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Saturday, June 4, 2011

This week at The Fonecast: 4th June 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

I’ll start with a personal comment. One of my friends has described my music taste as eclectic - and he didn’t mean that in a good way. It probably explains why I’ve been sitting at my desk singing “melty head” to the tune of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face”.

Yes, mobile phones and health concerns are back in the news. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organisation, has classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans. In a nutshell, it confirms that previous research has raised this as a possibility but says other factors can't be ruled out. Much of this report is based on last year’s Interphone study, which - as we reported at the time - suggested an increased risk of a particular type of cancer at the highest exposure levels, although biases and error were possibilities as well. So we’re not really any the wiser. More research is needed before anyone can be definite about any potential hazard.

While we’re worrying, let’s take a look at 4G technology. It could mess up your TV reception, said Ofcom this week. Mind you, Ofcom wants the 4G licence holders to fix the problem, so that should all work out nicely. Even if it doesn’t, we’ll probably be able to watch TV on our 4G phones.

Nokia added to the glum mood with a warning that the current quarter wouldn’t be as good for sales as previously thought. Apparently it’s "no longer appropriate" to provide target figures for 2011. Ouch. Elsewhere, Acer is writing off $150 million and losing 300 staff after discovering a few problems of its own, while LG is recovering more slowly than expected. Ouch again.

Still, cheer up, eh?  Apple has an announcement next week. Unusually, it’s already told everyone what the announcement is about: a preview of iOS 5 for iPhone and iPad, a new cloud service and some Mac stuff. Wot, no iPhone 5?

Microsoft’s been doing its own previewing at the Computex technology show in Taiwan. It’s shown off the next version of Windows - codenamed Windows 8 - that apparently will be just as happy on tablets as on conventional PCs. And Asus has been demonstrating the Padfone, which is part tablet - can’t imagine what inspired the ‘pad’ part of the name - and part smartphone. The phone fits neatly inside the back of the tablet.

So ultimately a week of good and bad, as Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder might have sung.

And, ending with another lyric, it’s time to say farewell to Kevin Russell, CEO of Three UK. He’s returning to the land down under, leaving current COO David Dyson in charge. Enjoy the break, Kevin - I’m told the vegemite tastes much better back home!


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Opinion Articles

f u cn rd ths thn wts th prblm?

Iain Graham writes:

Text language. Why do they do it?  What an interesting question!  Normally asked by people who have never ever sent a text, believing it to be the invention of the devil!! "Texters are vandals, doing to our language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbours eight hundred years ago" asserted Jhn (sorry) John Humphrys of Radio Four fame writing in the Daily Mail. The new 'text language' has been blamed for many things including...

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Is Google’s new mobile phone distribution model really a big deal for the UK?

Mark Bridge writes:

“Google offers New Model for Consumers to buy a Mobile Phone”. Not my words but those of Vodafone as it announced it was the first operator to bring the new Google phone offer to Europe.

There’s a lot of talk about Google’s online ordering process for its Nexus One smartphone… or ‘superphone’ as the company described it at yesterday’s launch.

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Mobile shopping is worrying... and usually successful

Mark Bridge writes:

I really don’t like to complain. Honestly, I don’t. I’m an optimist. True, I can be a bit of a cynic – but that’s because I like to see things work first time.

So when I saw a headline that said “Shopping via mobile phone causes concerns for consumers”, I wasn’t surprised. Disappointed but not surprised.

And then I looked closer – and I got annoyed. Not annoyed at the companies that make mobile shopping so disappointing. No, annoyed at the organisation that published the report.

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Is mobile technology too young to predict?

Mark Bridge writes:

“Leave them alone, they’re just kids”

My word, Anakin Skywalker was a smart boy. Child prodigy. Wunderkind. Genius, some would say, albeit fictional.

But, without the benefit of hindsight (or the Star Wars box set, as many would call it), very few people would have expected him to marry his babysitter, fall into a volcano, turn to the Dark Side and end up looking like the late Sebastian Shaw.

Which brings me to the mobile phone industry.

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Did 2009 turn out the way we expected?

Mark Bridge writes:

At this time of year it’s something of a tradition – certainly within the mobile industry – to make predictions for the year ahead. It’s a trend we’ve followed with The Fonecast… and we’ve done reasonably well over the last few years.

We’ll be making this year’s predictions for 2010 in our programme on 23rd December. Ahead of that, I’ve been listening to our last show of 2008 to see what we thought 2009 would hold for us.

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