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Sunday, September 11, 2011

This week at The Fonecast: 11th September 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

Welcome to this week's news summary from The Fonecast. Sorry it's late but I have a reasonably good excuse. On Friday I was in central London to meet Hans Eriksson of Bambuser. He was about to stream his life online for 24 hours, relying on social networking to find him off-beat attractions. You'll find our conversation on TheFonecast.com – and the results are at bambuserchallenge.tumblr.com

Anyway, to the rest of the week's news… and I’ll start with some international giants.

Yahoo! has ditched CEO Carol Bartz and has replaced her with current Chief Financial Officer Timothy Morse until a permanent chief executive is appointed. You won’t be surprised to learn that Carol’s unhappy.

Also in the USA, Google has acquired the Zagat Survey restaurant guide business. This may or may not be a big deal for the mobile industry, depending on what happens next.

And Twitter has reached 100 million active users worldwide, with 55 million of them using Twitter on mobile devices.

In the world of network operations, Vodafone has created an R&D centre in Silicon Valley, the O2 More mobile advertising service has acquired six million opted-in users, Everything Everywhere says it’ll upgrade mobile TV for its customers, Orange has introduced a mobile music streaming service, Telefónica is creating a new London-based Digital business unit and Three UK has been feeling a bit left out when it comes to mobile payments.

Meanwhile, mobile manufacturing appears to be dominated by legal issues at the moment. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 remains banned from sale in Germany, while HTC has bought a number of patents from Google and is using them to fight Apple.

But it’s not all conflict. Microsoft has persuaded Acer and ViewSonic to license its patents, thereby covering their use of Android. And the software giant has promised that it won’t be long before Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint find their way into Symbian Belle. (Which raises two questions: What has Android got to do with Microsoft? – and why would I buy a Windows Phone device if I can upgrade my old Nokia instead?)

When you’ve answered those, I’ll challenge you with one final question. If you wanted to promote a “light-hearted, positive and contemporary image of Christianity relevant to the Easter weekend”, what would you do?

The answer, if you’re Phones 4U, is that you’d create a cartoon of Jesus Christ and His Sacred Heart. You’d make sure it portrayed the Son of God winking and giving the thumbs-up sign – and you’d use it to advertise “Miraculous deals”.

This week the Advertising Standards Authority upheld a number of complaints against the ad, noting that it was likely to cause serious offence. Phones 4U has apologised and said it has no plans to run the ads again. Mind you, they’ve not specifically ruled out using other religious figures.

Stay ahead of the crowd by receiving this weekly news summary from TheFonecast.com by email. Simply click the ‘register’ link at the top right-hand corner of our website and enter your details.

If you use an iPod, iPhone or iPad - or you’re simply a fan of iTunes - it’s easy to find our weekly mobile industry podcasts. Click here to subscribe... or search for ‘The Fonecast’ in the iTunes store.
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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.

Author: The Fonecast
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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.

Author: The Fonecast
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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.

Author: The Fonecast
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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

Author: The Fonecast
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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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