Can Windows Phone 7 help Microsoft come from behind?
This week is Windows Phone 7 week. Microsoft is announcing details of the launch devices and operators, and I shall be watching and reporting with interest on the joint press conference with CEO Steve Ballmer and AT&T's Ralph de la Vega. But how significant is this launch? I think it is of considerable significance. Mobile devices are changing the way we do computing. It is not only that more powerful Smartphones and tablets are encroaching on territory that used to belong to laptop and desktop computers. We are also seeing new business models based on locked-down devices and over-the-air app stores, and new operating systems, or old ones re-purposed. It is a power shift.
The Register

Apple wins big at T3 awards 2010
But HTC pick up phone and brand gongs. The T3 Awards have been announced, with Apple picking up five awards including gadget of the year for the iPad, but beaten to the phone gong by the plucky HTC Desire. In a year which has seen big controversy for Apple, its products still won through, with the iPad picking up both the prestigious Innovation of the Year award and the headlining Gadget award and also commuter gadget of the year for its iPhone 4. Apple also picked up Retailer of the Year for the impressive expansion of its Apple stores and the Computer of the Year award for the polished and much-loved Macbook Pro.
Tech Radar

HTC 7 Pro and Dell Venue Pro to hit UK by Christmas
Microsoft's new mobile OS Windows Phone 7-based HTC 7 Pro smartphone has been scheduled to hit the UK store shelves in time for Christmas. The HTC 7 Pro smartphone features an intriguing chassis stuffed with a 5-megapixel photo snapper that is capable of 720p HD video recording, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and a 3.6-inch multi-touch screen. The device has a slide-out landscape QWERTY keyboard that appears to be very spacious and supple. But, it measures 0.61-inches in thickness that makes it quite a fleshy animal. The handset offers a broad range of Windows Phone 7 features that include a Zune music player, Xbox Live and outstanding Microsoft Office. The new mobile operating system of the phone also offers new social networking features which allow updates and messages from social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to appear automatically on the screen.
Top News

Spotify-branded phone 'being developed by INQ Mobile'
Frank Meehan, chief executive of INQ Mobile, told Business Week that his company’s goal was to deeply integrate Spotify's services into its upcoming phones. INQ Mobile has been in a spotlight lately, as it is believed to also be working on developing a Facebook-branded phone, which is widely understood to be set for a European launch during the first half of 2011. Facebook has repeatedly denied that it is developing a phone, while INQ, which has worked with the social network before, selling phones with Facebook features, declined to comment. Meehan did not reveal any more detail about a Spotify-branded phone, and he also refused to comment on the Facebook story. Both Spotify and INQ Mobile, share an investor, Li Ka-shing, who is also a Facebook backer. Spotify were unavailable for comment. Last week, Spotify launched an app on Microsoft’s Windows phone 6 platform.
The Telegraph

Global study finds China and Middle East leading digital age
China and the Middle East are racing ahead of the West in embracing the Internet according to "the largest ever" global study of online habits.The Digital Life study by global research firm TNS also found Malaysians are the most sociable online with an average of 233 friends on social media websites, while the Japanese are the least friendly with just 29. TNS said the study was the "largest ever global research project into people's online activities and behaviour", surveying almost 90 per cent of the world's online population through 50,000 interviews in 46 countries."This study covers more than twice as many markets as any other research," said TNS Chief Development Officer Matthew Froggatt. "It is the first truly global research into online activities."Online consumers in rapid growth markets have overtaken mature markets in terms of engaging with digital activities, despite the benefit of more advanced Internet infrastructure, the study found. Egypt and China have much higher levels of digital engagement than mature markets such as Japan, Denmark or Finland, while blogging and social networking are gaining momentum at huge speed in rapid growth markets.
The Independent

LoveFilm Coming To Sony's PS3 In November
LoveFilm has announced plans to offer an official application for Sony's PlayStation 3 games console. According to a video on PS3's YouTube channel, the company will be launching the LoveFilm app in November. The service, which operates in UK, Germany and Scandinavia, allows users to rent DVDs, video games, Blu-Ray movies and online film viewing. By entering the PS3 domain, the company will be able to view a broader range of audience as PS3 strives to become the ultimate home entertainment device. According to The Guardian, Love Film is also planning to release an app for YouView IPTV service backed by the BBC and other prominent broadcasters and telecom firms.
IT Pro Portal

Hewlett-Packard to axe another 1,300 UK jobs
Hewlett-Packard today announced a further 1,300 redundancies in Britain, less than a year after cutting more than 900 staff from the UK business. The latest cuts came as part of the computer company's global plans to automate functions at its business outsourcing division. HP announced in June that it would make 9,000 redundancies around the world as part of what it called a $1bn investment in automated data centres. It said then that the move would benefit clients. The company has sites across the UK, including in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Derby, London, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Sheffield, Uxbridge and Warrington, and the scale of the losses suggest its operations here will bear the brunt of the damage. About one in 10 UK employees will go, compared with a total of one in 30 worldwide. HP employs 300,000 people worldwide and about 16,000 in the UK. Combined with a further 4,000 job cuts over the past two years, the latest cuts will mean that more than 6,000 jobs have been lost at HP in the UK since 2008, according to union figures. The company announced 900 job cuts late last year.
The Guardian

Asia computer market has room for both tablets and laptops
Tablet computers such as Apple's iPad and Samsung's Galaxy have had a fanfare of publicity, but they are unlikely to kill off their older cousin the laptop anytime soon, say Asian analysts and vendors.Sales of smaller-screen and cheaper netbook laptops may appear to be sloping off in a mature market like the United States, but analysts in Asia believe this is not the end of the road for the laptop itself."The tablet is a secondary device, meant for people who already have a PC and want a device for portable usage," said Tracy Tsai, a Taipei-based analyst with technology research company Gartner. "Using the tablet as your only device is rare, as you still need something with a keyboard to type in things, and storage."
The Independent

Mobile banking is best by SMS, app AND mobile web
Two weeks ago, Orange County’s Credit Union (OCCU) launched a mobile payment option for its 80,000 customers. Created by mobile banking services provider Tyfone, the service allows users to access their banking through either SMS, application or mobile browser. We take a look. The OCCU is one of the biggest Credit Union’s in the States. It commissioned Tyfone to create a service using their u4ia platform integrating the banks account services with mobile banking and security from Tyfone. Interestingly, over half of the OCCU customers who have signed up for the service regularly use at least two of the three methods to access their accounts. Tyfone is also a contactless payments provider through NFC while OCCU hasn’t implemented NFC yet, it seems to be on the cards.
GoMo News

Confirmed: DeNA buys ngmoco for $400m
'The big tide in social gaming is coming, right now...' Japanese social games firm DeNA is to acquire ngmoco for $400 million, the company has confirmed. The deal, which was strongly rumoured last week, is one of the biggest exits for an iPhone games publisher, although ngmoco recently expanded onto Android. "The big tide in social gaming is coming, right now. We’d like to capture it and quickly become the world’s No. 1 mobile gaming platform," DeNA CEO Tomoko Namba tells the New York Times. "We’re only active in the Japanese market, and we haven’t figured out how to cover the Western market. We want to enable developers to go cross-device, and to go cross-border. And we need this to happen quickly, in about the next one or two years."
Mobile Entertainment