InfoWorld confirms that Dell will sell and support Windows XP to consumers beyond the June 30 Microsoft sales cutoff date that Microsoft reaffirmed today, after comments from CEO Steve Ballmer yesterday seemingly indicated it might reconsider that decision.

Dell will take advantage of a licensing option in Vista Business and Vista Ultimate that lets PC makers provide XP under the Vista license, which Microsoft calls a “downgrade” license. (Enterprises with site licenses have these same rights with any version of Vista.) In essence, the user is buying a Vista license that it can apply to XP, and Microsoft can still claim a Vista sale.

Dell will preinstall XP Professional as a “downgrade” on a variety of desktop PCs and laptops, a spokesperson said, saving users the hassle of doing it themselves. The computers available with the XP option will include the Windows Vista installation DVD in the box so users can later install Vista over XP under the same license if they wish.

The “downgrade” program is available as an option on some Dell Latitude, OptiPlex, and Dell Precision systems at no charge. It’s also available as an option on some Vostro and Dell XPS gaming systems for a small fee; these systems are targeted mainly at small business users and consumers.

A Dell spokesperson said this program will be supported as long as Microsoft supports the “downgrade” program.

Although Dell will ship a resource DVD that includes XP and Vista drivers for included peripherals, it’s unclear whether Dell will ship XP drivers for all the available options. For example, a Vostro 200 desktop today available with a choice of Windows XP and Windows Vista has an option for a wireless card that will not work under XP.

Although I don’t expect a post-apocalyptic world where all land has been covered in water anytime soon, it’s springtime here in the U.S., with its flower-bringing showers. And summer, with its accompanying water sports, is just around the corner. Which may leave you struggling to choose between leaving your iPod at home or risking it getting wet. Worry no more, as it’s also the time of year when vendors release cases designed to keep your portable player safe and dry. Here’s a look at four such cases: three for the third-generation (3G) iPod nano and one for any iPod.

I tested the three “waterproof” cases by submerging them in a bathtub of water for 10 to 15 minutes. Note that none of the cases include waterproof headphones, although you can buy those separately, if you need them, from H2O Audio, OtterBox, and SwimMan.

OtterBox iPod Nano 3rd Gen Armor Case

OtterBox recently split the company’s iPod case lineup into two lines, Armor and Defender. The Armor models extend the existing line of truly waterproof (to a 3-foot depth) iPod cases, and, in fact, the iPod Nano 3rd Gen Armor Case (US$40) is essentially an updated version of the OtterBox for iPod nano (2nd Generation). You insert your nano into the case by opening the lid and sliding the iPod in until its headphone jack connects firmly to the 1/8″, stationary headphone plug inside; an external, pass-through headphone jack on the bottom of the case lets you plug in your headphones. A gasket forms a watertight seal when you close the case, keeping out water, dirt, and other elemental baddies. Rubber bumpers inside the case provide excellent shock protection for your iPod, and the plastic case itself is virtually crushproof.

When your iPod nano is in the Armor case, the Hold switch is inaccessible (as is the dock-connector port, of course). However, a thick membrane over the iPod’s Click Wheel lets you control playback and volume. For the most part, it’s easy to use the Click Wheel through this membrane, although the Click Wheel opening is fairly small; those with large thumbs may find that the thick edges of the opening make it difficult to scroll consistently. And the Armor’s protection comes at a price: at 4.4 by 2.8 by 0.6 inches, an Armor-encased 3G iPod nano is considerably bulkier than the iPod alone.

The back of the case features a removable belt clip that also functions as a place to wrap excess headphone cable. Also included is a detachable fabric lanyard. An optional armband ($15) can be used in place of the Armor’s belt-clip.

The Armor is an excellent case for using your nano in wet, dusty, or dirty environments, as well as for taking it places where it’s likely to get dropped, tossed, or stepped on.

OtterBox iPod Nano 3rd Gen Defender Case

OtterBox’s other case for the 3G nano, the iPod Nano 3rd Gen Defender Case ($30), is part of the company’s new Defender line of water-resistant cases. (We previously reviewed the iPhone version.) Instead of the bulky, water-tight design of the Armor series, the Defender line uses a slimmer, water-resistant design that consists of a hard-plastic internal shell covered in a silicone external “skin.” Your 3G iPod nano fits between the two pieces–front and back–of the clear-plastic shell, which snap together when closed. You then stretch the black-silicone skin over the shell to provide a layer of shock protection (and to ensure the pieces of the rigid shell don’t separate).

Like the Armor, the Defender leaves the nano’s Hold switch inaccessible. The iPod’s screen and Click Wheel are visible and usable through openings in the case, protected by a thin, clear-polycarbonate sheet. This sheet is considerably thinner than the membrane used on the Armor case, making it much easier to use the nano’s Click Wheel. My only complaint about the sheet is that the inside surface is easily-scratched: I saw a slight blemish on the inner surface over my iPod’s screen, and when I tried to brush it off, my fingernail left an even worse mark. (The outside of the sheet is quite resistant to scratching.)

Although the Defender leaves the nano’s headphone jack and dock-connector port accessible, separate silicone flaps can be fastened over these openings when not in use. (Note that although you can connect Apple’s USB dock cable when your nano is in the Defender, you can’t use other dock-connector accessories.) One thing that worried me a bit about the case is that these flaps are connected to a very thin strip of silicone that stretches across the bottom-front of the case. Pulling on the flaps, removing the skin from the shell, and placing the shell in the skin all stretch this thin strip. The strip didn’t break during my testing, but it didn’t look like it could take a lot of repeated stress. Thankfully, OtterBox provides a lifetime warranty.

If you don’t need the true waterproof protection of the Armor case, the Defender offers slightly less shock protection, along with less protection against dust, dirt, and water, in a much-less-bulky package.

H2O Audio iN3 Waterproof Case for the iPod nano 3rd Gen

Whereas OtterBox’s Armor series of cases are aimed at those want protection from overall rough conditions, H2O Audio’s line of iPod accessories are designed specifically for in-water use; the iN3 Waterproof Case for the iPod nano 3rd Gen ($80) is rated as waterproof down to 10 feet. Like the OtterBox Armor, the iN3 uses a two-piece clamshell design with a stationary headphone plug that fits into your nano’s headphone jack and passes the audio signal to its own headphone jack on the exterior of the case. When you close the case, a silicone T-seal locks out water and other substances; the iN3’s clasp includes a locking mechanism that prevents the clasp from being opened unless you purposely hold a spring-loaded switch in the Unlock position. Like the Armor case, the iN3 adds considerable bulk; unlike the Armor case, there are no rubber bumpers inside the iN3 for additional shock protection.

In order to increase the iN3’s level of protection, H2O Audio uses a solid-plastic enclosure–no membranes here. The iN3’s plastic is crystal-clear everywhere, which makes the case quite attractive, although it also means that scratches are more noticeable with the iN3 than with a case, such as the Armor, that uses a textured surface. In lieu of a membrane over the iPod’s Click Wheel, H2O uses a mechanical, rotating dial with a middle button and four buttons around the edges corresponding to the Click Wheel’s five buttons. When you spin the metal dial with your finger, a metal piece on the inside of the case “touches” the Click Wheel. The biggest advantage of this mechanism is that it works even when the case is underwater (or wet out of the water). On the other hand, sometimes I had to press fairly firmly on the dial to get the expected response.

The iN3 package also includes a number of accessories. A neoprene, elastic band lets you wear your iN3-encased nano on your arm, and a plastic belt clip can be installed using two included screws. You also get a replacement T-seal.

If you want a case specifically for water sports, the iN3 is tough to beat. For an amphibiously-active lifestyle that includes rough-and-tumble land sports, the Armor offers a bit more shock protection (and costs quite a bit less).

iFrogz iBagz

At the other end of the water-protection (and price) spectrum from the iN3 is iFrogz’s iBagz ($12), which the company describes as “water resistant bagz.” And, spelling aside, that’s pretty much what the iBagz is. Instead of a rigid case, the iBagz is essentially a thick-plastic bag with a waterproof seal and a pass-through headphone connector. You open the bag, insert your iPod, connect iBagz’s cable to your iPod’s headphone jack, and then seal the bag up tight. The sealing process works much like a dry bag you might take on a kayaking trip; you close two Ziplock-like closures, roll down the top edge three times, then secure the top with a strip of Velcro.

You connect your headphones to the dangling headphone jack on the outside of the bag. The bag’s plastic is thin enough that you can still control your iPod, including scrolling using the Click Wheel. You can even use an iPhone’s touchscreen through the iBagz. However, the iBagz’s headphone plug doesn’t fit the iPhone’s recessed headphone jack; you’ll need a headphone adapter. Even then, you’ll be able to use the iPhone only as an iPod; the iBagz’s headphone cable doesn’t pass phone/voice signals. I also found it to be a minor hassle to get an iPod–especially full-size models–into the bag and connected.

iFrogz claims the iBagz is made of “commercial grade heavy-duty plastic to withstand puncture by sharp edges and foreign objects”; it did indeed feel tough in my testing. On the other hand, because it’s a simple bag, the iBagz offers little protection from shock or crushing. (Although the iBagz is big enough that you can actually fit a smaller iPod–nano, shuffle, or mini–inside its own case inside the iBagz.) An included adjustable lanyard lets you wear the iBagz around your neck.

Although the inside of the iBagz stayed dry during my bathtub test, iFrogz advertises the case as being water-resistant, not waterproof. In other words, this is a simple, inexpensive accessory designed to keep your iPod dry in “splashy” situations–in the rain, by the pool, while boating, etc. And it does that well, despite its obvious limitations.

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OTTAWA (Reuters) - Research in Motion shares fell about 4 percent on Friday after a Fortune.com story said that a high-speed wireless version of its BlackBerry smartphone for top U.S. phone company AT&T Inc is facing delays.

The introduction has been pushed back as far as August from June, the story on Fortune magazine’s website said, citing unnamed people close to the companies. The reason for the delay was unclear, but AT&T had worries about call quality, the report said.

“RIM’s policy is to decline comment on rumors and speculation,” spokeswoman Marisa Conway said via email. AT&T declined comment on the timing of any future product plans.

A delay for the phone, which the report said may be called Meteor, could have an impact on phone shipments and subscriber growth.

Shares in Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM dropped 4.1 percent at mid-session on Friday to C$120.50 on the Toronto Stock Exchange and to $118.59 on Nasdaq.

AT&T’s Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner referred to plans for a high-speed BlackBerry with third generation, or 3G, technology on a quarterly earnings conference call earlier this week, but did not give a date for the launch.

“We’re just starting to see a BlackBerry 3G come out. As those integrated devices move to 3G, I think that will be the next catalyst to drive stronger 3G growth,” he said.

“New customers coming in today, if they are buying a phone, many times, particularly postpaid customers, they’re primarily going to 3G.”

RIM has said it will introduce devices based on HSDPA, a high-speed 3G wireless technology that is popular in Europe and used by AT&T.

“Certainly going to HSDPA is something that’s very important to us in the near term,” Chief Executive Jim Balsillie told Reuters in a February interview.

TD Newcrest analyst Chris Umiastowski speculated about the timing of RIM 3G device shipments in a recent note that lowered his earnings estimates and stock target.

“We believe the device is on track to be available either at the end of May or in June. That said, we are not yet clear on when AT&T will start selling the device,” he wrote.

“Perhaps it will launch in Europe (with Vodafone) prior to hitting North American soil?…A launch of this upcoming 3G device either by AT&T or Vodafone should result in a significant number of hardware shipments within the first full quarter of launch.”

AT&T and rival carrier Verizon make up about 40 percent of RIM’s new subscriber growth, the analyst estimated.

AT&T, the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple Inc’s iPhone, a competitor to BlackBerry, hinted at a U.S trade show earlier this month that it expects to have a 3G version of iPhone in coming months. It did not give a specific date.

As Telstra prepares to close off its CDMA network at the end of the month amidst concerns over customer migration to Next G, industry observers have said that after the dust settles, the new network could hold promise for bush users.

The Federal government gave Telstra the all-clear to close its CDMA network last week, with the national carrier setting the official date for switch off as 28 April, ignoring calls from the Opposition to put the service closure on hold, as well as ongoing pressure from the National Farmers Federation.

Both groups had raised concerns over the adequacy of the new Next G network’s voice service in parts of rural Australia, with NSW Farmers Association president, Jock Laurie telling AAP on Tuesday that he “would not rest” until problems with the Next G network had been resolved.

“Patchy coverage is still being experienced, and there is concern that in some instances technicians simply cannot identify a Next G handset capable of providing equivalent coverage to CDMA,” he said.

However, industry commentators have told ZDNet.com.au today that while migration to the new network may be difficult for some, its future benefits will outweigh any problems users are experiencing now.

“Undoubtedly the Next G network is significantly more advanced,” said David Cannon, telecommunications analyst at research firm IDC, adding that the technology behind Next G “will enable services beyond people’s imaginations at this point in time”.

“Over the long term there will be services and applications available through Next G that will be well beyond what you could do with CDMA, and people wonder how they did without it,” he said. “All of the hoo-ha we see now will be well and truly old news by then.”

Cannon did say that some users will be “impeded by the shutdown”, but the bottom line for Telstra is that it “cannot continue running multiple networks forever… especially when an absolute minority of subscribers are using CDMA”.

“We’ve all heard about the men in their vans driving round checking reception every 36 seconds: it would seem to me that the government and Telstra have done as good a job as they could to ensure the rights of the consumer have been looked after,” he said.

According to Ovum analyst Nathan Burley, Telstra has “fervently” pushed the Next G network onto bush consumers, but “they do have a point because it is an advanced network.”

“I think it’s well documented what the issues are with the network. In reality, the network does provide equivalent or better coverage [than CDMA], but wireless networks being what they are there’s always going to be some difference with how the service works for individuals, even if the antennas are next to each other,” he said.

Burley emphasised the importance of having correct handsets for users migrating from CDMA to Next G, saying “obviously it’s about getting that equipment in people’s hands”.

IDC’s Cannon blames problems with Next G’s basic voice service on the fact that it is a comparatively young network compared to CDMA.

“When one network has been in place for a long time it gets tweaked for any number of idiosyncrasies”, he said, adding that service degradation occurs on new networks such as Next G where “tweaking” is required to get it right.

“Once [Next G] has been tweaked to all of the different areas required I’ve no doubt it will perform adequately,” said Cannon.

Gartner analyst Robin Simpson echoed Cannon’s sentiments when he spoke to ZDNet.com.au today, saying that “there’s always issues tuning up a new network to get good voice coverage across the board”.

According to Simpson, the Next G network will be of most immediate benefit to larger businesses such as distribution and transport companies operating in rural Australia, because the service increased data transfer capacity and range.

“I don’t think regional and rural consumers will be too excited about its wireless capacity yet, but [Next G] will be a real boon for business in rural Australia,” he said, adding that “clearly they [Telstra] see data as an increased revenue stream”.

Warren Chaisatien, principal analyst at telco research firm Telsyte, agreed the network will hold boost Telstra’s coffers.

“It’s a strategic move by Telstra to replace CDMA with a more advanced network. They want more people using more advanced services to generate more revenue … so the focus is placed more on non-voice services like data transfer, and that explains why we’ve been hearing complaints about that.”

If the last remaining 2G to 3G switchers follow their predecessors, voice revenues will go up 8 percent, SMS 15 percent and data 260 percent. Telstra stands to benefit from the switch — now it just remains to be seen how many of their bush users can do the same.

Apple has acknowledged it has problems with the video software used in the latest shipment of MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

Early customers of the Penryn refresh of the Apple notebooks had complained of flickering images during a QuickTime video playback on MacBooks and MacBook Pros shipping with the latest version of Mac OS X Leopard, according to our colleagues over at MacFixIt.

Several discussion threads have sprung up over on Apple’s user forums, and some customers report that Apple has now acknowledged the problem and is working on a fix.

MacFixIt reports that fix should come with Mac OS X 10.5.3, currently in the works. AppleInsider has reported that Apple has been a little more active than usual with the release of new builds of 10.5.3 to developers, suggesting that the next version might arrive sooner rather than later. Mac OS X 10.5.2 will be shipped in February.

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World travelers can stay connected globally with Dell’s next-generation laptops that will support mobile broadband on multiple cellular networks.

U.S.-based travelers who connect their laptops via EV-DO carrier networks (like Verizon Wireless or Sprint), will be able to connect via HSPA carrier networks (like Vodafone), a wireless standard commonly found in Europe. Today customers who wish to connect to both types of networks must use two different mobile broadband cards.

Dell’s next-generation laptops, available later this year, will support a single-card 3G network connection through Qualcomm’s Gobi™ solution. The software-configurable technology enables high-speed data connectivity on both UMTS and CDMA networks, and allows users to switch between network carriers. The built-in Gobi solution will be offered across Latitude, Dell Precision, and consumer laptops.

“Dell will continue to deliver on the promise of global computing with the addition of Qualcomm’s Gobi technology,” said Ken Bond, director of wireless product management at Dell. “Customers are demanding more freedom to compute the way they want, where they want, which is why Dell today offers such a wide selection of mobile-broadband ready laptops.”

“The Gobi solution enables enterprise users and consumers with the freedom of being untethered from Wi-Fi hotspots and connecting to the Internet using ‘almost anywhere’ cellular broadband connectivity,” said Greg Raleigh, vice president of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. “We are pleased that Dell will be leveraging the flexibility and efficiency Gobi provides to meet the growing needs of mobile data users.”

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 At the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona this year Sony Ericsson announced two new CyberShot branded phones and in the process changed the CyberShot branding prefix from K (as in K850i) to C (C902). This left us wondering if the K prefix may get recycled to mean something new. If the K660i is indicative of this change, maybe K now means phones for kids.

Design
If the lime and white colour scheme didn’t give away the target market for this phone then the lanyard clip at the bottom of the handset confirmed our suspicions. The K660i is a cheap-to-mid range phone designed to appeal to a youth market.

Our first impressions of the K660i were not strong. The handset is a simple looking Sony Ericsson candy-bar with a two-inch QVGA colour display. Below the screen and navigation buttons are tiny circular numeric keys, each about the size of M&M minis (you know, the tiny little ones). While this isn’t the most attractive keypad design we’ve seen, it’s certainly easy to use.

At 15mm the K660i is thicker than we’d like, especially for a low-spec phone, given Sony Ericsson’s previous success with super-slim styled handsets. On the left-hand side of the phone you’ll find an M2 memory stick slot, which is great for hot-swapping memory, and on the bottom of the handset is the combined charging and headphone port. Sony Ericsson bundle a 256MB memory card with the handset, which is generous for a phone in this price range.

Features
It seems a cruel irony that while the K660i has HSDPA, other phones designed with Web browsing in mind don’t have similarly fast data speeds (we’re looking squarely at you iPhone). Call us cynics, but the only reason you put HSDPA in a phone marketed at kids is to sell music downloads.

That said, the K660i does have a few nice Web-focused features. The four keys on the right side of the numeric pad (3,6,9 and #) are browser shortcuts for bookmarks, search entry, page zooming and a shortcut to Sony Ericsson’s “Fun and Downloads” site. These shortcuts definitely come in handy for speedy surfing. The pre-installed NetFront browser is apparently Web 2.0/xHTML compatible, however our experience suggested that the K660i is only adequate for browsing mobile sites; we encountered some difficulty with page rendering on some standard sites we tried to access, and the small screen makes reading long, wide pages tiresome even when using the nifty zoom tool.

The K660i also features a 2-megapixel camera on the back, with a self-portrait mirror, but no flash or auto-focus. We tested the camera outside on a beautiful, sunny day and took some very nice photos. Quick processing helps keep the focus sharp and free of movement blur, and the colour reproduction was bright and true. Later in the day though, without a flash, the camera struggled to perform to the same high standard.

Performance
Parents who may be considering this phone for their kids will be happy to know that the basics are in place. During our tests we constantly saw strong reception and voice calls sounded loud and clear.

Similarly comforting is the K660i’s battery life; between three and four days during our tests, which is good for a phone with an HSDPA chipset. This should mean that kids will have enough charge to make a call wherever they may be.

Like all Sony Ericsson phones, the K660i includes a decent media player and Walkman-esque media browser. It’s hard to ascertain whether the K660i features the same audio hardware as a Walkman branded phone, however, the music we played sounded good through the bundled headphones; nice clear audio with decent bass.

Accessing menus is pleasingly fast, with only momentary lag between selecting a menu item and having it appear on screen. We did see considerable lag when accessing certain graphics-heavy Web sites, and this is more than likely due to a less-than-ideal processor than with network speeds.

Overall
The K660i seems like a tricky pitch for Sony Ericsson. Its feature set resembles a basic, pre-paid model phone with the addition of HSDPA. The question is: does the targeted youth market want or need fast Web on their phones? Adding a popular instant messaging client would have made the answer to that question simpler.

In the past we’ve found Sony Ericsson’s budget range to be very good, such as with the S500i, and while the K660i performs as well as the S500i in terms of voice and texting, it certainly doesn’t match the S500i in terms style or sex appeal. Perhaps we’re being overly fashion conscious, but we think sex appeal will prove to be more important than speedy Web browsing to this market.

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Mobile phones could represent a public-health time bomb akin to asbestos or smoking, according to a study by neurosurgeon Dr Vini G Khurana.

During a 14-month-long study Khurana reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile-phone use in recent medical and scientific literature — in addition to press and internet coverage — and concluded “there is a significant and increasing body of evidence… for a link between mobile-phone usage and certain brain tumours”.

The risk may be as great as a twofold to fourfold increase of developing a tumour on the same side of the head as the “preferred side” for mobile-phone use, the report warns.

It states: “There is a growing and statistically significant body of evidence reporting that brain tumours such as vestibular schwannoma (acoustic neuroma) and astrocytoma are associated with ‘heavy’ and ‘prolonged’ mobile-phone use, particularly on the same side as the ‘preferred ear’ for telephony.

“It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking, and directly concerns all of us, particularly the younger generation, including very young children.”

Khurana, a Mayo Clinic-trained neurosurgeon with an advanced neurosurgery Fellowship in Cerebrovascular and Complex Tumor Surgery from the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, and a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, points out that previous studies which found no evidence of a link between mobile use and an increased risk of cancer often did not include enough long-term mobile-phone users in their study sample.

Because 10 or more years is the length of time it can take for tumours to develop, Khurana says health studies of mobile phones must consider lengthy exposure to the devices — of a decade or more. He believes mobile technology has now been around long enough for any public health effects to begin emerging.

The report states: “The ‘incubation time’ or ‘latency’ (ie, the time from commencement of regular mobile-phone usage to the diagnosis of a malignant solid brain tumour in a susceptible individual) may be in the order of 10 to 20 years. In the years 2008 to 2012, we will have reached the appropriate length of follow-up time to begin to definitively observe the impact of this global technology on brain-tumour incidence rates.”

While there is still no proven link between cancer and exposure to electromagnetic radiation from mobile-phone use, Khurana said the growing body of evidence is cause for concern. Children’s use of mobiles is particularly worrying, he claims, suggesting their use of mobiles should be restricted to emergency situations only.

Khurana also calls for government and industry to take immediate action to reduce consumers’ exposure to mobile-related electromagnetic radiation and to ensure they are aware of the potential dangers.

Writing in the report, he says: “The author fears that unless the industry and governments take immediate and decisive steps to openly acknowledge and intervene in this situation, even while waiting definitive confirmation by large and well-constructed multi-centre studies worldwide, malignant brain tumour incidence and its associated death rate will be observed globally to rise within a decade from now, by which time it may be far too late to meaningfully intervene, especially for those who are currently children and young adults.”

Khurana recommends adult members of the public should seek to minimise their use of mobile phones, using a landline instead wherever possible and/or favouring the speakerphone function on a mobile so the phone is held more than 20cm away from the head. Mobile users should also minimise use of Bluetooth devices and unshielded headphone accessories, he added.

A 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) report on mobile phone use and health backs up Khurana’s view of the difficulties of establishing a link between mobiles and cancer without studying long-term exposure — and also advises a cautionary approach to the technology.

The WHO report states: “For the majority of tumours studied so far, a long latency period might exist, and the finding of any link to the use of mobile phones is complex. Consequently, most of the published research cannot elucidate the risk of long-term effects… Since there are still gaps in knowledge, continued research and better health risk analyses are needed. Moreover, without scientifically recognised adverse effects on health, it is not possible to produce evidence-based recommendations.”

Back in 2004, a study by a Swedish research institute also suggested that 10 or more years of mobile-phone use may increase the risk of acoustic neuroma in humans.

Khurana’s report reviewing the evidence for and against mobile-phone use and increased cancer risk can be read on the Brain-surgery.us site in full.

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All of a sudden, customers in the U.S. are finding it a lot harder to track down an iPhone.

A few weeks ago, New York iPhone shoppers noticed that Apple’s Manhattan retail stores were running low on iPhones. Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, during an intermission in his three-part series on why Apple is the coolest ever, called up 20 different Apple stores across the U.S. and confirmed that the shortage extends nationwide. Apple’s online store reports a five-to-seven-day wait on iPhone shipments.

There’s usually a couple of reasons for a product shortage. One, demand is outstripping the ability of a company to supply the product. That’s probably not the case here, since Apple’s had no problems supplying iPhone demand since the initial weekend it went on sale, and there’s no indication that demand has spiked in the last couple of weeks. Apple did announce the iPhone 2.0 software in early March, which might have pushed a few people over the edge, but the software itself won’t be available until June.

Two, a glitch somewhere in manufacturing or the supply chain is screwing up distribution. Munster assigns a 20 percent likelihood to this possibility; there might be a problem with the touch screen or other sensitive piece of equipment that hasn’t come to light yet.

The third reason is that the company is intentionally clearing inventory ahead of a new product launch. This happens all the time in technology; in Apple’s case, we saw it just before the launch of new MacBook Pros in late February. Munster gave this possibility an 80 percent chance of being the cause behind the shortages.

The 3G version of the iPhone is what everyone is waiting for, and the inventory problems might be an indication that it’s just around the corner. There have been scattered reports of a 3G model arriving anywhere from May to September, but if the inventory problems are really related to the pending launch, that means it could be here a lot sooner.

Intel has set its technicians working on a new initiative that it hopes will get mobile devices piggybacking on other devices its user may come across, as well as making use of the increasing number of sensors — such as cameras and GPS — within the device itself.

The terribly-named Carry Small Live Large plan is one of the company’s “four or five big bets” for upcoming technology trends, with engineers working on new methods to use the applications available on mobile phones in ways that aren’t dependent on the form factor of the device itself.

“Devices come near a lot of other electronic devices … they don’t talk to one another, don’t interact that much. [Mobile phones’] very limited capability isn’t really a good match for what people want to do,” Kevin Kahn, director of Intel’s Communications Technology Lab, said.

According to Kahn, speaking yesterday at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai, mobiles should be taking advantage of the devices around them: for example, detecting whenever a more appropriate display is in range, from a projector to the screen in the back of an aircraft seat.

Engineers at Intel’s Research Labs are experimenting with different methods of enabling communication between displays and mobiles, including remote graphics rendering and frame buffer compression. “They’re complementary approaches,” Kahn added.

Researchers are also looking at the architectural challenges of multi-radio devices — phones that can connect to GPS, 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi, WiMax, Bluetooth, UWB and any number of other wireless standards — with a view to ultimately combining all the radio components into one single element to cut the space silicon takes up within the device and shrink mobile form factors.

However, for this to be commercially viable, it will necessitate 32-nanometre architectures, which Intel says will begin production in 2009.

The Carry Small Live Large scheme is also looking at ways to utilise the data generated by the range of sensors included within mobile devices. According to Kahn, one of the oldest mobile sensors — the camera — has some of the greatest potential.

“That sensor could take a look at a barcode and give you information on the product, it could be connected to a database that you’re looking at as a tourist”, Kahn said. For example, by allowing the user to take a picture of a building in a foreign city, and using location information from the phone’s GPS combined with the image taken by the camera-phone to find the building on a database and then deliver data on it back to the user’s phone.

Intel is not alone in believing the camera-phone could be exploited further for search. Nokia’s labs has already created a prototype search tool that resembles Intel’s vision, which uses geo-tagging information and image recognition to provide data on popular landmarks. Last month, Vodafone launched Otello, a search engine which works by analysing camera-phone pictures rather than text input.