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 - 25th March 2009

John Barton discusses LG's recent successes - including last week's Mobile News Awards wins - and talks about its current UK activities. Plus, as usual, the team takes a look at the latest activity in the UK mobile phone industry.

ExclusivePodcast - 18th March 2009

This week on The Fonecast there's news about the Apple iPhone 3.0 update and all the other mobile industry headlines from the last seven days. In addition we talk to Chris Caudle from the IMPDA about the ways that high-street dealers are coping with the current economic situation.

ExclusivePodcast - 11th March 2009

The Fonecast takes its regular weekly look at the latest mobile news headlines, including a new technology partnership between Barclaycard and Orange. There's also an introduction to the relatively recent phenomenon of 'App Stores'.

ExclusivePodcast - 4th March 2009

This week's edition of The Fonecast talks about mobile phone recycling with Chris Rogerson from ShP Limited - the company behind Mopay. And, as usual, there's our look at industry headlines from the last seven days.

ExclusivePodcast - 25th February 2009

In The Fonecast this week there's an in-depth look at the new Emporio Armani phone produced by Samsung. We also talk about the latest mobile industry headlines, from Vodafone redundancies to mobile viruses.

RSS
First7980818284868788Last

Follow thefonecast.com

Archive Calendar

«June 2026»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
25262728293031
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293012345

Archive