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Quantum Research has been distancing itself from the press rumors that they are about to sue Apple Inc over the touch screen in it's iPhone.

Many news articles have been implying that Quantum would sue, but this is based on assumption only and you know what happens when people ass-u-me. Quantum has no knowledge of any infringement by Apple Inc. on any of Quantum's patents. Until the iPhone is released, no one will know for sure except Apple.

So hold the presses on this one folks! Let's hope Apple's in the clear and have come up with their own tech for the touch screen iPhone!

Tonight on the Academy Awards Show, Apple debuted their "Hello" iPhone commercial.
The commercial featured some of Hollywoods most loved stars saying the word "Hello" in a montage.

Take a look at the commercial which is now posted on Apple's website.

iLounge is giving away a free iPhone along with an iTV, iPod's and shuffles. You could win one of those prizes by creating a desktop wallpaper and entering their contest.

Grand Prize: One Apple iPhone* ($499, 4GB). We’ll help one lucky winner buy Apple’s combination cell phone, widescreen iPod, and Internet device - we’ll supply the funds for the iPhone; the cell phone contract is your responsibility.

Second Prize: One Apple TV ($299, 40GB). Enjoy iTunes-managed audio, video, and photo content on your widescreen TV with the new Apple TV device.

Third Prize: One iPod nano ($199, 4GB) and one iPod shuffle ($79, 1GB) in the winner’s choice of colors.

More rules and details at iLounge. If you're entering, good luck!

There have been so many reports out there from every Tom, Dick, Harry and Sally claiming that Apple will fail with the iPhone. Again, I'd like to say to those who doubt or are nay-saying to take a wait and see approach.

Back when the first iPod came out, I too was a nay-sayer, thinking that Apple had it's head up it's butt and that there was no way anyone would buy such an expensive mp3 player. But boy was I wrong.

But, just because Apple is the market leader when it comes to the proverbial mp3 player the iPod, it doesn't necessarily mean they will come out with a perfect product the first time around. If we look at the iPod you'll see that the first generation was very different from what we have today, yet the essence of everything about the original iPod is still inherent in the 4g iPod most have as well as the nano's. Apple will churn the iPhone just as they've done the iPod.

Until the iPhone comes out, I'll take a wait and see approach. I don't expect Apple to hit a home run on it's first outing but I'm not counting it a strike out either.

Head on over to Gizmodo if you want to see "artists renderings" of supposed photos that were leaked by someone at Apple. They don't actually have the real photo posted because they don't want to get the person who sent it to them in trouble. Instead they have some "artist renderings" and a description of the photos.

Head on over!

Mitch Lasky, senior vice president of EA Mobile has publicly stated that they are talking with Apple about some games for the iPhone. In the article by Daily Tech, no mention of what games were being discussed.

Read more.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball fired back at two pundits who have publicly criticized Steve Job's essay "Thoughts on Music". Gruber takes apart each critic's arguements one by one.

On the jackass menu this time: Paul Thurrott of Windows IT Pro and Paul Kedrosky of The Wall Street Journal

Some highlights:
on DRM and the market ~
"But Microsoft is a paper tiger in this realm. Their music DRM is only relevant to anyone who has bought one of their music players — which is to say a decided minority of the market. Their Windows monopoly has not allowed them to establish a de facto industry standard here, like it has so many times in the past. The most popular DRM-encoded music format for Windows users is FairPlay; the most popular music player for Windows users is the iPod."

on Apple and eMusic's dominance in the electronic music download market ~
"(That eMusic is the second-most-popular download store means several good things for Apple: (a) both of the top two download stores fully support iTunes and iPod playback on both Mac and Windows; (b) neither of them use Microsoft technology; and (c) because eMusic only sells songs from independent labels, it means Apple’s share of the legal download market for major label music is even higher than its share of the overall legal download market.)"

and...
"Microsoft’s problem with the iTunes Store isn’t that it has created an unfair playing field, but rather that it has prevented Microsoft from creating an unfair playing field tilted in its own favor."

on PlayForSure interoperability on Microsofts own products ~
"Which brings us to the most deliciously jackassed aspect of Thurrott’s call for Apple to voluntarily bridge the DRM gap, which is that Microsoft is so DRM-happy that they don’t even offer cross-support between their own DRM standards. Zunes don’t work with PlaysForSure DRM and PlaysForSure gadgets don’t work with Zune DRM."

Gruber ends his rant with a very powerful thought:

"Kedrosky has clearly missed — or refuses to believe — the main point of Jobs’s argument. It’s almost impossible to see how allowing Apple to sell DRM-free music through iTunes would make piracy worse. Music piracy is already rampant. There is not a single song on iTunes that can’t be downloaded for free from a P2P network. If iTunes were to switch to DRM-free music, would it stop anyone who is already buying music from iTunes? No

People who are already buying from iTunes would continue to. People who refused to buy from iTunes because of DRM might start. And people who bootleg would continue to bootleg. This situation would be better for the music industry, not worse. The problem from the music industry’s perspective is their technically ludicrous pipe dream of devising a scheme that forces everyone to pay for every single song they play. They obsess over pirates while taking their honest customers for granted."

Read the entire rant here. A fantasitc read!

Via Guardian.co.uk:

MusicStation, the brainchild of a group of British entrepreneurs who made millions in the dotcom era is set to launch in the UK in the spring. Orange an Vodafone should be the carriers for this phone. It will be unveiled today at 3GSM conference in Barcelona.

The service by Omniphone, will allow users to download music to their phones but there are downsides to it already:

"The downsides of the service are that users cannot move their existing music collection from CD over to MusicStation, and if they stop paying every week their music collection vanishes. Anyone cancelling their subscription can store their music collection and playlists on the network and return to them some other time, but all tracks downloaded onto a phone will be locked. Omnifone are obviously hoping that the price of the service will drag in customers. It compares with T-Mobile's music jukebox, for instance, which charges £1.50 a track and Vodafone's music service at 99p a song. Both also have a much smaller library than MusicStation."

John Gittlesohn of the OCRegister.com has a follow-up story regarding Broadcom's chip inside of Apple's iPhone.

To recap yesterdays story, Henry Samueli, Broadcom Chairman, has testified under oath during a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against Broadcom by Qualcomm Inc.

The story doesn't say what chip Broadcom will supply for the iPhone but Samueli did indeed say that "We actually do have the chip inside the iPhone (sic)".

Read the update here.

The OCRegister is reporting that Broadcom's chip is inside the iPhone. By digging through court transcripts recently of the Qualcomm v. Broadcom trial, they dug up a quote from Broadcom's Herny Samueli:

"We actually do have the chip inside the iPhone."

What chip and what it's doing in the iPhone is the question we're asking. OCRegister is promising more info tomorrow morning.

Go check them out!

Could a patent filed in 2004 by Sony Ericson spell another lawsuit for Apple? Thats just what mad4mobilephones.com uncovered today in their short article complete with diagram of the patent.

A dispute could arise over the Sony Ericson patent that allows the screen orientation to change depending on how the user turns the phone landscape of portrait.

Read more here.

Check out this YouTube video of iPhone vs. Windows Mobile!

Steve Jobs wrote an interesting piece called "Thoughts on Music", which really should be titled "Thoughts on DRM".

Reality distortion field aside, Jobs offers a candid insight in laymans terms on how DRM works and how it affects all of us and how easy things could be if the record industry stopped relying on FUD.

We here at iPhone News Blog really hope that one day the big 4 record companies will come to their senses but we won't hold our breath. It will take something huge to get them to change their ways.

Bill Gates was asked by Business Week if he would purchase an iPhone:

BusinessWeek: Steve Jobs's most recent performance was with the iPhone, a big rollout. Would you buy an iPhone at $499 or $599?

Gates: Well, of course, I'm the wrong person to ask. I like to dial numbers with one hand, and maybe I'm the only one.

BusinessWeek: I know you could afford the price, but do you think it's a little steep?

Gates: Well, the marketplace will do a good job of judging that, and they can always change the price. The phone space is one where we have been focusing. It's one of those places where we think software will be the critical element. That's just more and more true... If there's anything good about the iPhone, it's software. How many companies in the world can do really great software? We do it with an incredible research group, the willingness to take on the toughest software problems, and just stick at them, and to have a variety of hardware partners, and the biggest application software base.

We're unique in this world of software. Will Nokia step up to a world where software is super-important? It's not clear. Will Sony? Well, they're trying, but so far it's been tough for them. And if you look at the whole traditional consumer-electronics set of companies, most of those are going to be more supplying components and hardware systems. The software industry, which we're a major part of, is going to be driving the magic in those things.

So the key trend to look at is the importance of software, and then say who really has shown the ability to do strong software? In some ways, just we have. If you define it more broadly, yes, Apple has done a few things well.

Full interview here: Bill Gates' Vision for Vista

Apple's iPhone is one of the most-anticipated products of the decade. New media pioneer Scott Bourne and Apple/Mac expert Chris Breen will offer advice and information on the new phone.

From the press release:
"The blog has already launched and includes some of the basic information that's already publicly available about the iPhone. By March, Breen and Bourne will start a weekly podcast where they add more tips, tricks and usability suggestions. The podcast will be available at the iTunes Store and on Podango.com."