The camel’s nose under Google’s tent

A trio of Apple filings seek to patent mobile-application “systems and methods” for travel and online shopping — and to move us three steps closer to a Google-free world.…

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(Source The Register)

* – offensive humor may vary

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion is preparing to launch an iPad competitor in November, and it will be called the BlackPad, according to a report citing two people familiar with the company’s plans.…

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(Source The Register)

Judas Phone ‘death grip’ proven fatal

More evidence has surfaced that Apple’s beleaguered Judas Phone does, indeed, have serious reception challenges — and today’s facts and figures come from a sophisticated source.…

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(Source The Register)

Independent tests carried out by PA Consulting Group have confirmed that
Apple’s iPhone 4 is more affected by the ‘death grip’ antenna problem than any
other smartphone on the market.

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(Source Yahoo UK News)

The mobile phone market is undergoing a shift, thanks in part to new market
entrants stealing attention from the “big five”, according to IDC’s latest
Mobile
Device Technology and Trends report.

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(Source Yahoo UK News)

Dismissed with a ‘non’ and a Gallic shrug

French network operator SFR is thumbing its nose at Apple by telling customers to think carefully before upgrading to iOS 4.…

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(Source The Register)

A Peel for your Apple

US wireless carrier Sprint is slated to offer a kind of handset sleeve that could provide 3G wireless access to an iPod Touch, the Apple iPhone that’s not a phone.…

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(Source The Register)

Where are we now?

iPhone 3G users who’ve upgraded to iOS 4 are discovering that the roaming switch isn’t working any more, for those on O2′s network at least.…

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(Source The Register)

Verizonites munch more

When AT&T’s wireless service buckles and chokes, defenders say that Big Phone’s infrastructure is being overloaded by iPhone users — but a new study shows that Josbian handheld owners’ data hunger is handily eclipsed by that of users of Verizon data plans.…

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(Source The Register)

Apple has announced that the iPhone 4 will be released in a further 17
countries on 30 July.

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(Source Yahoo UK News)

Apple has slated its iPhone 4 handset for release in 17 countries on Friday,
30 July.

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(Source Yahoo UK News)

Sales of Android phones have risen by more than 300% this year, new figures show

Sales of Android phones have risen by more than 300% from the beginning of 2010, with one in 10 contract handsets sold in the UK now running Google’s mobile operating system.

Android’s share of the UK mobile contract market grew by 10.2 percentage points from the first quarter of 2010 to the second quarter, from 3% to 13.2%, new figures from retail watcher GfK show.

From the beginning of 2010, most of the UK’s major mobile operators have started selling a number of hotly-anticipated mobile devices running Google’s Linux-based software. The HTC Desire and HTC Legend are among other devices lauded by critics.

Just last week, Samsung launched a direct marketing challenge to the Apple iPhone with its Android-powered Galaxy S device.

Many mobile operators were unable to keep up with demand for the HTC Desire when it launched in the UK in April this year. HTC, the Taiwanese manufacturer of many devices running Android, posted a 41% global sales increase for the first six months of 2010, with figures from April, May and June reflecting record sales, according to the company.

In the same period, mobile devices running “advanced” operating systems – defined as those able to run independent compatible applications – grew in the contract market from 55% to 66.7%. Figures available from June show mobiles with advanced operating systems now representing 73.5% of the contract market.

“The figures suggest an increasing number of consumers are now asking for Android handsets by name,” said GfK analyst Megan Baldock. “Operating systems are no longer simply a by-product but a key selling point in their own right.”

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(Source The Guardian)

MessagePad 120 – it didn’t suck

This Old Box  If any old-tech devotees are more rabid than Amiga amigos, the Newtonians are. So, for those lovers of Apple’s pioneering handheld, here’s an up-close-and-personal visual caressing of the Newton MessagePad 120, circa 1995.…

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(Source The Register)

Samsung has stepped up its marketing game against the Apple iPhone, sprinkling free Galaxy S devices across the twittersphere

Samsung is out with the stretchers, running full tilt towards the customer carnage left by antennagate. Yes, if you’re a disgruntled iPhoner, Samsung is coming for you.

Via Twitter and Facebook, Samsung is giving away (yes, literally giving away) its Galaxy S device, mostly to a “cross section” of customers reporting iPhone reception problems. And so comes the belated response to Apple chief executive Steve Jobs and his public dressing down of other devices – including the Samsung Omnia 2 – last week.

In a press statement, Samsung says: “Recently there has been a real increase in online activity from consumers dissatisfied with some of our competitors’ products.

“We decided to contact a cross section of individuals to offer them a free Samsung Galaxy S as a replacement, as we’re confident that once people have the phone in their hands, they’ll see how impressive it is for themselves.”

Samsung apparently started handing out the Android-powered devices ia Twitter on Wednesday.

Tiffany Nieuwland, Conde Nast digital marketing staffer, was among the first to be offered one after bemoaning the number of dropped calls she gets. Jose Espinosa, director of digital services at Connect Group, was next up for a Galaxy S in the post. And then DigitalNetwork, a London-based search and digital recruitment company.

You get the picture, right? Less a “cross section of customers reporting iPhone reception problems,” more of a cherry-picked bunch of digital influencers.

Will Critchlow, co-director of web marketing and development company Distilled, appears to have been the first recipient of the kindly offer. He received his no-strings Samsung phone this morning – with a handwritten courtesy note attached, no less.

“I asked my followers what phone I should get, a few people got back with various links, one of which I retweeted. It appears that’s the one Samsung picked up on,” Critchlow told us.

“We’re an office full of geeks here. It’s an effective strategy in terms of making me evangelise the phone. But will it make my followers buy one? Who knows. It ultimately comes down to how good the product is.”

Critchlow, an iPhone 3G owner, said he was relatively impressed with the Galaxy S (and you’d be forgiven for thinking they were the same phone, from the appearance), which is his first hands-on experience of Google’s Android software. (It runs the Android 2.1 software.)

Samsung kicked off its iPhone-bashing Galaxy S campaign with the below poster. But how long will it last? Bring on the side-by-side customer reviews, we say.

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(Source The Guardian)

Apple has announced that the white model of the iPhone 4 will not be released
in the near future.

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(Source Yahoo UK News)

Apple puts back releasing the white iPhone 4 until later this year, stating that it is more challenging to manufacturer than originally expected

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(Source Mobile News CWP)

Android stays paranoid

The BBC Trust has waved through a Beeb news app for Apple’s iPhone and iPad, just a few months after the Corporation’s governing body mulled whether development of the software could be justified.…

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(Source The Register)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple’s white iPhone 4 delayed

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(Source Yahoo UK News)

Mobile phone operator reports its first quarterly service revenue growth since the recession

Strong demand for mobile data has helped Vodafone increase its service revenues for the first time in 18 months, as its key markets recovered from recession.

Britain’s third-largest mobile phone operator today reported a 1.1% rise in service revenues to £10.58bn in the last three months, reversing a trend that began in the final quarter of 2008. Revenue from data services such as smartphones and high-speed internet “dongles” jumped by 25%.

“These are the first quarterly results to show service revenue growth since the global recession impacted,” said chief executive Vittorio Colao.

“We have achieved these results through our continuing commercial approach in key European markets, focusing especially on data, and from strong growth in emerging markets, with India now cash-positive at an operating level and our highest ever quarterly revenue in Turkey,” he added.

Colao also said that Vodafone would announce a change of strategic direction in October, to “drive shareholder value”. This is understood to include a new focus on data services, especially in emerging markets like India and China.

Colao declined to give further details this morning, saying it would be “disrespectful to his board”, but hinted that it may be driven by the increased number of mobile operating systems on the market today.

“The world has changed,” he told reporters. “Many operating systems are strong and competing … this is a good opportunity to have a look at our strategy.”

Vodafone saw strong growth in demand for smartphones in Europe during the quarter, particularly in the UK where the company started selling Apple’s iPhone earlier this year.

Since taking over as chief executive in summer 2008, Colao has been trying to increase growth in Vodafone’s existing territories rather than continuing with the acquisition drive that has given it stakes in markets around the world.

Vodafone also announced today that it has finally resolved a long-running dispute with the UK tax authorities. This row centred on Vodafone’s decision to register Mannesman, the German mobile giant it acquired in 2000, in Luxembourg.

HM Revenues & Customs had claimed that Vodafone owed taxes in Britain under the Controlled Foreign Companies rules, which the mobile operator disputed. It has now agreed to pay £1.25bn to settle the case, having previously made a provision of £3.1bn on its books.

Shares in Vodafone rose 1.88% this morning to 151.85p.

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(Source The Guardian)

It’s enough to make one side with Apple

AdMob has been placing premium-rate numbers into iPhone applications again, this time in an application targeted at kids, who are even more likely than adults to hit the link without noticing.…

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(Source The Register)