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Friday, March 4, 2011

This week at The Fonecast: 5th March 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s hardly worth mentioning the new iPad, is it? Not because I’m unimpressed – although I’d describe it as more of an upgrade than a brand-new product – but because everyone else has been talking about it so much. And we’ll be doing some more talking in Wednesday’s podcast, so let’s move on!

Until the launch of iPad 2, the hot topic in the UK involved the disappearance of Vodafone’s network in the south of England. A very literal disappearance; equipment was stolen from the company’s Basingstoke exchange after it was ram-raided. Voice and text services were back online around 12 hours later, which – depending on your perspective – was either pretty impressive or disappointingly slow.

Other bad news this week came from the Android Market, where more than 50 applications were waiting to steal your personal data. They’ve all gone now, thanks to prompt action from Google – although, as many have pointed out, it’s unlikely this would have ever happened in the Apple App Store.

In cheerier news, mobile ticket technology company Masabi says the mobile rail ticket application it developed for thetrainline.com now works on most smartphones and feature phones. The next step is the creation of on-screen tickets… just as soon as rail operators start supporting this feature. It seems the ‘mobile wallet’ really is getting closer.

That’s certainly the impression James and I gained at Mobile World Congress last month. In this week’s podcast we talked about the mobile payment and m-commerce products that were on show – and there’s an interview with Mary Carol Harris of Visa Europe.

From mobile-connected credit cards to mobile-connected air conditioning. A partnership between Vodafone and Bosch plans to make it easier for companies to deploy M2M (or ‘machine-to-machine’ connections, for those who prefer real words). Apparently lifts, escalators and air-con units could soon come with their own SIM card.

Other partnerships in the news included Motorola Mobility investing in mobile game developer Moblyng, Facebook acquiring mobile messaging service Beluga, Nokia and the Vietnamese government, Opera and INQ – and Qualcomm and Gameloft.

But perhaps I’m wasting my time telling you all this. After all, it’s the National Day of Unplugging on Saturday. Haven’t you switched off yet?


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Opinion Articles

Last week at The Fonecast: 28th November 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

The really big news last week wasn’t good: 17,000 jobs worldwide are being lost at Nokia Siemens Networks (which, incidentally, is a separate company from both Nokia and Siemens). That’s not far short of a quarter of the total workforce. The company is going to focus on mobile network infrastructure and services, with a particular emphasis on mobile broadband, and is likely to sell off other parts of the business.

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Shared data tariffs, bill shock, net neutrality and mobile traffic management

Mark Bridge writes:

Today’s mobile phone customers want more and more mobile data, which is stretching network capacity. In addition, many of those consumers would rather not be committed to a limit; they’d rather have a mobile internet tariff that is (or appears to be) unlimited. This puts even more pressure on mobile networks.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 21st November 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

Having read some of last week’s headlines, you might think the UK’s Communication Ombudsman has told mobile phone networks not to describe their data tariffs as ‘unlimited’ unless they really are. However, what’s actually happened is that one of the UK’s communication ombudsmen (ombudspeople?) has asked mobile operators to be clear about any limits, to stop unexpectedly high bills from building up and to tell customers before they exceed any limit. Better than nothing but hardly earth-shattering.

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Top 5 Productivity Apps for Business Owners

Ruben Corbo writes:

As a business owner, you know that being out of the office can cost you customers and productivity. However, in this digital age being out of the office doesn’t mean that you have to be away from your business. By downloading apps specifically for business, you can be productive from anywhere. Here are my top 5 apps for mobile business productivity.

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Enterprise user, you are the weakest link...

Mark Bridge writes:

Any security process is only as strong as the weakest link. That’s something of a truism. And for many organisations, the weak link is most likely to occur when information leaves the office. Which means it’s often caused by the user’s mobile phone or the user themselves.

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Reviewing our 2015 mobile industry predictions... and looking forward to 2016

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Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

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Podcast from Mobile World Congress 2015

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Looking back at February: from security scares to multiple MVNOs

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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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Interview with Chris Millington of Doro about mobile retailing, wearables and technology for older consumers

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In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

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A month of mobile: O2 counts on 3, Microsoft counts to 10 and Apple counts its profits

Podcast - 30th January 2015

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.

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