Seems like the PR department of Apple will be kept engaged in solving some or the other issues of the Apple iPhone users. It has just come out of the Antennagate problem and another issue of users being charged with huge bills cropped up.

It is being reported that inspite of turning off the data roaming button, Apple iPhone users have been hit with unexpected data charges for surfing on their devices when abroad. One user complained that she was billed up to £1,500 although she had turned off the data roaming button throughout her US trip.

Network operators also gave refunds to their users who have registered complaints. Most of the complaints cropped up from O2 users as O2 has the highest number of iPhone users. However, other major network users also faced the same problem.

It is said that the network operators are paying a refund without too much argument. As such, customers can demand for a refund from their networks if they have paid any huge irrelevant bills.

Customers who are travelling are advised to ensure that their iPhone software is up to date and data roaming is switched off. A cap of 50 Euros (£41.85) has been brought into effect by the EU recently so as to prevent the holiday makers from huge bills. This is however applicable only to European customers.

Within two weeks of its launch, the Opera mini browser for the apple iPhone has clocked 2.6 million downloads as per official statements from Opera thanks to an unprecedented rush by iPhone users.

It was in April 2010 that Apple added Opera’s browser on its app store despite the fact that it was the competitor to its own browser, Safari. There has been a rise of around 7 per cent in the users of the Opera browser.

Opera Mini has thus turned out to be the most widely used browser for mobiles and Apple iPhone has become the third most popular gadget which uses Opera Mini.

Having captured around 8 per cent of the iPhone customer base, Opera Mini continues to figure out amongst the top three applications as per productivity.

With an astounding user base of 59 million users around the globe, which represents a growth of 152 per cent YoY, the pages viewed by Opera Mini users rose to 26.3 billion this April. Not surprisingly, it is the most populous countries like Russia, India, China, United States, Ukraine, Nigeria, and the UK where the browser is most popular.

The Apple iPhone has got another app, this time one that would enthuse people who are interested in historical things. Streetmuseum is the name of the app which has been released by The Museum of London for the iPhone.

The users would get to know and see any of the 200 popular landmarks in London, just the way they used to look like in the past. The Great Fire of London, The Swinging Sixties and 1666 are some of the images used in the app.

The users can tap the relevant information button while viewing the images and Streetmuseum would respond with information relevant to the image.

The exhibition ’20 million galleries of modern London’ has been started at the Museum of London and this app marks its inaugural. More than 7000 objects which have been instrumental in the change that London has gone through are on display.

Today with the emerging trend for advanced technology, mobile freaks are willing to own advanced gadgets like the iPhone. Earlier we used to find a car or the lavatory with a flush as necessities and thereby considered them as important inventions. Today, the scenario has changed and an advanced mobile phone has become the need of the hour.

One should no more be bewildered to know that the iPhone has been voted as a rather important innovation when compared to the car or the flushing toilet.

It might not come as a surprise though, given the fact that 42 million units of Apple Smartphone have been sold since three years of its launch. The iPhone left behind the camera and washing machine in terms of sales.

This can be justified from the poll of 4,000 consumers which came up with the wheel as the Numero Uno invention in the human history. Then follow the Aeroplane, Light bulb, the World-wide web, and the Computers. Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone occupied sixth place and was followed by Sir Alexander Fleming’s discovery of Penicillin as seventh place.

And then we have the Apple iPhone in eighth place, followed by the flushing lavatory and internal combustion engine in ninth and tenth places respectively. All in all, it’s no less than an achievement to see iPhone being placed along with other inventions like Penicillin which indicates its importance.

Apple needs to wake up to face the fact that it’s been dethroned by Android based Smartphones in the marketshare for Q1. The rise of Google as a powerful player has been observed by most of us over the last few months; however, the NPD statistics stunned a lot of people when it reported Apple’s ouster by Android based Smartphones for Q1.

NPD reports that RIM continues to be on the top with 36 percent market share while Android-based handsets gathered 28 percent market share even while Apple’s iPhone OS is left grappling at 21 percent.

An important point to be noted is that there are lesser iPhone models compared to the numerous choices offered by Android based Smartphones in the US market viz., Backflip, Droid, Droid Eris, and Nexus One.

Apple iPhone is in the market either as the 8GB iPhone, the 16GB one or the 32 GB iPhone 3GS. Apart from the variety offered by Android platform in terms of handsets, there is flexibility in choosing the carrier as well. The iPhone on the other hand is closely tied to one operator only.

The expected launch of BBC’s iPhone applications might be postponed due to rivals’ complaints as per the Governing body review.

It was announced at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona that the BBC iPhone would hit the market in April, BBC Sport app with live video and audio in May followed by the iPlayer app with Smartphone software that would enter the market later this year.

As per the complaints of the Newspaper Publishers’ Association, it was decided to make a consideration if the plans are going to affect BBC services. Given the fact that the BBC’s online service license would allow to repurpose its online content, it was suggested by BBC that a full review was not required.

A full public value test was required before the launch which might take months together. As such it was doubted if the review will be done before the World Cup. Considering the above facts, BBC Trust has planned to postpone the April launch so that thorough assessment would be done.

As per the reports, the Guardian has planned to charge on a monthly subscription basis for the iPhone app service which earlier sold about 100,000 apps for a one-off fee of just £2.30.

The BBC even stated that their focus is to make more user-friendly, convenient and accessible BBC Online web propositions so that more distinctive products might be brought into existence. As per investigation of The Trust, it will be noted as to how far the BBC users are going to be affected by the apps, any financial implications and so on.

It could have been an iPhone killer, had HTC decided to combine the HTC Desire and HTC Legend. HTC Legend primarily lacks a better hardware unit and hence HTC Desire is the most powerful Smartphone from HTC.

The Legend is more of an upgraded model of the HTC Hero as it comes with the same screen size and resolution albeit with a better processor, enhanced display and extras memory. And it has its USP in the form of the stylish aluminium chassis sets it apart from the competition in its build.

HTC has packed some of the best hardware for Smartphones on the other hand for Desire. A faster processor, larger screen, more memory coupled with a number of improvements makes it a better bet compared to the Legend when we talk about sheer performance and functionality.

We should not be surprised if HTC unveils an Android based Smartphone which combines the UI of the Legend with the sheer performance of the Desire though such a model does not figure out on the leaked HTC portfolio for 2010. This is so because roadmaps are often bound to change with time and the fact that a new phone with the best of both handsets can be a huge competitor to the next iPhone.