Doom and gloom as mobiles show their dark side

It's been another busy seven days on our sister site Pocket Picks, so let us save you some time by running through the most interesting mobile news in this week's round-up.

Apple got in on the action early again this week, with a reliable source from AT&T leaking June the 15th as the official iPhone street date. Elsewhere analysts have increased their iPhone sales forecasts in anticipation of what is no doubt going to be a squillion selling piece of consumer electronics. Those who do buy one however may need to be prepared to make do with Apple's own suite of software, as the company has not yet decided if it will allow third-party developers a free reign on releasing applications for the device.

Sony Ericsson had a busy week too, announcing not one, not two but three new handsets and a Bluetooth headset. Motorola also laid its handset intentions bare, revealing a mysterious sounding new multimedia focussed mobile, whilst Nokia sprung a leak with images of its new N81 and N82 handsets making a premature debut.

An announcement of a more traditional variety came from Nokia regarding efforts to reduce the power consumption of its handsets by adding an alert function to warn users when their phones have charged fully and are ready to be disconnected from the mains. The Finnish handset giant also made good on its Nokia N95 firmware, updating it and improving issues with the device's camera in the process.

Less welcome news from the Nokia camp came courtesy of its partnership company with Siemens (Nokia Siemens), which announced 9,000 global job cuts as a measure billed as improving the company's competitiveness in the market.

There were some interesting if inevitable developments on the software side of things, too. An official mobile Linux release is on its way from Ubuntu, and Mozilla revealed future plans for a mobile Firefox internet browser.

Speaking of software, the king of that castle, Microsoft, took a mirthful approach to brand image by openly parodying the iPhone with their oFone spoof infomercial. Quite what result the skit was intended to achieve is unclear and illustrated that what Microsoft possesses in software know-how over Apple, it certainly loses with its inadequate sense of marketing.

Elsewhere, Pocket Picks took a grim look at how our friendly pocket companions might turn on us with a couple of stories from the darker side of mobile technology. America's Homeland Security announced plans to install nuke detectors in civilian phones, a sign of the times we live in, and also of the potential for a 1984-style future that mobile devices may yet have a hand in facilitating.

Tying into that idea of unwanted surveillance is the slightly more light-hearted Mobile Spy software from Retina-X-Studios. More of an app for jealous lovers than paranoid governments, it is still telling of the worrying applications that mobile tech can have.

And finally in what is becoming a feature of the Pocket Picks roundup, some quirky mobile happenings.

Artist Chris Jordan decided to illustrate his concern for the increasingly disposable nature of mobile phones by creating a piece of photographic art consisting of 426,000 handsets. That's the number that are decommissioned in the US every day.

If it's all too much for you, you could always start ignoring facts and take to a life of mystical musings. If you do decide to embark upon such a path, you could do worse than lay your hands on a copy of Hand Reading Pro, a Symbian application that teaches the arguably apocryphal practice of palm and hand reading.

Click 'Track It!' for more mobile news next week.