Last week has been busier than usual on our beloved sister site Pocket Picks, though there has been little in the way of huge news – just a steady stream of interesting happenings in the world of mobile technology.
While not likely to shake the industry to its core, but interesting for fans nonetheless, the week kicked off with news that Nokia users will be the first to get their hands on Kylie Minogue's new album via the Nokia Music Store. Elsewhere, Nokia upgraded its Nseries suite to version 2.0, delighting users who've been waiting since the upgrade was delayed in September.
There were other software releases from the company in the form of fresh firmware for the N95 8GB and the N81, as well as an application called Sports Tracker which is bound to help in making hordes of us desk guardians feel lazy in the near future.
The company was also caught smooching with Fring, voting it 'application of the week' for a second time this year, cementing our suspicions that Nokia is mobile VoIP's biggest fan. Later, Fring let loose some details about new super connectivity widgets designed to tie Fring to social networking sites and Google maps, which will no doubt be popular when it's all up and running.
In other VoIP news, meanwhile, Yeigo updated its service with some new IM features, amongst a slew of other bits and pieces on the run up to its UK release.
The iPhone saw its share of turmoil this week, with all manner of legal wranglings over in the heart of the European continent: Germany. Essentially, it transpired that (as in France) locking the device to a single network is against the country's commercial laws. Sensing an opportunity, Vodafone leapt into the fold issuing a court injunction against T-Mobile and demanding that the device be sold unlocked.
This first prompted rumours about Vodafone looking to secure the rights to any 3G iPhone that is released in the future, which was swiftly followed with similar conjecture about O2's plans for a 3G version of the must-have handset.
Later in the week, T-Mobile went into damage limitation mode, agreeing to sell the iPhone unlocked for EUR 999 (£719 – ouch), which is more than double the EUR 399 (£287) price tag of the handset when on one of T-Mobile's contracts.
Bedsides that, it also came to light that iPhone users are a little on the slap-dash side of accurate when texting, which Pocket Picks explored on the second part of our serial review of the handset (that has now covered the camera, the iPod functions and its web browsing and YouTube features). More of these will follow in the coming weeks, together with some regular spots on iPhone apps which we started off last week with a look at HarperCollins Browse Inside.
Moving away from Apple's news magnet, there were some interesting rumours and culture snippets flying around. Rumour of the week has to go to Sony and Sony Ericsson, with fresh rumblings of a possible PlayStation branded phone. These were swiftly quashed by the obligatory Sony press statement.
In culture, ITV revealed its first made-for-mobile TV show, Vodafone launched a service called InsideOut that allows you to make calls to people in the Second Life virtual world, Japanese handset powerhouse DoCoMo announced a new earthquake detection and warning system for mobiles, while LG launched a photography competition for the chance to win a lovely Viewty handset.
See what we meant by busy? Of course, there are always many more great bits and pieces that we just can't fit into the Pocket Picks round-up so if you're a mobile tech enthusiast, you'll know where to head to (or better still, subscribe to the RSS feed and let it come to you).
That's it for now, then. Click 'Track It!' to catch next week's update.
Link
