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Saturday, July 9, 2011

This week at The Fonecast: 9th July 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

Roaming charges are back in the news this week. Not the latest round of price cuts (or, to be technically correct, lower price caps) but the European Commission’s plans for the future. As well as continuing the downward pricing trend for a few more years, Neelie Kroes also wants wholesale interconnection at capped rates and the option of a separate ‘roaming contract’ when you travel abroad.

The European Parliament needs to vote before this becomes law… but I wouldn’t like to bet against it. Certainly not the price reductions, anyway.

Talking of money, eBay is splashing out around $240 million to pick up mobile payment company Zong. It looks like we’ll see Zong’s direct carrier billing – adding purchases to your mobile phone bill – being incorporated with PayPal’s services. Yet another reason for shopping by mobile – and a further explanation of why the mobile payments market is expected to almost treble in value by 2015.

It’s been a mixed week for Three UK. The company has followed Vodafone’s example by partnering with an application store, choosing Ovi rather than Vodafone’s Android deal – but it’s also had another run-in with the Advertising Standards Authority. Once again, giffgaff came out on top. Victory for the smaller guy (and no sign of a broken toe).

On the subject of virtual networks, it’s been reported that Lebara could be sold or floated on the stock exchange. Sticking with the subject of takeovers, HTC is acquiring graphics technology company S3 Graphics (and its patent collection) for $300 million. And while we’re discussing handset manufacturers, Nathan Vautier is expected to leave his role as MD of Sony Ericsson UK and Ireland in the next few months.

Finally, in a week when voicemail hacking has been all over the media (to varying degrees), it seems somehow appropriate to end with a report about overheard conversations. A study from Intel says talking too loudly on a mobile phone in public is the worst breach of mobile manners, coming ahead of texting during a date or using your laptop at dinner. Smoking and swearing were deemed the most inappropriate behaviour for public spaces, with those mobile phone conversations in third place overall. Shhh!


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Opinion Articles

CES Unveiled at London: the future's looking pretty bright

Mark Bridge writes:

The 2012 International CES is expected to be the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow. It runs from 10th to the 13th of January in Las Vegas next year and will contain technology from more than 2,700 companies spread over a record-breaking 1.8 million square feet of exhibition space.

Yesterday I saw a preview of what’s expected there – and all without leaving the UK. Instead I headed to a conference centre where the first-ever ‘CES Unveiled at London’ event took place.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 14th November 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

Flash is dead, HTML5 is the future. Okay, the next stage in the evolution of the mobile browser isn’t that clear – but a restructure at Adobe has pretty much marked the end of mobile Flash development.

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McAfee's top five tips for avoiding malicious mobile apps

Mark Bridge writes:

Mobile security - as I’ve said several times in the last few months - is becoming a hot topic. Although the number of mobile viruses and malicious applications is relatively small when compared with attacks on PCs, it’s on the increase.

Last week we talked to Eddy Willems, Security Evangelist at G Data, about the security risks facing smartphone users... and in the last 12 months we’ve also spoken to David Emm of Kaspersky Lab UK and Craig Heath from Franklin Heath about similar subjects.

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One day, every phone will be smart - and every tablet will be super

Mark Bridge writes:

We’ve previously talked on The Fonecast about ‘superphones’ - a relatively arbitrary description for high-end smartphones. Google described its Nexus One as a superphone when it was launched at the beginning of 2010 - although it’s also what Dr Who’s companion called her upgraded Nokia 3200 in 2005.

Now Strategy Analytics has a definition and a growth forecast.

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Mobile malware: 'criminals are experimenting at the moment'

Mark Bridge writes:

This week’s podcast feature takes a fresh look at security on mobile phones. I’ve been talking to Eddy Willems, Security Evangelist at G Data, about the challenges and solutions facing smartphone users. Both Eddy and his current employer have been active in digital security for a couple of decades, so there’s plenty of experience under their respective belts.

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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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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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