A study done by consulting firm, User Centric, has found that iPhone’s keyboard is less efficient than using physical QWERTY keypads.

The research included 20 phone owners who frequently used their phones to text message. Half of them had iPhones while the other half had gadgets with physical QWERTY keypads.

Interesting enough, those using iPhones were slower and had a hard time finishing the tasks. Some of the particular issues noted by the researchers are:

Participants expressed a great deal of frustration with the sensitivity of the iPhone touch keypad. Participants made an average of 11 errors per message on the iPhone compared to an average of 3 errors per text message on their own phone. Although the error rate was alleviated somewhat by the iPhone’s self-correction feature, participants were still frustrated. In particular, participants struggled when they were trying to type using the Q & W keys or the O & P keys on the iPhone.

A team of computer security consultants recently said that they have found a flaw in Apple’s popular and hyped iPhone. Apparently, hackers can take control of the device through a WiFi connection or by tricking users into going to a website that contains malicious code. Any information stored in the iPhone can be stolen.

Lynn Fox, a spokesperson for Apple, said, “Apple takes security very seriously and has a great track record of addressing potential vulnerabilities before they can affect users.”

“We’re looking into the report submitted by I.S.E. and always welcome feedback on how to improve our security,” she said.

Former employee of the National Security Agency who has a doctorate in computer science, a Dr. Miller, showed to a reporter how the hack was done. Using the iPhone, Mr. Miller visited a website that he designed, and the site injected a bit of code into the iPhone that then took over the phone. “We can get any file we want,” he said.

Popularity can be a very good thing or a bad thing. In this case, the iPhone is the target of a wide audience, not to mention hackers as well. The iPhone is becoming a victim of its own success.

Apple recently introduced the iPhone. Unlike traditional cell phones, the iPhone sets itself apart from others by having no keyboard but a touchscreen to control the phone’s features. You can think of the iPhone as a widescreen iPod to make phone calls, send emails, browse the Internet, listen to music and take pictures. And, yes, the iPhone’s display contains a full QWERTY  keyboard!

The prices depend on which model you purchase. The 4GB model goes for $499 and the 8GB model goes for $599, both with a 2-year contract with Cingular, the official carrier of the iPhone.

Now, the specs and features are:

• 320×480 3.5″ touchscreen at 160ppi
• Just 11.6mm thick, thinner than the Motorola Q and Samsung BlackJack
• Quad-band GSM plus EDGE
• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
• Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
• 2.0 megapixel camera
• Mobile version of OS X
• 4GB or 8GB
• Visual voicemail
• Up to 16 hours of playback (iPod functionality)