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A British company has unveiled the world’s most expensive mobile phone – a gold iPhone encrusted with nearly 200 diamonds that retails at a hefty 1.92 million pounds, or Rs.14.7 crore.

The phone, designed by Stuart Hughes for the Liverpool-based Goldstriker International, is made from 22-carat gold.

It has 136 diamonds in the front bezel and an Apple logo made out of no fewer than 53 diamonds.

The phone’s front navigation button comprises a rare diamond of 7.1 carats.

The phone, which took over ten months to make, ships with a seven kg chest crafted from a single block of granite, offset with Kashmir gold and lined with Nubuck leather on the inside.

Called the iPhone 3G Supreme, it was reportedly commissioned by an anonymous Australian businessman.

This rumor simply has to be taken with a grain of salt, but word has it that Verizon and Apple are testing a version of the iPhone on Verizon’s upcoming 4G LTE network.

For those unfamiliar with the landscape, 4G is essentially the next-generation of cellular networks, designed to carry data and increase the speed and capacity of mobile networks. Although the rumor is unconfirmed, it would make a lot of sense for Apple to hold out for the LTE deployment in order to get more mileage out of the R&D dollars it needs to spend to make a version of the iPhone compatible with Verizon’s network.

The rumor sources note that Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam has been making bi-monthly trips to Mountain View to visit with Google, culminating in an announcement of Android phones coming to Verizon. Apple’s headquarters are a mere 8.5 miles away, lending further anecdotal evidence to the idea.

We know that Verizon is steadily making progress on their next-gen LTE (Long Term Evolution) network, having already begun successful testing of data calls. We also know there are many logical reasons to expect that AT&T exclusivity for the iPhone will end, with analysts and pundits alike all placing the timeframe in 2010 for this to happen. Even the Department of Justice is taking an interest in getting the iPhone onto more networks.

What remains unknown are the specific details. It does seem like it fits with Apple’s M.O. to want to make a big splash with a 4G iPhone launch on the U.S. largest carrier, but keep those salt shakers at the ready until we get some official confirmation.

If you’re a current iPhone owner, would you consider ditching AT&T for Verizon if the option were available? If you’re not an iPhone owner, would you consider picking one up if it came to another carrier? Let us know in the comments.

Now open in wide theatrical release is a film that remakes one of the formative books of many a childhood. Typically that’s cause for fear that a special and rare experience hasn’t been done justice.

But in this case, Where the Wild Things Are has world class director Spike Jonze going for it as well as the explicit blessing and accolades of the author Maurice Sendak. It also has a very plugged-in and intelligent social media campaign going on to promote the film.

Case in point, a creative iPhone app (warning: iTunes link) and Facebook page that’s seen impressive growth up to at current count over 1.6 million fans.

In the iPhone app you can watch trailers and view photos of the film as well as hear the soundtrack. But most notably, the creative and delightful part of the app sees the Carol monster as a creature kids (and adults!) can interact with. If put to sleep at night he’ll gobble up your contacts’ photos from your phone — a playful and yet appropriately modern element that’s true to the spirit of the Where the Wild Things Are universe.

The Facebook page is also done well, with a continuous stream of updates featuring behind the scenes information, videos, media coverage, interviews and more. It also features a custom app where users can upload images of themselves to be inserted in place of Max’s face in one of the film’s promotional images.

It’s certainly not the first example of a mainstream film taking advantage of social media promotion tools, but it’s definitely an example of one done well. Did you hear about the film via its social media promotions or its more mainstream publicity campaigns?

Name: Ping! Messaging

Quick Pitch: Ping is simplified iPhone-to-iPhone messaging with push notifications (also works with iPod Touch). It uses a unique Ping! ID, and works similar to Blackberry Messenger so that messages can extend to friends anywhere in the world without text messaging costs.

Genius Idea: Although text messaging has come down in cost over the years, it’s still not free. A number of mobile applications work around that though, and let you send free messages to other users. Ping is one such application — after you download it for 99 cents from the iPhone app store [iTunes link].

One of the best aspects of Ping is that it uses push notifications, which makes it much more like regular text messaging. Simply download Ping, create a username, and start messaging your friends that also have the app. It also lets you link Ping contacts to your address book and works on iPod Touch, which extends its reach to the more than 40 million people that have either an iPhone or iPod Touch.

That is of course the downside of the app – it’s only for iPhone to iPhone messaging, so it can’t quite replace text messaging if your friends use other devices (or, don’t sign up for Ping). TextPlus, another app we’ve reviewed, actually does the opposite, letting you use an iPhone app to send text messages to any phone number, though we’ve heard that they plan to add app-to-app messaging as well.

The ideal messaging app would seemingly have a version for multiple platforms (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android etc.) and also support texting to non-users. That’s likely the direction most of these companies will ultimately move in, but we’re not quite there yet.

How do you grab a high quality screenshot image of the iPod Touch 2.0 or the iPhone 3G screen without downloading any screen capture app or using a digital camera?

To take a screenshot of any iPhone screen and save that a picture on your computer, upgrade your iPhone OS to firmware version 2.0 in case you are still using the old firmware. If you have an iPhone 3G, you already have a built-in screen capture function.

The hidden Print Screen in iPod Touch & iPhone:

In order to take a screen capture of the iPhone or iPod, press and hold the Home button that is located at the bottom center of the iPhone and is more often used to return to the default screen of your iPhone.

While your hold the home button, also press the Sleep / Wake key on top of iPhone and a screenshot of the existing screen will get saved to your iPhone or iPod photos folder. The iPod / iPhone screen will flash momentarily to indicate that a screenshot has  been captured.

Do remember that the same key combination will reset your iPhone if you press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time for at least 10 seconds.