Die Deutsche Telekom hat am Samstag eine riesige Sicherheitslücke eingeräumt. Daten von mehr als 30 Millionen Handy-Kunden inklusive ihre Bankdaten konnten von jedem Internet-Rechner der Welt mit Hilfe weniger Benutzerangaben und eines Passwortes abgerufen und manipuliert werden, wie ein Unternehmenssprecher einen Bericht des „Spiegel“ bestätigte. Die Telekom habe diese Sicherheitslücke aber binnen 24 Stunden geschlossen. Es gebe bislang keine Hinweise, dass es tatsächlich einen Zugriff auf die Kundendatenbank gegeben habe, sagte der Sprecher. Die Telekom führte ein neues Verfahren ein, dass mit Hilfe von Transaktionsnummern (TAN) Eingriffe Unbefugter ausschließen soll, wie das Unternehmen mitteilte.

Die Sicherheitslücke war in der Nacht von Donnerstag auf Freitag geschlossen worden. Die Telekom stellte am Freitagvormittag ein Maßnahmenpaket zur Verbesserung ihres Datenschutzes vor, erwähnte die Sicherheitslücke aber nicht. Der Sprecher sagte am Samstag, das Unternehmen werde in seiner Informationspolitik „künftig einen anderen Angang wählen“. Im Falle der Sicherheitslücke habe das Unternehmen aber schnell handeln müssen, „bevor die Lücke öffentlich wird“, da sonst die Gefahr einer Nachahmung bestanden hätte.

weiterlesen bei WELT-ONLINE

Quelle: WELT.de

We have no real Apple stores. They're called "Apple authorized resellers" and may look like an Apple store, but they're not. Because they are run by slow Dutch people (I get to that in a minute), and don't have geniuous bars, and can't seem to be of help unless you want to buy something.

In the Netherlands, you can by an iPhone at T-mobile shops, or at the Apple store. At the T-Mobile stores, there are often no iPhones in stock. At the Apple stores (let's call 'em that, to humor them) the employees know nothing of cellphone contracts. Because I like the interiour of the Apple store better, I decided to get my iPhone there.

I went for the black 16GB 3G model, because the white one is just a bit to "girly", and is easy to spot 100 miles away for any bad guys out to steal iPhones. I came prepared with copies of my passport and old SIM card. The guy behind the counter went into the storage room to get one. Then something strange happened: a Parallels session was started up, and an Internet Explorer browser opened to show a HTTPS page at which we could fill in a contract form. It took ages to start up, and the T-Mobile "special registration form" was teribly slow. The Apple salesman was not very fast either, I had to correct him more than once because he didn't read the instruction on the screen. All in all I spent 37 minutes (measured) in the store to get everything registered and payed.

(I am still wondering why the T-Mobile registration page could not have been opened in Firefox or Safari on OSX.)

After a week, T-mobile sent a letter saying that my old number could not be ported. I called customer support and as it turned out, the guy at the Apple store still didn't fill in the form correctly (I wonder what he missed after staring at 2 html forms for 37 minutes). After being on hold for over 28 minutes at the T-Mobile helpdesk, they solved everything and my original number got transfered within 3 days.

So here I am, with an iPhone. Prepare to read a lot about it. ;-)

Ρίξτε μια ματιά στην συνοπτική παρουσίαση που έχει δημοσιεύσει το myphone. Επίσης, κάποιες από τις δυαντότητες του σχετικά με χάρτες μπορείτε να τις δείτε στο παρακάτω video:

Γενικά οι απόψεις διίστανται, τόσο περί εμφάνισης όσο και χρηστικότητας, το μόνο σίγουρο είναι ότι το iPhone θα έχει πλέον αντίπαλο.

Για να δούμε τι μπορεί να γίνει στην Ελλάδα με την Cosmote(->ΟΤΕ->Deutsche Telekom->T-Mobile)... και ανα προβλέπετε να το έχουμε στα χέρια μας και εμείς οι Έλληνες μέσα στο 2009.

Now, let me have an official go at Vodafone.

As, in my eyes, best provider of mobile services due to its reception in all areas of the UK, including the Scottish Highlands, I find Vodafone quite bad in regards to customer service and sales tactics.

Customer Service first:

My wife was due for an upgrade. When asking the person on the phone, she suggested to get 50 minutes and 50 text more for the same price. So, I was put on the account and started negotiating. Unfortunately, it has not been the first time that happens. Because I had to do that with my contract as well. The trick is that you tell them what T-Mobile offers. Then they say that they cannot offer that to existing but to new customers only.

That is the first problem - why treat customers that have been with you for 18 months worse than some that just want to become your clients? That is the old sales tactic to hook the client. Once the client signs up, Vodafone does not seem to be interested anymore.

My negotiation tactic goes on: "If you cannot offer me a better deal I have to go to T-Mobile." The magic answer from the upgrade team is: "Ok, I put you through to our promotional team." Once you are there you get the deal they offer new clients and you feel really happy because you got a very good deal. I am jealous my wife as a new phone now and a really good deal. Ach well, I am due for an upgrade in 8 months and then I can negotiate an even better deal ;-)

Now, the problem I have is that I need to escalate things. As an exisiting client I really should not have to do that. I should get a phone call when I am due to upgrade with a really good deal instead of pushing the service provider to give it to me. BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE VODAFONE!

Sales second:

It gets better. I had about 5 missed calls from Vodafone myself and when I finally answered, a pushy sales person offered me a 2nd line because I am such a good customer. When I said that I do not need one, and that no one has a pay as you go, as he suggested, that wanted to upgrade, he offered me the "deal of my life".

Why, so he suggested, not get a 2nd sim card for yourself. He checked my account and, of course, I go over my limit every month. So, if I had a 2nd sim I could put it into my phone when my current free bundle is finished. When I asked how people would reach me on my current number, he suggested I could text everyone in my address book once a month to let them know my number changed (and of course using 500 texts for it). It would only be £10/month for a 2nd sim with enough minutes and it works out so much cheaper for me.

I asked him if he was serious because that is the most ridiculous sales tactic and suggestion I had ever heard. Why would someone do that and change their number in the middle of the months to save 2 or 5 pounds? If they had offered me an upgrade to another contract that would have made sense but changing to a 2nd sim just does not do it for me. I would rather go to a competitor, get a new phone and a new contract. VERY BAD SALES TACTIC AND TOO PUSHY!

Summa summarum:

I am with Vodafone for the coverage in the UK. For customer service I would go back to T-Mobile or O2. Latter's coverage is supposendly very good also, so maybe I change next year. People calling me up to offer me unreasonable, useless deals is just wrong. And, it does not shed a good light on a company that presents itself to the outside in a complete different branding.

Vodafone - change your sales tactic and offer me a job as a Sales Director UK :-) (Sorry, A., I am not serious.)

Have a good weekend,

Volker

La compañía de telecomunicaciones, Deutsche Telecom, acaba de confirmar el robo de los datos personales de 17 millones de clientes de su operadora de telefonía móvil T-Mobile (...)

LEER MAS >> ]]> http://dailymarauder.wordpress.com/?p=6111 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:46:58 +0000 Marauder http://dailymarauder.com/2008/10/10/wireless-291/ WIRELESS

At least one research company says it believes Google's Android open-network software for cell phones will spur greater consumer interest in smartphones and encourage wireless carriers to push even further to create a standard mobile platform. In a new report, ABI Research said one benchmark of Google's success would be recognition among operators and handset makers in the value of creating a common platform. InformationWeek (10/9)

Editor's Review:

We might have a mixed review here, but you guys can decide. I read from either the Marketing, Mediaweek or Campaign article that marketers seemed to like the T-mobile advertisements, branding it funny and introduce the factor that T-mobile offer more minutes than any other network for £30. Personally, I used to be from T-mobile, had not been with them for a long time. Ultimately, mobile network providers are often seen as money grabbers hence I doubt the effectiveness of the campaign as a whole. T-mobile's campaign was reportedly as you see the video produced by Saatchi and Saatchi. The advertising effectiveness besides raising a little awareness of campaign I believe is mediocre:

Awareness Generation: 6/10

Interest Generation: 2/10 (the reason is...more minutes? how many minutes are we talking about)

Desire Generation: 2/10

Action Generation 2/10

I wonder how much they spent on the campaign, i seriously doubt the eventual effectiveness of this tv campaign but just raising bits of awareness. I think 3G should just stop suing T-mobile and let them drift to oblivion. Its Shit in my opinion actually. You decide.

Well as we got a little insight into the T-Mobile Sidekick Slide via Gus, we're now getting a little preview of the new T-Mobile G1. Big ups to our homie Gus for sharing the info and some inside pics, thanks!

T-Mobile G1
Android is software for mobile devices that includes an operating system and key applications. Google developed Android to work in combination with Google services, such as Gmail, and provide an enjoyable mobile Internet. Android is also open source, meaning that anyone can create programs for it and distribute them. Customers can download or purchase some of these applications from Android Market.
Features:
3G
Amazon music downloads (DRM-free)
Android Marketplace, to download free or purchase applications for the device
Customizable Home screen
GPS integrated with Google Maps
Memory card included for 1 GB, and supports up to 8 GB (microSD)
myFaves
QWERTY keyboard and trackball
Synchronize to Google applications (iGoogle, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Talk)
Touch screen
Web browser supporting HTML
Wi-Fi Internet
YouTube

...check out the rest of the pictures

While the fall CTIA show isn't really known for handset announcements, Research in Motion paid no mind and started the show off with a bang by introducing the RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 on Tuesday night. While much of the attention has turned to the rumored BlackBerry Thunder as of late, the Pearl Flip 8220 shouldn't be forgotten, as it's the first BlackBerry to sport a clamshell design.

The flip phone, which comes in black or red, measures 3.9-inches high by 1.9-inches wide by 0.6-inch deep and weighs 3.5 ounces. It features a 65,536-color, 128x160 pixel external display and front-facing 2-megapixel camera, while you get a 65,536-color, 240x320-pixel TFT display on the inside. As part of the Pearl series, you get the SureType keyboard (groan) and trackball navigator. The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 also comes equipped with a 3.5mm headphone jack and an external microSD expansion slot.

Moving onto features, the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; GPRS/EDGE) Pearl Flip 8220 offers true world roaming, a speakerphone, smart dialing, and background-noise cancellation. Wireless options include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support. There's no GPS, but the BlackBerry Maps application is onboard to at least provide you with maps and text-based directions.

Supported e-mail solutions include BlackBerry Enterprise, Microsoft Exchange, IMB Lotus, Novell GroupWise as well as POP3 and IMAP4 accounts. There's also an attachment viewer for Word, Excel, PowerPoint files, PDFs, and JPG images.

(Credit: RIM)

When you're done working, you can enjoy MP3, WMA, AAC, MPEG4, WMV, and other music and video formats with the built-in media player. In addition, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 has a 2-megapixel camera with flash and video-recording capabilities.

In all, there aren't a whole lot of surprises, as the smartphone keeps very much in line with the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8120. Research in Motion was a little vague as to release date, but it will be offered by carriers worldwide sometime this fall and the company did confirm that T-Mobile will be one of the U.S. carriers. No word on pricing.

Now, here's the question: Will the flip-phone form factor work for BlackBerry? There's only been a handful of smartphones to come in the clamshell design, such as the Pantech PN-820, but they never seem to really take off. Will the RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 be any different?

More CTIA Fall 2008 coverage from CNET.

Lo and behold, the UK is about to receive the first commercial phone that runs Google's much talked about Android operating system.

However, the T-Mobile G1 is not a Google Phone. The hardware has nothing to do with Google. The operating system happens to be Android. There are two drawbacks to this.

1) The hardware is nothing like as downright lovely as the iPhone - both in terms of looks and usability. (Fold-out keyboards are sooooooooo 2005.)

2) The exciting thing about Android is that it is designed to be used as a platform for other people to create cool applications for. This has not happened yet and the smart money says we won't see the jaw-dropping functionality being developed on the Android platform for at least a year.

Our verdict: Android will soon be available on better phones than the G1. Also, wait 12 months before getting an Android phone and you'll see it loaded with some truly amazing gizmos. In the meantime, stick to the iPhone.

Lo bueno es que uno puede ir haciéndose una idea de cómo es este SO, sin tener la necesidad de esperar que algún amigo con mucho dinero se tenga que traer el HTC Dream, teléfono que está a por lo menos un año (¿6 meses?) de que llegue a nuestro país.

Lo cierto es que, más allá del emulador, lo bueno será probarlo definitivamente en un aparato, aunque resulta una buena alternativa para ir deshaciendo prejuicios, desrealizando virtudes y desentrañando la verdadera identidad del sistema operativo que lanzó definitivamente Google (aunque siempre digan que todo está en beta).

Operado nos Estados Unidos pela T-Mobile e fabricado pela HTC, o G1 é um celular com tela de 3 polegadas sensível ao toque, teclado "embutido" na parte inferior e a particularidade de funcionar com o software da empresa líder na internet. Clientes da operadora T-Mobile já podem fazer pedidos pelo site dedicado ao lançamento.

Os analistas que tiveram acesso ao telefone concordam que ele não supera o iPhone em design, mas opinam que apresenta algumas vantagens para o usuário. No G1, todos os aplicativos serão de graça e o usuário poderá utilizar vários ao mesmo tempo. As empresas apostam na participação da comunidade de desenvolvedores para fazer do G1 um aparelho "à prova do futuro".

Por enquanto, o G1 será oferecido exclusivamente com a T-Mobile, mas o Google convidou todas as operadoras a comercializar telefones que funcionem com o Android, cujo código é aberto, gratuito e permite às companhias telefônicas economizar em licenças de software. 

Para o Google, que ganha grande parte de suas receitas graças à publicidade na internet, o G1 é mais um passo rumo ao sonho de uma sociedade permanentemente conectada à rede e aos serviços do buscador. 

Surpresa

Sergey Brin e Larry Page, co-fundadores do Google, fizeram uma aparição surpresa -- de patins -- durante o evento de apresentação do G1, realizado em Nova York. “É muito importante para mim, um geek [fã de tecnologia], ter um telefone que pode ser modificado e sofrer inovações, assim como acontece nos computadores”, afirmou Brin, segundo a agência de notícias Associated Press.

Loja de música

(Foto: Reuters)

 Fonte [www.g1.com.br]

Googlemaniac, ça fait quelques temps que je voulais explorer un peu cette histoire de téléphone (with) Google. Je suis un peu à la bourre sur ce coup là, je suis donc content de découvrir ce matin chez GoogleXXL une occasion de voir pour la première fois à quoi ressemble cet (si j'ai bien compris) OS pour téléphone portable embarqué chez différent constructeur.

Ce site vous permettra de lancer une petite émulation d'un des candidats: T-Mobile. Lovely! :)

From the Wall Street Journal:

Research in Motion Ltd. is rolling out its first real answer to Apple Inc.'s iPhone, the touch-screen BlackBerry Storm, which will work on broadband networks on both sides of the Atlantic and be exclusive to Verizon Wireless in the U.S. and to Vodafone Group PLC throughout Europe.

BlackBerry will have to distinguish itself amid the wave of other sleek do-everything smart phones coming to market, like Google Inc.'s G1, made by HTC Corp.. The Storm, BlackBerry's first touch-screen device, aims to make it harder to inadvertently select items while moving images across the screen.

The success of Apple's iPhone has spawned a series of touch-screen smart-phones from manufacturers around the world over the past year. Consumers will have a multitude of options this holiday season -- among them, Samsung Electronics Co.'s Instinct, LG Electronics' Dare, and the soon-to-be-launched G1 from T-Mobile USA Inc., a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG, and Google.

From InformationWeek:

The much-awaited smartphone sports many of the features of Apple's handsets, and even outshines it in certain categories. The touch-screen smartphone may give Verizon Wireless a legitimate rival to the iPhone 3G, and it may help stem the loss of subscribers to AT&T. The Storm has 3.25-inch touch screen that has a 360 by 480 resolution. Like the iPhone, the Storm has support for multi-touch interface, but RIM's device will have haptic feedback for its virtual keyboard, and it will be capable of cut and paste. The keyboard will have RIM's SureType layout in portrait mode, and it will be a full QWERTY layout in landscape orientation.

From CNET:

Tech journalists and gadget lovers across the globe are rejoicing over the announcement of the BlackBerry Storm, RIM's first touchscreen cell phone to compete with the iPhone.

Those who can't wait to get their hands on BlackBerry's latest call it a marvel and its keyboard functionality, which makes you press down on the screen to register a "touch", is something worth drooling over.

OK, I guess I can concede that the Storm is really neat and the touchscreen idea is fantastic. But I still don't see how the BlackBerry Storm will be able to compete on any level with the iPhone 3G.

It's not that I have a problem with RIM--I think the BlackBerry Curve is a fantastic device--or that I'm not impressed by the Storm. I just don't see how BlackBerry's first touchscreen device can compete against the iPhone if the vast majority of "mainstream" users simply don't know anything about it.

Go ahead and ask the person next to you at the office about the BlackBerry Storm. Chances are, if they aren't in to technology like you and I, they wouldn't have the slightest clue about it even though it's making headlines all over the tech world today.

Then ask those people what they knew about the iPhone the day after it was announced. I'll bet you'll find that they knew much more about the iPhone than the BlackBerry Storm.

Do you see what I'm getting at here? No matter how important a new device in the cell phone business may be to the growth of the industry, it will never be able to outshine the iPhone.

From ZDNet:

I just got done reading Matthew Miller’s preview of the BlackBerry Storm, RIM’s first BlackBerry that’s replaced the keyboard with a touchscreen system — one that you must physically depress with your finger to manipulate (resulting in a “satisfying click,” as many reviewers have reported).

My question is simple: is this truly an advancement?

It occurs to me that, while RIM’s responsive touchscreen technology, called ClickThrough, allows it to differentiate itself from the iPhone, it’s not a great advancement in the long run. Well-built as any BlackBerry is, I feel that the screen would eventually give out over frequent, Crackberry-level usage. And when the screen doesn’t press anymore (or worse, when it presses too far), then what?

It strikes me that such physical use of the device is actually backtracking a bit, technologically. Perhaps advancement, to me at least, is removing a “touch” altogether.

RIM’s “push-screen,” as I think it should properly be called, seems to bridge the gap between a true keyboard and a true touchscreen. Which is good for RIM’s keyboard-happy users, but by no means some groundbreaking new technology.

Plus, it also occurs to me that this technology would actually slow down the speedier users among us, because you actually have to take the time to depress the screen when tapping a message out.

But we’ll see when Matt gets his hands on one in a month or so.

Hi everyone, I just wanted to say thank you for all your support!  It's been wonderful having you all around to  read my wonderful typos and grammatically incorrect sentences!

I have visitors from as far north as Alaska (Governor Sarah Palin, is that you?), to Hawaii, Australia, the Philippines, and all over the UK!  We have reached a great world wide audience!

So enlight of your dedication to my site, some changes will ensue in the next coming week or so.  So please pardon my dust as I give my site a little revamp and give it a more homey feel!  Thanks from all of us here at tokoMobile!  Without you we'd broadcast the news to no one!