.SUMMARY

Read this Computing Unplugged article.

While Apple hasn’t released any iPhone development tools for creating dedicated software programs that reside and run on the iPhone itself, scores of browser-based apps for the iPhone appeared in the first month after its debut. Why all the effort? The basic hacker impulse–curiosity–says Andrew Jaquith, a Yankee Group analyst.

By the standards of modern software, it wasn’t much. All the program did, after all, was display the words “Hello world!” What set it apart was the fact that it did so on Apple’s iPhone, and that it was created by a group of independent programmers without the blessing of the famously control-freakish company.

Lenovo, one of the world’s biggest PC manufacturers, is to start selling laptops to business and consumers with Linux pre-installed on the machines.

Linux is a free, open source operating system developed as an alternative to systems such as Microsoft’s Windows. Novell will provide the Linux software on the laptops, which are due to go on sale at the end of the year.

It’s update time again, courtesy of O2 UK. Both Xda Orbit and Xda Trion owners can now grab free Windows Mobile 6 updates for their device.

nActionr allows you to regain control of your life effortlessly using a simple, intuitive system based around contexts, projects, and tasks. Using the power and portability of your Pocket PC, nActionr is with you–every time you need it–helping you to decide what to do next.

Nokia has expanded its partnership with Microsoft to include licensing of the software giant’s PlayReady mobile digital rights management technology, according to an August 6 press release.

Nokia’s S60 and Series 40 mobile devices will begin to support PlayReady in 2008, and the technology is meant to make it easier for content and service providers to offer copy-protected digital media that can be simply accessed and moved between mobile devices, PCs and other electronics.

Microsoft’s announcement that it will spend $1 billion to fix problematic Xbox 360s seemed like a step that would assuage disenchanted customers. Nearly a month later, however, some console owners are still less than pleased.

Complaints regarding Xbox repairs and service aren’t hard to find. Visit, for instance, Microsoft’s official Xbox Live forums. Customers have a range of gripes: customer service reps failing to follow up as promised, receiving broken consoles from the repair center, losing money on prepaid Xbox Live subscriptions and longer-than-expected fix times.

Microsoft, for its part, said the raft of service requests since the announcement of the new three-year warranty has increased the turnaround time for repairs. “We have been and continue to build out our repair teams to help reduce turnaround times,” the company said in an emailed statement.

Synchronica has shipped a trial version of its previously-announced service that lets iPhone users access and synchronise with Microsoft Exchange. Available now as a 60-day free trial, Mobile Gateway 3.0 offers mobile synchronization between Microsoft Exchange and the native email client of the iPhone.

The hosted service offers enterprise users the facility to send and receive corporate email using an iPhone, without requiring they install software on the device or behind the corporate firewall.

Gx5 has released an update for its popular Treo memopad and note taking application. TreoMemo features a “Treo optimized” interface, with a collection of nicely designed and colored skins. TreoMemo uses your existing memo database and adds a number of additional features including “Type to Get Memo” navigation, mp3 alarms, SMS and email memo’s and searching capabilities. The new version adds a few enhancements and fixes for alarms, categories and a few other minor updates.

To simplify the use of and get the most out of today’s latest mobile devices, PNY Technologies has introduced the first, 4-In-1 Mobile Media Kit. Now, users can choose a single memory device to work with virtually all digital cameras, mobile phones, PDAs, MP3 players, laptops, smartphones or any device that supports an SD card or USB drive–allowing them to capture and transport their favorite content on multiple devices using the same memory device. The 4-In-1 Mobile Media Kit contains a MicroSD card and three adapters, converting the MicroSD a MiniSD card, standard SD card, or a USB drive.