Over 1.2bn mobile phones sold in 2009
More than 1.2 billion mobile phones were sold globally last year, according to the latest research from analyst firm Gartner. The figures are 0.9 per cent on 2008, but the fourth quarter of 2009 saw an 8.3 per cent year-on-year rise to 340 million handset sales. "The mobile devices market finished on a very positive note, driven by growth in smartphones and low-end devices," says research director Carolina Milanesi. Nokia remained top with nearly 441 million handset sales in 2009, taking a market share of 36.4 per cent - down from 38.6 per cent in 2008.
PCR Online

Vodafone 'UK’s fastest network'
An independent survey, commissioned by mobile operator O2, has found that the Vodafone network offers the fastest speed for web browsing on a mobile phone. O2 came top for music downloads. The tests measured speeds on each of the UK's five mobile broadband networks to see which provided the fastest service.
The Telegraph

Qualcomn gets smartphone amplifier support from RFMD
RF Micro Devices has started volume production of its RF720x WCDMA/HSPA+ power amplifiers (PAs). The RF720x family is optimised for smartphone handset reference designs from Qualcomm and other suppliers. The chips support all major WCDMA/HSPA+ bands and band combinations.  According to Eric Creviston, president of RFMD's Cellular Products Group (CPG),  there is significant smartphone design activity taking place particularly in Korea, China and Taiwan.
Electronics Weekly

Rumour: Apple iPad available to pre-order this week?
The Wi-Fi version of the Apple iPad tablet could be available to pre-order this week, from Thursday 25th February.  The Wi-fi iPad is set to go on sale officially next month, with the more expensive Wi-fi and 3G option to follow in April.  That’s the rumour currently doing the rounds, with a “source close to the matter” quoted by the App Advice website, claiming the pre-orders would apply to US customers for now.  Apple has a ‘Notify Me’ section on both the US and UK online Apple Stores.
PC Advisor

Yahoo signs up Twitter
Yahoo and Twitter announced a deal to put Twitter feeds on Yahoo homepages, e-mail accounts, Yahoo Sports and other sites in a broad content-sharing agreement that also includes Twitter in Yahoo search results.  The global partnership will also include real-time public Twitter updates in a range of Yahoo properties, including Yahoo News, Finance, Entertainment and Sports. Yahoo search users will be able to see Twitter results immediately, while other aspects of the new agreement will go into effect later this year, the companies said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
ComputerWorld UK

Google faces European competition inquiry
The European Commission is looking into complaints about Google's behaviour, the company has revealed. The complaints were made by UK price comparison site Foundem, French legal search engine ejustice.fr, and Microsoft's Ciao. Google's senior competition lawyer Julia Holtz said the internet giant was "confident" it operated within European competition law.
BBC News

Let us legally rip discs, campaigner tells govt
Consumer rights advocate Consumer Focus has called on the government to fix copyright laws broken by the rise of digital technology. CF's argument is that now the UK's population has amassed a sizeable collection of computers, iPods and phones, members of the public have been busily rippings CDs and DVDs in order to get content to play on all these gadgets.
Reg Hardware

Microsoft tops Superbrands list overtaking rival Google
Microsoft has toppled its internet rival Google from the prized top spot in a survey of the UK's strongest 500 business brands published today. Google, which held the top position in 2008 and 2009, slips to fifth place while Microsoft enjoys the number one slot after coming second in the annual Business Superbrand top 500 survey in 2007 and 2008, and fifth last year.
The Guardian

Apple TV 'just a hobby', confirms Tim Cook
Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, says the Apple TV remains 'a hobby', and that the vast majority of his company's revenue comes from its mobile devices. But Mr Cook said that Apple believed Apple TV – which allows people to download movies and TV shows from the iTunes store and watch them on their television – was worth continued innovation and investment because there was "something there".
The Telegraph

Investor reveals details of successful web applications
To be successful, a web application must be fast, instantly useful, playful and search engine friendly with a clean user interface, according to venture capitalist Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures. Wilson, speaking at the Future of Web Apps conference in Miami Beach, also told the developers and entrepreneurs who filled the Colony Theater that applications should also have their own "voice," or a personality that distinguishes them, and focus on doing a few things really well.
Techworld

O2 London mobile broadband out in front
An O2 commissioned survey to estimate broadband speeds in the UK has revealed that the network carrier is the fastest operator in London, while results for the rest of the country were a little mixed.
ITproPortal

Google officially jams Gears
Google has said that it has stopped active development on Google Gears and is moving its efforts to the HTML5 database API to provide local database storage for web browsers.
The H Open

New wireless charging standard proposed
An industry body known as the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) has proposed a standard called Qi, which is set to be finalised later this year and will allow charging points to be installed in furniture and table mats, for example.
The Inquirer

Google u-turns on China?
Google is restarting talks with the Chinese government in order to clarify the future of its businesses in the country. The search giant had previously said it could no longer co-operate with Chinese censorship of search results.
The Register

Broadband tax condemned as 'unfair' by MPs 
A UK government proposal to charge people with fixed phone lines 50p per month to help fund ultra-fast broadband has been condemned as "unfair" by MPs. The cross-party Business Innovation and Skills Committee said most of those who would pay the tax would not benefit from the faster broadband service.
BBC News
 
iPlayer reaches 120 million requests per month
BBC's popular iPlayer platform has managed to smash through the 120 million programme requests milestone in January 2010, its third consecutive highest month. Not surprisingly, the  bad weather and the long winter nights have been major factors to the iPlayer success in 2009 and early 2010. Hundreds of thousands had to stay indoors and in many a time, video on demand was one of the more readily available pastimes.
ITproPortal

Google Transit launches in Europe
Google has announced the launch of Transit, an add-on service to Google Maps that incorporates public transport routes and schedules to enable users to plan journeys across town. The new service is being launched in Brussels together with the city's public transport operator MIVB/STIB and will be rolled out in other cities in Europe at a later date.
Macworld

Microsoft launches site for young men
Microsoft has launched a men's site called MSN Him. Warner Bros has signed up as the first brand to advertise on MSN Him and will advertise male-targeted movies and DVDs across the site for the next three months.
New Media Age

Wagamama debuts UK's first food-ordering iPhone app
Wagamama has become the first restaurant brand in the UK to launch its own iPhone application. Designed for users wishing to place a take-out order directly from their handset, the app enables users to locate their nearest branch, browse the menu to place their order at any time on the day and pay securely with a debit or credit card.
Net Imperative
 
Amazon seals patent deal with Microsoft
Amazon has signed a patent agreement with Microsoft that will enable the two companies to share technology. Part of the agreement means that Amazon is now shielded from patent litigation for software on the Kindle, as well as their Linux-based servers. Microsoft added that Amazon would pay an undisclosed amount under the patent licence agreement.
TechRadar

Microsoft offers web browser choice to IE users
Millions of European Internet Explorer (IE) users will have the option to choose an alternative browser from 1st March. The announcement follows a legal agreement between Microsoft and Europe's Competition Commission in December 2009. Microsoft committed to letting Windows PC users across Europe install the web browser of their choice, rather than having Microsoft IE as a default.
BBC News

US 'closes in on Google hackers'
Investigators say they are closing in on the source of the cyber attacks that hit a number of US companies, including Google, according to reports. The Financial Times suggests that US officials have tracked the author of the code used to attack the company. The paper says the alleged hacker is a Chinese "freelance security consultant in his 30s" who had published extracts of the attack code on the web. The attacks led Google to announce that it may pull out of China entirely.
BBC News

Space shuttle Endeavour lands in Florida
The space shuttle Endeavour has landed at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, following its latest visit to the International Space Station (ISS). The two-week mission saw the virtual completion of the ISS. The six-member crew of Endeavour installed the Tranquillity Node, a spacious addition that includes the "cupola" observation deck. The commissioning of Tranquillity marks the last major component of the space station.
BBC News

Apple to take iPad orders this week?
Want a the 3G-less Apple iPad? The Mac maker will begin taking advance orders for the product later this week, it has been claimed. The news comes from website AppAdvice - formerly AppleiPhoneApps.com - and is said to derive from "a reliable source... familiar with the matter". Said mole reckons Apple's online store will begin taking iPad orders on 25th February.
Reg Hardware

TV makers firm on real-time 2-D/3-D conversion
CE giants raised eyebrows at the Consumer Electronics Show when they promised that their upcoming 3-D TVs would convert 2-D programming to 3-D in real-time. Critics dismiss real-time 2-D/3-D conversion as gimmickry, claiming the results are generally so spotty that even the casual observer can pick up on the parlour trick. The CE industry's content-production partners are sceptical at best.
EETimes

UN calls for action on growing electronic waste
The world must do more to cope with the drastic rise in electronic waste, according to a UN study published today.The report suggests that in some countries, the amount of e-waste being produced – including mobile phones and computers – could rise by as much as 500 per cent over the next decade. Such rapid growth, it argues, will create intractable problems for people's health and the environment as the waste, much of it containing toxic material, decays.
The Guardian

Apple removes 5,000 apps from App Store
Apple has removed around 5,000 apps from its App Store, including some that it claims feature "overtly sexual" content. Dozens of developers received a message from Apple stating that the company was refining the guidelines under which the App Store operates, and that content that it had "originally believed to be suitable for distribution" were now no longer deemed appropriate, following "numerous complaints from customers about this type of content".
Telegraph

Welcome to FarmVille: Population 80 million
FarmVille, the world's biggest social game, has almost 80 million players – that's around 20 per cent of all Facebook users; more people than use Twitter or, indeed, live in the UK. Some 30 million of them tend their crops daily. When the site allowed its gamers to exchange virtual Valentine gifts online, 220 million were sent and accepted within 18 hours; to get that into perspective, it's worth noting that Hallmark sells approximately 200m e-cards over the entire Valentine season.
The Independent

School denies spying on students with MacBooks
A suburban school district in the US denied it spied on students by remotely activating the cameras on their school-issued MacBook laptops. In a statement released late Thursday, Christopher McGinley, the superintendent of Lower Merion School District of Ardmore, Philadelphia, admitted that the MacBooks' cameras could be turned on without the user's knowledge, but said that the functionality was part of a security feature.
Techworld.com

Industry body to investigate Chip and PIN flaw
The people who created the specification for the Chip and PIN security system are investigating claims that the technology has been hacked. The specification body, EMVCo, said it is looking at a paper penned by boffins at Cambridge University,who demonstrated an attack with a valid payment card that did not require a valid PIN to be entered to complete a transaction. EMVCo is owned by American Express, JCB, MasterCard and Visa, which will also be looking at the paper.
The Inquirer

SAP boss ousted in shock management reshuffle
SAP chief executive officer Leo Apotheker has unexpectedly resigned after less than a year in the job, when the company announced that it was declining to renew his contract. SAP said today that Apotheker was to leave the company by "mutual agreement" and is to be replaced by current board members Bill McDermott, head of field organization and Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product development.
V3

Mozilla to drop Mac OS Tiger support
Firefox maker Mozilla has announced it will drop support for the Mac OS X 10.4 from future versions of its popular browser. In a posting on the Mozilla.dev.planning forum, Mozilla engineer Josh Aas explained that although the firm stopped supporting the operating system – codenamed Tiger – in September 2009, the team “left much of the code required to support that platform in the tree in case we wanted to reverse that decision”. Mac OS X 10.4 was released in April of 2005 and a lot has changed since then. We would like to take advantage of more modern technologies on Mac OS X and 10.4 support has been a hindrance,” he wrote.
V3

Microsoft to drop Linux and Unix from enterprise search
Microsoft is to halt offering Linux or Unix versions of its enterprise search products after a wave of releases set to ship in the first half of this year, said the company in its blog. After Microsoft bought Fast Search & Transfer in 2008, it said it would continue offering and updating standalone versions of the company's ESP platform for Linux and Unix, wrote Bjorn Olstad, CTO for Fast and a Microsoft distinguished engineer. "Over the last two years, we've done just that." But the products being released this year will be the last containing a search core compatible with Linux and Unix, he said.
Techworld

Consumers say 'no' to iPad
When the over-the-top hype met the reality of Apple's iPad, most consumers decided they didn't need, and wouldn't buy, the new device, according to a survey from online retailer Retrevo. "There was too much hoopla," said Manish Rathi, Retrevo's co-founder. The company conducted two polls of more than 1,000 American consumers each, one survey done before the iPad's 27 January unveiling , the other after. "There was so much [hype] that afterward, people were underwhelmed because they expected it would slice bread." Retrevo's two surveys spotlighted the before-and-after differences in consumers' attitudes toward the iPad. Before launch, 26 percent of those polled said they had heard of the iPad, but weren't interested in buying it; that number doubled to 52 percent after Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage in San Francisco and hoisted an iPad.
Techworld

AdMob expresses concern at Apple's location ads ban for iPhone
Earlier today, it emerged that Apple is telling iPhone developers that it won't approve apps that use location primarily to push geo-targeted ads at users. Although the exact details are still unclear - it's possible the ban will only apply for apps that don't use location in other ways already - it could have an impact on the plans of mobile ad networks like AdMob.
Mobile Entertainment

Network users get great clarity on call pricing
Network users will have greater insight into suppliers' pricing following Ofcom's decision to insist on the publication of prices lists for call termination rates. Ofcom has also declared there is enough competition in the market for inter-exchange traffic to stop regulating prices, but it will continue to regulate BT for single transit (ST) links, ie, for interconnection between networks where direct interconnection is not economically viable. The decisions are the result of a consultation published last September into the UK's fixed narrowband wholesale communications markets. The decisions cover the UK except for Hull.
Computer Weekly

Chinese authorities have shut down the largest hacker training website
The largest hacker training website in China has been closed down, seeing three of its members arrested in the process, according to reports. The "Black Hawk Safety Net" website taught hacking techniques and provided malicious software downloads for its 12,000 members in exchange for a fee, the Wuhan Evening News newspaper reported this weekend, citing police in Huanggang, just east of Wuhan. Hacking from China has received international attention since Google threatened to quit China last month after a serious hacking attempt originating from China, resulting in the theft of its intellectual property.
IT Pro

Social networking giant Facebook has removed Microsoft banner ads from its site
Facebook has cut short an exclusive deal with Microsoft that saw the software giant manage its display ads by taking back control and removing the company's banners from the site. However, Microsoft - the exclusive provider of web search on Facebook - will continue to sell text-based search ads on the website as the partners extended the arrangement beyond 2011, when it had been due to expire. A Facebook spokesman declined to say how long the deal has been extended.
IT Pro

Ofcom backs operators' bid for greater 3G coverage
Consultation launched on whether operators can extend power limits of 3G licenses. Moves to boost mobile phone coverage in the UK by increasing the power limits of operators’ 3G licenses are in the pipeline. Ofcom has come out in in favour of UK operators topping up the power of their 3G base stations - subject to consultation - after considering an application from Vodafone. The regulator has published a consultation document today and is calling for comments on the plans.
Mobile

Vodafone suffers Twitter 'attack'
Vodafone is looking into a 'severe breach of rules' by staff after an offensive 'tweet' was posted on its official Twitter account, Vodafone UK. The offensive 'tweet' was posted at 15:47 and deleted shortly afterwards. Since then, the operator has sent out numerous apologies to its followers on the social networking site. Vodafone reacted quickly to the breach and posted an apology, just under an hour after the original post, which said: 'We're really sorry. A severe breach of rules by staff in out building, dealing with that internally. Please keep your faith in us.'
Mobile 

Sony wants to be "active player" in tablet market
Sony appears ready to enter the tablet market, describing itself as "very interested" in designing a product of its own. Pressed on Sony's response to Apple's iPad announcement, chief financial officer Nobuyuki Oneda gave the clearest indication yet that the company was contemplating a challenger.
PC PRO

Telecom Italia denies only two bidders remain for Argentina stake
Italian operator insists it is in the process of compiling a short list from a 'number of bidders'.
Telecom Italia denied Thursday a report that only two bidders remained in the running for its stake in Telecom Argentina. Earlier, Reuters, citing an unnamed source close to the deal, reported that airport services operator Corporacion America and local businessman Alfredo Roman were the only two bidders still seeking to buy Telecom Italia's stake in Telecom Argentina.
Total Telecom

Microsoft’s Mundie calls for mandatory ‘internet drivers licences’
Microsoft’s chief strategy officer Craig Mundie suggested that internet users should get mandatory training before being allowed online. Mundie has proposed a three-tier system of authentication - for people, devices and applications saying that while this would mean some loss of anonymity online people were used to having to present identification in other areas of life and the internet should not be different.
v3.co.uk

EU reviews internet security after emissions fraud A phishing scam against the Emissions
An email phishing fraud against the European Union's greenhouse gas Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) has prompted the executive European Commission to revise its internet security guidelines. German officials said this week that online fraudsters had targeted international carbon markets to steal emissions permits from companies and sell them illegally.
IT PRO

Facebook could sell own brand phones by 2011
Facebook could produce its own mobile phones before the end of next year, according to Christian Lindholm, an industry expert and managing partner at design consultancy Fjord.
Lindholm, who pioneered Nokia's user interface and was head of global mobile products at Yahoo, that getting into the hardware space would be an obvious move for the social networking site.
v3.co.uk

Licensing.biz leaps to latest traffic high
Europe's dominant site for licensing across mobile, games  toys, sport, fashion and more achieved record readership last month. According to the latest Google Analytics audit, www.licensing.biz attracted 31,669 unique visitors between January 1st and 31st, whilst page views hit an all-time high of 76,489 during the same period.
Mobile Entertainment

Did Apple just ban location based ads in iPhone apps?
There may be trouble ahead for iPhone apps (and mobile ad networks) looking to make use of location-based advertising. In an 'App Store Tip' posted on its iPhone Developer website, Apple appears to have nixed the idea.
Mobile Entertainment

GSMA and comScore launch Mobile Media Metrics service
From today, brands can access anonymised mobile Internet usage data from all five UK operators. This is a massive day for the GSMA and its operator members, the culmination of many painful years of collaboration between notoriously slow and mutually suspicious companies.
Mobile Entertainment

Apple iPad could kill the Internet
It has only been seen in the flesh by a handful of hand-picked hacks, but already Apple's iPad has been hailed as the saviour of computing, dismissed as nothing more than an overblown iPod and received more column inches than the devastasting earthquake in Haiti. Now the device, which won't even see the public light of day for at least another month, has been credited with the ability to bring the world to its knees by swamping the Internet's infrastructure.
Thinq

AT&T lets 3G Sling TV onto iPhone
AT&T has reversed an earlier stand, allowing Sling Media's player for the iPhone touch to stream live or recorded television over 3G. As we reported last spring, AT&T originally restricted SlingPlayer Mobile to Wi-Fi connections - even though it allowed 3G streaming rights for Major League Baseball's MLB.com At Bat app. At that time, Cnet quoted Sling Media's mobile product manager, Dave Eyler, as saying that their player was "under the bit rate that Apple has set for these kinds of applications," adding that "we are below some of the apps that have already been approved for the App Store."
The Register

Nominet launches UK awards for internet innovation
Nominet has announced the launch of its 2010 Internet Awards, formerly known as the Best Practice Challenge. The registry, which manages over eight million .uk URLs, is looking for entrants in the public, private and charity sector, as well as individuals, to make submissions in five areas: Getting people online, making the internet safer, opening the world of knowledge, empowering young people and citizens and nurturing powerful local partnerships.
V3

Microsoft warns of new flaw in IE
Microsoft is warning users following the discovery of a new vulnerability in the Internet Explorer browser. The company said that the issue lies in the way Internet Explorer renders locally-stored content. If exploited, an attacker could lift user data through a specially-crafted web page. Because the flaw has yet to be patched, Microsoft would not give specific details about the vulnerability.
V3

Cisco results hint at economic recovery
The company on Wednesday reported that profits for its second fiscal quarter, which ended 23 January, were up 23 percent compared to a year ago. The company reported profits of $1.9bn (£1.2bn), or 32 cents a share. A year ago, it reported a profit of $1.5bn, or 26 cents a share
ZDnet

iPad to push tablet sales to 57m
A report from ABI Research has claimed that the Tablet PC market will grow to make 57 million shipments annually by 2015.ABI says that the launch of Apple’s iPad marks the real start for the media tablet category, which is projected to see four million shipments this year from various vendors.
Mobile Entertainment

Samsung is looking to make a dent in the smartphone world with its Bada platform.
Samsung said it aims to treble smartphone shipments this year to more than 18 million units as the world's second-biggest handset maker scrambles to make a mark in the fast-growing smartphone market. Beefing up smartphone offerings is a key challenge faced this year by Samsung and its home rival LG Electronics, which together account for more than 30 per cent of the overall mobile phone market but hold very small pieces of the smartphone market.
IT Pro

Symbian completes switch to open source
The Symbian Foundation has open-sourced it’s ageing code, four months ahead of schedule to keep a traction on the market.  Symbian has received stiff competition over the last year with Google’s Androids OS making an aggressive splash to the market. The move coincides with the release of the Symbian 3 platform code.
IT Pro

Singer wears ‘Twitter dress’ to Grammys
British songstress Imogen Heap wore an unusual customised dress to the Grammy Awards last night, it tweeted. Imogens dress was hooked up to her twitter account, each time a fan tweeted her a series of LED displayed the message on her dress.
Reg Hardware

New technology extends lithium-ion battery life
Japanese company Eamex claims it can increase the life of high-capacity lithium-ion batteries. In lithium-ion batteries, the tin bindings on the cathode and electrode can deteriorate when repeatedly charged, but Eamex’s technology effectively maintains the bonding. The company says it plans to introduce a lithium-ion battery by the end of the year.
Crunch Gear

Amazon buys touchscreen maker
Amazon has purchased touchscreen technology developer Touchco and plans to integrate its interpolating force-sensitive resistance system into its Kindle ebook division. The move is thought to follow from the recent threat of Apple’s iPad and the new iBookstore.
Mac User

Microsoft Offers Up Office 2010 For Testing
Microsoft is stepping up its launch activities for the latest incarnation of its popular office suite Office 2010. Following its beta release last November, the software giant has now offered the Release Candidate of Office 2010 to testers enrolled in its Technology Adoption Program. The suite is set for general release in June.
E Week Europe

Net firms quizzed on China plans
A top US Senator has asked 30 leading internet firms to provide details of their operations in China. It is ahead of a hearing on how well a voluntary code of conduct, signed by many of the firms, is working. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin sent letters to firms such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon and eBay asking about their plans to protect human rights.  
BBC News

Computer Aid wants your gadgets
Charity organisation Computer Aid has launched a new campaign today to provide technology of all sorts to the less fortunate. And no, we do not mean Apple users. For the month of February the charity is asking anyone who has any old but working kit that they no longer use to donate it to them so that they can pass it on to people in other countries who might actually get some benefit from them. In this case, school children in Africa.
The Inquirer 

Anti-Internet Explorer 6 protests grow with online petition
Opposition to the UK government’s continued endorsement of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 continues to mount, after a petition was submitted to Number 10 yesterday. "We the undersigned petition the prime minister to encourage government departments to upgrade away from Internet Explorer 6," reads the online appeal that was kicked off by Dan Frydman, a managing director of web publishing contractor Inigo.
The Register

Orange/T-Mobile merger threatened with UK inquiry
The Office of Fair Trading is calling for the proposed merger of Orange and T-Mobile to be investigated by the regulatory authorities in Britain rather than merely subjected to scrutiny in Brussels. There are fears the merger, which will create the UK's largest mobile phone network, could hamper competition and force up prices for consumers. It is a blow for Orange and T-Mobile, currently the third and fourth placed networks in Britain, as it means a further delay to a deal originally announced in September. They had hoped scrutiny of the merger would be confined to regulators in Brussels, with clearance possibly granted as early as mid-February.
The Guardian

Poor password behaviour beating banking security
A report (PDF) into the security of banking internet systems has found that one of the biggest problems faced is the reuse of login passwords by customers. Online security firm Trusteer monitored over four million computers for a year and found that 73 per cent of internet banking customers used the same password for their online banking services as they did for other, less secure sites. “Using stolen credentials remains the easiest way for criminals to bypass the security measures implemented by banks to protect their online applications, so we wanted to see how often users repurpose their financial service usernames and passwords,” said Amit Klein, chief technical officer of Trusteer and head of the company’s research organization.
V3

As I watch the plethora of technology PR agencies fight it out for a USP, is it too much to suggest that it's not in the tactical elements that they'll find it?  Of course not, that makes perfect sense as surely thought leadership is much higher up the food chain at a strategic level where it meets the business objectives of a clients' organisation.  Beyond that, it's the link between PR, Marketing and Industry Relations where this thinking will be successful and with it, the definition of communication campaigns that truly make the difference.  For vendors seeking support with promotion to IT Service Providers, take some tips from industry analyst firm, Gartner.  They've identified Thought Leadership Marketing as a powerful marketing asset and you can find out more in their report: "Marketing Essentials: How to Use Thought Leadership Marketing for IT Services Providers." The report is available on the Gartner’s website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1269713.

It's not new, but it's good to hear that it's found a marketing category - perhaps marketing and PR agencies will have found something to better their thinking behind the campaigns they recommend.

Colour e-readers a hit at book fair
Taiwanese e-reader makers jockeyed to show off new technologies at the Taipei International Book Exhibition over the weekend and said the emerging model for the devices is to sell them as part of a content bundle. They hope to push down device prices while upping the ante on features this year to compete with newcomers such as Apple's iPad. Several companies were showing off devices with regular LCD screens on board, mostly aimed at schoolchildren..
News Now

China’s domain name rules spur website flight
China’s tighter regulation of internet domain names is driving website owners to register overseas, according to industry sources and internet activists. Industry experts said the trend was triggered by swift implementation of a stricter website registration regime. The ministry of industry and information technology reiterated in December that domain names must be registered with the government, and those that were not would “not be resolved or transferred”..
FT.com

Pressure mounts to phase out Internet Explorer 6
A Downing Street petition is calling for the UK government to drop Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) and move to a more modern browser. The petition says that IE6 has security flaws and uses outdated technology, creating a burden for developers. The petition comes as the Department of Health advised the NHS to move away from the old browser. Other government departments - and many firms - still use the software, which was first released in 2001.
BBC News

Google to open App Store for Google Apps
Google may open as early as March an online store to sell third party software that complements its Google Apps collaboration and communication hosted suite, the Wall Street Journal reported. Google would let customers purchase the software from its store and charge the third party developers a commission, according to the Journal, whose article was based on anonymous sources.
TechWorld

The UK is a bunch of texting addicts
UK mobile users now send around 11 million text messages an hour, according to the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association. According to the report, last year the UK collectively sent an average of 265 million text messages and 1.6 million picture messages every day, totaling 96.8 billion and 600 million respectively across the whole year. The latest figures show that growth of both text and multimedia messaging continues although it has been slightly lower recently than in previous years..
The Inquirer

Warning over tax return deadline e-mail 'phishing' scam
Tens of thousands of fraudulent emails have been sent out ahead of Sunday's tax return deadline, officials say.  Recipients are told they are due a tax refund and asked to fill in an online form with bank or credit card details.  Victims have their accounts emptied or card limits used, and risk having the details sold to other criminal gangs. 
BBC News

WikiLeaks whistleblower site in temporary shutdown
WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website that allows people to publish uncensored information anonymously, has suspended operations owing to financial problems. Its running costs including staff payments are $600,000 (£377,000), but so far this year it has raised just $130,000 (£81,000). WikiLeaks has established a reputation for publishing information that traditional media cannot. The website claims to be non-profit and relies on donations. A statement on its front page says it is funded by "human rights campaigners, investigative journalists, technologists and the general public".
BBC News

Battery recycling rules in force for stores
New EU rules have come into force that require some stores selling batteries to provide in-store recycling bins. Anyone selling more than 32kg a year - equivalent to one pack of four AA batteries a day - must comply as part of targets on cutting landfill. The UK currently recycles only three per cent of portable batteries, but the aim is to raise that figure to 45 per cent by 2016. Battery maker Varta warned that a lack of awareness among consumers could hamper the scheme's success.
BBC News

Conservatives would end BT monopoly to deliver superfast broadband
The Conservatives today claimed they were willing to loosen BT's grip on the local telephone network and use parts of the BBC licence fee to deliver "superfast" broadband to the majority of Britain's homes by 2017. Using "market-based solutions" the party believes the UK can be the first leading European country to have speeds of "up to" 100 megabits per second (Mbps), the shadow chancellor George Osborne said. He said "the Conservatives would support changes to the regulatory ¬framework", adding that private investors being allowed to pay for better cabling would encourage competition. If the market failed to deliver, then 3.5 per cent of the licence fee currently used to pay for digital switchover could be diverted to pay for broadband expansion, Osborne said. That would raise between £750m and £1bn on the basis of 25m TV licences.
The Guardian

UK's online shoppers lead the way in Europe
UK shoppers are the biggest online spenders in Europe, according to new research from price comparison site Kelkoo, which reported that £38bn was spent online in this country last year. The new study, carried out by the Centre for Retail Research, identified e-commerce as one of the fastest growing markets in the UK, jumping 171 per cent since 2003. British shoppers now account for around a third of all online sales in Europe. E-commerce is, unsurprisingly, predicted to lead the UK out of recession. Online sales this year are set to jump £4.7bn, or 12.4 per cent, to a total of £42.7bn, equivalent to 10.5 per cent of all retail spending in the UK.
V3

Google digs heels in over censorship in China
Google's standoff in China grew even more pronounced last week after chief executive Eric Schmidt restated the web giant's opposition to internet censorship, according to a Bloomberg report. Schmidt said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday that, although the web giant is still complying with Chinese law in censoring search results on Google.cn, in a "reasonably short time from now we will be making some changes there". "We love what China is doing as a country and its growth," Schmidt is reported as saying. "We just don't like the censorship. We hope to apply some negotiation or pressure to make things better for the Chinese people."
V3

Apple makes $208 on each $499 iPad
The new iPad tablet priced at $499 actually runs Apple about $270 in materials and manufacturing costs, a Wall Street analyst said today. According to a bill of materials (BOM) analysis by Brian Marshall of BroadPoint AmTech, the cost of goods inside Apple's 16GB WiFi-only iPad totals $270.50. That figure includes a $10 line item dedicated to manufacturing, but doesn't include another $20 set aside for under-warranty service costs. Adding the latter makes Marshall's bottom-line total $290.50.
Techworld

'Smartphones leading the handset industry out of recession'
53 million smartphones shipped globally in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to Strategy Analytics. That's up 30 per cent year-on-year. The company's report is based on financials from the various handset makers. "This was the strongest period of growth since Q3 2008 and smartphones are leading the handset industry out of recession," says senior analyst Tom Kang.
Mobile Entertainment