Tired of scrolling left and right and up and down on your iPhone? I know, it's rough. Thankfully, Google is now producing Google.com search results that are better optimized for the iPhone.

"Results are formatted to be neatly displayed on the mobile screen, so there's no need to scroll side to side," Steve Kanefsky and Rob Stacey, software engineers on Google's mobile team, wrote in a blog post.

Search results will also include a "get directions" icon and click-to-call links. Single listings will automatically display maps, while multiple listings will include a "show map" link.

For those who enjoy the old-school version, click the "classic" link near the bottom of each page.

The offering is currently available only in U.S. English for the iPhone and iPod touch firmware version 2.x, but Google plans to expand languages and country combinations in the near future.

A CEA Innovation Award winner, the Acoustic Research High Performance Audio Docking System (model AR5100) will be available next week. The 3-inch-thin docking system ($199.99) works with iPod audio and also has video output.

The audio quality is promised to be high: The wall-mountable device has horn-loaded tweeters, a ported subwoofer enclosure, and premium audio crossovers. The Audio Docking System also features sensitive backlit touch buttons on the front panel, which are similar to the controls on the iPod Touch or the iPhone--both of which work in the dock.

The iPhone 3G Juice Pack ($99.95) from Mophie extends your iPhone's battery life, making it a must have for many iPhone owners. Starting with a fully charged iPhone battery, I was able to squeeze almost 24 hours of normal use out of the Juice Pack before the iPhone's internal battery took over.

The Juice Pack is powered by a rechargeable lithium polymer battery and incorporates four LEDs to indicate the remaining juice. You can easily slide an iPhone into the black-and-green Juice Pack, which powers your device through its dock connector. The device doubles the phone's thickness and adds 3 ounces to its weight--a small price to pay for a full day of phone calls.

A mini-USB port (and included cable) lets you charge the device simply by plugging it into your computer and enables synchronization if you leave the iPhone in the device while charging.

The Mophie Juice Pack is available for the iPhone and iPhone 3G for $99.95 from the company's Web site.

There's a lot of buzz about a new study saying that Apple's iPhone hardware is more reliable than either the RIM BlackBerry line or Palm's Treo line.

The data comes from a study by SquareTrade, a third-party warranty and service company. They say that in the first year of ownership, the iPhone has a 5.6% malfunction rate, half the rate of the BlackBerry and one-third the rate of the Treo.

We run our own annual Service & Reliability study, and we found slightly different results. According to our survey, the iPhone is indeed more reliable than the Blackberry, but only on carriers other than AT&T.

Here's the data. For AT&T users, 14% of iPhone owners needed repairs in our most recent study. Only 8% of BlackBerry owners with AT&T needed repair.

But oddly, BlackBerry devices on other carriers needed repairs more often. On T-Mobile, BlackBerries needed repair 15% of the time. On Verizon, 17% of the time.

Both iPhones and BlackBerries were consistently more reliable than Palm Treos, though. Treos needed repair 15% of the time on AT&T, 20% of the time on Verizon and a shocking 24% of the time on Sprint.

You can compare the data yourself by reading SquareTrade's study and our own Service & Reliability page.

According to a report released today by wireless research group, NPD, the iPhone 3G is now the leading handset purchased by adult consumers in the US. Apple's smartphone surpassed long-time leader the RAZR for the third quarter of 2008--Motorola's handset has held the title of top handset for 12 quarters.

"The displacement of the RAZR by the iPhone 3G represents a watershed shift in handset design from fashion to fashionable functionality," said NPD's Ross Rubin. "Four of the five best-selling handsets in the third quarter were optimized for messaging and other advanced Internet features."

The top five is rounded out by the Blackberry Curve and two LG handsets--the Rumor and enV2.

Despite the iPhone's surge in popularity, NPD reports that the sale of domestic handsets has dropped 15-percent from the quarter before.

Canaly has seemingly put to rest all doubts about the iPhone's runaway. According to the research firm, Apple has managed to secure the number two slot in the smartphone world, with a healthy 17.3 marketshare.

RIM has been knocked down to the number slot with 15.2-percent, though, as Engadget points out, that number may soon get a bump with the release of the Blackberry Bold, Storm and Pearl 8220.

Symbian remains in first place at 46.6 percent.

AT&T Mobility President and CEO Ralph De La Vega today announced that the wireless carrier and Apple have been working together to provide tethering functionality for the iPhone. The announcement came as De La Vega was being interviewed by TechCrunch's Michael Arrington during the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

The new functionality lets the phone serve as a wireless modem for users' PCs. While the feature has been rumored for some time, Apple has blocked attempts by third-parties to bring a similar solution to the popular handset, pulling NetShare from the iTunes App Store.

Multimedia streaming device manufacturer Sonos just announced updates that will make the company's line of products even more Apple-friendly. Beginning today, Sonos owners can download a free application from the iTunes App Store that lets them control their streaming devices from an iPhone or iPod Touch.

According to PC Mag, the download essentially turns the Apple device into a Sonos remote, performing all the same functions as the device bundled with the high-end multimedia system. Users can control sound sources, manage music libraries, control Internet radio streaming, and monitor audio output.

Sonos also announced the release of Version 2.7 of its software, which will add 15,000 radio station feeds.

It doesn't have zoom or autofocus, and it can take 2MP photos only, but the Apple iPhone is still the top dog of cameraphones at Flickr. Months after reaching the top of the heap at Yahoo!'s popular photo site, the iPhone continues to be the most popular camera, beating out Nokia's number-two N95, which, according to the graph, which seems to have plateaued in recent months.

According to the Flickr iPhone page, some 19,674 items were uploaded from 3,138 iPhone users just yesterday.

If the Obama and McCain camps are any sign of a greater overall trend, RIM's Blackberry is the smartphone of choice for Senate members. But what about the House? According to The Hill, Congress's Chief Administrative Office (CAO) is currently testing out a small number of Apple phones to see if they'll fit the need of House members.

"The reason we're trying them out is because we heard a lot of people wanted the option to have them," CAO's Jeff Ventura told the Website.

Currently the house has some 8,200 Blackberries in use--the devices has been in use since 2000. A switch to the iPhone would be pricy, including a new server. But who knows, maybe someone will design an app for getting rid of "pork."

Just a little follow-up here on the Olo Computer, the supposed iPhone-based Netbook that was 'announced' two weeks ago. We got an email from Giacomo Bersano, the head of Active Innovation Management, confirming that the Olo is a concept, not a product. "We are not PC technologists, and we are looking for some technological partner to go further on the Olo concept," Bersano writes.

He's also updated his Olo-Computer.com Web site with a statement where he confirms that the Olo is, sadly, not for real, but rather a demonstration of the ideas he can help companies come up with as an innovation consultant. "The OLO computer concept is an example of great ideas that A.I.M. is able to generate thanks to a set of systematic innovation techniques that the company uses daily in its activity," the statement says.

Bersano's idea - that the iPhone is Apple's Netbook, to some extent - got a boost from Steve Jobs yesterday during an Apple conference call. Unfortunately, as long as Apple bars iPhone developers from writing hardware drivers, you're not going to see a big screen and keyboard for your iPhone any time soon.

Apple today issued the financial results for the fiscal 2008 fourth quarter. The results where better than many expected, thanks in no small part to the continued success of the company's iPhone, but Apple, joined on the call by Steve Jobs in the first time since 2000, warned that the company's success was likely to slow down in the near future.

Apple posted a $7.9 billion revenue and net quarterly profit of $1.14--that's up from $6.22 billion and $904 million, the year-ago quarter. The company shipped 2,611,000 Mac computers--a 21 percent growth and 11,052,000 iPod, an eight-percent growth over the year-ago quarter. iPhone sales were up in a big way as well--6,892,000 up from 1,119,000 in the year-ago-quarter.

"Apple just reported one of the best quarters in its history, with a spectacular performance by the iPhone--we sold more phones than RIM," said Jobs. "We don't yet know how this economic downturn will affect Apple. But we're armed with the strongest product line in our history, the most talented employees and the best customers in our industry. And $25 billion of cash safely in the bank with zero debt."

Will Apple manufacture a low-cost netbook? If you believe Steve Jobs, not anytime soon.

During the conference call announcing Apple's blowout quarter, Wall Street analysts received a special surprise: the opportunity to ask questions of Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive.

Normally, Apple's earnings conference calls are run by Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer. Jobs usually appears only at product launches, developer conferences, and other special events, where the press usually monopolizes his time. On Tuesday, therefore, analysts had the opportunity to ask the same questions journalists had asked a few days before at the launch of the new MacBooks.

For an analyst focused on the bottom line, whether or not Apple chooses to manufacture a netbook is a key question. Asus, among others, has made the category a priority. Apple, by contrast, has typically manufactured notebooks that use the same components as its Windows rivals, but has charged more. Does it offer commensurate value? Apple would argue that it does.

Jobs acknowledged that there are segments of the market that the company serves, and some it does not. Netbooks are apparently part of the latter. "We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that," Jobs said.

If you're an iPhone user with more than one computer, chances are you've tried adding music and videos from a second PC, only to find that doing so will send all your old content to multimedia heaven.

Shiny Things has a tutorial for modifying your iPhone to sync content with multiple machines, and it's fairly simple to use. After copying your iTunes library ID from your primary machine and a few more simple steps, you'll be able to manage your music, movies, and other content from two or more machines. Head over to the site to see how it's done.

Oh Internets, your gullibility knows no bounds. The demo of "Windows Mobile on an iPhone" that folks are blogging about today is an obvious hoax, part of a viral marketing campaign from Sonic Emotion, a maker of surround-sound systems for PCs, handhelds, and other things that need surround sound.

The demo supposedly took place at a "myPhone2008" conference in Las Vegas from Sept. 26-28. But according to Nancy Lee at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Association, there was no such show. Events in Las Vegas during that period included the Pirrello/Sprung wedding, the ST/Dystonia Symposium, the Itazuke Alumni Reuinion, the Current Practice of Vascular Ultrasound and the Wealth Dynamics Experience. No "myPhone2008." Sorry.

Also, none of the various people mentioned on the site, except the Sonic Emotion folks, seem to exist. "Serling Technologies" has no Web site, and their fake product, "Twilight Scan," is a pun on the fact that Rod Serling was the host of "The Twilight Zone." "Markus Miller," supposedly a sales manager for this nonexistent convention, is a popular German soccer goalkeeper.

So, sorry, folks. No Windows Mobile on the iPhone.