RUMOUR MILL: iPhone users in America might not need to subscribe to the AT&T network as Apple is planning to release the iPhone to all US mobile carriers within the next 18 months ahead of its announcement where the much-rumoured Apple Tablet is expected to be revealed. This would end the exclusive deal with AT&T and could double or triple the number of devices sold, according to an analyst at firm Oppenheimer & Co talking to Bloomberg.

The analyst has also noted that this would put pressure on mobile carriers profit margins as the subsidy costs are higher, and increase the spending on their networks - as much as US$3 billion - to support the increase data usage through their networks.

A proposed timeline could see T-Mobile, owned by Germany-based Deutsche Telekom, having the phone first by the summer; while Verizon and Sprint Nextel could get it in the fall. Clearwire could get the phone in 2011.

EXCLUSIVE/RUMOUR MILL: According to a Telecom NZ sales representative, the iPhone is coming to Telecom. It is unclear if it is the 3G iPhone or a next-generation iPhone. While the XT Network has been out since the launch of the 3GS, it is unclear why it has taken almost a year to come.

However it may have something to do with Telecom NZ offering a "iPhone Plan" consisting of a $600 account credit while not being an offical carrier. The source was not willing to say anything else other than the iPhone is coming to Telecom NZ.

The Vatican has made some attempts in making a presence online - including having their own YouTube channel - but the Pope has issued a new message ahead of World Communications Day that tells priests that they should embrace social media and start blogging - yes, you heard that right.

"God’s loving care for all people in Christ must be expressed in the digital world not simply as an artifact from the past, or a learned theory, but as something concrete, present and engaging," Pope Benedict XVI wrote. "Our pastoral presence in that world must thus serve to show our contemporaries."

His new message could see priests uploading images and videos on services like Flickr and YouTube, while writing blog posts and having podcasts or vodcasts. Some American ministries that focus on youth have already embraced social media.

The trend has already been embraced by Father Bob McGuire, who has a blog and two podcasts - one from the Podcast Network and another from Triple J. He also has a MySpace and Facebook profile and a Twitter account, where over 3,000 follow his tweets.

However, just don't expect your priest to write messages that may or may not contain their deepest darkest secrets, or posting drunk pictures of themselves on Facebook - which they do not do, hopefully - or playing Farmville. The decree by Pope Benedict XVI has warned that priests should be used be spread the Gospel in their parishes and/or diocese.

"Priests present in the world of digital communications should be less notable for their media savvy than for their priestly heart, their closeness to Christ," Pope Benedict XVI said on the matter.

Will it be Verizon or will it be AT&T? Both companies compete in the mobile sector in the United States and are fiercely competitive - with AT&T having the iPhone and Verizon having the Droid. As both look to compete in securing the rights to sell the Apple Tablet on their networks, who would be the victor?

Turns out, it would be both - according to Fox News - as Apple is rumoured to make two versions of the tablet: one for the Verizon's CDMA network and another for AT&T's GSM network.

While AT&T looks like a sure bet, especially when they do have a relationship with Apple in terms with the iPhone (and has a contract with them); Verizon has been the long rumoured potential second carrier to have the rights to sell the iPhone in the US.

Either way, we're looking at the January 27/28 (Australia) event that is rumoured to announce the device.

So, since we are heading towards a long weekend, why not post some gadget-craving blog posts, since we've been a bit slow on the gadgets news since CES (and trying to get back into the habit of blogging). We turn our attention to this All Spark from Transformers  - wait, what? Isn't that supposed to be fictional? Turns out, it's real but not what you expect it to be.

A gamer known as GivinTats has decided to make his own All Spark from the movie Transformers as a case mod for his Xbox 360. Plus, its fully functional. Granted, these are from 2007 - when the first movie came out - so don't hold your breath if he still has this with him. Still, its a wickedly cool mod. More images below.

Source: Hawtymcbloggy

The European Union has given its approval to Orcale's purchase of Sun Microsystems, the owners of several technologies like MySQL and Java, after finalising its investigation that was opened in September of last year.

The investigation was launched to see if it would be an impediment of "effective competition" within the European Economic Area (EEA), a free-trade agreement within the European Union and three other states - Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. It was mainly focused on the database market, as fears arose that Oracle's ownership of Sun and MySQL would pose a threat to competition and the open-source database leader could be in jeopardy when Oracle took ownership.

"I am now satisfied that competition and innovation will be preserved on all the markets concerned. Oracle's acquisition of Sun has the potential to revitalise important assets and create new and innovative products," Neelie Kroes, the Competition Commissioner said in a statement.

In the statement, its investigation found that MySQL and Oracle are not "close competitors" despite competing in the database market and that the openness of MySQL allowed forking (branching off the MySQL base code) to compete with MySQL. It also took into account Oracle's announcement that it will still release MySQL under the GPL open source license, and showed that PostgreSQL - a credible alternative to MySQL by many users in the open source world - could likely replace the competitive force that is exerted by MySQL.

During the investigation, effectively delaying it, Sun has been losing money - estimated to be around US$100 million per month - as its customers move to IBM and HP.

With the EU approval, along with the US Justice Department's approval of the deal, China and Russia are set to approve the deal, meaning that the deal could close very shortly.

RUMOUR MILL: The hotly rumoured Apple Tablet device is said to make its way to Verizon when the device is set to be release by Apple in the Spring or Summer, according to The Street. This comes after news of the tablet will feature a Qualcomm-produced wireless chip that would work on the CDMA network.

The device will also not be running Qualcomm's SnapDragon processor, despite it being used in a crop of new mobile devices, including the Nexus One. Previously rumoured, the device will run on a processor made by Apple's P.A. Semi.

This will see Apple moving away from AT&T, as both companies have had an exclusive deal to sell the iPhone device since its inception. This could be because of Verizon's 3G network being in more locations than AT&T or any other telco in America.

Apple have today released the best thing for Windows users - updated Bootcamp drivers for their Windows 7 installation on their Mac. While this will be of big relieve to those who use Windoze Windows on their Mac, the following models have been classed as unsupported:

iMac (17-inch, Early 2006)
iMac (17-inch, Late 2006)
iMac (20-inch, Early 2006)
iMac (20-inch, Late 2006)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2006)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2006)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2006)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2006)
Mac Pro (Mid 2006, Intel Xeon Dual-core 2.66GHz or 3GHz)

Jump on over the almighty fruits website and download the goods: 32-bit and 64-bit. For those of us who have been holding off upgrading from Vista (ugh) to 7, a Boot Camp Upgrade Utility has been created to help with the upgrade. Get it here.

Happy driving...