The ingenuity shown by people devising iPhone add-ons (both software and hardware) never ceases to amaze me. This latest idea is one of the coolest I’ve seen for a while.

(Update: Looks like we were right to be skeptical. GigaOm has since corrected their post to say they mistakenly published an old press release.)

In what we hope is a return from his medical leave of absence, Apple has apparently just confirmed that Steve Jobs will be the official keynote speaker at this year’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference.

Apple’s suing Samsung for copying the intellectual property of their iPhone, iPad and iOS designs. In return, Samsung’s suing Apple for patent infringement.

In the Apple vs. Samsung case, though, Apple has just won a weird little concession from the judge: they get to see five of Samsung’s unreleased tablets and smartphones. Can you imagine what would happen if Samsung got the same concession in their suit against Apple?

It ain’t over until it’s over, Yogi Berra once said. The sports legend could have been talking about Apple’s attempt to lure the music industry onto the cloud. Just as an agreement to make your music accessible everywhere seemed at hand, publishers want more cash.

With iOS 4, Apple left the original iPhone and iPod Touch behind in the dust of iOS 3.1.3, and even the iPhone 3G could not avail itself of some of iOS 4’s most notable features, like multitasking. As long as you at least had an iPhone 3GS, though, you’d be fine.

Given how many problems the iPhone 3G hardware had running iOS 4.0, it should come as no surprise that Apple is hoping to consign that hardware to the dustbin when they debut iOS 5 at WWDC next month. What may be more surprising is that the iPhone 3GS will go into the dustbin too.

Dell just launched its newest 15-inch notebook named the XPS 15z, which it claims in its advertising material is “the thinnest 15-inch PC on the planet.” However, the fact that it’s still fatter than a 2.5-year-old MacBook Pro is a testament to Apple’s superior design and engineering… as well as Dell’s willingness to use flexible semantics when it comes to trumping Cupertino.

Since iOS 4, Apple has been securing your iPhone’s data with 256-bit encryption. That encryption has just been cracked, and just by running a simple program, anyone with access to your handset can access the full data stored even in encrypted iPhone backups.

If fancy one of those cool custodians that looks like it was made from an old cassette case, you’re in luck.

They’re now half off and will cost you just $10.

The news keeps on getting worse for Apple in the wake of the Chengdu Foxconn explosion. Besides the ghastly loss of three lives and the dozens of wounded Foxconn employees, the explosion could cost Apple half a million iPad 2s. Given existing supply problems, that’s a number of lost iPads Apple can ill afford to lose.

Humble  or inspire yourself with a digital copy of the real Da Vinci Code on your iPad.
Leonardo’s war machines from the 1,000-plus-page Codex Atlanticus are now available for your perusal.  

It’s enough to bring a smile to an angry bird: Apple’s iTunes can boast a half-million apps. That figure likely will get an official stamp of approval when CEO Steve Jobs speaks June 9 before developers at the annual WWDC in San Francisco.

The tragic explosion at a iPad 2 polishing plant in Chengdu has already killed three and wounded dozens, and the closing of that facility could affect iPad 2 supply by up to 30%.

In the short term, iPad 2 supply is likely to get even worse, as Foxconn has just closed all of its polishing plants across China for investigation.

These images purportedly depict the new rear cover for Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone, but how genuine are they?

While many recent reports have predicted the next iPhone will feature the same design as the iPhone 4, Stephane Richard, CEO for France Telecom, revealed in a recent interview that Apple is currently taking steps to ensure the fifth-generation device is smaller and thinner than its predecessor.

An Apple store at New York’s Grand Central Terminal is back on.

Chinese developer Digiarty is giving away a two-title combo pack, which includes a video converter and a DVD ripper, for free till May 25.

There’s nothing like traveling with several thousand dollars worth of expensive photo gear to kick up the ‘ol stress levels: Will I be able to pack all my stuff, and will it ll be easily accessible? Will any of it break? Are colleagues or clients going to laugh at me because it doesn’t look pro enough? If it does look pro, will it make a tempting target for thieves? Can it fit into the overhead bin or under my seat on a plane? And what the heck am I going to do with my laptop?

So it’s always a welcome relief when a bag answers those questions soothingly, in a way that sets the mind at ease — which, except for one or two of those questions, Crumpler’s $172, ruggedly adventurous 8 Million Dollar photo/laptop bag does.

They say that no one but Apple can make a decent sub-$500 tablet, but Amazon not only thinks they can undercut the iPad in price once… they think they can do it with two tablet at once.

Interested in seeing the full letter Apple is sending indie iOS devs threatened by patent troll Lodsys over the use of Apple’s in-app purchasing mechanism? We’ve got it, and whether you’re versed in legalese or not, you’ll want to read this: Apple means business.

Apple has finally responded to Lodsys’ patent troll attempts to extort indie iOS devs for using iOS’s In-App Purchasing Mechanism: developers don’t owe Lodsys anything for offering in-app purchases, and if Lodsys cares to press the issue, Apple will be more than happy to step in on behalf of their devs… and wipe the floor with Lodsys.

With the iPhone unlikely to get NFC capabilities this year according to reports, waving your iPhone in front of a cash register to pay for your morning coffee will have to wait until 2012 at the earliest. Or will it?

Square has just unveiled their next-generation mobile platform, Square Card Case, and it’s not just an interesting precursor to the promise of NFC, but NFC’s first truly viable alternative in the mobile payments arena… at least when it comes to local merchants.

The Chronic Dev Team are a wonderful and ingenious bunch of guys, but they aren’t exactly the most punctual of hackers. It’s common for it to take months for the latest version of iOS or the newest iDevice to be cracked. So when Chronic Dev Team member p0sixninja recently said that we were “weeks” away from an iPad 2 jailbreak, we were skeptical we’d actually see it anytime soon.

On the contrary, says the Chronic Dev Team. You can consider that a promise.

The next iPhone is widely rumored to debut in September, but according to an AT&T rep, it’s going to slip even later, and won’t be seen until October.

Sounds like Sci-Fi malarkey: an app that measures the amount of calories burned throughout the day just by sitting in your pocket and using the iPhone’s accelerometers to measure motion. But nope, it’s real, and it’s at the App Store for $3.

We start out with three hardware deals for the Mac, the iPod and the iPhone. First is a deal on a group of MacBook Pros from the Apple Store, beginning with a 2.4GHz model for $899. Next is an 80GB iPod classic for $100. We wrap up the spotlight with a carbon fiber skin for the iPhone 4.

Along the way, we also check out cases for the iPad 2, a dock for the iPod and software for the Mac. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.