhones which gave “the same overall impression as Apple’s registered design.” Rimmer settled with Apple out of court; as a result of the agreement he must stop selling iPhone clones, send Apple his remaining stock, reveal how many he imported, offered, and sold, as well as revealing his supplier.

Faced with pressure from several Canadian gay/lesbian rights organizations including Stop Murder Music, iTunes has pulled select songs, and in some cases entire albums, from certain artists whose lyrics were said to be homophobic. “Boom Bye Bye” by Buju Banton, as well as other selections from artists T.O.K. and Elephant Man have been removed from the iTunes Store. Akim Larcher, founder of Canada-based Stop Murder Music, said “this is an historic victory for the LGBT community here in Canada and in the Caribbean. iTunes is exercising its corporate responsibility by pulling this murder music and raising the bar for other retailers and distributors to do the same.” [via Broward-Palm Beach New Times]

Apple may launch the iPhone in India this year, according to a new report. The Business Standard, citing “Apple sources,” says the 8GB model will appear on the market first, with Vodafone as the carrier. “The carrier deal for India is being worked out with Vodafone,” said the source, adding: “Vodafone could also become the carrier for the Australian market once iPhone is launched there, though more than one carrier is likely for Australia.” The report states that the 16GB model’s launch may be staggered to the middle of 2009, “based on buyer response.”

Despite the recent, limited-time price reduction on the 8GB iPhone by O2 in the UK, the company claims it has no plans of extending the discount to customers in Ireland. “At present, we have no plans to introduce a similar promotional offer,” said the company. “However, as with all our products and services, we will continue to review our pricing strategy for the iPhone on an ongoing basis.”

There are 34,200 active iPhones operating in Switzerland (subscription req.), according to a report from Swiss newspaper Heute. Citing spokespersons from Swiss carriers Orange Switzerland, Sunrise, and Swisscom, the paper reports that the number of active iPhones on Swisscom grew from 13,000 in March to 20,000 in April, with Orange reporting 9,500 active phones, and Sunrise claiming 4,700 active devices. Apple has yet to announce a carrier and release date for the iPhone in Switzerland.

A Radio Shack flier circulated this weekend featured an image of a jailbroken iPod touch. The picture shows both the Installer.app and MobileChat (an instant messaging application) icons, programs that are found only on jailbroken units.

Scientists from IBM have announced a new storage technology called “racetrack,” which would enable a device such as an iPod to hold about half a million songs, or 3,500 films, and cost less to produce. In addition, the new technology, which uses the “spin” of an electron to store data, would require much less power, running on a single charge for “weeks at a time,” and would last for decades. According to IBM, the technology is still in the “exploratory” stage; it expects products based on the technology to be available within ten years.

TouchBrowser, a new Windows Mobile application from Makayama Software, aims to bring an iPhone-like browsing experience to Pocket Internet Explorer. The application allows users to scroll through a web page using only their finger, introduces finger-friendly keyboards for entering URLs and searches, and more. TouchBrowser is available now for $15; a video demo can be seen here.

Apple plans to expand the iPhone’s language support, based on new files found in the latest version of the iPhone 2.0 beta firmware (5A240d). In addition to pre-existing languages including French, Russian, English, Italian, and German, the new firmware introduces support for Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Polish, Korean, and Portuguese.

A recently-published Apple patent application suggests that the company has done extensive research into becoming a mobile virtual network operator, allowing iPhone users to deal exclusively with Apple for mobile services and billing. The patent, called ”Dynamic Carrier selection” and filed on Oct. 10 2006, covers a system that would allow the iPhone to use whichever carrier’s service was available in the current location, automatically switching to networks offering cheaper bulk rates to Apple.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch has posted an article detailing an iPhone-based social networking application being developed by a currently-unnamed startup. The native application would allow for proximity-based profile browsing and networking, letting iPhone users see other iPhone owners nearby, as well as their profiles, possibly facilitating face-to-face interaction. The developers also claim to have found a work-around for the fact that third-party iPhone applications can’t run in the background. Arrington says to look for a launch “when the iPhone app store opens this summer.” [via MDN]

According to new research from In-Stat, the group expects digital music sales to account for 40 percent of all music purchased worldwide by 2012. The research shows that digital music sales represented 10 percent of the total worldwide music market in 2007, up from six percent in 2006.

New research released by analyst group Piper Jaffray suggests that twice as many teens now own iPhones than in the fall. The survey of nearly 400 teenagers found about six percent were iPhone owners, with another nine percent planning to purchase one in the next sixth months. The survey also found overall use of MP3 players at a record 87 percent, with 86 percent of MP3 player owners saying they have at least one iPod.

A video posted to YouTube over the weekend showing two iPod touch units playing Quake 3 has been revealed as the work of independent video game developer HermitWorks. According to the developers, the game was ported to the platform as a “first step to getting our game Space Trader running on the iPod.” The company is currently using jailbroken units for development, but says it would “love to have [Space Trader] by June” for release through Apple’s App Store.

SpeakerCraft has announced the release of a new iPhone/iPod touch interface for its MODE multi-room A/V control system. The interface, which is generated by an embedded web server running on the company’s ERS 1.0 adapter, allows the devices to be used as a wireless remote with control of all sources and routing. “The connection is very easy to set up and there is little or no additional programming required by the installer,” says Jason Craze, SpeakerCraft’s Director of Engineering. “A person can literally walk through their front door, press a single virtual button on the iPhone touch screen and have access to all of their system’s control functions.”

Play Touch Games is a new site offering different web-based games for the iPhone and iPod touch. The games are free to play, and can be accessed by visiting playtouchgames.com from an iPhone or iPod touch. 

U.S. iPhone carrier AT&T this week announced plans to change the way it handles early termination fees for users on one- or two-year contracts. Under the new plan, which takes effect May 25, the fee will be lowered by $5 for each month, every month, for the life of the contract.

The average iPhone users spends less than half their time using their device for actual phone calls, according to the latest survey from iSuppli. Owners of competing products, such as the Nokia N92 and the RIM BlackBerry use their phones for voice communications 71.7 percent of the time, the survey says, compared with just 46.5 percent of the time for iPhone owners. “This usage pattern shows Apple has succeeded in producing a true convergence product that consumers like to use for multiple purposes,” said Greg Sheppard, chief development officer for iSuppli. “Apple has come as close as anyone to achieving a balanced convergence in mobile-handset features and usage.”

MySpace has officially announced MySpace Music, a new online music venture formed with three of the four major recording companies. The service, in which Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group all have minority stakes, will offer free music and video streaming supported by advertising, paid-for MP3 downloads, ringtones for cell phones, concert ticket sales and merchandise.

To celebrate his 100th England Cap, well-known footballer David Beckham was given a custom-engraved, gold-backed 32GB iPod touch by his teammates. The £600 (around $1200) iPod is engraved with the team’s crest, along with his name, and a small message commemorating the achievement.

3D game development tool provider Unity Technologies has announced the company will support game development for the iPhone. “With iPhone support, Unity is poised to become the single source for game developers who want to create best-of-breed, 3D-quality games that can be easily and quickly ported to all platforms, including consoles, devices, PC/Mac, and now, the iPhone,” said David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies. The company has also created a beta program for iPhone developers that will “provide hands-on support to drive 3D content creation and deployment of mobile games.”

The IAAF Road Running Commission, the world’s governing body for marathons, is considering a ban on iPods during competition, citing insurance and safety concerns. USA Track & Field, the sport’s state-side governing body, has already issued a similar ban; however, David Bedford, the race director of the London Marathon who also sits on the commission, said “It’s a rule that will not be picked up in this country. It is completely unenforceable.”

A new survey conducted by online magazine brandchannel.com found the Apple brand topping several lists. The iPod maker was the top response out of people asked “Which brand inspires you the most,” “What brand can you not live without,” “What brand is most likely to revolutionize the branding industry in the next five years,” and other similar questions. The survey was conducted among nearly 2000 brandchannel readers in 107 different countries, 74 percent of which work in the marketing industry. [via Scientific American]

Apple has filed for trademark protection for “iPhone” in Canada through the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. The filing, #1377036, was formalized on December 28, 2007.

According to a new study, despite the fact that a majority of teens realize the dangers listening to loud music pose to their hearing, most see no reason to listen to their music at a lower volume. Lead researcher Ineke Vogel said in an interview, “we strongly recommend parents to inform their children and to discuss with their children the use of MP3 players and the potential long- term, irreversible consequences for hearing capacity.” [via Engadget]

Two Apple Retail employees have been arrested after stealing 332 iPhones from the store to resell for their own profit. The pair are being charged with felony theft, with the hardware they stole being worth approximately $132,468.

Tunewear is offering iLounge readers a 20% discount on anything on its website from now until April 12, 2008. To receive the discount, enter the code “iLoungespring” on the Shopping Cart page. Griffin Technology is offering refurbished Evolve wireless speakers for $250, a $50 savings off of standard retail prices. The company notes that these Evolves are in like new condition.

Apple recently began distributing version 3.1 of its Safari web browser to Windows users via its Software Update application, which it also uses to update iTunes and QuickTime. While company spokesperson Bill Evans said Apple was “using Software Update to make it easy and convenient for both Mac and Windows users to get the latest Safari update,” the decision to offer the software as an “update,” even to users who had not previously installed Safari, has raised concerns among some users. Mozilla CEO John Lilly wrote on his blog, “What Apple is doing now with their Apple Software Update on Windows is wrong. It undermines the trust relationship great companies have with their customers, and that’s bad — not just for Apple, but for the security of the whole Web.”

According to a New York Post report, MySpace is nearing deals with Sony BMG and Warner Music Group to launch a digital music venture. Citing multiple anonymous sources, the report claims that no money is expected to change hands in the deal, with the labels instead taking minority equity stakes in MySpace Music, with the possibility of receiving a portion of the advertising revenue MySpace owner News Corp. plans to generate with the service. MySpace Music is expected to offer a mix of pay-per-download and ad-supported video and audio. [via Cnet]

EverGreen Electronics has announced that it is expanding its iPod Recycling Program worldwide. “There has been such a rush of interest from the global community about our iPod Recycling Program that we felt that expanding it was our only option” reports Richard Hauf, CEO of EverGreen Electronics. “Keeping brominated compounds and other potentially-hazardous components, which are found in iPods and iPhones, out of landfills around the globe is an important part of our mission at EverGreen Electronics.”

Techlogg.com has released a new version of its ToneShop ringtone utility for Windows, which now features the ability to create iPhone-compatible ringtone files. ToneShop can create ringtones in MP3, standard AAC , WAV, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, MMF, and now Apple iPhone M4R formats. ToneShop Build 9 is available now as a free download.

Top Singaporean cellular provider SingTel plans to release the iPhone in that country for approximately S$690 ($500) starting in September, claims Channel NewsAsia, though Apple is unlikely to share in SingTel’s subscription revenues. With an estimated 10,000 iPhones already imported by residents, retailers note that the technology-obsessed country’s demand for the iPhone has dampened slightly since its mid-2007 U.S. launch, but interest is still “very strong,” and the retailers speculate that demand will increase sharply should Singapore receive a 3G iPhone. Neither SingTel nor Apple commented for the report.

U.K. Prime Minster Gordon Brown discussed his iPod and musical tastes on television, noting “I’ve got an iPod, and I know how to use it,” contrasting with his predecessor Tony Blair’s disclosure that he had relied on his daughter to operate an iPod. Brown’s iPod includes songs from classical musicians such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, 60’s rockers such as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, and modern performers such as Leona Lewis, U2, and Coldplay.

Following up on an earlier Financial Times claim that Apple was in negotiations to bundle unlimited iTunes access with premium-priced iPods and iPhones, which appears to have been based on sources from within the music industry, BusinessWeek cites “people in a position to know” as stating that “no such talks are underway,” with one person suggesting that the music rental idea has been informally considered by Apple for a year, but not formally negotiated.

Adding to the list of iPhone application development restrictions, Billboard reports that third-party developers will be unable to access the iPhone’s iTunes-synchronized music database for playback, limiting the ability of iTunes competitors and social networking music software to place or access music directly on the iPhone. The publication notes that the beta version of the iPhone software development kit (SDK) denies developers access to “any iTunes functionality,” and suggests that Apple “could easily decline to make [competitors’] applications available in the AppStore,” but leaves open the prospect that this will change by the time of the final SDK’s release.

A surprisingly public and personal dispute over Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ “evil” tendencies has broken out between Wired’s Leander Kahney and John Gruber of Daring Fireball (warning: rough language). Kahney, whose upcoming book is excerpted in the latest issue of Wired, claims that by “exerting unrelenting control over his employees, his image, and even his customers, Jobs exerts unrelenting control over his products and how they’re used,” and contrasts the company’s approach with Google’s “Don’t be evil” philosophy. Describing Kahney as a “F---ing Jackass,” Gruber tears into both the article and its author, taking particular issue with his discussion of Apple’s secretive tendencies. “What kind of secretive crackpot,” Gruber said, referring to Kahney’s inability to speak with Jobs, ”wouldn’t want to speak to a writer working on a piece that labels your company ‘irredeemably evil’ and whose best-known work is a book that literally brands your customers as cultists? What a jerk.” [Editor’s Note: Gruber subsequently changed his article’s title, replacing the profanity with the word “irredeemable."]

eMusic CEO David Pakman has claimed that Apple’s reported interest in bundling an unlimited iTunes Store rental service with iPods and iPhones would lead to an antitrust lawsuit under the Sherman Act. “It’s called tying,” said Pakman, “where a company with a monopoly position in one market uses that monopoly position unfairly to compete in another.” Pakman, whose company holds a 15% share of the digital music market, suggests that Apple is exploring the unlimited iTunes service because “a whole bunch of other retailers [now] can sell music that works on the iPod or any other device. That puts some pressure on Apple. There’s no question, I think, that iTunes market share will diminish as a result of that over time.”

AT&T has extended to online customers a special $249 price for refurbished 8GB iPhones, previously available only in certain regional bricks-and-mortar stores. The used iPhones sell for a $150 discount relative to new ones, and still require activation of a 2-year contract with the company.

Salon publishes an essay from columnist Farhad Manjoo suggesting that “Apple fans hate tech reporters,” using experiences from himself, Walt Mossberg, and David Pogue as examples of how readers have found—unjustifiably, in his view—positive or negative bias in coverage of Apple’s products. Manjoo draws parallels between Apple fanaticism and the Israel-Palestinian conflict, suggesting that people believe their own perspectives to be reasonable, and attack those covering events neutrally when any opinion contrary to their views is presented. [via Macdailynews]

An Apple-filed patent from last year was published this week, suggesting that the company has explored the possibility of developing a flip-style iPhone with a screen on the top half and a fold-out, touch-sensitive surface on the bottom. The bottom surface is proposed to be either a clear panel with the ability to be overlaid on top of the screen, providing the equivalent of the current iPhone’s multi-touch surface when combined, and a scrollable cursor-based surface when separated, or a full touch-sensitive display on the bottom. While the patent has already led to speculation that Apple will use the technology in an “iPhone nano,” past Apple patent filings have only occasionally revealed actual products in advance. [via Unwiredview.com]

Disney CEO Bob Iger, speaking at the Digital Hollywood Media Summit, has revealed that the company has sold 4 million movies and “40 to 50” million videos through iTunes. According to estimates from Pali Research’s Rich Greenfield, that equates to around $120 million in revenue. [via Mac Rumors]

A slide from an Intel presentation at the recent CeBIT event suggests that the iPhone may be powered by an Intel x86 chip in the future. A picture of the slide shows an image of the iPhone, labeled “Smartphones,” underneath a general heading for devices the company is targeting with its next-generation mobile platform, code named Moorestown. The iPhone currently uses an ARM processor.

A new service called iCopy offers iPhone and iPod touch users a way to copy and paste text within the devices’ Safari and Mail applications, using a bookmark link and browser cookies. The service is free; more information and demonstration videos can be found on the iCopy website.

Gear4 has introduced the BassStation, a new 2.1 speaker system for iPod that looks strikingly like Apple’s discontinued iPod Hi-Fi. The BassStation features an integrated iPod Dock, a 5-inch subwoofer, 35 Watts of power, a line input, video and audio output, a remote control, and the ability to charge the iPod while docked. It sells for £99.99, or around $200. [via Macworld UK]

Boston Acoustics has unveiled its Duo-i AM/FM Stereo with iPod Dock. Features include two full-range 3.5-inch drivers, two auxiliary inputs, audio and video output, dual independent alarms with sleep timer, a remote control, and a high contrast display. It is available now and sells for $200.  [via Engadget]

A screenshot taken from Apple’s iPhone Software Roadmap event shows a search icon in the iPhone’s Contacts screen. The icon, which appears at the top of the alphabet, is similar to that of Apple’s Spotlight search icon. Interestingly, the icon appeared on a screenshot shown during the presentation, but was absent from the menu during a demo.

Stereophile has posted a guide to the effects of CD to 128Kbps Fraunhöfer MP3 and AAC format conversion, showing audible and inaudible areas of the audio spectrum that are impacted by CD ripping. After showing how certain audio data is artificially accentuated or lost during encoding, the guide recommends lossless encoding for critical listeners, as it is the only format that preserves an original CD’s sound image bit for bit. [Thanks, Jon]

Ever Green Electronics has launched what it bills as a “100% environmentally sustainable” iPod and iPhone repair and recycling service. “Not only do we offer the best prices in iPod repair, fast service, and an unparalleled recycling program we have taken the steps necessary to be a certified green company,” said Richard Hauf, CEO of EverGreen Electronics. “We see the importance of having incredible customer service while championing the care of the environment. With nearly 200 million iPods and iPhones in circulation, keeping toxins out of our water and landfills is an important part of business today and we are committed to creating sustainable business practices.”

Scott Huang, vice president of mobile communications with Samsung Taiwan, has reportedly resigned his post, and will soon begin working for Apple Taiwan. It is currently unclear what position Huang might fill at Apple.

Apple has posted a QuickTime streaming video of yesterday’s iPhone Software Roadmap event. The video is available for viewing now via Apple’s website, and is roughly 80 minutes in length.

ID Software co-founder John Carmack has posted his thoughts on Apple’s iPhone SDK announcements. “Just based on the blurbs, it looks very good—a simulator plus debugging on the native device is the best of both worlds, and a 70% royalty deal for apps over iTunes is quite good,” Carmack wrote. “The iTunes distribution channel is really a more important aspect than a lot of people understand. The ability to distribute larger applications than the over-the-air limits and effectively market your title with more than a dozen character deck name, combined with the reasonable income split make this look like a very interesting market.”

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made several comments about the iPhone yesterday during an appearance. Speaking about Apple’s business model of taking 30 percent of iPhone application revenue, he said “It’s a good business if you can make it.” On Exchange support for iPhone, Ballmer said, “We’ve licensed ActiveSync for a while. That’s been an option that’s been available to Apple,” adding, “It was certainly an option we knew Apple might take advantage of.” In an unrelated interview, Terry Myerson, corporate vice president for Exchange, said that Microsoft and Apple began talks about Exchange support “before the launch of the iPhone last year.”

Game developer Freeverse has posted a “first peek” of its iPhone development plans, including Flick Sports games of Golf, Bowling, Soccer, Baseball, and Moto Racing. The games will make use of the handset’s multi-touch screen as well as the built-in accelerometer.

Fortune has announced that Apple tops its 26th annual list of America’s Most Admired Companies. In an interview with Fortune Senior Editor Betsy Morris, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said, “We do no market research. We just want to make great products.”

French electronics retail chain Fnac is in discussions to distribute the iPhone in France, according to a Le Figaro report. The French daily cites Fnac head Denis Olivennes as saying that Orange’s exclusive rights for the iPhone in France are “inadmissible.” The report also stated that should negotiations fail, Fnac plans to take legal action.

Although it has been reported by several readers in our comments, Apple has officially acknowledged that a bug where SMS text messages would appear in the wrong order has been fixed in the latest iPhone software. On an Apple support page discussing the problem, the solution now listed is “Use iTunes to update to iPhone Software 1.1.4 or later.”

A new article posted to intstructables.com explains how to make an iPod Video Projector. The project requires cardboard, a mirror, a couple of lenses, does not require any power, and can be made to support any video-capable iPod or iPhone. 

Homade has introduced its iStereo speaker for iPod (pictured), which is modeled after LEGO building blocks. The iStereo features an integrated iPod dock, two speakers in the unit’s top, and volume controls consistent with the block-inspired design. It is powered by three AA batteries, and is available now for $40. [via ShinyShiny]

Coolgorilla has launched its Talking iPod Phrase Books podcasts, which offer translation of English text into various languages such as French, German, and Italian. Each language translation pack offers 750-800 useful phrases, which can be accessed from any iPod. The language packs are available through iTunes; for iPhone and iPod touch users, the company offers an iPhone Translator web application as well.

JThink has released Jaikoz 2.3.0, a multi-platform metadata editing application for mp4, m4a, m4p, mp3, Flac and OggVorbis files. Jaikoz features the ability to automatically find and correct metatags, to automatically retrieve and add song lyrics, and the ability to update the iTunes database with changes made in Jaikoz. The application sells for £15, and runs on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux.

iViewr has announced its iPhone and iPod touch-based guide to next week’s CeBIT show in Hanover, Germany. The guide offers useful information for attendees, including keynote info, travel directions, disabled access details, and more. To access the guide, visit iviewr.com from an iPhone or iPod touch and tap on “Our Choice.”