Satellite navigation company Garmin has warned mobile phone users about the 'hidden' costs of using smartphone sat-nav services that download maps over the mobile internet. They've calculated that users can end up with a phone bill more expensive than the cost of the fuel used for their journey.

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.

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has just published Mobile Access 2010; a report that looks at wireless internet use in the USA.

It says as of May 2010, 59% of all adult Americans use their laptops or mobile phones to go online wirelessly – either via WiFi or a mobile broadband card.

The percentage of people using their phones to browse the mobile web is up from 25% last year to 38% this year. 34% have used their mobiles for email – also up from 25% last year – with gaming, instant messaging and texting all showing increases as well.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has formally adopted Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0, which incorporates low energy technology. This means that low-power Bluetooth devices are likely to be available by the end of 2010.

Bluetooth low energy technology enables small battery-powered Bluetooth devices – such as healthcare and sports sensors – to communicate with Bluetooth-equipped mobile phones. These devices will be able to run for years on standard coin-cell batteries; a feat that existing Bluetooth devices are incapable of achieving.