Google makes key move into London's Tech City
Google has shown its commitment to East London's Tech City by signing a long-term lease for a seven story building where it plans to provide a launchpad for London-based start-ups. Often referred to as 'silicon roundabout' London's Tech City is being billed as the UK's hub for tech and digital start-ups. Google has long insisted that it is supportive of the scheme, and it has now backed that up with a financial commitment which will include a full refurbishment of the building ahead of a 2012 launch.
TechRadar.com

Two in five UK smartphone owners use Android
Digital banking service Intelligent Environments says Android smartphones are the most popular in Britain, particularly in North England and Scotland while iPhone is preferred in London. The stats show that Android is leading the British market, although Apple has still seen its user base grow from 26 per cent in Q1 to 27 per cent. RIM claims third position with its BlackBerry users now taking up 19 per cent of the market compared to 14 per cent in Q1. James Richards, director of mobile at Intelligent Environments, said: “From retail to financial services, businesses in all sectors are taking full advantage of the rise in consumer smartphone adoption.
Mobile Entertainment

Facebook: “We’re going to become a mobile company”
I’ve said many times before that Facebook is prioritizing mobile very high, but only now has it become clear just how high. Erick Tseng, head of mobile products at Facebook, was at the GigaOm Mobilize conference, and while he repeated a lot off things we’ve already heard, he had one very interesting thing to say. “We’re going to become a mobile company,” Tseng said according to CNET. Next year or the year after, Tseng believes Facebook will be as much of a mobile company as it is a Web company. How will it pull that off? I would guess with its rumored HTML5 platform (see links below).
ZDNet.com

Groupon Closes The Redemption Loop With Loyalty Rewards
Groupon may be struggling to get its IPO out the door, but that is not stopping it from introducing new products. Up until now, Groupon has built a billion-dollar business by getting local merchants to offer great one-time deals to consumers. Those daily deals are all about attracting new customers. Now the company is about to roll out a new product called Groupon Rewards that tries to give merchants a way to increase customer loyalty. Merchants will be able to start signing up tomorrow and consumers will start seeing the rewards in October.
TechCrunch

Java, Adobe vulns blamed for Windows malware mayhem
Failure to patch third-party applications has become the main reason that Windows machines get infected with malware. Drive-by download attacks from hacker-controlled websites loaded with exploits replaced infected email attachments as the main distribution method for malware somewhere between three to five years ago. At the start of this period browser exploits were the main stock-in-trade for VXers but this has changed over time, as a study by Danish security firm CSIS and published on Tuesday illustrates.
The Register

Nokia “drops O2″ as stockist for Windows Phone devices
Nokia is understood to have dropped O2 from its list of network operators that will stock its first range of devices using the Windows Phone operating system. Sources close to O2 and Nokia said the manufacturer laid down strict criteria to stock the device, including volume targets, store displays and marketing campaigns, which could not be agreed with O2. O2 is said to have been reluctant to commit to its terms during a period in which the Apple iPhone 5 is due to launch. O2 currently has the leading market share for connected iPhone handsets in the UK, it recently claimed.
Mobile News

Online dating scams dupe 200,000 study finds
More than 200,000 people in Britain may have been conned by fraudsters posing as would-be romantic partners on internet dating sites, according to the first study examining the potential scale of the problem. Anti-fraud groups have warned for some time about scams, in which criminals create a false identity – often an army officer on active service, explaining an inability to meet in person – and develop a close online intimacy with a victim, who is then asked for cash to help their presumed suitor out of a crisis. It had long been suspected that official figures for such crimes greatly under-represented their prevalence, largely because many victims feel too embarrassed or hurt to go to the police, or never realise they have been conned.
Guardian.co.uk

London warned Olympic games may mean mobile phone 'capacity crunch'
London's mobile phone networks face a "capacity crunch" during the Olympic games that could leave the capital and its expected 1 million extra visitors unable to use the internet on the move unless thousands of wi-fi hotspots are built in time. Virgin Media chief executive Neil Berkett, whose company is bidding for council contracts to build a central London public wi-fi network, believes the process is moving too slowly and fears the Olympics could be a "missed opportunity". His comments come days after London mayor Boris Johnson warned that the mobile phone service would come under "massive strain" at peak times during the games.
Guardian.co.uk

Telcos can use prepaid top-ups to break into m-commerce – study
Prepaid mobile top-ups offer operators a useful route into the mobile commerce space, a market that will be worth more than US$22.5 billion worldwide by 2014, up from $5.6 billion last year, according to a new study. "[Banking and payment services] can all be done on the mobile," said Lorcan Burke, vice president of European sales and marketing for e-payment solutions provider Vesta Corporation, in an interview with Total Telecom last week. Vesta sponsored a new white paper on the subject that was released by Informa Telecoms & Media on Tuesday. "[The $22.5 billion figure] doesn't include payment for digital content," which is estimated to reach around $48 billion by 2014, Shailendra Pandey, senior analyst of mobile content and applications at Informa, added.
Total Telecom

Telstra LTE goes national in Australia
Australian number one operator Telstra has launched the country’s first 4G LTE networks in state capital city centres and more than 30 regional and metropolitan centres. The carrier said users in areas covered by the network can expect download speeds ranging between 2Mb/s and 40Mb/s, depending on distance from base stations and local conditions. This is 10 times faster than speeds claimed by Australian operators for 3G, according to Telstra. Upload speeds should range between 1Mb/s and 10Mb/s, a three-fold speed increase compared to existing mobile broadband.
Mobile Business Briefing