iPhone Centre

Everybody who knows about the new iPhone applications knows about Super Monkey Ball and MLB At Bat. But after dropping all kinds of dough on a new iPhone and a 3G service plan, you can save some cash and get these great free programs ASAP.

Armed with the App Store and a whopping zero dollars to spend, I took a crack at finding the best free iPhone productivity applications available right now. I came away with five solid--if flawed--apps for productivity-minded cheapskates.

Downloadable applications from Apple's iTunes App Store can turn your iPhone into a helpful traveling companion. As of this writing (early August, 2008), the App Store's Travel category includes foreign language translators, currency and weight/measure converters, a smattering of guides to municipal transportation (such as one for London's Tube), and Frommer's city guides for New York and San Francisco.

Remember how much everyone loved to hate AOL at the turn of the century? AOL offered bloated software, piles of unwanted installation discs, a walled garden of content, an overloaded newbie network, and a pricey dial-up service.

I'm now the owner of an Apple iPhone 3G, after waiting out the first-generation model.

One of biggest stories behind the release of the iPhone 3G -- and the iPhone 2.0 firmware update for first-generation iPhones -- was the inclusion of features designed for use in business environments. While many analysts and enterprise users have argued in recent weeks about whether the iPhone can replace Research In Motion's BlackBerry as the prevailing smart phone for business, little has been said about the tools and processes that Apple offers systems administrators to actually deploy and manage iPhones at work.

iPhone VoIP options

With the iPhone 3G's banner opening weekend and newsstands looking like a rack of brochures for the device, a review of the iPhone 3G at this point might be pro forma, except for one thing: Much of the iPhone 3G and the new iPhone 2.0 software remains an enigma to professionals and enterprises, users set apart by, among other things, their tendency to use punctuation in their e-mail. These users demand more from a handset than a cellular browser and YouTube.

The iPhone 3G may have a lock on the Sexiest Gadget Alive title for 2008, but in the frumpy and boring world of things that matter to enterprise IT managers, it's no pinup.

Companies -- lots of them -- are still buying Windows Mobile smartphones, and Microsoft doesn't want to let iPhone-mania make them forget.

It's been two weeks since the launch of the already iconic Apple iPhone 3G in Australia and the hype machine is still in overdrive. Although plenty of Australians have already snapped up iPhones, there are many who won't buy into the hype and are looking for alternatives.