iPhone News Updated

Here’s your iPhone. Want service with that?

hat if you could buy your iPhone and wireless service directly from Apple, without having to sign a contract with AT&T or Verizon? Imagine going to Google.com and buying an Android phone that comes with Google Wireless.

That day may come sooner than you think.

LightSquared, a wholesale 4G carrier, recently announced that it has five partners lined up, including a website, a national retailer, a device manufacturer, and two carriers. LightSquared’s LTE mobile broadband network will provide the infrastructure and service, and partner companies will slap their branding on it and sell it as their own wireless service. The network is set to start rolling out later this year.

The company didn’t name its partners, but speculation has run rampant. Is Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) Wireless coming down the pike? Motorola (MMI) Wireless? Target (TGT, Fortune 500) Wireless?

Whoever the partners turn out to be, LightSquared has the potential to shake up the current wireless service market. In the near future, you could buy a smartphone with service directly from the phone’s manufacturer or the store that sold it to you.

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Tiny Wings is everything perfect about iPhone games

The world is filled with people who take pride in never having played Angry Birds, or who turn their noses up at iPhone games in general. Let them. There was a legitimate case to be made for the possibility of Angry Birds winning game of the year from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, no matter how simple or limited the concept.

Now, Tiny Wings is the latest gaming success on the iPhone: $1 can buy you a little drop of happy for your iPhone.

Tiny Wings is a download small enough that you don’t need to be on WiFi, and the price tag is low enough that it’s the easiest of impulse buys. The gameplay takes one finger, and the game is mostly a matter of timing. This is why it’s so magical.

The game may be easy to understand and even simpler to play, but the up-and-down motion, use of color and sound, and rhythmic nature of play all come together to allow you to lose yourself in the kinetic motion of your bird. You touch your finger to the screen to get the bird to dip, trying to fit perfectly into the downward slope of hills and then let go after it gains speed, but that’s enough.

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