Raging Thunder is one of those games we’ve been watching since the App Store was first announced, and now it may have reached another milestone. Polarbit says that with version 1.0.3, which is in the App Store now, they’ve released online, real-time competitive multiplayer. They say it’s an App Store first, and I think they’re right — a few games have offered wifi multiplayer before (Apple’s Hold’em does, and Raging Thunder did previously), and some games have done some non-real time multiplayer (Loot Wars is interesting in that way) but allowing players to play competitively online in real-time is something that hasn’t been done much.

It’s not quite on the level of Xbox Live yet — Polarbit is offering a free beta of their server software on the website, so you’ve apparently got to have your own server running (or sign on to someone else’s) to race against your friends online. I just gave it a shot, and it worked well. The lobby system is a little awkward and without voice chat (strange how much I’ve just taken it for granted in multiplayer nowadays), it’s hard to tell whether people are playing or just waiting in a room (or why they’re dropping out of the race, as a few players did while I played). But once you get into the game, it’s Raging Thunder with other people driving the cars. Well done.

It would be nice to see player names above cars. Easier to do trash talking when you know who you’re talking about. This is only the beginning, however — here’s to many, many great online multiplayer experiences on the iPhone.

Klipsch made tiny waves with their original Image headphones, saying they were the world’s smallest. We took their word for it and moved along. Now Klipsch has given up on the size game with its new X5 headphones, boasting that the 2mm-bigger X5 headphones are “light but heavy in sound.” Anyway, the Image X5 use a full-range armature driver, tuned bass-reflex system, and sport a long-enough 50-inch cable. The housing is electroplated aluminum and Klipsch says the black “tail” reduces cable stress and dampens cable noise. The X5 is iPhone compatible and comes in at a more wallet-friendly (but still slightly alarming) $249 later this month. For that price you’ll get the headphones, carrying pouch, airplane adapter, five multi-sized ear gels, and an ear gel cleaning tool.

It’s not always a question of why — sometimes why not will suffice. The rolling bot above relies upon the Mindstorms NXT light sensor’s ability to read the contrasting colors on the iPhone display. After some simple programming and DIY tomfoolery you can drive the robot from the comforts of your WiFi-enabled web browser. Overkill? Oh hells yeah, but at least now your iPhone will serve a purpose after Monday. See how the kids at Battlebricks did it in the video after the break.

Japan’s third-largest mobile phone operator now has rights to Apple’s iPhone. As has been the norm recently, the announcement is a one-liner without any details related to exclusivity (NTT DoCoMo and KDDI still can has a chanceburger) or model… though it should be noted that Softbank is a W-CDMA (UMTS 3G), not GSM/EDGE carrier. Softbank only says that they’ll be selling the iPhone “later this year.”