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Sunday, November 13, 2011

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.

Let’s get the rest of the week’s bad news out the way now. It seems Best Buy UK couldn’t convince enough people that its products were… well… best buys. That’s one suggestion after Best Buy Europe announced plans to close its eleven so-called ‘Big Box’ stores in the UK. Most staff are expected to be offered roles within The Carphone Warehouse – and we’ll see the Best Buy brand in some of those shops as well.

The Motorola Defy isn’t as tough as the company suggests, according to the Advertising Standards Authority. O2 UK isn’t selling the Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone handset in its shops. And applications from Apple’s App Store aren’t necessarily as safe as you might think.

Bad news also came for Nigel Cranswick, who was arrested after attempting the UK’s largest VAT fraud. Some might suggest that claiming a start-up turnover of almost £100 million per week was a bit of a giveaway.

Doing its best to give the UK an enthusiastic kick up the backside was eBay, which published a mobile manifesto in a bid to boost economic recovery. Equally enthusiastic about new technology was Bromley FC; it persuaded its footballers to have QR Codes shaved into their hair.

Huawei was another company coming high in the enthusiasm stakes, having announced plans for a European design centre in London – and Sir Richard Branson was announced as one of the new investors in mobile payment company Square Inc, although neither he nor Square has revealed the amount of investment involved.

I started by talking about HTML5 – and that’s where I’ll finish. Our feature report on Monday last week saw me talking to Carsten Mickeleit, the CEO of Cortado, about a new HTML5 client that offers desktop-type document access on a variety of mobile devices. Is HTML5 the future?  On the basis of what we’ve seen in the past few days, it’s certainly a big part of it.

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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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