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 - 12th May 2010

T-Mobile and Orange reveal the new branding for their merged parent company, the Apple iPad's UK pricing and tariffs are announced, Nokia sues Apple again and mobile app stores lose their appeal. All this - and more - is discussed by Iain, James and Mark in The Fonecast.

ExclusivePodcast - 5th May 2010

This week's edition of The Fonecast is full of big names. HP acquires Palm, HTC and Microsoft do a deal over Android, Apple sells a million iPads - and handset sales show some dramatic increases.

ExclusivePodcast - 4th May 2010

A special edition of The Fonecast containing our recent interview with Richard Kinder, Vice President of Technology and New Business at Red Bend Software.

ExclusivePodcast - 28th April 2010

In this week's podcast we're joined by Richard Kinder from Red Bend Software for a chat about over-the-air mobile updates. Plus there's the usual offbeat look at the latest mobile industry headlines, covering everything from Symbian delays to health research.

ExclusivePodcast - 21st April 2010

This week's mobile industry news headlines include a new ethical MVNO, genuinely unlimited tariffs, departures, acquisitions, mobile giving and mobile gaming. All this - and more - is discussed by Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge.

RSS
First6667686971737475Last

Follow thefonecast.com

Archive Calendar

«June 2026»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
25262728293031
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293012345

Archive