Forget about battery life and brightness for a moment and think about how helpful (or just plain cool) it would be to have a video projector built-in to your iPhone or iPod.  According to Digitimes, a pretty reputable tech manufacturing rag, Apple has commissioned Foxconn (one of the companies responsible for making current iPods and iPhones) to develop the technology to do just such a thing.  According to the quoted source,  projector-enabled sets will be available for the end of 2009.  Almost makes you wish you hadn’t re-upped with AT&T to get that 3gS doesn’t it?

Tags: 3g, 3gs, digitimes, foxconn, iphone, ipod, micro-projector, project, projection

Yup, CBS is now streaming a handful of shows on its iPhone app, TV.com.  Got a long airport layover? Why not watch Star Trek or Letterman?   Or wait for your mom to grocery shop in the car with CSI:Miami. The great thing–especially when compared to Joost–is that TV.com works over 3G, so you don’t need to be within range of a WiFi access point.  We’d keep writing, but we’re off to see if we can get The Price is Right.

Tags: 3g, csi, iphone, tv, video, wifi

Gizmodo’s got pictures of the new Android-based G2 phone, this time with a 3.2 megapixel camera and no hardware keyboard (ie, just a touchscreen like the iPhone and Storm).  Apparently the device is thinner than the iPhone 3G, but we’re still bothered by its lack of symmetry.  Meanwhile, it’s been reported that Android device sales are not biting iPhone sales in the slightest. Check it out.

Tags: 3g, android, apple, business, g2, google, iphone, photos

Making international long distance calls on your iPhone just got a whole lot cheaper, courtesy of those clever cats over at Truphone. Interestingly, while this new iPhone app does use minute-stealing to connect calls at a cheaper rate to overseas destinations, it apparently does NOT steal minutes using VoIP or 3G on the iPhone itself. Instead, calls are routed to a local phone number operated by Truphone first, and once inside Truphone’s network, are routed to the international destination using Voice over IP.

Truphone users will be prompted, at the time they dial an international number, whether or not they’d like to use Truphone to handle the call. Very clever.

Tags: 3g, services, truphone, voip, wireless

If you’re like many iPhone users, you suck the power out of your battery completely about once every 24 hours. The more useful a thing is, the more you use it–hence, my iPhone’s battery tends to be more empty than full. Here’s what to do to keep that battery alive:

1. Disable 3G. Bar none, this is the single most effective way to increase battery life on the iPhone. If you can tolerate the slowness of Edge and you don’t use any realtime data apps (like VoIP stuff, say), then Edge should be sufficient. You’ll probably have fewer dropped calls with Edge too.

2. Turn off WiFi and Bluetooth. Unless you’re using them, WiFi and Bluetooth are battery killers. Besides, the gimpy-ness of the iPhone’s Bluetooth support makes me question why anybody would leave it on at all.

3. Decrease the frequency of e-mail checks. This will result in fewer data transmissions and preserve the battery.

4. Install the 2.2 firmware update. Apparently, it helps.

Tags: 2.2, 3g, battery, dropped calls, firmware, iphone, voip, wireless