Search titan Google and mobile phone carrier AT&T have been stunned by iPhone users usage patterns according to reports in recent days.

AppleInsider reports that Google has seen 50 times more search requests coming from Apple iPhones than any other mobile handset. They were so shocked, in fact, that they suspected that they had made an error tabulating their data.

The BlackBerry mobile communications device is hard to beat in the corporate world, where it got its start, but it's expected have a tougher time winning the hearts of consumers who are being wooed by Apple's iPhone and other smartphones.

While there's an opportunity for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion to fill a void in Canada while the iPhone isn't yet available, Apple's phone is a real threat, says tech analyst Jesse Hirsh.

He adds the BlackBerry is still cool but it's no longer "uber-cool."

After months with my unlocked iPhone still running firmware 1.0.2, the arrival of Zibri's ZiPhone tool persuaded me to try an upgrade. I'm glad I did - I now have an unlocked 1.1.3 iPhone.

Why didn't I do so before? Cowardice, really. Having read how tricky upgrading became with subsequent firmware releases, I was worried about bricking my handset. And the gains from firmware 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 seemed too small to warrant the risk.

Apple's iPhone, Google's Android OS platform and Nokia's Maps 2.0 GPS technology are striking a blow against cellular network operators' closed and lucrative business model. Where the operators have long been accustomed to dictating services, applications, device definitions and - most of all - prices, last week's Mobile World Congress here heard a cry for openness: for applications and services that can run independently of cellular operators on any mobile device.

The iPhone is up against 18 other products in the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2007, hosted by the Design Museum.

Nominated by a team of internationally respected design experts including Nick Knight, Philipp Rode and Wayne Hemingway, the comprehensive shortlist reflects the best designs of the last 12 months.

Most iPhone owners probably just chucked the handset's box in the bin seconds after leaving the shop. Not designer Scot Hampton - instead, he turned Apple's packaging into a film camera.

Hampton’s dubbed his design the iHole and describes it as “a revolutionary analogue photographic device constructed from the recycled packaging of digital technology”....

Apple has filed a patent for "podmaps".

Apple's podmaps patent describes the "Creation, Management and Delivery of Map-based Media Items,".

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