iPhone dominates this week's mobile hardware and software news

After launching on Friday last week, the floodgates opened and a wave of iPhone updates poured through, with Apple's device continuing to command headlines as greedily as when it was vapourware.

Perhaps most predictable was the release of a new version of iTunes to cater for the device. Equally foreseeable was the iPhone's popularity; one analyst put first weekend sales estimates at around 500,000, with a reported 95 per cent of early adopters going for the 8GB version.

After the launch fanfare died down, attention turned to the Euro iPhone, with all manner of rumour tussling going on concerning what carriers would win the contracts to distribute the must-have handset.

First there was a report from a German newspaper that all but confirmed T-Mobile as the carrier in that country. Hot on the heels of this report was a tidbit gleaned from the labour of a hacker who, after cracking the iPhone's system, found files that made reference to both T-Mobile and Vodafone.

So far it seemed as though the deals going forward were quite easy to predict, even in the absence of an official announcement, but then came a brick through the window of prediction from the Financial Times, which claimed that O2 was to be the iPhone's carrier in the UK. The claim has been skilfully rebuffed by O2 but not entirely denied as yet.

Web 2.0 widgets started showing up for the iPhone almost immediately after its release. The first was a tongue in cheek game called iWhack, which features the mouthy Steve Balmer receiving some Apple fanboy justice. Also joining the party were two widgets aimed at plugging some of the gaps in the iPhone's feature set.

One of the first that iPhone users will no doubt look to is Meebo, a no nonsense IM service. The second, a mobile VoIP service called Jajah, will probably find itself being joined by a gaggle of similar services before long.

Which brings us nicely onto another big mobile noisemaker, VoIP. Truphone this week released version 3.0 of its mobile VoIP software, but it had the spotlight stolen by Vyke.

Vyke began its crusade by announcing a partnership with European wireless provider The Cloud, and shortly after vowed to fight tooth and nail against mobile operators that ban its software. The company plans to do this by releasing a standalone version of its software that has the ability to restore full mobile VoIP functionality to handsets that have been crippled by mobile operators.

Research conducted by Coleman Parkes revealed that big businesses are keen to save money with mobile VoIP services, and plan to make increasing use of them over the next two years. Yet more pressure came via the Open Mobile Terminal Platform, which is urging mobile operators to lift their ban on mobile VoIP services.

In handset news, the N2 Neonode geared up for release with the announcement of a swanky launch party, some pics of the new Sony Ericsson M610i Lizy were leaked, and Nokia's unique-looking 7500 Prism was announced in China. Then HTC proved that the Omni is more than just a figment of its imagination with some lovely looking renders and specs.

Finally, towards the end of the week rumours about an iPhone battling 8GB version of the Nokia N95 hit the web, as well as pics of a slightly more tech-savvy Vertu handset.

But the week wasn't all about sexy hardware. Real sex got a look in, too, with something for mobile users of all persuasions as Gaydar launched a mobile version of its popular dating service and Suicide Girls released two packs of 100 saucy goth porn pics for the iPhone.

Click 'Track It!' for another Pocket Picks round up next week.