Mobile Phone Blog:

Right then, I’ve done my big round-up of 2011, so now it’s time to put our future goggles on, and make some sensible predictions (and utterly wild, stupid, hyperbolic guesses) as to what 2012 will bring us. What with 2012 being the year the world ends (lol), I hope it ends up being a good’n!

So, what can we expect? Will mobile phones become powerful enough to take over the world, bringing about the apocalypse? Or will someone fiddle about with their copy of the Large Hadron Collider app, and cause a massive feedback loop, thus tearing the universe a new spacehole? Or is it more likely that the London Olympics will be so cringeworthy that every Brit will simply wish the world’d end? Let’s find out! (more…)

Well, there we go, folks. Another year is nearly up, so it’s time to pick my highlights (and lowlights, I like picking those) of the year! It’s been a tumultuous year, all round, what with one thing and another, so let’s take a look back at those fond, and not so fond, memories as I talk about my picks for the best and worst bits of the year.

And ye never know, some of them might even be sensible!

However, don’t expect them to all be sensible; you’ll be disappointed, especially by the last two. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, that should come as absolutely no surprise to you. So, anyway, let’s begin with… (more…)

Now then, there’s been a bleedin’ massive kerfuffle going on in the world of mobile phones over the past week, and it’s all to do with something called CarrierIQ. Why are people getting so worked up? Well, on the face of it, it seems like CarrierIQ is snooping on what users do with their phones, before pinging all that data back to the mothership. That, in itself, would be bad enough, but the software purportedly also logs your keystrokes and reads your text messages.

Er, blimey, that is big, if it’s true! However, there’s one thing I should point out, right off the bat. Engadget has a report on various companies’ official statements on the matter, and one thing immediately stood out to me.

It seems be the case that if you live over here in Blighty, or anywhere apart from America, come to that, then the answer to the question in the title is no, you’re not being snooped on. Which is a good thing… (more…)

Well, blimey, I did not expect to read that, when I got up today; ’tis the first time I’ve been genuinely thrown in a while. In case you haven’t heard the news, Apple have announced that their founder and leader, Steve Jobs, died yesterday, aged 56, after losing his long battle with pancreatic cancer.

That’s a shock to say the least, and although it happens to everyone in the end, 56 really is no age at all. So above all else, my condolences go out to his family.

While this is a big loss to the industry (and despite my well known opinion of Apple, I can’t deny that’s true), it’s a bigger loss to them, and so, our deepest condolences go out to the Jobs family. (more…)

[The opinions expressed in the blog post are entirely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mobileshop.com.]

Every now and then, a story comes along that is so mind-blowingly big, that you just know everyone reading will have already heard about it. Given that this is easily the biggest news in the country for weeks, and given that mobile phones are involved, I can’t not talk about it. Let’s not beat about the bush, you all know I’m talking about the riots that have turned parts of London into a warzone, and that have spilled over across the entire country, in some of the most sickening displays of violence I’ve ever seen in this country.

From the point of view of this blog, there’s a legitimate reason for me to be discussing it, as mentioned by the BBC: what part have mobile phones played in the ongoing civil insurrection? (more…)

[The opinions expressed in the blog post are entirely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mobileshop.com.]

The whole story about the News of the World hiring private investigators to hack into people’s phones has been news for absolutely ages, so you may be wondering why I’m commenting on it, now. Well, if you’ve been watching the news, you know why; the whole thing has come to a head this week, in a huge way, culminating in the News of the World closing its doors and shutting up shop.

But before that, more information came out, and it was this information that prompted me to blog about it, as it made me more angry than I’ve been in a good long time. So, I’m putting this post in both ‘Editorial Opinions’ and ‘Rants’; the first because that was it is, and the second because I can almost guarantee that’s what it will end up as… (more…)

Right then, I’m about to voice an opinion that’s bound to be unpopular amongst the average Englishman, but I’m going to say it, anyway. So here goes: I think the European Union is a good thing. I’ve seen all the apocryphal (and yes, most of them are apocryphal, or, to put it more accurately, completely cobblers) stories about English cucumbers being banned for not being straight enough, and I feel I should point out how valuable, how important, things like the European Court of Human Rights are.

And now there’s another reason for me to support the EU. According to IntoMobile, the EU is planning to abolish international roaming charges, for voice calls within the EU itself, by 2015. (more…)

Blimey, I’m doing well on the ol’ opinion pieces today, aren’t I! This one is going to be as ranty as my earlier post, but you may well find it ends up being a tiny bit bittersweet, come the finish. What’s it about?

MeeGo.

Y’see, I read a post on IntoMobile earlier, reporting from the MeeGo Conference in San Francisco, where Intel were talking all about their big plans for the new OS, and basically pitching it to developers, manufacturers and consumers. And that’s brilliant, like, but the big question in my mind is this: in a world where Android, iOS and WP7 are king, has MeeGo got the chops to survive? (more…)

Every now and then, someone will come up with a brilliant, brilliant idea, that I unreservedly love, because it’s, well, brilliant. For instance, when Orange unveiled HD Voice, I got rather, er, enthused about it. Well, today’s brilliant idea comes from Vodafone, who’ve decided to stick phone chargers in 500 black cabs, in London.

That ain’t all; according to The Guardian, they’ve also unveiled a scheme that will allow people to pay their cab fares by text message. So, if you’re stuck without any small change when you need a cab, you just text the taxi’s licence number to a central code, and the charge for the trip goes on your monthly bill. Or, presumably, comes out of your PAYG balance, if you’re not on contract… (more…)

Hmm, now this is interesting, and it may well explain why RIM’s Mike Lazaridis cut his interview with the BBC short, when they asked him about the situation in places like the UAE, where they wanted to block Blackberry mail. Maybe he wasn’t allowed to say anything, in case people got wind of what was happening?

Anyway, the situation is this, according to The Register: after threatening RIM directly (then backing down, eventually), saying they’d ban Blackberry services because they couldn’t spy on everyone’s email, networks in the UAE are being told to block access to Blackberry Enterprise Servers, until they can, you guessed it, spy on everyone’s email. (more…)