Mobile Phones // Current

Mob4Hire - Crowdsourced Mobile Application Testing

Crowdsourcing worked for restaurant reviews, so it's got to work for testing mobile apps around the world, right? ... more

TravG73
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Samsung Pixon M8800 Mobile Camera Phone

There’s a new mobile phone from Samsung, which is due to go on sale for this month; the new Samsung Pixon M8800 8 mega pixel... more

blasy_ferdy
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Texts to fight HIV in South Africa

As mobile phones become more and more popular in South Africa, Project Masiluleke will send one million text messages a day to... more

nazbags
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Passports will be needed to buy mobile phones

Everyone who buys a mobile telephone will be forced to register their identity on a national database under government plans to extend massively the powers of state surveillance.

Phone buyers would have to present a passport or other official form of identification at the point of purchase. Privacy campaigners fear it marks the latest government move to create a surveillance society.

A compulsory national register for the owners of all 72m mobile phones in Britain would be part of a much bigger database to combat terrorism and crime. Whitehall officials have raised the idea of a register containing the names and addresses of everyone who buys a phone in recent talks with Vodafone and other telephone companies, insiders say.

The move is targeted at monitoring the owners of Britain’s estimated 40m prepaid mobile phones. They can be purchased with cash by customers who do not wish to give their names, addresses or credit card details.

The pay-as-you-go phones are popular with criminals and terrorists because their anonymity shields their activities from the authorities. But they are also used by thousands of law-abiding citizens who wish to communicate in private.

The move aims to close a loophole in plans being drawn up by GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre in Cheltenham, to create a huge database to monitor and store the internet browsing habits, e-mail and telephone records of everyone in Britain.

The “Big Brother” database would have limited value to police and MI5 if it did not store details of the ownership of more than half the mobile phones in the country.

Contingency planning for such a move is already thought to be under way at Vodafone, where 72% of its 18.5m UK customers use pay-as-you-go.

The office of Richard Thomas, the information commissioner, said it anticipated that a compulsory mobile phone register would be unveiled as part of a law which ministers would announce next year.

“With regards to the database that would contain details of all mobile users, including pay-as-you-go, we would expect that this information would be included in the database proposed in the draft Communications Data Bill,” a spokeswoman said.

Simon Davies, of Privacy International, said he understood that several mobile phone firms had discussed the proposed database in talks with government officials.

As The Sunday Times revealed earlier this month, GCHQ has already been provided with up to £1 billion to work on the pilot stage of the Big Brother database, which will see thousands of “black boxes” installed on communications lines provided by Vodafone and BT as part of a pilot interception programme.

The proposals have sparked a fierce backlash inside Whitehall. Senior officials in the Home Office have privately warned that the database scheme is impractical, disproportionate and potentially unlawful. The revolt last week forced Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, to delay announcing plans for the database until next year. Everyone who buys a mobile telephone will be forced to register their identity on a national database under government plans to... more

TravG73
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24 responses

1 month ago

Handsets to become crime targets

The risk of spam and viruses that attack mobile devices is set to rise, says a report. Security experts suggest current risks are... more

BuddyP
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5 responses

1 month ago

Mobile phone rash

Mobile phones users are developing rashes on their faces and ears caused by an allergic reaction to the nickel on handsets, skin... more

oblivious
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7 responses

1 month ago

Mobile phones case skin rash

Skin experts are warning mobile phone users to watch out- they could develop rashes on their faces, ears, and even fingers. The... more

nazbags
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0 responses

1 month ago

Happy Birthday to the mobile phone!

I remember seeing my first mobile phone back in the mid '90s, when my mum had to have one as part of some journalism work she... more

purplefox
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10 responses

1 month ago

Women fake calls and texts more

3 have conducted research that suggests we're all becoming a bunch of ‘Communifakers’ who’d rather pretend... more

purplefox
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37 responses

1 month ago

Carl Zeiss releases cinemizer for Nokia N95/96

Carl Zeiss has released the cinemizer for people who want to watch television on Nokia N96 or alternatively Youtube videos on the... more

bluebirdsparrow
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0 responses

1 month ago

Sry 4 ur loss: Madrid mortuary offers condolences-via-text service

Too busy to deal with the loss of a loved one? A Madrid mortuary understands that some people are just too busy to attend funerals... more

abbym0308
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3 responses

1 month ago

We Don't Want To Be Pirates

With the introduction of Sony Ericsson's PlayNow Plus and Nokia's Comes With Music, studies are showing that a... more

bgonsoulin
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0 responses

1 month ago

iPhone game developer makes £135K from App Store in two months

Or for you Americans, a whopping $250K. If you've bought the game Trism on an iPhone, your £2.99 ($4.99) has helped... more

richjm
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7 responses

1 month ago

Mobile phone use ‘raises children’s risk of brain cancer fivefold’

Children and teenagers are five times more likely to get brain cancer if they use mobile phones, startling new research... more

skyaddicted
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29 responses

1 month ago

Mobile phones admitted to British libraries

Finally, students and other visitors can bring their snacks, drinks, and mobile phones into British libraries. The Society of... more

toussaint
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5 responses

1 month ago

Post Office to launch mobile network?

TechDigest reports rumours that the humble british Post Office is planning to launch a mobile phone service in an attempt to make... more

purplefox
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0 responses

2 months ago

Google's Android for phones nearing release

The first mobile device built around Android will be carried by T-Mobile in a still-unnamed handset designed by Taiwanese smartphone powerhouse HTC. The Android phone will go up against Apple's iPhone, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry and a host of devices powered by Nokia’s Symbian and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating systems. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

While every market Google has entered is highly competitive, none may be more so than the mobile phone market, specifically the market for smartphones, which can handle e-mail and Web surfing.

Open Handset Alliance backing
While it’s Google that’s putting together Android, it’s also the culmination of work by the Open Handset Alliance, a collaborative group including Google and more than 30 semiconductor and software companies, mobile operators and handset manufacturers. Alliance members include Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, Intel, Motorola, HTC, eBay, LG and Samsung.

Jason Mackenzie, vice president of HTC America, which uses Windows Mobile in its other phones, is confident about Android’s prospects.

“Millions of people rely on Google services and applications every day on their PCs — whether it’s for search, maps, e-mail,” he said. “We believe that the ability to provide this same rich experience on a mobile device is a powerful proposition for a wide range of consumers.”

While Android is an operating system, it is also an open-source system similar to Linux, upon which it is based. That’s creating a lot of excitement and interest in the kind of programs that will be available for users, including one that can track family members’ whereabouts in an emergency to another that offers a short cooking video, followed by information on nearby grocery stores that carry the ingredients needed for the recipe.

Since its inception, Android has been tweaked and built upon freely by developers, device designers and wireless carriers who have had complete access to Android’s Software Developer Kit. Basically, Android is whatever users and developers want it to be.

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I was looking at the new iPhone 3G but i have some time on my service contract w/ verizon. this looks good might have to try it out The first mobile device built around Android will be carried by T-Mobile in a still-unnamed handset designed by Taiwanese... more