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Last week at The Fonecast: 28th October 2013

Mark

A lighter iPad for light-fingered Apple thieves?

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Mark Bridge writes:

No prizes for guessing which two mobile tech stories grabbed most of the headlines last week. Tuesday morning saw Nokia’s much-rumoured tablet and phablet launches, with a Windows RT device and two 6-inch smartphones joining the company’s product portfolio.

This was followed on Tuesday evening with Apple’s big news, which centred on its Mac computers and its iPad tablets. There’s a new iPad Air, which runs on the Apple A7 chip and is thinner than ever – and there’s a version of the iPad Mini with a ‘retina’ display.

However, music retailer HMV wasn’t feeling any warmth towards Apple, having discovered the HMV iOS app had been suspended from the Apple App Store. Apparently it was the non-iTunes shopping wot dun it.

Talking of complaints, there’s something of a major spat going on between security company NQ Mobile and by investment research business Muddy Waters. Muddy Waters described NQ as “a massive fraud”, leading to NQ calling the allegations “false and inaccurate”. Somehow I don’t think that’s the last we’ll hear of this.

Being trapped in a contract when the prices go up is one complaint UK regulator Ofcom is determined to end. It’s clarified the rules allowing customers to withdraw from a fixed-term contract if there is any change likely to be of ‘material detriment’, telling phone and broadband service providers any increase to the subscription cost is likely to be regarded as such a change.

It’s also published a report on telecoms infrastructure that shows public WiFi use growing at a faster rate than mobile data – and has revealed details of “significant gaps” in mobile coverage on UK roads.

Finally, the Metropolitan Police has pointed out that Apple devices aren’t just popular with customers. They’re also a target for criminals; around 10,000 mobile phones are stolen in London every month and around half of these thefts are iPhones. Let’s be careful out there.

On Monday mornings we summarise the past week’s mobile industry headlines in a newsletter that’s very much like this article. To receive it, simply register your email address at TheFonecast.com by clicking the link at the top right-hand corner of our home page.

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

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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.

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