Mark Bridge writes:

Back in the 1960s, Hertz was the number one hire car company in the USA. Avis was trailing a long way behind. Looking for a new advertising campaign, CEO Robert Townsend spoke to Bill Bernbach - the ‘B’ in ad agency DDB - and a few months later “We try harder” became the Avis tagline.

“Avis is only No.2 in rent a cars” the headlines admitted. “We try harder. When you’re not the biggest, you have to.”

It’s a message I was reminded of when I met Andreas Bernström at Mobile World Congress last month. Andreas is CEO of Rebtel, the world’s second-largest mobile Voice-over-IP company. With Skype seen as market leader for VoIP services, I asked Andreas whether Rebtel also needed to try harder.

Mark Bridge writes:

The new iPad has a better screen. Higher-resolution. Clearer. High Definition. Just what everyone wants, right?

Apparently not.

UK virtual network giffgaff has suffered a major service outage today, with water damage to its computer network taking nearly 8 hours to fix.

Most services have now been restored, although new connections and inbound ports are currently delayed.

International payment service PayPal has launched a new service called PayPal Here, which allows small businesses to accept almost any form of payment. It includes a free app and free triangular card reader, turning any iPhone into a mobile payment device. An Android version is due in April.

The service has launched with a number of merchants in the United States, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong; general availability in those countries will follow next month.

Heroes of Emerging Markets is an interactive, intimate panel discussion that looks at the opportunities of doing mobile business in emerging markets.  The event took place on 28th February 2012 during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

We’ve recorded the entire event and have turned it into a podcast. You can listen on our desktop web site here, by downloading the MP3 audio file or by finding TheFonecast.com on iTunes.