Apple

You may have heard that Apple now offers the Find My iPhone service for free to iPhone 4 owners who have installed the iOS 4.2 update. When set up properly, the service locates and even sends messages to the lost device. Find My iPhone can also remotely lock or erase your iPhone.

Setting up the service no longer requires a paid MobileMe subscription with Apple to use. To set up Find My iPhone on your device follow these instructions.

Just last month reports indicated that Apple was planning to integrate reprogrammable SIM cards into iPhones, cutting wireless carriers out of the activation process. Turns out that opposition from European carriers has derailed the project. According to a report in the Sunday Telegraph, the wireless companies threatened to stop paying iPhone subsidies for contract subscribers. Currently, carriers pay the subsidy directly to Apple and collect the money from customers during their service subscription period.

An anonymous source at one mobile operator told the paper that Apple has "been sent back to the drawing board with their tails between their legs." The company's work on embedded SIM cards may not be entirely wasted, as the report also explains that future iPads may include the special SIM. The iPad is not subsidized by mobile carriers, and a reprogrammable SIM card would make it possible to activate the device at the point of purchase on a variety of carrier's networks.

Evidence is mounting that Apple plans to release iOS 4.2 to anxious iPhone and iPad owners at 10 AM PST on Friday, November 12. iTunes 10.1, which hasn't been released yet, will be required to install the iOS 4.2 firmware. All indications are that Apple will launch iTunes 10.1 and Mac OS X 10.6.5 as early as Wednesday to prepare for the iOS 4.2 public release. The golden master of iOS 4.2 has already been seeded to developers and is not expected to change in the public version.

German blog iFun found evidence (above) that Apple plans to push carrier updates to wireless service providers on November 12. This date matches with inside infomation from an anonymous AT&T employee revealed by MacStories. The source also stated that Apple was delayed in its release of iOS 4.2 due to a bug discovered by AT&T testers. iOS 4.2 was originally slated for release on November 2, however an error in the display of Japanese characters required a fix from Apple.

iPhone 3G users were disappointed when Apple's iOS 4.0 made their devices all but unusable due to sluggish performance and short battery life. The iOS 4.1 update was a step in the right direction, with iPhone 3G owners reporting that Apple had made significant improvements. With the release of iOS 4.2 coming any day now, many are wondering if upgrading the firmware on their devices will speed things up even further or lead to more problems.

Apple has released the golden master of iOS 4.2, which is the last version that goes to developers before public release via iTunes. The iPhone Blog has thoroughly tested iOS 4.2 on the iPhone 3G and they have revealed that iOS 4.2 runs pretty smoothly in a video demonstration.

Apple is set to approve the web browsing iPhone app Skyfire for release later this week. Although other third-party web browsers exist, Skyfire is unique in that it makes playing Flash content possible on iOS devices. The app works by downloading Flash content to its servers and converting it for display in an HTML5 pop-up window on the iPhone.

Don't get too excited just yet. Sites such as Hulu won't work due to licensing concerns, and you can't play Flash games with the Skyfire browser. These functions are still limited by Apple, although the video content alone will open up vast swaths of the Internet to iOS devices that until now appeared as a blank page.