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Monday, February 17, 2014

Last week at The Fonecast: 17th February 2014

Love is in the air

Mark Bridge writes:

Mobile World Congress is just a week away, with lovers of mobile technology preparing to be wooed by manufacturers, networks and developers. But if MWC is like St Valentine’s Day, then LG has been behaving rather like the world’s worst boyfriend.

Not only has it spoiled the surprise of our romantic gift by telling us what we’ll be getting, it’s also told us we’ll be given something that’s very much like last year’s present. At least the G Pro 2 is a bit bigger than LG’s 2013 flagship LG Pro. Currently only availability in South Korea has been confirmed.

However, if you WLTM a new smartphone IRL, take a look at Spanish-based Geeksphone. The Revolution – due out this week – is capable of running either Google’s Android OS or the Boot2Gecko Mozilla operating system, making it particularly interesting to developers (or anyone else that wants to give the Firefox OS a try).

But for a story of true love conquering all, you can’t get better than A4WP and PMA. No, not more dating acronyms. These one-time rivals – the Alliance for Wireless Power and the Power Matters Alliance – have signed an agreement aimed at enabling their wireless power standards to work with each other. Don’t expect seamless compatibility just yet, although there’s now a much greater possibility of chargers supporting both standards.

Sticking with the language de l'amour, there’s a new relationship for mobile VoIP service Viber, which has been acquired by Japanese online specialist Rakuten for £538 million. And there’s a break-up for Motorola Mobility CEO (and former Google exec) Dennis Woodside, who’s off next month to join Dropbox as its Chief Operating Officer.

On Monday mornings we summarise the past week’s mobile industry headlines in an email 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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Opinion Articles

‘The Eyes Have It’ at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

DoCoMo are one of many network operators and handset manufacturers demonstrating innovative new products as Mobile World Congress. Our eye was caught by the employee demonstrating “Eye Controlled Earphones”. It’s a good job the ladies from the CBOSS stand weren’t walking past at the time.

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'Mobile Money Monday' at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Monday’s Mobile World Congress conference agenda dedicated one of 4 streams to Mobile Money - Transfers, Transactions and Technology allowing all stakeholders to share experiences and debate the future of Mobile and Money.

Two types of service dominated presentations and panel discussions; Near Field Communication (NFC) technology enabling payment at traditional Point of Sale (PoS), and the Mobile Wallet replacing plastic or cash.

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‘Innovation Corner’ at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Here’s my pick of the 3 most innovative companies I’ve uncovered at the 2010 Mobile World Congress.

Cootek.com win the prize for simplest innovation... an accurate touch screen keyboard. They’re a few months away from being ready to release the software to handset manufacturers, but the demo handsets worked very well. The keyboard assumes the user is not going to press the intended key, but in fact might miss and press another key in the same area. Based on this knowledge and an extensive dictionary of words and language context, it’s able to determine the intended word with surprising accuracy. I sincerely hope their technology will be made available for the Nexus One in the not too distant future.

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Google “Mobile First” from Eric Schmidt’s Key Note at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, presented a compelling vision of a mobile centric future. The phone has become the “high value end point” for Google services enabled by a combination of increasing handset power, mobile data networks and cloud computing. By far the scarcest resource is the bandwidth available through the mobile data networks. Google appear committed to work with Mobile Network Operators (MNO) to maximise bandwidth usage, although several audience questions suggested scepticism from the main stream mobile industry. Eric expressed a need to maintain a harmonious relationship with MNOs stating Google could not operate its service on mobile devices without their co-operation.

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The great Windows Mobile 7 conspiracy theory

Mark Bridge writes:

I like a good conspiracy theory. A good one, mind you. None of this “Funny thing happened on the way to Mars” nonsense. Oh no, not me. And, despite occasionally mirroring Jerry Fletcher by balancing a bottle on the door handle, I’ve never been inclined to publish such a theory. Until now.

You see, it’s Mobile World Congress in a fortnight’s time. Which is when the great and the good of the mobile industry – along with their mates and hangers-on – head for Barcelona. Microsoft will be there. They’re holding a press briefing on Monday afternoon. And there’s a lot of talk about Windows Mobile 7 being (unofficially) on the agenda. But where’s the evidence?

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