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Last week at The Fonecast: 2nd December 2013

Mark

It's oh so quiet...

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Mark Bridge writes:

It was a relatively quiet time for tech news last week, with many companies taking a day off to celebrate Thanksgiving in the USA and then planning for a present-buying retail frenzy on ‘Black Friday’. Today the focus on Christmas shopping moves online; a day that’s called either ‘Cyber Monday’ or ‘Mega Monday’ if you work for a news organisation.

Yet it wasn’t an entirely newsless week. Finnish company Jolla, which is carrying a torch for the MeeGo system after Nokia dropped it, started selling smartphones. These are also compatible with plenty of Android apps, which should help the company gain traction.

Disappearing smartphones are now under more control, thanks to a national database in the United States. CTIA-The Wireless Association says a register for 3G and 4G smartphones is now in place, offering the potential to block stolen phones even if they’re taken abroad.

Disappearing executives were on the agenda at BlackBerry, with the COO, CFO, CMO and one of the directors all stepping down.

And disappearing battery life was named as the biggest problem for mobile phone owners.

Finally, as Christmas speeds towards us, I’d like to end with a few words about Mobile World Congress. We’re planning our 2014 coverage, which offers plenty of opportunity for companies to sponsor the podcasts we’ll be recording in Barcelona. It’s the proven power of radio but without the high cost. Take a look at what we’re planning and please get in touch if you’d like to know more.

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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