eBay has acquired the RedLaser barcode-scanning application, which lets iPhone users identify products and find online information – including prices - simply by scanning the product barcode.

RedLaser was previously a chargeable app. It's now been turned into a free application, which is likely to see a dramatic increase in the number of downloads. The paid version had been downloaded over two million times.

A report today from comScore reveals that iPhone owners consume more mobile media than people with other handsets. (Admittedly some might argue it's not much of a revelation because the iPhone has been designed for this purpose).

The Apple iPhone has just 4% market share in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, although iPhone users represent 12% of all mobile media users. comScore's report says 94% of iPhone owners use mobile media, 87% use applications and 85% browse the mobile internet. The average for all smartphones is 65% mobile media, 53% web browsing and 53% app usage.

A new report from Pyramid Research has calculated that the total download volume of free and paid applications will increase from 5.7 billion in 2009 to 41.1 billion in 2014. However, the proportion of free apps is increasing. Including downloads from operator portals, the proportion of free downloads increased from around 30% in 2008 to 54% last year – and is expected to keep growing until 2014, when it'll stabilise at around 80%.

Mark Bridge writes:

Here’s a news headline that caught my eye.

Shotgun certificate up for renewal?  There's an app for that

Or, if you prefer…

Police to allow gun users renew licences with iPhone app

The final news story in this week's edition of The Fonecast was about the use of mobile video streaming service Bambuser to cover Jukka Mutanen's 1000 kilometre cross-country drive through Finland on a small excavator. This entire journey is being streamed live on Jukka's Bambuser page.

We spoke to Bambuser CEO Hans Eriksson about his company, about its technology and about Jukka's trip. There was only time for a couple of minutes of our conversation in Wednesday's podcast so we've now created a special broadcast that includes the entire chat.