Last month saw six small U.S. carriers begin offering the iPhone for the first time, and it appears that another round of expansion to similar carriers is coming on May 18. Three new iPhone carriers, all operating CDMA networks, have rolled out their announcements so far today: - Bluegrass Cellular (Kentucky) - Golden State Cellular (California) - Nex-Tech Wireless (Kansas) As with other regional carriers, the new entrants will be offering the iPhone at $50 below the standard pricing available through Apple and the major carriers.

Earlier this month, the U.S.

Following up on last month's threat to file suit over the Apple-backed agency model of e-book pricing, the U.S.

Back in late February, we noted that Apple had begun selling Brazilian-assembled 8 GB iPhone 4 models in that country, yielding the first fruits from Foxconn's production lines starting up in the country.

ChangeWave Research today released the results of a survey addressing users' experiences with the new iPad, finding that 98% of the professional and early-adopter consumer audience targeted by the firm rate themselves as either "very satisfied" (82%) or "somewhat satisfied" (16%) with the device. The number compares favorably to the already-strong 95% satisfaction rating (74% very/23% somewhat) for the iPad 2 in the weeks leading up to the new iPad's introduction.

Dow Jones reports on comments from Sprint Chief Financial Officer Joe Euteneuer indicating that the carrier would be free to launch an LTE-equipped iPhone should one be introduced by Apple as many expect to occur later this year. There had been speculation that Apple might keep an LTE iPhone off of Sprint given that the carrier is well behind AT&T and Verizon in its plans to roll out an LTE network as it transitions away from WiMAX as its "4G" technology

AllThingsD reports on findings of a survey by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners which investigated where iPhone owners purchased their device. The found that the breakdown of retail vs online sales was 76 percent retail vs 24 percent online. Of that 76% from retail stores, the breakdown showed that Best Buy was almost as big as Apple's own retail stores as a point of sale: Carrier stores are clearly the dominant point of sale for most consumers, but Best Buy's presence has also proven to be a significant location for iPhone sales.

Current micro-SIM (bottom right) punched out of a full-size SIM card (top right) The Financial Times reports that Apple is up against rival smartphone makers over the next industry standard for miniaturized SIM cards. (via Engadget ).

Following up on reports from earlier today that the outer shell of the iPad 3 gets warmer than the iPad 2 , Consumer Reports found that their iPad 3 reached temperatures up to 116 degrees after running Infinity Blade II for 45 minutes. The piece did note that the iPad felt "very warm but not especially uncomfortable if held for a brief period" during the testing process. In a statement earlier today , Apple said that the iPad was "operating well within our thermal specifications." We ran our test while the new iPad was propped on the iPad Smart Cover, plugged in, and after it had run Infinity Blade II uninterrupted for about 45 minutes

With the launch of the iPhone 4S last October, Apple debuted AppleCare+ for iPhone , a new $99 extended warranty program that includes coverage for accidental damage to the user's device over the two-year coverage period.