If you follow tech news very much, and Apple in particular, you know one thing is certain: even if you have the “latest thing” from Apple they will be releasing an even better one sooner or later. That’s never been more the case, and more the subject of scrutiny and speculation, than with the iPhone and iPad.

So, it should come as no surprise that pretty much everyone is in the “what will Apple release next” game, including the Wall Street Journal. This time around the Journal is reporting that Apple’s next generation iPad (aka iPad 3) will feature, among other things, 4G LTE wireless connectivity.

In addition, said iPad 3 will be sold at both AT&T and Verizon. That isn’t exactly earth-shattering news, though, as both wireless carriers have had 4G LTE for some time and have hardware that runs on it already.

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If you have a shiny new iPhone 4S as some of us do here at The Flickcast and you’ve experienced less-than-stellar battery life, this will be of interest to you. There’s been a few reports around the Internets, and elsewhere, that the iPhone 4S’s battery life leaves something to be desired.

Sure, it could have to do with the fact that it features a faster processor or that Siri is a bit power hungry. Or, as was postulated by the folks at iDownloadBlog, it could be the iPhone 4S’s Time Zone service that’s causing the problem.

Reportedly, a bug in iOS 5 (which ships on all iPhone 4S units) forces its location tracking feature to remain active much more than necessary which drains the phone’s battery far more quickly. Users can manually turn off the automatic time zone setting by going to Settings > General > Date & Time. Once there, toggling “Set Automatically” to “Off.”

We’ve tried this “fix” on a couple of our own devices and so far it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. That said, and this is in no way scientific, we tend to get pretty much the advertised battery life on our iPhone 4S units. So, maybe it’s actually a hardware problem on some units and not software after all? Or, perhaps it’s a carrier issue as our iPhone 4S units are all using Verizon and not AT&T?

Whatever the issue, Apple is usually pretty fast to issue a fix for these problems so expect to see one sooner rather than later. In the meantime, let us know if you try this “fix” and what your results are, if any.

Did any of you own a Motorola RAZR? I’m sure you did. Back in 2005 it was the coolest phone to own.

It was skinny. It was light. It had cool glowy blue buttons. It was on all the carriers. It was the phone to have. At least if you were a tech-crazed high schooler, like myself back then.

It seems that Motorola may not have done it again with the newest addition to the RAZR, but the new Motorola Droid RAZR, as it’s being dubbed, is still a really neat phone.

Sporting 4G, a 1.2 GhZ dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 32 GB of storage, 12.5 hours of talk time, an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p recording, a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display strengthened with Gorilla Glass and Kevlar fiber, and at only 7.1mm thick, the Droid RAZR is now the thinnest 4G phone on Verizon. And because of the kevlar, the phone will be protected against spills and other nasty accidents.

You know what else is made of kevlar? The Batsuit. I’m officially calling this one the Batphone. This thing is cool.

The phone will also be compatible with the rest of Motorola’s line of devices, including the Moto Webtop and the brand new MOTOACTIV, a pretty nifty fitness watch that was also announced today. Only downside to this phone seems to be that it’s running Gingerbread, and not the upcoming version of Android, dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich.

Motorola’s announcement comes just hours before Samsung announces their newest version of their Nexus line, which will be exclusive to Verizon AND will have Ice Cream Sandwich. So the Motorola Droid RAZR certainly has some competition.

You’ll be able to pick up your very own Batphone, I mean Motorola Droid RAZR, in early November exclusively for Verizon Wireless.

Now that we know Apple will be announcing something next week on October 4th, the speculation can continue as to what that will be. And here’s one for today.

Mac Rumors reports that a China Unicom executive apparently confirmed during a presentation at this week’s Macworld Asia that the “iPhone 5″ set to be announced next week will support HSPA+, which is sometimes called “4G.” This technology  offers a maximum theoretical data speed of 21 Mbps.

They’ve even got a photo of a slide presented during the talk that seems to support the assertion. According to the report, research vice president of China Unicom, Huan Wenliang, said the iPhone 5 “will support W-CDMA based high-speed data transfer standard HSPA Evolution” (aka HSPA+) during a keynote speech at the event.

T-Mobile and AT&T both offer 21Mbps HSPA+ in the United States and market the networks as “4G,” although it really should be thought of as more “3.5G” if anything, based on the speed. Apple is reportedly testing a true 4G LTE iPhone but we probably won’t see that being announced next week.

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With the iPhone being so popular and all the speculation about the next gen iPhone 5 reaching fever pitch, it’s sometimes hard to keep in mind the other fine smartphones on the market or coming soon. One of these is the upcoming Motorola DROID Bionic from Verizon Wireless.

Even for fans of HTC devices (which many of us are), it’s easy to be impressed with Moto’s latest offering. With specs such as a dual-core 1GHz TI OMAP processor, 1GB of RAM a 4.3-inch qHD display, the Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread OS and, of course, compatibility with Verizon’s lightning fast 4G LTE network, this device looks poised to dominate Verizon’s 4G offerings.

And now, Verizon Wireless on Wednesday finally made the Motorola DROID BIONIC official and has released pricing and availability details. The new Android smartphone launches Thursday, September 8th, for $299.99 with a 2 year contract.

Check out all the info in the official press release after the break.

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As expected, Motorola on Wednesday announced that the sequel to the popular DROID X smartphone will launch later this month. The Motorola DROID X2 will be available for pre-order on May 19th and will launch on May 26th.

The device will cost $199.99 with a new two-year contract. It features some pretty nice specs including a 4.3-inch touchscreen display, dual-core 1GHz processor, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), an 8-megapixel camera with support for HD video capture, an HDMI-out port, a case that is nearly identical to the original Motorola DROID X, and “double the does,” according to Verizon Wireless.

Sounds like a nice device. As an iPhone user I’m always interested in what the Android folks will come up with next. These phones just keep getting better and better and the Android platform keeps maturing.

Hopefully Apple will realize its got some competition and step up with some amazing new features for iPhone 5. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

In the meantime, for the rest of the scoop on this new device, check out the full press release from version after the break.

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With all the hubbub about Apple and Android tracking your location via iOS 4 iPhones and 3G iPads and Android powered devices, it was just a matter of time before somebody released an official statement about it. Somewhat surprisingly, that someone first out of the gate with a statement is Apple, who released said statement today.

In its statement Apple says that it never has, and never plans to, track users’ devices and that the purpose of the database file in question — consolidated.db — is to “help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested.”

Apple also said that a software update will limit the size of the location file and be available in the next few weeks. In addition, the next major IOS release will also encrypt the file as well.

Click through for the full statement from Apple which, contrary to most info from Apple, is pretty comprehensive and actually answers most of the questions people were having. Now can we move on from this?

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In case you haven’t been keeping up with current iPhone location tracking events, it was recently revealed that cellular iOS devices such as the iPhone and 3G enabled iPad collect location data from where you are and store it in an unencrypted file on the device.

However, according to an email purported to be from Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Apple does not track anyone. Android, however, does. Here’s the exchange, according to a MacRumors reader:

Q: Steve,

Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It’s kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. They don’t track me.

A: Oh yes they do. We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false.

Sent from my iPhone

So, if this is really from Steve Jobs and you have a cellular iOS device, I guess you don’t need to worry about Apple tracking your every move. If you’ve got an Android-powered device, I guess you’re not out of the woods yet.

Of course, the question is if this email is really from Steve Jobs and if so, do we believe him? More on this as it develops. Meanwhile, I would bet we’ll see a software update sooner or later that addresses this “issue” which will either eliminate it all together or do a better job of hiding it.

Either way, the other big question is does anyone but a vocal minority actually care if their location data is being tracked? If you have an opinion one way or the other, be sure to sound off in the comments!

As was expected (and we reported earlier), Apple released a brand new iOS update for all its shiny devices. This update, dubbed iOS 4.3.2, is for all you iPad, iPod Touch and AT&T iPhone users out there.

The only changes noted by Apple are bug fixes and security updates, which is what you kind of expect Apple to say. They are not exactly forthcoming with the info. However, Apple does specifically note that the update fixes a crash related to FaceTime and it also fixes some iPad 3G + Wi-Fi connectivity issues.

In addition, the company also released an update for the Verizon iPhone users in the crowd. Dubbed iOS 4.2.7, this update also includes those awesome “bug fixes and security updates.” We’re going to update the bosses Verizon iPhone tonight and will let you know if it breaks anything — or improves anything for that matter.

Both updates are available immediately via iTunes.

Make no mistake, the iPad is the dominant force in the tablet world now and for the foreseeable future. They are pretty much everywhere and selling in record numbers.

However, this kind of success doesn’t come without at least one problem. That problem? Some owners of Verizon Wireless iPad 2′s are reporting wireless connectivity issues.

Chief among these issues is the fact that their devices seem to insist they are roaming on a non-Verizon wireless network even in areas with strong Verizon signal. Bummer.

Fortunately, Verizon doesn’t charge roaming fees in the U.S., but the issue is still annoying to users. But don’t worry, a fix is reportedly coming soon as Apple is apparently aware of it and doing something about it with an upcoming update to iOS.

The update, dubbed iOS 4.3.2, will address this issue and will also include other fixes for FaceTime and other security things. However, in true cryptic Apple fashion, we probably won’t ever know exactly what those fixes are — even after the update comes out.

The update has reportedly already dropped at Apple’s iOS developer site and should be available for all who need it in the coming weeks.

This report probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone who uses a Verizon iPhone and also has friends using the AT&T version, but for the sake of confirming what we already know, here’s some interesting info about Verizon versus AT&T. Market research firm ChangeWave today released findings of a recent study analyzing iPhone 4 owner experiences and satisfaction.

The study compared consumer experiences with Verizon Wireless’ iPhone 4 against the same model from AT&T. Following years of complaints of poor service and dropped calls with AT&T, the question to ask with the iPhone’s launch on Verizon Wireless was whether or not service quality would improve. According to ChangeWave’s findings, the answer is yes.

In a survey of 4,068 customers, ChangeWave found that over the past 90 days, Verizon Wireless iPhone 4 users have dropped approximately 1.8% of calls while AT&T iPhone 4 owners dropped 4.8%. In addition, ChangeWave found that Verizon iPhone 4 owners are slightly more satisfied than AT&T iPhone 4 owners, with 82% saying they were very satisfied compared to 80% for AT&T.

With the Verizon iPhone only being out for a short time this report is not exactly definitive proof of anything. There’s just not been enough time and user experiences to make that claim. However, it does go a long way to reinforce what many iPhone 4 users on Verizon wireless have experienced (at least the ones we know) when compared to their friends using AT&T: Verizon’s network is better for calls.

If you’re a Verizon iPhone 4 user have you experienced the same thing when compared to your AT&T using friends? Or, is this study bogus? Let us know your thought is the comments.

For those of you lamenting the lack of cool 4G smartphone offerings available for the Verizon Wireless network, this is the day you’ve been waiting for. Verizon Wireless’ first LTE handset, the HTC ThunderBolt, is now available on store shelves and online, ready to push the boundaries of wireless access.

If you plan on being one of the very first consumers to acquire the 4G handset, you have options as to where to pick it up. Verizon Wireless, Best Buy, and several others will be selling the handset for $250 with a two year contract.

However, if you don’t mind waiting for the device to be shipped to you, Wirefly will be selling it for $199.99. In addition, Amazon Wireless has it priced at $179.99. Plus, unless you live in certain areas of the country, no sales tax if you purchase at Amazon. Who doesn’t love that?

In case you’re not familiar with this 4G powerhouse, here’s a few stats to help get you excited:

• Powered by Android 2.2
• Latest version of the HTC Sense UI
• Support for Google Mobile Services, including Gmail, YouTube and Android Market
• 4G LTE optimized apps such as EA’s Rock Band, Gameloft’s Let’s Golf, Tunewiki and Bitbop
• 4G LTE – customers can expect download speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G Mobile Broadband coverage area
• 4.3” WVGA display
• 8- megapixel rear facing camera and HD (720p) video recording

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