Futuristic displays, mountain top mobile usage and the final verdict on European roaming charges
It's the Pocket Picks round-up
The week's mobile news coverage began on our sister site Pocket Picks with a celebration in honour of the tenth anniversary of the first ever picture message. How time flies when you're running up data charges.
Moving swiftly from established technology to something a little more space age, Samsung's new credit card thin display screens made an appearance, showing off their svelte 0.52 mm thick bodies. Nokia has also been busy, developing a strange looking folding scented phone concept. And it's come to light that Microsoft is beavering away behind closed doors on an advanced touchscreen display of its own – no doubt in a bid to out do Apple.
It's a dead certainty that iPhone news is only set to become more frequent over the next few months, and this week saw the Apple press machine start to re-gather some of its momentum. A survey conducted recently revealed that UK punters who buy an iPhone might choose to then shun the iPod. Hardly surprising really. The unreleased device is still commanding unprecedented popularity in the US, with at least 250,000 people on the waiting list for a day one unit; not long till launch now.
This week's bombshell came courtesy of an announcement from Sony about its new partnership with BT that will turn the PSP into a phone. A hefty announcement and no mistake, although whether this new functionality will convince mobile gamers to part with their handsets in favour of Lumines 2 and a headset is another matter altogether.
The other big headline was that the European Parliament has approved Commission plans to cap European roaming charges, prompting mixed responses from all of the big players.
In other news, M:Metrics predicts that mobile advertising is set to take off, which might be what has prompted industry analyst Celnet to guess that mobile banking will be the norm by 2010. When mobile banking does finally come around it will no doubt be a useful feature for British mobile users, who were reported this week as spending more on mobiles per household than on landline phones and internet tariffs combined.
There was no end to the offbeat mobile news bits this week, such as the man who used his mobile to call his wife from the summit of Everest, or word that lazier mobile users who prefer transport of the four-wheeled kind might want to be careful when putting their keys and phone down next to each other, especially if they are Nissan Drivers. There was also a new pair of mobile radiation proof pants unveiled by a Swiss designer, and Apple got its knickers in a twist over the new Anne Summers iPod sex toy peripheral, the iGasm.
Click 'Track It!' to be ready for what will no doubt be an iPhone heavy Pocket Picks round-up next week.