New guidelines boost web access
The World Wide Web Consortium has announced a new standard to make sites more accessible to older and disabled people. Version 2.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines will apply to text, images, audio and video. It also covers web applications and will give developers more flexibility than older guidelines.
BBC News

Twitter ye not: crash survivor updates blog from burning plane
When a Continental Airlines Boeing 737 skidded off the runway at Denver airport on Saturday software engineer Mike Wilson’s first priority was to report his disrupted travel arrangements to his followers on Twitter. Over the ensuing hours he delivered a detailed account of the crash and its aftermath to users of the service.
The Guardian

iPhone 3G launched in Jordan
Orange is now selling the iPhone 3G in Jordan, which is the second country in the Middle East after Egypt. However, the device is lacking in local language and services support. For example, iTunes (and as such App Store) is not available and the device itself doesn't support Arabic language.
Mobile Entertainment

Kellogg's Special K creates new website for slimming challenge
Kellogg is promoting its Special K Slimmer Jeans Challenge with its new Shapemate website. It will offer free personalised slimming and fitness plans, along with a shopping list creator, live blogs and groups that slimmers can join. The site has been created by magneticNorth.
Brand Republic

Orange reports mobile social networking surge
Orange has reported a huge increase in the uptake of mobile data services, particularly social networking. Facebook and Bebo, generate 166 million page impressions on average per month on Orange's networks, driven by a combination of more advanced handsets, USB dongles and affordable price plans.
Total Telecom

Windows XP gets another reprieve
Microsoft has extended its deadline for smaller PC builders and resellers to obtain licenses for Windows XP. The previous deadline of 31 January 2009 has been extended four months to 30 May 2009. However, even after the new deadline has passed, the operating system will still be available on ultra-low-cost PCs until June 30, 2010.
Silicon.com

Panasonic to acquire Sanyo Electric
Panasonic plans to boost its rechargeable-battery business with the acquisition of Sanyo Electric for £6m. The merger will allow Panasonic to gain access to Sanyo's production technology and hopes to invest heavily in batteries for hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles.
ZDNet

Ten million online music tracks "unsold"
More than ten million tracks from an available 13 million available failed to sell contradicting a popular economic theory about digital internet shopping. A study by MCPS-PRS Alliance revealed that for the online albums market, of the 1.23 million available, only 173,000 were ever bought, meaning 85% did not sell a single copy all year.
Pocket-Lint

Mobile Phone Subscribers Pass 4 Billion Mark
Informa Telecoms & Media estimates that 60% of the global population is now experiencing connectivity to the world. And for the first time through wireless, millions of people are changing their economic, social and political fortunes forever. The estimates come as more than 100 operators worldwide, including most industry leaders, have announced expectations to migrate networks to LTE from 2010.
Cellular News

HP brings Wi-Fi printing to iPhone
Hewlett Packard announced a new free application that allows users to print out their photographs on its printers. The application allows you to print to any HP printer on a Wi-Fi network that you have access to. However, concerns have already been expressed with Jpg only support and that any phone call received at the critical moment may disrupt the printing process
Tech Radar

Apple takes 3.8% stake in Imagination Technologies

Apple has invested $4.8 million into semiconductor company Imagination Technolgies, which could see the chipmaker have a bigger role in Apple’s products as a result.

Information Week

 

O2 unveils more low-cost broadband offers

O2 has unveiled its latest low cost broadband offer – this time for home broadband users, who get unlimited data and speeds of up to 20 megabytes for under£10. this follows an earlier low-cost offer for mobile broadband that O2 launched a few weeks ago.

Total Telecom

 

Gates Foundation donates $7m to encourage broadband access

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $6.9m to advocacy group Connected Nation and to the American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy to promote better broadband access with speeds of at least 1.5 Mbps to public libraries to key states in the US.

Silicon.com

 

Anti-piracy plan to make ISPs liable for illegal downloads

The Government is considering a radical plan to combat internet piracy, by offering ISPs a profit-sharing deal that would see them make a small return on every film or music track, which could make them millions of pounds in additional revenue.

The Guardian

 

Google bakes a ‘cupcake’ for Android

Android is on the cusp of providing new functionality that will see its main rival the iPhone left behind. ‘Cupcake’ is a new update to the Android platform that brings more than just simple bug fixes. Designed for developers, Cupcake will enable Android to have cut-and-paste and video recording before the iPhone.

Information Week

 

Nokia's Mail on Ovi public beta goes 'live' around the world

Mail on Ovi, the free email account from Nokia, is now 'live' and can be set up directly on Nokia phones without requiring a PC to get started. People who use Nokia Series 40 devices can create their own email address directly on their mobile phones.

Cellular News

 

India to cut off 25 million mobile phones

The telecoms ministry of India is set to switch off connections to around 25 million of the country's 315 million mobile phones which it believes have fake IMEI numbers or none at all.

Tech radar

 

Microsoft refines the reverse touchscreen

Microsoft has unveiled a new credit-card sized touchscreen, where users control the device by dragging their finger along the rear of the display.

PC Pro

 

Ofcom acts against rip-off comms charges

UK communications regulator Ofcom has issued new guidelines that limit extra charges that communications suppliers levy on consumers for a range of events, notably early cancellation of contracts and for not paying by direct debit.

Computer Weekly

 

Samsung to Launch a Google Phone in Q1 2009

Samsung is reported to be preparing to launch a new Smartphone based on the Google backed Android operating system within the next few months. The second "Google Phone" is expected to be available in both GSM/3G and CDMA options and sold via T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel.

Cellular News

Yahoo to delete internet searches after 3 months

Yahoo is to remove most of the data it collects about people's web searches after three months, a move that could put further pressure on competitors Google and Microsoft to do the same due to privacy concerns. Yahoo, which previously kept the data for 13 months, will now retain it for the least amount of time compared to its rivals.

PC Advisor 

 

Nationwide standard for mobile rail ticketing

The Association of Train Operating Companies has announced that it has adopted a nationwide standard for rail ticketing. All franchises will be able to use the same system, allowing passengers to buy a single ticket for their journey using their mobile even if they use more than one network.

The Times 

 

Sprint rolls out WiMax card

Sprint has unveiled a new wireless USB modem designed for both 3G and 4G networks. The USB-powered device is the first in the US market to run on both 3G and WiMax wireless networks. Sprint hopes that the device will appeal to notebook users who would like to try the new 4G networks without giving up support for the older 3G wireless broadband systems.

VNUnet

 

Vodafone partners with Last.fm

Vodafone has teamed up with UK music community site, Last.fm to produce a dedicated application that will track listening habits and build them into an online profile for others to see. The process of collating listening habits is called ‘Scrobbling’, and Last.fm uses the scrobbled data to make music recommendations based on individual tastes.

T3

 

Motorola cost-cutting continues

Motorola has moved to extend its $800 million cost-cutting programme and will permanently stop matching contributions to its US employee pension plan from March 1st. Employees have also been told that they will not be receiving pay rises in 2009, with co-CEOs Greg Brown and Sanjay Jha taking a voluntary 25 per cent pay cut next year.

Mobile Entertainment

 

Websites using mobiles and GPS to be success in 2009

Among a list of sites to watch are several that use the phones' ability to find their users' location to offer them information on local POIs. Smart-phones using GPS chips can report locations accurately meaning users can trace their movements through an on-screen map. Sites listed include loopt.com and recyclenow.com.

The Telegraph

EDB and Encap secure internet banking log-in using a mobile

EDB, working in collaboration with Norwegian technology company Encap, is now launching a new solution for secure log-in using a mobile phone. The solution uses the customer’s mobile handset's Java platform, therefore operating regardless of which mobile operator the banking customer uses.

Mobile Europe

 

Paris Hilton to launch Bongo Virus 

Australian entrepreneur, William Scott, has signed Paris Hilton to launch his latest business venture. TheBongoVirus.com is the first platform converging the mobile phone and the internet to provide social networking and the latest phone applications such as instant messaging and games in one place.

Mobile Business

 

Hidden costs of music downloads

Consumers are facing data charges of up to £10 to download a song, according to new research on European data pricing. Although some operators charge as little as 75p to download tracks, the small print outlining ‘fair usage’ within the Terms and Conditions means operators could charge much higher costs.

Mobile Business

 

EU threatens vendors with Smartphone tax

The EU has proposed reclassifying Smartphones as "multi-function devices", which would add 3.7% to the cost of a phone with GPS, and 14% to one receiving TV pictures. Germany has already considered such a tax, so the EU wants to see a level playing field by lifting it everywhere.

The Register

They wrote it so you don't have to: digital music analysts and all-round lovely people Music Ally have posted a list of the 200 music start-ups of 2008. Some of them started and failed within the year, and many more will not see the end of 2009. But what's most interesting is the energy and ideas around digital music as people look to make some kind of money out of the whole thing.

U.K.-based Mobile Search Company Taptu Raises $10 Million, Hires COO

Mobile search engine developer Taptu has raised around £6.45million in a second round of funding, bringing their total funding to £11.45million with help from investors 3i and Sofinnova. The money will be used to grow its userbase and establish how best to monetize the search engine, said new COO Andreas Bernstrom.

The Washington Post

 

Japan networking site stock soars 45 pct in debut

While the global financial and economic crisis has largely put the brakes on a slow Japan IPO market, Japanese social networking site operator Gree Inc has emerged as the one shining star, its shares soaring 45 percent in their debut on the Tokyo bourse on Wednesday.

The Guardian

 

Yahoo launches pitch to beef up mobile services

Yahoo is seeking a roster of mobile agencies to develop and deliver mobile creative services.  It’s looking to build its capabilities around the mobile Internet as seeks to drive ad sales across Europe and encourage greater take-up of mobile ad opportunities by offering clients a range of additional services.

New Media Age

 

Internet Explorer users warned to change browser over security fears

A serious flaw in security has left Internet Explorer users exposed to attacks from hackers hoping to steal personal data and passwords by tricking them into visiting unsafe websites. It is thought that two million computers have already been affected as Microsoft conceded that 1 in 500 internet users may have been exposed.

The Times

 

Half of women prefer web to sex, says survey

According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Intel, 65% of adults say they can't live without the internet. 46% of women and 30% of men said they would rather go without sex for a fortnight than give up internet access.

The Independent

 

Internet advertising threatened by concerns of breaches of privacy

Virgin Media says it still intends to use some form of targeted advertising technology to take advantage of the data that its network collects of its subscribers’ Internet usage.  Many of Virgin Media’s customers have expressed concern of its deal with Phorm, which has been slammed as cyber snooping technology.

The Guardian

 

North Korea launches restricted mobile service

One of the most secretive countries has launched a mobile phone but the service is likely to reach only a slice of the population. This is a remarkable development for the country that last saw a mobile service launch in 2002 but was then withdrawn after a mysterious train bombing.

The Guardian

 

Apple pulls out of Macworld

Apple has announced that January’s Macworld will be the last that it participates in. It also announced that Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing will provide the keynote speech in stead of CEO Steve Jobs. This may mark the beginning of Apple holding its own events rather than attend industry conferences.

Silicon.com 

 

Siemens pays €1bn in corruption fines

Siemens has been ordered to pay €1 billion in fines to settle two long-running corruption cases. The company was fined for activity related to a bribery fund being set up to win new contracts and a case accusing the Board of failing to fulfil its supervisory obligations.

Information Age 

 

Nortel seeks advice to avoid bankruptcy

Nortel denies that it is about to declare bankruptcy but is simply seeking advice in order to avoid it. It’s already looking to sell its profitable Metro Ethernet division and has announced more redundancies. Last month it announced a $3.4bn loss, which sparked speculation it was about to collapse.

Information Age 

Some pretty interesting news reported today on the US MacWorld site: for the first time in 25 years, Apple have announced they won't be exhibiting at the biggest tradeshow dedicated to all things Mac from next year.

It's hard to know what the significance of this is. There's already a lot of speculation that this is related to Steve Jobs' health, but it could just be that Apple has a different strategy up it's sleeve. As it tries to transition its products into other vertical markets, it could be that one big tradeshow per year just doesn't fit with its product roadmap. But whatever the reason, feeelings will be funning high amongst Apple fans. As Jason Snell, author of the MacWorld article says:

"I’m stunned that Apple has taken a 25-year-old event that has been the single best meeting place for the entire community of users and vendors of Apple-related products and treated it like a piece of garbage stuck to the bottom of its shoe. But I’m not really surprised: Apple has been leading up to this moment for a long time now."

 Have a read and see what you think.

Nokia has seen great publicity for its new Comes with Music service - essentially an all-you-can-eat music service tied to one of 2 Nokia mobile phones. It's a brave play (one journalist told me that the record labels know there's no money to be made, but they are along for the ride) but if Nokia's Ovi strategy is to succeed, they need to see the handset as the content gateway, rather than the operators. That's a view also supported by Ben Wood from CCS Insight:

"Firstly, the Nokia 5310 isn’t as cool as Apple’s products, and buyers have repeatedly proved they’re happy to pay a premium for cool gadgets. Secondly, many people don’t pay for much of the music on their iPods: they rip it from CDs they already own or find other free sources. This makes paying for unlimited music look expensive, even if it is only a one-time fee marketed as part of a mobile phone bundle. And finally, Nokia’s offer is tied to a particular phone or PC. Despite the generous limits placed on such usage, Comes With Music restricts users in a way that ripped CDs and other “free” music don’t."

Maybe to a consumer, content is only 'free' when it's both free from cost and also free from useage restrictions? Be interesting to see how this pans out...

Virgin UK chooses Yahoo

Yahoo! oneSearch service will power search on Virgin Media UK’s forthcoming mobile portal. The portal will be launched on December 8th and will provide Virgin Media’s mobile consumers with news, entertainment and access to social media services.

Mobile Entertainment

 

Dell enters the mobile phone arena

Dell, one of the leading manufacturers on PC computers, has entered the mobile phone arena with its first Smartphone release, the Traveller 619 GPS.

Mobile Choice

 

Enterprises to cut fixed-line in favour of mobile

The economic downturn means that businesses will spend less on fixed-line voice budgets, as enterprises look to mobile phones as a cheaper communications alternative, according to telecoms analyst group Analysys Mason.

Tech World

 

Mobile devices will beat PC, TV in battle for consumers' time

Mobile devices will potentially replace TVs and computers as the electronic devices most central to people's lives. EE Times have identified eight mobile device trends likely to have a major industry and end-user impact within the next few years.

EE Times

 

EU agrees data roaming caps

EU telecoms ministers have voted to cap roaming charges for data, text and voice in an effort to eliminate so-called bill shock for people travelling abroad. Ministers have imposed a one euro per megabyte cap on the roaming fees operators can charge each other, with user connections cut if data usage goes beyond 50MB.

Mobile Entertainment

 

Sun warns of bugs as it releases MySQL 5.1

Sun has released version 5.1 of the open-source MySQL database software, but the software's founder simultaneously warned of a number of bugs present in the new features that are still to be fixed. Users are advised to test the latest MySQL version before deploying it to production systems.

ZDNet

 

Vodafone Eying €2.8 Billion Take-Over of German Cable TV Operator

Vodafone is reported to be planning a €2.8 billion take-over of the German cable TV operator, Kabel Deutschland (KDG). KDG, which announced increased second quarter revenues, would be a good fit with Vodafone's German landline subsidiary, Arcor which controls about 14% of the broadband market.

Cellular News

 

Fuel-cell Powered Devices Getting Closer

The US government has allowed cells with methanol, butane or formic acid to be carried on airplanes, which opens the way to fuel-cell chargers that could potentially power laptops and handsets for days between refills and relieve owners who had to charge them every few hours.
CBS News

 

Virgin Mobile launches 30p per day mobile internet

Starting next Monday, Virgin Mobile will offer its customers mobile web access for only 30p a day. The 30p daily charge will include unlimited access to all websites via an "enhanced" Virgin Media-branded mobile web portal with a focus on music, video, games downloads broad and editorial content.

Pocket Lint

 

Microsoft faces antitrust complaint from Dutch dealer

A Dutch software dealer has filed a complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission, arguing that the company's pricing policy in Europe violates antitrust laws by charging at least a third more for its software in Europe than it does in the US.

Silicon.com