The Inquirer

Silver Talkers drive up photo messaging usage

Tony Dennis — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:42:00 GMT

Tony Dennis the Inquirer, Tuesday 8 July 2008. 16:30:00

And here's one of me on vacation in London, England

PHOTO MESSAGING seems to have taken off at last and it's the Silver Talkers who are driving the change. Their offspring must have helped them get MMS to work on their mobile phones. According to figures just released by the succinctly named Comscore M:metrics, in the European market the strongest growth in users of photo messaging/MMS is coming from those aged 55 years or over. In the States, Silver Talkers are obviously much younger because the highest growth was in the 45 to 54 years old bracket. However, more Europeans own camera-equipped phones than their American cousins. The percentage is 66 per cent in the States compared with 78 per cent in Europe....

Iphone sold out in Blighty

Dean Pullen — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:53:17 GMT

Dean Pullen the Inquirer, Monday 7 July 2008. 18:40:00

Amid much consumer frustration

THOUGH THE INQ had no problems ordering its 3G Iphone this morning at 8am from O2, it seems many readers suffered. A barrage of emails and comments from readers suggested that, in particular, the upgrade process for existing O2 users was filled with problems. Upgrading or not, at various points during the day the site went completely down. Even during customer transactions, according to reader reports. One reader wrote in with the following: "Just 2 hours after release, or...at normal getting up time for bums known as students the o2 site is down and the telephone number they provide plays a lovely message of 'you can only buy the Iphone online' and then hangs up." Users wishing to get the device online are now completely out of luck....

Palm OS utilties may harm your computer

Fernando Cassia — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:01:11 GMT

Fernando Cassia the Inquirer, Monday 7 July 2008. 14:46:00

Google pronounces PalmSource unclean

SEARCH GIANT Google is flagging the remnants of a Palm OS software guide as "dangerous" for your computer. The "This site may harm your computer" warning comes attached to almost all results on the applications.palmsource.com web site which is still indexed by Google despite the fact that Access software has stopped using that domain some time ago. We found this odd situation while looking for utilities for the Palm Centro smart phone, and as you might imagine, this doesn't give users a warm fuzzy feeling. As thing stands right now, besides seeing this ominous warning attached to each Google search result, when you click on each URL you are sent to an interceptor web page like this one which reads: "Warning - visiting this web site may harm your computer!"....

PSP Phone specs found (wanting)

Stewart Meagher — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:12:10 GMT

Stewart Meagher the Inquirer, Monday 7 July 2008. 12:46:00

We smell fakery

A NUMBER OF LESSER tech websites than the venerable and always honest INQUIRER are touting what looks like a white paper spec sheet for the much-rumoured PSP phone. The white paper, which some describe as "a scan" when it is obviously a screen grab (invisible characters, like carriage returns and tabs, are clearly... erm... visible) suggests that the fabled phone will be a Sony Ericsson joint venture and will maintain full PSP functionality as well as a few other new tricks... like making phone calls, obviously. The phrase 'Rotate the screen to turn into a PSP console' appears. The word 'console' here could be a clue to the document's provenance as official Sony documentation rarely, if ever, uses 'console' when referring to the PSP (try Googling 'PSP console' there's not a single official PSP result in the first four pages)....

Study finds it's safer to talk on the phone while driving

Tony Dennis — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:34:48 GMT

Tony Dennis the Inquirer, Monday 7 July 2008. 10:12:00

Texting is a bit dodgy though

WHILE POLITICIANS have a nasty habit of working from gut feeling, speech specialist - Nuance - bothered to commission a study of in-car driver distraction. Astonishingly, the study found that it is safer to be placing a call using voice dialling while driving than it is to be bowling along doing nothing. According to Fatima Vital, marketing manager with Nuance, that is because driving along doing nothing is tedious but if you give the brain another simple task to perform, then it's easier to concentrate on your driving. The study on in-car distraction was commissioned from the Technical University of Brunswick in Germany....

Sat nav tracks your every move

Tony Dennis — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:12:08 GMT

Tony Dennis the Inquirer, Monday 7 July 2008. 08:09:00

Forensic plod know where you've been

CRIMINALS MAY be forced to eat their satellite navigation (sat nav) devices to prevent incriminating data ending up in police hands. According to experts, most satnav units retain hundreds of records relating to previous journeys. This data cannot only place criminals at the scene of the crime, but it can also reveal where they've hidden the stash and from where they picked up their partners in crime. Better still, such data could be used in conjunction with evidence from their mobile phones, such as CellID, to disprove a crooks denials that they have ever been near the crime scene. A data specialist with the UK's Metropolitan Police, Mark Stokes, told the Torygraph that officers now routinely seize satnav devices when arresting suspects....

Iphone costs $173 to build

Stewart Meagher — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Stewart Meagher , Wednesday 25 June 2008. 09:42:00

Where's the profit, Steve?

THE SECOND COMING of the saviour of mobile telecommunications, the Apple Iphone G3, costs $173 to make in parts and assembly costs alone. And that doesn't include R&D costs, software development, packaging, accessories or haulage. The teardown, published by research outfit Isuppli, is an estimated Bill of Materials (BOM) for the 8GB version of the handset, and lends even more credence to the assumption that airtime providers will be heavily subsidising the cost of the handset to end users. So if you fancy getting yourself down to Maplin's (or Radio Shack for our colonial chums) and cobbling together a home-made Iphone for yourself, here's your shopping list....

UK Iphone early registration rumours denied

Stewart Meagher — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Stewart Meagher , Wednesday 25 June 2008. 10:49:00

You'll just have to wait

RUMOURS ARE RIFE that eager UK Apple fans will be able to pre-register and complete contractual paperwork ten days before the launch of the impending Holy Handset of Cupertino. Apple Insider and Pocket Lint have both posted reports about a mystery Midlands shopper who apparently managed to wheedle some top secret info out of a hapless employee. Here's what John Partridge had to say in his forum posting in full: Hello all, Just thought id report back on what I was told today. I visited an o2 Store in the midlands, to enquire about the UK launch, and if there would be accessories available to purchase on launch....

Helio and Virgin Mobile merger on the cards

Tony Dennis — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Tony Dennis , Wednesday 25 June 2008. 11:33:00

Doesn't mean MVNO model is dead

RUMOURS HAVE resurfaced that Virgin Mobile USA will swallow SK Telecom's Helio, causing some analysts to doubt the viability of MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators). The INQ would argue that it's just another sign that the US cellular industry is consolidating. MVNOs seem to work quite well in the UK, for example. In a recent UK customer satisfaction survey from JD Power, two MVNOs came out on top - Tesco Mobile and Virgin Mobile UK. There's considerable synergy between Helio (a joint venture between Korea's SK Telecom and US ISP Earthlink) and Virgin Mobile USA because both piggyback on Sprint's Cdmaone based network....

Imagination Technologies talks up DAB

Tony Dennis — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Tony Dennis , Thursday 26 June 2008. 13:06:00

Expect more DAB chips inside handsets

ON THE back of growth in its technology business which it claims was over three times the average of the IP industry as a whole, Imagination Technologies' CEO, Hossein Yassaie, has been bigging up the prospects for DAB (digital audio broadcasting). Yassaie was quoted as saying that "DAB is a train going in one direction and it's going at a good speed. The DAB market is here to stay." He said that media reports it was in trouble were "completely overplayed. They couldn't be further off the truth." It named mobile phones, MP3-style music players and even dedicated personal navigation devices as candidates for its DAB chips....

Telegent insists mobile free-to-air TV is good thing

Tony Dennis — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Tony Dennis , Thursday 26 June 2008. 17:46:00

Uphill struggle to convince European operators

TELEGENT, THE free-to-air TV chip supplier for mobile phones swears that allowing consumers to watch TV on their handsets for free will boost operator revenues. Yun Weijie, CEO with Telegent, compared the situation to building an FM radio facility inside mobile phones. He cites data supplied by KDDI in Japan that showed those who listen to FM on their phones provide a 15 per cent increase in ARPU (average revenue for user). He also argues research has shown that when consumers are watching TV for free on their phones, the frequency of viewing increase from three to five times per week compared to those who have to pay to watch....

EU wants to cut cost of mobile calls

Tony Dennis — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Tony Dennis , Friday 27 June 2008. 09:59:00

Viviane Reding up to her usual tricks

THE AMOUNT that telecoms operators charge for connecting each others' mobile phone calls is set to fall drastically thanks to guidelines just published by the European Commission. EU Telecoms commissioner, Viviane Reding, has been threatening to do something about this for some time to iron out inconsistencies across the EU. It should cut the cost of calling other mobile phone networks. Hence it will make Reding popular with consumers once again. The proposed reduction in MTRs (Mobile Termination Rates) has been calculated as a drop of about 70 per cent. It would bring the cost of connecting the call drown from €5.2 to 11.6 cents per minute to more like €1.5 to 2.5 cents....

Verizon chief disses the Duke of Cupertino

Tony Dennis — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Tony Dennis , Friday 27 June 2008. 10:05:00

How to win friends and influence people

PERHAPS IVAN Seidenberg, boss of Verizon Wireless is the States, is cheesed off that Apple hasn't produced a Cdmaone version of its Iphone. He's made some very disparaging remarks about Duke Jobs of Cupertino in an interview with the FT. His most cutting remark was to say that while the Iphone is cool, "Steve Jobs eventually will get old." His major gripe appears to be that Apple has been credited with "turning the mobile internet into a user-friendly reality", when it actually has a miniscule share of the global handset market. He also doesn't reckon that Jobs' capitulation to operator demands that they can subsidise the 3G Iphone will help turn the handset into a mass-market device....

Sony Ericsson blames component shortages for poor results

Tony Dennis — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Tony Dennis , Saturday 28 June 2008. 12:30:00

Again

FOR THE second time this year, Sony Ericsson has blamed component shortages for disappointing handset sales in a quarter. It has also pointed the finger at increased R&D costs. Strange, then, that company spokesperson, Aldo Liguori, admitted that only a handful of new handsets hard started shipping and at the end of the period, too. Plus the company said it was concentrating on updating existing products. And R&D costs still rose. Given that back in March Sony Ericsson had said that, "certain component shortages for popular mid-priced phones" were the cause of lower than expected sales," the company still doesn't seem to have sorted the problem....

Oz company nicks UK cop contract

Tony Dennis — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Tony Dennis , Monday 30 June 2008. 13:41:00

Airwaves caught by the fuzz

AIRWAVE - which is ultimately owned by Australia's Macquarie investments - has just won the right to supply UK Bobbies with wireless PDAs so that they can access the Police National Computer on the beat. The deal is part of efforts by UK agency, the National Policing Improvement Agency, to put data terminals in the hands of 10,000 'frontline' police officers by October 2008. In order to do so there's some £50 million in funding up for grabs. Now that Airwave's offering - officially described as the Airwave Acceleration Package - has been 'officially approved' by the NPIA, that should make it easier for UK police forces to get their hands on the funding and therefore the gear....

Warner joins Nokia's music download service

INQUIRER Newsdesk — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

INQUIRER Newsdesk , Tuesday 1 July 2008. 09:48:00

Tune in

FINNISH PHONE FIRM, Nokia said it has signed up Warner Music Group to its music delivery service. The service, dubbed Nokia Comes With Music, will allow Nokia customers to download unlimited numbers of tunes on to their handsets for a year. Customers will be able to keep the downloaded music after the free year expires, the firm said. Warner joins the Universal Music Group International and Sony BMG, on Nokia's playlist. The phone maker said it is in discussion to sign up more labels to the service, which is expected to be launched later this year. µ

Dial-a-royal scheme hatched

Tony Dennis — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Tony Dennis , Tuesday 1 July 2008. 13:23:00

One is waiting for your call

ACCORDING TO a report in British tabloid, News of the World, Queen Elizabeth II of England contemplated using premium rate phone-in lines to raise money. The INQ, however, has been unable to trace any premium rate supplier who has been approached about setting up such a service. An alleged royal source told the News of the World, "The phone-in idea was first born when we were looking at ways to raise cash for the Queen Mother Memorial. Then it was thought it could foot the bill for palace repairs, too." Apparently, there were several possibilities for making the dial-a-royal scheme work....

Mobile phone users are all fingers and thumbs

Sylvie Barak — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Sylvie Barak , Wednesday 2 July 2008. 13:34:00

Correctional software tips up

SOFTWARE ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED to help disabled PC users can be used to quickly correct the type of errors we all make on our mobile phones, apparently. Boffins at Manchester Uni reckon that when people use mobile phones, they tend to make the same or similar mistakes made by physically handicapped computer users. Pressing the wrong keys, pressing the same key repeatedly by mistake, clicking the screen multiple times in error and making mistakes when trying to drag and drop information are all things mobile users and handicapped PC users have in common apparently, although plenty of bureaucrats - especially in government offices - seem to fit the bill too....

Nokia's mobile music service threatens all comers

Tony Dennis — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Tony Dennis , Wednesday 2 July 2008. 13:44:00

Analysis Serious competition for likes of Vodafone

WITH THE CONCLUSION of deal with Warner Music phone giant Nokia has moved one step closer to achieving its objective of offering a comprehensive music download service to handset purchasers. The only major supplier left unsigned is EMI. Once Nokia has signed EMI, its 'Comes with Music' service will become a serious contender in the digital music download stakes. Observers constantly compare any new music offering with Apple's Itunes facility but this development is more subtle. Once all four labels are signed up, Nokia will become a direct competitor with its own customerbase - the network operators. There are other possible repercussions, too....

Green light for Nokia's Navteq acquisition

Tony Dennis — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Tony Dennis , Thursday 3 July 2008. 10:04:00

GPS provides another Google Vs Nokia scrap

AHEAD OF its own deadline [8th August], the EU has given the green light to Nokia's acquisition of GPS and maps expert, Navteq. Since Navteq is a US based company, the tie-up was previously approved by US authorities last December. Given that the EU has recently given Dutch firm, Tomtom, the go-ahead to buy the only other major digital map supplier, Tele Atlas, the green light is no big surprise. Talking of Tele Atlas, this week Google signed a new five-year contract with the company to continue using its digital maps. Most people will naturally think the main benefit will be for people using Google Maps....

India says Crackberries are okay after all

Egan Orion — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Egan Orion , Thursday 3 July 2008. 10:39:00

Not a terrorist threat, then

AN INDIAN OFFICIAL said Wednesday that Blackberry PDAs don't pose a threat to the country's national security, resolving concerns previously raised by its security agencies. "People are buying Blackberry. There is no threat from Blackberry services," India's telecommunications secretary Siddhartha Behura stated. "They do not have to seek our permission to start any service." His remarks were made at a telecom industry meeting, according to Press Trust of India. In March, India had threatened to ban the Blackberry email and personal organiser devices built by Canadian firm Research in Motion (RIM) and forbid Indian telecom companies from offering the service unless security agencies' capabilities to intercept the communications could be confirmed....

Huawei's handset figures emerge

Tony Dennis — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Tony Dennis , Thursday 3 July 2008. 10:53:00

Large chunk of Chinese maker's revenues

IT APPEARS that private equity groups are licking their lips at getting their collective teeth into a chunk of Huawei's mobile devices division. As a result, figures relating to the company's operations - which are normally secret - are leaking out. For example, in 2007 this division represented 16.4 per cent of the whole company's revenues compared to just 11.8 per cent in 2008. The whole division is worth about $4 billion. Officially, the Huawei division makes modems, terminals, wireless internet cards and handsets, but the handset actually account for around 50 per cent of the division's total sales. So that's 8.2 per cent of total Huawei sales....

Vodafone buys into Ghana

Tony Dennis — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Tony Dennis , Thursday 3 July 2008. 17:41:00

Forget the SA spring board (or is that bok?)

NEVER MIND waiting to get a controlling interest in South Africa's Vodacom as a bridgehead into Africa, Vodafone has just gone ahead and bought a majority stake in Ghana Telcom. Reports say that it has agreed to purchase a 70 per cent stake in Ghana Telecommunications Company for $900 million from the Ghanaian government. It makes sense since Vodafone claims the company's revenue from emerging markets soared by 45 per cent to £9.35 billion while European sales increased a mere 6.1 per cent. But that's still £26.1 billion worth. Vodafone's Arun Sarin, whose still in the driving seat [only just], apparently said, "Ghana is one of the most attractive markets in Africa with mobile subscribers growing at more than 55 per cent per annum and mobile penetration at around 35 per cent." Ghana Telcom is apparently the country's third largest mobile phone operator so Vodafone is obviously hoping to use its muscle to get the newly-acquired operator up the ladder....

Groupsense Palm OS phones quietly pass away

Fernando Cassia — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Fernando Cassia , Thursday 3 July 2008. 21:23:00

Replaced by a single, naff Linux one

ASIAN FIRM Groupsense - or GSPDA for short - long known for its attractive yet poorly promoted and distributed Palm OS smartphones has replaced its offerings for a single yet uninspiring Linux based "PDA phone". We wrote some time ago about this Asian firm and its line of then-promising Palm OS smartphones. We even tested the Xplore M98 and found much to like about it, despite the poor plastic quality. The firm's previous PalmOS based line-up The firm's latest offerings This scribbler has always thought there is room - and the Centro's success proves that perhaps there still is - for a clamshell PalmOS based phone, properly marketed and promoted by Palm itself....

Afro-Asian mega mobile operator looks doomed

Tony Dennis — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:21:02 GMT

Tony Dennis , Friday 4 July 2008. 12:16:00

Reliance unlikely to merge with MTN

HIGH HOPES of a deal between India's Reliance Communications and Africa's MTN have been dashed by recent events. It's quite feasible that MTN might pull the plug on the deal entirely. The first problem is a legal wrangle between the two brothers than inherited the Reliance empire. Eldest brother Mukesh Ambani kept Reliance Industries while younger brother, Anil, got the mobile side which was spun out as Reliance Communications. Now Mukesh is saying that if Anil wants to sell out of the mobile business, he's got first right of refusal. Naturally, Reliance Communications claims that no such legally binding agreement exists....