Rumors are rolling in about the next gen iPhone!

Engadget’s Ryan Block’s trusted source’s test unit (whew!) is alledgedly slightly thicker than the original, but retains almost everything else - size, shape, screen resolution, non-user-replaceable battery, save for a few marked differences: an all glossy non-metal black back, chrome volume buttons, a regular, unrecessed earphone port (thank God), and the much-awaited 3G and GPS features.

Also, no word on storage capacity (anyone for 32gb?) or battery life. Power is a major concern because of the newly introduced 3G and GPS and how those’d affect power consumption (which was the reason they were left out in the first place). Might make the Mophie Juice Pack (which we mentioned in a previous post) a bigger deal - if the new unit would be compatible with it, that is.

Of course, as Ryan says, no one can tell with Apple if this’ll be the one that’ll come out this year (as early as July, they say). For all we know, knowing Steve Jobs, this might well be a red herring he’s throwing out to get us off track. It could be totally different. Abangan!

The micro-blog app Twitter is growing exponentially, after all this time; everyone is getting into it now. So much so that hell hath actually frozen over, and even notorious tech contrarian John C. Dvorak himself has jumped in headfirst and is twittering furiously and seems to be enjoying it - he who had gleefully scorned and enthusiastically mocked the practice when it first became popular.

A couple of days ago, Japan even launched its own localized Twitter site (complete with ads “from the get-go”.) More indicative is the fact that Twitter has been wonky for the past week, ostensibly because of growing pains; the overloading has been giving it gas.

The basic motivation to post and read on Twitter centers around the question “What are you doing?”, to which you answer in 140-character chunks. It’s blogging for those who don’t have the time or the patience to do it for real, and it’s morphed into a means for sharing links and content as well, and as a SMS or chat substitute.

I twitter too, although spottingly, but part of me agrees with Dvorak. If you’re just going to tell the world you just had a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch,  get your fingers off the keyboard, boyo. Save the twit for something a little more interesting, or at least useful. At least that’s me; although I’m not beneath the occasional “I’m bored.”

Twit postings are very revealing – you can pin down someone’s persona just by reading through his 140-character comments and musings. You can tell that person’s likes, dislikes, attitude towards life, interests and general disposition and a lot more through the frequent, fleeting life commentary he chooses to put out there, and you can decide if it would be worth investing some time reading his twittery.

I’m not writing about twittering per se – the practice doesn’t have much of a connect with Macs other than a lot of Mac users do twitter (usually through the great standalone app called Twitteriffic) , but then again so does the rest of the world. I write about it because a nice new 3PA has appeared on iPhone/iPod Touch screens lately that puts a nice spin on things.

Twinkle is a Twitter client that goes its predecessors one better by geo-locating users, and then giving you the option of restricting your feeds to Twits emanating within a user-prescribed radius of your own location – a mile, two, ten, twenty-five, fifty, a hundred, more. Get posts from folk you don’t necessarily know but are within the neighborhood - because Twinkle thoughtfully provides the general area each Twit is coming from, plus an option to check out that user’s profile and recent Twits, all from the iPhone.

It’s a marked and refreshing change from the broad, shotgun, worldwide, anonymous directionlessness of the feeds we’re used to getting. You can focus on people with shared mindsets and environments. You might come across someone just a stone’s throw away, even some of whom you might actually know but didn’t know twits as well. Or not, but someone you should, based on if you like his/her Twits or not. You can choose to follow them and make friends, or renew ties.

Twitter and Twinkle makes for quick, convenient social networking that doesn’t eat up your time and resources. Or at least, not as much.

Get Twinkle by running Installer on your jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch.

I got my hands on one of the most anticipated accessories for the iPhone this morning: the Mophie Juice Pack rechargeable lithium polymer battery, which extends the phone’s power capacity while piggybacked to it in the form of a non-slip soft grip case. (Thanks to Howard Paw of Digital Walker who brought me one today.)

It can be charged separately or together with an iPhone, using the usual cables and chargers. It also takes over the power duties when attached to an iPhone, and the phone’s battery only kicks in after the Juice Pack has expended itself. While attached, it tops up the iPhone’s battery so that the phone starts off with a full load after you disconnect the Mophie.

It makes the iPhone a bit thicker and longer, but it does a heck of a lot, like giving it an additional:

• 250 hours standby time
• 24 hours audio playback
• 8 hours talk time
• 7 hours video viewing
• 6 hours internet surfing

Mind you, this is in addition to the iPhone’s own power capabilities. And for US$99 only too.

It’s currently in limited stock at Digital Hub and Digital Walker in Manila as of today. But you better get one fast before Philmuggers eat up all the supply.

Learn more about it from the Mophie site.

Apple Stores in Japan are putting out limited edition iPod Touch and nano cases with gold etchings on the back that say which district or area it was purchased from, plus some nice traditional artwork, according to ipodNN.

The cases will only be available for one week, and cost about US$26 for the Touch case, and US$22 for the nano.

I resisted getting one for weeks – which was actually easy because I couldn’t afford one. But things have a way of working out somehow, especially because of where I work. So I serendipitously got hold of a Macbook Air.

I’d been making noises, contrarian ones, here and on other blogs, that sorta made me look like I really didn’t want one and couldn’t care less. But deep down I knew the truth.

I had a long dalliance with another computer, the Asus EEEPC 701, for several long months (I even started a blog for it), and just lived on the fringes, on the periphery of MacDomWorldLand. Coupled with tons of work, plus a lot of personal issues I needed (need) to sort out, I’ve been remiss in updating this blog. I’m sure you noticed. My apologies for the neglect.

But once you go Mac, you can’t go back. I got some Air. So it’s here and here I am.

Been using it exclusively for almost two weeks now, and I’ve written my review for my magazine (the short version anyway – this is the long, detailed one I wanted to print).

So how is it?

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