By Jorene Barut

HONOLULU | Wed Oct 5, 2011 10:22am EDT

HONOLULU (Reuters) – Students in Hawaii could soon be competing against other schools in another competitive sport — surfing.

Not sure which apps you need on your smartphone? Just check out what other people are downloading at rapid rates this week from iTunes and other mobile app markets.

According to Mobilewalla, a web platform that provides real-time rating and rankings to help you navigate the mobile marketplace, the hottest free apps on all platforms right now are pretty standard: the Kindle reader, Google Earth

Facebook have stepped up their battle against phishing and malware scammers by partnering with security firm Websense.

As of next week, users will be warned if they are about to be taken to a malicious website.

The social network has suffered to date as many of its 700 million users unwittingly click on dangerous links supposedly posted by their friends.

Pop stars are lining up to make their debut in Facebook games from online game maker Zynga.

First came Dr Dre and Lady Gaga. Next week, an avatar of singer Enrique Iglesias will join CityVille, Zynga’s most popular title.

SHABNAM DASTGHEIB

Grandmother Pat Reesby admits being “just a bit silly” when she gave out her credit card details online – and then was caught out by a scammer.

The Privacy Commissioner launched a new resource yesterday to help older people stay safe online. Ms Reesby said the resource would help others avoid the situation she recently found herself in.

It was late, I was tired but I was in familiar territory – which meant I wasn’t really concentrating.

So I felt both surprised and foolish when I glanced at the emailed receipt the following morning: my $8.99 bargain had turned into a $68.94 mistake. Prompt overnight service meant it was too late to do anything about it.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Tim Cook finally gets his chance to stride out from under Steve Jobs’ shadow, and he could not have picked a better time or device to mark his unofficial debut as Apple Inc’s CEO.

The latest generation of the iPhone — still the smartphone industry’s gold standard after four years — is expected to see the light of day this Tuesday, just in time for the holidays.

Even in a dismal economy, consumers should again line up in droves for a souped-up device that also marks Cook’s first major product launch since taking over from Jobs in August.

By Sara Nelson, Hadas Goshen, Liza Nelson and Lizzie Skurnick, Oprah.com

Lives Other Than My Own

By Emmanuel Carrère

You’d have to call 2005 a very tough year for Emmanuel Carrère and his family: After barely escaping a tsunami while vacationing in Sri Lanka, they returned home to Paris to witness the death of Carrère’s partner’s sister. While Lives Other Than My Own (Metropolitan) might have been just another “why me?” memoir, it is, in the French novelist and biographer’s hands, a wise study of the roots and rewards of altruism. With clear-eyed reporting, never-treacly compassion, and, yes, a healthy dose of French philosophizing, Carrère shows us how even the most self-obsessed can find grace and joy in the simplest acts of kindness.

What if you could change history? Would you go back and kill Hitler before the Holocaust? Arrest Oswald before JFK was assassinated? Stop Bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks?

Of course you would.

Nearly every day, Terri Shaver comes face to face with cancer and can’t help but think about her life and how short it could be.

For more than four years, the 56-year-old photographer from Laingsburg, Michigan