Nokia goes software crazy as the super expensive N81 is released

When is something that is free not free? When it's Apple's free wi-fi for UK iPhone users, that's when. News filtered through at the start of last week revealing that Apple's deal with The Cloud limits iPhone users to 60 hours of free wi-fi use on its network per month.

iPhone owners in France, meanwhile, will be able to secure themselves a better deal than most as confirmation came that, due to telecoms laws in their country, the device will be available network unlocked.

Looks like there are going to be many more unlocked iPhone's going around than the currently estimated 250,000, then. Still, If you would rather go down the straight and narrow route and are starting to feel guilty at having sullied your iPhone's purity by unlocking it, you could always get hold of the iPhone Elite dev team's re-virginizer tool.

Moving on from the iPhone, it was Nokia who had the week's big release in the UK with the launch of the N81. All were not happy, however, as it transpired that off-contract the device costs an arm and a leg, a kidney and whatever else you may have spare. At least the handset will be available on O2 as well as Vodafone and according to early reports it is the killer music handset it always threatened to be.

Staying with Nokia, there were some pretty intriguing software developments in its camp. A unique search upgrade to the MOSH community portal known as SEEK was announced. And speaking of unique searching tools, 23half Inc launched something called the Thrrum Visual Browser, a program that allows you to conduct online searches by photographing the object that you wish to get information about.

Nokia also announced its N95 mobile journalism kit, currently on trial in conjunction with Reuters. Useful for online writers who presumably will engage in lots of uploading, hence the need for fast internet speeds. So it's good to hear that RocketShotz has stepped into the fold to speed up the browsing experience for Nokia handsets.

In non-Nokia specific software news, there was an interesting alternative to VoIP cheap mobile calling solutions from Talkster, a company that's offering unlimited free ad-funded calls.

Google also made its presence felt first of all by making Google Docs&Spreadsheets available to mobile phones and then adding IMAP to Gmail in order to enable you to instantly sync emails between a mobile and the Google server, meaning changes you make on the move are immediately reflected on the web-based version.

Back to business and there was bad news for Motorola as it emerged that its quarterly handset sales have been down 36 per cent year on year. Elsewhere, Sony Ericsson was also dealt a blow with poor reviews for its hotly anticipated W960i handset.

Last of all, a quirky end to the week was had with a tale of a Montenegrin man whose last request to be buried with his beloved mobile phone went awry at the hands of a mischievous grandchild. You see, even in death the world of mobile phones is full of twists.

That's it for this week, click 'Track It!' to catch next week's update.