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Monday, May 12, 2014

Last week at The Fonecast: 12th May 2014

Feelin’ groufie

Mark Bridge writes:

Last week a major retailer with a significant online presence announced plans to release its own-brand smartphone by the end of the year. No, not Amazon. This news came from Tesco.

The supermarket said it’ll apply its Hudl brand – which was seen on many Android tablets at Christmas – to a new handset by the end of 2014. In addition, an updated Hudl 2 tablet is also expected this year.

Huawei had a new phone announcement of its own. The flagship Ascend P6 is being replaced by the Ascend P7, which will be equipped with an 8 megapixel front-facing camera. Apparently this is perfect for what Huawei describes as ‘groufies’: panoramic group selfies. You can tune into Wednesday’s podcast to hear how Iain Graham reacts to this word… although you’ll probably hear his cries of despair if you merely open your window.

Vodafone has been talking about two very different stories in the past few days. It’s added a loyalty card feature to its mobile wallet in Europe – although there’s still no sign of a UK release date – and it’s also committed to fixing its monthly subscription charges in line with Ofcom’s new guidance.

Sticking with money matters, BlackBerry has now agreed to sell much of its Canadian property portfolio, mobile payment provider iZettle has picked up £33 million in new funding and Nokia has announced a £59 million investment in connected cars.

Finally for now, we’re sending best wishes to Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee. Mr Lee is currently recovering after undergoing emergency heart surgery at the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul.

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. Alternatively, stay in touch by listening to our free podcasts via our website, by subscribing on iTunes, by using our RSS feed or by downloading the Stitcher.com mobile app.
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Opinion Articles

4G doesn't come to Three

Mark Bridge writes:

Earlier today, Three.co.uk published a blog post headlined “4G comes to Three”. But it hasn’t.

I spent most of this morning here at Mobile World Congress muttering about the blog before returning to it this afternoon. And suddenly it’s changed.

The blog post remains. The headline is completely different. Now we’re told “Three to launch leading edge 3G service”.

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How far does it go, mate?

Geoff Varrall of RTT writes:

About 15,000 years ago some indigenous Northern Australians decided that they needed a more efficient way of talking to each other than just shouting a lot.

And blowing into a long cylindrical tube proved to be just what was needed and seriously useful fun – the dawn of the didgeridoo.

Trumpets and bagpipes were invented at about the same time. The ancient Greeks used the trumpet in battlefield communication to devastating effect.

The way you can tell that your didgeridoo is better than everyone else’s didgeridoo is to blow into it and see how far the sound goes.

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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.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 13th February 2012

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s not been a good week for Nokia staff, with 4000 of them likely to lose their jobs from factories in Finland, Hungary and Mexico. The company says it’s moving device assembly to Asia, where it’ll be closer to component manufacturers. The three scaled-down factories will remain open with a new focus on smartphone customisation.

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Could a new legal framework for FRAND principles end the mobile patent wars in 2013?

Mark Bridge writes:

I’m not the first person to point out that mobile phone patent battles are raging all around us. They’ve been going on for years.

However, the topic of FRAND patents - those designated as ‘industry standards’ and therefore required to be licensed on Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory terms - has become an increasingly newsworthy topic.

In the last couple of weeks we’ve reported on an EC investigation into Samsung’s licensing of mobile patents and a Motorola/Apple legal battle that involves FRAND licensing.

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