iPhone

Unlocking your iPhone so that you can install third party applications can be fun. Using the Installer.app application on the iPhone and its default repository you can install utilities, games, and other applications. By adding additional repositories to the Installer, it is possible to gain access to a much greater quantity of software.

Occasionally, if you’re not careful you can end up installing malicious software from a bad repository. This happened to a number of iPhone owners a few days ago.

The launch of Apple Inc's latest operating system, Leopard, was its best ever, a research group said on Monday.

When comparing the first full month of sales of Apple Mac OS 10.5 "Leopard" (November 2007) to the first full month of sales for Mac OS 10.4 "Tiger" (May 2005), dollar volume for Leopard was up 32.8 percent and unit volume up 20.5 percent, NPD Group Inc said in a statement.

Apple, maker of the Macintosh computer, the iPod digital music player and the iPhone smartphone, started selling Leopard on Oct. 25, after a four-month delay due to the company's work on the iPhone.

Technology and entertainment topped Google Inc's searches in 2007, with the iPhone grabbing the No. 1 slot on a list of the fastest-rising search terms in the United States, the company said on Tuesday.

"iPhone, of course, is a word very few people typed in a search box in 2006," said Marissa Mayer of Google, an Internet search engine. "It didn't exist."

Apple rolled out the iPhone, which is a mobile phone, music and video player and Internet browser device, in the United States last summer.

Four social networking sites made the top 10, including Webkinz, which grabbed the No. 2 slot. Webkinz is a stuffed animal that customers can register and play with online. Celebrity news Web site TMZ ranked third, while transformer toys took the No. 4 slot.

Transformers are the wildly popular toys that shift their shapes, for example from cars to alien robots, and they got a big boost from the 2007 hit movie "Transformers."

"There's a lot of interest in the celebrity culture, television and movies," said Mayer. YouTube, the video-sharing Web site, grabbed the No. 5 spot while Club Penguin, a networking site for children, came in No. 6. Social networking site MySpace took the No. 7 slot. Heroes, Facebook and Anna Nicole Smith rounded out the top 10.

Google also released a list of fastest-rising global search terms and the iPhone topped that list too.

A Sun Microsystems' executive has criticised Apple over its failure to include Java on its popular iPhone device.

"I think it's a mistake. I think it would provide a lot more flexibility in applications being developed," for the iPhone, said Bob Brewin, Sun Distinguished Engineer and vice president for software, at the AJAXWorld conference in California.

JavaScript runs on the phone and someone will put Java on the iPhone, Brewin said. But by not having it now, iPhone users and Java developers are being short-changed, according to Brewin.