So you can't have a lightsaber in real life because a) they don't exist, b) you might hurt someone - but neither reality nor the police can stop you owning the lightsaber duel app for iPhone.

An exciting update to the previous lightsaber app for iPhone, this one lets you fight your friend in a lightsaber duel. With special effect noises. It uses bluetooth to work out where your "blade" is.

Out on iTunes soon - for the Star Wars nut in your life.

[via MobileEnt.Biz]

As much as we all enjoy endless hours waving virtual lighters and popping virtual bubble wrap, you'd be forgiven for wondering if there was something a bit more... err...constructive that you could do with your iPhone.

Well, by some miracle it looks like you weren't the only ones wondering. While you've been sipping your virtual pint at the virtual pub, some eco-conscious apps creators have been busy working on an array of green apps to help you help the planet.

See our pick of the best below...

iPhone 4.0 isn't out for a few months (it will be out with the new handset in June) but that doesn't stop iPhone users sending themselves wild with speculation about what this little box of joy will bring.

Multitasking is top of the list and AppleInsider have worked geeks up into a froth by promising that the new iPhone operating system out in June will be able to run two functions at once.

Multitasking would enable you to have the web browser and say Twitter open at the same time for example, instead of having to shut one down and open the other. According to AppleInsider a "full-on" task manager would be able to juggle these and let 3rd party apps run in the background like the iPod function can.

They say:
"Among these apps begging for background execution are: Pandora-style Internet radio; third party instant messaging features that are available at all times just like SMS or email; and Loopt or Google Latitude type apps that report the user's location at regular intervals."

An obstacle to Apple introducing this before was battery life - running two apps eats more power than running just one, but since there are no specifics on the tech side, we don't know how they've overcome that.

Keep waiting iPhone lovers, the time will come.

It shoots lasers and recharges your iPhone? Surely the two best things in the world ever! The RichardSolo 1800 for iPhone is a pocket-sized back-up battery. Plug the lithium battery into your iPhone's charging dock and it will start to recharge your phone or iPod - really useful for those battery emergencies when the power levels dip. (Also available for Blackberries).

Since phone batteries tend to run out around dinner time just when you're expecting two calls and need to look something up on the internet, this device could be a life-saver.

Okay so you will need to recharge the recharging battery at some point, but it provides you with a power safety net if your iPhone starts getting slow.

The laser is purely for fun-times. But fun times or what.

The RichardSolo 1800 recharger from richardsolo.com

Two or three years ago, on this very blog there would be a steady stream of girl phones. You know what I mean: pink, dimante-encrusted things that would come pre-loaded with girl-friendly ringtones 'Oops I Did Again' and would perhaps match with your make-up case and maybe have a mirror on the back so you could check the eyeliner dear.

While these phones have their place in the hearts of many girls and surely some boys, they seem to have died a death. While the odd pink-shelled lovely does swim our way, there are definitely fewer around.

So what's changed? We're saying they've been killed.

Handsets are always getting murdered in the world of technology journalism (iPhone killer! Blackberry killer! iPhone killer again!) but this time there is a corpse on the carpet and the clues point firmly towards the smooth black inscrutable iPhone. That dark horse.

My theory - alert: Gender Stereotype - is that women/girls like customisation. It matters to them more than it is does to boys that their phone is theirs. It's not the same as everybody else's, it's a bit different. (IE - THIS IS LIKE WITH CLOTHES, you see, there's a female penchant for individualisation. Boys will practically wear the same t-shirts as each other and not even notice.)

Previously the simplest way to get an individual or different phone was to buy one that looked a bit different, whether it was pink, purple or just had an anime kitten on it. They all texted and sent calls so that was standard.

iPhones have changed the game because it switched the customisation from the outside of the phone to the inside, from the hardware to the software: you don't need to put stickers on your phone to customise it, you can download some of those those highly successful little software packages called apps and hey presto there's a newsfeed from your favourite paper, a DJing app and 400 pictures of Robert Pattinson (if you want that).

Add in all the standard smartphone extras - your music, your photos and phones are very personalised devices.

Other reasons women prefer iPhones? okay, Gender Stereotype Alert No.2, I think girls like tech for what it can do rather than treating it as status objects. They are less likely to reel off lists of specs and engage in my RAM is bigger than yours competitions. They just want to know what they can do with it. Back to the app store and it's evident that apps let you do stuff. It's all pure function. Hardened geek heads may not be proud to admit that they have iFarm and iDoodle2Lite on their phones, but silly or not, apps multiply many times what you can do with your phone. I like it. I'm just saying, I think women generally like it too.

And let's just add that girls like smooth touchscreens, fast processors, decent cameras and games where you can flick pygmies off islands (well, I like them) and it makes sense that the sleek iPhone has cleared the board of glittery competitors.

Then, need i mention skins (the cases, not the TV drama)? The iPhone is just a sexy blank slate that appeals to the creativity and desire for individualisation that women have. No need for keyrings or earring holders here...

Related:
The Porn on iTunes debate: gender wars? and Why Wii is a girl's best friend

Picture the average iPhone user and I bet you are conjuring up some blokey geek in their 20s? Well according to new research from mobile advertising company Admob you are away off.

The survey, which also quizzed Palm Web OS and Google Android users, found that iPhone owners are split fairly evenly between the sexes and only 56% are male.

It seems twentysomethings might have to wait a few more years to buy one too as the average iPhone owner is in their mid 30s.

The survey also found that iPhone owners are addicted to apps with the average user downloading over 100 of them each year. Half of all iPhone users will also buy an app each month too.

Interestingly the figure for downloading apps was pretty symmetrical between owners of iPhone and Google Android phones. Android owners are apparently less likely to buy apps with only 21% purchasing an app on a monthly basis.

There's a load more very interesting graphs and statistics here.

Do you really need to buy a eBook? We looked at the eBook versus iPhone debate earlier, and here we review three e-Reading apps for iPhone.These will also work for iPad of course - when it comes out.

Kobo
www.kobobooks.com
Cost: free on iTunes, various prices per book
What it does: A multiplatform book store. Buy a copy of a new book on your iPhone, then you can also read it on your computer or your eBook, providing it allows Kobe. A good but not complete selection of books - they don't have everything (Generation X for example).
USP: Most other books are bound to one platform, this sensibly lets you take it with you. They also have deals on book prices: all NYT bestsellers are $9.99 and one new book each week is free.
Usability: simple and pleasant.
Wow factor: 3/5 yeah, it's nice. More complete book coverage and guaranteed compatibility with all devices would make this better.
Comment from iTunes: none as yet. Average rating 3 stars.
What to say: "£8.50? I'm not used to paying more than £1.59 for anything on my iPhone."

Free Books
www.freebooksapp.com
Cost: £0.59 on iTunes
What it does: Lets you download any of 23,469 classic books and read them on your iPhone or iPad. Also the option to email it to yourself (or indeed anyone) so you can read it on a computer.
USP: Free books! these classic out-of-copyright books are free, ftw! You're not going to find the latest Harry Potter but lots of 19th century classics.
Usability: You can adjust font size and screen colours, has been upgraded to make navigation simpler.
Wow factor: 4/5 - free is always wow.
Comments on iTunes: "I used it. I've read four books on it so it was worth it. Like finding a library in your basement."
What to say: "only 2,567 pages of the Three Musketeers to go!"

eReader
www.ereader.com/iphone
Cost: free on iTunes, various prices for books
What it does: Lets you download books from a range of stores - out of copyright ones are free, others cost Stores include the proprietary eReader/Fictionwise store, also manybooks.net (for old ones). There seem to be problems with publisher deals on the eReader store however:
USP: In theory this offers both old books and new ones within one app.
Usability: Design is a bit cheesy and slightly too complicated, there's also a compulsory log-in for the eReader store which is a pain to tap in.
Wow factor: 2/5 The complicated design and hitches using the book store set this back.
Comment on iTunes: "eReader for iPhone is better than on any other platform I've tried. If you have a library of eBooks with eReader/Fictionwise then it's well worth installing. If you don't have such a library, then don't bother with this."
What to say: "Argh, I've forgotten my eReader password again."

This has been touted as the year of the e-Book, but e-Books and Readers are still relatively niche products in terms of sales. Many more people will have smartphones than specialised reading gadgets, meaning that they have to carry (and buy) fewer gadgets. So is reading on a phone an acceptable alternative to eBooks or paper? Would you get stuck into Lord of the Rings on your phone? Taking the iPhone as an example of a popular smartphone, let's run-down the pros and cons of reading on your phone.

Three reasons why reading on the iPhone is good enough:
1. It's a nice screen - app developers know exactly what screen their app is going on to and custom build it to fit. A simple layout means that it is a-okay to read a column of text.
2. Pulling an iPhone out on a busy bus or train is so much simpler, it's a one hand job, you don't need to cup it with both. Getting an 10" device out of your bag is more fiddly.
3. It's got 3G, it has got wifi, if you've got signal you'll always be able to get the internet, there's a well set-up connection with iTunes (or other app stores for different phones) you don't need to fiddle around trying to download books from different stores, or pay for a separate 3G subscription if you want internet on the move.

Three reasons why reading on the iPhone is a pain in the ass and you'd be better with an eBook:
1. E-readers use ink substitute e-ink, the screen doesn't glare and it's much easier on the eye. On yes and the screen is bigger.
2. The battery goes on smartphones very quickly, particularly if you're using a lot of functions.
3. Someone texts you while you're reading on your iPhone and you reply or take a call and you have to shut the books application down, go back open it again having lost your place. Grr etc. Okay, multi-purpose gadgets save space but it can get really annoying.

Any thoughts? Vote below:

Related: Samsung eBooks are great: paper-like and pleasurable to use

It seems a bit ridiculous to talk about retro iPhone apps - I mean the phone has only been out for 2 and a half years but looking at this new lighter iPhone app from Bic brought late '08 swimming back to me.

The classic - though chavvy - Zippo lighter has always been one of my favourites, it's just fun, flick the lid back, spin the wheel, move the flame. It just brings the best out of that capacitive touch screen.

Okay it's not Layar or Youtube or anything. In fact it's not much better than iBeer: a slightly-interactive touch based app that relates to something you might have when you go down the pub, but it is fun.

Anyway, Bic feel it's time to recrate the old favourite but using their "iconic" Bic lighters. The app is free, the flame which ignites and flickers realistically on screen when the virtual lighter wheel is clicked.

Go on.

My Bic Lighter, free on iTunes

Suave, dark and handsome, who can resist a kiss with... er, your iPhone? Well there's a app to make that seem slightly less weird: The Kissing Test.

Fire up the app, select your gender and it supposedly analyses your kiss to tell you whether you're a pro, novice or just plain bad.

I'm not sure that this is what the touchscreen was meant for, and I think along with iPhone app Swine Flu Test the results can be considered strictly unscientific.

The Kissing Test, free on iTunes

iPhones and iPod Touches don't have SD memory slots and it gets annoying sometimes, it's hard to fit pictures, vidoes and music on 16gb.

But a hardware makers zoomMediaPlus have just created an iPhone accessory - the zoomlt - that plugs into your iPhone's base and lets you slot an SD card in. This means you can see photos, play music and read documents off the card on a smart software viewer that optimises the experience.

The adapter works via a free iPhone app that you are prompted to download. This interface has some useful functions: not only can you upload photos on the SD to Facebook or Flickr, but the app knows what the best resolution for each of those sites is and will automatically shrink giant photos down to Facebook/Flickr or email-friendly size saving time so that you don't upload more detail than you need to.

According to Venturebeat, the zoomlt will also play any unprotected music or video files - a nice way to beef up the music on your phone beyond iTunes.


Zoomlt for iPhone and iPod, $59.95 from Zoomlt.com, shipping in April, $10 off preorders

[via VentureBeat]

Click image to begin second part.

The Met Office have just released an iPhone app - providing weather forecasts prescisely tuned to where you are using your phone.

The app is free, has got enthusiastic reviews and seems to be both well-made and user-friendly plus streaming the relatively high-quality forecasts of the Met Office. It uses your current location to give very location-specific forecasts, not just the weather but also wind speed plus the sunrise and set times. The information is also available on a map, or in a data format, where you can click through a cloud or rain map of the UK and move the cloud formations about as time passes on. Just like they do on TV!

The Met do the weather forecasts for the BBC - though their contract has just come under question after the sunny BBQ summer they predicted failed to materialise, in people's opinion anyway. Still, this app offers pretty good weather info for what you're paying - ie. nothing.

The Met Office also have a presence on Twitter and you can download Met Office gadgets for Vista, Firefox and iGoogle.
See their website here
Met Office app free on iTunes

iPhone and iPod touch apps will work on the iPad without needing to be rebuilt for the new format, Steve Jobs told us yesterday. You will be able to sync your iPad directly with your iPhone or Pod and get all the apps in the same place. But though the software won't need to change, surely some things are going to look a bit weird scaled-up to the iPad's 10 inch and 960-by-640 pixel resolution screen. The iPhone is half that size: 3.5 inches across with 480-by-320 pixel resolution.

So what iPhone apps are going to look good on this scaled-up screen and will benefit from the extra screen space as well as the more powerful chip? We suggest ten.

Click on the image below to start the gallery:

Apps on the iPhone app store will upgrade seamlessly to the iPad. They simply size up and don't need to be rebuilt to work on this new platform.

Steve Jobs demoed Youtube in HD and a location sensitive Maps application. Games and media apps will be particularly important. Apple will highlight apps that are created explicitly for the iPad in the iPad store as well.

iPad comes with the iTunes app store preloaded on it.

Vodafone has shifted 100,000 iPhones in the handset's first week on the network, more proof if we needed it that the phone is no longer a niche gadget but a must-have. Vodafone's promise of strong network coverage and good upgrade deals for existing customers seem to have wooed large numbers to the Apple phone.

Vodafone minutes and texts are also slightly more generous than competitors. The only catch to me appears to be that the 3G mobile internet is capped with at 1GB data. Enough to keep you in website visits or run 16 hours youtube videos perhaps but with augmented reality apps like Layar and internet connected music apps like Spotify, you'll want to be on the 3G network a lot and capped service isn't really going to cut it.

The iPhone is almost mass market now, though things took off more slowly at the beginning, it took O2 16 months to sell 1 million handsets.

iPhone on Vodafone

An American man trapped in the rubble in Haiti saved his leg with his iPhone, according to a report on MNSBC. Dan Woolley used a First Aid app to work out how to treat it after he was injured.

Because Dan Woolley is near-sighted and lost his glasses in the quake shock, he used the focus and flash on his digital camera flash to help him see his surroundings and snapped photos of the wreckage in order to see a safe place to hide.

The iPhone app instructed him to bandage and tourniquet his leg and staunch bleeding from his headwound. It also warned him of the danger of falling asleep if he felt he was going into shock, so he set his iPhone alarm to sound every 20 minutes.

After 65 hours of waiting and crying in the darkness he was rescued by a French team.
As a few blogs have pointed out - it didn't need to be an iPhone that Woolley used to find that information out, any smartphone would have done the same job - I suppose it just adds to the Apple phone's myth.

It's the iPhone !!! Yes, okay, you've heard of it. The iPhone has been around for a while so this ain't exactly ground-breaking, but the handset is now officially available on Vodafone as well as three other networks in Britain - O2, Tescos and Orange.

Yes, it is exactly the same phone so the only difference will be: price or I suppose network coverage, though unless you live somewhere quite remote standards tend to be reasonable all over.

As we discussed before: Orange's iPhone deal is practically identical to O2, and Tescos offered an eye-catching £20 a month deal but the savings on monthly payments were balanced out by a large down-payment required and of course reduced quantities of free calls and texts. 18 month contracts seem to be a minimum for the iPhone.

And Vodafone? Well, it's looking a lot like the O2 and Orange deals. The general trend I can see is that Vodafone is offering more minutes and more texts, but is capping the 3G internet at 1Gigabyte of data flow a month. 1GB they say is enough to stream 16hrs of video or view 10,000 web pages. You also get free access to BT Openzone wifi up to 1G. Vodafone also offer you "free wifi at home" which is a bit ridiculous seeing as you're paying for your home internet connection yourself.

Anyway, more details below:
(And there might be better deals for current Vodafone customers who want to upgrade.)

The 3G - available for £35 a month for *24 months. Includes and 1GB of mobile internet and webmail - note not unlimited like on O2. But significantly more minutes : 900 minutes and unlimited texts.

The 3GS - available for £45 a month, once again, for 24 months: with a generous 1200 minutes and unlimited texts but the internet is capped at 1GB.

See full range of Vodafone deals on iPhones
iPhone on Orange
iPhone on Tescos

If you're longing for some old school audio gear but still want to be able to play your iTunes lists, check out the 80s chic i931 from Lasonic. An iPhone/Pod dock set into a fabulous ghetto blaster it has a few other mod cons - an SD card slot and a USB port. It also has AM/FM radio on board. The system is capable of blasting out 15 watts per channel through
separate woofers and tweeters.

On sale in America in mid 2010 costing $149, should reach Europe too. Lasonic.
[Via Techdigest]

From February, iPhone users will be able to turn their handset into a universal remote for the electrical goods in their house.

Universal remotes such as Logitech's Harmony already exist, and L5 is taking it one step further by ditching the handset altogether, using the hardware on the iPhone and simply providing an accessory and app. This means your iPhone could control everything.

According to a report on the Apple Blog, L5 have made an accessory which clips into the iPhone's power socket and lets the phone beam commands to electrical devices up to 30ft away. The app provides the user interface, a screen of buttons that you can rearrange according to your taste. The app is free with the device which will cost approximately $45.

L5 describe the features:
- Powerful enough to replace a coffee table full of remotes.
- Drag and drop to design the remote you want.
- Keep the buttons you use. Delete the ones you don't.
- Quick and easy setup.
- Intuitive app for iPhone and iPod touch.
- No batteries, no WiFi, no wall plug needed.
- 100,000 button/1000 remote capacity.

But do we want it?
It would make the iPhone even more indispensable, but would you want one gadget to all that? Commenters on the AppleBlog post said no. Several pointed out that they wouldn't actually want a phone that doubled up as remote control - what if you receive a call and then want to pause or mute the TV?

Commenter Niraj says: "Yeah, or if you are in a call and want to change the channel. Or if you handed the phone to a friend or relative to talk to someone, and now you can't control your TV? A remote control seems like the kind of thing where you *do* want a dedicated device".

And Chese spells out a disaster scenario where multitasking your smartphone as your remote results in your other half leaving to watch TV in the bedroom and your iPhone getting soaked in beer.

We're just saying - it could get complicated...

More information from L5: http://l5technology.com/