SvenOnTech has been told by a source at an Exchange ISV that Direct Push support will be on the iPhone in about “a month or two”. The feature set will include not only updating the Mail application upon arrival of new e-mail but will also support over-the-air syncing of contacts and calendar events exactly like it is done on current devices running Windows Mobile. New contacts added either from Entourage, Outlook, or from the iPhone itself will automatically be synchronized to the Exchange server and thus passing it off to all the clients attached to it. Calendar events will updated in the same fashion.

Support Microsoft Exchange will allow Apple’s iPhone to continue its success by allowing millions of enterprise workers to keep up-to-date with their corporate affairs through out the day.

The absence of Exchange support in the initial release of the iPhone is most likely due to the fact that the software was still in its testing phase and not ready for release.

SvenOnTech received an e-mail invitation to a Dell event to be held at Macy’s Herald Square in New York where top Dell executives will be announcing, “several new and exciting products that deliver a hi-def entertainment experience, true mobility with broadband connectivity anywhere, and style and self expression.” The “several” part seems to indicate we could be getting laptops with EV-DO filling in the “broadband connectivity anywhere” part while the hi-def mention is most likely just another TV. But it’s well known that Dell wants in on Apple’s game and while it’s MP3 player has really never even caught on, Dell does make some might nice HDTV screens and dropping the ability to play DiVX and other movies into a box on one of these screens may just be what Dell needs. Well see…

SvenOnTech has been told by a source within AT&T that the next generation iPhone will be shipping “by December”. With details sketchy just on the first batch of iPhones, the feature set list is not over flowing but we were told that you can definitely count on it being a true 3G phone. The iPhone Steve Jobs showed off in January at Macworld is running the already “so yesterday” EDGE protocol. The second generation iPhone will have WCDMA (UMTS) inside its beautiful casing speeding up its Safari-like web browser over the current slower GPRS-based EDGE data connection. This will certainly help squash early complaints of slow browsing in June when the first-generation iPhone releases.

No other details are known about the second-generation iPhone at this time but our source is certain about the December release which would make sense as Apple and AT&T could cash in on the Christmas spending spree of all those hungry 3G shoppers.

We’re tired of saying Apple needs to bring wireless to the iPod as we’ve been saying it for over a year, but in light of the Microsoft iPod-killer rumors, we’ve got to say it again.

It now looks like that Redmond-based Microsoft will be trying its best shot against the mega-popular Apple iPod with its very own digital audio player (DAP) ready for this Christmas. It’s said it’ll have a bigger screen than the current iPod (how much you want to bet it’s like .2″ bigger?) as well as built-in wireless. For what you ask? Um, downloads direct from some new Microsoft music store. “Wow, isn’t that what SvenOnTech has been recommending Apple do?” Yup. Guess Bill Gates reads our page and took our advice.

Supposedly, the new device will allow users to purchase and download music directly to their new Microsoft DAP anywhere a Wi-Fi connection is. To further entice iPod defectors, Microsoft is going to buy you every iTunes Music Store purchased song from the Microsoft music store. For free. On Redmond. It’ll be interesting to see how it handles customers like SvenOnTech who did really well in the Pepsi cap “game” two years in a row (over 300 songs just from that) and whom liked using all those hundreds of dollars in gift certificates. I’d say we here at SvenOnTech easily have over a grand in music in our iTunes library.

Anyway, Microsoft is doing the right thing, it’s taking music lovers to the next level. For what ever reason Apple sits on its fanny on this, who knows. It is most likely that Apple is working on this and it’s that full-screen LCD that is slowing down the announcement of the next great iPod. Heck, we wouldn’t be surprised to see this out by Christmas from Apple, either, but man, Apple has had so much time and with its past releases being so quick, one has to wonder if Apple has become too comfortable in its supremacy.

We welcome Microsoft’s new wireless DAP. It’ll be nice to have duplicated iTMS music in WMA format…on Microsoft. Now we’re curious if the packaging will be anything like this.

Is this the next version of OS X code named Leopard? Notice Internet Explorer there in the background in the larger version of the screenshot? Note the scroll bar isn’t that of OS Xs Aqua but rather the block like version of Windows. Also note the Boot Camp icon in the menu bar. One more notation, the Windows version is stated in the About window. Mmm, very interesting.

Now as many have pointed out, this could just be a really good Photoshop job. IE could actually be the WINE IE project that some have been able to successfully get running and the About screen an easy Photoshop hack. But if this legit, think of what this all means! This could make sales records for Apple like it hasn’t seen since the original Macinstosh 128k. Heck, maybe even since the Apple II!

My question really isn’t if this is fake or not, but if Apple does support virtualization for Windows, will Active X be supported? If so, this could allow many web sites to be displayed on a Mac that usually can not be due to the Active X requirement. QuickBooks online, for example, would no longer require a Boot Camp dual-boot or a start up of Parallel’s Desktop. That would be nice! And even better, if you get zapped with spyware, who cars, just your Windows apps are infected and just burn the Windows install and do a fresh install! Your Mac will be safe the whole time!

Anyway, we only have a little more than a month before WWDC which is where Apple will show off Leopard. All eyese will be focused on Steve Jobs when he sits down at the brand new Mac Pro to see if a little IE icon appears on the Dock. How sweet that day will be.

[Via MacVista]

Rumors, rumors. We love them at SvenOnTech and we love to report them to ya. A reader of ours from MyPalmLife has sent us an interesting morsel. He tells us that he’s reading all sorts of chatter of a Palm and Research in Motion merger. It seems both companies will be having an earnings conference call on the 29th of this month. The rumor boards are saying that this and this alone is indication that both companies will step up to the mic announcing they are one.

With RIMs ream on the lawsuit it lost last month, Research in Motion has some baggage in its house. Palm likewise has some issues at home, too. With the PDA market pretty much dead and the smartphone the wave of the future, Treo is all it has. Since PalmSource likes making next-generation operating systems yet never releasing them, Palm had little choice but to go to the dark side. Palm ain’t looking like it’s going to be able to last on just one model.

So, it is plausible that RIM and Palm would unite to strengthen their assets and consolidate the weakness. A merger would be interesting to see how the W in Treo 700w would pan out since it contains direct competition with the RIMs push e-mail service. But when the chips are down, you take some drastic moves. We’ll see if that move is made on the 29th or not.

We’ve all seen the “leaked” photos of the full-screen iPod for months now. This picture is one of the earliest and has been pretty much discounted as a hoax. However, the notion that a widescreen video iPod is coming keeps fueling the rumor fire and thus many believe not if but when. So indeed, when? When Apple gets more movies to slap onto it. That’s when.

CEO Steve Jobs has had a tough time convincing Hollywood to listen to some computer guy tell it how to run the music and movie business. Understandably, what’s a geek know about movies? Nothing, but he knows how to get it to everyone who wants to buy one; that’s what he knows. Jobs also knows that no one, relatively, is going to buy an expensive iPod that plays widescreen movies if there is really no widescreen movies to be had. All one has to do is look at the new HD DVD players that have been out for almost a month now. ‘What HD DVD players?’ Exactly. Good luck trying to find any kind of selection of titles on the new high def format. Jobs doesn’t want that problem when the next true video iPod hits the streets.

SvenOnTech believes that Jobs has had Apple engineers working on the next level iPod for some time. Just like he had OS X engineers running that operating system on Intel chips since day one. Jobs needed a dog for show-and-tell down there in Hollywood and that may be the what we’re seeing on the Internet with most of these leaked photos. We also believe that Jobs needed to get the ball rolling on content and thus had to give reason for a video iPod, hence the 5G iPod. Enlarging the screen on that iPod took little effort on Apple’s part and would allow the Cupertino-based computer company to have reason to start selling video at the iTunes Music Store.

Now that this is all in place, it’s time to bring real movies to iTMS. A little of that is happening and rumors have it that the next version of OS X, code named Leopard, will have a BitTorrent built-in. With no other reason for BitTorrent than to assist in huge downloads, this seems to add more weight to the fact a full-screen iPod is coming soon. That coupled with the fact that Jobs took a powerful role at Disney instead of cash for the Pixar buy out should really point to movies are coming.

Jobs understands many things and he understands the chicken and the egg problem. Once a good foundation of movies are available on iTunes Music Store (by this Christmas?), you’ll see the next iPod in all of it’s full-screen glory in the hands of a smiling Steve Jobs. Trust us, we nailed the MacBook Pro was coming, so we think we’re on a roll with these predictions.

Is Micheal Dell ready to add OS X to his arsenal? Is John Dvorak wrong about Apple going Windows if Dell’s going Tiger? Well what ever the details may be, all one has to do is go to Dell’s support page and do a little downloading selection and low and behold, Apple Mac OS is one of the choices. Now the downloads aren’t even the correct format, but still, when one is ramping things up, there are bumps in the road, right? I mean the tech guys in India have been doing EXE and ZIP for years, so that DMG thing is going to take some time to get use to.

So what will life be like with OS X on a Dell and Apple hardware? Could Alienware (Dell-owned) be next?

[Via Engadget]

Ever since the Treo 700w was released just a few months ago, the ‘Net has been a buzz with rumors of a Palm version. While PalmSource has left its operating system to age and wither, Palm, Inc. made its commitment to the OS of its beginnings clear early this year when CEO Ed Colligan stated that the company would continue releasing product with PalmSource product on it.

While the web is filled with speculation of when the 700p will be released, most feel that the 700p is a sure thing and is not vaporware like Cobalt turned out to be. The only real tough question is which network will be taking advantage of the EV-DO capabilities of the Treo 700p. Will it be Sprint or Verizon? Our sources say Sprint, as Verizon was able to get the exclusive deal on the Windows version while Sprint was offered the Palm version. With many of the leaked photos (doctored or not) showing the Sprint logo on them, it would seem to indicate our sources are correct.

If and when the 700p is released, it will be the first Treo update with a Palm OS on it since October 2004.

Gizmodo picked up on a Mac OS Rumor that has a tipster telling the rumor site that Leopard, Mac OS Xs next update, will be packed with some download help for iTunes. Instead of recreating the wheel, Apple’s just going to use a true-and-tested P2P software called BitTorrent. Gasp! What is the RIAA or MPAA going to think about that? Screw ‘em, Steve’s in charge!

If this rumor indeed is true, then the brilliance of Jobs keeps on shinning. BitTorrent has proven a wonderful and a must for movie downloads on the Internet but most of those downloads are illegal. The author of BitTorrent is watched like a hawk by the movie and record industry ready to catch him in a blunder much like the pharisees tried to catch Jesus in when they would ask him tricky questions. Bram Cohen has been a good boy and hasn’t been charged with anything yet and it only shows that his technology can be used for the greater good of digital man. Steve Jobs must agree with that thought, too.

Again, this is all rumor and Mac OS Rumors doesn’t have a good track record with rumors turning into fact, but then again, who does? Truth is, Apple is already paying through the nose for bandwidth for its iTunes Music Store and when full out movies come online, then the meter is really going to be ticking. Apple has an upcoming problem and it desires to make a bit more than its token profits off the most successful download music store on the Internet. BitTorrent is the perfect answer for that need and by enticing users with discounts on future purchases for aiding in others downloads, this scheme would up Apple’s bottom line at the end of the day. It’s like the Guinness guys say, “Brilliant!”

But what about user abuse you ask? Man that’s so not a problem since all one has to do is look how well Apple locked up FairPlay on iTMS downloads. Jhymn still hasn’t been able to fix what Apple broke for them six months ago. The engineers near the Los Gatos hills know very well what kind of trouble they’d be in if someone cracked the BitTorrent component in Leopard to get free swag. We can bet our Apple I (if we had one) that it’s going to be no walk in the park to crack this baby.

All in all, it sounds like Leopard is going to be the cats meow with this BitTorrent and Windows virtualization when it’s released. That along with the other 118 updates.