For everyone waiting for iTunes to become more like Rhapsody or Last.fm, don’t hold your breath. The rumor that Apple may announce a much-awaited music subscription service at their invitation-only “Lets Rock” September 9th press event appears to be just that, a rumor.

According to Gizmodo, “a friend in the industry” has seen the iPhone playing 1080P video on several occasions without a problem. Although HD doesn’t make sense on the iPhone’s small screen, it could be useful if iTunes starts selling HD TV shows. Keeping HD movie rentals on the Apple TV is one thing, but customers likely won’t settle for storing purchased content there.

Kate, the unofficial set of customization and productivity tools for jailbroken iPhones, has been updated to run on the 2.x software. The update also fixes all the bugs in the previous version and solves issues with Winterboard. Kate can be found in Installer.app on the ‘Featured’ screen or using the search. Kate is available on a subscription basis. More information on Kate is available on the Rip-Dev site.

While speaking in the Citi Technology Conference in New York asked Michael Dell yet again if he’s considering making a device to compete with the iPhone. His response was that “I think you will see us with small screen devices,” adding that we will see Dell making “smaller and smaller devices that have capabilities of the [iPhone]. Not in the near-term.”
[via Yahoo! News]

The highly anticipated Spore Origins already found its way to the iPod a while back, and creator Will Wright says that it will be making it’s way to the App Store some time this week. The game starts you off as a microbe, and as you grow and eat you evolve into a bigger creature that can eat even bigger creatures, and the cycle continues.

Apple’s checking methods and standards have been brought into question several times in the past with the acceptance and subsequent removal of apps that are widely accepted as either harmless or so bad that they never should have made it into the app store in the first place. One developer hoping to get his slightly offensive and tasteless but fairly harmless app Pull My Finger was (not surprisingly) rejected, but the reason they gave was an unusual one.

Rumor has it that Apple is getting ready to release a killer new iPhone app that will serve as an interactive album application, delivering lyrics, artwork, behind-the-music photos and other bonus content to supplement the lack of a physical CD. Little about the alleged app is known, but it is suspected to offer a new interface for the digital booklets that some albums come with in iTunes.

As those of you who have heard my appearances on the iPhone Alley Podcast know, I’m a big fan of Shure’s SE line of in-ear headphones. Earlier today they released the SE102s, a new edition at the bottom of the line-up, starting at $99.99. They also announced that in a new attempt to target smartphone owners like those with iPhones, they are now offering their MPA, which add a microphone and a control button, discounted when bundled with any of the SE line headphones.

Well, we found out last week that iPhone Girl wasn’t fired for accidentally letting a picture of herself end up on someone’s new iPhone 3G. She found fame incidentally and suddenly, with her photograph rapidly traveling from one corner of the internet to another, so it’s not surprising that she’s a little freaked out by all the media attention (like this post) she’s getting.

The folks at iLounge have gotten their hands on what appear to be dimensional drawings for upcoming iterations of the iPod touch and 4th generation iPod nano. According to the drawings, the iPod nano appears to be very similar the “Kevin Rose nano”, we mentioned late last month. The only difference is that, according to the drawing, the nano’s plastic screen covering may not be curved.

The iPod touch drawings depict a more iPhone 3G-like design which sports a tapered back - thin at its edges, and thicker in the middle. The most significant change seems to be the addition of a volume rocker, similar to the iPhone. Headphone port and dock connections seem to have stayed in the same location at the bottom of the device. Full drawings after the break.