Google-owned AdMob has revealed that the Apple iPhone is far and away the biggest player in the world's mobile internet market, if October's online activity is considered.

AdMob has released its statistics for October that look at how many "requests" each of the major mobile phone operating systems made. Apple's iPhone, with a full fat Safari browsers and data bundles in many countries, dominates in the smartphone market.

During October, in terms of global smartphone traffic, the iPhone weighs in 50%. In the States, the figure rises to 55% (with HTC second at 22%), while here in the UK the iPhone commands a whopping 74% of all smartphone traffic.

In the UK, the next biggest player is Nokia, at 10%, lagging an astonishing 64% behind the market leader. HTC, also at 10% follows with Android nabbing the same percentile as far as OSes go.

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Tags: Phones Mobile phone industry AdMob Statistics iPhone Online Apple Nokia Biz

iPhone accounts for three quarters of mobile internet use in the UK originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:55:22 +0000

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has re-iterated the wish to keep hold of the micro-blogging site, rather than sell out wholesale, but has said an initial public offering could be on the cards for the future.

"We are definitely not interested in selling the company", Reuters quotes Stone as saying at an Oxford University event.

"If an IPO's the only thing, then sure. But if there is some other way then that would be great too. Maybe some other new way will emerge".

With Twitter funding from investors said to have hit the $100 million mark, valuing the company at $1 billion, the pressure will soon be on for the site to turn a profit, plans for which were recently revealed as advanced, paid-for accounts for businesses.

"2010 is really going to be the revenue year. I don't know if we're going to be profitable, but we have plenty of time", Stone said.

In addition, Twitter could introduce advertising in 2010, but Stone hinted it would take a different tack from traditional display ads, stating: "Everyone's going to love it. It's going to be amazing".

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Tags: Software Twitter Websites Online Biz Biz Stone

Twitter's Biz Stone talks IPO, advertising originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:00:09 +0000

A mobile phone gaming company has delivered a blow to the Android platform - in PR terms at the very least - by unfavourably comparing it to Apple's rival offering and revealing it is to cut funding for its Android products.

A senior executive from the French company Gameloft is quoted by Reuters whilst at an investor conference as revealing Gameloft sells 400 times more games on iPhone than it does on Android.

"We have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like ... many others", Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort said, suggesting other games companies were seeing similar results.

"It is not as neatly done as on the iPhone. Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue".

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Tags: Phones Mobile phone games Android Gameloft Biz iPhone apps Android Marketplace Google Gaming

Gameloft: iPhone game sales 400 times that of Android originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:43:09 +0000

Those clued up on the 2009 tech scene will grasp this concept straight away as it's just so very "now".

Using augmented reality, the new WorkSnug iPhone app, created in conjunction with Plantronics, lets iPhone owners see at a glance suitable perching locations in their vicinity for a quick log-on and a coffee or somewhere to work the day away.

Rating the locations - which could vary from coffee shop chains to greasy spoons to official pay-for-a-desk type work locations - on power provision, atmosphere and noise levels, it should give an idea of what a place is all about and users can add their own reviews too.

Currently launching for the London metro area, WorkSnug will soon also be available for the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Berlin and Madrid with a website planned to launch in the future.

The WorkSnug iPhone app is available now absolutely gratis from the iTunes App Store.

Tags: Phones iPhone apps WorkSnug Wi-Fi hotspots Biz Software Augmented Reality Plantronics Video

VIDEO: WorkSnug workplace-finding iPhone app launches originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:52:57 +0000

The Rupert Murdoch saga over Google making News Corp content widely available for people to "steal" has taken an interesting turn according to recent insider reports, suggesting Microsoft has been invited to enter talks with the media giant on the topic.

The reports suggest that Microsoft, with an opportunity to get one over on search behemoth Google, could offer to pay News Corp to "de-index" its news websites from Google, therefore making Microsoft's search offering Bing the place to go for News Corp news content.

While in the UK this could mean content from the The Times and The Sun no longer appearing on Google News, The Financial Times states that Microsoft has also suggested the payment plan to other big online publishers as an incentive to get them to remove their sites from Google's search engine too.

Murdoch has already threatened to remove News Corp content from Google, so this scheme, financed by Microsoft's large coffers, could offer the perfect solution for Murdoch - if not for the consumer.

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Tags: Software Search engines Microsoft News Corp Google Rumours Biz Google News Bing

Microsoft offers money for News Corp to de-Google its content originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:42:08 +0000

High-end home ent manufacturer Linn has announced it has taken the "dramatic decision" to stop making CD players.

Linn will cease production from the start of 2010 to focus on digital music streaming systems, sales of which have apparently outpaced those of CD players over the last year.

A real sign o' the times story, it seems this makes Linn the first manufacturer to make this landmark move.

Linn's MD, Gilad Tiefenbrun, says of the move: "Our customers have fast recognised the limitations of CD players and in the age of home networking, people now want better control of their music and the ability to enjoy it in any room of their home".

Tags: Audio CD Linn Media streaming Music Biz

Linn announces it's quitting the CD player market originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:21:32 +0000

If you think the proliferation of app stores among device manufacturers, mobile networks and just about any other company in the world was getting a little silly, you'll likely be alarmed to hear that Qualcomm is launching an initiative that could see any company set one up with the greatest of ease.

The white label service is called "Plaza" and represents an easily customisable app store (or "Mobile widgets" as Qualcomm is putting it) that can be as niche or mainstream as you like. "Any content, any network, any device" is apparently the company's motto for the project.

Qualcomm's EVP president of QIS & Europe told Pocket-lint that he thinks specialist boutique app stores that focus on one topic - sports and fitness, or music, for example - could prove as successful as device-centred app stores that have dominated the marketplace so far.

Qualcomm has an extensive website that details the options that it offers. What do you think - is the proliferation of app stores a good thing that'll create competition and drive down prices? Or will it just confuse consumers? Let us know in the comments.

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Tags: Phones Mobile phone apps Qualcomm Plaza Biz

Qualcomm plans "Plaza" of white-label app stores originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:09:10 +0000

Twitter boss Biz Stone has unveiled more about the micro-blogging service's plans to make money revealing that paid-for commercial accounts will roll-out this year, in an interview with the BBC.

Stone insists Twitter will stay free for individuals, and for businesses too, stating "Twitter will always be free to everyone whether it's commercial or personal", but that paid-for commercial accounts will offer a "special layer of access" that will include analytics and feedback.

There's also the possibility of revenue from licensing and syndication possibilities, said Stone, such as the deals recently done with Google and Bing in order to see Twitter content show up in search results.

The interview comes as Twitter has changed its "what are you doing?" tagline above the box where users enter their tweets to "what's happening?"

In a blog post, Twitter explains the change is to reflect the changing way in which the service is used, with more companies tweeting rather than just individuals:

"People, organizations, and businesses quickly began leveraging the open nature of the network to share anything they wanted, completely ignoring the original question, seemingly on a quest to both ask and answer a different, more immediate question, 'What's happening?'"

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Tags: Software Websites Twitter Biz

Twitter talks up commercial services originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:02:06 +0000

In the States, AOL has announced it will be cutting its workforce by around a third after it gets spun off from Time Warner next month.

The job cuts - nicely timed for the "holidays" - will see both involuntary and voluntary redundancies for around 2500 members of staff.

The move is part of a cost-cutting programme as AOL prepares for its IPO and its return to the public markets with the goal to cut annual operating costs by around $300 million.

As part of the measures AOL's CEO Tim Armstrong will not get his 2009 bonus which was to be around the $4 million mark.

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Tags: Software AOL Time Warner Biz

AOL announces 2500 job cuts originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:48:06 +0000

The BBC and commercial radio companies have unveiled the new online radio player we brought you news of recently, that "aims to offer the output of every licensed UK radio station and to let users search this content by subject, musical style, or even song title".

The UK Radioplayer, due for launch early next year, is described as a pop-up console which will be open to stream more than 400 licensed national, local, community and student radio stations.

The BBC says it will offer "a unique, constantly-updated live and on-demand audio service" and users will be able to store their favourite stations on pre-set buttons.

Official terms for the project have now been signed by the BBC, RadioCentre, Global Radio and Guardian Media Group but the service will be made available to all Ofcom-licensed networks.

Initially due to be available through computers, the Beeb says later versions are planned for smartphones and other internet-connected devices. We will keep you posted.

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Tags: Audio Radio BBC Internet radio Websites Online RadioCentre Global Radio Guardian Media Group Biz UK Radioplayer

Online UK Radioplayer plans revealed originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:20:50 +0000

In the UK, IT workers are least likely to lead a healthy lifestyle, a recent study suggests, with those in fields such as website design, software development and tech support owning up to exercising the least and having a poor diet.

Fewer than one in five IT workers get the recommended half hour a day of exercise five days a week. As far as diet goes, just 14% claim to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables throughout the day, whilst their caffeine intake is the highest nationwide - on average, IT workers chug down around 10 cups of coffee a day.

Receptionists are the second most inactive group while sales people come in third, followed by checkout operators and then those that work in marketing.

The study looked at 1734 working Brits and reveals that 63% are failing to meet the exercise guidelines as the average person in the UK is active for just 1 hour 30 minutes a week.

Survey backer and weight loss expert Rich Leigh of www.fatfreefitness.co.uk says, "There is clearly a correlation between sitting at a desk or wheel all day and how active you're likely to be".

Tags: Sports Fitness Biz Statistics Survey

IT workers most unhealthy in the UK originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:05:01 +0000

T-Mobile has admitted guilt in recent news that an unnamed mobile phone operator had been caught selling personal data about customers to competitors.?

Staff apparently passed on millions of records from thousands of customers to third party brokers, who then cold-called people who were near the ends of their contracts. The issue was discovered after customers complained about those very calls.?A T-Mobile spokesman said the data had been sold "without our knowledge".

The network faces large fines from the Information Commissioner, who also took the unusual step of calling for?the staff members responsible to be handed a prison sentence instead of the ordinary ?5000 fine that comes with a violation of Britain’s Data Protection Act.?

Are you a T-Mobile customer? How does this make you feel? Let us know in the comments.

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Tags: Phones Mobile phone industry Biz Information Commissioner

Personal data sold by T-Mobile originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:43:30 +0000

A UK mobile phone operator has seen a data leak of millions of records from thousands of customers, the information commissioner has revealed.

Staff at one of the UK's major mobile phone companies sold on the customer information to other phone firms, Christopher Graham told the BBC, making a mockery of the data protection act.

Customers have reported being cold-called as their contracts came to an end, ultimately resulting in the phone company alerting the watchdog to the problem.

The information commissioner has searched company premises, interviewed employees and is planning to prosecute those involved, but the operator has not been officially named.

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Tags: Phones Mobile phone industry Biz Information Commissioner O2 Orange Vodafone T-Mobile 3

UK mobile phone operator sees major data theft originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:36:03 +0000

Apple has won the first stage of its legal battle against Psystar, the company that offers PCs running Apple's Mac operating system, in a recent Californian court ruling.

Although there's still outstanding breach of contract, trademark infringement, and unfair competition issues to be sorted, as well as a related lawsuit to go through the Florida court system, the court has agreed with Apple's main argument of copyright infringement against Psystar, which does not bode well for Psystar's wider defence.

Engadget has a detailed look at the charges and how the court ruled on each point, but basically this round of legal fun sees Psystar guilty of illegally copying, modifying, and distributing Apple's Mac OS X.

The results of the related complaints, and just how much Psystar is going to be ordered to pay Apple in damages is yet to be seen, but we'll keep you posted.

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Tags: Hardware Apple Psystar Lawsuits Biz

Apple wins copyright infringement case against Psystar originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:20:44 +0000

Yahoo's Flickr has announced it is teaming up with HP's Snapfish to give Flickr members worldwide a range of photo printing options direct from the photo sharing site.

The Snapfish partnership will now mean Flickr members can transfer, organise, and print photos, as well as create "unique photo gifts" using their Flickr photostream, say the companies.

Flickr and Snapfish have developed what's said to be "an integrated and intuitive experience" that sees the printing options show up on member's pages in the photo sharing site.

In a blog post, Flickr says: "Now, all Flickr members can create photo prints, books, collages, calendars and more and get them shipped to most anywhere in the world. We're thrilled that Snapfish has direct local facilities in 22 countries for fast, simple and affordable printing".

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Tags: Software Flickr Snapfish Cameras Photo sharing websites Biz

Flickr and Snapfish announce online printing deal originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:41:29 +0000

Apple's newest retail store, due to open its shiny doors this weekend on Saturday 14 November boasts "more Macs, iPods and iPhones than any store in the world".

The store is located under a "breathtaking all-glass arched roof" on New York's Upper West Side on Broadway at 67th Street and is the company's 279th shop and fourth in Manhattan - 15th in the NYC area.

The lower level features the largest area ever created by Apple for personal training and technical support, including a 45-foot Genius Bar with 200 employees overall.

"We opened our first store in Manhattan seven years ago, and the response has been incredible", said Ron Johnson, Apple's senior vice president of retail.

"We hope our new store on the Upper West Side will become as much a part of the community as our stores in SoHo, the Meatpacking District and on Fifth Avenue".

Tags: Hardware Apple shopping Audio Phones Biz

Apple's newest store boasts more Macs, iPods and iPhones than any in the world originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:10:21 +0000

Pocket-lint has teamed up with video news site TechVi to bring you a weekly show analysing the biggest stories of the week.

Hosted by Randall Bennett and featuring members of the Pocket-lint team, we'll be giving you our opinions on what we think is going on behind the stories that are hitting the headlines each week.

This week Duncan and Dan discuss Rupert Murdoch's move to remove his content from Google, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, the iPhone being rickrolled and Palestinian streets.

Hit the play button above, or for a more interactive video, where the web page jumps around the Web as the stories are discussed, head over to Techvi.com.

Tags: Gaming Software Biz Gadgets Phones Video TechVi

Pocket-lint on TechVi: Murdoch, MW2 and streets in Palestine originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:47:33 +0000

YouTube has begun a "small test" of a new kind of advertising on the site, in an attempt to finally meaningfully monetise the billion videos it serves on a daily basis.

While initial testing for pre-roll adverts on the world's most popular video site did not go well with "abandonment" rates said to be as high as 70%, the site is now going at it again with skippable pre-roll advertising.

"We are constantly working to find the right ads for the right content on YouTube, so as to create an experience that works for our users, partners, and advertisers", says YouTube in a blog post.

YouTube has tried various ways to make big money from advertising. InVideo "overlay" adverts have been live on the site since 2007, much to the disgust of many users when they were introduced, while last year YouTube began a click-to-buy scheme.

"We know what you're thinking", says YouTube, "Who would choose to watch an ad when they can skip it?"

The answer, it seems, might not inspire confidence: "Well, that's what we're trying to find out".

YouTube suggests short (say, 15 second) pre-rolls have seen success as have particularly creative efforts - the "quality and relevance" of an ad making users want to see it play out.

"Skippable pre-rolls [can] create a win-win-win for everyone on YouTube. For users, this format gives them more control over their experience. For advertisers, we're working toward a solution where they pay for ads that users actually watch and engage with".

What are your thoughts on pre-roll ads? Does a "your video will start in 10 seconds" message drive you mad? Have your say in the comments box below.

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Tags: Software Websites Online YouTube Home Cinema Video on demand Advertising Biz

YouTube intros skippable pre-roll adverts originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:06:03 +0000

HP has announced it has entered into an agreement to purchase 3Com, said to be "a leading provider of networking switching, routing and security solutions".

HP will pay $2.7 billion for the company with the transaction expected to close in the first half of 2010.

In a press release, HP says the acquisition "will transform the networking industry and underscore HP's next-generation data center strategy built on the convergence of servers, storage, networking, management, facilities and services".

3Com is big in China, giving HP an in to a rapidly growing IT market, while the buy-out as a whole will mean HP will threaten Cisco's dominance in the networking market.

Tags: Hardware HP 3Com Acquisitions Biz

HP to acquire 3Com for $2.7 billion originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:23:20 +0000

After revealing a net loss of $390 million for the the second quarter of 2009 (an even bigger negative than the loss of $310 million in Q2 2008) EA has announced cost-cutting measures.

Those measures include cutting its workforce by 17% - seeing a loss of 1500 positions - a move expected to save around $100 million per year.

This move is likely to be controversial among staff losing their livelihoods considering EA has only just announced a $300-$400 million buy-out of Playfish.

Playfish makes casual games for social networking and other digital platforms, a rapidly growing market in which EA it seems is looking to for the future in a changing games landscape.

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Tags: Gaming EA Biz Results

EA announces loss, 1500 jobs to go originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:55:04 +0000

Adobe has revealed it is to cut 680 jobs - a figure that amounts to 9% of its total workforce.

The software company had already cut around 600 jobs towards the end of 2008 when the global downturn was in full swing as part of cost-cutting measures. In July the company shut down for a week to save money.

These new cuts follow news that the company's revenue is down 18% in the past 9 months.

Microsoft recently announced it was to cut another 800 jobs, while EA has cut 1500 and Sun Microsystems announced 3000 job losses.

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Tags: Software Adobe Biz

Adobe to cut 680 jobs originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:16:33 +0000

Logitech has announced that it has agreed to acquire privately held, Austin, Texas-based LifeSize Communications for $405 million in cash.

LifeSize specialises in "high definition video communication solutions", boasting more than 9000 video conferencing customers across 80 countries in the business sector.

"We expect this acquisition to enable Logitech to extend our leadership in video communication beyond the desktop", said Gerald P. Quindlen, Logitech president and chief executive officer.

"Together we can make life-like, HD-quality video communication as mainstream and seamless as a telephone, for meeting participants in the boardroom, at their office desk, in a remote-location meeting room, telecommuting from home or on the go with a laptop".

LifeSize will continue to operate as a separate division in Austin reporting to Logitech.

Tags: Hardware Logitech Lifesize Biz Acquisitions

Logitech to buy LifeSize Communications for $405 million originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:33:25 +0000

It seems Orange's first day of iPhone sales in the UK has gone well with the company revealing, via a tweet, it's seen sales hitting the 30,000 mark.

"Orange UK had sold more than 30k iPhones, smashing what we believe is the previously published first day sales records for a phone in the UK!", Orange marketing manager Conor Maples stated via Twitter.

When O2 originally launched the iPhone back in November 2007 it said it saw "tens of thousands" of people snap up the device over the initial sales weekend.

Orange's new film-themed iPhone app is seeing similar success, according to another Conor tweet:

"Our Orange Wednesdays app has gone to the top slot in the Entertainment Category, & hit 2nd place in the free apps chart on Apple App Store".

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Tags: Phones iPhone Orange Apple Statistics Biz

Orange reveals 30,000 iPhones sold on first day originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:09:53 +0000

Samsung has announced the launch of its own open mobile platform, "Samsung bada" with an SDK due to be available in December.

Bada will mean developers can create applications for millions of new Samsung mobile phones.

The name bada means ocean in Korean (we're certainly hoping Microsoft is planning a search app for the platform) and was said to be chosen "to convey the limitless variety of potential applications which can be created using the new platform".

Samsung says bada is simple for developers to use - "one of the most developer-friendly environments available".

The first bada-powered mobile is due in the first half of 2010.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Mobile phone industry Samsung Samsung bada SDK Biz

Samsung announces bada mobile platform originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:55:01 +0000

Google has announced it has signed an agreement to acquire AdMob, a mobile display advertising company based in California, in an attempt to cash in on the rapidly growing number of people who access the Internet as well as connected services and widgets on their phones.

In a blog post, the internet giant says: "AdMob is a great Silicon Valley story - founded in 2006 by Omar Hamoui when he couldn't find good ways to generate traffic for his mobile site. Over the past few years, Omar and his talented team have built a thriving company with great mobile advertising products, and we are looking forward to having them join the Google team and work with us on the future of mobile advertising".

Stating that "despite the tremendous growth in mobile usage and the substantial investment by many businesses in the space, the mobile web is still in its early stages", Google says it thinks that "great mobile advertising products can encourage even more growth in the mobile ecosystem".

Although Google currently offers mobile advertising solutions it says its focus to date has been on mobile versions of its search ads. This differs from AdMob's focus that has been mobile display ads and in-application ads, the potential of which for the Android platform will be lost on no-one.

In honour of the deal, Google has set-up a site that explains the $750 million acquisition and the types of mobile advertising available.

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Related links:

• Comment - Has Google got too big?

Tags: Phones Mobile phone industry Google Advertising AdMob Biz Acquisitions Android

Google acquires AdMob for $750 million originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:07:32 +0000

Electronic Arts has confirmed it is to acquire social games giant Playfish. Playfish will be incorporated into EA Interactive, a division of EA that produces games for the Web and mobile devices.

EA will purchase the company that specialises in Facebook and casual games for approximately $275 million in cash and $25 million in an equity retention arrangement.

"Social gaming, with its emphasis on friends and community, is seeing tremendous growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our participation in this space", said Barry Cottle, senior vice president and general manager of EA Interactive.

Meanwhile Kristian Segerstrale, CEO and co-founder of Playfish added: "The industry is undergoing dramatic transformation and joining EA is the ideal opportunity for us to push forward our goals to lead in the social entertainment evolution on a faster and much larger scale".

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Tags: Gaming EA Playfish Acquisitions Biz Online Software

EA acquires Playfish originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:29:22 +0000

News content from The Times and The Sun could soon be noticeably absent in online searches and news aggregators if News Corp's chairman and CEO, Rupert Murdoch, has is way.

Murdoch, not shy to speak out about how he feels Google has threatened the newspaper industry, has said he will consider removing his papers' content from Google's search index, possibly as early as next year.

"I think we will [remove our websites from Google's search index] but that's when we start charging", Murdoch told Sky News Australia, referring to the pay wall he is planning for online content.

"The people who simply just pick up everything and run with it – steal our stories, we say they steal our stories - they just take them. That's Google, that's Microsoft, that's Ask.com, a whole lot of people ... they shouldn't have had it free all the time, and I think we've been asleep".

Meanwhile The FT reports Murdoch actually threatened to sue the likes of the BBC when asked about how he plans to charge for content when the same stories are covered by broadcasters such as the BBC and ABC.

"But we are better", said Murdoch. "And anyway, if you look at them, most of their stuff is stolen from the newspapers now, and we’ll be suing them for copyright".

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Tags: Software Online Google Search engines Biz News Corp Rupert Murdoch

Murdoch to block Google searches on News Corp content originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:11:57 +0000

LinkedIn has announced it is testing a new "site navigation experience" that will show up for certain users.

The new design sees a "global navigation bar" at the top of the page that provides what's said to be convenient access to all LinkedIn services while overall there's said to be a cleaner, less-cluttered look.

The revamp also intros more simplified local navigation within each of the LinkedIn areas (Profile, Contacts, Groups, etc.) meaning more room available for page content.

"One of the key features of the new design is that it allows much more space for page content - information about you and your professional network", says LinkedIn.

The site is currently asking for feedback about the new design for those that can see it, as well as from those using the older format.

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Tags: Software Online Websites LinkedIn Social networking Biz

LinkedIn testing a new site design originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:04:44 +0000

eBay's Skype has reached a settlement with Joltid over a breach of license that will now see the sale of the VoIP firm go through without litigation hassles.

Joltid Ltd, a Swedish firm owned by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, had claimed peer-to-peer technology owned by Joltid, and not eBay, was being used in a breach of license with every download of the Skype software.

It's now been announced that the investor group led by Silver Lake, which is to acquire a majority stake in Skype, has reached a settlement agreement with Joltid and Joost that gives Skype ownership over all software previously licensed from Joltid.

As part of the settlement, Zennstrom and Friis will join the investor group and the Skype board with a 14% share in exchange for providing Joltid software and a significant capital investment.

This now ends all litigation currently pending against the investor group and eBay.

"We'll be free to concentrate all of our efforts on building the world’s greatest communications software", says Skype in a blog post.

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Tags: Software Biz Skype Lawsuits eBay Joltid

Skype and Joltid settle originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:11:46 +0000

First off congratulations to Paul Story who won last month's comments comp for his comment on the story "Amazon Kindle UK import orders begin". For those who didn't win, don't fret, because the kind folk at TomTom have sent a TomTom XL Live IQ Routes Europe unit for us to dish out for our November comments competition.

The rules of the competition are simple, you can enter as many times as you like by simply commenting on any story. It doesn't have to be in depth, detailed or technical, but it does have to be useful, helpful or funny.

You don't have to sign up to comment on the stories, we just ask for your name, location and email address - that does not show up online and is not passed on.

The TomTom device measures 123 x 80 x 18mm and features 4.3-inch touch display, the screen being bright and a convenient size enabling ease of use whilst driving.

Along with Live HD Traffic, now with added support for Europe, the TomTom XL Live has excellent route guidance and with the added MapShare feature, it allows for easy updating of maps within the TomTom community.

To be in with a chance of winning this top-notch effort just comment on any story during the month of November. At the end of November the Pocket-lint team will take a look and choose what we believe is the best one.

Make sure you take a look at Pocket-lint's full review where it received a 9/10 score.

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Tags: Audio accessories Biz Car And GPS Dad Gadgets Gaming Hardware Home And Kitchen Home Cinema Phones Cameras Software Sports Fitness TomTom GPS Competitions

Win a TomTom XL Live IQ Routes Europe originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:42:25 +0000

Apple's first retail store in France - and its 277th across ten countries - will open in the centre of Paris at the Carrousel du Louvre on Saturday 7 November.

The two-story shop features an entire floor "dedicated to services that have become the hallmark of Apple retail stores around the world", including the Genius Bar, and boasts 150 employees overall.

The new store offers an entire floor of Macs, iPods and iPhones for customers to experience hands-on. There's also an entire room devoted to the iPhone.

"We are thrilled to bring the unique Apple retail experience to France", said Ron Johnson, Apple's senior vice president of retail.

"This stunning new store sits just below the world famous Pyramid du Louvre in the Carrousel du Louvre and offers our customers in Paris a wonderful place to shop, learn and be inspired".

Tags: Hardware Audio Apple shopping Biz

Apple's first store in France opens this weekend originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:58:05 +0000

Retail sales of Windows 7 were well over 200% higher than Vista's in the two operating system's first days of being on sale in the States, the NPD Group has revealed.

But although Windows 7 software unit sales were 234% higher than Vista's, it seems revenue growth wasn't as strong, said to be due primarily to discounts.

"Microsoft's program of early low-cost pre-sales, high visibility marketing, and aggressive deals helped make the Windows 7 software launch successful", said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD.

"In a slow environment for packaged software Windows 7 brought a large number of customers into the software aisles".

Perhaps a result of the different economic climate as Microsoft has launched this latest OS, compared to when Vista was launched, it seems PC hardware sales were down.

Windows PC sales were down 6% compared to PC sales during the Vista launch week.

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Tags: Software Windows 7 Microsoft Vista Statistics NPD Biz

Windows 7 retail sales up 234% on Vista originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:29:50 +0000

Viacom has admitted that its Rock Band series is still not making any cash - on the contrary, it's losing the company money. Viacom's chief financial officer, Tom Dooley, admitted in a quarterly earnings report that "Rock Band was a negative contributor to margins in the third quarter".

He added: "We expect it to break even or be slightly profitable in the fourth quarter from a margin point of view. It really depends on how many units we sell in the holiday season".

The big problem is that making the plastic guitars, drums and microphones is expensive. The company's plan, it seems, revolves around getting those controllers into as many into people's homes as possible, then selling them future games in the franchise that cost both the company and the consumer less.

To that end, both Rock Band 2 and Beatles: Rock Band are compatible with older controllers on the same platform, but it seems to be a pretty long-term strategy. Having said that, Beatles Rock Band is apparently doing reasonably well - "the economics of our Rock Band franchise are improving, though not as quickly as we'd like", said Viacom's CEO, Philippe Daumann.

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Tags: Gaming Rock Band Viacom MTV Biz

Rock Band is still not profitable, says Viacom originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:05:51 +0000

The Nokia Foundation has announced that it has granted its 10,000 euro 2009 award to Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia.

Nokia says Wales was awarded "for his contributions to the evolution of the World Wide Web as a participatory and truly democratic platform".
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"It's a great honor to present this award on behalf of the Board of the Nokia Foundation to an individual who we believe has made a unique contribution to accelerating online collaboration and interaction for millions of people around the world, and effectively democratizing information sharing", said Henry Tirri, head of Nokia Research Center and chairman of the Nokia Foundation.
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Wikipedia was created in 2001, gets more than 330 million monthly visitors and boasts 14,000,000 articles in more than 260 languages.

Tags: Software Wikipedia Nokia Phones Biz Jimmy Wales The Nokia Foundation

The Nokia Foundation award goes to Jimmy Wales originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:48:26 +0000

Microsoft has revealed it is cutting an additional 800 jobs across its global operations, further to the previous cuts announced in January.

Reuters quotes a spokesperson for Microsoft stating these latest job cuts are spread out across the company's global operations, but with around 200 positions to go from its headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Back in January Microsoft said it would be slashing 5000 staff from its workforce as it revealed a sharp drop in profits.

At the time the layoffs were reported as a first for Microsoft since it was founded in 1975, apart from staff cuts made from reorganisation after company acquisitions.

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Tags: Software Microsoft Biz

Microsoft cuts another 800 jobs originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:19:18 +0000

Apple has now officially announced that the App Store has hit the 100,000 available apps milestone.

Apple iPhone and iPod touch customers across 77 countries have downloaded well over 2 billion apps, making the App Store not only the largest, but the world's most popular.

"The App Store, now with over 100,000 applications available, is clearly a major differentiator for millions of iPhone and iPod touch customers around the world", said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing.

"The iPhone SDK created the first great platform for mobile applications and our customers are loving all of the amazing apps our developers are creating".

Tags: Phones iPhone Apple iPhone apps App Store Statistics Biz

App Store hits 100,000 apps milestone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:26:18 +0000

A Wi-Fi-less Apple iPhone has gone on sale in China and the first week's figures are described as "slow", thought to be a result of the amount of cheaper, unlocked iPhones available in the region.

Apple's official Chinese iPhone partner, China Unicom - that it signed a 3-year deal with back in August - has confirmed it has seen sales of 5000 iPhones so far since it went on sale last week.

China Unicom chairman, Chairman Chang Xiaobing, said, "We are satisfied with iPhone sales so far, and we aim to have an additional 1 million new 3G subscribers each month in the near future".

With a potential market of over 700 million, estimates put future Chinese iPhone sales at 460,000 per year - thought to be less than the number of "grey market" phones already in the country.

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Tags: Phones iPhone Biz China Unicom Statistics

5000 iPhones sold in China originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:42:50 +0000

Spring Design, the maker of the?Alex dual-screen ebook reader?is suing Barnes & Noble over claims that the bookseller copied ideas and features in releasing its own ebook, the?Nook.

"We showed the Alex e-book design to Barnes & Noble in good faith with the intention of working together to provide a superior dual screen e-book to the market", said Spring Design vice president of Sales and Marketing, Eric Kmiec in a statement.

According to the company who says they showed Barnes & Noble the Alex in spring 2009, "the lawsuit asserts Barnes & Noble misappropriated trade secrets and violated the parties' non-disclosure agreement when it copied Alex' features into its recently announced Nook e-book".

Both ebooks announced in the same week (20 October), use a colour touchscreen display powered by Android to navigate through menus, rather than the e-ink display, which is used solely for reading.?

The Barnes & Noble Nook is expected to hit the company's stores on 30 November with many stores already covered in merchandising materials and dedicated booths to lure customers to go "electronic".

Barnes & Noble was unavailable to comment at the time of writing. We will keep you posted.?

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Tags: Gadgets eBook readers ebooks Barnes and Noble Barnes and Noble Nook Spring Design Spring Design Alex Lawsuits Biz

Spring Design sues Barnes & Noble over Nook ebook originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:37:30 +0000

The mysterious, unnamed Asian company that saved Polymer Vision from closing completely after in went bankrupt earlier this year has been named as Taiwanese ODM Wistron.

Polymer Vision was closed down by its Dutch parent company for financial reasons, back in July.

The company's consumer offering that never made it to market was the Readius, a fully-functioning 3G mobile phone with a 13cm fold-out black and white E-Ink-type display for reading documents, newspapers, books, etc.

DigiTimes now reveals that Wistron's board of directors has officially approved the company's 12 million euro acquisition of Polymer Vision.

The Polymer Vision team have stated they will "continue to focus on research and development of rollable display with the goal of taking the technology to mass production", but it's unclear whether the Readius itself will survive.

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Tags: Phones Wistron Polymer Vision Acquisitions Biz eBook readers

Wistron named as Polymer Vision purchaser originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:34:26 +0000

TomTom?and?Garmin?saw their share prices plunge on Wednesday, supposedly following the announcement from Google that it was entering the "Real time" navigation sector.

The news coincidently came as TomTom announced poor Q3 results with earnings down over 64 million euros based on last years figures.

"In regards to today’s news, there are a lot of interesting developments and opportunities in the digital mapping and navigation markets", a spokesman told Pocket-lint before adding that "We believe there are opportunities for all of us".

TomTom who has offered mobile software for sometime has only just moved into the?iPhone?app market space with its dedicated app and car docking system.

"We’re seeing a growing number of customers adopt our solutions and have expanded our market reach to include not just automotive but wireless and enterprise customers".

Google Maps Navigation will go live, initially in the US only, on 6 November on Android 2.0. A product manager in Google's Mapping department told Pocket-lint that the company currently has no plans to port it to other operating systems.

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Tags: Car And GPS Biz Google TomTom Garmin GPS Google Maps Navigation

TomTom shares plunge on poor Q3 results and Google announcement originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:54:00 +0000

Samsung and Handmark, a mobile apps and service company, have announced the launch of a new Global Venture Fund to invest in companies or individuals with "innovative, market-changing game ideas for next generation Samsung mobile phones".

Unlike rival manufacturer's similar schemes, this time round it's just about gaming. The companies say they are "searching for games that best showcase Samsung mobile phones and the advanced features they offer".

The fund is considerable - companies or individuals selected will receive up to $250,000 each to fund the development of winning ideas.

"We know there’s a wealth of great ideas out there waiting to be discovered", said Chris Barnett, senior vice president of global sales and strategic partnerships for Handmark.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone, including big brands, mobile developers or any individual with a unique, creative idea to make it a reality".

To submit a proposal or for more information, visit www.handmark.com/company/samsungfund. The deadline for entries is 20 November, 2009.

Tags: Phones Mobile phone games Samsung Handmark Gaming Software Biz

Samsung and Handmark offer $250k for games for next-gen phones originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:53:08 +0000

This Dell infomercial would make a great drinking game if you had to down a shandy every time voice-over man says "XT2 XFR", but for those of you of a more sober frame of mind, it gives you a quick overview of Dell's new rugged tablet PC.

The Dell Latitude XT2 XFR (hic!) is the industry's smallest 12.1-inch rugged convertible tablet PC and is the first with a multi-touch display.

Aimed at those that work In The Field, it's independently tested to all kinds of official standards so users know they can drop it, dunk it, freeze it, coat it in dust and just know it's still gonna work.

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Tags: Hardware Dell Tablet PCs Laptops Waterproof Video Biz

VIDEO: Dell Latitude XT2 XFR rugged tablet PC launches originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:40:37 +0000

O2 has announced the launch of O2 Techies, a new tech support service offering on-site set up, specialised training and helpline support to O2's small business customers across the UK.

The Techies are said to be a "dedicated fleet of specially trained technicians" available to make on-site visits to install and set up mobile devices, mobile broadband, laptops, car kits and satnav systems either on an individual basis or for a whole team of staff.

Hoping to fill the gap in the market that currently stands at 65% of small business with no pro IT or tech support, the cost to set-up one handset is ?125, which - without wanting to cast any aspersions on individual Techies who are no doubt highly trained individuals - seems a little steep.

As well as set-up services, subscriptions are also available for ongoing support that provides a dedicated helpline as well as remote problem solving as far as PCs and phones go which is charged at ?6.38 per month per employee.

Tags: Phones O2 Biz O2 Techies Hardware

O2 Techies support service announced for small businesses originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:09:47 +0100

Nokia has announced that it has filed a complaint against Apple with the Federal District Court in Delaware, alleging that Apple's iPhone infringes Nokia patents for GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN standards.
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Nokia is naming ten patents in the suit that relate to technologies "fundamental to making devices which are compatible with one or more of the GSM, UMTS (3G WCDMA) and wireless LAN standards".

The patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption and have apparently all been infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced in 2007.

Nokia says it has spent over 40 billion euros over the last 20 years on various patents, some of which have made it to being the industry standard. While almost all the major mobile manufacturers pay Nokia for licence agreements to use the tech covered by the patents, it appears Apple has refused to do so.

"The basic principle in the mobile industry is that those companies who contribute in technology development to establish standards create intellectual property, which others then need to compensate for", said Ilkka Rahnasto, vice president, legal & intellectual property at Nokia.

"Apple is also expected to follow this principle. By refusing to agree appropriate terms for Nokia's intellectual property, Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation".

Tags: Phones Nokia Apple Lawsuits iPhone Patents Biz

Nokia sues Apple over alleged iPhone patent infringements originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:43:18 +0100

HTC is struggling to meet demand for its flagship Android handset, the HTC Hero, according to the company's VP Asia-Pacific Jack Tong. Sales in Europe and Asia are very strong he said, which is causing production difficulties.

"The tight production will not be eased until November and the sales momentum of HTC Hero is expected to continue in the first quarter of 2010" said Tong when asked about the handset by DigiTimes. HTC believes that despite competition from a whole range of other manufacturers, it can maintain its lead in the Android phone market.

However Tong admitted that it'd take until the second half of 2010 to actually call the race, given Motorola's late, but strong-looking, entry with the Motorola Droid. There's also the recently launched US edition of the Hero to consider.

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Tags: Phones Mobile phones HTC HTC Hero Biz Android

HTC Hero "in short supply" originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:57:24 +0100

Microsoft is about to sign up both Twitter and Facebook in a non-exclusive deal to help improve the Bing search engine.

The deal, which will see both sites integrate their real-time feed of status updates into the Bing search engine is, if true, expected to give Microsoft's fledgling offering a massive boost in the real time search game.

According to All Things Digital "sources, Microsoft (MSFT) digital head Qi Lu will announce the deal onstage in a few hours at the Web 2.0 Summit".

Although the article states that neither offering is expected to be up and running for weeks if not months, it does expect Qi Lu to demo the new project at the conference.

However, the article also states that any deal is expected to be non-exclusive suggesting that similar offerings could be coming to Google as well.

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Tags: Software Twitter Bing Facebook Social networking Search engines Microsoft Biz

Twitter and Facebook Status updates coming to Bing originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:50:13 +0100

In the States a college inventor has created an RFID-enabled coffee cup, allowing for wave-and-pay transactions in coffee houses without getting your wallet out.

While here in the UK NFC phones and RFID card systems have and are being trialled by both the London Underground and coffee shop type establishments, Chris Hallberg has taken a link out of the chain by adding the RFID chip directly to the cup.

The Smug Mug system will be in use sometime next year at a local Milwaukee coffee chain, Stone Creek Coffee, but Hallberg is hoping the concept might get picked up by larger companies looking to boost customer loyalty from time-pressed commuters.

The suggested price for the re-usable Smug Mug is $15, a price tag that include $5 credit for the relevant store.

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Related links:

• Link - Smug Mug

Tags: Gadgets RFID Biz Smug Mug Eco

Smug Mug adds RFID chip to coffee cup originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:16:12 +0100

The world might be struggling following on from the fall out of the economic downturn that then became the worldwide recession, but that hasn't stopped Apple boasting its most "profitable quarter ever" suggesting they are charging customers too much for the latest must have gadgets.

According to the company's latest results it the company posted revenue of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion. Gross margin was 36.6 percent, up from 34.7 percent in the year-ago quarter.

In the three months running up to the end of the quarter Apple sold 3.05 million Macs, no doubt spurred on by the launch of Snow Leopard, which experienced more than double the sales the company was expecting and therefore representing a 17% unit increase over the year-ago quarter. As for the iPhone, Apple says that it sold over 7.4 million iPhones - a 7% unit growth over the year-ago quarter bringing the total of iPhones sold to over 21 million handsets.

"We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO before promising "some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010."

However it's not all good news. Although Apple sold 10.2 million iPods during the quarter it was an 8% decline in sales on the previous year. The results follow a a similar decline in Q3 where iPod sales were down 7% on the year previously.

Apple also used the results call to confirm that it would be launching the iPhone in China at the end of October (30th).

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Tags: Biz Results Apple iPhone Hardware Audio

Apple: Most profitable quarter ever originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:28:11 +0100

Plastic Logic has announced a new ebook reader, the "Que", that's due to be launched at the CES show in January 2010.

Describing the device as the first "proReader" designed for business professionals, the Que wants to "connect its users with their business and professional newspapers, books and periodicals... and supports the document formats business users need (including PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents)".

Plastic Logic says the Que store will be powered by Barnes & Noble, the Amazon rival that's making a big play for the ebook and ebook reader market with both Plastic Logic and iRex team-ups revealed recently.

Boasting what's said to be the largest touchscreen in the industry and with the hint of "powerful tools for interacting with and managing the content", the Que is seriously skinny at less than a third of an inch thick, lightweight, Wi-Fi and AT&T (in the US) 3G-enabled, and measures around 8.5 by 11-inches.

Finally, the Que's display is made of shatterproof plastic and its battery "can last days, instead of hours", apparently. For all other spec, pricing and availability info we've got to hang on until 7 January when all will be revealed at the CES show - we will keep you posted.

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Tags: Gadgets eBook readers Plastic Logic Barnes and Noble ebooks Biz CES2010

Plastic Logic announces "Que" ebook reader for January launch originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:35:59 +0100

Google has released a preview of its next phase of the "Going Google" campaign that will launch across six new countries.

The campaign, to get businesses to switch over to Google's corporate solutions, has seen bill-board ads across the States.

As part of the expansion of the campaign, the search giant has revealed that over two million companies are now using Google Apps.

Hit play to see more, while the UK-centric info can be found at www.google.co.uk/gogoogle.

Tags: Software Google Biz Advertising Email Online Google Apps

VIDEO: Google explains "Going Google" originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:13:56 +0100

Spotify and 3 have formally announced the partnership that Pocket-lint detailed last week. As previously reported, 3 will begin selling the HTC Hero with a Premium Spotify subscription bundled in - which normally costs ?10 per month.

The tariff costs ?35 per month over 24 months, and you'll have to pay ?100 upfront too, so it's not cheap. For that, though, you get 24 months of Spotify Premium, 750 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited mobile internet. You can also get free calls to other 3 users and to people on Skype. We presume the Spotify app will be preloaded on the handset.

There's more handsets in the works too - "Spotify Mobile will initially be available only on the HTC Hero" says the press release, the keyword being "initially". With an S60 version in the works, could we see an N97 bundled with the service in the future? Or even perhaps even an iPhone if 3 eventually makes a deal with Apple.

Want a quote about the whole thing? Of course you do.?Faisal Galaria, Global Head of Business Development at Spotify, told Pocket-lint: "This is a very exciting deal for Spotify. We're intent on offering people a high quality, simple yet powerful portable music experience at a fair price and we're thrilled to be working with 3 to bring Spotify to UK music fans".

If you're considering the deal, let us know in the comments. You might also be interested in our HTC Hero review, and our comparison of the iPhone and Android Spotify apps.

UPDATE: Spotify has blogged about the deal, but hasn't added much, except to provide a working link to the page on 3's website to "register your interest" in grabbing the handset.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Spotify 3 HTC Hero Tariffs Biz

Spotify and 3 deal confirmed originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:57:09 +0100

Computational knowledge engine Wolfram Alpha has announced the launch of the Wolfram Alpha Webservice API.

The paid-for release will mean that developers can now stick Wolfram Alpha results and data into websites and online publishing, desktop applications, on mobiles and in cloud computing applications.

Wolfram Alpha says such uses may include "researching cancer through computational biology, augmenting web and meta-web search with computed knowledge, enriching online journalism with interactive content, building artificial intelligence systems on our domain expertise, leveraging our data analysis for decision support, optimizing renewable-energy efficiency, and even determining the optimal temperature for draft beer based on the current weather conditions".

Developers can register now for an API account at a dedicated site, while the API is said to be the basis for a forthcoming Wolfram Alpha iPhone app - we will keep you posted.

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Tags: Software Websites Wolfram Alpha Search engines APIs Biz iPhone apps

Wolfram Alpha announces Webservice API originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:06:17 +0100

YouTube and Channel 4 have done a "landmark" deal that will see full-length versions of the broadcaster's top TV shows available online, on demand on the Google-owned site.

The agreement, 6 months in the making, is for a 3-year period and will mean programmes will go online "shortly after" shows have aired. ?

New shows available will include the likes of Skins, Hollyoaks and Peep Show and will be joined by 3000 hours of archive programming including Brass Eye, Derren Brown and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.

Channel 4 will continue to offers its in-house 4oD catch-up service while the two companies will share ad revenue on the C4 content online at YouTube.

Channel 4's TV shows are due to be "fully available" via YouTube in early 2010, apparently the first time any broadcaster has used YouTube to offer a full-fat catch up service.

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Tags: Home Cinema YouTube Video on demand Channel 4 Online Biz

Channel 4 content to be available on YouTube originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:29:15 +0100

Nokia has reported a loss in its third quarter results, revealing an operating loss of 426 million euros with sales dropping 20%.

This compares dramatically to the same period in 2008, when the Finnish phone manufacturer saw a profit of 1.5 billion euros.

The reasonably good news comes in with Nokia's mobile device market share for the third quarter this year at 38%, not a percentage less than it was a year ago, and stable compared to the second quarter of this year. Device sales were up 5% from the previous quarter.

As far as phones go, Nokia shipped 4.5 million Nseries and 4.4 million Eseries devices during the third quarter - sounds a fair whack - but this is down from the combined 9.3 million Nseries and Eseries devices shipped in Q2.

"The demand for mobile devices improved in many markets during Q3. With the average selling price of our devices holding firm quarter-on-quarter, our higher device volumes translated into increased net sales in our Devices & Services business", said Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.

"Our volumes and net sales were, however, somewhat constrained by component shortages we encountered across the portfolio".

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Tags: Phones Nokia Results Biz

Nokia reports loss for third quarter originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:38:39 +0100

The UK division of online video service Joost has gone into liquidation.

Founded by the creators of Skype and Kazaa, Joost, although attracting big media investors with funding said to top $45 million, failed to sign agreements with major content providers.

The UK arm of the Netherlands-based company is said to have now been dissolved following a month on the market with no buyers interested in snapping up the service after a revamp in July.

Joost "failed to sustain a significant share of the internet video industry and was unable to address this effectively through a re-positioning of its services", says the liquidators.

Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, Joost's founders, are said to be busy setting up the typically vowel-light Rdio, an online music streaming subscription service for sharing and listening to music online or via mobiles due in early 2010.

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Tags: Software Online Joost Video on demand Biz Rdio Audio Media streaming

Joost goes into liquidation in the UK originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:42:31 +0100

Shazam, the music discovery service, has revealed that more than 50 million people around the world have now used the Shazam service.

This is an increase of 15 million users since February of this year, while Shazam is now available, across various platforms in over 150 countries.

The Shazam iPhone app has been downloaded more than 10 million times via the App Store. It's also racked up some high-up rankings on BlackBerry App World, Nokia's Ovi Store and the Android Market.

As well as the milestone, Shazam is also celebrating KPCB investment from the iFund that will see the app developed for more mobile platforms and in multiple languages.

Tags: Phones Mobile phone apps Shazam Audio iPhone apps BlackBerry App World Ovi Store Android Market KPCB iFund Statistics Biz

Shazam tops 50 million global users originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:21:01 +0100

Nokia has suggested the reason for the new Nokia Booklet 3G only being available in Best Buy in the US this side of the Holidays is because AT&T isn't geared to sell laptops.

Talking to David Petts, who is responsible for the AT&T account at Nokia, Petts told Pocket-lint that while AT&T stores where able to sell the product, it was a "no brainer" to give it to Best Buy and its selling capabilities to do the job on launch day.

And you can see why? According to the company, Best Buy now accounts for a third of all laptop sales in the US, presumably helped by those Windows adverts throughout the year and the closure of Circuit City at the beginning.

Asked when the Nokia Booklet 3G, which is priced at $299 with contract and available from the 22 October, would be available elsewhere Petts didn't have an answer, but did suggest it would be likely to be rolled out elsewhere once the Holidays were over.

Petts did confirm, however, earlier confirmations that Nokia is likely to be making more booklets if this one was successful.

We will keep you posted.

Tags: Hardware Biz Laptops Nokia Nokia Booklet 3G Best Buy

Best Buy sells a third of all US laptops originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:31:25 +0100

Summit Global, the licensee of the Polaroid brand, has officially announced the world re-launch of Polaroid, with both instant photography products and digital offerings due to be re-available.

The new Polaroid will manufacture a range of instant film products like the Polaroid 600 instant film, and also re-introduce a range of instant cameras including the "Polaroid One".

A great success for the Impossible Project, campaigners who worked hard to see instant film back to realistic prices, it's thought this move will bring Polaroid to a whole new audience, as well as appease retro-photography fans.

In addition to film-based efforts, Polaroid will also work on ZINK tech with ZINK Imaging, a team-up last seen in the Polaroid POGO instant digital printer.

Along those lines, there are also plans to market the digital Polaroid "Two"and plans have been revealed to produce a Polaroid "Three" - an instant digital camera that produces 4-inch by 3-inch instant digital photos.

Tags: Cameras Film cameras Polaroid Biz Printers Digital cameras Compact cameras Zink

Polaroid re-launch announced originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:18:03 +0100

Vodafone has announced it has teamed up with Decho to develop a range of cloud-based services for both consumers and business customers.

Vodafone PC Backup, based on Decho's Mozy online backup service, will let customers "simply and securely" back up both work-related and personal content from their PC to a remotely hosted online location.

"Once a customer has backed-up their digital content they know it is protected and that they will always be able to access it, even if their primary device is lost, stolen or otherwise unavailable", says Vodafone.

The backed up content will be available to view and share from any connected PC, laptop or netbook.

With both business and consumer solutions available, Vodafone says the service will be introduced across a number of major European markets this year, but has not provided details of pricing or UK availability yet.

Tags: Phones Vodafone Software Cloud computing Decho Storage Hardware Biz

Vodafone PC Backup announced originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:29:48 +0100

Google has lost a bod from its board of directors as the news comes in that Genentech chairman Arthur D. Levinson has resigned his position after 5 years of service.

No reason has been given for Levinson leaving, although it's thought his position as a board member for both Google and Apple - increasingly becoming competitors in various markets - is the cause.

It follows the well-publicised departure of Google Chairman Eric Schmidt from the board of Apple, back in August, with Schmidt's "effectiveness", due to the amount of meetings he had to be recused from, cited by Apple boss Steve Jobs as the reason.

Of this latest move, Eric Schmidt says: "Art has been a key part of Google's success these past five years, offering unvarnished advice and vital counsel on every big issue and opportunity Google has faced. Though he leaves as a member of our Board, Art will always have a special place at Google".

TechCrunch states that the only tie now at director level and up is former vice president Al Gore who sits on Apple's board and acts as a senior advisor to Google.

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Related links:

• News - Google: Apple lied to FCC over Google Voice App

Tags: Software Google Apple Arthur Levinson Biz Genentech

Arthur Levinson leaves Google board originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:40:17 +0100

Danger, the Microsoft-owned company which produces the T-Mobile Sidekick, has admitted that it's managed to lose every single scrap of data that was being held on its servers. For good. Everything. Contacts, calendars, photos, to-do lists - if they're not locally backed up on your device then they're gone.

Even if you do have it saved on your device, if it runs out of battery or you turn it off before you sync it up again with the servers then it'll be gone too. Worst of all, the data loss appears to have occurred because no-one thought to take a backup of the data before Microsoft undertook an upgrade of its storage systems.

T-Mobile, Microsoft and Danger have jointly issued an apology to customers, saying: "Based on Microsoft/Danger’s latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device – such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos – that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger".

Affected customers are likely to be offered some sort of compensation - "We recognize the magnitude of this inconvenience. Our primary efforts have been focused on restoring our customers’ personal content. We also are considering additional measures for those of you who have lost your content to help reinforce how valuable you are as a T-Mobile customer".

If you've been affected by the data loss, we'd like to hear from you. Drop a comment below, or use our feedback box to tell us your experiences.

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Related links:

• News - T-Mobile Sidekick LX coming to US

Tags: Phones Mobile phones T-Mobile Danger Sidekick Biz

Sidekick data lost in server crash originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:31:10 +0100

BT has announced that its plans to deliver super-fast, fibre-optic broadband all the way to people's houses have been expanded. The company will now be rolling out fibre-to-the-premises to 1 million homes, including some where copper wire is already available. Previously BT was only installing fibre to the premises in new build situations.

In some cases, BT will be installing fibre-optics only as far as your local telecoms cabinet, and then the signal has to travel through ageing copper wire to your house - which more than halves the available speeds. But in fibre-to-the-premises situations, there's hardly any copper involved so you get rates upto four times faster than current speeds.

The reason for the expansion is that BT is ahead of its targets for the roll-out of the fibre program. 1.5 million homes will have access by next summer, the company says, and 10 million should receive the service by 2012 - one in six of the population.

Recently, BT also announced that it'll be trialling fibre-to-the-premises for Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes and Highams Park in North-East London. 100Mbps speeds will be arriving in both those locations by March 2010.

Tags: Software Biz BT Broadband

100Mbps broadband rollout widens originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:40:04 +0100

Amazon has u-turned on its launch promise not to charge international Kindle users more than it does US consumers, in a rip-off Britain move familiar to UK-based gadget fans who often suffer from inflated pricing.

Despite Amazon stating that "there are no additional fees for international customers" when the Kindle was announced for the UK market, the Guardian has discovered that UK users will in fact be charged 40% more than those in the States.

From the paper: "An Amazon.co.uk spokesman revealed that foreign customers would be paying $13.99 (?8.75) per book instead of the American price of $9.99 (?6.25). That amounts to a 40% premium for the same title".

Although UK users won't be charged the $1.99 roaming fee that Americans will have to pay for using the device abroad, it seems this is how the etailer will recuperate the costs of data charges from AT&T's global partners for the OTA downloads.

Whether UK consumers will be happy to stump up almost half as much again as Americans pay for a digital product is yet to be seen - it certainly never hurt iTunes. Have your say on the matter in the comments box below.

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Related links:

• News - Amazon Kindle DX UK bound too
• Feature - Five good reasons to buy an Amazon Kindle

Tags: Gadgets Amazon Kindle ebooks eBook readers Biz Books

UK Kindle owners to be charged 40% more for content originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:04:18 +0100

Spotify is continuing celebrations of its 1-year anniversary and as part of the jamboree, the company's founder and CEO, Daniel Ek, has taken some time out to pen a blog post about the future of Spotify, and his thoughts on the state of the global Music industry. In it, he concedes that ads "devalue" music, but says that they're earning his company "millions of euros" in revenues each month.

He said: "I first considered writing about the state of ad-supported music, and given that I care more than most about figuring out a revenue model that doesn’t devalue music, it probably wouldn’t praise wholeheartedly (as some may have expected it to do) the ad-supported space. Especially since Spotify’s business model is, and has been since launch, more about the mix of subscription and ad supported".

He went on to answer critics of Spotify's business model by pointing out that iTunes missed its revenue targets by 30% in its first year, saying that he's in it for the "long haul" - "We aren’t interested in just trying to hype the company and then "flipping it", he said, then adding: "The product has been our core and our main marketing message, and perhaps now is the time to modify that message".

He says that the music industry has the potential of becoming a $40 to $50 billion industry, and reckons that he's the man for the job. Spotify has repeatedly pointed to a survey that says that 80% of Spotify users file share considerably less after getting the software. Ek says that by increasing the amount of people with access to the music streams, setting a target of "trillions", piracy can be cut by "big chunks".

Ek says that the focus for Spotify in the coming months will be better library handling, making Spotify socially capable and improving the portability of the software - i.e. releasing more editions of the mobile version of the client.

Finally, Ek said that his biggest mistake with Spotify was to make it so dependant on its partners - the labels, composers, artists, etc. He said: "If we’re asking the industry to change, we need to be transparent and honest about the end goal - especially since we’re asking everyone to make a huge leap of faith to an unknown place where you could potentially argue that the industry risks its most profitable customers. We haven’t been as open as we could have been up until now, and that’s been an oversight on my behalf".

Many have said that Spotify could do with a little more openness, so it's refreshing to see Ek agree. He now needs to turn those words into action, and we'll keep you posted of what happens on that front.

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Related links:

• News - Spotify has 2.7 million users in the UK
• News - Spotify phones coming soon?

Tags: Audio Spotify Music software Music Biz

Spotify CEO: Advertising devalues music originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:55:17 +0100

It's being reported that Twitter is currently in mega-money talks with Microsoft and Google, discussing using Twitter content in searches separately with each search giant.

All Things D reports: "According to sources familiar with the situation - Twitter is in advanced talks with Microsoft and Google separately about striking data-mining deals, in which the companies would license a full feed from the microblogging service that could then be integrated into the results of their competing search engines".

Microsoft's Bing already encompasses some Twitter content in its results while Google recently announced Hot Trends that offers real-time results for popular search terms, so it's a little unclear at this stage what the talks may result in.

All Thing D's sources say "a number of scenarios are being discussed to compensate Twitter for its huge and potentially valuable trove of real-time and content-sharing information, generated from the data stream of billions of tweets from its 54 million monthly users".

We will keep you posted.

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Tags: Software Websites Twitter Google Microsoft Biz Rumours Search engines Social networking

Twitter in talks with Microsoft, Google originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:00:50 +0100

We brought you the news of the lawsuit, way back in spring 2008, and can now reveal the verdict. Apple has lost the right to call its own-brand Mac mouse the "Mighty Mouse".

Man & Machine, American medical hardware specialist suppliers, has now been granted the trademark on "Mighty Mouse" from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

In the lawsuit, Man & Machine says Apple began selling its Mighty Mouse over 1 year after it began selling waterproof and chemical resistant mice under the same name in 2004.

It seems The USPTO agreed, and Apple's next mouse - currently rumoured to be coming soon with possible touch technologies - will have to launch with a new name.

9to5Mac is currently running a poll with suggestions for the new name. The Mac Mouse, Apple Pro Mouse or the iMouse seem the most logical, but we guess we'll just have to wait and see...

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Tags: Hardware Apple Mice And Keyboards Biz Lawsuits Man and Machine

Apple loses Mighty Mouse trademark battle originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:33:11 +0100

A new company due to launch its services in November is offering up to ?1000 to members of the public who spot crime on live, streamed, commercial CCTV footage.

"Internet Eyes" will reward those who spot crimes - such as shop-lifting and anti-social behaviour - as they monitor anonymous footage from their own homes.

Internet Eyes is recruiting now, offering netizens the chance to "potentially become a hero and save lives".

The private company uses the logic that most CCTV footage is not monitored, companies can pay them to get the public to watch the live streams and will receive alerts, or the police will be informed, if crimes are committed.

Civil liberties campaigners have told the BBC they find the idea "distasteful".

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Related links:

• Link - Internet Eyes

Tags: Software Online Internet Eyes Biz CCTV

Internet Eyes to pay public to monitor CCTV originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:19:17 +0100

Google's CEO Eric Schmidt has admitted to paying a $1 billion premium on YouTube when Google bought the video service in 2007.

The move, which made sure that the fledgling company (at the time) didn't fall into the wrong hands (read Microsoft or Yahoo) has been uncovered following a request for court papers of the 2007 court case against Viacom over copyright material on YouTube.

"Leading up to the acquisition, Schmidt told Google's board of directors that his estimate of YouTube's worth was somewhere between $600 million and $700 million", reports CNET after seeing court records.

The court papers go on to reveal a fuller explanation from Schmidt to Stuart Jay Baskin, a Viacom attorney.

"This is a company with very little revenue, growing quickly with user adoption, growing much faster than Google Video, which was the product that Google had. And they had indicated to us that they would be sold, and we believed that there would be a competing offer--because of who Google was--paying much more than they were worth. In the deal dynamics, the price, remember, is not set by my judgement or by financial model or discounted cash flow. It's set by what people are willing to pay. And we ultimately concluded that $1.65 billion included a premium for moving quickly and making sure that we could participate in the user success in YouTube".

Google has declined to comment on the story.

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Tags: Software Biz Google Viacom

Google paid $1 billion premium for YouTube originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:36:32 +0100

MP3 download service 7digital has announced an expansion over the pond into the USA and Canada. The UK-based music company has opened websites in North America for both countries that feature content from all four major labels, as well as a host of independents.

Pricing is a smidge cheaper than market rival iTunes at 77 cents for a track, and $7.77 for an album. All content is in MP3 format at 320kbps, which is better quality than Amazon's 256kbps MP3s and equivalent to Spotify's higher-bitrate Premium service.

UK users that are paying 79p for tracks might feel a little hard-done-by, but Ben Drury, the company's founder, told Pocket-lint that the difference is thanks to the lack of VAT in the States and music publishing working differently in favour of wholesalers.

The digital market in the US is more advanced than in the UK, with 20-30% of album purchases already being digital, compared to a 15-20% forecast by the Official Charts Company in the UK for 2010.

7digital's move follows the securing last year of ?4.25 million in funding from Sutton Place managers, a venture capital fund. The company also recently signed a pan-European MP3 deal with Warner Music.

Drury told Pocket-lint that the company was pushing "agressive pricing" against iTunes and Amazon, adding "we think we can make a profit".

Related links:

• News - HMV snares 50% share of 7digital

Tags: Audio 7digital Music downloads Biz

7digital launches in USA and Canada originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:15:47 +0100

First off, as far as the winner for last month goes, we'd like to offer our congratulations to Tony Hedges for his comment on the HTC Hero review and all his input during its release. We'll be sending him a TomTom XL Live IQ Routes Europe.

For the month of October Pocket-lint has teamed up with Omio to bring you the chance of winning a Nokia 5530 XpressMusic.

The phone features a 2.9-inch touch interface and a homescreen that offers one touch shortcuts to the likes of Facebook and MySpace, and as with similar Nokia phones, the 5530 gets the scrolling "Contacts Bar" for direct access to 20 people and their latest conversations and updates.

Being an XpressMusic model playback is all important and it doesn't disappoint with up to 27 hours of playback time, as well as a 3.2-megapixel camera along with Wi-Fi rounding off the package.

If you're weren't sure of what Omio is all about, here's a quick run down in their own words:

?Omio.com is a mobile phone comparison site that uses an innovative interface to help users navigate the vast array of mobile phone deals and phones from all the major mobile manufacturers".

"Users can filter over half a million deals by anything from price to colours, ensuring they get the right deal at the right price. Whether you're looking for a new phone or simply want to research what's available, Omio.com offers the most up-to-date information".

The rules of the competition are simple, you can enter as many times as you like by simply commenting on any story. It doesn't have to be in depth, detailed or technical, but it does have to be useful, helpful or funny.

You don't have to sign up to comment on the stories, we just ask for your name, location and email address - that does not show up online and is not passed on.

So get commenting and the winner will be chosen at the end of October.

Related links:

• Video - Nokia 5530 XpressMusic

Tags: Audio Biz Car And GPS Dad Gadgets Gaming Hardware Home And Kitchen Home Cinema Phones Cameras Software Sports Fitness TomTom GPS Competitions Nokia 5530 XpressMusic

Win a Nokia 5530 XpressMusic originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:30:10 +0100

Amazon's decision to remotely delete digital copies of George Orwell's 1984 from customer's Kindles has cost it $150,000.

The figure - a settlement amount reached between Amazon and a high school student - is in addition to the $30 compensation it offered each affected customer.

The lawsuit was filed by a 17-year-old high school student in the States in July. As well as losing the digital copy of the book, the student lost electronic notes he had made for an assignment.

Amazon had deleted 1984, and Animal Farm, as it found out the correct rights had not been obtained. In an apology Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos called the move "stupid".

The $150,000 is to be donated to "a charitable organization that promotes literacy, children's issues, secondary or post- secondary education, health or job placement".

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Related links:

• News - Amazon pulls 1984 from Kindle
• News - Student sues Amazon over Kindle deletion

Tags: Gadgets Amazon Kindle Lawsuits Biz

Amazon settles for $150,000 over Kindle deletion originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:19:30 +0100

We haven't heard much OnLive news since it was announced back in March, but the company has just revealed, via its blog, that things are looking good for the future of the games service thanks to some new funding.

OnLive has received a "major" boost to its bank balance with investment from companies including AT&T Media Holdings, Lauder Partners, Warner Bros, Autodesk and Maverick Capital.

OnLive is described as "a revolutionary, on demand video game platform delivering the latest and most advanced games instantly, on any TV via a sleek, inexpensive MicroConsole, or on almost any PC or Mac".

The blog states: "We are both pleased and inspired that our investors share this vision with OnLive. Not only do they see the value in OnLive in particular, but they also understand the significance of what OnLive is doing to lead a massive sea change in interactive media distribution".

Only time will tell whether the service can deliver on its promise of no high-end hardware, no upgrades, no endless downloads, no discs, no recalls and no obsolescence.

Pocket-lint will keep you posted.

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Related links:

• News - Revolutionary "OnLive" games streaming unveiled
• VIDEO - OnLive teaser

Tags: Gaming OnLive Gaming hardware Biz AT and T Warner Bros

Revolutionary gaming co OnLive secures "major investment" originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:31:14 +0100

Acer will be shifting its focus to Google's Android operating system for its smartphones, according to industry sources quoted by DigiTimes. The company will be putting the open-source platform on at least half of all the new models it launches in 2010.

The remainder will be staying with Windows Mobile, with the company sticking with its current production partners, outsourcing both Windows Mobile- and Android-based smartphones to Compal Communications and contracting Windows Mobile handsets to Inventec Appliances.

Acer joined the Open Handset Alliance earlier this year, and its first Android-powered smartphone is due out in November. It's called the A1, and as soon as we're able to get our hands on it, we'll be bringing you a full review.

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Related links:

• News - Acer shows working L1, C1 and F1
• News - Acer announces Android phone due in Q4

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Acer Android Open Handset Alliance Google Biz

Half of Acer's 2010 handsets will run Android originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:42:59 +0100

Fujitsu and Toshiba have jointly announced that the latter has now taken over the former's hard disk business. The deal, originally announced in February, involves the formation of a new Toshiba subsidiary company called Toshiba Storage Device Corp.

The new company will initially be owned 80% by Toshiba and 20% by Fujitsu. However, by December 2010, Fujitsu will give up its share, which will mean that Toshiba Storage Device Corp will be a wholly owned Toshiba subsidiary. The delay in getting the deal approved has been down to difficulties with obtaining regulatory approval from the European commission.

Toshiba has said that it wants to grab a bigger chunk of the tricky hard disk market, which will be tough thanks to competition from Seagate, Western Digital and Hitachi. Toshiba aims to grab 20% of the market by March 2016.

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Related links:

• News - Fujitsu shows off world's fastest CPU

Tags: Hardware Biz Fujitsu Toshiba Storage

Toshiba takes over Fujitsu's hard-disk business originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:42:41 +0100

As more live online television becomes available, employees who use such services at their workplace could be putting their employers at risk of a big fine.

The BBC reports that businesses are being warned they could be breaking the law if staff watch live TV on their computers when the firm does not have a TV licence.

Although if you watch live TV on a mobile, portable media player or laptop out and about you are covered by your home TV licence, once the device you're watching TV on is plugged in, the onus is on the premises.

This means that anyone watching live TV (not catch-up services like the iPlayer) could be risking their employers facing a fine of up to ?1000.

A spokesperson for the TV licence body told the BBC: "You need a licence if you are watching programmes as they are broadcast. At a business, the same rules apply".

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Tags: Home Cinema iPlayer BBC TV licence Biz Software Websites Online

Businesses get TV licence warning originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:04:06 +0100

BT has announced that it'll be expanding its fibre-optic trials early next year to go all the way direct to the people's homes and businesses - a technology that the company is calling "fibre to the premesis". Currently fibreoptic connections only go through to the cabinet.

The trials will be taking place in Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes and Highams Park in North-East London. The trial products should see speeds of up to 100Mbps delivered to 20,000 homes and businesses in each area by around March 2010.

Fibre-to-the-cabinet services, which can deliver up to 40Mbps, have been in testing for some time and should be available to 1.5 million homes by next summer and 10 million by 2012. BT says that speeds on those connections could rise to more than 60Mbps in the near future. Upstream connections should reach upto 10Mbps.

David Campbell, Managing Director of Next Generation Access at Openreach, told Pocket-lint: "This trial is crucial for informing our plans to consider deploying FTTP alongside FTTC. Our FTTP deployment in Ebbsfleet has allowed us to learn a great deal about rolling out fibre directly to homes in greenfield areas and we believe that the technology has huge potential for brownfield areas too".

"We've worked closely with communications providers and regional development authorities in selecting these sites for the FTTP brownfield trial, and I'd like to encourage as many communications providers as possible to get involved in the trial".

Related links:

• News - BT's billion pound fibre-based broadband plans at risk

Tags: Software Biz BT Broadband

BT trials fibre-to-the-premesis in London and Milton Keynes originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:31:27 +0100

Top consumer electronics companies have revealed they are teaming up to effectively create a mobile, or mini, version of the HDMI port for portable devices and phones.

Nokia, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba have all announced they are working with Silicon Image to form the Mobile High-Definition Interface Working Group.

The group will go on to create an industry standard for an audio/video interface to connect mobile phones or other portable devices directly to high-definition televisions and displays.

The new standard will be based on Silicon Image's "Mobile High-Definition Link" tech and will be offered as an industry standard open to all companies. The aim is for the standard to be easy and cost effective for manufacturers and simple and reliable for consumers.

Silicon Image says "a single-cable with a low pin count interface will be able to support up to 1080p high-definition digital video and HD audio in addition to delivering power to a portable device".

You can be sure it will be a while before anything is finalised, but we will keep you posted.

Tags: Phones Audio Mobile High-Definition Interface Working Group Nokia Samsung Sony Toshiba Silicon Image Cables Biz HDMI

Nokia, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba team up on mobile HDMI originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:27:56 +0100

For the first time in a major economy, the internet sector in the UK's advertising market has overtaken the TV sector. It's a significant milestone for both the burgeoning web economy and the the faltering TV medium.

UK advertisers spent ?1.75 billion on web advertising in the first half of 2009 - 4.6% more than the same time last year - according to the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The web now accounts for 23.5% of advertising money spent in the UK - compared to 21.9% for television.

It was originally forecast that the milestone would be passed towards the end of the year, but TV ad spend has plummeted as a result of the recession, dropping 17% on last year's figures. It's now worth ?1.6 billion.

The UK is not the first country where this has happened - a similar watershed was met in Denmark six months ago. However analysts are saying that this is more siginificant in the UK, as it has a considerably larger economy.

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Related links:

• News - Google trials

Tags: Software Online Biz Advertising TV Statistics

Internet becomes biggest ad market in the UK originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:35:32 +0100

Turns out that Vodafone will be getting their hands on the iPhone too. The company joins Orange, who recently announced that they'd be breaking O2's exclusive and also selling the device. A deal is understood to have been signed on the evening of 28 September.

The news was first rumoured by the Telegraph, but was confirmed to Pocket-lint by Vodafone's press office, who told us that the handset would be arriving in early 2010. Beginning today, Vodafone customers will be able to register their interest in the 3G and 3GS at vodafone.co.uk/iphone.

Vodafone's chief executive, Vittorio Colao, has said that the key reason why his company lost 160,000 subscribers in the last quarter was that he didn't have an iPhone to sell them. Vodafone's most juicy exclusive over the last year has been the Android-equipped HTC Magic.

Analysts suspect that more carriers offering the handset will lead to prices coming crashing down. Steven Hartley, analyst at technology research house Ovum, said: "There will be a price war. Research shows that in every country where there is more than one operator selling it, it is cheaper".

He expects the contracts to come down by about ?5 per month, shaving ?120 off the price of the handset when spread over a 2-year contract. The Telegraph also claims that Virgin Mobile are "desperate" to get their hands on the iPhone, too.

We'll keep you posted of pricing and contract details as soon as they're announced.

Read

Related links:

• News - iPhone 3GS coming to Orange UK
• Via - the Telegraph

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Vodafone Orange O2 iPhone Apple Biz Rumours

iPhone coming to Vodafone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:09:21 +0100

Nokia has announced that it has acquired Dopplr, a privately-held mobile service provider for international travelers.

Dopplr - described as a "social atlas" - has a team of just seven people with offices in London and Helsinki. Dopplr is "thrilled" at the news.

In a statement Nokia says: "The Dopplr team brings to Nokia's Services unit unique know-how in creating internet-based communities and showing their journeys, experiences and tastes collectively on the web".

The acquisition will not affect the current Dopplr service, available at Dopplr.com, or where it is available via other platforms such as Flickr and Twitter as well as Nokia rival Apple's iPhone as an app.

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Tags: Phones Nokia Dopplr Mobile phone apps iPhone apps Acquisitions Biz

Nokia buys "social atlas" Dopplr originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:50:31 +0100

Twitter has revealed it has completed a new round of funding, but it's the amount the funding values the social networking site at that's making headlines.

Two anonymous sources have told Bloomberg that the amount Twitter has received is $100 million, and adds up to a 10% stake. This therefore means that the investors see Twitter's overall value as $1 billion.

Twitter has confirmed the investments, and the names of the companies in a blog post, but makes no mention of amount, other than it is "significant". From Twitter's Evan Williams:

"There's a lot of talk today about our financing. Yesterday we closed a significant round of funding with a group of investment firms that we're excited to publicly thank: Insight Venture Partners, T. Rowe Price, Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Morgan Stanley".

"It's interesting to see, almost 10 years since we had the first Internet bubble, that we've now got billion-dollar valuations on companies that haven't defined how they're going to monetize their traffic", David Garrity, principal at GVA Research LLC in New York commented to Bloomberg.

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Related links:

• Link - Twitter

Tags: Software Websites Online Twitter Biz

New Twitter funding values company at $1 billion originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:49:04 +0100

O2 has officially responded to the news that it has lost its exclusivity on the Apple iPhone in the UK.

Following the news that later this year Orange will get the iPhone, in a blog post O2 says: "We always knew that iPhone exclusivity was for a limited period of time, but our relationship with Apple continues and will be an ongoing success".

Revealing that it has "over one million iPhone customers" that "remain very important to us", perhaps as a dig towards Apple, O2 does make a point of mentioning it will soon be offering the rival Palm Pre.

"We also offer award-winning customer service and benefits, which is why more people choose O2 than any other network in the UK", says the operator.

Whether that customer service will be enough to attract wannabe iPhone users if Orange undercuts O2 in pricing, only time will tell.

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Related links:

• News - iPhone 3GS coming to Orange UK

Tags: Phones O2 Orange iPhone Apple Biz

O2 comments on losing iPhone exclusive originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:15:34 +0100

Orange has announced that the iPhone 3G and 3GS will be coming to customers in the UK before the end of 2009.

In a brief statement the company announced that it has reached an agreement with Apple to supply the iPhone through all its retail channels - high street shops, online and via its telesales operation.

Orange currently supply the iPhone in 28 territories, with O2 having had the UK exclusive since the iPhone's launch.

The end of O2's exclusive has been widely discussed recently however and with the network receiving plenty of customer criticism following repeated periods of data downtime, it is perhaps not surprising that Orange choose to point out that they have the largest 3G network in the UK.

Pricing is yet to be announced, but we don't think it will vary much from the premium level that the iPhone attracts on O2.

Interested customers can register their interest online, via the link below.

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Related links:

• Link - Register your interest
• News - O2 comments on losing iPhone exclusive
• News - iPhone coming to Vodafone

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Orange iPhone Apple Biz

iPhone 3GS coming to Orange UK originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:58:41 +0100