Posts Tagged “connections”
Feb
22
2010
 
Government rules out file-sharer disconnectionsPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
In response to an e-petition, the prime minister’s office has said disconnecting people for unlawful P2P activity would be disproportionate
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Feb
22
2010
Eclipse Internet orders wholesale FTTC from BTPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Eclipse Read Full Story…
More Connections from RIMResearch in Motion (RIM) is packing more support for IBM’s Lotus platform into BlackBerry smartphones with a new mobile application for Lotus Quickr.…
Offloading malware protection to the cloud Read Full Story…
The networking giant wants to provide consumers with video-conferencing experience home, using high-definition TV sets and broadband internet connections
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The UK continues to trail the rest of the world when it comes to the speed of Read Full Story…
Dec
08
2009
Thoughts on Google’s latest search announcementsPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Google’s integration of Facebook and Twitter caught the eye, but it had other – perhaps more significant – developments to think about I spent a good portion of Monday in the company of Google, as it unveiled a series of announcements about search technologies – such as the inclusion of new “real-time” results culled from Twitter, Facebook and the news media and planted, dynamically, into the results page. Given the obsession with the real-time web at the moment, it was obvious that most of the attention would be focused on a sort of OMG TWITTERZ IN MY GOOGLE!!! reaction, but I was struck by a number of things that seemed highly significant. Here they are: -Google’s user interface is getting more cluttered all the time. Yes, the famous home page may be getting lighter, but that doesn’t seem to apply to the layers of pages it takes you to. Finding real-time search results requires a series of clicks, none of which are blindingly obvious or quick for new users to get to. It’s time for Google to start applying its reductionist approach more widely. This is a way to move into highly personalised search. Once you’ve got users looking at social networking results in their feed, it’s only a matter of time before they start demanding more access to the results that matter to them. Google’s always been slightly offish about giving answers based on your personal connections – it loves the feel of a cold, hard algorithm – but social search is a powerful idea. And it’s worth knowing that Bradley Horowitz – who outlined his ideas on social search to me four years ago while he was working as a senior executive at Yahoo – is now Google’s vice president of product management. - Google’s mobile search is getting very, very strong. Even with the Android operating system and other developments, I think people underestimate how much mobile phones matter to Google. To me, it’s pretty clear that they think mobile will be the area where they will develop their next big cash cow. The company is currently working with two major US retailers, Best Buy and Sear’s, to include stock/inventory listings in mobile searches. The idea is that if you search for a product on your mobile phone, it will be able to hook into their systems and tell you if there are any items in stock nearby. That’s a big money-making opportunity. Really big. - What is the possibility for Google Goggles? Computer vision has been the holy grail for all number of technologists over the years, and if Google throws its significant resources behind the effort, it could get somewhere. They could give it a better name, though. In fact, in the process of asking a couple of questions, I pushed an idea that crossed my mind – focused on who “owns” the Goggles (the example, who decides that ). Vic Gundotra didn’t answer my question, but passed it over to Hartmut Neven (the founder of Neven Vision, a company Google acquired in 2006 and the developer of the system). Neven said the canonical database of references was constructed algorithmically – unsupervised learning, he called it (it sounded quite a lot like Google’s general search system). If that’s the case, then, does that mean that the image of something could be googlebombed?. “Theoretically, yes,” he said – but, he added, they thought they had systems in place to prevent that. What an idea. Computer vision is amazing, and if it can be applied to search then just imagine how powerful that could be. But, equally, imagine a situation in which, say, a product is googlebombed by its detractors – or even a competitor. Suddenly the idea of “image rights”, something usually associated with celebrities, becomes absolutely huge. I’m interested to see where this all leads.
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Nov
27
2009
Carphone chief condemns plans to combat online piracy as ‘crazy’Posted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
• The group has increased half-year profits to £75m, from £40m
Carphone Warehouse boss Charles Dunstone condemned as “crazy” government plans to combat online piracy by severing people’s broadband connections . The mobile phone retailer and owner of TalkTalk cheered investors by raising its profit forecast for the year. TalkTalk, Britain’s second largest internet service provider behind BT, has threatened to take legal action if plans championed by Lord Mandelson to cut-off persistent unlawful online file sharers make it into law. An e-petition on the No 10 website against the law, which is part of the government’s Digital Economy Bill, has already garnered 26,000 signatories and the support of such technophiles as Stephen Fry. “I do get the sense that the debate is moving in our direction,” Dunstone said yesterday. “People are coming to terms with the fact that what is being proposed subverts some of the basic principles of British justice. What’s being proposed is just crazy.” His comments came as Carphone Warehouse said half year profits increased to £75m, from £40m last year as revenues rose 13% to £789m despite the gloomy economic climate. Accounting for the impact of writedowns, profits were £30m compared with a loss last year of £23m. TalkTalk and the company’s retail business – named Best Buy Europe after its tie-up with American retailer Best Buy – did better than expected in the first half of the year and Dunstone predicted a strong Christmas quarter, meaning profits will exceed the City’s forecasts. Dunstone is hoping for strong sales of pre-pay mobile phones helped by cheap touchscreen handsets. Carphone Warehouse, which bought Tiscali in May, is planning to demerge its retail business from its TalkTalk residential telephony and broadband operation by the end of the first quarter next year gave details about the demerger process today. There will be two separately listed businesses: TalkTalk Group PLC, which will have a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and Carphone Warehouse Group PLC, which will have a secondary listing. The latter will comprise Best Buy Europe – its 50/50 partnership with Best Buy of the US – plus its 48.5% stake in Virgin Mobile France and Carphone’s property assets. TalkTalk has secured £650m banking facilities for the post-demerger period meaning TalkTalk and Carphone will be fully funded for their anticipated medium-term requirements. Carphone Warehouse Group will not pay dividends for at least two years after demerger, while TalkTalk is expected to pay dividends from the outset equivalent to that of the current group with a progressive policy thereafter.
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Nov
23
2009
“Jail broken” iPhones vulnerable to new virusPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
BOSTON (Reuters) – Hackers have built a virus that attacks Apple Inc’s iPhone by secretly taking control of the devices via their Internet connections, security experts said. Read Full Story…
Nov
04
2009
Glasgow gets to trial BT fibre connections until April 2010Posted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
BT has launched its third trial of fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) internet Read Full Story…
Orange appears to have decided not to get involved in an iPhone price war with O2 Orange has announced prices for the iPhone on its network – but shown little appetite for a price war with O2, which presently has the monopoly on iPhone sales in the UK. The phone will go on sale from 10 November across Orange’s retail network, as well as Apple retail stores, Phones4U, Orange concessions in HMV stores and – as predicted in the Guardian last month – in Carphone Warehouse shops. But the tariffs announced today offer little temptation for any O2 users to change, or for non-iPhone users to switch. Orange contract buyers can get a 16GB iPhone 3GS for £184.50 plus £29.36 per month on an 18-month contract; at O2, the same phone costs £184.98 plus £29.38 per month on an 18-month contract. Both networks say that they offer “unlimited” data downloads over the phone network – though Orange adds a warning that its “fair usage” policy in fact limits it to 750MB per month. (The iPhone also has Wi-Fi, which can be used without limit.) When Orange announced that it would sell the iPhone it put up a web page where people could register their interest. It says that more than 200,000 did so – though how many will maintain that interest now that they have seen the tariffs on offer is hard to determine. The launch does threaten O2’s position as the UK’s largest mobile network. Reports of inconsistent data connections troubling iPhone users on its network may have put some people off switching; Orange, by contrast, has claimed to have the largest 3G network in the UK. But it will come under sustained pressure once it launches the iPhone, which is famous among network operators for using comparatively large amounts of bandwidth for emails and web browsing, compared to most smartphones – and especially standard mobile phones – which use little data, and where users are given strict data rations. Apple’s ability to negotiate O2 and other mobile networks around the world into giving iPhone users “unlimited” data downloads over the phone networks has made the device enormously attractive to a new generation of mobile workers, but squeezed operators’ margins to the limits. Orange will offer Apple’s hot-selling internet device on a business plan, where a 16GB iPhone 3GS costs £87 on a 24-month £30 per month contract – significantly cheaper than the personal contract. In addition, Orange will offer the iPhone on pay-as-you-go contracts – £440 for a 16GB iPhone 3GS. The announcement of the prices intensifies the competition for customers between the networks, though with Vodafone ready to start selling the iPhone early next year, there may be the chance of some price pressure.
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People suspected of unlawful file-sharing will not have their broadband service cut off without a court order, culture secretary Ben Bradshaw has told a House of Commons committee
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Oct
08
2009
Broadband rollout boosts supply management at Bernard MatthewsPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Turkey farmer Read Full Story…
British-based social travel website Dopplr is being bought by mobile phone titan Nokia for around €15m (£13.5m), according to reports. News of the deal, which was first reported by Silicon Valley blog Techcrunch, comes as the latest in a string of dotcom acquisitions by the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer. The boutique travel company, which is based in London and Helsinki, launched in 2007 as a way for frequent travellers to keep track of their movements. After receiving around €1.5m in funding from The Accelerator Group and a number of private investors, the company expanded into travel tips and forged a series of partnerships with high-end brands such as Mr & Mrs Smith and Monocle. The company did not return a request for comment, but the deal is believed to have been in the works for several weeks. The acquisition does not come as a complete surprise, given the close connections between the company’s team and the Finnish mobile giant. Co-founder and chief executive Marko Ahtisaari was a former director of design strategy for the Helsinki technology firm, where he worked alongside Dopplr’s recently-departed design chief Matt Jones. However, while the deal marks a significant return for the company’s backers – who included LinkedIn boss Reid Hoffman, Reuters chief executive Tom Glocer and serial Esther Dyson – some remained sceptical that it will succeed in the long-term. Om Malik, a journalist and venture capitalist who writes at the GigaOm blog, said he was concerned about the possible outcome. “I’m happy for the founders and backers of Dopplr, after all it is a nice financial outcome for a service that hasn’t grown beyond a base of passionate users,” he wrote. “It’s only a matter of time before Nokia mucks up this acquisition, however, much like it has in the past.” Nokia’s own track record is blotchy in this area – particularly since the company announced in 2008 that it planned to move into the internet arena as well as its handset-manufacturing business. While the buyouts of mapping provider Navteq in 2007 has gone relatively sucessfully, the outcome of other moves – such as the spin-off of software company Symbian – remains unclear. It is also true that the purchase of British startups by foreign companies have a patchy history of success. In 2007 London-based music service Last.fm was bought by American media conglomerate CBS for £140m, a move which has yet to recoup major benefits for the US company. More controversially, the internet telephony company Skype was purchased in 2005 by auction website eBay for an initial $2.6bn. The move was widely seen as a failure, leading to an announcement earlier this month that the Californian dotcom planned to sell off 65% of the business for $1.9bn. Since then Skype’s co-founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, have filed lawsuits against eBay and the company’s purchasers over accusations of intellectual property theft.
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Proposals to suspend internet connections of people caught illegally Read Full Story…
Sep
23
2009
Government confirms broadband tax before next electionPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
The Government will press ahead with the so-called broadband tax on Read Full Story…
Sep
21
2009
Text messaging helps young Palestinians find workPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Souktel system lets users create mini-CVs in attempt to tackle unemployment in occupied West Bank A non-profit group in the occupied West Bank has started a scheme that uses mobile phone text messaging to help young Palestinians find work. The group, based in Ramallah, has already registered 8,000 Palestinians on its Souktel system, most of them recent graduates. The system connects them to about 150 leading employers who are looking for staff. Internet access in the West Bank remains low, reaching about one-third of the population. Most computer use is at internet cafes, which are largely male-dominated domains in what is still a conservative society. Souktel enables young people looking for work to register by answering a series of simple questions in Arabic through text messages, which are used to create a mini-CV. They then receive regular information about relevant jobs on offer. It costs little to use apart from a slight premium charged on each text sent. In the same way, employers can post notices about job vacancies and filter applications. The project comes at a time when despite forecasts of improved economic growth in the West Bank, unemployment still stands at around 20%, with that figure even higher among young people. The Palestinians are a highly educated population but the Israeli occupation in the West Bank, with checkpoints, roadblocks and frequent restrictions, makes it costly and difficult to travel and do business. Universities rarely offer careers advice. “There are jobs out there but it’s difficult for a young person graduating from university to find them,” said Jacob Korenblum, a 30-year-old Canadian who is one of the founders of Souktel. Anas Ashqar graduated in English language and translation from the Arab-American University in Jenin last year and started using Souktel. Within a few weeks the 25-year-old was sent a job notice that matched what he wanted. He applied, was interviewed and got the job writing captions in a photography archive. He now works for the Palestinian mobile phone operator Jawal but still uses Souktel. “You save time and money and connect to more people,” he said. “And everybody dreams of finding a good job with a good salary.” Young graduates often rely on family connections for work. “Here, finding your first job is about luck,” said Lana Hijazi, a 27-year-old Souktel co-founder. She had spent a year looking for work after graduating in management from Bir Zeit University. “If you have someone in your family with a factory or a company, they will employ you,” Hijazi said. “If you don’t, you need to look hard for that job.” Souktel has been a rare success in social innovation. This year, Hijazi won a prestigious youth innovation award from the Jordanian monarch, King Abdullah II, and was the only Palestinian chosen in a list of leading young Arab entrepreneurs in a regional business magazine. Souktel is now using the same model of information sharing employed by aid agencies in the West Bank and Gaza to send information between staff and people receiving aid. During the war in Gaza last January, the service was used to alert people quickly about collecting deliveries of food and medical aid. “We’ve created this profile-creating and networking mechanism that we haven’t seen other people doing by mobile,” Korenblum said. “You don’t need an iPhone or to download software. It’s just messaging and it works on a phone from 1995. “People don’t have to go out and buy something new. This is what makes it applicable everywhere in the developing world.” Souktel is preparing similar projects for the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq and for Somaliland.
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Sep
21
2009
Text messaging initiative helps young Palestinians find workPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Ramallah-based Souktel system enables users to create mini-CVs in attempt to tackle unemployment in occupied West Bank A non-profit group in the occupied West Bank has launched a pioneering new scheme that uses mobile phone text messaging to help young Palestinians find work. The firm, based in Ramallah, has already registered 8,000 Palestinians looking for work on its Souktel system, most of them recent graduates. They are connected to around 150 leading employers looking for staff. Internet access in the West Bank remains low, reaching around one-third of the population. Most computer use is at internet cafes, largely male-dominated domains in a still conservative society. Souktel enables young people looking for work to register by answering a series of simple questions in Arabic through text messages, which are used to create a mini-CV. They then receive regular information about relevant jobs on offer. It costs nothing to use apart from a slight premium charged on each text sent. In the same way, employers can post notices about job vacancies they have and filter the applications. The project comes at a time when – despite forecasts of improved economic growth in the West Bank – unemployment is still around 20%, with that figure even higher among young people. Although the Palestinians are a highly-educated population, the effect of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank, with checkpoints, roadblocks and frequent restrictions, makes it costly and difficult to travel and do business. Universities rarely offer careers advice. “There are jobs out there but it’s difficult for a young person graduating from university to find them,” Jacob Korenblum, a 30-year-old Canadian who is one of the founders of Souktel, said. Anas Ashqar graduated in English language and translation from the Arab-American University, in Jenin, last year and started using Souktel. Within a few weeks, the 25-year-old was sent a job notice that matched what he wanted. He applied, was interviewed and got the job writing captions in a photography archive. He now works for the Palestinian mobile phone operator Jawal, but still uses Souktel. “You save time and money and connect to more people,” he said. “And everybody dreams of finding a good job with a good salary.” Young graduates often rely on family connections for work. “Here, finding your first job is about luck,” Lana Hijazi, a 27-year-old Souktel co-founder, said. She had spent a year looking for work after graduating in management from Bir Zeit University. “If you have someone in your family with a factory or a company, they will employ you,” Hijazi said. “If you don’t, you need to look hard for that job.” Souktel has been a rare success in social innovation. This year, Hijazi won a prestigious youth innovation award from the Jordanian monarch, King Abdullah II, and was the only Palestinian chosen in a list of top young Arab entrepreneurs in a regional business magazine. The Souktel system is now using the same model of information sharing employed by aid agencies in the West Bank and Gaza to send information between staff and people receiving aid. During the war in Gaza last January, the service was used to alert people quickly about collecting deliveries of food and medical aid. “We’ve created this profile creating and networking mechanism that we haven’t seen other people doing by mobile,” Korenblum said. “You don’t need an iPhone or to download software. It’s just messaging and it works on a phone from 1995. People don’t have to go out and buy something new. This is what makes it applicable everywhere in the developing world.” Souktel is preparing similar projects for the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq and for Somaliland.
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Facebook launches a new Lite version of the site, first outlined in August, for users with poor internet connections. Read Full Story…
Aug
13
2009
Asia web connections set to resume by end of ThursdayPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Up to 90 percent of all voice call and Internet services from parts of East Asia that were disrupted after Typhoon Morakot damaged undersea cables will resume by the end of Thursday, a senior Chunghwa Telecom official said. Read Full Story…
Jul
15
2009
Virgin Media trumps BT on superfast broadband uplink speedsPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile NewsTags: 10, 12, 3, compare, comparemobiles.com, connections, mobile, Mobile News, mobiles, new, service, uk, virgin |
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