MacTalk is reporting that Vodafone Australia has sent out email to retail staff stating that 16GB iPhone has been marked as “End Of Life” by Brightpoint, their supplier.

MacTalk noted that the 8GB model is conspicuously not in the end of life list, suggesting that Apple might keep it as a budget model.

This is the first sign that the next-gen iPhone is arriving very soon. Especially we are now only two weeks away from WWDC, many are expecting Apple to unveil the phone on the June 8 keynote together with a launch date announcement.

YouTube reported a mind-boggling statistic of 20 hours of video uploaded every minute on the number one video sharing service on the planet. If you can’t get enough of it, below are eight popular video sites besides YouTube. Choices make life interesting right?

• Hulu.com Hulu may well be the best competitor for YouTube. Too bad the service is currently only for US.

• Vimeo Vimeo allows only user created content to be uploaded. It is the first video sharing site to support HD resolution video. Musicians such as Kanye West and Nine Inch Nails use Vimeo, so does the US White House.

• Metacafe A popular site for video entertainment, powered by you.

• Justin.tv The most popular site currently for live video streaming. Ashton Kutcher used it to announce live when he hits 1 million Twitter followers.

• ustream.tv Competitor to Justin.tv.

• DailyMotion Originated from France and now getting over 50 millions visitors monthly from all over the world.

• TuDou The biggest chinese video site based in Shanghai, China.

• Veoh Depending on your luck, Veoh’s service might or might not be available in your country. Since May 2008, Veoh discontinued service in several countries in order to focus on market which it has the most viewers.

Found any notable video site that you could recommend?

Google released an update to its Chrome web browser yesterday. It includes a Javascript engine that is 30% faster than previous version, and useful ‘new’ features such as form autofill and full screen mode.

Google does not numbered Chrome version. This should be like a beta 2 version. Only Google can release an incomplete software (as compared with other browsers) and still attract users.

But wait, there is no Google Chrome for Mac yet. It is available only on Windows, even after almost nine months since its launch last September. We encourage you not to waste your time further to find out more before its release on the Mac. Google Chrome has its strong features and we can see it being competitive when it is ready. But not right now. It is unfortunate that Google is promoting the software in its infancy, position what we see as a developer/tester software to the mainstream as replacement for your day-to-day Safari and Firefox.

Adium, the much beloved open source chat software on the Mac, released the first beta for version 1.4 on Monday. Major additions include the integration of Twitter and IRC. These are good news indeed for Adium users as these features are much sought after.

Adium 1.4 works under Mac OS X 10.5 only, so no luck if you are still running Tiger. And the beta page includes an impressive long list of changes and new features.

As with all beta software, please expect bugs.

When you are ripping your music CDs to build a music library, you have many options when it comes to the choice of audio file formats. WAV, MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless, Flac, APE, Ogg and WMA are the more popular audio formats among others. The best practice is to narrow down the file format choice to one or two formats when you build your music library for ease of management.

Unfortunately there is no easy answer as to which is the best format, the choice is often subjective and depends a lot on the intent and usage of your music library.

Keep A Lossless Copy

If you intend your music library as a replacement for the physical CDs, rip the audio into a lossless audio format. You can then keep the CDs away and never have to visit them again. But first let’s explain what is lossless format and the need for one.

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iPhone is the first phone with a full-blown browser. Some has labelled the Safari browser on the iPhone as the ‘killer app’, attributed it as the key factor that enabled the mobile web. With its touch interface and ease of navigation, it is no longer a tedious chore surfing the net on smartphone. Here are 14 tips for getting the most out of Safari browser on your iPhone.

1. Auto Web Address Resolution

When you enter a URL in the address bar, you don’t have to type “http”, “www” or “.com”. Safari will automatically resolve the web address. Example for “www.apple.com”, just type “apple” in the address bar will get you to Apple’s homepage. This will work for most websites that end with “.com” domain.

2. Scroll to Top of Page for Address and Search Bar

Safari will scroll the Address and Search Bar together with web page. When a page is more than a screenful, you can quickly scroll to the top of the page to access the Address and Search Bar by tapping on the status bar.

3. Tap and Hold “.com” for Other Domains

When entering web address, tap and hold the “.com” key to display options for other domain extensions such as “.net”, “.edu”, “.org” etc. Slide your finger from “.com” to select the other domain extension.

4. Use A Bigger Keyboard

Safari’s onscreen keyboard is bigger when iPhone is in horizontally position. If you are holding iPhone vertically, rotate iPhone horizontally first before you tap the address bar to summon the keyboard. The larger keys make data entry easier.

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A rumor thread was posted on a Chinese Apple fan site by someone purporting to have used the upcoming third generation iPhone. The posting claimed that the new iPhone will be just a modest upgrade.

We have not lost our hopes by rumor as such, here are what we wish for and expect in the third generation iPhone hardware:

1. More Power Juice

It is not uncommon to require daily charging of iPhone for heavy users. We expect the new iPhone to improve on battery life with Apple touting it in the ads. Apple has always pride themselves in the usability department, we need more battery life in order to make iPhone more ‘usable’.

As for removable battery, we do not see this coming to Apple’s design for iPhone and iPod anytime soon.

2. Faster Network

iPhone 3G is capable of 3.6Mbps if your telco can support this feature. It is unfortunate that 7.2Mbps HSDPA which is widely available in Asia and Europe is not supported in current model. We expect third-generation iPhone to support up to 7.2Mbps speed, with a higher speed 14.4Mbps HSDPA or 21Mbps HSPA+ support in 2010 model.

And for WiFi, its time to upgrade to support wireless-n.

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iPhone is telco’s dream machine, it encourages mobile internet data usage by design. It is the device that propelled cellular data usage to the mainstream, making it common nowadays for many to always connected to the internet. iPhone is also a dream machine to many, and we list down 6 ways that iPhone can also be friendly to your pocket.

1. Sign Up A Cellular Data Plan

iPhone is designed to be an always-on internet device. In its default settings, it will connect automatically to nearby Wifi first and cellular data network second. Many of iPhone’s basic apps such as Weather, Stocks, Maps, App Store etc requires internet connection in order to work.

When you are connect using cellular data network, iPhone will display (for Edge) or (for GPRS) or “3G” icon on the status bar, right next to your telco’s brand name. If you are connected to the internet via Wifi, the icon is .

You can disable cellular internet access and use only Wifi by changing the APN under Settings app to one of wrong info. From firmware 2.0 onwards, Apple allows telco the ability to disable this settings. So depending on your telco, you might not be able to disable cellular internet access.

We strongly recommend you to sign up a cellular data plan if you use the cellular data network. Most telco offers cellular data plans that are cheaper compare to the per-use data rate. Compare and choose the plan that match your mobile lifestyle. For example there is no need to sign up the more expensive unlimited plan if you do not use the iPhone outside often.

2. Check Your Cellular Data Usage

If you are not on an unlimited cellular data plan, check and monitor your cellular data usage. Your telco might provide an online utility for such purpose. If not you best bet is to watch the usage on your iPhone under Settings->General->Usage.

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If you are like most tech users nowadays, you jump start using your new iPhone without reading the manual or instruction guide. We list down 14 tips and tricks iPhone beginners might overlook.

1. How to Put iPhone into Silent Mode

You put iPhone into silent mode by flipping the ringer switch which is at the top left side of the iPhone, above the volume control.

Flip the switch down towards the back of iPhone to be in silent mode. You will see an orange dot on the switch. An on screen strike-through bell icon confirms that the iPhone is on silent mode. A call comes in will vibrate in silent mode if you have turned on the vibrating option under Settings->Sound.

Flip the switch back to enable the ringer.

Believe it or not, a friend was not aware of this even after using his iPhone for more than a month. He would manually slide the volume to minimum under Settings->Sound whenever he entered cinema hall.

2. How to remove or insert SIM card into iPhone

We found the best video from YouTube by everything4ipod that illustrates how to remove or insert SIM card into iPhone:

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There are over a hundred Twitter clients, apps and tools you can choose to improve your twittering lifestyle. We narrow down the list to what we considered are the essential ones that is worth spending your time exploring.

Twitter Clients

The number one Twitter client is off course the Twitter website. To many, this is still the one and only Twitter client. You have to look elsewhere if you need more than what it offers, such as the ability to easily manage multiple Twitter accounts, ability to post a shorthand url etc.

If you like working on the web and need to easily post a link to pictures, then visit TwitPic.

For desktop client on the Mac, we recommend TweetDeck, Twhirl, Tweetie or Nambu. Both TweetDeck and Twhirl runs on Adobe AIR which is a separate download. Choose native Mac apps Tweetie or Nambu if you do not like Adobe AIR eating up additional resources on your Mac. As of this writing, Nambu is still beta software but is available for download.

For iPhone apps, the better ones are Tweetie which costs $2.99, or you can download the free TwitterFon.

Many also choose to update their Twitter status via Facebook using Facebook Twitter application. Service such as Ping fm helps you to simultaneously update not just Twitter status, but also to over 40 other social networking sites.

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