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Windows without risk
Comment Steve Ballmer's inaugural Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opener - taking over from Bill Gates - was important for its emphasis and what was missing.…
Pray, pray, Pré for success
CES Troubled Palm today launched its (hopefully) turnaround product, the Palm Pré, running its new Palm Web OS operating system.…
Cancelling the trial? Better check yourself
Updated Those who've been enjoying Apple's much-extended MobileMe trial should take care when cancelling accounts, to prevent the cloudy ghost coming back to haunt them and swiping all their contacts and appointments.…
Forgers fuddled by non-Nano
Apple's failure to launch a dinky "iPhone Nano" has caught forgers off guard, leaving Far Eastern manufacturers with forged versions of a product that doesn't exist.…
If only people will make more phone calls
Verizon's head of device certification expects to see rivals to Amazon's Kindle launching on Verizon's network during 2009, once he has time to certify them.…
Complains to EC over IPCom
Nokia has lodged a complaint with the European Commission, claiming that IPCom is abusing mobile patents originally owned by Bosch that are already the subject of legal action in the UK and Germany.…
Watch out, iPhone...
After denying British punters a touch screen Tube in their Christmas stockings, Nokia has announced that the much-hyped phone will launch in Blighty this month.…
NextWave says ciao, customer coughs up
NextWave has succeeded at last in offloading mobile TV developer IPWireless, which it picked up 18 months ago for $100m.…
Like having a TV on your wrist
A US firm has developed a OLED display that’s flexible enough to be worn like a watch, yet large enough to display good quality images on.…
Answers AT&T, Wal-Mart
Following in the footsteps of AT&T, US electronics retailer Best Buy is now selling resurrected Jesus Phones at a discount.…
Hello? I'm on the trolley
England is catching up with Scotland and Wales in liberalising mobile phone use in hospitals, a mere five years after it was established that such use didn't present a significant risk to medical equipment.…
Had to happen Soonr or latr
2009 will finally see Microsoft Office documents arrive on the iPhone, it seems, with Soonr allowing access to documents stored in the cloud while QuickOffice makes good on its promise of local editing.…
Dare we say it? The latest iPhone killer?
The touchscreen mobile market has expanded yet again, following Motorola’s introduction of the MotoSurf A3100.…
First tech casualty of 2009?
UIQ has finally thrown in the towel and reportedly applied for bankruptcy in the Swedish courts.…
Not a word, so far
Comment Did you have a quiet Christmas? What about New Year? While New Years Eve is the busiest time for text messages, maybe you didn’t get any. And if you're a Nokia user, there may be a reason for that.…
Old bug, new tricks
Mobile phone security vendors were rejoicing last night when it emerged that an obscure bug in an old version of the Symbian OS could allow an attacker to crash a target's mobile phone with a specially-formatted text message.…
Staff, not patents, this time
Research in Motion is suing Motorola for not allowing laid-off employees to seek work with the owner of the Blackberry brand, who is hoping to scoop up some cheap engineers now that Motorola is shedding so many.…
Open OS on open hardware
Google's mobile phone platform, Android, has been ported to the OpenMoko's open-sourced hardware platform, though it's not quite the perfect combination as yet.…
Stick-on lenses
If you're an iPhone owner who's disappointed with that oh-so-popular device's oh-so-limited camera, there's good news from Hong Kong gadgeteer USBfever: stick-on lenses.…
'Flattop' Jones surrenders
LG Electronics has lately been trumpeting its plans to debut a 3G wristwatch phone with a touch screen technology at the Consumer Electronics show in January.…
Orange is not the only fruit
French retailers have started selling iPhones, previously only available from network operator Orange, though at such a high mark-up that the offer is not that tempting.…
Yes, it's a refurb
Although the rumors of a $99 iPhone 3G from Walmart recently died an ignominious death, that yearned-for two-digit price point has again resurfaced - and this time it's real. To make the deal even sweeter, if you buy before December 31 you can knock another fifty bucks off the price.…
As Apple relaxes, stinkers escape
iPhone developers have discovered that there's big money to be made in - as Mark Twain once described it - clearing one's nether throat. According to stats published on his website, developer Joel Comm's unsubtley named iFart Mobile is the current point-poot in a silent-but-deadly rise in the popularity of cyber-flatulence.…
Good luck collecting it
Verizon has been awarded $33.15m in a cybersquatting lawsuit against a shady domain aggregator that registered hundreds of websites using the telco's name and trademarks.…
Geek micro-blogged from safety
Having survived a plane crash the first thing most people might do is phone their loved ones, or run straight to the nearest bar for a stiff drink. Mike Wilson became a notable in social networking by deciding to Twitter instead after coming through unscathed from a brush with death.…
But some members are more equal than others?
Updated The Open Mobile Terminal Platform chose the day before Christmas Eve to announce five new members from the mobile industry, despite the fact that previously one had to be a network operator to hold "member" status.…
Still no reason for video calling, though
Chinese silicon providers Spreadtrum and Rahotech have announced a new chipset that brings video calling to handsets that straddle the TD-SCDMA/GSM divide.…
I'm on the front bench...er, no I'm not
Government ministers Tom Watson and David Lammy are among MPs who have signed up to a portal of parliamentarians' Twitter feeds…
Jubblies not lovely, actually
An application that allows iPhone users to wobble a pair of breasts has been rejected by Apple's application store, denying iPhone geeks the nearest thing to sex they'll get this holiday season.…
Pass go, do not go to jail
Operating or installing an unlicensed radio transmitter can get you a year in chokey, or six months if you're lucky enough to be in Scotland, and El Reg would never condone such activity - so please enjoy the following work of speculative fiction.…
Or glove... or something...
Palm is getting the greatest gift of all this holiday season. No, not family, friendship, and goodwill towards men – $100m.…
Second accessory maker points to new Apple phone
Another day, another tantalising implication Apple's about to announced the iPhone Nano.…
Sucks to be 02 (and T-Mobile)
Ofcom's continuing battle to sell off the 2.6GHz frequency has taken a step forward, with T-Mobile and O2 losing their appeal in relation to the question of jurisdiction and allowing progress of the High Court case to proceed.…
Djoy to the world
Orange Developer Camp Orange has been pushing yet another widgets platform, this time with the magnificently Web 2.0 name Djinngo - pronounced 'gingo' - in the unshakeable belief that what the world needs is another Java-based widgets platform.…
Calls for calm consideration
Ofcom has updated the schedule for the introduction of Administered Incentive Pricing for radio spectrum used by a variety of services, including the RNLI and mountain-rescue services, having received a deluge of comments on the original proposal.…
Quick, play dumb
The European Commission has proposed reclassifying smartphones as "multi-function devices", which would see them attracting up to 14 per cent in tax at a time when the industry is already under pressure to cut prices.…
Or does it?
According to an arguably authentic-looking leaked memo procured "from a source within Walmart," the oft-rumored Walmart iPhone is a done deal, scheduled to appear on December 28th in a big box near you.…
The slow and the Clear
Sprint has unveiled a wireless modem capable of jumping between its old-school CDMA cell network and the fledgling 4G WiMAX network it recently launched in Baltimore, Maryland.…
Liberté, égalité, l'iPhone disponibilité
On 18 September, French mobile-phone carrier Bouygues Telecoms complained to the country's competition council, charging that the agreement between Apple and Orange - the main brand of France Telecom - violates basic principles of competition.…
We don't need no stinkin' NFC
The UK's rail operators have agreed to adopt a national standard for electronic tickets with bar-codes, opening the way for train tickets on mobile phones to be accepted everywhere.…
Balances data protection and press freedom
A company that sends text messages revealing the income of Finland's wealthiest citizens is subject to European data protection laws but could be protected by an exemption for journalism, according to a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).…
God bless you, iPhone Dev Team
If an O2 contract’s all that’s standing in-between you and an iPhone 3G, then hardware hackers the iPhone Dev Team have a treat for you: an upcoming unlocking tool.…
But will developers find it sufficiently tasty?
Palm today revamped its Software Store to allow Palm and Windows Mobile users to directly download 5,000 applications and games onto their mobile devices.…
Protection called into question
Do you remember our E-Waves anti-radiation chip story from last week? Well, the retailer behind the device has since withdrawn it from sale because of doubts over its capabilities.…
Ends sponsorship deal
Vodafone is ending its sponsorship of the English cricket team - currently on tour in India.…
Make-or-break OS
Palm will demonstrate their new operating system at the Consumer Electronics Show on the eighth of January, betting the future of the company on a new platform that's going to have to change the world if the company is going to have a significant future.…
Wot no Windows Mobile version?
Those well known Apple fanboys down at the Microsoft ranch have released the company’s first application for the iPhone before adding the app to its own Windows-based mobile platform.…
I'd buy that for a dollar
Analysis Companies developing software for the iPhone are seeing their creations drown in a sea of one-dollar mediocrity as they struggle to gain visibility in the increasingly cluttered Application Store, and some have taken their complaints to Steve himself.…
Lost in a sea of 'crapware'
The iTunes App Store may be the iPhone's killer app, as USA Today and others have claimed, but its home - the online mega-mall iTunes Store - has hit a few bumps as of late.…
Reporter's windfall includes hundreds of emails
A Blackberry containing sensitive information belonging to the now-defunct presidential campaign of John McCain has made its way into the hands of a Fox 5 reporter, who was able to purchase the unwiped device for a mere $20.…