iPhone

According to AdMob, the latest stats put iPhone OS web requests at 51 percent of all smartphone web traffic. The nearest competitor is RIM OS (Blackberry) with 19 percent of smartphone web traffic, while Microsoft Windows Mobile made third place with 14 percent.

Apple devices, including the iPod Touch, represent over 18 percent of total global web ad traffic. The only company with more traffic is Nokia, clocking over 30 percent in the same category. Worldwide requests from Apple devices increased 28 percent from December to January, hitting a total of 1.2 billion.

The refurbished iPhones are back! Now available through the AT&T website. Both iPhone 3G models, the 8GB and 16GB, are available with free two-day shipping. Including the refurb discount, this puts the price of an 8GB model at $99 and the 16GB at $199.

Besides being a great deal, the phones come with a warranty of at least 90 days. Apple can provide more details about the specific length of your warranty on their website if you provide the serial number. According to AT&T, these refurbished devices are previously owned, and have been unused or lightly used and returned within the 30-day trial period.

It's official. Google Book Search has gone mobile! This means your iPhone just became a library overnight. There are over 1.5 million books available for reading while connected to cellular data or Wi-Fi networks in the US. Due to copyright restrictions only about one third of these titles are available outside the US.

The mobile version of Google Book Search has all of the classics of literature that have been available through the main site, however texts have been optimized for swift downloading and ease of use. Using optical character recognition (OCR) software, Google has converted the works into plain text.

Apple has just been awarded a far-reaching patent titled "Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics." Does this sound enough like an iPhone? The patent may be the first step in a legal battle between Apple and Palm over the Palm Pre. The two companies have already started to exchange harsh words.

Two new Apple patent filings have recently been published that could possibly be incorporated into the next generation iPhone. The first is an audio jack cleaning adaptor for portable electronic devices. Two different methods of cleaning would both essentially force compressed air through a conduit and hollow channels in the plug to displace lint and debris that have accumulated in the jack.

According to Apple, "A consumer could place the adaptor plug in the jack, couple the conduit to the plug, and then apply compressed air through the conduit to clean the jack." Although this sounds perfectly functional, the second patent may actually be more useful on a day-to-day basis.