Mobile Stew - mobile & wireless

ntl:Telewest Merge With Virgin Mobile - Customers To Be Enticed With Fourplay

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 01:47:00 -0700

ntl:Telewest have finally reached agreement with Virgin Mobile over the
terms of a takeover offer, which values the mobile operator at £962.4m
($1.62bn), together with an agreement to re-brand all consumer operations with the Virgin brand in the future. The combined company will have revenues of over £3.9bn which will put it on a par with Sky and Vodafone UK.

The new company, Virgin Broadband(??) will be the first company in the UK to offer quadruple play to customers - Broadband, TV, fixed and mobile telephony. I really think that fourplay combined with the Virgin brand will reshape the way consumers think about communications and entertainment. Telewest had great success with its tripleplay (TV, broadband and mobile) '3 for £30' campaign. Imagine how successful a strong fourplay offer will be, ...

7% Of Music Sales From Mobiles

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 04:24:00 -0700

In the UK nearly 7% of all chart music bought this year has been
downloaded through a mobile service, according to the Official UK
Charts Company (OCC) .That represents nearly 70,000 chart singles bought every week by people on the move.

I find this astounding and I think it proves that Nokia's assertion that its handsets will soon prove a threat to the Apple iPod's dominance may prove true. I wonder how Apple will counter the threat of mobiles, particularly as many people pay nothing or very little for their handsets - why would you buy an iPod when your 'free' phone works just as well?

Nokia N80 Available April 20th On Vodafone

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 08:23:00 -0700

It's almost here. The Nokia N80 will be available from Vodafone UK on April 20th. I can't wait to get this phone as I'm certain I will be able to find a way to make VoIP calls using the Wi-Fi. I also think it will be my last phone upgrade for a while as the phone's form factor is just right to fit in my pocket, without it being so small that I keep dropping the phone or sacrifice screen size for browsing.

One of my mate's is going for the N91 instead which previously was the phone I was waiting for, so I'll be able to do a comparison of the two when they come out.

SMS 007 - Encrypt Your SMS Messages

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 07:54:00 -0700

A new SMS encryption service is now available. The service has been developed by CircleTech, s.r.o., a Czech software corporation. The Java (J2ME) application, which can run on majority of current mobile phones, uses encryption standard AES and user-derived keys to securely encrypt the SMS communication between parties which use it.

SMS 007 has been available for Czech customers for almost 5 months, but only very recently has entered the international market. The main distributor for Europe is Nokia Softwaremarket.

Besides encryption of the messages, SMS 007 has also other security features like a hidden contact list, which cannot be seen from the outside without knowledge of the main password - therefore, if someone steals your phone or just gets it in their hands for a while, he/she still cannot ...

Skype and 3 launch 3G data card

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 00:49:00 -0700

Skype and 3 launched 3G data card, which enables subscribers to make cheaper VoIP calls.

Currently the card is priced at £ 39.99 and is bundled with the special
starter pack provided by skype which includes Skype software, a Skype
headset and a Skype starter voucher.

Users hoping to get the card at the cheapest price - £ 39.99 will have to opt
for the Web and Office 512 package priced at £45 per month. However users will
get half a Gb of data bundled in each month.

READ MORE HERE

Vodafone To Expand HSDPA Trials In The UK

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 07:30:50 -0700

Vodafone plan to extend it's HSDPA trial in April beyond it's home town to 100 business users who will be testing Vodafone UK'sHSDPA-enabled Mobile ConnectCards for PCs across central and greater London.

Voda�s version of HSDPA can run at up to 1.8Mbps standard � almostfour times faster than base level home broadband speeds, with 384kbps upstream.

It's a pity that they are only trialling this service with business users and not consumers as I would have liked to see what high-speed services they had to offer. Years ago, when I was at Voda I worked on the 'Next Generation Consumer Proposition' project which created Voda's Content Roadmap for 3G and beyond. It would have been interesting to see which if more of the services we predicted would ...

Sony Ericsson signs a deal to bundle Google's Blogger.com

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 01:24:01 -0700

This week, Sony Ericsson has signed a deal with Google, which enablesSony Ericsson to integrate Google's Blogger.com and Google Web Searchfeatures on all of its future mobile phones.

This meansblogger.com account holder with the new Sony Ericsson phone can writeand post content to his blog on the move using the bundles software. Soyou can post content to your blog even on a vacation, travel or awayfrom a computer. This is the first any mobile handsent manfacturerporviding this kind of features related to blogging. This shows howpopular is blogging in the present internet era and it looks likesurely this is going to be a hit feature.

READ MORE HERE

Vodafone To Launch Its Own Handsets

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 09:17:29 -0700

Vodafone is set to launch its own brand of handsets after signing a five-year deal with China's Huawei Technologies. I'm surprised that Vodafone hadn't done this already. I don't think we will be seeing cutting-edge smartphones, but rather good value mass-market phones.

This could have a major impact on the sales of Nokia, Sony Ericsson etc if Vodafone try to dominate the middle of the market.

3G Adult Video Chat Service

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 08:43:26 -0700

I guess it had to happen sometime - I'm kind of surprised it's taken so long, given that it is estimated that up to 40% of premium mobile content is for adult services 'to go'.

3OOOH in Spain have just launched the first adult video chat service where customers can dial a premium number for a chat with 'Sexy Susie'. Within the call both participants can see each other, although I'm sure there an option will soon be added for the caller to withhold their image.

More: Moobile

The 3G Portal - 3G News, 3G Opinion and 3G Analysis

Watch TV With Your Mobile And Get Fined �1000

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 15:34:51 -0700

I passed by a Vodafone store today which had a poster advertising Sky TV packages for mobile phones from �5pm, which struck me as a very good deal if you wanted to watch Sky on the cheap.

Well, this may prove to a be a false economy as apparently you will need a TV licence to watch TV on your mobile in the UK or risk getting a �1000 fine and potentially imprisonment.

Most people already have a TV licence in the UK so this isn't a problem, but every year apparently 200,000 people are caught watching TV without a licence.

What to expect from 3GSM World Congress, Barcelona

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 02:09:02 -0700

The much awaited and biggest of its kind, 3GSM World Congress 2006 has kicked off today. 3GSM 2006 is being held in Barcelona this year and is being attended by every major wireless, mobile, telecom related companies.

So, what to expect from this big event? There are plenty of new and interesting technologies, exciting services and hottest gadgets to make their debut.
Some of the themes talked about last year will surface as products this year, including HSDPA mobile phones, dual-mode handsets supporting both GSM and Wi-Fi technologies, handsets capable of receiving broadcast TV signals. Mobile TV, MVNOs, mobile search and discovery and the road map to 4G will be some of the hottest themes at this event in Spanish metropolis, according to many industry experts.

READ MORE HERE

AdMob - Pay Per Click Ads For Mobiles

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 11:22:56 -0700

AdMob have launched a new Pay-Per-Click advertising service for mobile phones that hopes to replicate the success of internet services like Yahoo YPN, Google Adsense etc.

AdMob are partnering with mobile internet sites to create ads, that will be displayed via a number of unique technologies that they say will 'change the way you think about mobile advertising'

Lets hope so.

More: Messaging Blues

W3C announces Mobile Web Best Practices

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 06:50:18 -0700

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has recently announced 'Mobile WebBest Practices' through Mobile Web Initiative. This documentspecifies best practices for Web content when accessed from mobiledevices, with a primary goal is to improve the user experience of theWeb when accessed from mobile devices.

According to W3C, "Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0" condenses theexperience of many mobile Web stakeholders into practical advice oncreating content that will work well on mobile devices. Authors andother content producers will value the shared experience of how tocreate content that makes browsing convenient on mobile devices and toavoid known pitfalls on those devices (such as pop-ups andpage-scrolling).

This work is part of the W3C MobileWeb Initiative, which is supported by nineteen MWI Sponsors, including...

Make Your Own Free MP3 Ringtones

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 04:49:39 -0700

I decided to get some new ringtones to freshen up my phone and I was amazed by how much mobile companies charge for what are essentially 15-30 second clips, so I decided to make my own. I've posted below how I did this if you want to make your own mp3 ringtones.

First off download and install Audacity and also download and extract Lame_enc.

Once you've done this open up Audacity.

Step 1: Go to 'File' then 'Open' and find and select your source mp3

Step 2: Once the file is open listen to the mp3 and note on the waveform where the section is that you want to make into a ringtone

Step 3: Select the section you want to use by dragging your mouse over the section ...

My New Motorola H700 Bluetooth Headset Is Amazing

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 23:00:39 -0700

I lost my last headset just before Christmas, and after driving and making calls for a few weeks at the same time (I know I shouldn't) I decided it was time for a replacement.

I've had my Motorola H700 Bluetooth Headset for a week now and it is brilliant. The H700 has echo cancellation and noise reduction which means that the audio quality is better than actually through the handset, and when I'm on a call people don't even realise that I'm driving.

If you are planning on upgrading your current earpiece or just fancy going up-market, then definitely get one of these.