Mobile payments provider Bango has claimed that Vodafone UK is the biggest operator for off-portal content sales, which must be making it a pretty penny.
Bango measured all its content providers using its service and saw mobile internet traffic grow fastest on the networks themselves, after they all started embracing off-portal browsing.
Bango claimed that Vodafone benefited from being one of the first operators to offer an easy billing interface to help consumers buy content with their phones.
Other drivers for rising revenues from mobile web use include putting a search box on operator portals for off-portal content, introducing flat rate data charges and higher payout rates for content providers, to encourage them to post stuff on the mobile web.
So what does this mean? Us consumers are set for even better value mobile internet rates in coming years as the operators fight amongst themselves to rival Vodafone’s apparent dominance. And that can only be a good thing!!
LG’s Prada (or the KE850) is already a well-known and pretty successful handset for the Korean manufacturer – 700,000 sold so far since it was launched last March.
It’s stylish black finish was undoubtedly a factor in its success, but now LG’s given it a coating of silver ‘peuradapon’ paint and is going to release it in 18 European countries later this month.
The silver Prada will come with a leather case, earphones, and its’ controls has been given a boost with a new on-screen QWERTY keyboard with text input that appears on its touch screen.
The police are to experiment with a controversial method of catching rape suspects by getting them to incriminate themselves via phone calls and texts.
The tactic is already used to some success in the US. It involves the victims sending texts or calling their alleged attackers to incriminate themselves by admitting guilt. For instance, if the victim texts the suspect, saying “How could you?”, and the suspects apologises, then they seen to have admitted guilt.
The Guardian has reported that British lawyers and detectives believe the tactic could boost the horrendously low conviction rate for rape in England and Wales – currently around 6% of cases reported to police.
The so-called “pretext” phone calls, lawful in some US states but not in others, is considered a strong weapon for rape investigators.
However, in the UK, the tactic could contravene the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Pace), which requires police to caution suspects before questioning them, and the suspects are entitled to have a solicitor present.
It’s not necessarily going to happen, but senior police are discussing the issue with the Crown Prosecution Service.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Samsung’s unveiled an update to its HSDPA iPhone-rival (the F700), due to be released next month.
Like the F700, the new F490 (right) is designed as a fully-featured multimedia touch screen phone boasting a 3.2-inch widescreen display and this time, a five-megapixel camera (The F700 only had 3.2-megapixels).
In fact the F490’s screen is so big, there’s literally only room for a two keys at the bottom of the screen. It also has haptic-feedback for vibrating responses to your touches.
The five-megapixel camera has a built-in LED flash but no autofocus – apparently the first five-megapixel cameraphone to lack this feature.
Media-wise you can watch a huge range of video formats on the screen, even the MPEG4 clips you can record with the camera. For storage, there’s 130MB of memory, with a microSD card slot.
Naturally, you can play music on the F490 and a pleasant change, this is a music phone with a standard 3.5mm audio jack for headphones.
It looks like the F700, but is slimmer and has got a lot more going on underneath the sexy exterior. And how much will all this cost? Well, from next month Samsung will sell it for €530 (around £400) Sim-free, so expect it to be free on more expensive contracts.
New pics of emerged of the ‘Google phone’ in the someone’s hand.
Google’s entry into mobile is an exciting one and so far, with Android, it seems to be keener to grab market share in mobile OS. However, , or at least the one currently used to show off Android might be good for showing off new apps but it does look like a BlackBerry circa 2002.
Still, if you want to see more pics of it (courtesy of Ubergizmo), go here.
Bus passengers in the North East of England are the first to try out paying their fares using their mobiles, after Go North East, the biggest bus operator in the area, launched a new service called “txt2go”.
From this week, passengers can get digital tickets sent direct to their mobiles by ordering them by text, and pay for them with a pre-registered debit/credit card.
The screen displaying the ticket information is then shown to the driver as the passenger gets on the bus. So instead of waving your ticket or Oystercard (in London), you can wave your phone instead. So that won’t attract potential muggers being shown your new N95 8GB or iPhone, then…
[Via Pocket Lint]
Hold the front page! Yahoo! has released a new version of its Go! on-device portal for apps and services on your handset.
Seriously though, the already quite handy and easy to use downloadable portal has been given a re-fresh to make it even easier to use.
The last version offered map and routing services linked into a handset’s built-on GPS (if the handset is GPS-enabled anyway).
The new version (3.0) has apparently got improved email handling, more news services, satellite-generated maps and live traffic updates. All in one simple Java download. Bonus.
You can get it by going to get.go.yahoo.com on your smartphone’s browser and downloading it. Go on, you know you want to…
This Government seems to be dead keen for us to all part with our hard-earned cash and hand it over to bookmakers. Last year’s failed efforts to open Super Casinos in deprived areas have thankfully died down.
But before we blow a sigh of relief, it emerges that now two of the strongest addictions – gambling and texting have combined with start-up site betNOW.com.
Simply by sending a text to 89808, indicating the event you want to bet on, you can lay a bet of at least £3. You then pay through either your phone bill or credit/debit card, and then collect winnings (if you get any) on your betNOW.com account, bank account or Post Office.
Apparently supported by ‘third party operators’ – betting companies not mobile networks – you can use this to bet on football, tennis, horse racing, motor racing, greyhound racing and golf events.
We can see this going very, very wrong…
Samsung’s ultra-durable ruggedised handset – the Solid - is finally being released in the UK courtesy of O2.
Manufacturers don’t release enough handsets like this. It’s all very well having a swanky new iPhone or N96 8GB, but as soon as you drop it or use it in the rain you’re scared it’s not going to work. If you’re working on building sites or have an active lifestyle, then you need something that’s going to bounce of the ground and carry on working.
Originally due in December on Orange, the Solid is shock, water and dust resistant being encased as it is in a thick rubber body. It has a FM radio, Bluetooth and a camera, but also a built-in flashlight. Cool.
Another cool unique feature is SOS Dialling. If the owner gets into trouble, pressing the volume button three times sends an alert message to a nominated person. The next incoming call is then automatically answered. Handy in an emergency, but not, we think, if you’re struggling to catch the bus home from work.
Anyway, if you want one, the Solid’s available free on all O2 12 month contracts, or £59.99 on pre-pay.
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