Mark Bridge writes:

In a way, it’s hard to believe that the first Apple iPhone wasn’t seen in public until this day seven years ago. It - and the trend towards one-piece smartphones with hardly any buttons - seems to have been with us for much longer.

Apple has announced a ‘USB Power Adapter Takeback Program’ to help reassure customers about the safety of iPhone chargers.

A number of recent media reports have suggested that some counterfeit chargers or third-party chargers may be dangerous, with a woman in China reportedly killed and a Chinese man seriously injured in separate incidents last month.

Yesterday evening Apple announced results for the third quarter of its financial year, with revenue up just 1% year-on-year to $35.3 billion and net profit down over 21% to $6.9 billion.

31.2 million iPhones were sold during the April-June period, increasing year-on-year by 20% to a record for that quarter, while iPad sales fell 14% to 14.6 million units.

Apple announced financial results last night for the 13-week period until 29th December 2012, the first quarter of its 2013 financial year. Quarterly revenue reached a company record of $54.5 billion while net profit was $13.1 billion.

That’s an 18% year-on-year increase in revenue, although the profit figure was almost unchanged.

Apple says its customers have downloaded more than 40 billion applications from its App Store, with almost half of them happening last year.

In fact, December alone saw over two million app downloads.

By incorporating advanced algorithms and machine learning capabilities, AI can help to optimize a smartphone's performance, providing users with a faster, more efficient and user-friendly experience.

Mark Bridge writes:

I've been taking a look back at the devices I've written about during the past few years. Some are still faithful companions, others... well, let's just say my faith was misplaced.

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

Mark Bridge writes:

James Rosewell shows me a colourful roll of paper that's the width of an iPhone but well over three metres long. When I look closer, I can see it's a printed copy of the Wall Street Journal's mobile website. That's a lot of scrolling to do... and a pretty unfriendly user experience for anyone reading the news online. Why does it work so badly?

This week Iain and Mark take a deeper look at mobile security and crime, they review the massive 4GB N91 from Nokia and look at a a budget video phone from LG.

As well as a brief look at the News this week the gang look at both ends of the new handset spectrum with the QTek 8500 and the BenQ-Siemens E61. James Rosewell provides an overview of how to get music and video to your mobile from DVDs and CDs.

In The Fonecast this week, industry veteran Iain Graham and tech enthusiast Mark Bridge take a close look at the ultra-slim Samsung D900, they pore over the Nokia N73 smartphone and they evaluate a couple of new software downloads. In addition, application developer James Rosewell joins them for a revealing conversation about mobile blogging.

In The Fonecast this week, Iain Graham and Mark Bridge review the new Nokia N93 and Sony Ericsson W850i mobile phones, guest James Rosewell takes a look at competition from VoIP, HSDPA technology is demystified and a couple of new software downloads are evaluated.