What’s the sound of a tree falling when no one’s around to hear it? What’s the sound of one hand clapping? And perhaps most importantly, what’s the purpose of a clipboard when only one app can use it? Development shop Proximi is making a pretty big stink about its MagicPad app for the iPhone, touting its homegrown copy / paste functionality as part of a rich text-editing package to help shore up the handset’s weak sauce (read: non-existent) office app suite. That’s all well and good — the app looks well-executed and provides a core function that should’ve been present across the entire iPhone to start — but without buy-in from Apple, the clipboard’s stuck in the MagicPad sandbox. Cool? Yes. Should Apple be paying attention? Yes. Useful? At this point, barely.

Psst… you hear that there’s a new iPhone coming out next month? Yeah, us too. Here are a few iPhone stories we’ve been tracking from the past handful of days:

* An analyst for Oppenheimer claims that AT&T is going to be shelling out $325 for each and every iPhone 3G it sells, compared to an average of $200 for other devices on the carrier’s shelves. What’s more, devices sold in Apple stores (as opposed to AT&T stores) will cost AT&T another $100 for some reason, bringing the grand total to $425 — not including the $199 or $299 the customer is paying for the 8GB and 16GB models, respectively. Where Oppenheimer is getting its figures isn’t exactly clear, but we suppose it’s believable — and as the analyst suggests, the higher subsidy reflects AT&T’s confidence that they’ll be able to recoup the loss with a higher ARPU. (more…)

iPhone gaming aficionados — your wildest dreams will soon be coming to fruition. Apparently, CraigX (one of the masterminds behind the Pandora project) is also busy whipping up a physical control pad add-on for the Apple device. The peripheral — dubbed the iControlpad, of course — will attach to the dock connector on the bottom of the phone and wrap around the sides, and is said to provide a PSX-like feel. The pad’s site claims that compatibility is already built in to popular iPhone game emulators, and units are being sent out to other developers as well. The model pictured here is a prototype design — but frankly, they had us at “Hello.”

Ending the awful (two) days of waiting, NetBlender’s officially presenting its latest innovation, BD Touch. Bringing together Apple’s iPhone/iPod Touch and Blu-ray’s BD-Live internet connection to potentially allow combinations like sending copies of a movie to iPhone directly from the disc menu, viewing fan created content in sync with a movie or, yes, using the iPhone as a remote control. All that geolocation, 3D motion sensitive, multitouch and predictive keyboard could be a part of our favorite movie (The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension) — once some developer makes it happen. The disc authoring end of the tool is built into NetBlender’s DoStudio software, while there are two iPhone SDKs (the Connect SDK is free, while the Premiere Blend/In SDK adds functionality but requires certification and licensing) available.

Knowing how rampant the Apple rumor community can get, we try not to stir the pot too feverishly, but iLounge has made a bizarre little discovery that we thought you might like to see. Apparently, it’s already possible for iPhone / iPod touch developers to create pages in iTunes offering content to limited groups of users. While perusing these pages, they apparently stumbled upon the Education First Educational Tours page, where international travel tour registrants can download TourCast audio and video content.

If you are tired of shelling out laptop prices for your WiFi smartphone browsing, Boingo’s got help on the way. At Mobile World Congress the company announced Sony Ericsson and iPhone / iPod touch versions of its connection client software, with the SE version to show up in the second half of the year, and the iPhone software to hit as soon as Boingo can get a hold of the SDK. Boingo already has Nokia and Windows Mobile-compatible versions of its software, but with 6 percent of users attempting to connect to Boingo already rocking an iPhone, it looks like this software can’t come soon enough.

Well, if you’re gonna launch a new product line, why not fill it up, right? NewerTech will debut six lovely products for iPhone at Macworld on the 15th January, though all save the dock are available immediately. The product list features the speaker dock with handsfree mic that includes a couple 2-watt speakers and an “improved” microphone that doubles as charger when your iPhone is in the dock, throw in a couple call handling buttons and all that can be your for a mere $35. Next up is the $20 handsfree mic and earbud which features a 39 inch cable and shirt clip, a $15 mic extender is also on the table featuring a 27 inch cable to give you iPhone handsfree fun with your own earbuds, and of course an $8 headphone adapter to overcome the iPhone’s crazy recessed jack. NewerTech rounds out its iPhone collection with a $20 set of buds with passive noise reduction — said to reduce noise by 42 decibels — and a $13 car charger for those on the go. We’ve not tested any of this kit, but the prices seem right and that’s at least a good start.

Not that it doesn’t completely go without saying, but whenever you start hacking any battery-powered portable device, you need to freaking be careful. Otherwise you might end up like dude here who was pulling a Geohot on his iPhone when short circuited and became red hot, releasing the magic smoke hither locked inside the device’s electronics. Lesson learned: you take your phone, even your life, into your own hands when screwing with components, so be gentle and careful, will you?

Beware brave hardware unlockers — and we mean that, you’re brave to void warranty and risk handset failure to use the precious — if your iPhone is at version 1.0 when you start your task updating it to 1.02 may erase all your hard work. Apparently Sergeij2000 over at the Hackint0sh discovered this the hard way while upgrading his unlocked iPhone and had to unlock it once again — though he does mention that the modem did seem to stay unlocked. We expect the same will hold true for the software unlocks once rolled out — and likely TurboSIM as well — but hopefully a few clever solutions will appear to save us from the vicious circle we’re bound to spiral into. Our only bit of advice for the short term is to let new updates soak for a few days letting the early adopters take the brunt of the grief.

Despite the fact that we had a bit of trouble with the latest iPhone update, some users are reporting drastically improved WiFi reception and camera performance since installing v1.0.2. Although Apple didn’t exactly go into detail about what “bug fixes” were being addressed, a number of posters on various forums are apparently thrilled with the boost in WiFi reception and the “vast improvement in the camera’s live video update.” Of course, it’s very possible that these betterments are simply due to differing circumstances in use before and after the update, so we’ll leave it up you: have you noticed any drastic meliorations since the update, or is this stuff just all in our head?

Unfortunately, we could be seeing the early beginnings of a polarizing trend, as the oh-so-hackable Sony Vaio UX becomes yet another non-Apple device to sport iPhone-esque visuals. The aptly-dubbed uPhone boasts an interface that looks awfully similar to that found on Apple’s handset (and a good deal better than those knockoffs, might we add), and relies on a well disguised flavor of Windows to pull it all off. Currently, the project is still a work in progress, and while he has got Skype, a calculator, and a few fancy slide transitions up and running, there’s still work on the horizon. Head on through the break for a few short clips of the device in action.

If you’re enjoying that new iPhone but realize its battery meter is off the mark consistently, you’re not alone. Apparently, the OS X version used in the first-generation iPhone has a bug wherein it is not indicating a full battery charge on the main display. Apple PR says that if you charge your battery for the requested time (we think four hours is sufficient), it will be full — although the indicator may not show that. According to Apple, a forthcoming software fix is expected to fix this issue, although no street date has been announced.