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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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One of the world’s largest casual gaming companies today unveiled HTML5 versions of 47 of its games websites, proclaiming that it will be the new standard for gaming devices within three years.SPIL Games has thrown its considerable weight behind HTML5 and the upward trend in casual gaming, with users now able to play its games on mobile browsers supporting HTML5 (ruling out devices running Android pre-2.0). Previously, mobile visitors would have been taken to the full browser window displayed in Flash – but that would be slow to render with most phone browsers, and incompatible with Apple devices.But close to a million mobile users try accessing a SPIL gaming website every month, a company spokesman tells us. More than half (52%) of these visits are from Apple devices, 15% from Android, 15% from Symbian (ie Nokia and/or Sony Ericcson) and 6% from BlackBerry devices.The company, which currently has more than 4,000 games in its portfolio, is offering developers prizes totalling up to $50,000 (£41,000) for the best HTML5 game, encouraging the potential it says is “hampered by different protocols, operating systems, and platform-approval processes within the mobile world”.An aside: Nick Jones, Gartner analyst, has an interesting take on that very subject:”Native platforms will certainly become less important relative to the web platform because HTML5 supports a wider range of applications than the last-generation web. “But native platforms can stay ahead by evolving faster than HTML5, and in different directions to HTML5, it’s not hard to outrun a snail driven by a committee. So although HTML5 will be important the native platform will retain a big edge if you want to develop clever apps. And the native platform owners want it to stay that way.”"Openness is at the core of everything we do,” says Peter Driesson, chief executive of the Netherlands-based company. “We are aware that HTML5 is still at an early stage, but already developers can use it to make great games, and we are confident that the industry will quickly embrace it. Within three years we expect HTML5 to be the standard in gaming devices.”Analysts at Forrester predict the Western European mobile gaming market to grow from €746m (£616m) at the end of 2010 to €1.46bn (£1.2bn) by the end of 2015, due to the growth in paying mobile gamers (31 million to 45 million over the same time frame, Forrester predicts) and a growth in smarphone adoption.• Another noteworthy HTML5 development: Ephemeral rockers Arcade Fire have teamed up with Google Chrome to put together a personalised music video. Nice.HTML5Casual gamingGamesMobileMobile phonesJosh Hallidayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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Many children get their first mobile phone on starting secondary school in September. We hunt down the best first deals for an 11-year-oldWhen to let your child have their first mobile phone is a contentious issue. But the chances are you’ll join the majority of parents and get them one when they start secondary school at 11.At this age many children start travelling to and from school alone and parents like the reassurance of knowing they can call home.So with a bewildering plethora of handset and tariff options, where do you start to find the best deal?Anthony Ball, director of mobile comparison website Onecompare.com says: “You can get a mobile contract for your child, but pay-as-you-go is probably the best move because of the level of control it gives parents. If your child uses the phone too much, the credit simply runs out until you decide to top it up, but they can still receive your texts and calls free.”There’s also little point buying an expensive, flashy phone that could serve as a “mugging magnet”.Many parents will have an old phone they can pass on to their child or, if not, they can pick up a basic model for under £20 and put in a free sim card now available from most major networks, which often offer bundles of texts, call time and, if want, internet access typically starting with a £10 top-up per month. But which one?”The difficulty of getting the first deal for an 11-year-old is that you have little idea of how, and how much, they are going to use their phone,” Ball says. “But as these sims are free and don’t tie you in to a long contract, you can try one and, if that doesn’t suit, simply switch to another.”Earlier this month Tesco Mobile targeted young users with its launch of, arguably, the UK’s cheapest sim-only monthly tariff which provides unlimited texts and 100 minutes of call time for £6 a month.But it’s not available instore – it’s only sold online and over the phone, and is based on a one-month sim-only rolling contract paid by direct debit which means that customers can cancel and switch to other providers should they choose after 30 days.It should particularly suit text-addicted youngsters. Tesco’s research shows that 16- to 24-year-olds are the most prolific texters and, on a personal note, I’ve found that a sim, offering unlimited texts, is definitely the best money-saving mobile option for my two aged 12 and 16.If, however, your child is likely to go over the 100-minute call-time allowance excess calls are charged at 20p per minute and the bill is added on to your £6 monthly direct debit, so the cost could quickly add up. As a safety measure, Tesco puts a £30 cap on the monthly amount you can run up on top of the £6 subscription.If that limit is reached, the phone is barred for outgoing calls (not, importantly, from incoming calls) until the paying customer – the parent in our scenario – calls Tesco Mobile to verify the amount of credit they are willing to pay.But this does highlight the difference between a standard pay-as-you-go deal, where your child cannot run up a bill, and a monthly contract, where they can.Below are a selection of the pay-as-you-go free sim deals on offer for a £10 monthly top-up from major networks which may suit an 11-year-old’s usage.O2 SimplicityFor £10 a month you get unlimited texts plus a choice of either 100 minutes call time to any UK network or 500MG of web time, enough to send and receive up to 500,000 emails a month or surf up to 5,000 web pages. Calls made in excess of those included in a package are charged daily at 25p per minute for the first three minutes, then 5p per minute for the rest of the day. Available at freesim.o2.co.ukOrange If you join Orange with a free sim and choose from one of its pay as you go “animal” packages, you receive £5 free credit with your first £10 top-up. Options include Racoon – a basic, no-frills package, giving a 15p flat call rate and 10p texts to any network any time. For a top-up of £10 per month, Dolphin gives you 300 free texts and free access to the internet subject to a monthly 100MB cap with calls charged at a minimum of 20p per minute and Canary gives you 100 free minutes call time to any mobile (not landlines) at evenings and weekends every month with excess calls charged at a minimum of 20p per minute. Available at freesim.orange.co.ukT-Mobile When you top up by £10 a month you get unlimited free texts as a bonus on top of your £10 credit to use on calls, web-surfing and so on. Call charges are 10p per minute to T-Mobile phones and 25p a minute to other UK mobile networks and landlines. Internet access charges are maximum £1 a day. Available at t-mobile.co.ukTesco Tesco offers a triple-your-money deal so that a top-up of £10 becomes £30 of credit. Free credit is given once a month and is valid for one month. If you top up again in the same month this generates free credit for the following month. Available at www.tesco.com/mobilenetwork/Consumer affairsTelecomsMobile phonesChildrenJill Papworthguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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The device combines the benefits of a powerful modern smartphone with some of those of an iPadI’ve been a heavy user of Google Calendar and Contacts for a couple of years now, and that is why I first started using an Android phone, the HTC Magic. My boyfriend recently got the HTC Desire which showed me how the Magic was getting dated, so I decided it was time to upgrade.However, as an SMS-addict and avid tweeter I found the small keyboard on my old phone a bit fiddly and didn’t see that improving with the latest incarnations. Added to that, we recently got an iPad and I liked its convenience for reading articles. I didn’t want to be carrying yet another device around in my handbag, though. So, when I heard about the Dell Streak it sounded perfect: one device that combined the benefits of a powerful modern smartphone with some of those of a ‘pad.I ordered it straight from Dell, SIM-free, for £449. Taking it out of the box I was immediately impressed with the look and feel. It is slim and dense, but not too heavy, and sexily sleek all in black. I find it balances surprisingly well in my left hand, naturally lending itself to being held sideways (landscape). It is also not so large that it cannot fit in a man’s suit or shirt pocket.Actually making calls on the phone in public can be a little ‘Dom Joly’ due to its size. However, that is easily addressed with a Bluetooth earpiece and was not unexpected.The 800 x 480, five-inch screen is crisp, clear and bright, and I am now regularly using it to read the Economist or New Scientist on the train. The 1GHz Snapdragon processor is blisteringly fast, as is the HSDPA 3G and WiFi, making the browsing experience similar in speed to that of a netbook. With K9Mail I can even now access my industrial-strength IMAP mailbox (250 folders and more than 200,000 emails), something I have not previously managed on a phone.As for the 16GB storage, I’m barely scratching it despite telling Spotify to download all my playlists. There is plenty of space for downloading films, and the playback quality of those I’ve tried was great. Sadly there is no BBC iPlayer support, yet.Unfortunately there are other issues, though mostly minor. The supposedly near-indestructible Gorilla glass screen has been disappointing. In three weeks my Streak has picked up a number of fine scratches, two of which I now regularly notice when using it.Further, unlike the HTC Desire or Google’s Nexus One my Streak was shipped with the now ageing Android 1.6 operating system, complete with a number of irritating quirks and bugs despite Dell’s customisations. I have even had to remove the battery to force a reset after a particularly bad crash. The keyboard has also been disappointing, mainly because of the software. Unlike my HTC Magic, the auto-correction system seems over-complex and counter-intuitive, and I can no longer blindly touch-type.The default software bundle could also be better. As an experienced Android user I was fine, just downloading my usual set of apps and syncing up with Google. Those used to the intuitive ease of Apple’s products and without previous Android experience may find it a somewhat steep learning curve. However, Android 2.2 for the Streak is coming out soon and I expect that will be a big improvement.In summary, despite some minor niggles, the Dell Streak is an excellent device. I also think my experiment of trying to get the benefits of a ‘pad and a smart phone in one device has worked. It is big enough to be easy to read, watch or interact with for extended periods but small enough to be highly portable, with all the other benefits of a high-end smartphone. It is a little let down by its older operating system, but even Android 1.6 still overall excels. If you like the idea of a hybrid pad-phone then this could be for you, even if not an Android user. The small investment of time to get to grips with Android would certainly be worthwhile in order to get the full benefits of this device.Pros: Big, crisp screen; fast processor and commas; slim, sleek and good-looking.Cons: No Android 2.2 (yet); poor typing auto-correction; weak software bundle.Dell Streak, £449 (SIM-free).Specs: 5″ 800 x 480 multi-touch screen, Android OS, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250 processor. 5MP rear camera, VGA front-facing camera. Browser: WebKit (Android). Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB2.0. Plays: MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, Midi, WAV, H.263 / H.264, .3GP, MPEG4, WMV. Size: 152.9 x 79.1 x 9.98 mm. Weight: 220g.Kate Craig-Wood is CEO of Memset Dedicated Hosting.Mobile phonesAndroidguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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Service provider SpiriTel has struck its largest deal to date after being awarded a three-year contract worth £5 million by Punch Taverns

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Microsoft is investigating how an eagerly anticipated Xbox game appeared on the internet three weeks ahead of its official release.

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16 to 24-year-olds particularly adept at juggling act, cramming nine and a half hours of media into six and a half hours of actual timeBritons are juggling several types of media at the same time to sate their appetite and leave enough time for everything else in their lives, the Ofcom study reveals.The average media consumer’s digital day is seven hours and five minutes. From breakfast radio to peaktime evening TV, via surfing and texting at home or at our desks, media takes up 45% of our time.The actual amount being consumed is even higher, Ofcom believes, with the boom in mobile computing helping Britons to multitask. “The ability of people to surf the web on their laptop while also watching TV has given people a licence to roam while staying connected,” said Peter Phillips, Ofcom’s strategy and market developments partner. A fifth of our media time is this kind of “simultaneous” consumption.Those aged between 16 and 24 are particularly adept at this juggling act, and are mopping up more media than any other age group. They cram nine and a half hours worth of media into six and a half hours of actual time – data that suggests the cliche of the youngster loafing in the lounge is an unfair one.”Sixteen-to-24-year-olds go out more, and spend less time watching TV,” Phillips commented. He also acknowledged that this multitasking can mean we devote less attention to any one media source, although this was more pronounced when using new technology. It appears we are simply better at combining reading, landline calls or TV watching with another activity without our attention drifting.Discovering that teenagers are happier than their parents to combine web surfing, phone calls, tweeting and TV is not exactly a revelation, and Ofcom’s research does show that some other truisms also still apply. The over 55s are still wedded to their TVs and radios (67% of all the media they consume), while computers, mobile phones and handheld gadgets make up 58% of 16- to 24-year olds’ media diet.But there are also plenty of surprises in this latest snapshot of the UK marketplace. The gap between the way different generations use old and new media is closing fast. For the first time, more than 50% of over-55s have broadband at home, and a third are sending and reading emails each day.There have also been some interesting changes in the importance people give to different media activities. Half of all adults said they would miss TV the most, up from 44% in 2005, followed by 15% who cited the internet (up from 8%) and 11% who would pine for their mobile phone (up from 10%). Hi-fi equipment and CD players have fallen most sharply in our affections with a mere 2% of people saying they would miss them the most, down from 13% four years ago. For the 16 to 24 age group, though, the mobile phone would be missed nearly as much as the telly.But the death of television as the dominant media platform appears to be far away as ever. TV continues to take centre stage in the evenings, partly due to the success of talent shows. However the box in the corner of the room is increasingly likely to be a high-definition flatscreen. More than five million households now have a HD set, up from 1.9 million in March 2009.”Television still has a central role in our lives. We are watching more TV than at any time in the last five years,” said James Thickett, Ofcom’s research director.While Simon Cowell can take some credit for maintaining the nation’s TV fix (measured at three hours and 45 minutes per day), another factor is the growing demand for time-shifted viewing, thanks to digital video recorders as well as catch-up TV services such as the BBC iPlayer or ITV Player.”The ability to watch what we want when we want it is bringing people back into the living room, said Phillips. Commercial broadcasters should not rejoice too much, though, as DVR owners have the option to skip through the adverts.While TV appears to have maintained its ability to hold our attention, 17% of viewing is still taking place alongside another media format – typically a computer or mobile phone.Smartphone sales have risen rapidly in the UK in recent years, up 81% in the 12 months to May. The research shows this led to much more media consumption “on the go”, although in many cases people appear to be heading straight for Facebook and staying there.The social networking site makes up 45% of the total time spent online on mobile phones during December 2009, Ofcom said. This may have been skewed by a surge of family photos or amusing Christmas party pictures, although the regulator also cited more recent data that illustrates Facebook’s remarkable “stickiness”.”The average user spent around six hours and 30 minutes on Facebook in May 2010, compared with nearly one hour 30 minutes for users of Google, and nearly two hours for users of MSN [Microsoft] services,” said the regulator. Twitter holds second place on the social networking ladder ahead of MySpace and LinkedIn, with traffic to its website up 56% in the past year.Increased adoption of high-powered mobile phones also means that more young people are abandoning their fixed broadband line.Ofcom’s research also shows the impact of the recession. Revenues in the telecoms industry were badly hit in 2009, falling for the first time since the regulator started tracking this data in the early 1990s. Ofcom said this was also due to increased price pressure as operators try to lure customers to take a bundle of services, and a tailing-off in the boom in mobile phone and broadband connections.With TV revenues contracting, it was little surprise that the amount consumers spend on communications fell again to £91.24 per month. Five years ago we spent an average of £100.71 per month. “Consumers are using communications services more – including phone calls, texting and the internet. Yet they are paying less despite getting more, partly through buying in bundles,” said Ofcom.Digital mediaSocial mediaSocial trendsOfcomInternetMobile phonesGadgetsGraeme Weardenguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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Officials say BlackBerry firm Research in Motion will permit Indian authorities partial access to some of its servicesBlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion will allow Indian authorities partial access to its Messenger chat services to placate security fears, a senior government source has told the Reuters news agency.The Canadian company is reportedly ready to allow authorities more access to data transmitted between its handsets, and is talking about how to allay government fears over BlackBerry Enterprise email services.India’s Department of Telecommunications – the body orchestrating the discussions – has asked at least three mobile operators to put in place monitoring capability for the BlackBerry Messenger and Enterprise email by 31 August.RIM has said it will provide a “technical solution” to the worries this week, a government source told Reuters. India has said it will shut down some BlackBerry services by 31 August if no settlement is reached.A senior government source, who asked not to be named, told the news agency: “They have assured partial access to its Messenger services by 1 September and agreed to provide full access by the end of the year.”Last week RIM issued a public statement to its approximately 800,000 BlackBerry users in the country, saying any negotiations over increased access to data transmitted between its devices would abide to four principles: that it was legal, that there would “no greater access” to BlackBerry services than other services, that there would be no changes in the security for Enterprise customers, and it would not make “specific deals for specific customers”.India’s main concern is thought to be with data passed between corporate BlackBerry devices using Enterprise services. When using the BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES), an organisation hosts its own server and encryption key for access to transmitted content, offering a higher level of security.RIM said neither it nor the mobile operator has access to these encryption keys, meaning the only organisation able to decrypt data is the company hosting the server.India is seeking a solution where it can lawfully intercept messages passed between the devices, which may involve using internal servers hosted by a third party.Security fears over BlackBerry services in the country are thought to spring from the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack in which 116 people died. Officials suspect the culprits used encrypted Blackberry services.RIM is facing the threat of a ban on some BlackBerry services in India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.BlackBerryMobile phonesData and computer securityData protectionIndiaJosh Hallidayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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Apple has had a slow start with its new iAd platform, the WSJ reports. Only two of the 17 launch partners announced on 1 July started campaigns in that first month and only three more used it in August. Apple’s tight grip over the creative process is cited as one of the reasons advertisers are being hesitant. Photo by Jorge Quinteros on Flickr. Some rights reservedGiving a delightful insight into Apple’s own painstaking production process, creating the platform’s mobile ads is taking between eight to 10 weeks – and the building part, which is done by Apple, is taking two weeks longer than it should. Patrick Moorhead, director of mobile at the agency DraftFCB, said it is “a huge issue having Apple in the creative mix”, while Chanel, one of the launch partners,  doesn’t have any iAd campaign planned. Campaigns packages start at a cost of $1m but one brand, Nissan, claim the click-through rate for its interactive ad is five times higher than the conventional online campaign. While working efficiently with agencies seems Apple’s biggest challenge, it has claimed $60m in commitments this year from iAd’s advertisers. It is also poised to take advantage of the continued growth in mobile advertising, despite increasing competition from Google’s AdMob and Millennial Media, which eMarketer predicts will rise by 43% this year in the US alone – to $593m.iAd is due to debut in the UK this autumn.AppleAdvertisingMobile phonesDigital mediaJemima Kissguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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BlackBerry maker RIM confident it can met Indian demands over security before 31 August deadlineBlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion is “optimistic” the company can resolve security demands from the Indian government regarding its popular smartphone.According to Reuters, RIM vice president Robert Crow said the Canadian firm’s negotiations with Indian officials are “a step in a long journey”.India yesterday issued a deadline of less than three weeks for RIM to resolve concerns over the security of its BlackBerry device, warning that the phone’s email and messenging service would be shut down by 31 August if no settlement is reached.”Our message to RIM and service providers is that if they don’t come up with a technical solution by 31 August, then the home ministry will take a view and will shut down BlackBerry Messenger and business enterprises services,” a spokesman for the ministry said.Indian officials have been meeting to discuss the future of telecommunications companies in the country, starting with the BlackBerry manufacturer. Similar concerns appear set to be addressed with search giant Google and internet telephony firm Skype at a later date.A senior Indian security official, who wished to remain anonymous, told Reuters: “Wherever there is a concern on grounds of national security the government will want access and every country has a right to lawful interference.”We have concerns regarding [Google and Skype] services on grounds of national security and all those services which cannot be put to lawful interference.”In a public statement addressed to its approximately 800,000 BlackBerry customers in the country, RIM said that the company “genuinely tries to be as cooperative as possible with governments in the spirit of supporting legal and national security requirements, while also preserving the lawful needs of citizens and corporations”.RIM said that any negotiations over access to data would be “limited by four main principles”: that it was legal, that there would be “no greater access” to BlackBerry services than other services, that there would be no changes in the security for Enterprise customers, and it would not make “special deals for specific countries”.Nick Jones, a senior analyst at Gartner, said there is uncertainty over whether India is objecting to the use of BlackBerry Enterprise Servers in the country, which afford companies and organisations a higher level of security than for individual customers.Jones said it would be “exceedingly bad” for the Canadian manufacturer’s reputation if it was to change its security architecture to support requests from a government seeking to monitor customer information.Further, BlackBerry messaging is not subject to the same encryption process as email on the device, and so “may be less secure and more open to lawful interception”.”I believe that governments are being very naive about this,” Jones said. “If RIM is perceived as insecure, criminals and terrorists will just switch to more secure communication tools the government can’t intercept. There is a wide choice.”Being able to read RIM traffic is likely only to catch technically unsophisticated criminals who are probably not the big risk in any case.”BlackBerryMobile phonesIndiaTechnology sectorData protectionJosh Hallidayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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Tags: 10, 3, all, Blackberry, deal, Deals, email, google, government, line, maker, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, phone, phones, sam, service, sim, sol, three, uk

Android set to whack BlackBerry Smartphone sales rose by half over the last three months, according to market analysts Gartner, with the segment now making up almost 20 per cent of phones sold.… Free On-Demand Webcast – Virtualizing the Hard Stuff

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Pay-for service, on mobile site and through Android and iPhone apps, promises video of every goal – usually within minutesThe sports broadcaster ESPN is launching a mobile phone service that promises video footage of every Premier League goal, “usually within minutes” of the ball crossing the line.ESPN Goals will offer news and live scores free, with the complete video service priced at £3.99 a month or £29.99 for the season. It will be available to UK users as an app on the iPhone or Android and through ESPN’s mobile site. Service via other mobile stores, such as Nokia’s Ovi, is expected to follow.ESPN, which is owned by Disney, has the television rights to 23 Premier League matches this season, but UK mobile highlights rights for all the league’s games for the next three years.It is positioning the mobile video service as the first place to see all goal highlights, “usually within minutes of the action on the pitch”, ahead of TV programmes such as Match of the Day on the BBC and BSkyB’s Football First. The mobile highlights are also ahead of the window for online rights, which are held by Yahoo.The broadcaster said it can push out goal highlights swiftly after goals are scored, except during the “protected TV window” from 2.45pm to 5.15pm on Saturdays.”Mobile media has seen dramatic growth in recent years and has proven to be a significant and important part of the way people connect to the sport they love,” said Tom Gleeson, vice president of digital media for ESPN International. “ESPN Goals will serve as a fantastic complement to our television business in the UK.”• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.• If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”.ESPNDigital mediaSports rightsTelevision industryCharging for contentAppsMobile phonesAndroidiPhonePremier LeagueMark Sweneyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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Ever find yourself texting someone in the same house? I admit texting a dinner-time alert to save walking up three flights of stairs (it’s not a big house, just a tall one) and I’m not alone.Photo by katielips on Flickr. Some rights reserved.A survey by Best Buy (the US retailer started opening UK stores in the spring, don’t you know?) found 50% of us – and 69% of under 25s – have texted or emailed someone in the same house. (Which could mean young people use their phones more reflexively, are lazier or live in bigger houses.) Women are more likely to do this than men – 53% compared to 46% of men. Apparently calling out for meals is a regular message, so clearly women are still not emancipated from the kitchen. Digital storage space is now 40% more likely to cause family arguments than hogging the landline (do people still have landlines?), with 50% of us admitting to accidentally deleting stuff and 25% losing photos or contacts. (I lost 12 years worth of files, photos, artwork, emails – phone stolen, laptop died, back-up died, online backup expired. What are the chances?)Best Buy says 52% of us would chose to keep our internet access compared to 19% of us who’d prefer our washing machine, and for 38% of the under 35s, the laptop is the first device we go to when we get home. There’s a generational split between the under 35s and over 35s. Under 35s store most of their music and photographs digitally, but over 35s still have most content on hard copy. I copied all my CDs to an external hard drive and sold them on Amazon, but still have the vinyl, Lionel.Social networkingDigital mediaMobile phonesInternetJemima Kissguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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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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The Communications Workers Union (CWU) has
voted by an 87 per cent majority to accept
BT ‘s three-year pay
deal worth 9.3 per cent.

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Religious fervour surrounds the latest phone technology, despite it only representing a small slice of the world marketI’ve just discovered that the ancient Egyptians worshipped a beetle – a scarab. Quaint, isn’t it? I mean to say, we’ve come on such a lot since those primitive times.But what’s this? A note from my Guardian colleague, Charlie Brooker, about something he calls the Jabscreen. “Several times over the last year,” he writes, “I’ve attended meetings that started with everyone present gently placing their Jabscreen face-down on the table, as though commencing a futuristic game of poker. It wasn’t rehearsed, wasn’t planned, it just happened; a spontaneous modern ceremony.” Charlie was struck by “the sight of a roomful of media types perched reverentially around their shiny twit machines… each time it happened, a vague discomfort would hang in the air until, in a desperate bid to break the tension, someone would mumble a sardonic comment about the sinister ubiquity of the Jabscreen, likening it to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This would prompt a 25-minute chat about apps and gizmos and which level of Angry Birds you’re stuck on. Sometimes there wasn’t much time for the meeting after that. But never mind. You could all schedule a follow-up on your Jabscreens.”The Jabscreen, you will have guessed, is the Apple iPhone, an object currently regarded with Egyptian-grade reverence by the chattering classes. But, in fact, the obsession with so-called “smartphones” extends way beyond Apple’s device. Whole swathes of geekdom are devoted to various embodiments of Google’s Android phone. Legions of men in suits – up to and including the US president – swear by their BlackBerrys. There are people who believe that their Sony-Ericsson scarab not only spreads sweetness and light, but can also cure chilblains. There are, incredibly, even people who worship devices running Windows Mobile. And so it goes.Not surprisingly, the mainstream media are anxious to service these obsessions, and so every launch of a sacred object is lavishly reported. Last week, for example, RIM – the company that makes the BlackBerry – unveiled its latest assault on the smartphone market. It’s called the Torch and it has a shiny glass screen just like the iPhone. But – lo! – it has something else: a slide-out keyboard!!! Wow!All of which makes one want to scream that it’s only a bloody gadget. But by then one has moved on to the business pages, which are regularly gobsmacked by the sales figures for electronic scarabs. It seems that Apple is selling 4m of the things every month, and is having trouble keeping up with demand. But Android sales – at 4.8m a month – have now overtaken them. Is this a sign that Android will win out? Or will Apple pull some clever marketing stunt – like releasing a cut-down nano iPhone for the Christmas market, just as it did with the iPod? Will the BlackBerry Torch make a late run? And where the hell is Nokia?Are we perhaps losing our sense of proportion? The smartphone market is interesting, but just a small segment of the overall market. In 2009, for example, something like 175m smartphones were sold. The top end of industry predictions of sales over the next few years is about 500m devices. But the world currently buys about 1.3bn phones a year, the vast majority of which are “dumbphones” – ie simple handsets that can’t access the internet and which are much cheaper to own and run.Now, over time, Moore’s Law – which says that computing power doubles every 18 months – will ensure that these dumbphones become smarter. What this means is that the way the market will evolve is not by Apple & co selling more sophisticated, pricey, expensive-to-run smartphones to increasingly downmarket sectors, but by cheap phones gradually becoming more capable as they start to run more sophisticated operating systems.All of which means that the factor that will determine the evolution of the phone market is not the features of specific devices, but the operating system that they run. At the moment there are about 10 different mobile operating systems, which is patently unsustainable. My guess is that we will eventually get down to two or three. Apple’s iOS and Android look like certainties. The question is what comes third – BlackBerry, Nokia’s MeeGo or Microsoft’s Windows Mobile?No matter what happens, let’s remember that these things are just gadgets. After all, even the Egyptians’ holy scarab was only a dung beetle.Mobile phonesiPhoneAndroidBlackBerryAppleJohn Naughtonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese authorities have detained a high-ranking army officer, a Christian party member and a telecom firm employee, in the latest round of arrests of people suspected of spying for Israel, a security source said.

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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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The UAE’s BlackBerry ban goes to the heart of how the mobile phone market has evolved

The decision of the United Arab Emirates to ban BlackBerry email, messenger and web browsing services goes to the heart of the way in which the handheld devices operate – itself a consequence of the mobile market in which they were born.

When the first BlackBerry appeared, over a decade ago, mobile phone networks were far more basic than they are today. The most innovative service the majority of users had seen since mobile devices first appeared in the 1980s was the introduction of text messaging.

In the US, many mobile users were still making calls on analogue networks, while in Europe the new digital operators were only just introducing data services. But the sorts of speeds possible over networks such as Orange and Cellnet in the UK were pitiful. Speeds of 9.6Kb per second – less than 1% of the average speed available in the UK today, according to recent research – meant the networks had to resort to offering a pared-down version of the internet using Wap (Wireless application protocol) technology. Using a mobile phone to receive email, let alone access the “real” internet was almost unheard of.

By the mid-1990s, Canada’s Research In Motion (RIM) was already working with partners on a messaging device that would work on a new wireless data network, which its owners hoped would be rolled out across Europe and the US. It was not much of a success – although the UK network that used this technology eventually became Turbo Dispatch, which now sends mechanics from local garages to help millions of stranded motorists every year.

As a result, RIM switched to working with the existing mobile phone companies, but to squeeze emails across their networks meant using compression technology. RIM also needed to be able to persuade jittery corporate IT departments their emails would be safe, which required encryption technology. To create such a lean and secure service required an end-to-end solution, with both the device, the BlackBerry, and the server hosting the user’s email being able to understand each other. However, RIM wanted to be able to offer its devices on any mobile phone network.

As a result, it created the Network Operations Centre (Noc), which seems to have created such a headache in the Gulf. Every mobile phone operator that wants to offer BlackBerry devices has to have a connection to a Noc: – there is apparently one based in Canada to cover the Americas and one covering Europe and Asia. A company that wants to offer BlackBerrys to its employees, meanwhile, has to install software within its own IT systems that can communicate with the Noc.

When a user’s inbox receives a new email, that software securely communicates with the Noc, which then connects securely to the BlackBerry over a mobile phone network to deliver the email. It uses compression technology to make sure the email can be squeezed over even the most congested network. Numerous research reports over the past year have suggested that BlackBerrys are at least five times more efficient at email and attachment viewing than any other platform.

RIM has since opened its network up to consumer email services such as Gmail and Hotmail, which together with the introduction of a range of stylish devices aimed at the consumer market has created a boom in usage of BlackBerry phones among teenagers. Opening up the RIM network to the web has also allowed internet browsing, which is also apparently faster on a BlackBerry than other devices. They are three times more efficient than other carriers, according to a recent report by Rysavy Research.

But there is another side-effect to the way that RIM’s network architecture is configured and it has been seized upon by cash-strapped teenagers: BlackBerry Messenger. Because RIM knows every BlackBerry device in use, regardless of which network it is on, and they are all directly connected to its Nocs, BlackBerry users who have devices with the right software can communicate with each other without incurring the network interconnection and roaming charges associated with text messages.

Text messages and telephone calls, meanwhile, are routed solely over a mobile phone network, so neither will be affected by the UAE’s decision. That also explains why when there is a problem with RIM’s network – which has happened in the past – BlackBerry users can still make calls.

The first BlackBerry appeared in the late 1990s and was effectively a two-way pager. The first full email device – the 5810 – appeared in 2002.

The name, incidentally, was created by the company’s brand agency, which looked at the trademark small buttons on the device’s keyboard and decided they looked like the pips on a strawberry. That name, however, sounded too “slow”. Blackberry sounded punchier and it stuck.

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Ignore those ‘Road Closed’ signs, why don’t you

We bring you today’s GPS navigation mishap hilarity news from Australia, where a family of four were trapped in their car for three days after ignoring road signs.…

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