The mobile phone patent punch-up

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23 October 2011 Last updated at 16:31 GMT By Leo Kelion Business reporter Google came to HTC's aid in its patent disputes with Apple The patent system was created to spur on innovation. But over recent years it has sparked an arms war between some of the world's leading mobile phone companies.

The likes of Apple and Microsoft do not only sue their rivals to protect their own inventions, but go on to buy third party patents to build up their weapon stockpile.

What is more, they appear increasingly willing to litigate.

The number of handset patent infringement filings to the US courts grew from 24 cases in 2006, to 84 cases in 2010, according to Lex Machina, an intellectual property litigation data provider.

It expects that number to grow to 97 cases this year, reflecting more than a four-fold rise in the space of half a decade.

"Filings in this litigation space appeared to have hit a plateau this summer, but are now strongly back on the rise," says Lex Machina's chief executive, Josh Becker.

Accelerated innovation

Part of the problem is the speed at which the industry is evolving.

The US patent system offers inventors a limited monopoly on new ideas lasting twenty years from when they are filed. However, mobile phone users expect giant leaps in progress over a much shorter time span.

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We all lose when the central competitive arena switches from serving customers to winning at high-stakes litigation”

End Quote Prof Kevin Werbach Pennsylvania University As the devices transform into music players, cameras, internet browsers and beyond, they involve an increasing amount of intellectual property.

There are now potentially more than 250,000 active patents relevant to a single smartphone, according to RPX, a San Francisco based patent aggregator and licensor.

"The devices we used 10 years ago to make voice calls have become hand-held computers incorporating a vast array of software and hardware, which increases the breadth of patent exposure," said RPX's chief executive, John Amster.

"And this problem increases with the capabilities of these devices to do new things.

The lawyers become involved when a company either doesn't want to share its advances, or wants to be paid a fee for their use. Some experts believe this is now becoming a default tactic.

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Lawsuits between major mobile handset makers. Click on the names to see who is suing whom

"For some time, the threat of mutually assured destruction among the major technology players such as IBM and Microsoft limited the outbreak of patent warfare," says Kevin Werbach, associate professor of legal studies and business ethics at Pennsylvia University's Wharton School

"Today however, especially in the mobile market, asymmetric threats are widespread. There may be a few local winners in the mobile patent wars, but we all lose when the central competitive arena switches from serving customers to winning at high-stakes litigation."

Keeping track of the tangled web of claims and counter claims is becoming a complex task in itself.

Microsoft is suing handset maker Motorola Mobility over its use of video coding and other patents, but Motorola is counter suing over Microsoft's implementation of email, instant messaging and Wi-fi.

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When you get two technology giants battling each other, they will always ensure there is no sign of weakness”

End Quote Florian Mueller FOSS Patents Motorola is being taken over by Google, which is being sued by Oracle over its use of the Java programming language in its Android operating system.

Google also intervened in HTC's legal fights against Apple, selling some of its patents to the Taiwanese handset maker. HTC claims Apple violates its power management technology and other innovations, while Apple challenges the way HTC uses touch screens and gesture recognition.

Meanwhile, Apple has used patent lawsuits to prevent Samsung Electronics from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer in Australia and Germany. The South Korean firm has retaliated trying to ban iPhone sales in Japan and Australia.

Samsung's Tab 10.1 is at the centre of a patent dispute with Apple

LG, Sony, Ericsson, Kodak and Nokia have also been active in the courts.

Litigation contagion

Florian Mueller keeps track of developments at his blog, Foss Patents, and was recently commissioned by Microsoft to study certain types of patent litigation.

"When you get two technology giants battling each other, they will always ensure there is no sign of weakness," he says.

"So you will see one firm counter-suing against the other, even if their claim is of dubious merit, to make sure they don't go down without a fight."

"Litigants look for jurisdictions that they believe are favourable to their interests, which can give them a quick win... as a result the disputes spread geographically."

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We don't allow others to... get a free ride on the back of our innovation”

End Quote Louise Pentland Chief legal officer, Nokia However, Nokia stresses decisions to take legal action are not taken lightly.

The Finnish phone maker recently settled a patent lawsuit with Apple after the US firm agreed to pay a one-off charge and ongoing royalties.

"Our industry requires significant R&D. Nokia alone has invested around 45bn euros ($61.8bn, £39.4bn) in the past two decades," the firm's chief legal officer, Louise Pentland, told the BBC.

"Companies which use the resulting inventions must have permission and compensate those who took the risks and invested to create them."

"So, though litigation is not Nokia's preferred option, we don't allow others to use our intellectual property without authorisation or get a free ride on the back of our innovation," says Ms Pentland.

Legal logic

While Nokia tackled Apple head-on, the iPhone maker and Microsoft are litigating against handset makers using Google's Android system, rather than the search giant itself.

Google does not charge for the software, but instead relies on its partners' devices driving users to its various search services. The firm's latest results show its mobile advertising business is generating revenue at rate of $2.5bn a year, so giving away Android for "free" makes financial sense.

However that creates a major problem for its rivals.

Microsoft's business model relies on handset makers paying for the right to use its Windows 7 mobile system. Apple has to price in the development costs of its iOS system when selling its iPhones.

Microsoft's solution seems to be to force Android manufacturers to pay it a royalty if they use Google's software. At least that was the outcome of patent talks with HTC in 2010 and Samsung last month.

The terms have never been disclosed, but Citigroup analyst, Walter Pritchard, believes HTC and Samsung pay Microsoft between $1-5 for each Android handset sold.

"I think with approximately 50% of Android handsets covered by royalty arrangements, they will continue to pursue the same course of legal action... for the remaining smaller Android players," Mr Pritchard says.

By contrast, Apple seems more intent on keeping its innovations proprietary.

"We spend a lot of time and money and resource on coming up with incredible innovation and we don't like it when someone else takes those," said Apple's chief executive, Tim Cook, after the firm released its most recent results.

He declined to elaborate further.

However, a recent court filing by one of Apple's lawyers revealed it could be willing to license Samsung some of its "lower-level patents", but in return Samsung would need to agree to "cease copying the features and functionality" of Apple's products.

Apple has agreed to pay royalty fees to Nokia, but has not disclosed the amounts involved Patent price inflation

As patent attacks become more common place, companies are stocking up on ammunition.

In December 2010, Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and the data specialist EMC spent $450m on 882 patents, and patent applications, belonging to Norvell, an ailing infrastructure software provider.

That sum was then dwarfed by the $4.5bn paid in July for a 6,000 strong patent portfolio belonging to bankrupt telecoms manufacturer, Nortel. Microsoft and Apple shared the library with Blackberry maker, Research in Motion, and three others.

Then, in September, Google revealed plans to buy Motorola Mobility, and its 24,500 patent library, for $12.5bn.

Notably, the deal was secured one month after Google's Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, wrote a blog titled "When patents attack".

"Our competitors are waging a patent war on Android," he said.

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We're in a situation now of patent poker where the deck has been redealt and everyone has a new hand”

End Quote Ben Wood CCS Insight "Unless we act, consumers could face rising costs for Android devices - and fewer choices for their next phone."

Although vast sums are involved, experts say it could prove cost-effective if the acquisitions encourage cross-licensing deals under which firms swap permission to use each others' inventions.

"We're in a situation now of patent poker where the deck has been redealt and everyone has a new hand, and all the patent lawyers are saying we need to review our positions," says Ben Wood, chief of research at mobile analysts CCS Insight.

"I would like to think this might result in renewed sanity and a realisation that trying to kill each other in court isn't to the greater good of the industry."

However others are less optimistic.

"As long as major companies feel they need to shore up their patent portfolios, we'll continue to see patents valued as defensive assets in a total war, rather than based on their potential for value creation," says Professor Werbach.

"While in the short run Nortel's creditors and Motorola's shareholders may have benefitted from patent price inflation, the overall impact will be significant market distortion."

On Tuesday, we will look at the role of so-called patent trolls in the mobile patent wars, and whether fair licensing rules can boost the industry.

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Mobile phone cancer link rejected

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21 October 2011 Last updated at 01:11 GMT By Nick Triggle Health correspondent, BBC News Mobile phone safety has been much debated over the past two decades Further research has been published suggesting there is no link between mobile phones and brain cancer.

The risk mobiles present has been much debated over the past 20 years as use of the phones has soared.

The latest study led by the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Denmark looked at more than 350,000 people with mobile phones over an 18-year period.

Researchers concluded users were at no greater risk than anyone else of developing brain cancer.

The findings, published on the British Medical Journal website, come after a series of studies have come to similar conclusions.

'Reassuring'

But there has also been some research casting doubt on mobile phone safety, prompting the World Health Organization to warn that they could still be carcinogenic.

In doing so, the WHO put mobile phones in the same category as coffee, meaning a link could not be ruled out but could not be proved either.

The Department of Health continue to advise that anyone under the age of 16 should use mobile phones only for essential purposes and keep all calls short.

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These results are the strongest evidence yet that using a mobile phone does not seem to increase the risk of cancers of the brain or central nervous system in adults”

End Quote Hazel Nunn Cancer Research UK The Danish study, which built on previous research that has already been published by carrying out a longer follow-up, found there was no significant difference in rates of brain or central nervous system cancers among those who had mobiles and those that did not.

Of the 358,403 mobile phone owners looked at, 356 gliomas (a type of brain cancer) and 846 cancers of the central nervous system were seen - both in line with incidence rates among those who did not own a mobile.

Even among those who had had mobiles the longest - 13 years or more - the risk was no higher, the researchers concluded.

But they still said mobile phone use warranted continued follow up to ensure cancers were not developing over the longer term, and to see what the effect was in children.

Hazel Nunn, head of evidence and health information at Cancer Research UK, said: "These results are the strongest evidence yet that using a mobile phone does not seem to increase the risk of cancers of the brain or central nervous system in adults."

Prof Anders Ahlbom, from Sweden's Karolinska Institute, praised the way the study was conducted, adding the findings were "reassuring".

Prof David Spiegelhalter, an expert specialising in the understanding of risk who is based at the University of Cambridge, said: "The mobile phone records only go up to 1995 and so the comparison is mainly between early and late adopters, but the lack of any effect on brain tumours is still very important evidence."

And Prof Malcolm Sperrin, director of medical physics at Royal Berkshire Hospital, said: "The findings clearly reveal that there is no additional overall risk of developing a cancer in the brain although there does seem to be some minor, and not statistically significant, variations in the type of cancer."

But the researchers themselves do accept there were some limitations to the study, including the exclusion of "corporate subscriptions", thereby excluding people who used their phones for business purposes, who could be among the heaviest users.

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Now wash your hands - and your mobile

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14 October 2011 Last updated at 00:55 GMT Often not as clean as it looks... It is the sort of news story that will have left many feeling queasy over their breakfast cereal - a study which suggests one in six mobile phones is contaminated with faecal matter.

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London took nearly 400 samples from mobile phones and hands in 12 British cities.

They found 16% of phones and 16% of hands harboured E. coli (Escherichia coli), bacteria which inhabit the human intestines.

The largest proportion of contaminated phones was in Birmingham (41%) while Londoners were caught with the highest proportion of E. coli present on hands (28%).

Why do so many people clearly not wash their hands with soap after a visit to the toilet? Perhaps they do, but are simply doing it wrong.”

End Quote Fergus Walsh

But the sample size in each city was small, so the variations between them could be a statistical anomaly.

However Dr Val Curtis, from the London School of Hygiene says the study showed clear differences between north and south.

"We found the further north we went the more hands and phones were likely to be contaminated. It could be the bugs survive better in colder and wetter conditions or it might be that people wash their hands less."

I explained to Dr Curtis that such comments were unlikely to win her friends in Glasgow and Liverpool - two of the cities where samples were taken.

But she brushed this aside explaining that after a similar survey three years ago she was advised not to hang around Newcastle.

Dr Ron Cutler of Queen Mary, University of London, explains the findings

Archers warning

Most strains of E. coli found on the hands and phones are not likely to cause major ill-health, although listeners of "The Archers" will know that Clarrie Grundy became an unwitting carrier of the bacteria, leading to a number of children being hospitalised in the fictional county of Borsetshire.

Dr Curtis explained that they were using E. coli as a marker for the presence of faecal matter.

She said: "Campylobacter and Salmonella bacteria are much more likely to cause a gastric infection and could easily be passed on through faecal contamination."

So we are talking about poo, excrement - on mobile phones and fingers.

Hand washing technique

Why do so many people clearly not wash their hands with soap after a visit to the toilet? Perhaps they do, but are simply doing it wrong.

I remember having correct hand-washing technique described to me by the virologist Professor John Oxford.

He thought people didn't wash thoroughly enough, or long enough - two verses of Happy Birthday to you were suggested.

Perhaps there is also a confusion in some people's minds about dirt and germs. After all, there is plenty of research suggesting dirt can be good for you.

Since the late 1980s the "hygiene hypothesis" has argued that the lack of early childhood exposure to some germs may be linked to the rise in allergic diseases, by suppressing the development of the immune system. It's a much-debated theory.

But while letting your children - or your husband - play in the dirt may well be ok, they still need to wash their hands after the toilet. Or after handling raw meat and poultry.

Big killer

You simply have to look to the developing world to see the devastating effects of poor hygiene. Diarrhoeal disease remains one of the world's biggest killers.

While hand-washing may help prevent a nasty stomach bug here, in poorer countries it can save lives.

The survey from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is timed to publicise Global Handwashing Day on 15 October.

It is an annual event which promotes hand-hygiene, the cheapest and most effective way of preventing infection by bacteria and viruses.

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Will NFC make the mobile wallet work?

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6 October 2011 Last updated at 23:52 GMT By Fiona Graham Business reporter, BBC News Mobile money: Will paying for a taxi in New York with a swipe of your mobile phone become second nature - or will the dangers outweigh the benefits? As Tim Cook unveiled the new iPhone 4S, for many there was a sense of slight disappointment.

For some financial institutions and telecoms companies, the highly-anticipated launch had failed to bring the announcement they'd been hoping for - that the new phone would have NFC (near field communication) technology integrated into it.

NFC has many uses as a technology. But the one that has pushed it into the spotlight lately is as an enabler of the mobile wallet.

The developing world has been using mobile phones to pay for goods and services in shops, taxis, and just about anywhere else for a few years now. These are usually based on SMS technology.

In the developed world - although there are other options, such as the service PayPal offers - the announcement earlier this year of the launch of the Google Wallet in the US kick-started the hype around NFC.

In Japan, Sony's FeliCa contactless payment system - originally used on Hong Kong's mass transit system in the form of Octopus cards - has been a feature of NTT Docomo mobile phones since 2004. The rest of the world may be catching up.

Japan has been using contactless mobile payment in shops since 2004 Radio silence

It works like this. Two devices with NFC chips are brought into close proximity to each other, at least 4cm, and are then able to communicate with each other.

The NFC chip - which is a form of radio frequency identification (RFID) - is an enabler, letting the data - your payment - move between devices. There also has to be a secure element to deter hackers, and an application that provides a user interface on the phone.

Although some handsets are equipped with NFC chips, phones can be retro-fitted with sim cards, microSD cards, or cases that incorporate chips. So although the iPhone has no inherent NFC capability, thanks to devices like the one created by DeviceFidelity and used by Visa among others, it can still run a mobile wallet.

The wallet could be run by your bank or Mastercard or Visa, the likes of Google or Isis in the US, or one of the telecoms companies - Telefonica O2 and Orange are just two with offerings in Europe.

Business basics

What are the advantages for business?

Telecoms analyst David Snow of Juniper Research says it is an attractive proposition for retailers.

"I think for the retailer on the street particularly if it means he doesn't have to handle so much cash, if you're thinking of a convenience store you can process people faster, you can bust the queue."

This does mean at some point there has to be an investment in new NFC-capable point of sale devices.

Carl Tsukahara of mobile banking solutions supplier Clairmail says NFC's flexibility could motivate shoppers through the door.

Services like Visa's real time alerts could be used with NFC payments

"The value goes far beyond the payment. There has to be a motivation for the consumer to use this thing as well as the merchant to put in the equipment at the point of sale.

"And that value is driven by the value surrounding the payment. Electronic receipting to the consumer might be one example. The ability to get offers because you have location on a phone - imagine walking into a store, and immediately because of the device you get offers pushed to your phone you can redeem at the point of sale."

Michelle Janes of Visa agrees. The credit card giant has its own mobile wallet technology, which they have also licensed to Google and Isis. They already use a real-time offer service tied to their cards.

"We think the opportunity for mobile is much more beyond just making a payment at point of sale," she says.

"The benefits of a dynamic device like the mobile is the ability to add additional services.

"So Visa has realtime alert services, and offers capabilities and preference management that we really see complementing payment."

Jason Reese, director of mobile payments at Everything Everywhere, says they are starting to see more and more retailers embracing the technology.

Orange is rolling out a mobile wallet in several European markets

"For example McDonalds have rolled out across all of their 1200 [UK] outlets. We're starting to see more and more retailers on board.

"Once you've got the retailers interested, the consumers interested you create the environment for the market."

Security alert

Not everyone is quite so sanguine about the adoption of the mobile wallet.

Phil Lieberman, head of IT security specialists Lieberman Software, believes the technology poses a significant security risk to consumers.

"I think it's insane. How's that for vague?" he says.

"I really do like technology, for the most part I do trust it, and security is the business that my company is in.

"It is possible to create secure solutions - but there's an old saying, don't fix what isn't broken and technology should make life better and more secure, I'm not sure in my thinking how this actually creates a more secure environment."

Phil Lieberman believes NFC chips are at risk from hackers

Mr Lieberman believes that because the chips remain programmable, this leaves the way clear for hackers. He does stress that the technology needs to become more widely adopted before it becomes a worthwhile target.

"When credit cards are manufactured, they're made in a secure facility and when the card issuer is done setting up the card they burn a fuse in the card that makes it tamper proof, meaning that the card can't be updated any longer.

"In this technology they're talking about programming this over the air."

"I think the one thing that concerns me is that the programming path to the wallet is open."

Dr Siva Narendra is the president of Tyfone, a company that has created technology that lets this financial institutions programme NFC chips wirelessly. He disagrees completely.

"If that security is not sufficient there is no security today that is sufficient.

"There are two ways to manage security. You keep the algorithm of how you communicate a secret or you keep the algorithm open and keep the digital keys that unlock that secret.

"The entire planet's security to date relies on keeping the digital keys. That's how smart card chips work today. Those digital keys can continue to be a secret, and you can manage that lifecycle remotely."

Pin money

For Andy Kemshall, chief technology officer at SecurEnvoy, the concern is authentication.

For small payments with some contactless payment systems there is no requirement to enter a pin number.

"If someone steals your phone clearly they could start to use it for micropayments or connectivity. We need to maintain that second factor."

But unlike Mr Lieberman, he feels that the mobile wallet isn't such a bad idea.

"If however the system's set up for the micropayments where that second factor is still maintained, we're asking should the phone be the logical equivalent of a credit card.

"The answer is yes it should, it's an ideal device."

Loading money on to your phone no longer means finding some change

Visa Europe's head of innovation Sandra Alzetta says all of the security checks have been made.

"We've been through a huge amount of security and risk review, through all of the external labs, where basically people's job is to hack into this. All of the statistical security, all of the software security and so on.

"Is something ever 100% secure? I don't believe there's any such thing. Is it fit for purpose? Absolutely, and it has to be."

And as mobile money expert Monitise's Richard Johnson says - ultimately NFC is not the only option.

"Mobile wallets don't have to have NFC. You've got what Paypal are showcasing at the moment which is very pointedly not dependent on NFC. You've got the wallet that we're involved in in the UK, the Simply Tap network which is ready for NFC but in its initial phases isn't at all dependent on NFC.

"NFC is just a technology. It's about the ability of people to build compelling propositions around it. It's not a Vegas thing, build it and they will come, it's because it's more convenient.

And will the mobile wallet replace the humble credit card? Probably not entirely, says Juniper Research's David Snow.

"They're going to be complementary for a long time. For instance contactless cards are being distributed widely in the States but not many people use them, they still swipe them," he says.

"It will take time. I think up until this point the slowness of the NFC phone roll-out has been the bottle neck. But that appears now to be being unblocked. I think the bottle neck will move into other areas.

"I would be bullish about the market, it's such a winning technology."

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Motorola sued over mobile patents

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7 October 2011 Last updated at 09:53 GMT Google's backing of a firm is suing acquisition target Motorola is an "own goal" say experts Motorola is being sued in a patent row by a company partly bankrolled by Google - which wants to buy Motorola.

Intellectual Ventures is taking legal action over six patents, all of which are used in Android smartphones produced by Motorola.

The lawsuit has been filed, said Intellectual Ventures, after talks over a licensing deal broke down.

Patent experts said the case was "concerning" and cast doubt on Google's ability to defend Android partners.

Intellectual Ventures, set up by Microsoft's former chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold, has built up much of its pool of about 35,000 patents by buying intellectual property from inventors. It then generates money for investors by signing licensing deals with hi-tech firms that use the patented technologies.

The company has accused Motorola Mobility of using its technology to perform file transfers, updates and remote data management and other functions on some of its smartphones.

In a statement, Intellectual Ventures said it had been in discussion with Motorola since January 2011 but the talks had failed to produce an agreement.

"We have a responsibility to our current customers and our investors to defend our intellectual property rights against companies such as Motorola Mobility who use them without a license," it said. It is now seeking a trial and unspecified damages.

Ironically, a separate licensing deal negotiated in late 2010 revealed that Google was one of dozens of firms that put cash into Intellectual Ventures' investment funds.

This is not the same fund that is being used to take legal action against Motorola, but one expert said the case raised questions about Google's ability to help its partners.

Patent expert Florian Mueller said Google's backing of Intellectual Ventures was an "own goal" and said that its failure to defend Android partners was "inexcusable".

This failure was particularly acute in the case of Motorola Mobility, he said, as in mid-August Google put down a $12.5bn (£8bn) bid to acquire it.

Neither Motorola Mobility nor Google has commented on the case.

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Five Risks Mobile Devices Bring to Networks

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Like many of you out there I own a smartphone, and I use it for both business and personal reasons. It seems like only yesterday when smartphones were seen as an expensive upgrade. Now their appeal is spreading worldwide as prices come down and hardware improves. Anyone can now get a cheap and responsive device.

However, the latest security flaws found in some Android devices has made me think about the risks these types of devices bring to computer networks.

1. Security flaws in software

A smartphone is a very powerful computer that requires an operating system and applications to make it useful. Most of this is transparent to the end-user and most never worry about updates and upgrades for their devices. As more and more applications are installed, the risk increases of installing applications that have known or undetected flaws. I recommend that you perform regular backups of your data, reset your device to factory defaults every few months and only install applications that you actually use.

2. Rooting phones

Most smartphone manufacturers restrict end-users so that they can only install applications from preapproved marketplaces. They also prevent end-users from gaining access to the operating systems on their devices. Rooting or jail breaking a phone circumvents these controls so that you gain full access to your device. However, this introduces a big risk as applications can now gain root access and you may end up exposing your personal data.

3. Comprised phones

Recently I worked with a university where they had received a notification about a device on their network that was scanning external IP addresses. In the past this would normally be associated with a zombie PC on the network and the IT staff would just remove it. In this case it was found to be a smartphone connected to a wireless network. Somehow, a rogue application was installed on the phone and the owner was unaware that the phone was scanning networks.

4. Kings of connectivity

Once upon a time you got some sort of device-specific cable with your phone, and though a combination of luck and patience you could get it connected to your PC so that you could backup your phonebook. Most phones now support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB tethering. This can be a nightmare for the IT manager as these smartphone features open up more holes on their networks. Wi-Fi tethering features can also be used to access blocked websites during working hours. Future phones are planned to have near field communication chipsets which allows for sharing, pairing, and transactions between NFC devices.

5. Data leakage

My current phone has 16GB of storage and I can add another 32GB via a micro SDHC card. This storage is presented as a regular storage device so it is easy to get data onto it. If I was to access file shares on a network, I could extract a massive amount of data, disconnect and then walk past the firewall with the data on my phone.

If you are concerned about smartphones or other mobile devices on your network there are a number of things you can do. First, you should consider an authentication mechanism like 802.1X which will require users to identify themselves before they can gain access to the network. There are many guides out there which explain how you can devices like iPads connected to the corporate wireless network.

Once users are connected to your network, you should watch what they are doing. You can get started by locating your network core and then you can look at implementing a network monitoring solution. Look out for the top users downloading data from your file-shares, databases or business applications. Deep packet inspection technologies can also detect mobile devices on your network. They do this by extracting the web-client information from network packets. This web-client data can then be used to identify what types of systems are on your network.

Darragh Delaney is head of technical services at NetFort Technologies. As Director of Technical Services and Customer Support, he interacts on a daily basis with NetFort customers and is responsible for the delivery of a high quality technical and customer support service.

For more enterprise computing news, visit Computerworld. Story copyright © 2011 Computerworld Inc. All rights reserved.

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TECHNOLOGY, T Mobile hinzufügt, dass Samsung Galaxy S II und HTC 4G Smartphone Line-Up fallen überraschen

On the GigaOM mobilize 2011 Conference today showed T-Mobile in San Francisco the latest additions to its selection of 4 G mobile phones.
Versions of the Samsung Galaxy S II and the HTC surprise, 4 G, which is a camera-oriented phone, are available for pre-sale online on Oct. 12 beginning Oct. 10 and in the shops. T-mobile, also the Sonic Announces 4 G Mobile HotSpot, using also the faster network speeds.
Samsung Galaxy S II
Samsung Galaxy S Iithe T-Mobile version of the Samsung Galaxy S II is a bit different than the AT & T and Sprint versions have we seen. Instead of a Samsung Exynos processor, the phone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 is 1.5 GHz dual-core processor. It supports also near field communication (NFC) for mobile payments, in contrast to the Sprint version, the epic touch 4 G. (the AT & T version supports NFC, however). This is very good news such as Google of its NFC app just Google Wallet.
We saw the T-Mobile Galaxy S short on the US-Galaxy-S II event in New York in August to start II, but we were not allowed to touch it. The phone has the same size Super AMOLED plus shows as the epic touch 4 G-4, 52 customs - and seems more laps, as the two other versions.
The Galaxy S II runs under Android 2.3.5 with custom overlay of Samsung TouchWiz 4.0, about it. The Galaxy S II costs $229.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate card and requires a two-year contract.
HTC surprise 4 G
HTC surprised the Galaxy S 4GWhile II is certainly an exciting addition to the line-up, I am more excited about the HTC 4 G amaze. The 4 G amaze is a camera-oriented phone, which has about an 8-megapixel back-illuminated sensor and a wide range of shooting modes.
Camera phone HTC and T-Mobile teamed up on the last was the T-Mobile MyTouch 4 G slide, we had declared the best camera on a Smartphone to date. How the MyTouch 4 G slide, the 4 G 1080p HD video capture, amaze a HDR shooting, a panorama mode, and claims zero shutter lag.
The amaze S3 processor as the Galaxy S II has the same Qualcomm and runs Android 2.3.4. T-Mobile the amaze says HTC also runs through the gingerbread OS 4 G, but I suspect that we will see a similar camera user interface as the MyTouch 4 G slide used, that is not on other phones HTC sense.
The amaze is a super qHD has 4.3-Zoll-LCD-Display and also NFC support. Kudos to T-Mobile for sending not one but two telephones with NFC right in time with the launch of Google Wallet to support.
The HTC 4 G amaze costs $260 to a $50 mail-in rebate card with a two year contract from T-Mobile.
Sonic 4 g mobile HotSpotSonic 4 g Mobile HotSpot
The Sonic 4 G can up to five enabled Wi-Fi devices, such as connect laptop, iPad, camera, etc.. Manufactured by Huawei, the Sonic weighs only 3.88 grams and is equipped with SD card slot that expandable memory can contain up to 32 GB. It has also a small OLED display, shows signal strength, number of devices connected, the number of unread text messages, connect to the Internet, battery level, and network connection type.
In October, the Sonic is available online and T-Mobile retail, but price was not announced.

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LG Elec denies report of overseas mobile staff cuts

SEOUL | Thu September 8, 2011 10:17 pm EDT

Seoul (Reuters)-South Korean LG Electronics Inc on Friday denied a media report that he had cut staff overseas in its mobile telephone Division fighting for about 30 percent as part of broad-based reforms to turn the business of losing money.

The Korea economic daily reported in its early Friday edition that the layoffs involved mainly mobile marketing and acquisition of resources and the closure of certain unprofitable.

The report also said the company had similar plans for your home mobile business.

LG said the report was unfounded.

"We are always looking for opportunities to improve the performance of our mobile business but no decision was made to possible job cuts," said a spokesman for LG.

LG mobile phone manufacturer, the world no. 3, has recorded five consecutive quarterly losses of cell phone sales, with Cutthroat competition putting pressure on the company for a review of your business.

LG shares fell 2.9 percent 0210 GMT, compared the fall of 0.4 percent of the broader market.

(Reports by Miyoung Kim; Edited by Jonathan Hopfner)

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