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Ban still looms despite temporary truce after BlackBerry maker RIM grants authorities access to ‘secure’ data passed between devicesAfter weeks of standoff between south Asia and North America, the Indian authorities yesterday won limited access to data from BlackBerry smartphones. The 800,000 users of the devices in the country had been threatened with a blackout because of the Delhi government’s growing fear that militants could use the BlackBerry’s secure network to plot terror attacks without fear of being monitored.The authorities can now get access to some data. The arrangement will be evaluated for 60 days, but the prospect of a ban still looms large for Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian company behind the smartphones.India has also opened up a front against Google and Skype. The home secretary, GK Pillai, said the internet companies were being asked to set up servers in India so that the authorities there could monitor data.India’s moves underline the anxieties of emerging governments about the reach of western communications groups, and particularly the BlackBerry.The United Arab Emirates is threatening to block BlackBerry services by 11 October if it does not get access to encrypted messages. Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon are also reviewing the future of BlackBerry services in their countries; all cite security fears over the level of encryption afforded to communication sent between devices.However, this strategy risks alienating the very global businesses such countries are trying to attract, because the employees of multinationals increasingly rely upon BlackBerrys to conduct their day-to-day work.RIM’s problems – its shares have fallen to a 17-month low – lie in the way BlackBerry devices get access to the internet and email through secure centres around the world using specialist encryption.BlackBerry’s Messenger instant-messaging service and its email service have different levels of security, and email security depends on the server being used. Since the BlackBerry was launched 11 years ago, it has been the mobile phone of choice for business users and governments across the world. But RIM’s reputation for producing apparently impenetrable security for high-profile customers is at risk of being irreparably damaged by these new demands.Last Thursday, RIM said it would lead an industry forum on how to allow law-enforcement agencies to get access to communication networks while not encroaching on the security needs of private enterprises. That was all well and good, Indian government sources told Reuters, but the country wanted a technical solution – and quickly. “The government’s position does not change,” the source said. “We are hopeful [RIM] will come up with some solution.”Risk that RIM will lose users’ trustThe problem for RIM is that if it gains governments’ trust by giving them the means to see messages, it will probably lose the trust – and perhaps the business – of users who have previously relied on its security as a way of avoiding the government’s gaze.A university professor in UAE, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the Guardian: “The issue has received a lot of coverage in the UAE, but nothing compared to the conversation ‘on the ground’. Since virtually every Emirati aged 17 to 40 owns a BlackBerry and uses the messenger feature constantly, this has been of great concern to them.”I’d guess that around 30% accept this is for security reasons, while the rest believe it to be, at the least, intrusive. The latter believe it to be a response to a number of fairly high-profile Emiratis being attacked, derided, vilified via the messenger broadcast service. Emiratis send many broadcasts daily, and gossip runs through the community like wildfire.”One of the biggest issues for the countries concerned is this messenger broadcast function. Allowing users to send one-to-many messages to everyone in their contacts book has proved an effective and galvanising way of spreading comment, and is often used as a vehicle for anti-establishment opinion – something UAE authorities are sensitive about. “The government walks a very thin line between appearing liberal and modern to the west, and traditional and Islamic at home,” the professor said. “This issue cuts to the heart of the impossibility of doing both at once.The professor, who has owned a BlackBerry for more than a year, said he would have no qualms in switching to another device if RIM’s concessions infringed his right to communicate without fear of government interception. “I can only presume RIM is aware of this and is treading carefully,” he said. “I have faith in the company, as it clearly does little for them to give up what makes the device so valuable – its security.”He added: “This has been called another public relations disaster for the UAE, and I fail to see how someone will not point this out to the rulers – and they are exceptionally concerned with remaining attractive in the eyes of western governments,” he added. “This has done them no favours with the business community internationally nor with the majority of locals and expats domestically.”Falling foul of authorityBeing on the wrong side of officialdom is not new to the Canadian manufacturer. Ironically, given the more recent bout of security concerns, three years ago the French government banned its officials from using BlackBerry devices, citing fears that communication could be intercepted by countries hosting the enterprise servers – namely Canada, the US and the UK. When Barack Obama took office in January 2009, the BlackBerry he had used on the campaign trail was replaced with one with extra security, approved by the US National Security Agency, which was concerned about people trying to tap it.Further east, security demands meant negotiations to take the BlackBerry to China and Russia took two years to resolve in both countries.Unlike Indian officials, who have slipped anonymous tidbits and soundbites to the news agencies, RIM has remained tight-lipped about its negotiations. In a rare public statement addressed to customers earlier this month, the Canadian manufacturer said it co-operated with all governments to a consistent level: “Any claims that we provide, or have ever provided, something unique to the government of one country that we have not offered to the governments of all countries, are unfounded.”The complexity and range of security solutions offered by RIM may be the source of the company’s friction with governments, said Leif-Olof Wallin, vice-president of the IT research company Gartner. “What seems to be the big challenge is that lots of BlackBerry service and infrastructure is not very well understood by the regulatory authorities or by its users,” Wallin said. “Although physically it is the same device, it can be used in lots of different scenarios.”Financially, Wallin said, a ban in India would have negligible impact on RIM’s global business, although the country was the second-largest mobile phone market in the world behind China. And RIM would emerge less tarnished than the countries involved.Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that there will be more than 600,000 BlackBerry sales in India this year and that India’s smartphone market will have reached approximately 12m – a figure forecast to grow to 40m by the end of 2015.”At the very last minute there will be an agreement in place,” Wallin predicted. “Banning BlackBerry devices in the country has significant implications affecting foreign diplomats, foreign enterprise executives. It would be a major inconvenience to lots of important allies.”Monitoring messages on a case-by case basisThat is not to say that the Indian or UAE governments will be given free rein to tap emails or messenger messages. “Our interpretation of RIM’s public statements is that the company is willing to facilitate mobile operators to lawfully intercept some messages,” said Wallin.”And BlackBerry will – on a case-by-case basis – be assisting network operators to decrypt BlackBerry Messenger, we think. With email between the BlackBerry and BlackBerry Enterprise Server, RIM simply does not have the capabilities to decrypt it, and the encryption key is unique to each user.”Though some of our clients are worried about what to do in case a ban is put in place, it looks like BlackBerry [manufacturer RIM] is benefiting from this as they’re not caving in – they’re being perceived as an honest secure company.”Gail Thompson, owner of a landscaping company based in Dubai and a BlackBerry owner, said the ill thought-out warnings were not atypical of Emirates officials. “I’m expecting them to backpedal on it,” Thompson said. “I’m anticipating that [the authorities will] issue a blanket mandate, then realise that it’s unworkable – that’s what I’m I’m hoping. I think they’ve had a kneejerk reaction to things.”They need to take into account that business people are coming into the country and [the UAE doesn't] need another hurdle in the economy,” Thompson said. “People are thinking that it’s ludicrous – we all understand that our emails and calls are monitored, it’s just part of our lives. I just think it’s a cultural thing out there.”But that thinking is not shared by all of UAE’s half a million BlackBerry users.A teacher who has lived in the region for 10 years and wished to remain anonymous said she would blame RIM “for caving into demands that compromise people’s privacy” if the manufacturer facilitated greater access to their emails.”There is no alternative but switching to another device,” she said. “If [RIM] allowed the government to intercept messages, I wouldn’t be sending you this email.”BlackBerryData and computer securityMobile phonesIndiaJosh Hallidayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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Heard of Silicon Street? It’s Paul Street, in central London – just round the corner from Silicon Roundabout and a cousin of Silicon Fen… and it’s where messaging service HulloMail is based.Founded in 2008 with seed funding from venture capital, the service has 25 staff and claims phenomenal growth in the past six months with more than 150,000 downloads. Next on the to-do list is a co-branded smartphone version for mobile operators that, hopes chief executive Andy Munarriz, will open the service to millions of users. • What’s your pitch?”We answer your phone when you can’t, sending messages left by the caller straight to your phone – you can play it back as if it where a music track on your iPod. It also tells you when someone called you but did not leave a message. You can see all your voicemails in one single list with a photo of the person next to each message – this saves you time as you can play each messages by simply selecting it. You don’t have to make a call and listen to the person telling you who called, when they called and then wait to hear the messages in the order they were left. It’s much less frustrating! “We have another a cool feature that lets you send a voicemail without having to call that person. Press record, leave your message and then send – it’s is quick and free. “HulloMail is a cloud-based service. Users sign-up by downloading the mobile app from the relevant marketplace (currently Android, BlackBerry and iPhones in the UK, USA and soon Ireland). Part of the sign-up process sets your mobile divert to our cloud answer service (voicemail, in layman’s speak). We then have the ability to answer your phone calls when you don’t – essentially, we replace your mobile operator voicemail service. When someone leaves you a message, we then push it directly to the HulloMail mobile app on the phone and also to your email, so you can play it directly from your device or as an MP3 attachment. “Finally, we let you send new and reply-to voice messages to your contacts without having to make a physical call. These messages are called Hullos – short voice messages you can send directly to fellow HulloMail users or anyone with an email address.” • How do you make money?”We make most of our money from technology licenses and services, but this will shift to revenue from co-branded cloud-based services for consumers, in conjunction with mobile operators. We also expect the consumer services to pay for themselves when we launch paid-for advanced features from autumn 2010.” • How are you surviving the downturn?”We are keeping focused and not overextending ourselves. We are lucky that smartphones are still selling like hotcakes and users are hungry for apps.” • What’s your background?”My background is in software and systems design. I consider myself a technologist with a passion of user interface design. “I’ve worked for 20 years in software and telecoms. I also founded VoxSurf in 1999, which pioneered the world’s first web and open standards-based call completion and messaging platform. This is currently deployed to 35 million users globally. I previously worked for companies such as Accenture and Sprint, specialising in the design, development and installation of service delivery platform architectures to a number of industries. This ranged from phone banking to field force management. I’ve also authored several mobile web and messaging technology patents.” • What makes your business unique?”Being the ‘son of VoxSurf’, HulloMail is in a sweet spot of having large-scale services deployed with mobile operators and now a consumer focus of our own in one of their core service areas. I believe this is a unique and fresh combination in the industry today and places us in a very good position to modernise voice messaging services as a consumer brand. Our strategy to scale the business is to offer mobile operators a co-branded HulloMail. We are extremely focussed and good at what we do so our goal is to work with mobile operators in a fresh way to help deliver a service that people want. “We are passionate about providing consumer-led innovation as opposed to simply delivering technology for technology-focused solutions, which is what I believe many traditional vendors currently present to mobile operators.” • What has been your biggest achievement so far?”We licensed our technology to one of the largest telco vendors in our space that continues to use it as the basis of one of their successful platforms today. I cut the code of the prototype for what became our technology platform over a two-week holiday. It still puts a smile on my face when I think of it.” • Who in the tech business inspires you?”In business James Dyson inspires me. I would imagine that telling VCs you have re-invented the Hoover must have been as hard as telling VCs you have re-invented voicemail. He had to go to Japan to prove a point. I’ve been luckier – I only had to nip over to Ireland. “Steve Jobs and his Apple team turned mobile on its head. Despite the negative vibe on their walled garden approach, it is thanks to Apple that companies like HulloMail could prove a mobile concept directly with consumers. Only five years ago it was impossible to deploy an app without getting involved with a device manufacturer and a mobile operator – the process length alone could kill the business.” • What’s your biggest challenge?”Scaling the business, by accelerating consumer growth.” • What’s the most important web tool that you use each day? “Email – I believe that email continues to be the killer app. However I use email too much and I should call people more often.” • Name your closest competitors”You have the traditional telco vendors such as an Ericsson or Comverse, or Acision selling messaging systems to the mobile operator. You also have the web-based guys such as Google and Google Voice. Neither of them offers mobile operators a web-based cloud model coupled with actual consumer demand for the product, like we do.” • Where do you want the company to be in five years?”As a recognised telco brand, which is deployed to millions of mobile users.” • Sell to Google, or be bigger than Google?”If I was a mobile operator focussing on differentiating my services, HulloMail would be a good option to enable a horizontal voice and video messaging strategy across multiple devices. Is there a mobile operator bigger than Google?” hullomail.com Internet startupsDigital mediaMobile phonesAppsJemima Kissguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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Tags: 10, 3, all, android, apple, Blackberry, closes, consumer, email, free, global, google, growth, iphone, largest, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, months, new, o sim, phone, phones, service, sim, sol, uk, venture, world

Police move to shut down criminal network suspected of global fraud using premium-rate phone lines and stolen iPhonesPolice have moved to shut down a criminal network suspected of running a complex global scam which made millions of pounds from UK mobile phone networks using stolen iPhones and premium-rate phone lines.Eight men and one woman were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud in a series of early morning raids across England today.Officers had been investigating a complex conspiracy where mobile phones were purchased using false identities, and then the SIM cards used to call premium-rate phone lines owned by people involved in the scam.City of London police detectives seized dozens of mobile phones, hundreds of SIM cards, thousands of pounds in cash and fake documentation from homes in Southend, Walsall, central Birmingham, Middlesbrough, and Forest Gate and Southall in London this morning.The raids followed a month-long investigation into a rapidly growing criminal conspiracy profiting from the theft and illegal use of almost 1,000 mobile phones – the vast majority of which were iPhones.SIM cards were removed from illegally obtained phones then shipped abroad and plugged into automatic dialling machines, which repeatedly called lines that charged up to £10 a minute and were owned by members of the conspiracy.The cards accrued enormous bills in a matter of weeks, which were paid by mobile phone networks, but when the companies contacted the registered owners they invariably found people who had fallen victim to identity fraud.O2 was one of the networks hit by the scam, and had £1.2m stolen through premium phone lines in July alone. They contacted police with the results of their own investigation and worked in partnership with detectives from the City of London police – the national lead force for fraud – to uncover an elaborate and expensive fraud.Police now believe a gang of West Africans bought mobile phones on contracts from high street stores using false identities and stolen or fraudulent credit cards.The gang predominantly targeted iPhones for their high resale value. Once the phones were purchased they were sold to a middleman, believed to be based in Birmingham, who would split the SIM cards and handsets before selling the phones to criminal contacts abroad.The SIM cards were then sold to a gang based in London and Essex who were involved in running the premium phoneline scam.Police arrested several members of the gang, all of whom are of Pakistani origin, at homes in Forest Gate, Southall and Southend this morning.They are suspected of setting up a complex network of shell companies to launder the profits from the premium phone lines and hide their identities.At one home in Forest Gate, police found hundreds of SIM cards, £15,000-worth of iPhones still in their boxes, 20 bank cards and several fake passports. At another property they uncovered hundreds of letters that had been prepared to try to con people out of their savings with a promise of a lottery win, a scam known as a 419 con.Investigators have traced the stolen handsets and SIM cards all over the world, including several countries in the Middle East, continental Europe and Vietnam.Police are now hunting to find out where the profits went, as many of those involved lived “under the radar” in council houses with few obvious assets, apart from relatively expensive cars.Detective superintendent Bob Wishart said officers had struck at “a highly sophisticated criminal network” that had been targeting the telecommunications industry and stealing millions of pounds.”Our investigation found a crime gathering momentum,” he said.”Each month more SIM cards were being used to make more phone calls to premium-rate lines at more expense to the network provider.”The criminal exploitation of the latest consumer technology is a recurring theme of our work.”Our collaboration with O2 on this investigation highlights the benefits of how the private sector can work with the police to proactively target common threats to our communities.”Adrian Goreham, responsible for tackling fraud at O2, said: “This was a sophisticated and organised attempt to defraud mobile phone operators.”We are committed to reducing mobile phone crime and have a dedicated team that monitors and investigates such attempted criminal activity.”CrimeMobile phonesiPhoneAdam Gabbattguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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Tags: 10, all, card, consumer, contract, global, iphone, latest, line, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, networks, new, o2, phone, phones, sim, Sim Card, sol, test, uk, world

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global stocks slid and the U.S. dollar strengthened on Thursday after weakness in the American jobs market sapped the appetite for risk, driving gold to its biggest one-day gain in more than two months.

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Apple’s iPad is a ‘game changer’, says Rupert Murdoch – but Samsung is about to become its first serious competitor and others will not be far behindWhen Rupert Murdoch announced last week that Apple’s iPad was a “game changer” and would lead to hundreds of millions of so-called tablet computers being sold globally, it was not just the media world that nodded sagely in agreement. The technology industry is also gearing up for a world in which the desktop PC, laptop computer and smartphone are joined by a fourth member of the home computing family.With the same market foresight and cutting edge design that enabled it to revolutionise the smartphone market with the iPhone, Apple has given itself a commanding lead in this new market. But the iPad is about to have several new competitors, some of which will be made by companies that have scores to settle with Apple boss Steve Jobs, having seen him usurp their place in the mobile phone market.It is the very success that Apple had in the smartphone market and the reaction it has produced – especially from Google – that means Jobs will not enjoy the sort of lengthy market lead with the iPad that he has enjoyed with the iPhone.It is three years since the iPhone first appeared and only in recent months have serious competitors arrived. But with one of the first real alternatives to the iPad expected to be unveiled tomorrow in New York by Samsung, there will soon be devices able to compete with and perhaps even better Apple’s product.Speaking to Wall Street analysts as his News Corp empire announced its financial results on Wednesday, Murdoch said: “I think we’re going to see, around the world, hundreds and hundreds of millions of these [tablet] devices” and they are going to change the way that people consume the content created by his media businesses.”Murdoch himself reckons Apple will sell about 15m iPads this year and more than 40m by 2012, with more being made by other manufacturers. But estimates for the potential size of the market vary wildly. One thing is certain, these estimates will be wrong.A couple of months before the iPad launched, ABI Research estimated that 4m could be shipped this year, rising to 57m a year by 2015. But on the run-rate reached since the device launched in the US in April, Apple should exceed 4m this month. At the start of the year, research house Gartner reckoned 4m tablets would be sold this year – including the iPad. After the iPad’s success that estimate is now 14m.To put this into perspective, the tablet market is still small compared with the PC and the mobile phone markets. Sticking with Gartner’s figures, the 14m tablets in 2010 compares with an estimate of 1.4bn mobile phones and 366m personal computers.In financial terms, Generator Research reckons by 2014 Apple’s iPad business will be worth more than $17bn (£11bn), while the worldwide smartphone market will be worth $65bn and the laptop market $195bn.But while the figures for tablet computers may be comparatively small, the technology industry reckons tablets will fundamentally shape the way that consumers interact with digital content in the future. Getting in on the ground floor, so to speak, is crucial.As with so many technology fads, the industry has been here before. A decade ago, Bill Gates unveiled the Tablet PC and the following year told the Microsoft faithful that the new device would become the most popular form of PC within five years. Five years later, Microsoft was still trying. It teamed up with Intel and Samsung for Project Origami to work on smaller handheld digital media and gaming devices. They also failed to capture the public’s imagination.Apple, however, has got its timing right. Whether by luck or judgment, the iPad has emerged during a confluence of events. The ubiquity of broadband internet access in the developed world has created a generation of web users who want instant access and interactivity with media, from music and film to books and newspapers. The media industry, meanwhile, is desperate to move away from the mere “digitisation” of its traditional product so it fits on a PC screen and is ready to experiment with new formats. As the media industry explores new ways of creating content in order to generate new revenues, a tablet represents a perfect half-way house between the sit-forward world of the keyboard-based PC – where online advertising has so patently failed to deliver revenues – and the passive sit-back world of traditional circulation and display advertising-based print media.The iPhone and its host of imitators, meanwhile, have got consumers accustomed to the idea of using touch as their main point of interaction with content, rather than a keyboard and a mouse. Finally, the arrival of operating systems designed specifically for touch-based smartphones means manufacturers have something ready to use, rather than having to shoehorn into their tablet computers pared-down but still bulky “mobile” versions of PC operating systems.After the arrival of Apple’s iOS, when the first iPhone appeared, Google realised the mobile phone industry could not be relied on to create a viable competing software platform on its own. So it created its own operating system, Android.This year, sales of Android devices have already overtaken sales of iPhones in the US and sales in the UK are already up more than 300% as the result of just one new device, the HTC Desire. Worldwide, Android is expected to overtake iOS in terms of global smartphone shipments during 2012, according to forecasts from iSuppli. The company reckons Android will be used in 75m smartphones at this point, up from 5m last year, while iOS usage will be 62m units, up from 25m.Now Android is headed for the tablet market. The two biggest names in communications and software are both still lagging behind. Microsoft is unclear whether tablets should use its Windows 7 software – which does support touch – or base devices on its Windows Phone software, while Nokia has turned to Intel for help in creating new tablet software under the MeeGo brand.BlackBerry, meanwhile, has upgraded its software for touch and looks ready to explore tablets, while Hewlett-Packard recently bought Palm, which will provide it with a solid software base for the next generation of smartphones and tablets.”How long did it take for competitors to compete with the iPhone?” asks Carolina Milanesi, from Gartner’s mobile devices team. “You are talking three years. But with the tablet I really do not think that is going to be the case. A lot of the things that took time in the smartphone market are already there in tablets. We continue to see Apple dominating the segment for the next three years or so but you will see devices that are very close to the iPad very quickly.”iPadTablet computersAppleTechnology sectoriPhoneMobile phonesRichard Wrayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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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.

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A report released today shows that the UK is lagging behind the most advanced
countries in the world in terms of broadband speed.

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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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Tags: 10, 3, all, android, apple, apple iphone, consumer, contract, global, google, HTC, iphone, marketing, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, months, new, phone, phones, sam, samsung, sim, sol, uk

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)

Tags: 10, 3, all, apple, drive, global, growth, iphone, largest, line, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, months, new, phone, phones, service, sol, three, uk, vodafone, world

• Quarterly figures show steep like-for-like decline
• Underlying profits also down 27%
• Sales rise 1% but handset prices are cut

Profits at Nokia have plunged over the last three months as the company continues to struggle against rivals such as Apple and RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, in the smartphone market.

The Finnish handset maker reported today that profits fell 40% in the second quarter of 2010 compared with a year ago. Underlying profits were down 27%.

Although net sales were 1% higher at just over €10bn (£8.4bn), the profitability of its handset and service division slipped as the company cut the prices of its higher-end phones to make them more attractive to consumers.

Nokia’s failure to compete better against Apple’s iPhone and the growing number of handsets running Google’s Android platform has put chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo in the firing line. The company is reportedly looking for a replacement, with analysts warning that Nokia needs to get its hands on a “European Steve Jobs” if it is to regain its dominant position in the mobile market.

Kallasvuo called for an end to speculation over his future, telling the US television station CNBC that it is damaging the company. “There has been a lot of speculation on my position, on myself, during the last couple of weeks and that is not good for Nokia and must be brought to an end one way or another,” Kallasvuo said. “At the same time, I’m not in a position here and now to really shed any more light on the topic so I guess this is a no comment. I really concentrate now on the task at hand.”

Kallasvuo also insisted today that Nokia, which makes roughly four out of every 10 phones sold worldwide, had reasons to be optimistic, although the company is only aiming to maintain its share of the mobile device market this year. “The global handset market has continued to grow at a healthy pace, led by some of the less mature markets where Nokia is strong,” he said.

Kallasvuo added that solid sales of cheaper phones to developing markets had boosted the overall performance of Nokia’s handset business.

The average selling price of a Nokia handset dropped to €61 (£52), from €62 in the previous quarter. For smartphones, average prices fell 8% quarter-on-quarter to €143, and are down 21% over the last year.

Today’s figures suggest that Nokia is having to cut smartphone prices to maintain market share at the expense of profitability. Its smartphone shipments were up by 12% quarter-on-quarter at 24m units, in line with Nokia’s estimate for the overall growth of the market.

The company is now pinning its fortunes on the new Nokia N8 smartphone, although its release has already been delayed until later in the year.

Nokia also maintained its prediction that the global handset market volume would grow by 10% this year.

Earlier this week, Apple reported its best ever quarter, partly due to strong demand for the iPhone.

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(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 12, 3, all, android, apple, best, Blackberry, cheaper, compare, compared, consumer, global, google, growth, iphone, line, maker, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, months, new, nokia, phone, phones, prices, sam, service, sol, station, three, uk, world

Industry experts have heavily criticised the decision to delay the rollout of
universal broadband by three years, likening it to giving the UK no more than
dial-up technology compared with its global competitors.

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(Source Yahoo UK News)

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Sony Ericsson is to close its Farnborough base and move 45 staff to its global headquarters in Hammersmith, London, by the start of next year as part of €880 million ‘transformation programme’

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(Source Mobile News CWP)

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Sony Ericsson is to shut its Farnborough base and move 45 staff to its global headquarters in Hammersmith, west London by the start of next year as part of its transformation programme

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(Source Mobile News CWP)

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LONDON (Reuters) – Speech-recognition software maker Nuance is launching software apps for the Apple iPhone in Britain as the company grows more confident that its voice-to-text technology is ready for global markets.

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(Source Yahoo UK News)

Tags: apple, apple iphone, global, iphone, maker, new, phone, uk

Growing speculation on the future of Apple’s iPhone 4 has hit the company where it hurts – and its reputation is also on the line

Apple shares dived by 4% last night, cutting $9.9bn (£6.5bn) off its $230bn value after speculation grew that the company would have to recall or issue hardware fixes for the new iPhone 4.

The fall follows a report by the independent American testing organisation Consumer Reports which said reception problems meant it could not recommend the device.

Apple was accused of censorship by removing discussions about the negative Consumer Reports evaluation from its official message boards over the weekend, though it seems now to have relented.

A number of PR experts contacted by Cult of Mac blog yesterday said a recall of the iPhone 4 was “inevitable,” comparing the situation to Toyota’s global recall of its hybrid cars earlier this year.

Yet others including Marco Arment, lead developer of Tumblr and Instapaper, say that a wholesale recall would be a step too far, but that Apple needs to “replace, redesign, or relocate the proximity sensor” – which tells the phone when it is close to the user’s head or hand and changes its radio output and screen brightness accordingly.

UK consumer watchdog Which? told the Guardian that although it had done initial tests on the iPhone 4 proximity sensor – finding that the screen is “disabled” the closer to your head the phone is held – it would carry out a “more comprehensive” review of the device in the near future.

Others have suggested that Apple should give owners free rubber “bumpers” – sold for $29 (£25 in the UK) – which fit around the edge of the phone, ostensibly to protect it from damage, but which also cut the signal loss that is at the core of the dispute.

But for Apple to do that would be tantamount to admitting that the device has a design problem, which could open it up to class action lawsuits from aggrieved buyers.

Apple has tended to decline recalling products that have had design issues, preferring to deal on a limited basis where people complain. Earlier this week it quietly announced that it would replace faulty versions of its Time Capsule backup product, after thousands of them failed after just 18 months. When a number of its iBook computers were found to have faulty soldering in 2007 by a Danish consumer investigation, it did not issue a recall.

Apple UK had no comment this morning on whether it will be making any announcements about the iPhone. UK Consumers’ Association magazine Which? said that it intended to test the phone “soon”.

Despite the fall in the technology company’s share price, it remains the largest on the US stock market, ahead of long-term rival Microsoft. And although Consumer Reports did not “recommend” the iPhone 4, other commentators have pointed out that it still ranks it highest among the smartphones it has tested – and that its second-ranked smartphone is the iPhone 3GS, the predecessor to the latest version.

Even with a growing clamour from users and testers who have discovered that the phone’s reception seems to drop off abruptly when they position their hand around the left side, the company has remained almost silent – except for a statement on Friday 2 July, when it put out a “letter” a week after the phone’s release in which it said that the dropoff in reception was due to a “simple and surprising” mistake in every iPhone’s software which meant that it overstated signal strength in weak reception.

Although the launch on 28 June saw 1.7m iPhone 4s sold in the first three days, the most successful yet of the annual refreshments to the model, it has proved to be a continual headache for Apple.
The first issue to appear was the discoloration of the high-quality “retina display“, which appears to be linked to the adhesive used to bond the glass and display together.

But the major woe for consumers has been the signal issues. Testers at Consumer Reports said that holding the iPhone at the bottom left-hand corner causes the signal to decay significantly.

Despite Apple’s low-key suggestion that there is nothing wrong with the phone, it is understood that staff on its warranty service AppleCare have been advising customers to buy a case or hold the phone in a different way.

Consumer Reports has held off recommending the iPhone 4, despite it gaining a higher rating than all other smart phones they have evaluated.

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(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, 3gs, all, apple, blog, consumer, deal, free, global, HD, iphone, iphone 3gs, largest, latest, line, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, months, new, phone, phones, review, service, sim, smart phone, sol, test, three, uk

Broadband networks are as vital to the world’s economic and social future as
transport, water or power, according to the United Nations-backed Broadband
Commission for Digital Development.

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(Source Yahoo UK News)

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Reuters’ head of mobile Ilicco Elia has linked up journalists and bloggers, as well as bringing social media to the news giant

Job: global head of mobile, Reuters Consumer Media, Thomson Reuters
Age: 39
Industry: digital media
New entry

As news giant Reuters’ global head of mobile, Ilicco Elia is responsible for getting news to people on the move. Elia has looked to pioneer a new relationship between professional journalists and bloggers, sharing technology and incorporating social media techniques into its newsgathering operation.

A Reuters veteran at the age of 39 – he joined the company in 1990 after studying civil engineering at Manchester University – Elia has helped change the way consumers receive mobile multimedia news with Reuters’ news apps.

He has also worked closely with journalists and bloggers to help them adopt new digital technology and techniques in the field, as well as inviting prominent bloggers and Twitter users to Reuters’ social media events such as election news conferences with the three party leaders.

“You might not know the name but he makes things happen,” said our panel.

“Ilicio Elia has championed how important it is for traditional journalists to work with bloggers. He sees the blogosphere as a laboratory for the future of mobile journalism – just as the principles of journalism filter through to the bloggers, so their innovative techniques filter back to Reuters.

“His is a presence behind all facets of mobile technology.”

Elia is responsible for the strategy and production of Reuters’ portfolio of mobile websites, applications and alerts, including the development of the Thomson Reuters News Pro applications and Reuters Galleries, and has established partnerships with mobile carriers and manufacturers worldwide.

His mobile journalism project with Nokia enabled journalists to publish multimedia stories direct to the Reuters wires and website.

Elia has had a variety of roles in his 20 years at the company, including corporate brand manager, head of online experience for Reuters.com and experience manager for Reuters next-generation trading products.

He oversees a team of product managers in New York, Mumbai and Tokyo and works with development teams in North America, London and China and sales teams in New York and London.

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(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, blog, consumer, global, line, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, nokia, phone, phones, three, twitter, uk, world

The chief executive of the search giant believes smartphones will empower the poor and is the equivalent to the arrival of TV

Phenomenally successful, but also imitated, envied and feared – Google is the technological icon of our time. But is its ubiquity and influence a force for good?

Chief executive Eric Schmidt has no doubts. He tells the Guardian that Google has been instrumental in a generational shift in democratising information. “Over my lifetime, we are going to go from a small number of people having access to most of the world’s information, to virtually everybody in the world having access to virtually all of the world’s information,” he said. “That’s because of web search, cheap phones and automatic translation. That’s a pretty amazing achievement and Google is part of that.”

Yet with Google active in so many areas, from shopping to video and translation to music, its competitors are becoming more numerous and opponents more vociferous. Schmidt admits: “We try to do everything … We don’t shake off the big goals.”

In an interview ahead of his keynote presentation at the Guardian’s Activate Summit on Thursday, he makes it clear Google is positioning itself for the future through mobile, with the development of its Android mobile system and with subsequent Google-branded handsets. He is keener to talk about this area than the battle with newspaper groupss such as News International, whose paywall model is partly based on what it considers Google’s parasitical attitude to original content.

The mobile battle pitches the three biggest tech firms against each other: Google, Apple and Microsoft. Analyst Gartner puts Android as the world’s fourth most-popular smartphone operating system in the first quarter of 2010 – ahead of Microsoft in a market it joined less than two years ago but behind Symbian (Nokia), Research in Motion (Blackberry) and Apple.

“I believe that the very best engineering is now going on the mobile devices — the hardest problems and the most clever solutions,” says Schmidt. “You know who the person is and where they are, and you don’t get that from a desktop app.” The 50,000 apps built for Android, mostly by third-party developers, cover almost every topic, but the one killer app is still Google itself, says Schmidt.

Schmidt describes how our online lives are now more personal, social and mobile. “When people are awake, they are now online, and that has a lot of implications for society and for Google,” he says. Google’s secret, he adds (though it’s not much of a secret), is that it can handle more data than its rivals because it has larger networks and data centres. Google in effect pulled its business from China earlier this year after moving the operation to Hong Kong, bypassingChina’s censorship regime. Google, whose company motto is “Do no evil” had been heavily criticised for its decision to do business in China and its rethink was welcomed by the industry. It also increased pressure on rivals who still operate there.

“Google doesn’t necessarily do things that other companies do. We have our own set of principles that we work hard on. In the China case, the decision was made not for revenue – it was about what we were willing to deal with. We want to be a good global citizen and we believe very strongly in the openness of information.”

Another key push from Google is encouraging governments to open information to the public, via formats that developers can build useful public services around. One recent victory for open data campaigners in the UK was Transport for London opening its travel data for commercial use, but the coalition government has indicated it may establish a broader public “right to data” that will have to be provided by local and national authorities.Schmidt says Google’s policy is to encourage governments to open their data to the public. The California-based company has teams helping to prepare “non web-resident” archives and databases for the web. “It is no longer acceptable online for government researchers to publish documents read by 500 people in printed form,” he says. “It needs to be web first.

Once that happens, there are lots of interesting things you can do to correlate real-time information, if that is what is needed, or put it on a map … government services are fundamentally about where people are, about what is going on in my town or my school.”

These projects are just as relevant in developing countries, where the introduction of smarter, cheaper phones has created a powerful network. How does Google help developing countries break through the digital divide, and ensure the opportunities of the web are open to all? “Hardware manufacturers are being incentivised to make higher volumes of lower-priced mobiles, and prices have fallen dramatically. But a young person now in pretty much any country, if they have a mobile device, can get access to pretty much all the world’s information and get it translated into their own language.”

Arriving at Google in 2001 after a career spent in Silicon Valley, Schmidt is still excited by its possibilities. “That’s a big news thing – that’s equivalent to the arrival of television.”

For more information on the Activate Summit, visit guardian.co.uk/activate

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(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, all, android, apple, best, Blackberry, cheaper, deal, global, google, government, line, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, networks, new, nokia, phone, phones, prices, service, sol, three, uk, world

Since the very first iPhone applications were downloaded from the Apple App Store in July 2008, the app economy has grown exponentially. As industry analysts forecast the four billionth App Store download, the world’s second-largest apps store quietly continues its upward trajectory.


Photo by thetechbuzz on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Not many people have heard of GetJar, but this month the four-year-old open-market store hit one billion app downloads and secured $11m in series B funding from venture capital firm Accel Partners.

GetJar differs from the Apple App Store and, for example, the Windows Mobile Marketplace because it hosts applications for a number of platforms and devices. This, the company insists, is what will ensure its continued growth in coming years.

And GetJar founder and chief executive Ilja Laurs isn’t one to mince his words on the company’s future. He said: “It’s hard to believe that six guys that set up the first beta testing community for mobile app developers would eventually transform into the world’s second largest app store with over 1bn downloads to date.

“We look forward to our continued partnership with Accel Partners and this new funding will be instrumental in taking GetJar to the next level in our business strategy for aggressive global expansion and product development.”

In January this year Gartner predicted 4.5b mobile apps would be downloaded in 2010, saying this would surpass 21.6billion by 2013.

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(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, App Store, apple, global, growth, iphone, largest, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, phone, phones, test, uk, venture, world

A small but important project has been taking place in London’s Tulse Hill for the past month, with nine young people being trained to developed apps that will benefit their communities.

Apps for Good is the latest scheme run by the Campaign for Digital Inclusion, which has been training young people in IT for 15 years reaching 1,500 in the UK so far. But the latest initiative by the non-profit organisation is to exploit the popularity of apps to involve young people in creating apps that could improve their communities.

Today is the graduation of the Apps for Good project. Nine young people between 17 and 26 have been working on app projects built on Google’s Android platform, with expert mentors from tech, mobile and startups guiding each team. Dell is supporting the project through its Youth Connect scheme.

CDI says the goal was to enable young people from low-income families to developer web and mobile apps for social change: “The key aim of the programme is to offer participants leading-edge problem-solving and technology skills based on Google’s Android platform to allow them to move on into education, employment or entrepreneurship.”

Stop & Search

Massive potential for this, and no small amount of power. Users, who will mostly be young people, detail their experiences of being stopped and searched by police including mapping the location, name and badge number of the officer and a sliding scale of how fair they felt their treatment was. The app also tells users their rights. Ultimately, the data from this app could build up a powerful record of any patterns in police stop and search, but the developers have already met the Metropolitan Police to discuss sharing feedback. “Our main aim was to help make stop and search more fair and help you know your rights.”

The trio were interviewed by the local Streatham Guardian last month, saying the idea was not to create something ‘anti-police; but to let young people feel more in control. All three have been stopped and searched. Download at the bottom of the page

Developers: Aaron Sonson, Satwant Singh Kenth and Gregory Paczowski

Studio Phly

The app helps aspiring musicians find studio space using and recording equipment based on those nearest to their location, and also acts as a noticeboard for studios who want to advertise to this audience. Download

Developers: Lemel Frank, Symon Morgan and Foyzul Hassan

Student Voice

Designed for students, the app will share recommendations and advice on London-based universities, lectures, tutors and also on clubs, libraries and local services. It gives universities a star rating, and students are incentivised to share their experience and advice through a rewards scheme. Users can also upload photos for each location. Download

Developers: Moses Sonson, Matthew Tanti and Carlos Mateus

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, android, blog, compare, comparemobiles.com, gadget, gadgets, global, google, latest, line, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, new, phone, phones, service, sol, test, three, uk