Mark Bridge writes:
Just over a week ago Motorola Mobility lost a patent-related legal case against Microsoft in the USA. A couple of days later the company was formally acquired by Google – and a few days after that it lost a patent case against Microsoft in Germany. Business as usual, you might say.
HP didn’t have a great week either. It’s planning to reduce its employee numbers by 27,000 people – and first to go is Mike Lynch, whose UK-based company Autonomy was bought by HP last year.
Rather more upbeat is the world of alternative mobile networks. Two more MVNOs have arrived in the UK, with China Telecom’s CTExcelbiz targeting Chinese residents while Bemilo is aimed at concerned parents.
And WiFi availability is increasing too, as Greene King pubs and restaurants prepare to receive free WiFi from The Cloud. You’ll even be able to use WiFi on Eurostar trains from next year. “I’m on a train. I said, I’m on a train. In a tunnel. Under the sea.”
Security was hitting the headlines, with McAfee announcing a big jump in Android malware, Carphone Warehouse offering cut-price Norton mobile security software and PhonepayPlus putting an end to a text message fraud that worked via dodgy apps.
Raising a few eyebrows were Waterstones (which plans to sell Amazon Kindle devices and ebooks in its shops), Yahoo! (which launched a new web browser for Apple devices) and Sidecar (with an app that adds video, location sharing and contact information to voice calls).
But for me, the biggest surprise came from Orange. Not the completion of its network sharing arrangement with T-Mobile. Not the launch of an e-ticket trial for buses. No, it was the mobile-enabled AGA oven. You can turn it off from your phone. And you can turn it on from your phone. I hope to goodness there’s a cat proximity sensor on the cooker.
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