September 9th, 2010
The world’s first ‘intelligent’ stamp was put on sale by Royal Mail on the 3rd of September and is said to work in conjunction with image recognition technology.
The stamp is part of the Royal Mail’s latest collection featuring Great British Railways and stamp enthusiasts are able to view content about each one online.
Users place an iPhone or Android smartphone camera over the stamp which launches the relevant stamp programme and continues to run it across the mobile internet platform.
People are able to use the stamps via the Junaio application which contains a Royal Mail channel.
The application, which is available free of charge from iTunes or the Android Market, is already said to be causing a stir amongst stamp collectors.
Royal Mail’s special stamps have traditionally marked key events and anniversaries in the UK’s heritage.
It is hoped that with this progression, the new collection of special stamps will open up a new world of information and education through the Royal Mail’s online programmes.
Posted in Business Mobiles, Mobile Apps Review | No Comments »
September 8th, 2010
India has demanded “access to everything” across a whole host of telecoms firms whilst it tightens its reigns on security.
Last week an Indian Home Ministry Official told the BBC that “any company with a telecoms network should be accessible”.
This means that companies such as Google and Skype, known to use encryption services, are likely to be asked to provide data, alongside virtual private networks which are often used by employees to gain secure access to their working documents whilst at home.
This call follows the well documented talks between BlackBerry smartphone manufacturer Research in Motion and the Indian Government to allow Indian security forces to monitor data.
It is thought that the increased security measures being enforced by India stem from increased fears of terrorism.
Alternatively, other sources have speculated that it may just be that the Government now wish to focus on enforcing the ICT Act of 2000 which was revised in 2008 but has yet to be adhered to in full.
It would appear that there is still a long way to go before the issues are satisfactorily resolved.
Posted in BlackBerry, Business Telecommunications, Email, VoIP | No Comments »
September 7th, 2010
Mobile phone firm Orange is the first UK network to use a technology that offers its customers higher quality voice calls.
Orange has run trials of the technology in the south west of England and now plans to introduce it across the country.
High Definition (HD) voice is said to provide a reduction in background noise as well as minimising the interference that is often heard on normal mobile phone calls.
The technology used is also known as Adaptive Multi Rate Wideband (AMR-WB) which has been adopted internationally as a standard for 3G mobile networks.
AMR-WB is what is known as a speech-codec. This means that software compresses a voice signal to maximise the amount of bandwidth on a network, simply allowing high quality calls.
With other countries currently using this technology, it is thought that it won’t be long before other UK networks follow in the footsteps of Orange.
Posted in Business Mobiles | 2 Comments »
September 6th, 2010
The power of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) now spans the world of online advertising.
This change means that online marketing and advertisements will be subject to the same strict advertising rules that restrict traditional media forms from the 1st of March 2011 onwards.
The ASA is now able to ban unregulated marketing statements on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
3,500 complaints were filed with the ASA last year regarding online adverts but over half of them fell outside of the regulator’s remit.
The new jurisdiction will apply to adverts and any statement on a website that is intended to sell products or services.
It is understood that 75% of complaints received by the ASA refer to misleading content.
Websites have been given until the 1st of March 2011 to comply with the new rules and regulations.
Posted in Advertising, Social Networking | No Comments »
September 3rd, 2010
Over three million doctors have downloaded the iStethoscope application, which is replacing the use of a traditional Stethoscope in UK hospitals.
The app was designed by Professor Peter Bentley, a researcher at University College London and was originally intended to be nothing more than a toy.
However, more than 500 users a day are downloading the application which enables patients to email their heart pattern to their doctor in order to receive a professional assessment of their condition and it is said to have already saved lives.
To use the app, users press their iPhone against the chest where the inbuilt microphone on the smartphone is able to pick up on the heart beat.
The user then shakes the iPhone to hear the last eight seconds of recording and see a phonocardiograph display and a spectrogram, which can then be sent to a specialist.
Of course, it is vital that these new technologies remain effectively regulated to protect the health of patients.
It is hoped that in time, more medical apps will become available allowing smartphones to save more lives, more time and money as well as simultaneously improving healthcare for users worldwide.
Posted in Mobile Apps Review | No Comments »
September 2nd, 2010
The search giant has recently updated its Gmail service with a ‘priority inbox’ feature which reduces information overload in e-mail inboxes.
Priority inbox automatically filters e-mail in to four categories: important, important and unread, starred items and other.
In any e-mail there are a number of indicators which allows the system to grade the status of a message. These include regular contacts, junk mail filters and static features such as whether you are the sole recipient of a message or whether it has been sent to lots of people.
The feature is also said to become more intelligent the more a user uses the facility alongside a plus and minus tool within the system to increase or minimise the importance of a message.
Recent research by the Radicati Group has revealed that in 2010, 294 billion e-mails are sent each day with typical business users sending and receiving about 110 messages a day.
This extreme figure is evidence that people are currently being overloaded by the number of emails that arrive in their inboxes each day and that features such as priority inbox will inevitably help people to be more productive.
It is hoped that products such as priority inbox will mean less time is spent sifting through emails and more time will be spent concentrating on more important tasks.
Posted in Business Mobiles, Email | No Comments »
September 1st, 2010
BlackBerry smartphone manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) has extended an offer to the Indian Government to lead an industry forum which would cover the lawful access needs of law enforcement agencies.
The forum would simultaneously highlight the need in which to preserve and uphold the information security needs of Indian businesses.
Concerns were initially raised by the Indian Government regarding the ability of security forces to intercept email sent via BlackBerry devices. This posed a potential security risk if correspondence from suspected terrorist organisations remained encrypted.
At the beginning of this month, the Indian Government gave RIM until the end of August to address the concerns.
A statement released by RIM confirmed that the industry forum would focus on developing recommendations for policies and processes aimed at preventing the misuse of encryption technologies, while preserving its benefits for Indian users.
It is thought that whilst BlackBerry remains a popular solution in India, there are other alternatives that are being used. A ban would negatively affect business productivity and continuity across India.
Posted in BlackBerry, Business Telecommunications | No Comments »
August 27th, 2010
The search giant is set to compete with other internet telephone companies such as Skype by giving its users the option to make calls from its free web-based email service.
Up until now, Google offered computer-to-computer voice and video chat services. Users are now able to call landline and mobile numbers from inside their Gmail account.
Phone calls made to the US and Canada will be free until the end of the year but, in contrast, calls to the UK, France, China and Germany will cost 2 cents a minute.
This places the service in direct competition with Skype and its offering of free Skype-to-Skype calls to any country in the world.
Users will see the product link appear on the left hand side of the Gmail page within the ‘chat’ window. A ‘call phone’ option will pop up alongside a number pad which allows the user to dial the number of the contact they wish to speak to.
It is thought that this new service will be a more efficient and low-cost communication method for Gmail users.
Posted in Email, VoIP | 3 Comments »
August 26th, 2010
The scheme, launched yesterday, rates mobile phone handsets on factors such as the ecological impact of raw materials used, the manufacturing process and the energy efficiency of each device.
Mobile phones are given a rating between zero and five, dependent on their environmental footprint, the packaging used, the longevity of the handset and how easy they are to recycle or re-use.
Major mobile phone manufacturers including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung have signed up to the scheme and O2 has said that 93% of the devices its customers use will be tested.
Controversially, Apple have requested to block its range of iPhones from the scheme.
Over the past few months the mobile phone industry has begun to focus on the green issues surrounding its image.
Consumer and business user interest in eco-friendly phones has significantly risen.
11.5% of people recently surveyed by O2 said that sustainability had a ‘strong influence’ on the handsets that they choose to purchase.
With the release of the universal charger that is required to meet energy efficiency standards, many mobile phone manufacturers are looking for ways in which to publicise their environmentally friendly models.
It is hoped that this scheme will allow consumers and business users alike to make informed decisions at the time of purchase more easily than before.
Posted in Business Mobiles | 5 Comments »
August 25th, 2010
Whilst the US version was released last month, mobile users in the UK, Europe and the Middle East are now able to access a HTML5 version of Google’s YouTube video site.
It is thought that this move will speed up access for those using the site via iPhones, Android devices or other mobile phones that are able to render HTML5 video content.
As mobile use of the web has grown rapidly over the past few months, it is no surprise that YouTube’s mobile site m.youtube.com has received more than 100 million video playbacks a day. Interestingly, this figure equates roughly to the number of daily views youtube.com was getting when it was acquired by Google in 2006.
Similarly, mobile video playback has grown by 160% in 2009 on the figures from 2008, alongside a rise in the manufacture of mobile devices that are able to stream video footage.
The UK consumes the most YouTube videos on mobile devices across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, closely followed by France, Italy, Netherlands and Switzerland.
Posted in Business Mobiles, Social Networking | 1 Comment »
