JD Power and Associates have awarded the iPhone the top spot in their annual survey measuring overall customer satisfaction among business wireless smartphone users. On a scale of 1000 (measured by five key factors in order of importance: ease of operation, operating system, physical design, handset features, and battery aspects) Apple's iPhone scored a 778, followed by BlackBerry-maker RIM with a 703 and Samsung with a 701. This is significant for two reasons: JD Power has a reputation for reliable research and the survey focuses on business users—an area traditionally dominated by last year's winner the BlackBerry.

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Tell us something we don't know: Bond University has just announced the results of its most recent study into gaming in Australia, and it turns out that South Australian Attorney General is an uneducated dingbat in his war against an R18+ rating for games: The average age of gamers in Australia is 30 years old, and 68 per cent of Australians play video games.

The survey was conducted across 1600 households and involved more than 75 questions in a 20 minute survey. Among the other findings are that 66 per cent of adults aren't aware that there isn't an R18+ rating for video games, and 91 per cent of both gamers and non-gamers believe that the rating should be introduced.

It also found that gaming is a social, family pastime, with 70 per cent of parents in a gaming household playing games and 80 per cent of those playing with their kids.

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AT&T is circulating a survey among some of its longer-term iPhone users with a checklist of features they'd like to see. It's a follow-up to a similar survey a few months back, and apparently also serves to judge reactions to the 2.1 firmware. Some of the most regular complaints make the list, including picture messaging through MMS, landscape mode for email, a user-replaceable battery, and the all-mighty cut and paste. The survey probably doesn't imply any kind of imminent changes, but it's nice to hear that AT&T is trying to listen to what we've all been screaming for so long. [AppleInsider]

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An iTunes customer survey suggests that Apple is looking at selling iTunes gift cards for specific music, shows and movies. A nice branding idea, but I could definitely see some tragedies coming out of this—your mum buys you a card for the this entire season of Heroes, but halfway through it, you give up because you just can't take Hiro and Ando's ineptitude anymore. Or, your girlfriend gets one for Sex in the City even though she'll never watch it on iTunes, and then you can't use it for something better, like watching George Lucas rape Indiana Jones on South Park. Like I said, tragedies. - Thanks Alaska!

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Microsoft is at least considering releasing a consumer-priced version of its Surface computer, if a marketing research survey is to believed. The survey is centered around a device called "Oahu," which, from its description, sounds a lot like the table we've all come to know and love: a multitouch flat screen that sits like a table top and allows for multiple users to interact with it at once.

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A new study on the "Happiness Index" polled 8,500 Australians aged 18-64, and it found that for men, they were happiest while on the internet. For women, on the other hand, they were made the most happy while spending quality time with the family. I can't see how the discrepancy could cause any relationship problems.

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This is not your father's college class. Hell, it isn't even mine, and I've only been out of the system for five years. What I'm talking about is this new survey from Amherst College. Long story short is they're armed to the teeth with tech, Apple products and web apps, and their classrooms are too. As a Mac user who led an isolated PC-free existence during his college career, I take some solace in the survey's key takeaways:

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Xbox 360 Fanboy found this Flash document on Intellisponse's servers, which is an online research and web-survey platform. It shows off a picture of a bunch of Mii-like characters called Avatars, that (according to the text above it) are supposed to be for the Xbox 360 and are used instead of the gamer picture. It's unclear whether or not this picture is a survey, but seeing as Intellisponse is a survey and the picture looks a whole lot like a survey, it's probably a part of a survey.

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In a recent survey, 757 gay and lesbian participants were asked to rank companies by their gay-friendly factor. Apple came in first place among tech companies with 39% of participants strongly considering the brand to be gay-friendly. Among all brands, Apple came in second behind Bravo (who dominated with a rating of 52%). But alas, things didn't turn out so well for our friends (we can no longer be seen in public with) at Samsung.

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Our good old friend Angus Kidman is reporting over at APC that a new study has shown that companies who block social networking sites like Facebook at work are less likely to hang onto their staff than companies that support the online timewaster.

The study was carried out by the law firm Deacons, and found that of the 691 workers questioned, 16% said that having access to social networking sites would be a major influence in choosing a job. When you drop the age bracket to people under 24, that percentage rises to almost 25%.

Other nuggets included the 76% of people who believed that there were benefits to companies who allowed social networking, and the 68% who thought that having access to social networks showed they were trusted. Of course, how the figures reached so high when only 62% of the surveyed workers actually had internet access at work doesn't quite add up.

So what do you think? Does being able to poke friends on Facebook during your working day play a part in your job decision making? Is Facebook blocked at your work? And do you see these sites as timewasters that are only going to hurt productivity? Post your thoughts in the comments!

[APC]