Apple: More Than 2 Million iPhone 5s Pre-Ordered in 24 Hours

iPhone 5 pre-orders topped 2 million in the first 24 hours of availability, Apple has announced. This figure more than doubles the previous record of one million devices pre-ordered, held by iPhone 4S.

“iPhone 5 pre-orders have shattered the previous record held by iPhone 4S and the customer response to iPhone 5 has been phenomenal,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

The overwhelming demand for the iPhone 5 has exceeded supply. Apple claims the “majority” of pre-orders will be delivered to customers on Sept. 21, but “many” are scheduled to be delivered in October.

Earlier today, AT&T announced the iPhone 5 is the best-selling iPhone the company has ever had.

For comparison, Samsung recently announced it took a little less than three months to sell 20 million of its flagship Android smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S III, with 200,000 units moved daily.

Apple Stock Hits New Record Following iPhone 5 Announcement

Apple’s stock hit a new intraday trading high of $685.50 a share on Thursday, inching closer to becoming a member of the elite $700 stock club.

The company’s stock closed up 1.4% on Wednesday and has continued to rise following the buzz from the iPhone 5 event on Wednesday. Several analysts have upped their price targets for the company’s stock, driven in part by Apple’s plans to launch the latest iPhone in dozens of countries before the end of the September quarter. One analyst from FBN Securities raised the price target to $1,000 from $800 a share.

It’s unusual to see Apple’s stock spike following an iPhone announcement. In the past few years, the stock typically rises in the week leading up to the announcement, but then drops in the days after.

Apple stock closed the day at $683.09, beating their previous all-time closing high of $680.44 on Sept. 7. Apple’s market cap is now more than $640 billion.

Twitter Upgrades iPhone, Android Apps — Now with Built-In Video

Twitter announced upgraded versions of its iPhone and Android apps Tuesday — adding many of the features that Twitter.com users have been enjoying for some time.

Now you can click on a tweet with a video link on your smartphone, for example, and have the video play directly in the tweet — just as you can on the website.

Expanded tweets will also include images and the summaries of articles, should the link point to one of Twitter’s media partners (such as Mashable).

“This new experience will roll out gradually to iPhone and Android users,” writes Twitter mobile product manager Sung Hu Kim in a company blog post.

The update adds a number of other features we’ve written about previously to Twitter’s mobile experience:event-based hashtags, such as the one that lets you follow all the action from #NASCAR, and smart searchwhich will offer suggestions on what you’re looking for before you’ve finished typing.

All in all, the upgrades make Twitter’s mobile apps a more effective media-consuming experience — and puts the company light-years ahead of Facebook, which has struggled to update its mobile apps.

The iPhone upgrade appears to work as advertised; however, we didn’t see embedded media in the upgraded Android app.

Do you have the updated Twitter apps yet? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Next Twitter for iPhone Version to Bring Interactive Tweet View

Twitter is preparing a major new version of its iPhone app, which will include an interactive tweet view, enhanced notifications and more, 9to5Mac reports.

The info comes through leaked release notes which bring a detailed list of all the new features in the next Twitter for iPhone version, 4.3.

These include a more interactive tweet view experience, letting you see content previews, videos and images within tweets containing links to “partner websites,” as well as the ability to choose whether you want to receive push notifications when certain people tweet.

Other improvements include highlighted tweets about selected events, autocomplete in the Connect tab, and the ability to tap someone’s avatar and be taken to their profile pages.

The time of launch for this update is unknown, and some of the features may change when it actually hits the App Store.

Break Your iPhone in This Case And You’ll Get a New Phone for Free

Break your iPhone in this case, and you’ll get a new one for free. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right?

Meet Cellhelmet, a new protective iPhone case from a company called Cellpig. Originally started as a Kickstarter project, the cases recently went into production and are now available for retail sale.

Originally, we wanted to create the most ‘indestructible’ case on the market, Mike Kane, CEO of Cellhelmet told Mashable. €œBut, as we developed our designs, we realized that we were basically recreating something that can already be found on every shelf – a big and bulky case, which wouldn’t fit comfortably in a pocket. That idea went out the door real quick. At this point, a light went on and we thought, ‘Why don’t we design a case that is slim and sleek, with moderate protection, but get a company to back the product, saying that if the iPhone breaks inside, it will be repaired or replaced?’ Bingo – we went with it.€

Cellhelmet turned out to be exactly that, a super-protective case that doesn’t add a ton of bulk to your phone. The case is backed by by Global Warranty Group, and is the only case on the market that offers damage coverage on not only the case itself but also your phone inside.

If your phone breaks in the case (excluding water damage), then the company promises to replace it for a year for a $50 handling fee, with no monthly fee for the coverage. Phones are repaired or replaced within three days of receipt and are overnighted back to your address.

The case is made of dense polyurethane rubber, and has angled edges for drop-shock displacement around the device. It be purchased and used on any iPhone 4 or 4S, even jailbroken iPhones and ones you’ve been using for a few years now.

Apple offers AppleCare+ for new iPhones for $99, and will replace your broken phone twice due to mishandling under the program for $49 — making it still probably a better bet for new phone owners. The win with Cellhelmet is going to be for people who are still using a phone where Apple Care has run out, people who didn’t sign up for coverage when they bought their Phones (most require you sign up immediately or within 30 days), and those who have jailbroken their iPhones which makes them ineligible for Apple protection.