iWorld News

Poor old Cheryl Cole hasn't had the best of times recently, with a messy separation from husband Ashley followed by a nasty case of bronchitis. Fortunately for her, a trusty iPod has been on hand to help her through it all.

X Factor judge and Girls Aloud star Cole confided on her website that her recent time spent bedbound has been helped by listening to her iPod. She went on to mention that Ellie Goulding's new album, Lights, is amongst her current favourites.

The 26-year-old has been under doctor's orders for the past week. During that time, personal appearances on the Friday Night Show with Jonathan Ross and Radio 1's Live Lounge have both been cancelled. Let's hope for Cheryl's sake her iPod has plenty of battery life!

Jobseekers in the UK will soon be able to hold a whole job centre in the palm of their hands with the help of a new iPhone app. This free-to-download program displays vacancies located in the surrounding area, out of around 2.5 million currently available across England, Wales and Scotland.

Minister for Employment, Jim Knight, announced that the app would be launched first for download on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Other models will follow soon, he added, once develop work was complete. This new technology comes at the same time as a pilot scheme to equip 50 Jobcentres with 200 new computers.

According to Knight, "In this digital age, being online is not a luxury, it is a basic right." He also underlined the need to better connect jobseekers with the available opportunities - something the iPhone app is clearly designed to help.

Just as the iPhone 3GS seems to have held off the competition from Google's Nexus, along comes its much-anticipated replacement. Due for a revamp in the summer, the iPhone 4G - or iPhone Pro as it will likely be branded – promises to blur the line between entertainment, social media and businesslike functionality.

A vision of what the next step may look like has just been released by ADR Studio. To compete with the upcoming release of Sony's new PlayStation-based smartphone, the PSP Phone, ADR figure that Apple will add more gaming functionality. Their concept has the iPhone featuring a larger screen plus two retractable paddles on the rear to provide extra controls, along with a front-facing camera.

How much of ADR's concept making it into the iPhone 4G remains to be seen. As always, Apple closely guards its design developments - why else would the world hold its breath as a middle-aged exec in jeans and t-shirt opens a press conference every year or so? Once again, the world awaits Steve Jobs.

Is there nothing the iPhone cannot do? Apple's modern-day life support machine, already running your work life and your social life, now aims to prolong your actual life. So hope NHS Choices, who have launched a NHS Quit Smoking app for the iPhone and iPod touch.

The new application, available from the iTunes App Store, provides users with 30 days of daily pep messages and instant tips to keep the craving at bay. It also features a timer showing how long the user has been cigarette free, along with a counter showing the considerable amount of money saved by quitting.

The NHS Quit Smoking app is free for all, and has been launched to coincide with National No Smoking Day on Wednesday 10th March. It is hoped the iPhone app will help thousands of young people to kick the habit which costs the NHS billions of pounds of tax money each year.

When half the world wants to sing in front of you it seems there's no need to listen to music on your own. Or so it is according to Simon Cowell, who this week admitted that he has no idea how to use an iPod. What's more, he can't stand others who listen to their iPod around him, he confided to Piers Morgan on his Life Stories show.

The 50-year-old Cowell, probably the world's most recognisable music impresario, went on to say that he viewed music as a "social type of thing", and that listening to music on your own through an iPod was just "boring". SiCo also revealed that most of his favourite artists came from a soul and R'n'B background, with Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder amongst his most cherished records.

Cowell's refusal to join the iPod generation is not the first example of famous faces being behind the times in the technology stakes. Famously, Tony Blair admitted to never using email once throughout his time as Prime Minister. Let's hope somebody around these people does know what they are doing!

Apple, the creators of the iPod Touch and iPhone, is taking legal action against phone manufacturer HTC, the company behind Google's Nexus One handset and other Andriod-based smart phones, for allegedly using patents and technology seen in the iPhone.

Sales of HTC handsets that use the iPhone techonology could be blocked in the US if Apple's lawsuit is successful, though not in the UK. In a statement, Apple boss Steve Jobs said: "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."

HTC responded saying it has only just been made aware of the legal action and is investigating the claims. Google has taken the unusual step of publicly supporting HTC in the case.

Think Flood have just released a new accessory for your iPhone and iPod Touch - the RedEye Mini.

The RedEye mini plugs into the headphone jack on your iPhone or iPod Touch, it can then be programmed to work with a range of home entertainment devices which include your TV, stereo, cable, DVD or Blu-Ray player, basically anything that can be controlled via infra red.

The RedEye mini also comes with a free integrated electronic program guide that lets you access program and channel information on your iPhone or iPod Touch without interfering with what you are watching on screen.

If you've ever sent a text message that you've later regretted sending - Tiger Woods style - then a new text application just released for the iPhone and iPod Touch could be your new best friend.

Ironically called TigerText from a company of the same name, the text app lets users set a time limit for messages and when the time is up, the messages will self-destruct and be wiped from the original iPhone or iPod Touch, the receiving phone, and the server.

It's perfect for cheating spouses, shady politicians, and people who send lots of stupid texts whilst drunk. Although according to a Time report, the app is aimed at people who are simply concerned about privacy -- not necessarily people who have something to hide.

Riptide Games has released Rehearsal, a new application designed to help actors with their scripts. Developed in collaboration with actor David H. Lawrence XVII of Heroes and LOST fame, Rehearsal allows actors to view and practice scripts on an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Actors can take electronic scripts in PDF or Word document forms and e-mail them to their iPhone or iPod Touch for review and practice, highlighting lines and adding text, audio, photo or video comments. Users can "blackout" their lines to practice remembering them and record multiple versions of their readings for later review and playback.

Individual recordings can be sent out via e-mail in MP3 format, suitable for auditioning or voice over work. Rehearsal is available as a free download and allows the user to work with up to three of their own scripts; additional scripts are sold as in-app purchases.

The App store for iPhone, iPod Touch, and soon iPad applications has now been officially launched on the Bulgarian market, and representatives of Apple in Bulgaria have stated that they are expecting a huge increase in sales of the iPod Touch and iPhone.

Until now, Bulgarian customers have had to be somewhat creative to get their hands on apps for iPhone and iPod Touch, such as using an address based outside the country. The new App store now allows Bulgarians to register for free, download thousands of games and applications for business, entertainment, productivity, and more, and pay with credit cards issued in their own country.

The launch of the App store in Bulgaria was simultaneous with that of 12 other stores, such as Macedonia, Jordan, Kenya, and Madagascar, taking the total to 90 locations across the globe.