Apple Releases iOS 5 Beta 4 & iTunes 10.5 Beta 4 — (OTA Updates Now Enabled)

Devs (and everyone else paying for a dev account): Apple has officially released iOS 5 beta 4. If you’d like to get your sync on, you’ll also need to pick up iTunes 10.5 beta 4 as well. Enough reading. More downloading. Get going…

Update

Well whataya know — OTA updates now work in beta 4. Other new feature — Wireless iTunes sync on Windows.

Rumor: iPhone 5 Launching September 5th In U.S., Globally In October.

Apple has yet to announce an official iPhone 5 release date much less admit they actually have one in the works — let’s be real, they do — but that hasn’t stopped the rather prolific iPhone 5 rumor mills. As we roll into Friday evening here in the States, iPhone Italia is giving us a new tip supposedly coming from a “trusted source” whom claims the next-gen iPhone will launch in the U.S. on September 5th, and globally sometime in October. The same source also claims that Apple will release a 5th-gen iPod Touch during the same time frame and include similar single-core to dual-core improvements with very little change in the overall physical appearance and design. It goes without saying you should remain skeptical and take the above rumors with a grain of salt.

As for our stance on the continuous iPhone 5 rumors — we don’t see how the next-gen iPhone 5 can be both a “minor” upgrade while also featuring a much faster dual-core processor. Apple markets the most trivial things at times, so you can bet that a processor jump such as the aforementioned one would garner a huge share of Apple’s focus. Guess we’ll have to let Steve settle this one for us later this fall.

Global News Sources: Where Google+ Stands…

We’ve covered Google’s quickly growing Google+ social networking service pretty extensively over the last 3 weeks since its launch. And despite our heavy focus on said network, we’re but one (very) small piece of the greater web. With that said, where does Google+ fit in with many of the other social services and news sources of the web?

(Comscore) In short: Facebook accounts for 91% of all news originating from the most popular social networks. Take out Faecbook, however (chart on right) and you can begin to see the other players. Google+ in particular still holds a tiny 1.1% — out of the 9% Facebook doesn’t control — so it’s part in the grander scheme of things is rather irrelevant. But it won’t be for long. Last week Google+ ranked as the 2404th most visited site on the internet. This week — 638th. Ultimately we can’t forget Google+ has been around all of 3 weeks, and even now still isn’t completely open to the public. What will be really interesting to see is how (1) Google+ continues to grow (or doesn’t) and (2) what Google will change/enhance with Google+ moving forward.

What goal will Google+ break next?

T-Mobile: “G-Slate Tablet 300% Faster Than Motorola’s XOOM On VZW.

When will hardware manufacturers learn that bold phrases such as “200x faster than…” and “ultra sharp screen…” are nothing more than buzz words that do little to actually inform the public about a particular device’s features. Marketing at it’s finest unfortunately. So consider us unamused with T-Mobile’s new claims regarding their G-Slate tablet boasting of (network) speeds that are “200x faster than the iPad 2 on AT&T and Verizon” and 300x faster than the Motorola XOOM on Verizon Wireless. The tests were conducted in New York City and Seattle, Washington by an “independent third party conducted testing” — that doesn’t sound janky at all — and found T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network easily beat the competition.

Mild criticism and sarcasm aside, the G-Slate hardware is one of our favorite Android tablets. Now if only T-Mobile wouldn’t mislead customers with potentially false claims — cellular performance is incredibly inconsistent and dependent on a number of factors. On that same note, the G-Slate tablet itself isn’t any faster than the iPad 2 or Motorola XOOM. T-Mobile is merely marketing their 3G — it’s not real 4G — HSPA+ network. Plus, once the LTE XOOM is made available, T-Mobile’s claims will be instantly nullified. LTE is light years ahead of HSPA+.

But hey, T-Mobile does have one thing down pat: The G-Slate only costs $399 w/ a 2-year contract and $599 off contract. Not a bad deal compared to the competition if we say so ourselves.

3G Be Damned, T-Mobile Begins Selling Micro SIM Cards For iPhone 4 (And Friends).

Despite not having an ounce of T-Mobile 3G (read: 1700 MHz/”AWS”) support, the iPhone 4 is a rather popular device on the nation’s 4th largest carrier’s network. It has been claimed that up to 1,000,000 unlocked iPhone 4′s currently call T-Mobile home, EDGE data and all. And now that T-Mobile is officially selling their own micro SIM cards in-store, iPhone 4 users looking to buck the trend can do so easier and with less hassle. Bonus: T-Mobile will subsidize the whopping $10 price tag on the micro SIMs as long as you sign up for a new 2-year contract.

We’re sure desperation would drive even the strongest soul to consider a 2-year contract for an EDGE-only device, but with rumors of Sprint and T-Mobile iPhones coming this fall with the iPhone 5 we’re pretty sure you should wait and see how things turn out. The next 2-3 months look very interesting.

[T-Mobile]

BlackBerry PlayBook Becomes First U.S. Government Certified Tablet.

The BlackBerry PlayBook may be failing to capture a large consumer market share but it’s government prospects just got a healthy boost — the U.S. Government has approved the PlayBook as the first officially certified tablet for government use throughout all agencies. Considering BlackBerry smartphones are the government’s go-to standard for security reasons, the announcement isn’t too surprising. And since pretty much all government employees with a smartphone use a BlackBerry (for work purposes at least), the PlayBook’s lack of dedicated email/calendar/contacts is a moot point. +1 for RIM.

Purported Next Gen White iPod Touch Casing Leaks!

A source of 9to5Mac has sent them what they claim to be the front casing of the next-gen — that’s 5th gen for those who’ve lost count — iPod Touch. Bonus: It’s white! With Apple finally getting the white coloring issue resolved on both the iPhone 4 and iPad 2, it’s not too much of a stretch to think they would extend the extended color palette to their cellular-less iPod Touch.

For the record, the legitimacy of the above image cannot be confirmed at this point. And depending on which rumor you stumble upon, the 5th-gen iPod Touch will/will not carry a revamped physical casing. The more popular rumor at this point is that it too, like the (rumored) iPhone 5 design, will see most of its changes internally.

Think we’re looking at a part of the 5th-gen iPod Touch or is this merely a prototype 4th-gen iPod Touch that never made it to the public sphere? We’ll keep you posted…