With several Japanese manufacturers struggling to bring their facilities back into operation after the earthquake and tsunami, Digitimes reports Apple is willing to pay more to have a constant, steady flow of touch panel supply for the coming months. After the release of the iPad 2 and with several reports about Apple facing issues with low tablet shipments from Asian manufacturers, the rumor is interesting as it suggests Apple is re-considering the amount of money that goes into pre-production deals with companies in China and Taiwan.

In order to secure sufficient supply of touch panels used in the iPad and iPhone, Apple has talked with Taiwan-based makers, considering some room for them to hike quotes, according to these makers.

With Apple’s capacity, It is a reasonable strategy from Apple to allow suppliers to hike quotes, and it will be a great help to the overall supply chain, even just for the short term, but will increase pressure to other vendors for tablet PCs and smartphone, touch panel makers believed.

In the past week many publications reported the Japanese earthquake might have not affected the stream of supplies necessary for the iPad 2 production. Apple is clearly looking ahead though, with an iPhone 5 set to debut this summer and likely ready to go into mass-production in a few weeks. Digitimes claims Apple is taking 60% of the current touch panel market, and a deal to pay manufacturers more to ensure availability may spell bad news for competitors like Samsung or Motorola, both heavily betting on Android-based tablets for 2011. [via MacRumors]

Some stories about the build quality of iOS devices are just too good to not be mentioned. Take the iPhone 4 for example: in the past year, we’ve heard stories of shattered glasses and damages to the metal band that runs across the device, but in most of those stories the device always ended up being functional – although broken. The glass that Apple uses in its iPhones certainly is resistant enough to protect the multitouch display beneath it, but it may break even after a stupid fall from the coffee table. It happens.

The story shared by iLounge today, however, is quite possibly the most dramatic and, at the same time, incredible we’ve heard so far: an iPhone 4 falls off a plane flying at 130 knots, ends up in the woods, the glass breaks but the phone is still active and working. It was a 1,000 foot fall. The owner installs Find My iPhone on a second device, retrieves the iPhone 4’s position through GPS, gets his iPhone back and uses it to send an email to iLounge about what happened. Again, that was a 1,000 foot fall from a plane.

Plotting the phone’s position on maps, Mr. Walker and a friend headed out on ATVs to see if they could track the phone down, if only so Mr. Walker could attempt to back up his data for transfer to a replacement unit. Within an hour, the two had pinpointed the phone’s location near a tree, ultimately finding the phone in complete working order, apparently with nary a scratch or patch of dirt on it. Mr. Walker says that the phone only had a Griffin Motif TPU case and an aftermarket metal backing on it for protection; he believes that the phone’s fall may have been slowed by tree leaves and needles as it made its way towards land.

So the iPhone was inside a case and had a metal backing, but the fact that it’s still working after such a fall is still impressive. Perhaps the trees and leaves made the impact less strong? Maybe he just got lucky? One thing is for sure: Find My iPhone is a must-have. [via iSpazio]