Iain, James and Mark take their regular look at the UK's top mobile industry news stories. This week, Intel, Nokia, Ofcom, ZTE, Apple, Facebook and the City of London police are some of the organisations making the headlines.
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Social network Facebook has launched a mobile location service called Facebook Places. It enables users to 'check in' to a location using their mobile phone; this check-in then appears on their Facebook status. Facebook users at a venue can also choose to have their presence shared with other visitors if they wish.
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This year's Communications Market Report from telecomms regulator Ofcom has revealed a surge in smartphone ownership. In June 2010, 26.5% of people in the UK said they had a smartphone, more than double the number two years previously. Growth in the last 12 months was particularly strong, up 81% from 7.2 million users in May 2009 to 12.8 million in May 2010.
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Mark Bridge writes:
Mention 'anonymity' to anyone these days and it's pretty likely they'll start talking about Facebook. Maybe Google Street View, maybe RF chips in passports... but probably Facebook.
This 'over sharing' of personal information is a far cry from the situation a few years ago. Once, no-one on the internet really admitted who they were. That New Yorker cartoon - "Nobody knows you're a dog" - wasn't far off the truth. You couldn't tell a dungeonmaster from a librarian when they were online.
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Mobile phone comparison website Rightmobilephone.co.uk has been asking teenagers about their texting habits. 19% admitting having previously sent a text message to a 'random' mobile number, while 22% said they'd typed an obscene text message and sent it to someone in their contact list without checking who the recipient was.
42% of the random texters said they sent their SMS messages because they were bored. 31% said it was 'just for fun', 11% said it was due to loneliness and 9% were dared to do so. More than half – 54% – said they'd received a reply.
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