Electronics giant Best Buy announced today it will team up with Apple and other retailers to handle pre-orders for the new iPhone 4 handset. Tuesday, pre-orders begin at Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile storeswith delivery to consumers set for June 24.

“It’s exciting to have an opportunity to launch this iconic device with this pre-sale,” Best Buy Mobile president Shawn Score said. “Adding the iPhone 4 to our stores alongside other great smartphones like the HTC EVO from Sprint and the HTC Incredible on Verizon, giving customers a great opportunity to view each side-by-side and get the mobile phone that works best for them,” he added.

In order to handicap how well the iPhone 4 will be received, it seems we need look no further than upgrades. Trade-ins hit the 1,000 mark on the day Apple’s latest handset was announced, a marked jumped from the 141 iPhone trade-ins when the iPhone 3GS was unveiled in 2009, according to trade-in specialist Gazelle.

More than half, or 65 percent, of the iPhones being traded-in are the 3GS, according to the company. Although the iPhone has always been popular with the geekerati, the iPhone 4 seems to have crossed the barrier into general consumer conversation, reports say.

In a vaguely-worded apology, carrier AT&T Sunday blamed hackers for a security breach which exposed thousands of iPad owners’ email addresses.

“On June 7, we learned that unauthorized computer ‘hackers’ maliciously exploited a function designed to make your iPad log-in process faster by pre-populating an AT&T authorization page with the email address you used to register your iPad for 3G service,” the carrier explained in a letter obtained by BGR.

Arguably the best soccer game on any console, the much anticipated Pro Evolution Soccer is now available on iPhone and iPod Touch and boasts a unique ‘true flow’ control system, unrivalled realism and official UEFA competitions exclusive to Pro Evolution Soccer 2010. But does it compete with other big soccer games already available in the App Store?

As seen at last week’s WWDC, iMovie for iOS looks like nothing else out there when it comes to mobile video editing. The Tidbits blog has posted some more details about what you can expect, and unfortunately, there’s some limitations on what you can do with iMovie.

The bad news is that for right now, it’s iPhone 4 only, with iPhone 3GSs needing not apply because of the lack of A4 processor. Don’t expect it on the iPad until Apple’s tablet gets a camera, though.

There’s more bad news: right now, you can’t export projects to iMovie on the Mac for giving your edits some more advanced finesse. iMovie for iPhone exists in its own little vacuum for people who want to quickly edit a movie on the go. If you want to edit your iPhone 4 footage on your Mac, you’ll need to start from scratch, at least for now.

While iMovie for iPhone is likely to be locked to next-gen iOS devices, I imagine Apple will eventually integrate the software with the desktop suite and bring it to the next-gen iPad and iPod Touch. Either way, at $4.99, iMovie for iPhone looks like a steal of an app.

This is a heartwarming story: a developer of China’s most popular instant messaging client, TenCent, was invited by Apple to come to WWDC, only to be mugged upon arrival in San Francisco for his iPad. He managed to escape with just a few bruises, but his iPad was shattered. Luckily, a local Apple Genius took sympathy on him and offered to replace the iPad… and to end things on the perfect note, when the developer wrote Steve Jobs to praise the Apple Store’s great customer service, he got a nice note back wishing him a safe voyage home.

The Icon by essential tpe is a design first in a peripheral line all too dominated by bulky li-ion boxes: it looks good. Actually, it looks great, aping the style of the iOS replenishing battery icon by using electroluminescent lighting film that displays the add-on battery’s power level even when it’s unplugged.

It has all the hallmarks of just another Yanko Design wishful-thinking concept, but essential tpe swear that this is a real product which they are ready to sell you… an assertion perhaps belied by the lack of pricing details and the rendered appearance of the product shots.

We certainly hope it’s a real product though: the Icon just looks too sexy for us to root against it.

Curious about Apple’s own foray into protective iPhone cases, the bumper? The guys over at AppAdvice have taken some pretty shots of the bumper case ensconcing a new iPhone 4.

It looks surprisingly good, especially wrapped around the white model, and my guess is that by offering some padding around the iPhone 4’s most vulnerable fracture point, the $29 case will be pretty good at keeping your iPhone safe from cracks… but keys shredding your screen will be just as big of a concern as a totally unprotected handset.

Despite Apple’s feelings about them, my guess is you’ll want to invest in a protective film even if you pick up the bumper.

Stefan Magdalinski is well-known in British geek circles, having made a name for himself building websites like They Work For You, Up My Street and moo.com before moving to South Africa to work for mobile business directory Mocality.

Stef wanted to surprise his wife, who loves chocolate and Apple in almost equal measure. So he made the best possible gift: a chocolate-coated iPad.

Apple your idea about iPad file syncing using the manual file-sharing capabilities of iTunes is disappointing. Especially in my case — I sync my media content with my iMac, which by the way isn’t very easy to carry around, and I cannot sync that same content on my Macbook Pro. If I try to sync using iTunes on another computer my syncing options are to Cancel, Transfer Purchases, or Erase and Sync. None of these options are useful, but if I click Cancel eventually I can manually access the files shared on my iPad even on my Macbook Pro.

It isn’t clear why Apple didn’t add a simple thing like automatic file syncing, but that doesn’t matter now after I discovered Ecamm Network’s new Mac application, PadSync, which adds automatic syncing capabilities to the file sharing feature of the iPad.

From the way Apple protects its iTunes business to theirefforts to block Google from competing equally on the iOS mobile advertising marketplace, Cupertino’s been provoking a lot of anti-trust talk lately.

Now it looks like the first official investigation into Apple’s business practices is about to be underway, courtesy of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, who has completed negotiations with the Department of Justice to examine whether Apple’s limitations on software that can be submitted to the App Store unfairly harms competition.

In the last three months, the hippest flight accessory has become the iPad, as legions of travelers have brought the magical future of computing on board to the envy and occasional derision of those less fortunate. Well now, soon you won’t need to own an iPad to feel superior to those suckers lugging around “books.” At least if you live in Australia.

Jetstar, the low-cost subsidiary of Qantas, has announced that it will make iPads available to its passengers for $8.40 per flight, allowing them to watch a small selection of movies, play games and read some pre-loaded e-books. No Internet access, sadly.

Still, it’s a lot more appealing than paying extra to rent headphones, no?

TNooz via NYTimes.com

Like a Norman Rockwell painting trying to hit you with a bazooka, Valve’s fantastic team-based multiplayer game Team Fortress 2 is now available on Steam for Mac. Even better? It’s free to play this weekend for everyone with a Steam for Mac account, and if you want to play after, Valve has discounted the game by 50%.

I’m away from home right now, but my Steam name is “DrCrypt” if anyone wants to add me (be gentle… I suck). Also, when I get back, I’ll look to set up a Steam “Cult of Mac” group.

We close out the week with three hardware choices for our top deals. First up is anothe MacBook Pro from ExperCom. This time it is a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo with 17-inch screen for $2,147. There is also a deal on a number of Macs, including an iBook G3 running at 500MHz for $189.99. Finally, we have a deal on a 2GB iPod shuffle for $35.

Along the way, we’ll check out several cases and skins for iPads, as well as the latest batch of App Store freebies. And, if you are into this year’s World Cup, there is a deal on a FIFA World Cup 2010 app for the iPhone or iPod touch.

As always, details on these and many other items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Apple newly-introduced iPhone 4 could be a record-breaker. Apple is accumulating millions of iPhone components, expecting its latest handset could break 10 million units sold in one fiscal quarter, reports suggested Friday.

Since May, Asia Optical has shipped an average of 3 million VGA lenses for the iPhone 4’s front-facing digital camera, according to the supplier’s chairman, Robert Lai. Apple’s orders mean up to 30 percent higher revenue for the company.

U.S. federal investigators are now looking into the breach of 114,000 e-mail addresses of iPad owners using AT&T’s website. The FBI said Thursday it was aware of a breach in AT&T’s online security and has begun an investigation.

Wednesday, carrier AT&T acknowledged the email addresses of iPad owners were compromised after a security group announced they had discovered a flaw in AT&T security allowing email identities to be gathered.

Whole civilisations have risen and fallen while the Mac community has discussed notebook applications. Everyone has tried different notebooks, and everyone has their own preference.

It’s hard to pin down just one, because the best ones each offer something unique; as a result, there might be a few mentioned in this series. But the first to qualify is Evernote.

Boy! Come the iPhone 4 launch date of June 24th, which electronics store do you suppose is going to have the biggest line snaking out the door? Microsoft’s new store opening in San Diego’s Fashion Valley Mall selling an exciting array of obsolete Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphones, or the Apple Store selling brand new iPhone 4s just four blocks away?

The MacBook Air is a beautiful machine, but with a puny hard drive, no optical drive and one USB port, sometimes its paucity of ports and specs can put the pinch on you.

The Apricorn Aegis NetDock aims to help you supplement your MacBook Air’s specs by umbilicaling your USB port to an attractive little box that merges four USB ports (two of them powered), a dual-layer DVD burner and a 500GB hard drive (or, if you prefer, an empty 2.5-inch SATA hard drive enclosure).

It’s pretty tiny, too. The Apricon Aegis NetDock is only 6.25 x 5.75 x 2.125 inches. The only real problem is it requires a power cord, but powering all of this off of a single USB port is a bit much.

The Aegis Netdock costs $189, or just $89 if you supply your own hard drive.

If you’re a developer itching to deploy any one of iOS 4’s 1500+ new APIs, good news: Apple has started accepting iOS 4 apps for submission.

There’s not much more to say, except for a personal plea to developers to get a move-on, since I want some multitasking apps to test come June 21st. And if you’re the developer of Skype or Reeder, that goes double for you.

People are making a big deal about this report from Chinese news site ON.CC, in which they assert that the financial impact of Foxconn’s recent pay raises (a direct response to the dozen-odd suicides of workers this year) will cause the Taiwan-based contract manufacture to shutter its mainland China factories and lay-off up to 800,000 Chinese workers.

Uh, guys. Maybe we’re wrong, but didn’t we already talk about this? The ON.CC piece seems to be clearly referring to the recent shareholder meeting in which Foxconn announced plans to open a new automated facility in either Taiwan or Vietnam, and to offload some of the immediate work from its Chinese facilities to Vietnam as a counter-measure against the very worker stress that is prompting the Foxconn suicide problem.

Foxconn was explicit at that meeting that this was just workload lightening to give their Chinese workers a room to breathe. They’re not shuttering Shenzhen! They’re not laying off anyone… at least, in the immediate future. It’s just a badly translated Google page with a factually incorrect interpretation of what was discussed at the meeting. Or am I missing something here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmZkrdhOjeQ

What exactly happened to cause the WWDC WiFi Meltdown during Steve Jobs’ keynote? Does Apple just not know how to set up a Time Capsule or what?

As it turns out, the problem was just what Apple said it was: too many 3G and MiFi devices. Over on the Future Tense blog, Glenn Fleishman has a very clear explanation of what happened and why.

A sensationally-titled piece over at Gadget Lab posted on Wednesday asserted that Jobs’ claims about the iPhone 4’s Retina Display being so dense that individual pixels were unobservable to the naked eye was “false marketing.”

Not so, says the Bad Astronomer himself, Phill Platt, who uses what he knows about optics and resolution from his years spent calibrating cameras aboard Hubble to prove that Jobs’ (mostly) told the truth when it comes to how the iPhone 4’s display looks from twelve inches away.

On Monday, Apple made a big deal about exactly how tough the new iPhone 4 glass was, bending it almost thirty degrees on stage without a sliver of a crack webbing across the glass.

Pretty impressive! Too bad you can’t even drop an iPhone 4 from waist height onto the ground without it shattering, finds repair shop iFixYourI (who don’t have an iPhone 4, but do already have replacement parts).

Where’s the blame, according to iFixYourI? The bezel. Previous iPhones had counter-sunk glass flush with the bezel, while the iPhone 4’s glass actually extrudes a little bit, so the bezel can’t protect it.

iFixYourI says design flaw. Possibly, but as a commenter points out below, it’s worth noting that a hollow iPhone 4 (as we have here) is going to have glass more vulnerable to drops than one supported by an interior hardware architecture. Furthermore, Apple seems aware of just this vulnerability: their new cases seem almost sole-mindedly designed around eliminating the exact sort of shock impact being discussed here.

Either way? Whether your fingers exude butter or not, you’ll probably want one of Apple’s new iPhone 4 bumpers. Probably the pink one, too.

We start off the day with another deal on MacBook Pros. ExperCom is offering a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo with 17-inch screen for $2,147. Next is a number of iPods, including a 4GB iPod nano for $69.99. Our last top deal is the latest batch of freebies from the iPad App Store, including “Air Guitar HD,” which simulates an actual instrument.

Along the way, we check out some new case for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3 and iPhone 3GS. Also up is the latest App Store price reductions for iPhone and iPod touch users. As always, details on these and many more items are available on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.