Less than a year after its introduction, it's clear "the iPhone has had a profound impact on the mobile phone business and likely will keep on influencing it for years to come," Troy Wolverton (mercurynews.com) reports. "With its large, full-screen display, its notable lack of a keypad and its simple black-on-silver color scheme, the iPhone instantly became an icon and a model for the rest of the industry."

JVC is making it easier to hook-up an iPod to a flat-panel TV with new sets that contain a dock for the popular music player, it said Saturday on the eve of the International Consumer Electronics Show.

The four new models feature the dock at the base of the set and will display an iPod control menu when a device is connected. Through the menu users can use the TV's remote control to call up songs, music shuffle or videos. The remote control has a circular keypad with a control scheme that mimics the iPod's control wheel. The set can also display photos or regular TV during music playback.

Two of the sets, the 32-inch and 42-inch screen-size models, will be available from March with a 47-inch model available in April and a 52-inch model available in the middle of 2008, JVC said. Pricing for the TV sets was not announced.

The new TVs are among a range of new products JVC is launching at CES that include docks for the iPod.

The PN7 is an iPod docking station that can accept two iPods. Sitting side-by-side in the dock the iPods can be simultaneously charged while music can be selected from either device and played back through the built-in speaker system. There's also an AM/FM tuner and an analog audio input for connecting other audio sources for playback. The PN7 will be launched in April and will cost $150.

JVC also announced two new mini systems and a micro stereo-system that includes an iPod dock.

The MX-KC68 system has a 400-watt speaker system with subwoofer while the MX-KC38 has a 220-watt speaker system. The former of the two will be available in March for US$200 and the latter will be launched a month later for $180. The UX-GP5 is a three-piece micro system that has a flip-down iPod dock that is normally concealed when not in use. The system will be launched in March and will cost $150.

Netflix has announced a partnership with LG Electronics to offer an internet-connected set-top box that will allow Netflix subscribers to download movies and other programming directly to the television set. "It's going to be very slick and easy," said Reed Hastings, Netflix's chief executive officer. "We want the TV experience to be very relaxing and not like visiting a Web site." The box, which will be released in summer or early autumn, will likely compete against the Apple TV and the upcoming iTunes movie rental service.

An iPhone owner on vacation in New York city accidentally dropped his device onto the subway tracks, and, in a very dangerous and foolhardy move, jumped down to retrieve it. Luckily, both owner and iPhone emerged relatively unharmed.

France Telecom's Orange unit has said that it sold more than 70,000 iPhones in the first month of availability in France, which in "right in line" with company targets of 50-100,000 units. In addition, a spokesperson revealed that 48 percent of the sales were to new Orange customers.

Lagotek has announced that it will showcase a version of its "HIP Modes" home control gadget running on the iPhone and iPod touch at CES. The company claims it is "the first technology that enables the use of iPhone and iPod touch for home control over WiFi and GPRS/EDGE."

Nexthaus has released a beta version of its upcoming SyncJe client software for the iPhone. SyncJe for iPhone wirelessly synchronizes the iPhone's Calendar, Contacts, and Notes applications with SyncML servers. The software is free until January 9, at which point it will be available for download for the price of $40.

iPhone Software Update 1.1.3, a free software update available today via iTunes 7.5 or later, brings significant new features to iPhone. After installing the update, iPhone customers will be able to automatically find their location using the redesigned Maps application; text message multiple people in one message; create Web Clips for their favorite websites; customize their home screen; and watch movies rented from the new iTunes Movie Rentals right on their iPhone.

    New features:

• Maps with wi-fi locations
• Webclips - Lets you bookmark pages (and their zoom/pan state) and save them to your main screen
• Customizable home screen
• SMS to multiple people
• Lyrics support (for iPod mode)