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Last week at The Fonecast: 24th September 2012

Mark

Apple loses Google Maps… and quite a few major landmarks

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Mark Bridge writes:

Oooh, a new phone. It’s running a powerful new processor, it has a large edge-to-edge toughened glass display and its model name bears the familiar ‘i’ suffix. Hang on a moment. Suffix?  Yes, suffix. This isn’t a new Apple device but Motorola Mobility’s first Intel-powered Android smartphone, the RAZR i.

Arguably it wasn’t a great week for Motorola’s launch, what with HTC’s new flagship handsets and the iPhone 5 going on sale.

HTC presented us with the Windows Phone 8X and the Windows Phone 8S, both of which are expected to hit the shops from November. An exceptionally close relationship with Microsoft is hinted at by the appearance of ‘Windows Phone 8’ in their names. Wonder if Nokia is jealous?

It’s certainly not unhappy with some of the fuss surrounding Apple’s iPhone 5, which went on sale last Friday. A couple of days earlier the iOS 6 operating system saw an official release – and the replacement of Google Maps with Apple’s own mapping service has drawn many an unfavourable comparison. Apple’s data seems significantly less detailed to the offerings from Google and Nokia, causing much amusement amongst naysayers.

There was also slightly worrying news for fans of machine-to-machine communications – M2M isn’t being implemented as quickly as some had forecast, according to new research – and for lovers of QR codes, who found the UK was lagging behind the rest of Europe when it came to adoption and usage. Conversely, tablet sales were doing much better than expected.

Sticking with good news, we learned that a Norwegian study had found no scientific evidence that radiation from mobile phones causes adverse health effects and we heard that high-speed broadband services could be available in aircraft fairly soon.

Discount service Groupon moved into the mobile payment arena, Google acquired another photo software company, Good Technology introduced professional services to help businesses move to a ‘Bring Your Own Device’ scheme and O2 snuggled up with augmented reality platform Aurasma.

However, if you really want an unexpected tech partnership, you need UK artist Dominic Wilcox, technologist Becky Stewart and shoe maker Stamp Shoes. Together they’ve created ‘No Place Like Home’, a pair of leather shoes that’ll guide you home via built-in GPS and LED indicators. You activate them – much like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz – by clicking the heels together.

Start your week with a reminder of the latest mobile headlines. Simply register at TheFonecast.com by clicking the link at the top right-hand corner of our home page and we’ll send you this weekly news summary by email.

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Opinion Articles

ExclusiveLast week at The Fonecast: 1st July 2013

Mark Bridge writes:

I don’t know about you but I’m delighted to see Sony Mobile getting plenty of coverage for its new smart watch and giant smartphone. The company’s impressive presence at Mobile World Congress 2013 showed plenty of promise... and I’d say it’s now delivering.

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Mark Bridge writes:

Another week, another couple of product announcements from Samsung. There appears to be no stopping them, despite a recent drop in the company’s share price.

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ExclusiveLast week at The Fonecast: 17th June 2013

Mark Bridge writes:

The telecommunications industry was making plenty of headlines last week – but much of it wasn’t particularly upbeat.

The debate about privacy and security continued in the wake of allegations about US agents intercepting internet traffic. Meanwhile, Nokia prepared to make its last Symbian smartphones and Tradedoubler warned that mobile devices were having a negative effect on high-street consumer loyalty.

ExclusiveHow to shield from internet snooping

George Putic of voanews.com writes:

When news broke about U.S. government agencies collecting metadata about its citizens’ Internet and phone communications, many were surprised by its scope. The surveillance covered a vast number of Internet messages and phone calls. The government did not deny the action but pointed out that the collected data contained, not the substance of the communication, but the so-called metadata.

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There’s been a lot of talk recently about PRISM, which may allow the US National Security Agency - and anyone they choose - to access some of our personal online information if it passes through the USA. It’s unclear exactly what (if anything) is being shared with whom… and given the nature of national security, we may never know.

However, alongside the possibility of governments seeing information we thought was secure, it’s also worth pointing out that we choose to share plenty of online information ourselves.

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