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Sunday, July 17, 2011

This week at The Fonecast: 17th July 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

Much like the mainstream media, this week’s news summary begins with ‘voicemail hacking’. In our podcast feature on Friday we spoke to industry crime-fighter Jack Wraith about the security of voice messages. He explained how remote voicemail access was now much more secure than it was ten years ago, which is good news for everyone (except dodgy investigators).

But that wasn’t the only security scare in the last few days. The Hacker's Choice explained how a modified Vodafone Sure Signal femtocell could be used to intercept calls made by Vodafone customers within 50 metres of the rogue device. It’s a loophole that Vodafone has now closed, which – again – is likely to be a disappointment to the criminally inclined.

It’s also been a busy week in app-land. Apple’s lawyers have told independent application store GetJar to stop using the term ‘app store’; a move that’s seen GetJar respond with the online equivalent of thumbing its nose. PayPal has said it’s preparing a peer-to-peer NFC solution that’ll let people pay money to friends by touching two phones against each other. Electronic Arts has announced an agreement to acquire PopCap Games, the company behind Plants vs Zombies and Bejeweled. Handmark is turning its social apps business and mobile ad services group into a new company. And Google is giving the Android Market a facelift.

Manufacturing has had a mixed week, with Sony Ericsson reporting quarterly results that weren’t as good as originally expected, while an up-beat ZTE has revealed plans for selling own-brand devices in the UK. In addition, HTC created a new global sales and marketing role for Jason Mackenzie, who’s currently president of HTC North America and Latin America.

Finally, to innovation. O2 UK launched a new location-based offers scheme called Priority Moments; potentially a threat to Groupon and to Orange Wednesdays. And Jawbone – a company best-known for its range of stylish noise-reducing Bluetooth headsets – announced mobile-connected jewellery that'll keep an eye on your health. Let’s hope no-one works out how to hack the data it collects... or we could have a new tabloid scandal on our hands!


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Opinion Articles

Last week at The Fonecast: 4th March 2013

What happened at Mobile World Congress?

Mark Bridge writes:

We’re back from Mobile World Congress – and what a show it was. Located at a new site that saw more visitors than ever before, the show had everything… except any particularly obvious theme from hardware manufacturers. Last year was the year of the quad-core smartphone, this year there was plenty of incremental innovation but nothing truly startling.

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Cell phone use increasing pedestrian danger

Faiza Elmasry of voanews.com writes:

Teenagers are often warned against texting on their cell phones while they are behind the wheel of a car, since distracted driving can lead to serious automobile accidents.

Many teens, however, are not aware that distracted walking can be just as dangerous.

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Mobile phone shopping tips from Mark Bridge on Britain's Secret Shoppers

Mark Bridge writes:

I like a challenge. I like learning. Ask me to do a spot of research and I’ll happily pore over books, trawl the internet and have lengthy conversations into the night.

So I was more than happy to help when Optomen Television, the company behind “Britain’s Secret Shoppers” on Channel 4, asked me for a few tips that would help viewers get a good deal on a mobile phone.

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What's wrong with Android?

What's wrong with Android?

and why 2.3 is still the most popular version

James Rosewell writes:

8 months ago I moved my main smartphone from Android to Windows Phone. I had entered a simpler world. There were less applications, no tethering option, voice dictation sucked and I couldn’t get a multi-SIM device. But overall I survived.

Then I started travelling more. I moved back to Android a few weeks ago... and what a disappointment.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 18th February 2013

There's only one MWC...

Mark Bridge writes:

As the final days before this year’s Mobile World Congress approach, we discover there are two types of scheduled news announcements from the wireless telecoms industry.

There are the announcements delayed until MWC begins because the company wants to be part of the buzz at Barcelona. And there are the announcements made in the fortnight beforehand because they don’t want their story to get lost.

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We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

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