Report: Apple, Softbank developing iPod phone

Apple has partnered with Softbank to build a new cell phone with iPod-like features and the capability to download songs directly from the iTunes Music Store, according to a report in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun Japanese newspaper. The article claims that Softbank president Masayoshi Son and Apple CEO Steve Jobs met earlier this year and formed the partnership to develop the long-rumored device. The phone will reportedly be a 3G model with music-playing features and high-speed web connectivity. The report says that the phones will be released in Japan “sometime this year at the earliest,” and then later in the U.S.