Verizon iPhone

The Verizon iPhone helped the iPhone 4 lead smartphone sales in 2011. So it makes sense that Apple would want to add the third-largest cellphone company to its roster. Adding carriers will help Apple introduce new customers to the iPhone, which will of course help them increase sales. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is not going to wait very long, and plans to introduce a Sprint iPhone at the same time AT&T and Verizon will be getting the iPhone 5 in October.

Engadget cites another unnamed source who said Sprint will begin carrying the iPhone 4 at the same time as the iPhone 5. Introducing any type of Sprint iPhone will give Apple 52 million more potential customers. We have heard rumors about a Sprint iPhone before, but the days of Apple exclusivity are coming to an end with the flooding of the smartphone market.

Why rush the next-generation iPhone when older iPhone models are still selling well? On Monday, the research firm NPD revealed that the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 helped Apple increase its smartphone market share in Q2 of 2011. While Google's Android grabbed 52 percent of sales in the U.S., Apple still had two of the best selling phones so far this year. Proving there is no need to flood the market with new devices on a daily basis. However, the same report revealed that one in five new phones sold in Q2 were on a prepaid plan, and that the prepaid phone market is still emerging.

On Tuesday, Reuters dug the iPhone 4S out of its rumor grave, by claiming Apple is working on a new flash drive for a lower-priced 8GB iPhone 4 which will be released in a few weeks. While Apple fanboys and tech bloggers have their eyes glued to the iPhone 5, and the new rumored October 7 release date, does Apple plan on sneaking out their "affordable" iPhone in September?

Apple has released the latest firmware files for iOS devices containing bug fixes and security updates. Verizon iPhone 4 owners were not left out of the fun this time, getting their own iOS 4.2.7 updates specifically for the CDMA device. Those experiencing blank or frozen FaceTime video issues should find that the firmware update fixes these problems.

Both iPhone 4 and iPad 2 owners reported the FaceTime issue was affecting Apple devices running iOS 4.3. Another issue that was widely reported in the news was a connectivity problem causing issues with the iPad connecting to 3G networks.

Chronic Dev Team has released GreenPois0n RC6 for Mac OS X and Windows. Untethered jailbreaking is now possible on all recent iOS devices including the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and Verizon iPhone 4. GreenPois0n RC6 has added support for Apple TV and doesn't require any saved SHSH blobs. And did we mention that it's untethered?

Jailbreaking an updated AT&T or Verizon iPhone is now an easy process thanks to Chronic Dev Team. The software packages for Mac OS X and Windows can be downloaded directly from greenpois0n.com with a Linux version in the works. With a jailbroken device, users can install and use a variety of apps from independent developers using the Cydia app installer. For those new to the scene, rest assured that iPhone jailbreaking has been declared legal here in the US.

If you're a regular iPhoneFAQ reader, this won't be the first time you've heard us advise you against buying iPhone or other mobile phone insurance through your wireless provider. When AT&T began offering iPhone insurance, we demonstrated how overpriced and undervalued their policy offerings were, hopefully saving many of you a great deal of money and frustration. Since the Verizon iPhone was announced, we've been waiting to find out what Verizon was going to step up to the plate with on the insurance front, hoping we'd be impressed. Unsurprisingly enough, we're not.

Hoping for anything else was sort of pointless given that Verizon and AT&T both offer insurance through the same third party company, Asurion. While the coverage that Asurion offers is excellent, the pricing is anything but. So, even though the same wizard is behind the curtain at both AT&T and Verizon and not ignoring the fact that replacement costs to the consumer are roughly $50 higher with the CDMA iPhone, we were hoping we'd see Verizon pushing aggressive pricing for insurance to give AT&T iPhone owners more reasons to switch.