January 14th, 2010 by
Caroline Allen
Earlier this month I received two texts but my response to each couldn’t have been more different: the first was from my local leisure centre, offering me a special gym membership price. The second from Ocado, confirming my delivery.
The first was unsolicited, annoying (they have my number only as I called to enquire about swimming lessons for my son late last year), and provides no way for me to unsubscribe to it, and having checked back over my messages, this was the third time they had contacted me over the Christmas & New Year period.
By contrast, the Ocado text simply confirmed my order for the next day (reminding me of the delivery time – very useful) and highlighting which products had been substituted (also very useful – if it’s a crucial recipe ingredient, I’ve got time to pick it up somewhere else).
Spam texts seem to get to me much more than spam emails – maybe it’s because with a spam email, I can just hit delete or unsubscribe in my own time but with a text, first there’s the alert to say it’s arrived and then you have to read it and then it seems from my experience it’s impossible to get off the constant mail out list (unless you take the time to find the number to call them direct).
So from now on, I’m going to be much more vigilant when giving out my mobile number to try and stop spam texts being sent – and to stop having my beauty sleep interrupted.
January 4th, 2010 by
Lisa Francis
Silicon.com – The top software stories of 2009
The past 12 months have seen some big developments that have shaken up the software industry and could potentially have an even bigger impact in 2010.
BBC – New Year Honours for game makers
Veteran British game makers have features strongly in the Queen’s New Year Honours list. In total, four games figures won honours including Oliver and Paul Collyer, the brothers behind the Championship Manager series.
The Times – 2010: the year of the mobile
Desktop computers are so last decade. 2010 is shaping up to be the year when internet users move decisively away from bulky machines to the mobile web.
CRN – UK lags as European PC market bounces back
European PC sales through distribution soared last month, but UK revenues continued to tumble as mainland countries returned to growth.
Computerworld UK – O2 network overloaded by iPhone apps
Mobile comms operator O2 has struggled to support its customers in the latter half of 2009, its chief executive admitted.
The Financial Times – Smartbooks launch assault on PCs
Smartbooks are beginning a new year assault on the PC market with the launch on Monday of a range of multi-coloured devices that bridge a gap between smartphones and netbook computers.
December 23rd, 2009 by
Lisa Francis
BBC – Firefox for mobile ‘days away’ from launch
The first mobile phone version of the popular web browser Firefox is “days away” from launch, the head of the project has told the BBC.
Silicon.com – Europe has becomes world’s highest spender on outsourcing
Europe has overtaken North America as the region that spends the most money on outsourcing in the world.
Computer Weekly – Millions to text their season’s greetings
Mobile phones will unite millions of people this Christmas and New Year, with hundreds of millions of messages expected to be sent on Orange’s network alone.
Financial Times – Microsoft loses appeal in $290m patent case
Microsoft on Tuesday lost an appeal against a $290m patent infringement case in its biggest legal setback in an intellectual property case this year. In spite of the upholding of an injunction barring it from using the infringing code in its widely used Word program, Microsoft said it did not expect the decision to disrupt sales of its Office suite of applications, of which Word is part.
The Register – Apple angling to transform TV?
Apple is reportedly talking with CBS and Disney in its search for content partners for a planned US subscription-based television service.
December 2nd, 2009 by
Lisa Francis
CRN – Cisco ploughs more into SME channel
Cisco has further invested in its SME channel by adding pre-sales technical support and a new hardware advanced-replacement service specifically designed for the smaller customers.
Total Telecom – Vodafone to launch mobile health care unit
Vodafone Group PLC Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said Tuesday the company will launch new unit to work with pharmaceutical companies and government organizations to provide healthcare services using mobile phone technology.
Total Telecom – Google plans to invest in renewable energy projects
Internet search giant Google Inc. plans to invest directly in one or more renewable energy projects as part of a broader move to expand investment in clean -energy technology, a company executive said Monday.
IT PRO – Londoners lose 10,000 mobiles in cabs a month
Londoners lose 10,000 mobile phones each month in cabs, according to new research. Another 1,000 other devices – such as iPods and laptops – also get left on the seat each month, according to the report from Credant Technologies.
IT PRO – Government to create own private cloud, app store
The government is looking to heavily centralise its IT services, rolling out a private cloud and app store, according to a leaked draft document from the Cabinet Office. The leaked report showed the government has “substantial” plans to centralise and rework its IT over the next five years – and longer.
The Telegraph – Shops offer discounts and vouchers on Twitter
Shops such as Marks and Spencer, Debenhams and Asda have embraced the microblogging service as a way of marketing special offers and one-off sales to customers. Some of the discounts and offers only apply in-store, and experts say it’s a way of attracting shoppers away from online-only retail operations and back to traditional bricks-and-mortar high-street stores.
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Vodafone 1 Comment »
November 19th, 2009 by
Matthew Watson
The analyst house, Gartner has released a list of mobile applications that it predicts will be most popular in 2012. The list is based on their impact on consumers and industry players, considering revenue, loyalty, business model, consumer value and estimated market penetration.
The top 10 consumer mobile apps in 2012 will include:
- Money Transfer – e.g. iMobile
- Location-Based Services – e.g. Loopt
- Mobile Search – e.g. Taptu
- Mobile Browsing – e.g. Firefox Mobile
- Mobile Health Monitoring – e.g. Main Street Medica
- Mobile Payment- i.e. Charge Anywhere
- Near Field Communication Services – e.g. iCarte
- Mobile Advertising – e.g. AdMob
- Mobile Instant Messaging – e.g. Fring
- Mobile Music – e.g. Spotify
Posted in
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Wireless Data 3 Comments »
July 14th, 2009 by
Chris Measures
The market buzz around femtocells (mini base stations to pop in your house or office to boost reception) is getting louder. First Vodafone announced that it would supply them to consumers, using technology from picoChip and now Sprint and AT&T are competing to be the first to launch in the US. In Japan, NTT DoCoMo has started looking at applications – parents are automatically emailed when their child’s mobile phone enters the femtocell-equipped house. Annoying at 2am I’d imagine.
At their simplest, femtocells will improve in-building mobile reception for the large number of people outside urban areas/in thick walled buildings (me in both cases). But what’ll be interesting is how they develop. The opportunity is for service providers (whether mobile, fixed line or broadband suppliers) to deliver a one box solution that brings femtocells together with wireless streaming of content, broadband, fixed and mobile telephony to create a truly interoperable wireless home. I think this will drive wider adoption rather than tracking down errant offspring………
Top stories in the news today:
- Computing - UK firms slash IT investment – UK firms are continuing to slash spending on hardware and software, as IT bears the brunt of business cost-cutting measures. According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), spending on hardware and software was cut back drastically in the first three months of 2009. Software spending was down across all the sectors that the ONS measures, while hardware spending patterns were more varied – slight increases in spending in the distribution services sector were offset by huge quarter-on-quarter drops in hardware investments elsewhere.
- IT PRO – IT sector could bounce back this year – Analyst firm Forrester is tipping a strong recovery in the US technology sector beginning in the final quarter of 2009 and into 2010. Businesses and governments overreacted to the US and global recessions, it said, because of early fears surrounding the stability of the financial system and the solvency of lenders, and cut needed capital investment in Q4 2008 and the first half of 2009.
- Information Age – BT and BlackBerry cut costs with unified communications plan – Using the BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (MVS) from Research in Motion (RIM) and BT’s new Communications Complete technology, based on Cisco’s Unified Communications 500 Series platform, users can switch between their mobile operator network and Wi-Fi networks to reduce call costs.
