3GSM 2007: The works

All the news, right here

No time to go barking in Barca this week? Don't worry, El Reg was there in force, battling flakey networks, congested cells, and aggressive locals to give you the broadest coverage possible. And, just to make your life even easier, we've collected our collective output together, to help you relive the tears, the laughter, and even the keynote speeches. Enjoy:

GSMA endorses wireless mobile payments
Demonstrations of proximity payment systems, allowing users to pay for products with wave of the phone, have been around for years, and every year we're promised that this time it's really going to happen. Developments at 3GSM this week might show more progress in that direction, but there's still a long road to be travelled.

T-Mobile says mobile VoIP will not hit revenues
Mobile VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) will not hit mobile telephony revenues, but will have more of an impact on fixed line services, according to T-Mobile International AG chief executive Hamid Akhavan.

Glu and Codemasters get stuck in
Mobile games developer and publisher Glu has done a deal with Codemasters to get its games onto mobile phones.

Warner chooses Telenor for mobile content deals
Warner Music Group (WMG) will deliver music content to mobiles in both Europe and Asia in a deal with Norwegian mobile operator, Telenor.

3GSM 2007: all the stories, all the goodies
3GSM brought a bumper crop of handsets and hype to Barcelona. Here are all of Reg Hardware's 3GSM 2007 stories, brought together for your reading pleasure...

Slingbox shrugs off video on demand
The folks behind the Slingbox aren't worried by traditional broadcasters getting into video on demand because, they claim, their boxes offer a far more personalised experience.

Ringtones will always be bigger than mobile smut
Ringtones and music will always take a bigger slice of the mobile content market than games or erotica, according to an adult content aggregator.

Mobile anti-radiation - a telecoms 'inflight life-jacket'?
A cynic's first response to the offer of a magic device to protect phone users from radiation is to laugh and go find someone else to talk to. Don't. You may believe that the Exradia chip will never save a single life, or even prevent a single disease, but that doesn't mean they won't sell them.

Bristol TV trial proves 3G won't interfere with 3G
IP Wireless has announced the successful end of its Bristol-based broadcast TV trial, which has been running for the last few months in conjunction with Vodafone, Telefonica, Orange, and 3.

Japanese cabbies take mobile drink drive test
Japanese transport firms are using mobile phone technology to prevent drunk drivers from starting their shifts.

HTC quietly launches classic-style PDA phone
Smart-phone maker HTC announced a trio of new devices this week... or did it? In fact, it launched four products, but for some strange reason only mentioned three of them in its document. Would you welcome, then, the 'missing' HTC 3GSM device, the P3400.

Moto's banana beats Nokia's brick
The surprise of the 3GSM show so far has turned up in the gadget porn department. Nokia's new communicator, the E90, was one of the most eagerly anticipated launches in a long time. But rather like Apple's iPhone, it's somewhat less spectacular once the reality sinks in.

Samsung 3GSM gallery
Samsung announced a handful of new handsets at 3GSM this year and showed off a host more.

Cameraphones focus on liquid lenses
The quality of autofocus lenses on cameraphones are set to get a boost with technology from Varioptic, a firm that makes its lenses out of oil and water, rather than using traditional mechanical lenses.

Nokia 3GSM gallery
Nokia announced six new handsets at 3GSM this year. Check out our gallery.

Nokia turns on N series TV phone
Nokia has introduced its latest digital telly friendly mobile phone: N series member the N77. Ready for viewing, it's equipped with a 2.4in, 320 x 240 display capable of rendering 16m colours. There's a pair of stereo speakers too.

Money transfers go mobile for migrant workers
The GSM Association has teamed up with Mastercard to launch a pilot programme to make it easier for international migrant workers to send money home.

HTC slides in slide-out-keyboard communicators
HTC has unwrapped a trio of smart phones, including the eagerly anticipated Advantage X7500 - the UMPC-like successor to the manufacturer's Universal 3G handset. It also rolled out its first candybar form-factor phone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Orange takes the cloak off Super SIM
Orange has announced the availability of its much-anticipated Super SIM supplied by Sagem Orga. The Super SIM has 128MB of storage and, when inserted into a Super SIM supporting handset, automatically installs "the Orange Homescreen, Packet Video player, F-Secure anti-virus client, and a whole series of Orange branded wallpapers and themes".

Motorola 3GSM Gallery
Motorola announced eight handsets at 3GSM this year. We have them here, for your viewing pleasure.

SanDisk readies 4GB MicroSD card
Here's the world's highest capacity MicroSD card, according to SanDisk that is. The solid-state memory specialist today announced the product, though it would only say the 4GB unit will ship "later in 2007". It hasn't worked out the pricing yet, either.

Mobile malware menace hits high - McAfee
Malware attacks across mobile networks have reached an all-time high, if figures aired by McAfee today are anything to go by.

Free Nokia route-planning app fails to show
Nokia has clearly been so busy making multiple announcements at 3GSM, it forgot to upload the free route-planning software and maps it promised us last week. Then, it said the code would be available to download on "Saturday, February 10th". Alas, it wasn't.

Users turn their noses up at mobile TV
It's not just the slow uptake of video services that should worry network operators, it seems that more than half of European users who've tried TV on the move decided it wasn't worth the effort. This data comes from a survey of 22,000 European users, commissioned by Tellabs and carried out by M:Metrics.

Parents demand mobile restrictions for kids
Parents are demanding more control over what their children are doing with their mobiles, but phone operators are lagging in providing such services.

Nokia raves about new E-series phones
Nokia today officially announced the E61i, E65 and E90 Communicator handsets, all aimed primarily at the business user but with some consumer-friendly features too. The launch confirmed images and speculation on features which began to appear on the web about a week ago, as we reported.

Nokia Siemens Networks backs IP everywhere
Technology roadmaps for the future Nokia and Siemens Networks were laid out to delegates attending the 3GSM Conference on Monday.

Samsung shows 'world's slimmest' handset
Samsung may have used this week's 3GSM show in Barcelona to re-announce a heap of handsets it launched around the world during the latter half of 2006, but it also showed off its Ultra Edition II line: two skinny sliders, an equally narrow-hipped clamshell, and the thinnest phone in the world, Samsung claimed.

Nokia revamps business range with added e
Nokia said business use of mobile phones and internet access still has a long way to go as it unwrapped a slew of high-end business phones today at 3GSM.

Motorola RIZR slider becomes 'fit-to-face' banana-phone
Motorola today announced a heap of tweaks for its more stylish handsets, SLVR, KRZR and RIZR - the latter, for example, employs a new, curved and spring-loaded slider mechanism that creates what the company called a "fit-to-face profile".

Nokia predicts mainstream mobile TV
Nokia president and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo opened this year's 3GSM conference in Barcelona with a number of consumer announcements, including the prediction that four billion mobile phones would be sold in 2010, a billion more than current sales figures.

Vodafone adds Google Maps in web services blitz
In its fourth deal in a week to bring popular online services to mobile, Vodafone announced it would develop a downloadable Java application for accessing Google Maps.

Motorola launches 3G Q smart phone
After apparently canning a GSM version of its Q BlackBerry-like smartphone back in February 2006, Motorola has now said the handset will come to market during the second half of 2007. The 3G Q believed to have played a part in nixing the GSM model - and originally due Q4 2006 - will ship sooner, the company said.

3G gamers opt for simple gaming
Puzzles and card games are the most popular mobile phone games as users fill in time waiting for a bus or sitting on the tube, according to new research.

HP talks up voice-centric iPaq smart phone
HP today brought its iPaq brand into phone territory, announcing a candybar-format smartphone pitched primarily at voice usage - including not only GSM, but VoIP too. It's also the company's first Windows Mobile 6 device.

RIM releases Pearl-esque BlackBerry 8800
Research in Motion has unveiled the eagerly anticipated BlackBerry 8800 - the first of the company's full QWERTY keyboard devices to sport a trackball-centric design based on its Pearl handset. Among the new features: integrated GPS and MicroSD memory expansion.

Consumer demand will drive UWB regulation
The European regulatory confusion surrounding Ultra Wide Band, and thus Wireless USB, will be solved by pressure from consumers once they see what the Americans, Chinese, and Japanese can do with the technology, members of the consortium said today.

Unlimited mobile music for £1.99 a week
In what may prove to be the most far-reaching digital music launch since iTunes, Omnifone today took the wraps off its MusicStation service.

SIPphone community goes bananas over Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0
Windows Mobile 6.0 is out! Well, at the least, the secret of WM 6 is out. Microsoft was today frantically trying to deny its heroic efforts to keep the next generation Windows smartphone hidden from NewsWireless - but the cat was out of the bag even before the Tribune newspaper blew the embargo, because of the enthusiasm in VoIP circles for the new OS.