John George, whose chain of JAG mobile phone shops was founded in 1989, has decided to step down from managing his company. He recently agreed to combine his business with rival Go Mobile, run by Iain Humphrey, and planned to manage the merged retail operation while Iain Humphrey handled distribution. However, he now says it's more cost-effective to put all head office operations through Iain Humphrey’s business.

This week's Carnival of the Mobilists – the best mobile blogging (and podcasting!) of the last seven days – is online at Tam Hanna's new TamsBada site. As always, you'll find a wide variety of mobile-related subjects and discussions.

Research in Motion is currently working to resolve the Indian government's concerns about the encryption on BlackBerry devices. The government has said BlackBerry email and instant messaging services will need to be shut down is no acceptable solution is reached by 31st August. It's reported that a concession with BlackBerry Messenger has already been reached between RIM and government officials.

Business computing company Oracle has filed a legal complaint against Google for patent and copyright infringement. It centres on Google's use of Java software. Oracle took control of Java when it bought Sun Microsystems a few months ago.

A study presented at WOOT 10 – the 4th USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies – warns that it's relatively straightforward to identify passwords from smudges on touchscreen mobile phones. 'Smudge Attacks on Smartphone Touch Screens' was presented by researchers from the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania.