Categories
Close
Menu
Menu
Close
Search
Search

Featured Articles

RSS
123

Opinion Articles

Opinion

Last week at The Fonecast: 10th October 2011

Mark

Share:

Print

Rate article:

No rating
Rate this article:
No rating

Mark Bridge takes a look back at last week’s mobile industry headlines.

Rest in peace, Steve. The death of Apple co-founder Steven Paul Jobs following several years of illness has seen the kind of public grieving usually reserved for pop stars and princesses. There’s not much I can say that hasn’t already been said; it’s hard to argue with Tim Cook’s statement that “Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

The sad news helps to explain some of the understatement surrounding the launch of Apple’s new iPhone 4S. Wot, no iPhone 5?  Nope, although the Siri intelligent voice control looks set to be a much talked-about feature. No pun intended.

In other Apple-related news, Samsung has announced legal action against the iPhone 4S in France and Italy, while version 2 of Alien Dalvik promises to get Android apps running on iPads. Can’t imagine that’ll go down too well.

Talking of Android, Samsung has added chargeable ‘premium’ apps to its UK application store and HTC is under the spotlight for security vulnerability on some of its Android devices.

4G has finally arrived in the UK, with the BT Wholesale and Everything Everywhere trial in Cornwall going live. Unfortunately the news arrived in the same week that Ofcom admitted its 4G auction would be delayed, which rather took the shine off things. In the meantime, UK chancellor George Osborne has announced plans to invest up to £150 million on sites for mobile phone masts and base stations in a bid to improve the nation’s connectivity.

Staying with home news, we learn that you can only describe your mobile data deals as ‘truly unlimited internet’ if they really are unlimited. That’s why T-Mobile has been given a clip round the ear by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority.

And finally for now, from home news to a homecoming of sorts. Back in the 1990s, Cliff Kushler was one of the people who pretty much invented predictive text. He and his colleagues founded a company called Tegic, with the Tegic T9 software later sold to AOL and then sold again to Nuance. Meanwhile, Cliff went off and helped create Swype, which was a type of predictive text for touchscreen keyboards. Now Nuance has spent around $100 million to acquire Swype, bringing both of Cliff’s developments together. Nuance itself is big in speech recognition… so watch out, Siri!

Stay ahead of the crowd by receiving this weekly news summary from TheFonecast.com by email. Simply click the ‘register’ link at the top right-hand corner of our website and enter your details. And if you’d like to download our mobile industry podcasts automatically, simply pick up our RSS feed or find us on iTunes.

Comments

Collapse Expand Comments (0)
You don't have permission to post comments.

Recent Podcasts

ExclusivePodcast - 7th July 2010

This week's look at the latest mobile industry headlines includes an update on the reception problems for Apple's iPhone 4, Nokia's future with Symbian, the end of the road for Kin and the First Else... and loads of other news stories, too.

ExclusivePodcast - 30th June 2010

The launch of the iPhone 4 isn't quite as smooth as Apple might have hoped. Iain, James and Mark discuss the reported problems and the rest of the week's industry news, from mobile TV to roaming charges. In addition, there's a visit to Good Technology to learn more about its mobile email service.

ExclusivePodcast - 23rd June 2010

Paul Berney from the Mobile Marketing Association talks about the group's latest mobile commerce research in this week's podcast. And, as usual, there's a look at all the major industry news headlines from the past seven days.

ExclusivePodcast - 18th June 2010

Bambuser CEO Hans Eriksson talks about his company's mobile video streaming. As well as discussing Bambuser's technology, which reduces latency while maintaining quality, Hans also explains how Bambuser has been used for everything from the Eurovision Song Contest to a marathon excavator trip!

ExclusivePodcast - 16th June 2010

In this week's podcast we're talking about mobile data, mobile money and mobile advertising. There's also time for a quick chat about mobile video streaming service Bambuser and an interview with Dror Haliva from mobile synchronisation specialists Cellebrite.

RSS
First6465666769717273Last

Follow thefonecast.com

Archive Calendar

«June 2026»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
25262728293031
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293012345

Archive