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This new Android phone from ZTE is available on The One Plan from 3. For just £28 per month you get 2000 minutes to any network, virtually unlimited texts and free calls to other phones on the same network. It also comes with 1GB of data per month. Other tariffs avaialble from £13 per month.
The ZTE Racer sports the Android 1.6 operating system that opens up a massive range of downloadable applications, many of which are free, to boost the already impressive feature set. Styled on a Palm type design the Racer offers an up to date look that will impress.
The front fascia is dominated by the large 2.8 inch QVGA touch-screen display thus providing plenty of space for operation and content alike. 3G Internet access opens up a world of virtual shops, news and sports sites wherever you are, and finally means the laptop can be left at home or in the office. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi and wireless Bluetooth, crucial for today’s need to connect with each other quickly and safely. The ZTE Racer provides entertainment with a FM radio and offers guided navigation with GPS support.

Compare all ZTE Racer deals

Tags: 3, all, android, compare, deal, Deals, free, latest, latest deal, mobile, new, new mobile, palm, phone, phones, sam, tariff, tariffs, test, Touch, world

It’s hard to imagine an apocalyptic national threat involving a BlackBerry – ‘security’ seems to mean social control

On Friday, barring a lastminute change of heart, the authorities in Saudi Arabia will start to block instant messaging services for BlackBerry users. The United Arab Emirates has threatened similar action from October and India has raised concerns with BlackBerry’s Canadian manufacturer, Research in Motion (RIM).

Their concern is that texts, emails and other data from BlackBerry smartphones is difficult to monitor – partly because of the encryption technology and partly because data is routed through RIM’s own facilities in Canada and Britain, rather than locally as with other types of mobile phone.

The regulating authority in the UAE pointed out in a statement that “in their current form, certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns”.

The security fears have been highlighted a great deal, but considering that most countries have no problem allowing their citizens to use BlackBerry services, how realistic are these fears?

Indian security forces reportedly suspect that BlackBerry services were used in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, though no details have been given. If they were an important factor, it’s surprising that India did not make more fuss about it earlier.

A source at Wired UK said this seems to be the first time that any government has officially viewed the BlackBerry as such an extreme problem or risk, though introducing it into China and Russia took years of negotiations. Thus it would be difficult to imagine that an apocalyptic national security threat would somehow involve a BlackBerry.

True enough, the BlackBerry is used for business because of its security features. Communications can be encrypted and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), a messaging service where BlackBerry users can talk to each other live, is apparently hard to monitor in real time. Or in bulk.

Yet a BlackBerry is usually not bought as a mobile to use anonymously or throw away. BBM requires a special, personalised BlackBerry PIN to function – it’s hardly a Hotmail account, which anyone can set up, from anywhere, with any name.

As has been shown in the past, terrorists and insurgents tend to communicate using quick, cheap and untraceable technology. The BlackBerry is not really any of these things, since the handset’s entire function is to weave its way into its owner’s professional (often corporate) and personal life, so as to be an extremely efficient means to trace and reach them.

So what else could this be about? Snooping, most likely. Matthew Reed, a mobile analyst working from Dubai, was quoted in the Guardian as saying: “In Saudi Arabia, people are using BlackBerry Messenger to talk to members of the opposite sex. It is the fact that it is a form of communication which is quite anonymous that is part of its appeal to people.”

So perhaps they mean security in the sense of social control – that people communicating openly, in a way that transgresses norms, and maybe even laws, or whole systems of government, might be contrary to the Gulf states’ own power geometry.

Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia engage in internet censorship and according to Reporters Without Borders a number of BBM users were arrested last month after trying to organise a peaceful protest about high petrol prices in the UAE.

As far as Mike Lazaridis, co-founder of Research in Motion, is concerned, these countries will only be harming themselves if they go ahead with the blocking. “If you were to ban strong encryption, you would shut down corporations, business, commerce, banking and the internet,” he said recently.

He may well be right: this policy is a contradiction, on a practical level, with Saudi and Emirati desires to achieve a level of economic modernisation equivalent to that of the west.

The style of government common in Gulf states may be putting them at a disadvantage when it comes to this goal of economic and technological development. This is a central theme in Neal Stephenson’s epic cyberpunk novel Cryptonomicon, and idea as old as Athens: that a democracy, where the freedom to think and communicate thrives naturally, has an advantage when it comes to innovation.

While Cryptonomicon may just be a rollicking adventure story reeking a bit of its author’s own cultural background, the principle does seem to hold: democracy, unlike authoritarian systems, provides more space for innovation and, thus, economic development.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, all, Blackberry, deal, email, free, government, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, phone, phones, prices, service, sim, test, uk, venture

It’s hard to imagine an apocalyptic national threat involving a BlackBerry – ‘security’ seems to mean social control

On Friday, barring a lastminute change of heart, the authorities in Saudi Arabia will start to block instant messaging services for BlackBerry users. The United Arab Emirates has threatened similar action from October and India has raised concerns with BlackBerry’s Canadian manufacturer, Research in Motion (RIM).

Their concern is that texts, emails and other data from BlackBerry smartphones is difficult to monitor – partly because of the encryption technology and partly because data is routed through RIM’s own facilities in Canada and Britain, rather than locally as with other types of mobile phone.

The regulating authority in the UAE pointed out in a statement that “in their current form, certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns”.

The security fears have been highlighted a great deal, but considering that most countries have no problem allowing their citizens to use BlackBerry services, how realistic are these fears?

Indian security forces reportedly suspect that BlackBerry services were used in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, though no details have been given. If they were an important factor, it’s surprising that India did not make more fuss about it earlier.

A source at Wired UK said this seems to be the first time that any government has officially viewed the BlackBerry as such an extreme problem or risk, though introducing it into China and Russia took years of negotiations. Thus it would be difficult to imagine that an apocalyptic national security threat would somehow involve a BlackBerry.

True enough, the BlackBerry is used for business because of its security features. Communications can be encrypted and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), a messaging service where BlackBerry users can talk to each other live, is apparently hard to monitor in real time. Or in bulk.

Yet a BlackBerry is usually not bought as a mobile to use anonymously or throw away. BBM requires a special, personalised BlackBerry PIN to function – it’s hardly a Hotmail account, which anyone can set up, from anywhere, with any name.

As has been shown in the past, terrorists and insurgents tend to communicate using quick, cheap and untraceable technology. The BlackBerry is not really any of these things, since the handset’s entire function is to weave its way into its owner’s professional (often corporate) and personal life, so as to be an extremely efficient means to trace and reach them.

So what else could this be about? Snooping, most likely. Matthew Reed, a mobile analyst working from Dubai, was quoted in the Guardian as saying: “In Saudi Arabia, people are using BlackBerry Messenger to talk to members of the opposite sex. It is the fact that it is a form of communication which is quite anonymous that is part of its appeal to people.”

So perhaps they mean security in the sense of social control – that people communicating openly, in a way that transgresses norms, and maybe even laws, or whole systems of government, might be contrary to the Gulf states’ own power geometry.

Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia engage in internet censorship and according to Reporters Without Borders a number of BBM users were arrested last month after trying to organise a peaceful protest about high petrol prices in the UAE.

As far as Mike Lazaridis, co-founder of Research in Motion, is concerned, these countries will only be harming themselves if they go ahead with the blocking. “If you were to ban strong encryption, you would shut down corporations, business, commerce, banking and the internet,” he said recently.

He may well be right: this policy is a contradiction, on a practical level, with Saudi and Emirati desires to achieve a level of economic modernisation equivalent to that of the west.

The style of government common in Gulf states may be putting them at a disadvantage when it comes to this goal of economic and technological development. This is a central theme in Neal Stephenson’s epic cyberpunk novel Cryptonomicon, and idea as old as Athens: that a democracy, where the freedom to think and communicate thrives naturally, has an advantage when it comes to innovation.

While Cryptonomicon may just be a rollicking adventure story reeking a bit of its author’s own cultural background, the principle does seem to hold: democracy, unlike authoritarian systems, provides more space for innovation and, thus, economic development.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, all, Blackberry, deal, email, free, government, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, phone, phones, prices, service, sim, test, uk, venture

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Any industry agreement on the flow of online traffic such as the one struck between Verizon Communications Inc and Google Inc must preserve a free and open Internet, the top U.S. communications regulator said on Thursday.

Read Full Story…
(Source Yahoo UK News)

Tags: free, google, line, new, uk

Novel explanation for mobile stun gun

A Queensland man yesterday pleaded guilty to possession of a Taser disguised as a mobile phone.…

Free On-Demand Webcast – Virtualizing the Hard Stuff

Read Full Story…
(Source The Register)

Tags: free, mobile, mobile phone, phone, source the register

Text alerts for men when their female charges leave Saudi alone is the new frontline in the country’s technology war

Want to know whether your wife, sister or daughter has left the county? Well, in Saudi Arabia, there’s an app for that. Reportedly, male guardians or mahrams in Saudi Arabia are now receiving text message notifications when their female charges leave the country unaccompanied. “iMahram”, a friend of mine jokingly called it.

According to Wajeha al-Huwaider, a Saudi female activist, when she left the kingdom for a holiday with her family, her husband received a text message from the foreign ministry notifying him that she had departed.

“It is sad how Saudis use technology in a way not intended to be used for,” she told The Media Line. “In Saudi Arabia, technology brings more restrictions and misery. They use it to have more control over people’s lives, especially women.”

Although Huwaider is summarily dismissed as an exhibitionist by some Saudi women (mainly for her regular attempts to leave the kingdom without her mahram’s permission in order to highlight the limitations of the guardianship system), it is very likely that she was targeted due to her previous activities.

But it is nevertheless an indication that the authorities are becoming more inventive and resourceful with technology. Just as expatriates in the country are tethered to their native sponsors, women are tethered to their guardians, who, no matter how laissez-faire they may be, must still go through the bureaucratic rigmarole of granting permission for their female dependents to leave the country unaccompanied. Even then, the permission has to be renewed regularly. There is little scope for blanket licences from mahrams – ostensibly to ensure that they are not abused.

In my experience, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf states in general, are extremely fond of their technology and particularly their mobile phones. The telecoms infrastructure has flourished only recently in the region and hence was sophisticated from inception.

Gender segregation has spawned a culture of excessive telecommunication. Bluetooth usage (to exchange details between men and women anonymously) on phones was commonplace in Saudi Arabia before mobile owners in the west had any use for the tool. In a country of early adopters and super-users, people usually have more than one mobile phone to separate friends, family and professional contacts. Before pay-as-you go arrived on the scene, my female friends sometimes had their chauffeurs procure more mobile phone numbers in their own names so that the bill would not be sent to their father’s home address.

Moreover, there is a unique culture of campaigning and social mobilisation by text. During the Danish cartoons controversy, round-robin texts circulated informing people of which products to boycott. When the first feature film was to be shown in Riyadh, a text message war kicked off between two factions, those for and those against the screening.

In that respect communications technology has been a boon for such societies where there has traditionally been little room for democratic exchange of ideas, natural human interaction or gatherings that are not intermediated by authorities.

It is a double-edged sword, however, as it can be appropriated by government and, in this case, seems to be helping perpetuate the status quo by enabling the authorities to keep tabs on their citizens (and not just for security reasons), extending the long arm of the state even further. The impact of modernity and globalisation, the harbingers of change, doesn’t always flow in the direction of freedom.

It is not clear exactly what the Saudi authorities are hoping to achieve or pre-empt with this new measure, since if a woman has gone past immigration at the airport that means that she has already been signed off by her guardian and all her paperwork was in order. In addition, if one is to imagine that the guardian may have since changed his mind or was co-opted or tricked into giving permission, the text message allegedly contains no information about the woman’s destination – only that she has left.

The messaging is above and beyond the call of duty. Maybe it’s a beta version of a more sophisticated tagging system that will render all women’s movements traceable by the state and their guardians – who knows?

That said, a low-level technology war between users and the authorities over everything from satellite dishes to camera phones has been brewing for some time and the government has been consistently failing to stem the tide. The latest salvo, fired on Tuesday, was the announcement that BlackBerry services in the kingdom will be blocked from Friday.

But there is still huge potential for citizens to use the disruptive influence of modern communications to circumvent the power of the state. If there were an app for that, I wonder what it would be called.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, all, Blackberry, charges, free, global, government, latest, line, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, phone, phones, room, service, test, uk

VoIP company Vonage launches app that lets Facebook friends call each other for free

Heaven forbid, you forget your phone. You need to make a urgent call, but all you have with you is an iPod Touch. Well, now you can use your iPod to call your Facebook friends.

A new mobile application enabling Facebook friends to call each other for free is being released today, and an app for the iPad is thought to be only weeks away.

The app – produced by internet telephony company Vonage and available for iPhone, Android devices, and the iPod Touch (the latter only allowing outbound calls) – lets users call Facebook friends using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), providing both parties have downloaded the app. Users will eventually be able to make calls (both incoming and outgoing) through the iPad.

Vonage Mobile for Facebook is free to download, free to use and works on Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G connections. Later versions of the app are expected to include premium functions and cater for the iPad, as well as encompassing instant messaging, SMS and the ability to make calls to mobile numbers directly from the application.

But the release of this new app provokes an unavoidable question: how many of your Facebook friends would you feel comfortable being able to call your mobile phone?

Facebook friends: an app to make you reimagine your “friendships”?

At launch, there is no way to block selected Facebook friends from calling your mobile – so, theoretically, anyone you’ve decided to accept as a friend on Facebook can call your phone. As we know, plenty of people accept Facebook friend requests from relative strangers, or people to whom they wouldn’t necessarily divulge their phone number.

Michael Tempora, senior vice president of programme management and strategic initiatives at Vonage, said: “I expect that’s the case [that people don't want every one of their Facebook friends being able to call their mobile phone]. Certainly you always have ability to decline a call. Incoming calls will ring your phone and users still have the option to decline or accept.

“Future releases will also add a call block capability. A consumer can always choose not to download the application or de-friend someone on Facebook. This app adheres to all Facebook’s rights and responsibilities.”

In other words, your downloading of the app and accepting of Facebook friend requests are taken as double confirmation that the people you befriend online are the people you’d be happy calling your phone. Online social networking, however, isn’t as straightforward. That is, of course, unless you’ve adopted a personal Facebook policy readying for the day when your friends would be able to call your phone. Or preparing for a day when your child’s Facebook friends can call their mobile phone.

I suspect we’ve not heard the last of this, though VoIP telephony companies moving towards social networks is not a new thing.

Usurping mobile networks?

And what of the mobile networks we largely rely on to make calls to our friends? Is Vonage expecting a backlash? “It’s hard for me to speculate,” Tempora said. “Our customers will be delighted, Facebook users and iPhone users and Android users will be delighted.

“It’s a paradigm changer for the consumer, and one that takes advantage of broadband networks. It’s exciting for consumers and another step for us in using VoIP technology to deliver great value for consumers.”

Vonage advises users who don’t have an unlimited data tariff to contact their provider to see what charges apply. Making a call using the app uses approximately 250kb a minute, a Vonage spokesman said, adding that the number of minutes sold on contract mobiles is going down while the amount of data sold and used is on the rise – this new app potentially warranting a data upgrade depending on usage.

It’s all about timing: a good day to bury bad news?

The importance of this product for a company with a history of financial losses can be inferred from the launch date: the same date it will announce second quarter financial results.

That said, Vonage posted a sharp increase in net income in its first quarter results, recording a jump of $8.7m (£5.4m) year-on-year to $14m. Though the short-term forecast underlying these headline figures would no doubt prove disconcerting to company bosses, recruitment of new subscribers to the Vonage World plan was expected to continue dropping, and loss of existing subscribers was also expected to continue.

“It’s certainly very important to us,” Tempora said. “But it’s absolutely consistent with our vision that people should be able to call from anywhere they are using any broadband device that’s convenient. This is an important first step for us but it’s just the start, we expect in future to provide a wide range of apps.

“Going forward, we will expand on the launch to add additional communities – some already existing online – or social communities like family. We will also add device platforms – other mobile devices, PCs, Macs and premium services like the ability to call from Facebook to phone numbers as well as instant messaging components.”

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, android, charges, connections, consumer, contract, free, iphone, launches, lg, line, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, networks, new, new mobile, phone, phones, released, sam, service, sol, tariff, Touch, uk, world

The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) has formed a new venture called Press Engine, which will serve as a mobile content delivery platform for other publishers. At least at the outset, Press Engine will start by serving content to Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices in Q4. Among the first affiliates to sign up for the NYTCo’s service are The Telegraph Media Group and Dallas-based newspaper publisher AH Belo.


Photo by myuibe on Flickr. Some rights reserved

In addition to the AH Belo papers, which include The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal and The Press-Enterprise, several NYTCo-owned dailies, namely the International Herald Tribune, The Gainesville Sun and The Lakeland Ledger, will also participate in the product launch.

The company has certainly been successful with its current iPhone and iPad apps. As chief executive Janet Robinson told investors during last week’s earnings call, the NYT has had 4.5m downloads for its iPhone app over past two years. In June alone, Robinson said the company had approximately 106m pageviews from its mobile sites and apps.

A full paid app is also coming to iPad in addition to the free, ad-supported Editor’s Choice app, in conjunction with the metered paywall that’s being introduced early next year. The Scoop NYC lifestyle and city guide app, which launched a little over a month ago, has been downloaded 100,000 times. In other app activities, the NYT recently – and temporarily – sought to remove its RSS feeds from the Pulse iPad newsreader app.

In setting up Press Engine, the NYTCo is promising its partners control over all advertising and subscription revenue related to the apps they create through the platform. Press Engine clients will only have to pay the NYTCo a a one-time license fee and monthly maintenance. They will also have the ability to opt in or out of future upgrades. Release

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, all, apple, free, iphone, marketing, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, phone, phones, service, uk, venture

After Samsung’s disappointing Bada-powered Wave, this high-spec Android smartphone pushes all the right buttons

What is it? Samsung Galaxy S GT-19000, running Android 2.1 operating system

Category: Hardware Hardware and software

You’d use it in the… Home and office

First impressions: what is it like to look at, to hold, to use? OK, so it’s visually 7mm away from being an Apple iPhone 3GS, but don’t let that distract from the Galaxy S’s sleek exterior. At 118g, the Galaxy S is slightly lighter than the iPhone 4 but not noticeably so. It’s also thinner but slightly taller than the iPhone.

Thankfully Samsung opted for Google’s Android (2.1) operating system for the touchscreen Galaxy S, making the phone much more flexible and intuitive than the Wave, Samsung’s first Bada-powered device. With a 1GHz processor and a fair bit of memory available (8GB or 16GB, with capacity for an additional 32GB MicroSD card), completing tasks is zippy for the most part.

What does it really do well? Some nice additional features (vintage layers, for example) complement the device’s 5MP camera, which also allows quick and easy sharing by MMS, email or social networks. YouTube video playback is sharp, thanks to the Super AMOLED screen, but the app can be sluggish to load, even on a strong Wi-Fi connection.

Most of all, it’s a quick-response phone – allowing you to switch between apps and functions relatively painlessly. Web browsing suits the not-insubstantial screen well, despite the lack of Flash support – though the Bada-inspired font used on the Wave is easier on the eye than the Galaxy S choice.

What’s the cost? Available for free on a £35 per month 24-month contract or around £400 sim-free. Not hugely expensive for an iPhone-rivalling smartphone.

What’s it up against? The price and device specifications put the Galaxy S right among the best smartphones currently on the market. It’s less expensive than the iPhone 4; you’re getting a fair amount of bang for your buck.

Blind us with the tech specs, then: A Super AMOLED screen (embeds touch sensors into display rather than layering over the top); Weight: 118g; Dimension: 64.2 x 122.4 x 9.9mm; 5MP camera; front-facing VGA camera for video calling; 720p video recording; on-board FM radio; 8GB or 16GB memory, with potential for 32GB MicroSD card upload; 1GHz processor; Android 2.1 operating system.

What’s it good for? Very nice for taking and sharing decent-quality photos quickly. With the Android operating system, the Galaxy S has all the potential – as opposed to the Wave which is mostly inhibited by running Bada. Of course, all this depends on how often Google updates the firmware and how quickly (or not, as seems to be the case) the various operators can push them out.

One in 10 contract devices sold in the UK is now reportedly running Android, a software that suits Samsung’s well-made hardware.

What are its failings? I’d advise away from the Android Aldiko ebook reader, which was infuriating to use: slow to load, slow to respond to interaction and only able to fit 17 lines on the 4-inch screen. A weird stilted zooming inhibits an otherwise good browsing experience. And the browser address bar is unjustifiably big.

Annoyingly, even when the cursor is blinking in text boxes the touchscreen keyboard requires another (needless) selection before allowing any text input.

How big a pocket will I need (portable devices only)? Only 7mm taller than the iPhone 4, a normal pocket will suffice for the Galaxy S.

How long is the battery life? On paper: talk time stands at 803 minutes (2G), 393 minutes (3G), standby mode at 750 hours (2G), 576 hours (3G).

What’s its USP? The big all-encompassing screen and its speed. The feature-rich relatively high quality camera also sets the Galaxy S apart as an excellent device, up there with the best of currently-available smartphones.

Rating out of 10: 8

Finally, is it worth it – yes or no? Yes.

Rating: 4/5

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 12, 3, 3gs, all, android, apple, apple iphone, apple iphone 3gs, best, card, contract, email, free, gadget, gadgets, google, iphone, iphone 3gs, line, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, networks, new, phone, phones, review, sam, samsung, sim, sol, Touch, uk, update

Demonstrated and documented

A researcher at the DefCon hackers’ meet has demonstrated kit for spoofing GSM base stations, allowing even those on a limited budget to intercept phone calls and text messages.…

Free On-Demand Webcast – Virtualizing the Hard Stuff

Read Full Story…
(Source The Register)

Tags: all, free, gsm, phone, source the register, station

Cheap deals for all

3 Mobile is shipping iPhone 4 today – along with T-Mobile UK, it was the last UK network to announce availability.…

Free On-Demand Webcast – Virtualizing the Hard Stuff

Read Full Story…
(Source The Register)

Tags: 3, all, deal, Deals, free, iphone, mobile, phone, source the register, t-mobile, uk

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)

Tags: apple, free, google, line, mobile, source the register, three, world

As London’s Barclays Cycle Hire scheme launches, there’s already a third-party Android app to go with it

As sure as night follows day, mobile applications follow location-based public pronouncements.

It should come as no surprise then that canny Android developers Little Fluffy Toys have knocked up a widget to follow on the heels of London mayor Boris Johnson’s launch of the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme.

Cycle Hire Widget, a free application, uses a mixture of live Transport for London data and crowdsourcing to display the availability of bicycles at the nearest docking stations. Because TfL doesn’t currently share details about the availability of bikes at specific locations, the application screen scrapes TfL’s data and repurposes it for the app.

(From my chair at Kings Place, you’re probably not interested to know, the nearest docking station is 506m south west, with apparently only two bikes taken from nine slots.)

We spoke to Kenton Price, director of Little Fluffy Toys, to find out more about what’s behind the app:

“Many of the cycle apps that existed for other cities already, and to be honest a bunch of the new London ones, are really not much more than a Google Maps mashup of a bunch of locations superimposed on a map.
“We also chose the tiniest widget you can choose – a 1×1 that takes 1/16th of one of your home screen. Into that we’ve packed information about the nearest three locations, including the direction and distance, and the colour-coded known status of that location: Green for all OK, red for closed, orange for not enough bikes, yellow for not enough slots.
“But we expect most users will then click it again to open it up. And inside there we show more info about each location, including the best info we have about the status of the location. If we have recent live info from TfL, we will show the number of bikes and the number of slots, and the time at which we retrieved it.
“If we don’t have info from TfL then we can use crowdsourced info. If a user is within 50 metres of a hire location that doesn’t have recent TfL data, s/he will be prompted to report back on its status. That info is then shared with other users. You can select a location for walking directions to it. If for some reason you don’t want to show a location, perhaps because you know it’s closed whatever the buggy TfL feed tells us, long-press to exclude it from the widget.”

TfL relaxed its terms and conditions (find them here) in preparation for the cycle scheme launch, with the aim of encouraging third-party developers to create “innovative” apps based on “reliable and accurate information”. But Price claims his attempts to access TfL’s live data have been met with a wall of silence – TfL, on the other hand, said they have been in conversation with third-party developers from early on.

Price says: “We wrote to them the day they announced the locations were free-for-all, asking for free/busy status. They replied saying [there were] no plans. And that’s the last we heard from them. This £100m+ scheme that said it was reaching out to developers – and we haven’t had any replies at all to our emails since. We’ve done the best we can – the BarclaysCycle Twitter tag appears to be publish-only, no one gets responses from them.

“It’s very disappointing that we’ve basically filled in the blatant holes in their massively expensive scheme and we’ve had no thanks or even acknowledgement that we exist – although Boris started following us on Twitter the other day.”

A TfL spokesperson refused to comment on particular developers, but told the Guardian third-party developers will have access to more data in time. For the time being, TfL said, the “fundamental information [being used by developers] has to be right.”

“The up-to-date information listing all docking stations that are live in London is available on the developers’ area and must be used,” the spokesperson said. “The first thing is to get that information correct and have up-to-date information about where the docking stations are. It might sound slightly dull but the first port of call is that we know where they are and that the information is correct.”

There is no timeframe for the next bout of data rollouts, TfL said, but they are “forthcoming”.

For now, Price is happy. As he concludes: “It’s been a riot, I’ve loved it. My favourite moment so far was when CNet said we had all that geeky goodness with our crowdsourcing stuff – I practically burst with pride.”

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, all, android, best, email, free, google, launches, maker, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, orange, phone, phones, station, three, twitter, uk

Shaves tariffs

Last month, we reported T-Mobile UK’s price-plans for the iPhone 4. Today the telco start shipping the iphone, and has come in with lower tariffs .…

Free On-Demand Webcast – Virtualizing the Hard Stuff

Read Full Story…
(Source The Register)

Tags: free, iphone, mobile, phone, source the register, t-mobile, tariff, tariffs, uk

Free broadband firm TalkTalk promises competitive prices in mobile services deal with Vodafone

Internet and phone firm TalkTalk has struck a deal with Vodafone to launch a mobile service under its own brand.

TalkTalk, which helped revolutionise the broadband market by introducing “free” internet access four years ago, will offer both contract and pre-pay tariffs to existing customers from the autumn.

Market watchers will be looking to see whether the company, the second-largest residential broadband provider in the UK, will have as big an impact in the mobile industry as it did in on internet services.

Chairman Charles Dunstone said TalkTalk, which was spun out of Carphone Warehouse earlier this year, would make a “gentle” entry into mobile services, but would offer competitive prices.

“It will be a way to add a very good value mobile package to the account you have with us for your fixed-line phone and broadband,” he said.

TalkTalk entered the phone market in 2003 and the broadband market in 2006. Carphone Warehouse, meanwhile, still has its own mobile venture called TalkMobile, which also uses Vodafone’s network.

News of the mobile phone service came as TalkTalk announced first-quarter results which showed it added 34,000 net broadband customers in the second quarter, taking its total to 4.23 million. That puts it ahead of Virgin Media, which announced earlier this week that it had 4.21 million customers, having added 28,100 in the quarter. BT said yesterday it had 5.2 million broadband customers, adding 96,000 in the last three months, although it does not split out its residential customers from its large base of business users. The UK’s fourth-largest broadband provider, BSkyB, meanwhile, added 119,000 broadband customers in the quarter, taking its total customer base to 2.6 million.

TalkTalk’s average revenue per broadband user was £23.90, slightly up on a year ago. TalkTalk, which bought rival Tiscali a year ago, said its share of net broadband adds was about 10% this quarter, keeping it on track to add 140,000 to 180,000 customers over the year as a whole.

Revenues climbed 31% in the quarter to £444m, broadly in line with expectations.

The company said it remained confident it would deliver 6-8% revenue growth, and 20% growth in normalised earnings per share and dividends per share for the year to 31 March 2011.

Vodafone, meanwhile, has a number of other wholesale deals which allow companies to use its network to become what are termed mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). It provides network coverage for BT, Asda and Lebara, which targets the UK’s immigrant population.

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(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, consumer, contract, deal, Deals, free, growth, largest, line, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, months, new, phone, phones, prices, service, tariff, tariffs, three, tmobile, uk, venture, virgin, vodafone

Up to 4 million downloads

An Android wallpaper application that collected data from users’ phones and uploaded it to a site in China was downloaded “millions of times”, according to mobile security firm Lookout.…

Free On-Demand Webcast – Virtualizing the Hard Stuff

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(Source The Register)

Tags: all, android, free, mobile, phone, phones, source the register

HSC to offer SIM-free BlackBerry Pearl 3G to dealers, supported by marketing package and exchange programme HSC has said it will be the first distributor to launch a SIM-free version of the BlackBerry Pearl 3G into the dealer community. The phone will be accompanied by exclusive marketing packs for dealers including point-of-sale and merchandise packs [...]

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(Source Mobile News CWP)

Tags: 3, Blackberry, deal, free, marketing, mobile, Mobile News, new, phone, sim

A crisp, bright screen makes this smartphone appealing – but Samsung’s new in-house operating system doesn’t

What is it? Samsung Wave GT-S8500 – the first device to run Samsung operating system Bada

Category: Hardware and software, given the newsworthy nature of operating systems these days..

You’d use it for… On the move, personal or business. It’s not going to intrude on BlackBerry’s ground as leading high-performance business mobile device, but the Wave sits happily as a phone suited to staying up to speed while on the move.

First impressions: what is it like to look at, to hold, to use? Perfectly good look and feel to the phone, a sturdy but slender shell encasing a fairly high-spec bit of mobile kit. It’s when you activate the screen things start to go downhill.

The home screen – quite separate from the screen of apps – has six iterations as you swipe your finger right-to-left, inching across a background of some picturesque eastern European town square.

Each of these five modules is for housing a quick access single widget – but the access isn’t so quick after four or five swipes of the finger. Navigating from the home screen to your downloaded apps directory takes another click. Granted, the software is snappy and quickly responsive, but these things all pile up in the “pointless” file.

And you can’t swipe up to the URL bar in the browser, forcing you instead to press an on-screen button. Seems needless.

What does it really do well? Mobile internet has a well-suited clean font, made all the more appealing by the crisp super AMOLED screen. Put the Wave side-by-side with an iPhone 4 and a 3G – you’ll see the difference. FYI: guardian.co.uk looks better on a Wave than a 3G.

Keyboard keys appear far too close together, but typing seems to work fine if not more usable than on the iPhone. When browsing the web, pinching zooms are clunky and not instantaneously responsive.

Video playback is impressive, on the eyes and the ears. Creating media is a good experience too, the 5MP camera shooting strong video and stills taking allowing nifty features like user-directed focus.

What’s the cost? Around £300 sim-free; a 24-month contract, free handset, will set you back between £25-£45 per month.

What’s it up against? A smartphone market with less wiggle room than the App Store. It’s a relatively ruthless market out there for high-end devices, software increasing in consumer importance at a rate of knots.

With Bada, Samsung is late to the party and forgot to invite its marketing muscle. For this reason alone, Wave falls short of the majority of recently-released Android devices – Samsung have plenty of work to do before the release of Bada-powered Wave 2.

Blind us with the tech specs, then: Quite a few headline tech specs come with the Wave: the 5MP video/still camera will draw the punters – 5x zoom for stills and 720p video recording make the feature more than adequate; the Super AMOLED screen is a turn on, but likely only to the techies.

As light as any iPhone, the Wave is slimmer but only at a stitch. At 3.3 inch, the Wave screen limits its viability as a comfortable-to-use mobile internet device. With 2GB internal memory as standard, most users will require a MicroSD card (up to 32GB capacity).

What’s it good for? Taking and sharing decent-quality stills. It would be good for accomplishing tasks quickly if there weren’t so many naggingly bad points of user experience making pretty much any task an exertion.

What are its failings? One word: Bada. A few more words: the cramped feeling while using SMS, the uneconomic use of the 3.3 inch screen made worse by the majority of the screen having a black (or very dark) background even when running apps.

Will I have to read the manual? Does anyone still read manuals? If new to Samsung, you may need to Google “Help! I’ve accidentally locked my Samsung Wave – what now?”

How long is the battery life? With its 3G signal sensor turned off, the battery will last you over 24 hours from full – more than can be said for any iPhone before 4.

What’s its USP? The Wave’s USP would have to be the Super AMOLED screen which, on this score alone, puts it near top of the class for smartphones. That said, I don’t know one single person who’s been sold a phone on screen specifications – and it’s not great marketing fodder either.

Rating out of 10: 6.5

Finally, is it worth it – yes or no? Not at the current price. There are countless devices (and countless yet to be released) doing a better job and with a better operating system. Don’t hold out for the Wave 2.

Rating: 3/5

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(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, android, App Store, Blackberry, card, consumer, contract, free, gadget, gadgets, google, iphone, line, marketing, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, phone, phones, released, review, room, sam, samsung, sim, sol, uk

HSC to offer SIM-free BlackBerry Pearl 3G to dealers, supported by exclusive marketing package HSC has said it will be the first distributor to launch a SIM-free version of the BlackBerry Pearl 3G into the dealer community. The phone will be accompanied by exclusive marketing packs for dealers including point-of-sale and merchandise packs designed to [...]

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(Source Mobile News CWP)

Tags: 3, Blackberry, deal, free, marketing, mobile, Mobile News, new, phone, sim

Download and enjoy the free Mobile News podcast, produced by TheFonecast.com.

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(Source Mobile News CWP)

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