The next generation iPhone will have a matte-black metal finish according to some recent leaked photos. Do we trust those recent leaked photos? Not really. Sure, we’re not gonna immediately deny these photos’ legitimacy, but a big signal that these are fake: the case uses metal. Why would we immediately say metal means its not real? Because metal is a complete failure when dealing with cell and WiFi signals, so that’s why we’re gonna give this rumor a big “iffy” stamp. MacRumors and iPodObserver both received the images earlier today, and iPodObserver did post the first pics of the iPhone 3G’s glossy back months before the release, but we’re still doubtful. Check out some more pictures at MacRumors.

Amazon will launch it’s new Kindle at 7:00 AM Pacific (10 EST) this morning during a press event. Pictures of the device leaked to the media this weekend, while BGR had pictures of the device months ago. According to sources, the device will cost $359 and be available on February 24. All will be known in just a few hours, when Jeff Bezos will undoubtedly make the announcement of the new device. Engadget and Gizmodo will both have live coverage from the event, so check both sites out for up-to-the-minute news.

IGN reports that the Nintendo DSi will greet US shores (officially) in early April, April 4th specifically. Reportedly bearing a $179.99 pricetag, the DSi has already been imported and, consequently, hacked like crazy, so the device shouldn’t be that new to people. As you may know, the DSi is the next generation DS, featuring a thinner form-factor, dual-cameras, and larger screens. Check back for more on this story, but an April launch would be great considering previous speculation thought a late 2009 launch would occur. We’ve got a DSi overview video on Youtube, and you can check it out below.Click here to view the embedded video.

This year marks my third for attending the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.  As a few of you might already know, my father is the almighty Yahya Ahdout, the owner and CEO of dreamGEAR, a video game/iPod accessory and speaker producer and distributor, and he is my ticket into this amazing show.  You can find his wonderful products at many places including your local Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Blockbuster.  One of his latest items is the Warbeast Guitar Controller for all Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Rock Revolution games on PS2/PS3. But, enough of that, lets get to the good stuff.  I will be at the show for its entirety, and I will constantly be blogging and posting every interesting thing that I find.  Like Engadget and Gizmodo, we will be posting about the biggest announcements by all the different companies, but I will also use my time to go around the smaller booths and post about the pretty cool things that everyone forgets about.  As I roam from hall to hall and booth to booth, I will be accompanied by a very good friend of mine, Michael York, who is getting his new blog off the floor, and will be working in compliance with us at blargKABOOM.

Finally, the things I will be bringing with myself on my journey:
Canon EOS 30D – To snap pictures of everything for all you guys to see!
Asus eee 901 – For blogging on the go while on the show floor.
Apple iPhone 3G – For constant tethering, and music on the go. As it is also of course my telephone.
MacBook Pro – Yes, mine is in fact the first generation model, but it will be my home-base for posting in the hotel room. 

And also, a little background for those of you who do not know what CES is; ah god im too lazy, just read about it on Wikipedia here!

Happy New Year everyone, welcome to 2009! And to start off the new year, let’s look at the Apple rumors that have roamed around the web during the last days of 2008 and this first day of 2009.

• iMac and Mac mini revamps are rumored to be announced at Macworld next week. More information is known about the new Mini, apparently the design will resemble the Time Capsule and have “lip” along with the option to add a second hard drive instead of an optical drive. The iMac, however, is still up-in-the-air on details.
• iPhone nano rumors have been going nuts due to case manufacturers now selling cases for this yet unannounced product. Even reputable case maker Vaja is offering customers notification for when their case for the unreleased phone is available. Whether or not iPhone nano will appear at MacWorld or at separate event is not known, but it seems that a smaller iPhone is coming.
• TechCrunch has heard from three reputable sources that a larger version of the iPod touch will grace the world sometime this year, with a fall release currently planned. The device will feature a 7-9 inch screen and should be compatible with all App Store applications.
• Steve Job’s health is a private issue and it should not be newsworthy, but due to him being the core of Apple and the circumstances of this rumor, this latest rumor on his health should be heard. According to reliable Gizmodo sources, the reason for removing Jobs from Macworld was due to his rapidly declining health. The source has apparently been 100% in the past, yet the source seems to suggest Jobs will be leaving the company in Spring. I, along with all Apple Fanboys of the world, hope that this is dead wrong and that Jobs is still healthy. 
• The long awaited 17″ Unibody MacBook Pro is apparently ready and rumored to be released at Macword.
• Back to the real newsworthy rumors: according to several sources online iWork and iMovie will make the switch to online based applications at Macworld next week. These “cloud” applications may tie in to MobileMe, yet that is unknown. Google and Microsoft both have online “cloud” based applications and Apple following suit seems very plausible.

So, there you have it – the first rumor wrap-up of 2009. This is going to be a big year for everyone, blargKABOOM especially, so stay tuned.

After months of delays and thousands of angry BlackBerry fans waiting for their new savior to launch, AT&T is about to finally release one of the most anticipated phones of the year, the BlackBerry Bold. Boy Genius Report has it on exclusive AT&T internal emails and official and good sources that October 27 is the launch date of the Bold. Of course, unless the phone is delayed for lack of quality again. However, if you can live without having the latest BlackBerry in your hands for about a month or two more, I would stick it out for the smaller, updated Curve 8900, codenamed Javelin. Probably launching late November, mid-December, the new Curve looks like a mini-Bold and includes the new user interface that makes the Bold famous. Looks like BlackBerry users have a decision to make, let us know what you want to get in the comments.

“The spotlight turns to notebooks.”

With Apple’s notebook event starting in almost 10 hours, its only fitting that we roundup the most recent rumors and give you a spotlight of where to go for coverage.

COVERAGE:

As with normal Apple event coverage, check out Engadget and Live.Gizmodo for live up-to-the-second coverage. Besides those two live sources, MacRumors will be gathering news while it happens. blargKABOOM coverage will be intermittent and will be as up-to-date as possible. The event starts at 10:00am Pacific Time and will almost surely star Steve Jobs and a couple of new MacBooks.

RUMORS:

The rumor mill spins extra fast during the Apple event season and this notebook event produced tons of rumors.

The biggest rumors, and almost facts, are around updates to the MacBook and MacBook Pro line. Apparently, aluminum will be key to the new line and the new MacBook will ditch plastic for aluminum. Also rumored is that the MacBook Pro will feature a similar black bezel around the screen like the current iMac (see supposed leaked image above). Faster processors, more storage space, and normal hardware boosts are also expected. Also expected are new lower prices for the notebooks.

After the notebook line updates, what could the “One more thing…” be at this event?

A new Apple display that competes in the television market and includes a built-in hard drive is also rumored. Even if Apple ever produces this product, its highly doubtable that this event will be its launch.

Other rumors include a touch-screen based “iTablet,” a netbook/mini-notebook, and freshly redesigned cinema displays.

10:00am sharp, notebook event, Steve Jobs will be there, will you?

Rumors have been flying around for months about Apple refreshing their MacBook and MacBook Pro lines in design orientated way. Neither the MacBook nor the MacBook Pro has faced major design and style changes since each products respective introductions back in May and January of 2006. Since the end of last year, rumors popped up stating refreshes are coming. Now, the most solid rumor we have is that we will see these new laptops on October 14 (next Tuesday). What will the changes include? For the MacBook, a new aluminum shell making it more recyclable and giving it a more sophisticated look. For the MacBook Pro, a more refined aluminum shell with some sort of black bezel similar to that of the current iMac.

The biggest rumor that went around recently had to deal with codename “Brick.” Internally, Apple calls this new product, or rather technology, “Brick”. Most speculated that the Brick would either be some new smaller touch based device, or a mini-notebook to compete with the Eee PC and the like. Now, 9to5mac.com has shared to us from credible sources that the Brick is a new technology in the way Apple will make the laptops. Unlike current aluminum laptops like the MacBook Pro where the computer contains many pieces of aluminum fit together and cut up and the such, the Brick technology allows for the use of one “brick” of aluminum. Using just lasers and jets of water to literally carve new MacBooks, the new technology offers many benefits: no weak spots, no screws, it’s cheap, and it is made directly by Apple and isn’t done by Taiwanese companies like Foxconn so there are less rumors and leaks. It sounds odd, but check out the full description over at 9to5Mac and it will make more sense.

So, October 14 is the day. New MacBooks, new MacBook Pros, and the introduction of the Brick. Set your calendars.

Engadget posted a picture of the rumored fourth-generation iPod nano that Kevin Rose called around two weeks ago. The picture does look pretty real, however it is blurry. MacNN received a blurred version of the photo just a few hours before Engadget got the real one. Whether this is just the work of a Photoshop magician or an actual product, we won’t be able to tell until the man in the black turtleneck comes out at 10:00 am next Tuesday, the 9th.

Adding to evidence of a new product, the latest firmware beta for the iPhone and iPod touch used a new code to represent iPod touch: 2,1 instead of the current 1,1 – this suggests that a new iPod touch could be released soon.

Rumors have been spreading out around numerous websites that the iPhone 3G will get a (RED) makeover just in time for the holidays.  Could it also be joined by a 32GB upgrade for the iPhone 3G and a 64GB upgrade for the iPod Touch?

Photo Courtesy of http://www.macblogz.com

While configuring the HP Blackbird 002 on HP’s website, I noticed that the unreleased, unannounced NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT was an option in configuring the Blackbird 002.  The card supposedly has 512MB GDDR3 of SDRAM, but no other information about the card is listed.  Maybe it could just be a stupid mistake and the card is really the 9800 GTX? Is anyone brave enough to drop $2299 for one of these badboys to get more info on the card? 

Check it out for yourself here.

Update: It seems Dell has joined the party: Link

MacBook touch: no this picture isn’t real, but it’s a great mockup of what a product could look like. (courtesy of Gizmodo)

Apple had its quarterly earnings call on Monday and it revealed that a “product transition” would lower gross margin next quarter because “Apple makes state of the art new products that the competition just can’t match” and that means higher costs. In other words, Apple’s going to release a new product that is really cheap and that costs a lot, this way everyone will buy it, but Apple will make less money from it in the beginning.

Throughout the call, Apple’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer brought up this “new product that [Apple] [couldn't] discuss” or “new additions to the product line.” He also said this new product would have a direct effect on the September/fourth quarter. If this new product has an effect on the September quarter, that would most likely mean it has to come out sometime in the beginning of September/late August. And, if it’s going to have a large impact on gross margins, then it’s probably going to be a big deal.

So what could this new product be? Well, the product that sells really well during the September quarter is computers (notebooks specifically). The reason: this is the time when students are going back to school and need to computers. And if Apple wants to get to the students, they’re going to release this new notebook relatively soon. Not meaning tomorrow, but a mid-August launch is perfect if they are targeting those students getting new computers before school. If Apple wants to make an even bigger splash in the market and one that their competitors can’t match, they’re either going to revamp their notebook line (which is due for a redo in the MacBook and MacBook Pro areas) or release a new inexpensive laptop that will sell like crazy.

Most likely, an Apple event will be announced very soon and will take place in the beginning of August, there Steve will do his normal Keynote and will announce revamped MacBooks and MacBook Pros as well as a cheaper MacBook Air with better specs. Then, the “one more thing…” Everyone is speculating that it will be a MacBook touch, and it very well could be. Something else they could do: a small mini-notebook similar to the Eee PC or the HP Mini Note. If they really want to innovate, then they could use multiple screens having the bottom as a multitouch keyboard. Now, neither a MacBook touch or this mini-MacBook are very realistic, but if Apple is really going to “wow” everyone, they will do it in a big way.

Around three years ago, Art Lebedev studios started talking about making a fully customizable keyboard, complete with displays under each key. Not until the beginning of this year did they actually release that full keyboard, the Optimus Maximus, and for a hefty price of almost $2000 ($1877.43 to be exact). The keyboard has 113 keys with OLED screens inside of them, each fully customizable to display anything the user wants. You can trigger a certain key to open an application, display a certain image when a certain application is open, you can make it do anything–it is completely customizable through a computer software. Before Art Lebedev released the Maxiums, they teased us with the Optimus mini three: basically the same thing, except instead of 113 keys, it only has (you guessed it) three. The mini three is only $183.48, however, which is a much easier buy than the Maximus. Now Art Lebedev has added another product to the line – the Optimus Pultius. Little information is known currently, and all we do know is that it has 15 of the same customizable keys and works alongside any keyboard. Pricing is unknown and the only dates given are end of 2008/early 2009. Hopefully, they’ll let this bad boy have a relatively small price tag–my best guess is around $400–because a set of customizable keys like this is exactly what a lot of users are looking for.

Tesla Motors, known for its $109,000 electric Roadster, will announce a sedan during a press conference tomorrow, according to TechCrunch. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be at the press conference to represent a deal between Tesla and the state. Little is known about the sedan, but if Tesla really wants to make a breakthrough, pricing will be key. Considering they have the pricy Roadster, they might follow course with an expensive sedan. They also could go for the market waiting for a green version of a BMW or Mercedes. So the crowd that doesn’t want the less-expensive Toyota, but can’t afford the incredibly expensive Roadster. The sedan will be a 5 passenger vehicle, to be out in 2010.

Sad news BlackBerry fans: the BlackBerry Bold’s launch on AT&T has been delayed until August. AT&T and RIM need more time to deal with overheating and software issues with battery life, according to The Boy Genius Report. The BlackBerry Bold is still on target to launch on Canada’s Rogers Mobile shortly.

According to Gizmodo’s inside sources, the upcoming iPhone 2.0 firmware will hit Gold Master (ready for public release) this Friday. This is only a tentative ‘planned’ date, but it would be great for developers to get a final version of the software a while before iPhone 3G launch. Now this Gold Master date doesn’t necessarily mean the public will get the firmware on Friday, but it is a confirmation that Apple is on the path for release. Another doubt that the public will get the firmware early: Apple tentatively had a late-June release for 2.0 back in March, but at WWDC the release was pushed to early July. Unless the developers made major progress in the two weeks we’ve had since WWDC, Apple’s probably not going to switch the release back to late-June.

In other iPhone 2.0 news: the new firmware will apparently include a full data reset feature unlike the current. Incase you didn’t know, when you do a data reset on iPhone now, not all of your data is gone. Bits and pieces of data can be recovered causing some security issues if you sell your phone. The new firmware’s data reset feature has been beefed up and will actually erase all data, unlink the remains, and overwrite files to completely leave no traces: for even more proof of a full reset, the new reset will take around an hour to complete. 

Image courtesy of Gizmodo

Just twelve hours people, and then Steve will walk the stage of the Moscone Center and put the rumors to rest. TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) just received rumor tonight with some snippets of a webpage for the new Mac Fusion. Aimed toward the developer crowd (remember, it’s the Worldwide Developers Conference,) the pictures show off a Mac+PC+Linux logo which suggests that it will be able to run Linux as well. The tag line states “Leave Windows behind. Build your Apps for OS X.” This rumor could be true, considering this could be the upgrade to the long untouched Mac mini (which was rumored to be killed off, and then rumored to be getting a redesign). Of course, rumors sneaking out right before WWDC are unlikely, this one looks slightly legit. We’ll see tomorrow morning.

With less than 24 hours until Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote speech, everyone is making predictions, spreading rumors, showing “pictures,” and sharing “top-secret” information about the next generation iPhone. One feature that is for sure arriving in the next-generation iPhone is 3G, but almost all else is unknown. One piece of information we found out early this weekend is the inclusion of GPS. Engadget heard from a ‘reliable’ source that firmware found in the 3G iPhone was released to carriers, and some specs (including the inclusion of GPS) were included.

Besides 3G and GPS, your guess is as good as mine.

So, what is the latest we’ve seen and heard on the iPhone front.

First off were some pictures (PICTURED ABOVE) of the supposed new iPhone, showing a PRODUCT(RED) version as well as a black/gray version. The photos showed off iChat and Exchange support and even displayed what a supposed video chat would look like. There are two giveaways here, one is giving iChat to Windows (shown in the iChat description), and the second are the people video-chatting (they just don’t look like the normal advertising models Apple uses.)

Also, a few people have posted pictures of an ‘unboxing’ of the new iPhone. The funny thing is that the pictures don’t even match up in some of them (in the same set of unboxing pictures, one would show the back as black and in another photo the back would be the standard silver.)

If you surf around the web enough, you can find tons of of “LEAKED – 3G iPHONE PICTURES”, but you should HIGHLY DOUBT authenticity.

One day until the supposed launch date of the 3G iPhone people, rumors will soon be a thing of the past.

With only one day until the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), let’s breakdown what we’re expecting Steve Jobs to say and where you should go to get live coverage of the event.

So, what do most people think will be discussed tomorrow?

• 3G iPhone – The rumor-mill has been hinting toward it for months now, and almost everyone is certain that this will be announced on Monday. Price, release date, size, shape, features – who knows, but Monday is the day we will find out. The latest news says that the phone will feature GPS, alongside 3G that will work worldwide, and be slightly smaller. According to our sources, however, June 13 is the release date and the phone will be slightly thicker.
• .Mac overhaul – Whether it be the transformation into Mobile Me, or a complete revamp of the program, something will most likely happen.
• Mac OS X 10.6 – It definitely won’t be released tomorrow, but whether it be a beta announcement, a quick mention, or a screenshot – the best guess is it will be discussed.

A real picture of RIM’s first touchscreen BlackBerry, the Thunder, has finally surfaced. The front, as previously reported, features only four buttons, but the phone itself features lots of side buttons (two convenience buttons, a volume rocker, play/pause, and a ‘lock’ key). The leaked image also confirms the exclusivity to Verizon that we previously heard. The Boy Genius Report has the full scoop on the Thunder.

(Image courtesy of Gizmodo)