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After announcing that T-Mobile is close to activating nearly 2 million iPhones on its network, Chief Executive John Legere told Reuters, the carrier will start selling the iPhone in about three to four months. T-Mobile also plans to eliminate cellphone subsidies in an effort to offer its customer cheaper plans and more flexibility. Legere promised the Apple experience would be "dramatically different" for T-Mobile subscribers, and believes smartphone users will benefit from avoiding long contracts and restrictive data plans.

T-Mobile hopes the contract free iPhone will convince AT&T and Verizon Wireless customers to switch carriers, and believes its partnership with Apple will increase its market share by 5% or more. All the major U.S. carriers currently offer smartphones at a subsidized price, but customers are forced to agree to long contracts that prohibit them from upgrading their devices. T-Mobile's users will be able to freely exchange or sell their older devices once the subsidies and contracts are out of the picture.

It looks like the media will have to pick a new name for Apple's rumored low-cost iPhone, which has been dubbed the "iPhone mini" by some analysts. According to a report by the DigiTimes, Apple is planning to launch a "low-cost version of the iPhone for China and other emerging markets in the second half of 2013". However, sources in the supply chain claim the new iPhone will feature a larger display, instead of being a smaller version of the iPhone 5. If the rumor is true, Apple could use older components, like it did with the iPad mini, to keep the cost down.

Some analysts believe Apple needs to release an affordable iPhone to compete with Samsung, who is expected to see a 35% growth over the next 12 months, according to Strategy Analytics.

“We expect Samsung to slightly extend its lead over Apple this year because of its larger multitier product portfolio,” Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, told Reuters.

Brian J. White of Topeka Capital Markets said in a report that he believes Apple will release the iPhone 5S in May or June, but will not release the iPhone mini until next year.

That's right, folks. There's no reason to despair if you're a jailbreak fan and you're currently using an iPhone 5. Prominent iPhone Dev-Team member planetbeing has posted on reddit that not all hope is lost for those looking to jailbreak iOS 6. In fact, he explains his iPhone 5 is currently running an untethered, jailbroken version of iOS 6.0.2.

Planetbeing states, "I'm not really sure what all the doom and gloom is about. The fact is, I have an untethered iOS 6.0.2 JB running on my iPhone 5 right now." For those waiting to jailbreak their devices, this is welcome news. Of course you may be wondering why the Dev-Team would keep such a revelation under wraps. Why not develop a public release?

Now anyone with an extra $48 and some computer skills can make their old stereo into a Wi-Fi AirPlay receiver. Normally you would drop $100 or more on a device (like the Apple TV) that can stream audio from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Using the Raspberry Pi miniature computer, engineering student Jordan Burgess has saved himself over $50 and illustrated exactly how to create your own AirPlay receiver.

The finished product uses Shairport open source software, gets its power from a microUSB cable, and connects to the stereo using a mini 3.5mm audio cable. Selecting to output sound from your iPhone to the stereo is as simple as selecting AirPi as the output from the AirPlay menu in whatever iOS app you're using to play the music.

If you've been having problems with the widely reported Do Not Disturb bug, rest assured it will self-fix on Monday January 7, 2013. Apple recommended a simple solution to temporarily fix the problem that has been keeping Do Not Disturb (DND) engaged past a scheduled time. iOS 6 users will have to manually toggle DND mode and disable Settings -> Notifications -> Do Not Disturb -> Scheduled until Monday.

So what caused this week of DND turmoil on iOS devices and prompted an Apple support document on the issue? Turns out that DND uses the ISO week date format, which wanted to compute the first day of the year as January 7. According to Ars Technica Apple even warns third-party developers of the problem, and steers them toward the Gregorian calendar instead.