The Blimp Pilots, developer of early App Store success Koi Pond, has released its latest application for the iPhone and iPod touch, Distant Shore. The app puts users in a setting of an endless beach, on which they can walk, finding and reading messages in bottles from other users around the world. Users can also write their own messages to be put inside bottles and cast out to sea for other users to discover. Other features include 3-D graphics and…

As a highly similar competitor to Logic3’s i-Station Rotate, a portable speaker system that expands and retracts to accommodate horizontal or vertical iPods and iPhones, Jensen’s JiSS-250i ($80) sells for a little more than half the price and includes similar functionality. The center includes a rotating device dock, while the sides slide out to fit wide-orientation iPhones and iPod touches, and little feet on the bottom pop out to keep everything…

Price aside, it’s actually interesting to note how much these two batteries have in common. Both contain 1800mAh batteries, which the companies indicate will fully recharge the iPhone 3G once and have a little extra power left to spare, using four blue LEDs and a power indicator button to display the remaining charge. Each comes with nothing more than the battery accessory and a USB cable for recharging, though PhoneSuit presently offers a free…

Price aside, it’s actually interesting to note how much these two batteries have in common. Both contain 1800mAh batteries, which the companies indicate will fully recharge the iPhone 3G once and have a little extra power left to spare, using four blue LEDs and a power indicator button to display the remaining charge. Each comes with nothing more than the battery accessory and a USB cable for recharging, though PhoneSuit presently offers a free…

That might explain why SoundOn’s new WHP-i120 Digital Wireless iPod Headphones ($179) look like a throwback to an earlier era: the silver and black, over-the-ear headphone design looks like a cheaper, generic version of Bose’s QuietComfort 2, with only a few changes. WHP-i120 ships with a silver and black iPod dongle, a generic but Bose-like ballistic nylon carrying case, and a wall charger. The left earcup has track forward and backward…

Apple may be planning to open a $20-and-up premium games section on the App Store, according to a new report. Citing anonymous sources, PocketGamer is reporting that the section will be open to only a restricted number of large developers and publishers, rather than the broad acceptance afforded by other areas of the store. Apple and potentially included publishers EA Mobile and Gameloft refused to comment on the matter; the report speculates that…

Evidence of a next-generation iPhone model has been found in the latest version of the iPhone’s firmware. Mac Rumors notes that a string in the USBDeviceConfiguration.plist file contains information for a device labeled “iPhone2,1,” while the original iPhone carried the designation “iPhone 1,1” and the iPhone 3G was labeled “iPhone 1,2.” For comparison, the first-generation iPod touch was labeled “iPod…

Apple is now allowing iTunes Store customers to upgrade previously-purchased DRM-encoded tracks to the higher-quality, DRM-free iTunes Plus format on a track-by-track basis. Up until now, users were forced to upgrade on an all-or-nothing basis, angering some users with larger iTunes Store-purchased music libraries, who were faced with upgrade costs in the hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars. U.S.-based users may upgrade individual songs for $0.30…

Thanks to an overwhelming response from the iPod and iPhone community, the Consumer Electronics Association and iLounge are pleased to announce a dramatic expansion of the iLounge Pavilion at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). According to CEA, the original space allocated for the Pavilion was completely sold within three days after the announcement, leading to a substantial waiting list. In order to accommodate continued interest…

How could Griffin bling up its leather-ish plastic hard case Elan Form, you ask? Elan Form Chrome ($35) is the answer, a case that questionably merges the appeal of leather with decidedly plasticy, slightly less than perfectly molded chrome accents on the face, sides, top, bottom, and back. Just like Elan Form, you can slide the bottom off for connection to Apple’s iPhone 3G Dock and any other potentially incompatible accessories, and a screen protector…