Mobile & Wireless
03 July 2009
Nokia's N97 brings a clash of two cultures The Guardian
Smartphones are booming - even in the middle of a recession - but their design and functionality can differ remarkably
02 July 2009
Mobile roaming charges drop across Europe The Guardian
Mobile phone charges will fall for millions of holidaymakers across Europe from today, after new regulations come into force to drive down the cost of roaming.
01 July 2009
Mobile phone giants to make European one-size-fits-all mobile charger from 2010 The Times
The world's biggest mobile phone makers announced a deal today agreeing to a universal standard phone charger that will work on millions of handsets made by different manufacturers.
29 June 2009
North Korean 3G network hits 19,000 subscribers Network World
North Korea's first and only public cellular telephone network attracted 19,200 subscribers after just over three months in business.
22 June 2009
Mobile users & towers in Africa to join weather service The Times
Two of the world's biggest telecommunications companies and the United Nations' weather agency have joined forces in an attempt to improve weather forecasts in Africa.
20 June 2009
U.S. Congress examines if exclusive phone contracts stifle competition Washington Post
Lawmakers yesterday waded into a growing debate on whether the practice of locking in cellphones to exclusive contracts with only one carrier has led to higher prices and fewer choices for consumers and stifled competition in one of the economy's brightest spots -- the wireless industry.
17 June 2009
Industry group sees mobile usage growth in downturn Reuters
Telecom industry group the GSM Association expects the mobile industry to see continued growth in usage, despite the recession, and to provide stimulus for the global economy.
Turning the Masses Onto Mobile Broadband New York Times
After two years of rapid growth, mobile broadband, the wireless industry's most successful innovation of the past decade, is at a crossroads as operators struggle to maintain fast, omnipresent service in the face of exploding Internet traffic.
Australia's CSIRO pursues WiFi royalties internationally Australian IT
Australia's top science agency has started the second major phase of its program to recoup hundreds of millions of dollars worth of royalty payments from its patented and ubiquitous WiFi technology.
16 June 2009
40% of Americans & Brits would rather lose wallet than mobile phone PC World
40 percent of mobile phone users would rather lose their wallet than their mobile device. Nearly all said they would be "devastated" if they lost their phone.
A New Hope For Smartphones: Palm Pre Reviewed Washington Post
The new Palm Pre comes from a company that's been developing handheld gadgets since 1992, but the Pre owes almost nothing to that heritage. It has all the promise -- and many of the limits and glitches -- of a bright, young startup's 1.0 release.
15 June 2009
Smart-phone wars: Pre conceived - Stiffer competition for the smart-phone throne The Economist
This will hardly be a vintage year for the mobile-phone industry. Gartner, a market-research firm, reckons global handset sales will shrink by around 4% to 1.2 billion units. Yet despite the gloom the industry is still pumping out new products. On June 6th Palm, a firm that pioneered hand-held digital devices, started selling a phone called the Pre. Two days later Apple unveiled souped-up versions of its popular iPhone.
12 June 2009
Mobile phones, other wireless devices next big cybersecurity targets NextGov
Mobile phones and other mobile devices that provide access to the Internet will be the source of a "tsunami of insecurity" that will leave computer networks vulnerable to cyberattacks because manufacturers have not considered protecting the equipment, security professionals told Congress on Wednesday.
10 June 2009
Japan explores using mobile phones to stop pandemics Washington Post
A few months from now, a highly contagious disease will spread through a Japanese elementary school. The epidemic will start with several unwitting children, who will infect others as they attend classes and wander the halls.
EU Roaming Regulation clears final hurdle: Council paves way for cheaper roaming prices as of 1 July Europa
Today the ministers of the 27 EU Member States formally adopted the new EU roaming rules proposed by the European Commission last September and approved by the European Parliament in April. The new EU roaming rules will lead to further reductions of up to 60% on consumers' roaming bills as of 1 July - just in time for this year's summer holidays.
09 June 2009
Father of the mobile phone pushes wireless communications to new heights The Economist
Unless you work in the telecoms industry, you are unlikely to have heard of Marty Cooper. He is hardly a household name. But his influence has been felt across the world, because he is the engineer who took the cellular technology used in the carphones of the 1970s and decided that phones ought to be small enough to be portable. His determination led to the first prototype, in 1973, and then to the first commercial mobile phone in 1983. "Marty is the most influential person no one has ever heard of," says Robert McDowell, a commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission, America's telecoms regulator.
Sensors and sensitivity - Data collection: Mobile phones provide new ways to gather information, both manually and automatically, over wide areas The Economist
If your mobile phone could talk, it could reveal a great deal. Obviously it would know many of your innermost secrets, being privy to your calls and text messages, and possibly your e-mail and diary, too. It also knows where you have been, how you get to work, where you like to go for lunch, what time you got home, and where you like to go at the weekend. Now imagine being able to aggregate this sort of information from large numbers of phones. It would be possible to determine and analyse how people move around cities, how social groups interact, how quickly traffic is moving and even how diseases might spread. The world's 4 billion mobile phones could be turned into sensors on a global data-collection network.
06 June 2009
Doctors warn of 'mobile phone elbow' Daily Telegraph (UK)
First there was a risk of repetitive strain injury from texting, and now doctors have warned that chatting for extended periods of time can leave you with a new ailment - mobile phone elbow.
30 May 2009
Why Android Could Be Headed for the Laundry Room New York Times
After a slow start, Google says its Android operating system will appear in as many as 20 mobile phones by the end of this year.
29 May 2009
Networking Sites Extend Reach: Handset Makers Ramp Up Ways to Tap Broader Mobile Phone Market Wall Street Journal
Social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are popular services on high-end cellphones like the iPhone and the BlackBerry. But extending their reach to the broader wireless market has been challenging, because most basic phones tend to have clunky Web browsers and can't support fancy software.
28 May 2009
Mobile phones to be banned in French primary schools to limit health risks The Times
Mobile telephones are to be banned from French primary schools, and operators must offer handsets that allow only text messages, under government measures to reduce the health risk to children.
Texting May Be Taking a Toll on America's Teenagers New York Times
They do it late at night when their parents are asleep. They do it in restaurants and while crossing busy streets. They do it in the classroom with their hands behind their back. They do it so much their thumbs hurt.
Mobile sales ring up record down under The Age
The Australian consumers' love of gadgets and a glut of capped plans for expensive handsets has helped create record mobile phone sales this year.
26 May 2009
In South Korea, All of Life Is Mobile New York Times
It has been a while since the mobile phone became more than just a phone, serving as a texting device, a camera and a digital music player, among other things. But experts say South Korea, because of its high-speed wireless networks and top technology companies like Samsung and LG, is the test case for the mobile future.
22 May 2009
Apple bans iPhone program over sex claims The Guardian
A British-made iPhone program has been banned by Apple - because it could allow people to read the Kama Sutra.
