I’m writing this post from a very crowded and well under-resourced press/blogger room at CES 2010 (which we are covering with our sister publication Electronista. There must be 200-300 press reporters here on the advance press day for CES, but only 25 seats with outlets and probably 15 other tables with 3 chairs each (but no power). Most of the reporters are at the conferences, but how will they be able to write about the stuff?

The room is pathetic and nobody seems to care: no coffee, no electric outlets, very poor internet access, and little responsiveness from the staff (whose hands appear to be tied). Most journalists are resorting to sitting on the floor and some have even been told that that is not acceptable! Wait another few hours until their notebook batteries begin to dye and we’ll probably see a fight over the outlets. Not sure what happened, but this room is 1/3 to 1/4 of the size of the room of last year.

I WANT MY COFFEE and POWER.

PS Even the press conference rooms don’t have room for all the reporters who want to attend and people are stacked 10 deep to the conferences (which apparently have NO standing room).

Update: There are more people in the hallways, sitting on the ground and working, than in the press/blogger room itself. Apparently the WiFi is very flaky (thank god for WiMax and/or 3G cards) and power is really becoming an issue inside the room. Also no water (even to buy) near here!

Update: They finally restocked the coffee and the water, but WiFi continues to be a problem. These companies pay big money to hold a press conference and it’s a shame that CES doesn’t do a better job so that these people can work/write/upload their stories.

The European Patent Office has recently revealed a series of thirty Apple iPhone and iPod protective case designs which could begin to roll out as early as next month’s developer conference. Unlike Apple’s patent filings, design filings lack relevant detailing concerning future product features and/or unique materials that they could be considering. Yet on the surface, Apple appears to have covered every possible variant in this design series. In fact, Apple includes a few open “slip in” design form factors that will allow touch screen surfaces to be freely accessible. Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive are listed amongst the designers.

New iPhone/iPod Case Designs

All of the filing documents associated with these designs lists the following as inventors/designers: Steve Jobs, Jonathan P. Ive, Bartley Andre, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Luliis, Richard Howarth, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Rohrbach, Peter Satzger, Calvin Seid, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer. Apple’s representatives originally filed the design series in Munich Germany on March 4, 2008.

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents and/or trademarks with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent and/or trademark applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.

Note: The European trademark office referred to in this report is officially known as the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market .

Has anyone else seen the new iPhone ads? If so, you probably noticed one startling feature — there are hardly any iPhones in the commercial at all! Now, at first I felt it was nothing more than a poor excuse for advertising, but then I figured it all out — everyone already knows what the iPhone does and what it looks like. Why would we need to see it again?

Think about it: how many do you know that have yet to see what the Palm Centro or even a Blackberry looks like? But if you bring up the iPhone, chances are they’ll talk for at least five minutes about how “cool” the device is and how they would “love” to have one of these “great looking” phones. If you think about it objectively, no device in the past five years has entered into the mainstream of society so quickly or so adeptly. Try to find me one device that everyone (everyone!) is talking about and I’ll give you a ham sandwich — with mustard. The iPhone is a success so far and I don’t think there is any denying that fact. Will it last? Time will tell. But if the company can still produce television ads that don’t even show the product and it still can sell devices like it’s going out of style, I wouldn’t worry too much.

Don Reisinger is a freelance technology journalist who covers everything from HDTVs to the iPhone. He writes The Digital Home for CNET, product reviews for InformationWeek and PC World, and contributes to over 15 publications throughout the world.

With Apple’s decision to make the iPhone exclusive once again, I can’t help but wonder what Steve and company were thinking. And what point does it become common sense that if you really want to stop iPhone unlocking, maybe you shouldn’t keep the iPhone on one carrier? Hasn’t Apple learned anything from this AT&T debacle? Obviously not.

Sad as it is, Apple is now opening itself up to widespread unlocking that it may or may not like. Sure, it’ll make more money that way and all that comes with that will surely benefit the company, but could it have future implications on the entire cell phone industry once the widespread unlocking begins? Think of it this way: if Apple enters into an exclusive agreement with a cell phone carrier and that carrier doesn’t receive the kind of revenue it expects from the deal due to iPhone unlocks, what does that say for the agreement? Will any cell phone carrier want to enter into another agreement with Apple once it realizes that iPhone exclusivity doesn’t necessarily mean overwhelming profits?

Maybe Steve Jobs should have left the iPhone open. What do you think?

Don Reisinger is a freelance technology journalist who covers everything from HDTVs to the iPhone. He writes The Digital Home for CNET, product reviews for InformationWeek and PC World, and contributes to over 15 publications throughout the world.

As soon as I woke up this morning, I knew something good was going to happen. First, I thought I would win the Lotto, but then quickly realized that my luck isn’t nearly that good. Next, I believed I would have any tech product at my disposal at any moment. Once again — I lost. But what I did get today was something that was bittersweet — my $100 credit to the Apple store.

Now, I may spend quite a bit of time at the Apple store perusing, buying, wishing — you know. But now that I own an iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, Mac Mini, MacBook and the new iMac, what’s left for me to buy? I don’t need another iPod and I won’t buy a printer from the Apple store. I could buy a digital camera and get the $100 discount, but I have one of those too. Some may tell me to pick up an Airport Extreme, but I’m using one right now for a feature I’m writing for InformationWeek.

The $100 Apple credit was nice and I appreciated it. But at what point is it useless? If you’re someone like me who already owns almost every Apple product under the sun, this $100 credit means practically nothing — there’s nothing left to buy. Of course, some may say that you can get Leopard in October for practically nothing and other software solutions, but I’m a hardware guy and if I’m going to spend my money, I’d prefer to spend it on hardware.

What are your thoughts? Would you have preferred $100 cash back like I would?

Don Reisinger is a freelance technology journalist who covers everything from HDTVs to the iPhone. He writes The Digital Home for CNET, product reviews for InformationWeek and PC World, and contributes to over 15 publications throughout the world.

As you know, I’ve been looking for a bunch of new options to get ringtones onto my iPhone. Some have been useless and others have proven to be quite helpful. But today, I came across the best option yet: Ringtonator.

Ringtonator takes the iTunes 7.4.1 workaround (converting an .m4r back to .m4a) that has already been automated for us and adds a nice and easy GUI that allows you to drag and drop any AAC file into it. Once the AAC file is added, the program will spit out an iPhone ringtone and you’re all set. Honestly, it’s as simple as that.

I can’t help but wonder what will come of this once Apple realizes that iPhone ringtones are available everywhere. This is just another reason why these companies need to realize that people want free access to the music they already own and the very thought of paying $0.99 for a ringtone is absolutely ridiculous. If nothing else, these ringtone solutions display the power of the Internet and the will of the people who are standing up to Apple and telling them that they’ve had enough of being overcharged for material that is freely available. Of course, Apple’s response will be swift — an iTunes update that will disable all of these solutions. But rest assured, that method can not and will not last forever.

Don Reisinger is a freelance technology journalist who covers everything from HDTVs to the iPhone. He writes The Digital Home for CNET, product reviews for InformationWeek and PC World, and contributes to over 15 publications throughout the world.

If you’re the type of person who spends your time eating a bag of chips while using your iPhone, you may need some help from an iPhone screen protector. And while you may believe that all screen protectors are created equal, think again — they’re not.

Unlike some screen protectors on the market, the offering from USB Fever does a nice job of fitting well on the iPhone screen and protects it from scratching and other possible harm. One of its nicest features is that it’s made for the iPhone and requires no cutting or resizing — a common practice among many screen protectors that promise display safety on “any smartphone.” Even better, it’s washable and reusable so you can take it off, clean it up and put it back on in a matter of minutes.

Interestingly enough, the Screen Protector comes in two versions: Ultra-clear (the type I tested out) and anti-glare — a cheaper model with less reflection. I didn’t experience any issues with the ultra-clear version and found it to be quite effective at saving my screen from unsightly smudging and damage. The Ultra-clear version is made from plastic and while other screen protectors use glue or adhesive that leaves remnants on the screen, this one does not. And while I think $11.99 is expensive for a screen protector, the fact that it offers no fuss and is reusable easily justifies the price tag.

Don Reisinger is a freelance technology journalist who covers everything from HDTVs to the iPhone. He writes The Digital Home for CNET, product reviews for InformationWeek and PC World, and contributes to over 15 publications throughout the world.

As you can see by the photo below, I’ve done some, um, rejiggering with my iPhone display. But along with App Tapp Installer, I was able to download a bunch of new packages onto my iPhone to get just about anything I’ve ever wanted. And, amazingly, I came across Tap Tap Revolution today that is, without a doubt, the best iPhone game I’ve ever played. Even better, it’s downloaded straight to your menu so you’ll never need to use Safari to play it.

Tap Tap Revolution is everything you would expect from a game like Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution, but it doesn’t have nearly the selection of songs and you use your thumb instead of your feet or a guitar. You can download a few songs (right now there’s a limited selection because it’s a new game), but many more should be coming in the future. Once you’re ready to play, the song plays over the iPhone speakers as lights travel from the top of the screen to the bottom. And, as you can see by the picture below, you’re supposed to tap them at the right time and the game will give you a score and tell you how you’re doing (“Sweet”, “Good” or my usual: “You Suck.”). So far, the best I can do is 12,406 — yikes.

Now before you go out and start searching for Tap Tap Revolution, you’ll need to download App Tapp and download some of the packages included in it. Once there, look under ‘Games’ and you should be all set. Check it out — you won’t regret it.

Don Reisinger is a freelance technology journalist who covers everything from HDTVs to the iPhone. He writes The Digital Home for CNET, product reviews for InformationWeek and PC World, and contributes to over 15 publications throughout the world.

Kevin Rose and his buddies over at Digg.com have launched Digg iPhone Beta, an iPhone-compatible version of the Digg.com user-driven news website.

But perhaps the most interesting aspect of this story is how the product was developed. Just last weekend, Rose sat down with a developer and told him that if the iPhone application was completed within 48 hours, he would personally buy the man an iPhone. According to Rose’s blog, the developer completed the task in just enough time and the Digg founder bought him the storied iPhone.

So what did the developer come up with? The Digg application features iPhone-like story scrolling with mini permalink pages that include the top five comments on each story. The app also allows users to login and dig stories and will let you jump to any topic with ease. Much like the site, the iPhone beta version will be updated constantly.

IOSpirit, the company widely known for its Remote Buddy application has released v1.1 of the program that not only allows you to control your Mac from a distance, but it allows you to use the iPhone as well.

Besides a few other features, the main upgrade to v1.1 is the inclusion of an AJAX Remote that mimics the icon-based scheme of the iPhone and allows you to control anything from movie and music playback to presentation software and EyeTV recordings. Not bad for a cool $27 huh?

Well, I guess that one is up for debate. While the premise sounds fine, the Remote Buddy has historically been a somewhat difficult product to use. And while a variety of fine iPhone apps are coming out, I’m still suspect of the web-only system.

Unlike any other smartphone, the iPhone is completely locked down and with those restrictions, how can anyone truly get the functionality and usefulness they should expect with a $600 price tag? The simple fact is Apple needs to open the iPhone for third-party support and allow a useful product like this to work without the help of the Internet.