iLounge

This week’s featured photo is from our iPhones Around the World gallery, and shows an iPhone in the desert outside Las Vegas, Nevada. To share your photos and to be considered for our Photo of the Week, you simply need to submit your own photo to one of our galleries. So get out there, take some pictures with your iPod or iPhone, and maybe your submission will be our next Photo of the Week!

With over 3,000 votes from iLounge readers, our latest poll—“What’s the feature you’re most excited about in iPhone OS 3.0?” has ended. Readers were given the choice between cut, copy, & paste, stereo Bluetooth, Spotlight search, MMS support, expanded widescreen keyboard support, push notifications, or other improvements, with an option for those who don’t own an iPhone or iPod touch.

After adjusting for the 10% of responding readers who said they didn’t have an iPhone or iPod touch, Cut, Copy, & Paste was the most popular new feature amongst iLounge readers, with 29% of the remaining vote. MMS support and more widescreen keyboards were tied for second with 18% of the vote a piece, followed by stereo Bluetooth with 14%, push notifications with 11%, Spotlight search with 5%, and other features with 4%. Thanks for all your votes!

Our new poll focuses on the next-generation iPhone. We’d like to know if you be buying one when it’s released this Summer. Have you been holding out, and will buy one no matter what, or are you an iPhone veteran who looks forward to picking up the next model? Or perhaps you’d consider buying one, but only if it features significant hardware improvements, or is smaller/less expensive than prior models? Or did you just pick up an iPhone 3G, and will be ineligible for subsidy discounting, or perhaps you’re happy with your current phone and/or provider, or just don’t have any interest in owning a cell phone? Our new poll, “Do you think you’ll purchase a new iPhone when it’s released in June or July?” lets you answer that question. As always, you can find the iLounge Poll in the left hand column of the main iLounge.com homepage. Cast your vote today!

The new iLounge Discussion Forums are now live with the latest version of the forum software and a whole new look. The new system provides some significant new features, including more advanced posting and reply options, a more sophisticated private messaging system and fully customizable user profile pages. Additional community and social networking features are also available in the new system and we will be looking at rolling these features out in a phased approach in the coming weeks.

See our Welcome thread in the Forums for more detailed information on new and coming attractions.

While we are still responding to readers’ feedback regarding any issues they might spot, and tweaking layout and performance issues, we think you will like the latest step in our continued drive to ensure that the iLounge forums are the world’s largest, and best, independent source of all things iPod, iPhone, iTunes and beyond. We hope you enjoy the new forums!

The iLounge Forums will shortly be undergoing a substantial upgrade, and will be temporarily unavailable during that time. When the Forums reopen, they will sport major enhancements, hopefully making them an even better area for our readers to share information, ideas, and questions. We thank you for your patience during the upgrade, and look forward to bringing you the improved design.

Update: The forum upgrade is scheduled to begin at 11:00 PM EDT tonight. The forums will be unavailable for approximately four hours during the upgrade process. 

If you haven’t yet entered our Just Mobile Xtand Giveaway, there’s still time to do so. In our Giveaway of the Month for April, Just Mobile and iLounge are giving away twenty Xtands for iPhone or iPod touch to lucky readers. To enter, simply fill out and submit the form on the giveaway page—the giveaway will end on April 30, 2009 at 11:59PM Pacific Time. Good luck!

This week’s edition of iLounge’s weekly newsletter, iPodweek, will be available later today. iPodweek is a weekly summary of the best iPod news, reviews, and feature articles we’ve published, and it also features giveaways and iPod accessory discount offers from various companies and retailers. There is still plenty of time to sign up for this week’s edition, if you haven’t done so already — just use the simple form below to submit your email address.

IMPORTANT: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Earthlink and others, make sure we don’t end up in your spam box. Please accept emails from iLounge.com. Thank you.

iLounge is pleased to announce our Giveaway of the Month for April: Just Mobile’s Xtand. Twenty lucky iLounge readers will receive Xtands for iPhone or iPod touch: ten of each type of Xtand are available. To enter, simply fill out and submit the form on the giveaway page—the giveaway will end on April 30, 2009 at 11:59PM Pacific Time. Good luck!

This week’s featured photo is from our iPods Around the World gallery, and shows a first-generation iPod touch near the shore of the Caribbean Sea at the Laguna Tortuguero in Costa Rica. To share your photos and to be considered for our Photo of the Week, you simply need to submit your own photo to one of our galleries. So get out there, take some pictures with your iPod or iPhone, and maybe your submission will be our next Photo of the Week!

Our JBL On Stage Speaker Giveaway ends on Tuesday, so if you haven’t yet entered, now’s the time. In our Giveaway of the Month for March, JBL and iLounge are giving away ten JBL On Stage 200ID Loudspeaker Docks for iPod and iPhone to ten lucky readers. To enter, simply fill out and submit the form on the giveaway page—the giveaway will end on March 31, 2009 at 11:59PM Pacific Time. Good luck!

The latest edition of iPodweek, our weekly newsletter covering all things iLounge, is coming later today. iPodweek is a weekly summary of the best iPod news, reviews, and feature articles we’ve published, and it also features giveaways and iPod accessory discount offers from various companies. There’s still plenty of time to sign up and receive this week’s edition — just use the simple form below to submit your email address, if you haven’t done so already.

IMPORTANT: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Earthlink and others, make sure we don’t end up in your spam box. Please accept emails from iLounge.com. Thank you.

With over 3,000 votes from iLounge readers, our latest poll—“Did the new iPod shuffle’s lack of built-in buttons stop you from wanting one?” has ended. Readers could say they were definitely planning or considering purchasing a new shuffle but didn’t like this design, that they like the new design and plan to buy one, or were not planning to buy one and had not changed their minds based on the new design.

Half (50%) of responding readers said that they weren’t interested in buying the shuffle before the third-generation version was announced, and hadn’t changed their minds after seeing the new design. Of those who were open to purchasing an iPod shuffle, roughly two-thirds (66%) said that they were either certain about or mulling a shuffle purchase, but decided not to because of the design, while the remaining third said that they liked the third-generation design and planned to buy one. Thanks for all your votes!

Our new poll focuses on iPhone OS 3.0. We’d like to know what feature you’re most excited for in the new software. Is it cut and paste? Stereo Bluetooth, Spotlight search, or MMS support? Perhaps the expanded widescreen keyboard support, or push notifications, or some other upcoming feature? Our new poll, “What’s the feature you’re most excited about in iPhone OS 3.0?” lets you answer that question. You can find the iLounge poll in the left hand column of the main iLounge.com home page. Vote today!

If you haven’t yet entered our JBL On Stage Speaker Giveaway, you’ve still got time to do so. In our Giveaway of the Month for March, JBL and iLounge are giving away ten JBL On Stage 200ID Loudspeaker Docks for iPod and iPhone to ten lucky readers. To enter, simply fill out and submit the form on the giveaway page—the giveaway will end on March 31, 2009 at 11:59PM Pacific Time. Good luck!

iPodweek, iLounge’s weekly newsletter recapping the last seven days in iPod, iPhone, iTunes and Apple TV news, articles, reviews, and more, will be sent out later today. In addition to rounding up the week’s top stories, iPodweek also features giveaways and accessory discount offers from various companies. If you haven’t yet signed up to receive iPodweek, there’s still time to register and receive this week’s edition — just use the simple form below to submit your email address.

IMPORTANT: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Earthlink and others, make sure we don’t end up in your spam box. Please accept emails from iLounge.com. Thank you.

This week’s featured photo is from our iPods Around the World gallery, and shows a fourth-generation iPod nano at sunset in Campagnola, Italy. To share your photos and to be considered for our Photo of the Week, you simply need to submit your own photo to one of our galleries. So get out there, take some pictures with your iPod or iPhone, and maybe your submission will be our next Photo of the Week!

If you’d like to chat live with other readers to discuss the developments during today’s iPhone OS 3.0 event, scheduled to start in 30 minutes, iLounge has opened our Chat Room for your enjoyment. For live updates from the event, we recommend Engadget; keep the chat room open in a separate window for debate and discussion. Note that the chat room has updating issues with Safari 4.0 Beta, but works on Firefox, prior Safari releases, and IE.

If you haven’t yet entered our JBL On Stage Speaker Giveaway, there’s still time to do so. In our Giveaway of the Month for March, JBL and iLounge are giving away ten JBL On Stage 200ID Loudspeaker Docks for iPod and iPhone to ten lucky readers. To enter, simply fill out and submit the form on the giveaway page—the giveaway will end on March 31, 2009 at 11:59PM Pacific Time. Good luck!

iPodweek, iLounge’s weekly newsletter recapping the last seven days in iPod, iPhone, iTunes and Apple TV news, articles, reviews, and more, will be sent out later today. In addition to rounding up the week’s top stories, iPodweek also features giveaways and accessory discount offers from various companies. If you haven’t yet signed up to receive iPodweek, there’s still time to register and receive this week’s edition — just use the simple form below to submit your email address.

IMPORTANT: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Earthlink and others, make sure we don’t end up in your spam box. Please accept emails from iLounge.com. Thank you.

With over 3,500 votes from iLounge readers, our latest poll — “How much storage space would your ideal 2009 iPod or iPhone have?” has ended. Readers were given choices including 2GB or less, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128GB, or 256GB or more.

We were interested to see a marked increase in the amount of storage responding readers said they were looking for in their ideal iPod. The 64GB and 256GB options were equally popular, grabbing 27% of the vote each, and 128GB was the third most popular option, with 19% of the vote, showing that 73% of all respondents wanted 64GB or more of storage capacity. That was followed by 32GB with 18%, 16GB with 6%, 8GB with two percent, and 2GB or less with one percent of the vote. In light of the announcement of the iPod shuffle 3G, it’s interesting that the 4GB option received only 11 votes—the least popular option for an “ideal 2009 iPod” with zero percent. Thanks for all your votes!

Our new poll focuses on the just-announced third-generation iPod shuffle. We want to know what you think of the new buttonless design. Has the lack of buttons dissuaded you from making a planned purchase or from considering the shuffle, or do you like the new design and plan to pick one up? Or were you not planning to purchase a shuffle, and remain unaffected by the new design? Our new poll, “Did the new iPod shuffle’s lack of built-in buttons stop you from wanting one?” lets you answer that question. You can find the iLounge Poll in the left-hand column of the main iLounge.com homepage. Cast your vote today!

This week’s featured photo is from our iPhones Around the World gallery, and shows an iPhone in the crowd at Carnival 2009 Trinidad & Tobago. To share your photos and to be considered for our Photo of the Week, you simply need to submit your own photo to one of our galleries. So get out there, take some pictures with your iPod or iPhone, and maybe your submission will be our next Photo of the Week!

iPodweek, iLounge’s weekly newsletter recapping the last seven days in news, articles, reviews, and more, will be sent out to our email subscribers later today. In addition to rounding up the week’s top stories, iPodweek also features giveaways and accessory discount offers from various companies. If you haven’t yet signed up to receive iPodweek, there’s still time to register and receive this week’s edition — just use the simple form below to submit your email address.

IMPORTANT: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Earthlink and others, make sure we don’t end up in your spam box. Please accept emails from iLounge.com. Thank you.