Mobile Phones
On the track
Finland's government has proposed a law allowing parents access to the location data generated by their child's mobile phone. The law could set a precedent for the EU, as it is based around a clause in the European directive on privacy and electronic communications. It requires the permission of anyone over 15 to pass on their location data (as you would expect), but for those 15 or under, consent is up to their guardian. Finland already has commercially available location data services.
Wi-Fi wonder
Motorola has confirmed that two mobile phones that feature Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) connectivity will be on sale in the UK next year . It is likely that one will work with GPRS systems while the other runs over 3G. The 802.11b/g wireless technology is provided by Texas Instruments. Motorola has also confirmed that next year it will offer a "broadband to go" Wi-Fi/3G network card for laptop PCs. Users will be able to surf wirelessly at a hot spot using an 802.11b/g connection and then get online using 3G networks the rest of the time.
Broadband
Trigger-less
BT has announced 332 exchanges where it has no plans to set an ADSL trigger level, although it said it may review these in future. It includes exchanges such as Earls Colne in Essex, where campaigns have been set up to get people to pre-register for ADSL. An organisation that may help some of these, the Community Broadband Network, this week won government funding to develop its programme of sharing expertise on different technologies for broadband.
Mobile gaming
Sporting chances
Videogame giant Electronic Arts will make history (in a modest sense) on Friday when a mobile version of its Fifa 2004 franchise is released simultaneously alongside PC and console versions - bringing mobile gaming in line with traditional formats. The Java title, co-published by Digital Bridges, is a slick, cut-down footie experience featuring 16 international teams, real players and decent AI. The visuals are improved from the Fifa 2003 mobile edition and gameplay is more complex, with headers, crosses and fouling introduced.
While mobile football sims are still in their infancy, racing titles are making impressive technical advances. IF Racing 2 from In-Fusio looks like a standard F1 racer with cute mid-'80s coin-op visuals. However, the game features a new "mirror" mode which lets you upload your best performances to a dedicated server, or download the times achieved by others and then compete against their "ghost" car on your screen. It will be released in the UK next month.
Going one step further is Lotus City Racing, currently in development at British outfit Kuju. Lotus will be one of the first Java titles to offer real-time two player gaming over 2.5G networks when it's released early next year. This has been achieved using the Pecan Gaming platform built by Israeli tech company Cash-U.
www.cash-u.com
Stat of the week Music to the ears
Forget text messaging and mono ringtones. Polyphonic ringtones is where the real action is. The market will explode from a value of €80m this year to €543m by 2006, according to World Wireless Forum.
