Not just open, but free: Brew MP mobile OS from Qualcomm

GoMo News reported on the release of the new mobile operating system from Qualcomm last week. Brew Mobile Platform (MP) is based on the mobile application framework from Qualcomm, but takes a step forward into being a true operating system for smartphones. Part of the PR push was about the fact that it is “open” - but that doesn’t always equate to “cheap”. But there’s some good news from Qualcomm…

Every silver lining has a cloud: Google falls down on Nexus One support

Uh-oh. Apparently one thing in particular has been going wrong for a lot of people who got themselves a Nexus One from Google. And that thing is Google itself.

Orange gently eases UK bankers into mobile payments with Barclaycard

Orange and Barclaycard have unveiled the “next step” in their payment partnership, with a new contactless credit card. The card delivers a lot of services tied in with your mobile phone - where will these steps end? Hopefully, with full contactless mobile payments.

Mobile barcodes used to advertise 3G services, with 3GVision

Thailand has been having serious teething problems when it comes to introducing 3G services to the country. But as legal issues are put behind it, mobile operators in the country are involved in bringing 3G services to market - and they needs to promote it. Enter 3GVision and the i-nigma mobile barcode reader, which is being used for the promotion in Thailand.

InMobi nabs mobile advertising deal for Jumbuck social network

Mobile advertising agency InMobi is rolling out the global good news recently - back in December it claimed to be the largest advertising agency in South Africa. Today it has rolled the globe around for news in Australia, where it has grabbed a chunk of on-deck advertising with Australia’s largest telecoms operator, Telstra.

Most ridiculous court case this year: Washington D.C. sues mobile operator AT&T

Remember pre-paid calling cards? Yeah, me too. I used to use them… when I was twelve. Well, the District of Columbia (better known as America’s capital city, Washington D.C.) is suing AT&T to get back what is known as “breakage” from those cards. What’s breakage? Read on…

SpinVox dies belly up with Nuance acquisition

It’s obvious that Nuance has hated SpinVox since launch as it claimed to provide speech to text; the core of Nuance’s technological armoury. But in the final days of the lie happy voice to text call centre (aka SpinVox); Nuance has the last laugh.

Do you really need a High Def mobile phone? Orange hopes so.

Orange is introducing a new HD service for phones, which it says will mean an end to crackly voices and poor connections. It promises that the quality of voice calls will increase so much that you’ll feel like you’re in the same room. It also means you’ll need to buy a new phone that is HD enabled.

So here’s a quick question for you.

Mobile wireless and file sharing in one package from Sprint

When Verizon launched MiFi, it was immediately welcomed as an incredibly useful service for those who need to access the internet on the go (hands up all bloggers and journalists). According to a “leak”, Sprint is now following up with a 4G version of its own called Overdrive - which combines 3G and 4G wireless with a pretty sweet file sharing option.

AT&T looks to wireless as saviour of mobile and legacy networks

AT&T has taken interesting step regarding home phones. Traditional phones connected to the wall by a wire just aren’t pulling in a lot of profit these days. People use them less and less as other options become cheaper and easier to use - like mobile phones and VoIP services like Skype. So AT&T has suggested to the Federal Communications Commission that regulations for wireline networks be dropped, and pure wireless networks be introduced.

iPhone prompts O2 to invest hundreds of millions in network coverage

As smartphones become more and more popular, mobile networks are running into a problem that they don’t seem to have predicted at all. Namely, that they can’t handle the sheer amount of traffic the devices are generating. UK network O2 has announced that it will be investing hundreds of millions of pounds in upgrading network quality, so that customers won’t be hit by service outages like they were this year.

Want a gig of free mobile internet every month? You may have to move to Qatar…

Up until a few years back Qtel held a monopoly on mobile networks in the small and extremely rich Arab emirate of Qatar. That monopoly was broken up by the state recently enough, though Qtel is still the big man on campus. However, the company is very eager to retain its customer base in the face of increasing competition. And so we see deals like the one it just announced - where owners of Nokia devices will get 1GB of free mobile internet every month until the end of March.

Is it easy to monitor mobile phone calls? Weaknesses revealed in GSM

Every year since 1984, there has been an interesting convention in Germany. The annual Chaos Communications Congress is a meeting of international hackers, who convene to share information, listen to lectures and attend workshops. This year one of the speakers, a German encryption specialist, has really put the wind up the mobile scene - by claiming to have completely broken through the encryption code that keeps mobile calls on GSM networks safe from monitoring.

Vodafone gets vodaboned

Vodafone is not a happy operator in New Zealand. The mobile operators of NZ have been offered something of a Devils bargain by the Commerce Commission there. It has basically told the operators to agree internally on new, cheaper prices for network-to-network calls…. or else the Commerce Commission will do it for them. It looks like the operators will be taking care of matters themselves, and Vodafone is not happy about it

Open Letter to GSMA regarding Mobile Awards and Duran Duran at Mobile World Congress

Dear GSMA,
Just the sight of the name Duran Duran in the same sentence as Mobile Awards set my heart to miss a step and a beat and do a bit of a jig. After shaking my head and praying my eyes were deceiving me, I read again slowly.

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