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Sunday, February 19, 2012

Last week at The Fonecast: 20th February 2012

Mark Bridge writes:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. So said Sir Arthur C Clarke.

Last week’s magic was supplied by imaging company Scalado, which announced a new product called ‘Remove’. The clue’s in the name: it can automatically remove unwanted people from photos taken on a mobile phone. Expect to see it on a handset near you before too long.

Also hitting the headlines – but with slightly less magic – was Barclays, which launched what it described as Europe’s first person-to-person service for sending and receiving money using mobile phone numbers. The service is called Barclays Pingit and will be available to all UK mobile users by early March.

From magic to predicting the future. Who’d have expected a humble search engine to buy a multi-national mobile phone company?  Today Google is edging into the driving seat as its acquisition of Motorola Mobility clears two of the biggest regulatory hurdles. Meanwhile Sony has acquired Ericsson’s half of the Sony Ericsson partnership, now being renamed to Sony Mobile Communications. And Vodafone is thinking about a takeover of Cable & Wireless Worldwide. Only thinking at the moment, mind you.

Ofcom cleared a legal hurdle as well last week. Its plans to cut Mobile Termination Rates were given the go-ahead by the Competition Appeal Tribunal, despite complaints from various network operators. The new plans will be even faster-acting than the original proposal. Will consumers see their mobile bills drop overall?  It would be nice to think so.

Talking of legal challenges – fancy that – Apple won a patent-related court case against Motorola Mobility in Germany. Apparently a number of Motorola smartphones infringe the ‘slide-to-unlock’ touchscreen patent owned by Apple. You know, that magical feature you find on most Android handsets. There may be trouble ahead...

Start your week with a reminder of the latest mobile headlines. Simply register at TheFonecast.com by clicking the link at the top right-hand corner of our home page and we’ll send you this weekly news summary by email.

The Fonecast is sponsored by 51Degrees.mobi. You’ll find more about advertising and sponsorship opportunities on the About us section of our website.

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Opinion Articles

Why a mobile TV service is just like a zombie

Mark Bridge writes:

Here in the UK, we’re struggling a bit with mobile TV. Which made me wonder what the problem really was. Well, after a long evening with the finest stilton and the cheapest port, the answer came to me in a dream. A mobile TV service is just like the lurching, drooling nightmare creatures that appear in every zombie film. And once consumers understand zombies, they’ll understand the problems with mobile TV. Let me explain.

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Selling your way out of a recession? Of course you can!

Iain Graham writes:

Everybody these days (apart from a lucky few!) is suffering from a lack of business or reduced sales due to the current 'downturn in the economic climate'. In my opinion, this is the time when sales people should stand up and be counted!

No, I don't mean the hard nosed, foot in the door double-glazing, second-hand car or mobile phone types (no offence!), I mean EVERYONE! Selling is a concept as much as it is a profession.

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Mobile & Contactless Payments

James Rosewell offers his opinion on the current state of mobile and contactless payments.

The banking and mobile industries have big plans for Near Field Communication (NFC) as the mobile payment mechanism of the future. Barclaycard has been leading the way from the credit card sector forming a partnership with Orange, having previously worked with O2, and running a catchy TV advert prompting contactless cards using VISA’s paywave system.

However the reality of NFC payments appears a lot further away. The Point of Sale (POS) technology appears to be badly deployed by some of the first-phase retailers mainly made up of low-value high-volume businesses like coffee shops, fast food outlets and newsagents.

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Insecure Mobile Browsers

James Rosewell writes: I note with interest Barclays mobile on-line banking home page extolling the safety of mobile banking whilst claiming it’s as secure as their non-mobile equivalent. This is on the same page that recommends customers use Opera Mini to access Barclays mobile on-line banking.

Yet following the link to the operamini.com web site and looking at the help section we can read Opera’s answer to the question “Is there any end-to-end security between my handset and — for example — paypal.com or my bank?” and the answer is “No. If you need full end-to-end encryption, you should use a full Web browser such as Opera Mobile.”

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