Engadget are reporting that the latest gossip over in China is that Taiwanese company Wintek has won a contract to provide touch-screen panels for the next-gen iPhone; not only that, testing is apparently underway and Apple intend to sell the new iPhone model sometime in September for between $249 and $299.  Wintek is the same company contracted to supply “less complicated” touch-screens for future widescreen iPods, which we were semi-expecting to drop in August.

Right now there’s more rumour than fact around, and some pretty big omissions (such as where the second-gen iPhone will be sold, whether it would be a replacement or a more basic version than the first-gen, etc), but already the cries of “but I paid $600!” protest have started.  I can’t believe Apple would be crazy enough to launch a new model so soon after the iPhone’s initial launch, unless of course it was the fabled 3G version for European markets (who are expecting their iPhone joy in December).

We’ll just have to wait and see. For now it’s just a rumor…

Thanks to MyiTablet

Several companies have tried - and we’re still waiting to see what Cerulean Labs, the people behind Trillian, have for us - but there’s yet to be a conclusive, makes-all-others-obsolete instant messaging client for the iPhone. Today marks the launch of another contender for the crown: FlickIM

Giving iPhone users access to their AIM contact list, the first thing of note is the slick interface. Unlike some apps out there they’ve really given thought to the general theme of Apple’s UI and have kept it pretty consistent. There are some useful integrations, too; multi-chat is supported and conversations easily switched between using different orange bubbles, while YouTube videos are embeddable in the conversation window itself using a simple /youtube tag.

One thing to be aware of is the privacy policy, in which FlickIM assert their right to send marketing information to any email you use to log in through their service, as well as sell that address on to other companies. There’s no simple tick-box to opt out, either; you need to email them. Email harvesting is a contentious issue at the moment, and I’d like to think that FlickIM might reconsider their policy which, I’ve seen, has already prompted some negative comments from potential users.

Michael from FlickIM got in touch with us via the comments below to tell us that they’ve changed their privacy policy and are applying for a TRUSTe seal. They now make clear that no email addresses, contact details or conversation content will be used for advertising, either from FlickIM themselves or third-parties. Given the software only launched yesterday, I think they deserve some kudos for the rapid response to criticism. MY iTablet now has no qualms about recommending FlickIM should you want an AIM client for your iPhone.

Thanks to Myitablet 

Hackers admitted, that protection of iPhone has appeared essentially more seriously, than they expected, informs The Inquirer. GeoHot, the leader of community of hackers working over hacking of communicator from Apple, has found out the module which is responsible for a connection of a mobile phone to the carrier, but to crack it, is not obviously possible.

GeoHot has found out, that blocking of communicator, allowing to use it only in networks of American carrier AT&T, has been placed directly in the GSM-module. And, protection checks not only unique for each carrier registration number of a SIM-card, but also a country code. Besides, the software which is responsible for protection, has own unique digital signature that does not allow to forge it. Last boundary of protection of iPhone is the individual key for each phone, sent to the carrier during activation. It is necessary to notice, that standard blocking of a mobile phone on the certain carrier of cellular communication is limited only to check of serial number of a SIM-card.