Well, I may be alone in that feeling based on the number of those signatures I see. As a matter of fact, it seems to have become somewhat of a status symbol. In China, where iPhones cost can cost more than a thousand dollars, people who want to appear to have one but can’t afford one can sign up for a monthly service that automatically adds, “Sent from my iPhone” to messages sent through QQ, a popular messaging service. The monthly fee is only about a buck per month. I guess that is a small price to pay for the status of “owning” an iPhone. I am not really sure what a subscriber of this service says when one of their friends asks to see their new iPhone.

Well, it’s back! It is available from a company called Celluon, and you can pick one up right now for about 170 bucks. However, if you have an iPhone and are willing to wait a few months, you will be able to get an iPhone case that has the virtual keyboard built in. It saves you from having to carry around another device, but it adds some serious size and weight to your iPhone. A battery is also built into the case, but at this time I am not sure if it is just for the keyboard or can also be used to charge the iPhone.

They hope to keep the price at around $170. I suppose the “cool” factor might make it worth that, but I will wait to see if the price comes down. Also, keep in mind it is made only for the iPhone 4/4s. This means that it may not fit the next model of the iPhone, which would severely shorten its life.

The folks over at Georgia Tech used an iPhone 4 for their tests. They had tried an iPhone 3, but the results weren’t as good. Thanks to the gyroscope in the iPhone 4, the results were much better. In fact, the iPhone 4 was able to achieved an 80% accuracy rate. While that’s not perfect, I would rather someone not know 80%  of what I typed. Just think if someone knew 80% of your passwords? 1% is too much in my book.

There is no reason for you to become immediately concerned about this new hacking technique. There have been no reports of it being used in the wild yet, and in order for it to work the hacker would either need to get the software loaded on your phone and have it send the results back to him, or they would have to leave their phone next to your keyboard. By the way, it would have to be real close to the keyboard, like no more than three inches from the keyboard.

While this technique doesn’t seem to be a real threat for anyone right now, I think I will be keeping my cell phone in my pocket the next time I type my password.

I wanted to try something different. There are a number of apps available that allow the iPhone to function as a SIP client. I figured I could configure a Third Party SIP phone on Communications Manager and then have the iPhone register directly to the Communications Manager by using the SIP client app. I also knew that it wouldn’t work as easily as I just described. But it did!

First I created an end user in Communications Manager. Next I configured a Third Party SIP phone by entering the bare minimum information and associated it to the user I just created by assigning that user as the digest user. On the iPhone I used the WeePhone SIP client app and entered the extension number as the user name and the end user information as the authentication user. I also entered the IP address of the Communications Manager in the domain field and tried to make a call. It worked the first time! I then tried the same thing using my iPad and, just like the iPhone, it worked right off the bat.

I am not sure how many practical applications this has, but I could see using it as a shared line so that while someone is away from their desk they could still get calls. Or, maybe it is just something to play with in the lab.

I am sorry if I sound a little less than excited about this product. I am sure there are many good uses for it. But for me the average day contains many moments that I would just rather forget about.

The speed at which this things moves is unbelievable, as a matter of fact the entire phone is unbelievable and that may be because it doesn’t exist. It ‘s a Mozilla Seabird concept phone and while I normally dismiss concept devices this one hit me differently. While the features seen in this phone are not something we will see this year, I feel this concept does a great job at showing where we could be heading if enough talented and creative people move in the right direction.

If a phone came out with even half of the features this one offers, I would sign up for it today. Why don’t you sit back for a minute and take a trip in to the possible future.  Here’s how it might look…

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/oG3tLxEQEdg" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

It didn’t take long for me to download the update and start playing with it. The first test proved to be pretty much trouble free. I tested it over WiFi, but it is supported over 3G as well. The quality of the video wasn’t the greatest but was acceptable. Once in a while the audio dropped, but that can happen any time you are trying to use the internet to transmit voice.

It requires iOS 4.0 and only works on the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and 4th generation iPod touch. You can use the front or rear facing camera. Of course, since the iPhone 3GS only has a rear facing camera, you are somewhat limited when using that device. It kind of works on the iPad as well. I know, you are saying “wait a minute, the iPad doesn’t have any camera.” You are right. When using it with the iPad, it only receives video. I tried this out as well and it works as promised. You can see the other party but all they see is themselves. I guess if you are the one with the iPad it would be OK but the other guy is stuck looking and himself for the entire call.

While I don’t see myself using this everyday, I do think it will cause me to use Skype to communicate with my family when I am on the road. The best thing is that to make a call you don’t do anything that much different than you do to make a normal call. I think that is the key to bringing things like video calls to the main stream. It seems that people aren’t willing to do anything extra to make a video call. If they can make a call the way they normally do and it has video, great – they will most likely use it. But if they have to connect to the internet, get the camera working and then load software, they are just going to pick up the phone instead. Creating cool technology isn’t enough, you have to make it easy to use and Skype for the iPhone does just that.

Imagine you are walking along the street in Mexico and you come across a sign written in Spanish. If you are like me, you can’t read Spanish so you are at a loss as to what it says. No problem. Just whip out your iPhone and look at the sign through the camera. Magically, the sign appears on the phone just like it does in front of you except the words are in English. It seems like something you would see in a sci-fi movie, but it is an app called World Lens and you can buy for the iPhone right now.

Check out the video below to see it in action:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/h2OfQdYrHRs" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

All this is great and most likely not news to anyone reading this blog. Instant messaging has become a great tool for me. However, lately I have found myself away from my office a lot which has meant I wasn’t able to use instant messaging as much as I would like to. Due to the type of server I use for instant messaging, I need to use a secure messaging client. I had tried a few iPhone apps, but none of them were able to connect to my server. Then I discovered Meebo.

Meebo is a web based service that lets you access all of your IM accounts from one interface. It’s been around for a while, but I never really had a use for it. But when I found out they had an iPhone app, I decided to check it out again. Once I created a Meebo account and configured IM accounts within it, I was ready to try the iPhone app. It worked right out of the gate and has been a very reliable app. It includes push notification and runs in the background so you are notified when you get an IM no matter what you are doing on the phone.

I have come to find this app very useful and the price is right up my alley – free. If you have been looking for a low cost, reliable IM client for the iPhone, check out this one.

So, I was able to participate on a WebEx call, send and receive instant messages, remote to my PC, and still keep an eye on my email all from an iPhone and a 3G connection. I have always liked my iPhone, but every now and then it just amazes me.

As with any computing device, the iPhone is only as good as the software you have installed on it. Here are some apps you might want to check out if you find yourself on the road with nothing but an iPhone:

• WebEx
• iTap RDP
• LogMeIn
• Teamviewer
• FTPOnTheGo
• iDonwload

This is just a short list of the apps I find helpful. There are many great apps out there. What are a few of your favorites?