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Buy Mobile Phones have the Samsung Galaxy Portal I5700 available on 3’s £12 Internet Talker tariff, plus they’ll send you £15 automatic cash back.
The deal is subject to a 24 month contract and comes with 300 minutes per month, 500MB data, 300 texts, an extra 300 minutes to call other mobiles on 3 plus all of the other 3 Mobile benefits such as free Skype-to-Skype calls. It’s a hefty package for just £12 per month.
The Samsung Galaxy Portal I5700 is a touchscreen Android phone with a fast and powerful 800 MHz processor. Ideal for leisure and business users it supports HSDPA and Wi-Fi for fast web browsing when you are out and about, plus it has built-in GPS.
The capacitive 3 inch AMOLED display has a built in accelerometer which is great for viewing web pages, photos and videos. With expandable memory up to 16GB via a microSD card this smartphone is packed full of fantastic features.

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The move will speed up access for people using the site via iPhones or AndroidMobile users in the UK, Europe and Middle East can now access an HTML5 version of Google’s YouTube video site, speeding up access for those accessing it via iPhones, Android or other mobile devices with browsers able to render HTML5 video content.The launch comes as mobile use of the web is growing rapidly: Google says that YouTube’s mobile site, m.youtube.com, gets more than 100m video playbacks a day – roughly the number of daily views youtube.com was getting when being acquired by Google in 2006 – and every minute an hour of video is uploaded to the site from a mobile device. Mobile video playback also grew by 160% in 2009 on the previous year, along with an increase in adoption of devices able to stream video.The US version of the HTML5 site for mobiles was launched last month.Across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the UK consumes the most YouTube videos on mobile devices, followed by France, Italy, Netherlands and Switzerland.The original mobile version of YouTube launched in 2007, but relied on versions of Adobe’s Flash for playback – which was too taxing for most devices. Since then, the development of the HTML5 web standard, and of mobile browsers – notably WebKit, used by Apple in the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, and by Google in Android – able to play back embedded video content using the H.264 codec, rather than Flash’s usual Sorensen or VP6 codecs, has meant that HTML5 video use has become feasible.Google says the decision has been driven by the dramatic growth in mobile access to YouTube, which is more than doubling every year.Several short-form video sites are building players in HTML5: Vimeo brought out a hybrid HTML5 version of its player earlier this month, designed for better mobile playback. But when US-only TV and movie streaming site Hulu unveiled a major revamp of its display earlier this year, it did so using Adobe Flash, saying HTML5 “doesn’t meet our customers’ needs”.The use of HTML5 does not mean that Flash is shut out of YouTube’s mobile version: Adobe’s product can encode video in H.264 as well. But the growing use of desktop browsers such as Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari, which can render H.264 video – and with the forthcoming Internet Explorer 9 also offering it – poses a long-term question about Flash’s continued widespread use.Brightcove, the video hosting service for many media organisations, began offering an HTML5 version of its site in March this year. The New York Times and Time Inc were among the first media outlets to integrate it – allowing playback on Apple’s popular mobile devices, which do not use Flash.Closer to home, Erik Huggers, director of BBC future media & technology, recently defended the corporation from accusations that its widespread use of Flash – on the iPlayer, in particular – betrayed a commitment to open standards.”Our use of Flash is not a case of BBC favouritism, rather it currently happens to be the most efficient way to deliver a high quality experience to the broadest possible audience,” Huggers said, adding: “The fact is that there’s still a lot of work to be done on HTML5 before we can integrate it fully into our products. As things stand I have concerns about HTML5′s ability to deliver on the vision of a single open browser standard which goes beyond the whole debate around video playback.”Though the BBC does deliver H.264-encoded video to Apple mobile devices, it does not do that for Android devices, citing concerns about copying of content via the Android platform, and instead serves Flash-based video to them.However YouTube has said that HTML5 is still some way from becoming the new standard for streaming long-form video content, such as BBC iPlayer content. “While HTML5′s video support enables us to bring most of the content and features of YouTube to computers and other devices that don’t support Flash Player, it does not yet meet all of our needs,” said John Hardin, software engineer at YouTube, in a blogpost published in June. “Today, Adobe Flash provides the best platform for YouTube’s video distribution requirements, which is why our primary video player is built with it.”Microsoft has put its eggs in the HTML5 basket with next year’s release of its internet Explorer 9 browser. Ryan Gavin, Microsoft’s senior director of internet Explorer, said in May this year: “We’re all in on HTML5. We’ve been co-chairing the HTML5 working group, and we’re actually leading the HTML5 testing group.”YouTubeHTML5Mobile phonesSoftwareComputingTelecomsInternetJosh Hallidayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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(Source The Guardian)

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Facebook will unveil its new location features at an event in Palo Alto late tonight, our time. The site has been working on these features for months, enabling ‘places’ tags to video and audio back in March and, no doubt, carefully watching the surge in use of services like Foursquare and Gowalla. Both have built significant traction with audiences but are also building partnerships with fairly enthusiastic venues, who benefit from very explicit near real-time information about their most committed customers. And customers, in turn, get discounts and prizes if they check in the most. Photo by _Yuki_K_ on Flickr. Some rights reservedNone of this will be lost on Facebook, who have also reportedly expressed interest in buying the lesser-known location-based service (LBS) Hot Potato.LBS is certainly one of the hottest topics in technology right now, and after years of promises and experimentation is finally starting to take off thanks to a combination of interest in casual gaming, improved and widespread GPS in mobiles and the rise of apps, which has brought these services to a new audience.But as well as needing to be seen to innovate in this area, Facebook’s interest is ultimately commercial. Those fledgling deals with venues and retailers have massive potential, picking up on the trend of downturn-friendly sites like Groupon that offer discounts to teams of well-organised consumers.Nearly one-third of Facebook’s traffic is generated from mobiles, so adding auto-geotagging from mobiles to photos and possibly status updates is probable. The site could tag any location mention in a status update, on a wall, in a photo album – any content on the site, in short – as well as any geo-tagged media posted to it.Location will be probably added to Facebook’s Platform for third-party developers, meaning Foursquare et al could plug in to Facebook’s userbase. Eventually, we can expect a standalone tab for location, probably a map visualising the locations of your friends – if not now, with the launch, then eventually once the backlash has died down.And that’s the most significant point. While the early adopters will be quite happy to play with this tool (and in fact wonder why it took Facebook so long) the wider public are still very uncomfortable with location features. That’s a natural part of the technology adoption process, and also a symptom of the shifting peception of what is acceptably private and what is acceptably public. We are heading towards open, but cautiously, and it is right that these services are scrutinised to make them as robust and safe as possible. You can imagine the headlines.Facebook knows that, and the only thing that matters about adding location data to Facebook profiles is how secure and uncomplicated the privacy settings are. One person’s ‘granularity’ is another person’s ‘complicated’, and Facebook had better hope users can turn privacy up to 11. I’d argue that of all the features Facebook has launched, and every  momentary backlash, this is by far the biggest opportunity for a serious balls up. That’s down to Facebook’s scale of half a billion people, the public’s discomfort with the commercial uses of their data (at least for those who care to think about it) and the uniquely risky implications of location services that go wrong. If they get it right, on the other hand, it could finally deliver the promise of location-based-services to the mainstream. In technology at least, that’s big news.FacebookSocial networkingSocial mediaLocation based servicesFoursquareGowallaMobile phonesDigital mediaJemima Kissguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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(Source The Guardian)

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Malware posing as movie player sends premium-rate text messages – but permission alert should protect careful usersTwo new attacks on Android mobile phones and other devices have been uncovered by security firms.One, a piece of malware posing as a movie player, sends text messages to premium-rate numbers, collecting charges applied to the user. Kaspersky Labs, which found the program, claims it is the first SMS-based malware attack on mobiles running Google’s Android operating system. It is thought to be most prevalent among Russian users; the threat to worldwide users is said to be low.Prior to installation, as required by Android’s application permissions, the “Media Player” asks users to confirm permission for the application to run “services that cost you money (send SMS messages)”.A statement released by Google said:”Our applications permissions model protects against this type of threat. When installing an application, users see a screen that explains clearly what information and system resources the application has permission to access, such as a user’s phone number or sending an SMS.”Users must explicitly approve this access in order to continue with the installation, and they may uninstall applications at any time. We consistently advise users to only install apps they trust. In particular, users should exercise caution when installing applications outside of Android Market.”This application is not thought to have been available in the Android Market, so affected users would have had to change a default setting on their handsets to allow installation of it from an external website.Meanwhile, the British security firm MWR InfoSecurity has found a flaw in the internet browser of Android versions 1.6 to 2.1, allowing an attacker to remotely access a user’s internet history – including sites visited, cookies, usernames and passwords – by code injected in a compromised website, or through an unsecured Wi-Fi network.The vulnerability was reported to Google’s Android team in May this year, according to the security firm. A fix present in the latest version of Android, 2.2 Froyo, eradicates the problem, while Android is said to be working on a patch for previous iterations.Alex Fidgen, MWR’s commercial director, advised users simply to avoid using unsecured Wi-Fi networks. He said: “This is one of the most serious implications in mobile technologies to date and calls into question fundamental assumptions about mobile phone security.”The best way an attacker could affect this is to mimic an unsecured network or spoof an access point – this has been around years. [Attackers are] all using techniques that have been around years now.”This is a really serious problem, there’s no two ways about it. Mobile companies are not encorporating security enough while smartphone adoption is increasingly widespread.”The flaws could have been ‘fixed’ when the mobile phone companies issued new operating software recently but they did nothing.”AndroidMobile phonesData and computer securityJosh Hallidayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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(Source The Guardian)

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New Mobile & Latest Deal News!

Amazing value with 300 anytime minutes per month to any network and unlimited texts, or choose 300 texts and virtually unlimited mobile internet. Line rental is £25 per month on an 18 month contract and all £450 can be claimed back from the retailer, Affordable Mobiles, as cash back. Effectively, the deal is completely free. You’ll need to send off your bills at months 4, 8, 12, 15 and 18 to claim cash back.
The Samsung Tocco Lite is lighter than the original Tocco and it has a larger screen, now 3 inches with a higher resolution, plus gesture lock and handwriting recognition. The interactive TouchWiz interface lets you customise your home screen by dragging and dropping the widgets you use most. The screen also has an accelerometer, turn the phone sideways and the display automatically switches to widescreen landscape mode, great for viewing movies. With a microSD card slot and an excellent video and audio player, it will keep you entertained on long journeys.
The Tocco Lite has stereo Bluetooth, allowing music and sound to be streamed wirelessly with a compatible headset. The web browser is also very good. Although with no 3G or W-Fi, it relies on GRPS, so large web pages and downloads are slower than a 3G phone. It’s still fine for moderate internet use and there’s no significant speed difference when using email, Twitter or Facebook.
The 3.2 megapixel camera has smile detection, which means it will focus and then wait until your subject smiles before taking a picture. The Samsung Tocco Lite is a fun phone and excellent value for money. It has a nice interface and good multimedia capabilities.

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We’re talking less on mobiles, apparently. I can’t wait for the time I won’t have to overhear stupid, shouty conversations

So the word on the party line is that mobile phone calls are falling out of fashion as people find other uses for their handsets. Well, good. It’s about time. Yes, it’s useful to be able to make a call in an emergency, and yes, mobiles are a powerful tool for aid and medical workers, and they are of course the shiny and most essential item in the kit of the citizen journalist. But apart from those uses, making phone calls seems to have become the least important and most annoying thing a phone can now do.

And it’s about time. Landlines have already become a joke in many households (or those in areas where mobile signal is strong enough, at least). Ever more expensive to rent a line for, rarely answered (it’ll only be a spammer or a survey or someone wanting money, people say) and often neglected if a phone call actually needs to be made.

Because people use their mobiles instead. Or have. Now? Not so much. I could find the flashing green button on the bottom of my phone that would allow me to dial a number pretty easily, but once there, I’d have scant few numbers to dial. Last week I had to take the phone numbers of two friends I communicate with several times a day – in person, online, or through exchanging comments on various social media sites – but had never bothered to get the phone numbers for.

Having a device with which you can contact people on your person is a good thing, of course is – if you have fallen and you can’t get up, for instance. It is great. But since the days when mobile phones were about the size of Barbie’s Mobile Home but weighed the same as a solid gold throne, the urban world has been infected by people with a lack of social awareness and a diminished sense of the difference between public and private.

For a society used to the idea that phone calls, held generally in the home or office cubicle were somehow private and protected, the transition to mobile was a messy one, meaning that previously dead air was filled with shouted snatches of other people’s social lives and medical history; business being conducted, full of numbers, figures and urgency. Why this seemed like a reasonable way to behave, I have never known.

It’s not only a question of quietness – the more people become accustomed to securely and easily managing their affairs and time through applications, online forms and texts (and the more development goes into making that as secure and smooth as possible) the better, frankly. I have more confidence in seeing on a screen that a transaction has been completed or a booking made than hearing it mumbled by someone in a call centre who may or may not have correctly grasped the task I needed performed. I’d rather have an email trail backing up my complaint to a bank or a direct message sent through Twitter telling me where and when we were meant to meet than a half-remembered conversation held while distracted.

Phone calls were always flawed: a split-concentration substitute for talking face to face, which is increasingly easy, albeit in a virtual sense, with Skype-type programmes online and video chat a growth area on mobile devices. But the mobile should be a means to this end – that’s the only point where I’d really disagree with Clive Thompson’s take on the holistic hang-up on Wired. I don’t think the emotional or social value of calls will increase, or become lengthier, or more personal. I think they’ll continue to decrease, because it’s not the most enjoyable or pleasurable way of talking to people, is it? It’s just talking out loud, without facial expression, or touch or the power of silence to improve the conversation.

So this is great: if we can get to a point where making stupid shouty phonecalls is really only the ninth or tenth most practical thing your twentysomething entrepreneurial type might use their phone for – after email, texting, calendar synchronisation, Twitter, Facebook, watching videos of cats, extending their car reservation, booking a back-sack-’n-crack wax and taking photographs, then I think that mobile phones are finally becoming the useful, social, pocket-magic they should have been all along: something that helps clear everyday transactions painlessly, makes arrangements easy and leaves more room for meaningful human interaction with real people in real time – rather than some single-sense facsimile of the same.

Mobile phone calls going out of fashion? Brilliant. Next job for mobile device futurologists: make them unable to play music through speakers. That’s also completely pointless. Thanks.

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(Source The Guardian)

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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.”

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(Source The Guardian)

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Google’s Android mobile OS finally overtakes Apple’s iOS in new purchases, figures gathered before release of iPhone 4 show

Google’s Andoid mobile operating system has continued its growth in US market share, according to new figures, with a continued drop for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and waning loyalty among BlackBerry owners.

Apple’s iPhone remained the most desired smartphone on the US market in the second quarter of 2010, Nielsen figures gathered before the release of the iPhone 4 show.

But it’s three cheers for Google as the increasingly popular (among consumers as well as manufacturers) operating system continues an upward trajectory on both sides of the Atlantic. Retail watcher Gfk said last week that UK sales of mobiles running Android had risen by more than 300% this year.

It would, of course, have been more newsworthy for Android to have dropped in market share, given the scope of devices and operators it caters to. The chart of US smartphone subscribers in the first half of 2010, below, shows a steep incline for Android adoption.

Towards the end of June, Android nosed ahead of Apple’s iOS as most-adopted operating system in the US smartphone market – but these figures take in only a week of iPhone 4 sales.

Among US owners of a BlackBerry, 57% are planning to abandon the smartphone and opt for a different operating system, quarter two figures show. The news puts added importance on RIM’s press conference today, with the expected launch of the BlackBerry 9800, thought to have both a touchscreen and a slide-out qwerty keyboard.

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(Source The Guardian)

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New Mobile & Latest Deal News!

The iPhone 4 is now available on the 3 network and offers are among the best we’ve seen.

For £45 per month you get 2000 xnet minutes, 1GB of data, 5000 extra minutes to mobiles on the same network and 5000 texts. For most customers this will effectively mean unlimited everything.

The offer is available with the iPhone 4 32GB, there’s £89 to pay upfront for the phone and £45 per month on a 24 month contract.

Highly recommended, but be quick as they have very limited stock.

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Adults banned from searching children’s computers or phones under a new law passed in Chongqing, southwest China

It is a ruling that teenagers around the world will regard with a certain amount of envy. Parents in one Chinese city are to be prevented from snooping on their children’s online activity and text messages.

Adults, including family members, are banned from searching through children’s computers or phones under a new regional law passed in Chongqing, southwest China, state media reported today. The regulation outlaws snooping into their emails, text messages, web chats, and browser history. The regulation is designed to protect the rights of children, but is surprising given widespread concern in China about excessive internet use among young people and their access to unsuitable material. Psychologists have sought to have internet addiction listed as a clinical disorder and treatment camps have sprung up across the country. The Chongqing Evening Post described the new regulation, adopted on Friday by officials in Chongqing, as the first of its kind in the country. Other Chinese media said it expanded an existing national rule. But both experts and children doubted whether it would have an impact in practice.

Lu Yulin, a professor at the China Youth University of Political Science, told China Daily that children were unlikely to take their parents to court.

“Parents who habitually check such information won’t stop due to the regulation,” he said.

Eleven-year-old Song Jingbo, from Xi’an, told the newspaper he did not think his mother and father would be able to access his data anyway, adding: “I am far more internet savvy than them.”

China has the largest population of internet users in the world and minors alone account for more 126 million of them, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

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(Source The Guardian)

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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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(Source The Guardian)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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(Source The Guardian)

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Betas Opera Mobile 10.1 for Nokia S/60

Opera has brought its revamped “Carakan” JavaScript engine and Vega graphics library to smartphones, releasing a beta incarnation of Opera Mobile 10.1 for Nokia’s Symbian-based S60 platform.…

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(Source The Register)

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Microsoft ‘missed a generation’ on the mobile side, but chief executive Steve Ballmer insists that the company’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 will ‘give you a set of Windows-based devices which people will be proud to carry’

Steve Ballmer has admitted that Microsoft “missed a generation” on the mobile side but insisted that the company’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 – which has garnered “really quite nice reviews” – “give you a set of Windows-based devices which people will be proud to carry at home, and which will really fit and support the kinds of scenarios that enterprise IT is trying to make happen with the phone form factor.”

In his speech to the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference, which brings together companies that sell, develop and use Microsoft products, Ballmer, head of the company for the past 10 years, said that slates devices and mobiles are “certainly an area where, how do I say it, we feel all of the energy and vigor and push that we have ever felt to innovate, to drive hard, to compete.”

But without naming any of the rivals who have overtaken Microsoft’s mobile sales – such as the iPhone, launched in 2007, which Ballmer initially dismissed, or Android, the Linux-based mobile platform from Google which now outsells both Windows Mobile (soon to be superseded by the incompatible Windows Phone) and Apple’s iPhone – Ballmer insisted that Microsoft is focussed on getting the IT functions within organisations to offer Microsoft solutions to staff: “So, I encourage you, and certainly we’re going to reach out vigorously to work together with you, and to drive enterprise IT, as well as the consumer, the people who work for the businesses we serve, they’ve got to come into IT and say, I want a Windows 7 slate. I want a Windows Phone 7. And we’re absolutely hell-bent and determined to drive that volume with IT as well as with the end consumer.”

Ballmer made no mention of the abrupt cancellation last month of the KIN social networking phones, which were meant to be the result of its billion-dollar acquisition of the Danger mobile company.

Now the company has unveiled a number of services to go with Windows Phone – whose release date is still not set. Windows Phone Live, a companion online service, was announced today. Pitched in the same territory as Apple’s paid-for MobileMe, used for over-the-air synchronisation of iPhone contacts and calendars, it is intended to provide remote synchronisation, remote wipe, and a central location for pictures, contacts, calendar and notes within 25GB of storage. But unlike MobileMe, Microsoft will provide the service free to all Windows Phone customers – apparently for the duration of the phone contract.

Beta versions of the Windows Phone development tools were made available: the new API is nearly feature-complete, with updated push notifications and accelerometer interfaces. The Community Technology Preview back in March allowed for feedback from the development community and Microsoft have said it has been “blown away by the early apps”. Pre-productions devices will be shipped later this month to selected developers, as well as deployment and testing labs in major cities. And earlier this week a group of Polish students were the first non-developers to get pre-production Windows Phone devices.

Appreciating that having applications ready for the launch of the devices later this year is essential to success, Microsoft is running a virtual live class for interested developers in the platform.

There are rumours that HTC – which used to be the biggest licensee of Windows Mobile, but has recently turned towards Android – will launch the first Windows Phone 7 handset in the UK, to be called the HTC Gold, though there is no confirmation from mobile networks or from HTC. There are also

“leaks” claiming there will be models called the HTC Mondrian and Mozart, also running Windows Phone 7 on 800 x 480 screens without a QWERTY keyboard, with Internet Explorer Mobile 7.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

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New Mobile & Latest Deal News!

Sooner or later someone was going to challenge the way tariff pricing has been formulated and revolutionise the industry with a new and simplified pricing method that makes sense. So, it should be no surprise to most that it is the 3 network that has taken the initiative and created The One Plan.

The One Plan offers peace of mind and freedom of use by removing the so-called ‘unlimited packages’ that are capped with a fair usage policy that can often cripple users with large and unexpected bills. Instead, The One Plan brings a huge amount of clearly defined free usage that comprises of 1GB of data, 5000 text messages, 2000 minutes to any network any time and 5000 minutes for calling other mobiles on 3.

If you’re thinking about an iPhone 4 then you’ll be delighted to see a SIM only option with The One Plan at a low price of £25pm on a 12 month contract. Pick up a SIM free iPhone 4 direct from Apple for £499 and it works out cheaper than any of the deals available on Orange, O2 or Vodafone.

If you prefer a new phone on The One Plan then 24 month contracts are available. The cost of line rental depends on which phone you choose, it starts at £28 per month for phones such as the Nokia E63 or the LG Viewty GT. The HTC Desire is available for £35 per month.

The The One Plan has placed 3 at the forefront of the UK networks with probably the most attractive and easy to understand price plan that simply makes sense.

Most popular deals on The One Plan

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Don’t be taken in by the empty threats from the big four mobile operators

Readers of your news article could be forgiven for believing that the prospect of the vast majority of UK consumers paying lower prices for calling mobiles would cause the sky to fall in (Reform of mobile phone charges may leave poorest users worse off, June 22). The four biggest mobile operators have been scaremongering with variations on this theme for years.

You report the end of telecoms watchdog Ofcom’s consultation on “its plans to slash the cost of calling a mobile phone … by reducing so-called mobile termination rates – the price networks charge each other and fixed-line companies such as BT to connect calls”. The article states that O2 has “warned the regulator that its proposals are ‘irresponsible’ and could force millions of people on low incomes to abandon their phones”.

Every time the prospect of lower mobile termination rates is raised, operators have cried that prices would go up and that people would stop using their phones. But a quick glance at the facts shows that when rates have come down the exact opposite has happened.

My company, Three, is part of a broad campaign along with BT and 65 other organisations – ranging from charities to financial advisers – that recognise high termination rates as a barrier to lower mobile prices. Orange, Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile seek to pull off a bold double act by threatening to raise prices yet at the same time quietly introducing more competitive rates every time termination rates come down – as they have done again this year.

The article states: “The industry has warned that the likely shake-up will lead to the reintroduction of controversial ‘expiry dates’ on prepay top-ups.” Again, effective competition will address this threat.

High termination rates have been a net subsidy to the mobile industry from landline users for years, but the bills paid to call mobiles by vulnerable landline users and the organisations that support them never feature in the analysis from the big mobile companies. The Terminate the Rate campaign includes Age UK, Crossroads Care and Carers UK who work with the vulnerable all day, every day and know their experience.

Low termination rates will enable effective competition in the UK voice market. They will drive better value for mobile and landline users alike. Since these threats are being made by those who want to delay this change, then as the only mobile operator supporting it we have to make our own case. While Vodafone claims that changes “could see the end of mobile handset subsidies”, we have committed to continue to offer subsidised handsets. Rather than cutting off prepay customers, we expect to serve more.

That the four major operators don’t welcome change is no surprise. But ultimately it is our firm belief that high mobile termination rates don’t protect low users, they create them.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

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Google claims new software, dubbed Android 2.2 Froyo, could facilitate fivefold increase in performance speeds

Nexus One users can today get their hands on the latest Android software update, dubbed Android 2.2 Froyo. The over-the-air update will be restricted to Nexus One handsets initially, and will be gradually rolled out throughout this week.

Six months after the release of Android 2.1, Google says the new software – revealed at the company’s annual I/O conference last month – could increase performance speeds by up to five times. Good news, too, for those wanting to use their Android-powered device as a portable WiFi hotspot, as the Froyo software upgrade now allows.

What else do we get with the 2.2 upgrade?

Certain mobiles using 2.2 software will be able to share their WiFi connection with up to eight other devices. And you can now use 2.2-powered devices as a 3G connection for Windows and Linux laptops by plugging in with a USB cable. CPU performance has been given a boost, with the software upgrade able to load data two-to-five times faster. An upgrade to the memory should result in faster app-switching and a “smoother performance” on memory-constrained devices, Google said. Performance of the browser has also been bolstered when loading ‘JavaScript-heavy‘ pages and pages with Flash.

Users can now access the three pages – phone, applications finder and browser – from any of the five home screen panels.

The camera and galleries have been given a modest overhaul as well – everything from white balance to geo-tagging to flash can be done with on-screen buttons. An LED flash also lets users film in the dark or in low-light settings.

Apple released its own software upgrade, iOS4, last week compatible with iPhones 3G, 3GS and 4, as well as the new-generation iPod Touch.

Android 2.2 is expected to reach HTC Desire devices by Q3 this year. An HTC spokesperson told Recombu: “We are working hard with our partners to update the HTC Sense experience on Froyo and distribute it to our customers as fast as possible. We expect to release updates for several of our 2010 models including Desire, Legend and Wildfire beginning in Q3.”

Vodafone told the Guardian that it is in the process of getting approval of its own version of Android 2.2, and that the software upgrade will be rolled out to customers in due course. The mobile network also encouraged those planning to make use of Froyo’s tethering capabilities to consider signing up to a Vodafone price plan, saying that 3G tethering would eat into a user’s data tariff.

More follows

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

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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

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

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Apple aficionados have been queuing for days to get their hands on the iPhone, described as ‘an object of rare beauty’

People used to queue like this to make a call from a red telephone box. Now there were 600, mostly under 30, taking pictures on their mobiles of other people queueing for a mobile to replace the mobile they had just taken a picture with.

Some had been in line for nearly two days waiting to fork out on yet another must-have product from a company that at present can only offer its UK customers its new product in black just like Henry Ford once did for the first in line for his new car.

And, however cool its new iPhone 4 may be, Apple’s first day pizzazz chimes into a much older British tradition. We queue for the first day of sales, we queue for shop openings, we queue for Wimbledon. Here there were some people who had pre-ordered their new phone online but felt they needed to queue to pick it up.

It is 7am at the company’s store in Regent Street, London, one of 27 in the UK, one of the favoured five countries – the others being Japan, Germany, France and the US – for the launch of a phone described by Stephen Fry in today’s Guardian as “an object of rare beauty”.

The doors open and the first customers are ushered in to be greeted by a whooping, clapping and a-hollering gaggle of store staff, all dressed in company blue T-shirts . The honoured vanguard, enter as in an airport arrivals hall, with smiles and waves of varying gusto, rucksacks on their backs and pulling suitcases on trolleys. The England football team can only dream of such greetings when they return to Heathrow from the World Cup.

The early nerds go upstairs to the sales floor for one-to-one advice before making their purchases, which cost £599 for the 32GB handset, £499 for the 16GB but much, much less up-front if tied in to long term contracts with service providers.

Later, they return down the steps like minor royalty, waving their newest prize possessions and giving the thumbs-up to another whooping and a-hollering. First in the queue, although not apparently first to buy, was Alex Lee, 27, a business consultant, who had flown in from Dubai with his sister Priscilla, for four 32GB handsets. That was a cool £2,400, so by the time hotel accommodation, before his near two days on a pavement, is taken into account, his bill for the trip will have cost £4,000.

One will go to his sister, at least one will be put up for auction for a charity in his home city of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada with the proceeds probably going to a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group. “Canada doesn’t have it yet and I am sure I can get a pretty penny for it”, he predicts.

“I am no stranger to the launch of Apple products. It’s fairly standards. It’s standing in line … But you get to meet lots of great people”, he added more enthusiastically, as befitted a man who had been waiting since 11.45 on Tuesday to buy four phones. And what about the phone? “It is what it is”, he said, in only a way true aficionados can. “I love it.”

Perhaps he hadn’t got over the disappointment of some pre-ordering customers getting first go, a glitch in this stage-managed event. Asked why he was not first to enter the store, Lee said: “I don’t have an answer because I’ve been queuing here for a lot longer than everybody else. I can’t do anything about it.”

Ben Paton, 23, just graduated from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, with a 2:1 in computer network management and design, was more expansive. “It is easy to hold, the screen is incredible. It IS an incredible phone.” He is paying £219 plus £35 a month for two years with provider O2. He already has an older iPhone 3G. “I am giving that to my 80-year-old aunt”, he said. He had queued 16 hours to be 17th or 18th in line for the new product.

“It is a once in a lifetime experience. How often do you get the chance to sleep in Regent Street with like-minded people. It was incredible. I was sitting next to someone from Poland, someone from Australia, someone from Italy. I would describe myself as a geek. I like technology. I get enthusiastic about it. If people call me a geek, why not embrace it?”

Suman Roy, from Perivale, London, a software engineer, had waited about 20 hours. At 40, his was a rare middle-aged presence. “It was more like camping out at Glastonbury. There was a lot of camaraderie. I am going to treat myself, I don’t need it. I just wanted it. I think it is going to be a fun device. I am looking forward to playing with it over the next couple of days and I really hope it lives up to the hype.”

And Apple has good news for those who prefer their products white. The new iPhone will be available in that colour at the end of next month.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, apple, contract, iphone, line, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, new, o2, phone, phones, service, uk, world

Imperial College London researchers dismiss link between living near mobile phone masts while pregnant and risk of cancer among children

Pregnant women who live close to mobile phone masts do not need to move house, scientists said today, following the publication of a study which found no link to early childhood cancers.

There has been public concern over the possibility that living near phone masts could raise the cancer risk of small children and clusters of cases around masts have been reported. But a study published in the British Medical Journal – the first to examine possible links between phone masts and childhood cancer across Britain – found no cause for concern.

Researchers from Imperial College London identified 1,397 children under five who were diagnosed with leukaemia or a tumour of the brain or central nervous system between 1999 and 2001. They compared each child with four children of the same gender who were born on the same day but had not developed cancer.

The researchers studied the distance of the mother’s home at the time of the birth from a phone mast, the total power output for base stations within 700 metres and the power density for base stations within 1,400 metres.

“We found no pattern to suggest that the children of mums living near a base station during pregnancy had a greater risk of developing cancer than those who lived elsewhere,” said Professor Paul Elliott, one of the report’s authors and director of the MRC-HPA centre for environment and health at Imperial.

The authors said they would like to investigate the exposure of the children to mobile phone base stations, which this study did not cover.

In a commentary published with the study, John Bithell of the childhood cancer research group at Oxford University said the risks of cancer from mobile phone masts were dwarfed by those from driving while using mobile phones – even in hands-free mode. Doctors, he said “should reassure patients not to worry about proximity to mobile phone masts. Moving away from a mast, with all its stresses and costs, cannot be justified on health grounds in the light of current evidence.”

The use of mobile phones has soared in recent years, the report said, from just under 9m connections in 1997 to almost 74m in 2007. There are 4bn connections worldwide.

However, health fears have grown in parallel. Questions have been raised not only about a possible raised incidence of brain and other cancers but also a suggested increased risk of neurological conditions such as migraine and vertigo.

The few reports there have been of cancer clusters near a mobile phone base station “are difficult to interpret because of small numbers and possible selection and reporting biases”, the authors wrote. They added that there is no known radiobiological explanation – although they said it is possible cumulative exposure is important – and the rise in the use of mobiles has not been matched by an upward trend in the numbers of brain tumours.

Dr Eileen Rubery, former head of the public health prevention department at the Department of Health, said: “It is reassuring that no adverse affects have been found and this fits with the anticipated and known biological affects from such sites, and so is consistent with the physiology and biology.”

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

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