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Saturday, August 20, 2011

This week at The Fonecast: 20th August 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

Welcome to this week’s UK mobile industry news summary from TheFonecast.com. After a week’s holiday on the scenic north coast of Norfolk, which not only lacks cellsites but also hills to put them on, it’s good to finally see the ‘3G’ indicator reappear on my phone. My week off may have been relatively quiet - but the last few days have more than made up for it.

On Monday, Google announced plans to acquire Motorola Mobility, the company formerly known as ‘the mobile bit of Motorola’. Google talked about supercharging Android and reinstated its commitment to openness, while all of Android’s major partners made upbeat noises - although the purchase seems as much a defensive move as the ‘natural fit’ Larry Page described.

We’d barely had time to think of some comically implausible hybrid names - Googorola, Motoroogle, maybe even Motorola-Droid - before being hit with a triple-whammy from HP. It was buying software giant Autonomy for somewhere around £7 billion. (Cue much punning about Autonomy losing its autonomy). It was calling time on the production of webOS devices. (Alas, poor Pre 3 and TouchPad). And it was looking at the possibility of moving its PC business into a separate company. The future of webOS as a platform hasn’t been decided, although I’d say it doesn’t look especially healthy.

After all that, the rest of the week’s news seems a bit insubstantial - even Peter Jones’s £35 million sale of machine-to-machine specialist Wireless Logic. Research In Motion announced a free online service to let small businesses manage their BlackBerry devices remotely . Phones 4u said it would be stocking Huawei’s own-brand Blaze and Vision smartphones in time for Christmas. And Nokia released its Symbian Anna OS update, marred slightly by a server problem that frustrated some users.

But it’s HP’s decision to abandon mobile devices - hot on the heels of Google’s decision to acquire mobile devices - that’s got everyone talking this week. We’ll certainly be doing our share of talking in Wednesday’s podcast.

If you own an iPod, iPhone or iPad - or you’re a regular user of iTunes - it’s easy to find our weekly mobile industry podcasts. Simply click here to subscribe... or search for ‘The Fonecast’ in the iTunes store. Alternatively, you can pick up the podcast from our RSS feed.

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Opinion Articles

Review: BeeWi BBS020 solar-powered hands-free Bluetooth car kit

Mark Bridge writes:

Persuading mobile phone users not to hold their phone when they’re driving should be a simple task. It’s dangerous, it’s against the law and the penalties include a fine plus points on your licence.

But even then, there’s often an excuse about convenience and usability. Some people don’t like wearing headsets, some don’t like wires and some simply forget to charge the batteries.

That’s why a new hands-free Bluetooth loudspeaker from French company BeeWi caught my eye.

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The simple case of the disguised iPhone 4

Mark Bridge writes:

I remember the launch of Carweek back in the 1990s. It was a motoring magazine produced as a weekly glossy newspaper; a novel format, although one that probably led to its demise. 'Spy shots' of prototype cars seemed then – as now – to be much sought-after, despite them often not showing much resemblance to the finished product. Indeed, I often wondered how you could possibly road-test the handling of a new car when it was covered with unflattering body parts that served to disguise its shape.

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Maria Sharapova and the 'geek porn' of unboxing

Mark Bridge writes:

'Unboxing' is - or was - the new geek porn. We know this because The Register told us so in 2006, when the practice of video recording the unpacking of new consumer electronics products started to become popular. Just over two years later The Independent tried to tell us that unboxing was still the new geek porn but, by then, conventional porn had probably returned to... er... pole position.

Why do I mention this?  Well, Sony Ericsson has just published its own unboxing video featuring tennis player, model, charity worker and Sony Ericsson brand ambassador Maria Sharapova.

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Scaremongering news stories? There's an app for that

Mark Bridge writes:

Here’s a news headline that caught my eye.

Shotgun certificate up for renewal?  There's an app for that

Or, if you prefer…

Police to allow gun users renew licences with iPhone app

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Mobile payments: solutions get dumber while cards get smarter?

Mark Bridge writes:

Last week I spotted a couple of mobile-related news stories that involved payment company MasterCard. One came from CPI Card Group, which had introduced a “next-generation, MasterCard-approved payment tag” (a.k.a. 'sticker') that enabled “any mobile device to be used to make payments anywhere using the worldwide contactless MasterCard PayPass standard” (by sticking it on the back).

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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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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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Author: The Fonecast
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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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