EU privacy overhaul: small businesses get exemptions
Most start-ups and small businesses with fewer than 250 employees will be exempt from a new obligation to appoint a data protection officer, according to the European Union's (EU) new data privacy proposals. Viviane Reding, vice-president of the European Commission, announced this as an example of how the EU plans to reduce the administrative burden on small companies, to help them grow. "Many, if not the large majority, of SMEs will be exempted from the obligation to appoint a data protection officer," said Reding in a press conference today detailing the EU data protection reform. In addition, small companies will be exempt from producing reports of their data protection policies, and from performing obligatory data privacy impact assessments, unless they deal with high risk information such as biometric, genetic or data on children.
PC Advisor

Developers debate Android gaming potential at Mobile Games Forum
More than 62 million people played games on their mobile phones in September 2011 across the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, according to data shared by comScore at the Mobile Games Forum conference in London. That represents more than 25 percent of all mobile users in those "EU5" countries. Meanwhile, nearly 13 million played mobile games almost every day that month. "There's a frequency of repeat usage that's encouraging," said comScore's vice president of mobile Jeremy Copp as he revealed the figures. The most popular gaming phone in these countries? Apple's iPhone. Specifically, more than 3.4 million people played games on an iPhone 4 16GB model in September 2011 according to comScore's research – extrapolated from its surveys across the EU5 countries. It was followed in comScore's gaming handset chart by the iPhone 3GS 16GB model (1.5 million) and the iPhone 4 32GB (1.3 million). RIM's BlackBerry Curve 8520 also had 1.3m mobile gamers in September. Copp added that 36 million people were playing games on smartphones in the EU5 markets in September, with 15 percent having made in-game purchases of virtual items, currency and upgrades.
The Guardian

Experts: Google privacy shift will have greater impact on Android users
Google doesn’t make much money from its Android phones, but chief executive Larry Page recently vowed in an earnings call that that was about to change. A push by the company to create clearer online profiles of Web surfers may turn the promise into reality, analysts say.  Since the company was founded in 1996, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have worked hard to live up to the company’s unofficial motto, “Don’t be evil.” Google this week announced a shift in its privacy policies that will allow it to follow the activities of users as they move across the firm’s Web sites, including its highly popular YouTube, Gmail and main search engine. The company emphasized in interviews that the change would apply only to users who are signed on to their Google accounts. The initiative could be of particular significance for consumers of Android devices, who are almost always signed on to their phones and tablets, experts said. Without signing up for an account, an Android smartphone owner would be limited in what he or she could do on the device, they said.
The Washington Post

Nokia Lumia 900 coming to AT&T in March for $99 on a two year contract
The telecom giant AT&T is planning to offer Nokia's flagship Windows Phone device Lumia 900 for only $99 on a two year contract, according to new reports. The Nokia Lumia 900 happens to be one of the massively anticipated new generation Windows Phones after Lumia 800. The company unveiled the device for the first time at the recently held Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas where it managed to bag some rather brave initial reviews. It has been scheduled to go on sale on March 18 as an exclusive AT&T stock. Experts are of the opinion that by making the device available for only $99 alongside the two year contract, Nokia is heading towards right direction for regaining its lost pride in the smartphone arena. The price is half that of Apple's 16 GB variant of its flagship iPhone.
ITProPortal

HTC is holding out for a market hero
HTC UK is to slash the size of its smartphone portfolio this year and focus on delivering a few key ‘hero’ devices in a bid to claw back market share. The company’s u-turn follows disappointing global results earlier this month when first quarter net profit fell 26 percent to $365m, its first quarterly decline in earnings for two years as it faced competition from Apple and Samsung’s Galaxy range. HTC UK chief Phil Roberson told Mobile the manufacturer will return to a strategy of launching a limited number of high-spec devices this year, with a focus on second quarter releases. He said: ‘We have to get back to focusing on what made us great – amazing hardware and a great customer experience. We ended 2011 with far more products than we started out with. We tried to do too much. 'So 2012 is about giving our customers something special. We need to make sure we do not go so far down the line that we segment our products by launching lots of different SKUs.’ The manufacturer will take a backseat in the tablet market in order to focus on smartphones, although Roberson stressed the company was not exiting the sector completely.
Mobile Magazine

Nintendo heads for first annual loss
The loss at the creator of the Super Mario franchise will be its first at an operating level. Nintendo dominated the video games industry for years with its DS handheld players and Wii home consoles, but is now struggling to keep up as more versatile smartphone and tablet sales boom. "To say that (the days of consoles) are over is likely an overstatement, but social network and Internet delivered games are growing and structurally changing the future of the industry, which is a strong wind against Nintendo," said Shigeo Sugawara, senior investment manager at Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Asset Management. Nintendo now expects an annual operating loss of 45 billion yen (£367 million), dwarfing expectations of a 4.2 billion yen loss, based on the average of 21 analyst forecasts.
The Telegraph

HP clears the path for open sourced WebOS
Technology Vendor HP has released its roadmap for making WebOS open source and is promising that it will be available in September. The firm has wrestled with the operating system for a little while now, and it was only in December last year that it came to a decision about its future. "WebOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable," said HP president and CEO Meg Whitman then. "By contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices." Today the company provided a timeline for action and released the source code for version 2.0 of Enyo, the WebOS developer tool. This code, and WebOS itself, will be made available under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
The Inquirer

Google approved new Motorola lawsuit against Apple iPhone and iCloud
Google specifically gave permission for Motorola Mobility (MMI) to file a new lawsuit against Apple over its iPhone 4S and iCloud products, according to an analysis of the takeover agreement in which the search giant aims to buy the struggling mobile maker. The move marks a heightening of tensions between Google and Apple, where the Cupertino company is fighting a war by proxy against the use in the Android mobile operating system of a number of user interface elements that it sees as closely copied from the iOS software. In September last year Google sold nine patents to Android handset company HTC which could be used to pursue infringement claims against Apple.
The Guardian

Kaiser Permanente takes millions of medical records mobile with new Android app
We’ve recently written about some exciting new ideas and technology that will transform medicine in 2012, how mobile technology is playing a role in this transformation, and lauded investor Vinod Khosla addressed the question of whether or not algorithms (and technology) will replace doctors. Younger, smaller companies have flexibility, and can often have a greater impact on innovation and evolution of industries than giant corporations that have been around for decades. When we talk about innovation and technology touching the health industry, it’s hard not to mention electronic medical records (EMRs). As recently as 2009, The New England Journal of Medicine found that only 1.5 percent of U.S. hospitals have a comprehensive electronic medical health system. Practice Fusion, a venture-backed start-up we’ve covered recently, has become one of the biggest providers of EMRs in the country, with 25 million digitized to date.
Tech Crunch

Nokia shifts 1.5 billionth S40 series phone
Whilst Nokia makes waves in the Windows Phone market it is its past ventures that the Finnish phone manufacturer is making headlines with 1.5 billion S40 series handsets having been sold across the world to date. Hitting the hugely impressive milestone figure Nokia has revealed that whilst it is now focussing much of its efforts on Microsoft’s latest mobile operating system, the S40 platform is continuing to attract users with the 1.5 billionth S40 handset sold, a Nokia Asha 303, picked up by 21 year old Mayara Rodrigues in Sao Paulo, Brazil. "We are incredibly proud to reach this milestone. Having 1.5 billion Series 40 devices sold is a hard-to-reach mark, let alone one attainable in a single line of products,” Mary McDowell, EVP for mobile phones at Nokia said. "At a time when we are maintaining our commitment to connecting the next billion customers around the world - it is gratifying to consider how Series 40 devices have made mobile technology accessible and help continue to change people's lives for the better."
T3