The Wall Street Journal reports today that Virgin Mobile (owned by Sprint) will become the second carrier to offer the iPhone in the US on a prepaid plan. Cricket became the first to do so when it announced that it would start selling the iPhone 4S and 4 off-contract, beginning on June 22nd. Apple and Virgin have yet to confirm the news, but the WSJ says that the iPhone will be available on the carrier "as soon as" July 1st, citing "people familiar with the company's plans."

It's not yet clear whether Virgin Mobile will be selling the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, or some combination of the two, and there's no information yet on how much the devices …

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Indian phone network Aircel announced that it will be carrying the iPhone 4S as of November 25th. Its competitor, Airtel, has also said that it will be launching the phone soon, but has not provided a date as of yet. Pricing hasn't been confirmed either, but based on the iPhone 4, it's expected to be between 35,000 and 40,000 Rupees (about $690 - $790) on contract.

Apple promised to make this the fastest iPhone rollout so far, which explains why Indian customers only have to put up with a six week delay instead of facing a repeat of the 11 months it took for the iPhone 4 to come to the subcontinent. The company plans to deploy the 4S in over 7 …

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The Apple Store has now added the online option to purchase an iPhone 4S unlocked and off-contract, fulfilling Apple's launch promise of November. The non-carrier version of the phone costs $649 to $849 depending on storage capacity, and will only work on GSM networks, leaving Sprint and Verizon users out of luck. Much of the rest of the world obtained the unlocked version of this phone in late October, but this marks its first official availability in the USA.

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2010 brought us antennagate. Will late 2011 be the season of batterygate? Apple acknowledges that standby battery life for the iPhone 4S trails the iPhone 4, but there may be a bigger issue at hand - Apple's support forums are filling up with posts from angry iPhone 4S owners with devices that can't make it through a day, even with battery-draining features like Bluetooth and location services disabled.

Speculation on the cause is running rampant; some people blame a location-based time zone setting, others find trouble with iCloud contact syncing, still others have seen a bug involving calendar reminders in the iOS 5 notification pane. Thes …

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Apple's latest iteration of the iPhone has just started its second wave of international availability. However, unlike the US, these new releases are being sold SIM-free. This means that customers in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland can now buy their new handset direct from Apple without being tied to a carrier.

In most of Europe, the handsets start at €599 (roughly $840) for the 16GB version, with a 1-2 week wait time - prices vary country by country, ho …

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In Apple's zeal to make Siri available all the time, the company set a default behavior you may not expect: Siri's active even when your password-protected phone is locked. Without needing to enter any password, anyone that has access to your iPhone 4S can use the service to text, email, or pull up contact information. Happily, there's an easy fix: go to Settings > General > Passcode Lock, and turn the Siri slider off. Yes, it'll make using Siri a little less convenient, but your data will be that much more secure.

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Fresh from an opening weekend where the iPhone 4S topped 4 million sales, Apple is now setting its sights on 22 more countries, including Austria, Spain, Mexico, and Denmark. While Cupertino's latest will be available to them on October 28th, the online stores for those countries are now giving the option to pre-order the device. One thing to note is that the delivery date for the device is estimated to be one to two weeks, meaning that those who pre-order will likely not get their phones until after it becomes available to the brick-and-mortar masses.

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Sprint isn't the only new addition to Apple's stable of US carriers - Cupertino is continuing its push to get the iPhone downmarket by bringing it to C Spire Wireless, a Mississippi-based regional network (formerly known as Cellular South) with under a million subscribers. An iPhone 4S "Coming Soon" graphic now dominates C Spire's home page, and clicking through lets you sign up to be notified when more details are available - though no date is offered just yet. It's possible that this will line up with Apple's promise of wide availability of unlocked units starting in November, but here's the real question: if C Spire is in, who else will b …

Read the full story at The Verge.