Hamey

A spokesperson for Orange in France has confirmed that they will sell both the locked and unlocked versions of the iPhone in France.  No prices as yet except that it will be "more" than the €399, or $560 that the locked version will sell for.  French law prevents carriers from selling locked phones unless they provide the option for an unlocked version.The question now is, will Apple restrict it ...

Yesterday Radiohead released their new album "In Rainbows".  To stir the pot, the band are no long with a record label so released it independently through their website.  The beauty of it, you can pay whatever you like for the album download - yes - that includes $0. I paid  £ 4.45 (about $10) because to me, that is what it is worth.  I won't lie, I felt a really ...

  Barely 24 hours after Nokia announced the acquisition of Navteq, Tele Atlas shares have jumped.  Good news for them, not so good for TomTom who will have to lift their $2.5 billion bid they made in July to obtain the mapping company.  Tele Atlas is another Google Maps data provider along with Navteq so it will interesting to see if they start reaching for their chequebook too.

  Nokia announced today that they are acquiring mapping company Navteq for $8.1 billion, here is the 2-minute deal run down: About Navteq Founded 1985, has extensive digital map content and an associated data platform $582 million in revenue 2006 Provides for car navigation, mobile navigation and internet based mapping Provides significant data to Google (the other major vendor is Tele Atlas) More info The deal $8.1 billion ($78 cash per share) Price represents 34% premium on NAVTEQ ...

  It was inevitable.  It has taken a few months but serious anti-iPhone campaigns are starting to appear, this weekend Nokia has revealed theirs taking the form of billboards in New York and a website, with much more sure to follow.  I wouldn't say it is a particularly aggressive campaign, appearing to be almost a bolt-on to their existing marketing guff.  The billboard really sums up three things about ...

When was the last time you used your DVD player, mobile phone, MP3 player, and wondered why that button was there, or why they seem to design purely to compete without any original innovation and creativity? That could all change with the TechCrunch40 finalist CrowdSpirit from France. We've seen how Ponoko can use crowdsourcing to shake up the supply chain for furniture, jewelery and general industrial design. ...

  I was somewhat surprised to open my letterbox and see a bigger-than-a-letter sized package from Just Car Insurance.  I was more surprised to open it and find a pair of bright blue underpants with a note that said I "might need a spare pair" if I win a holiday they are offering.  This is very good marketing, but what really made me laugh was the note that apologised ...

   If you need that little hit to see if your idea is viable, a new ongoing competition backed by Advanta Bank called Ideablob has just launched and might be able to help.  The site lets aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners share and compare ideas and compete for a monthly user voted $10,000 prize for the best idea.  Advanta claim that launching Ideablob is:"Supporting and providing service to small businesses ...

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is taking Google to court over failing to distinguish between organic search results and sponsored links. The case is arguing against Google's pay-per-click AdSense program. The claim is that Trading Post (auto trader) violated Trade Practices by using competitor names "Kloster Ford" and "Charlestown Toyota" in the title of their sponsored links. This has been fought in various other countries, usually with ...

Google have announced an acquisition deal of Californian company Postini for $625m. This makes it the third largest acquisition for Google second to DoubleClick and YouTube. Postini has 10 million users worldwide and specialises in "message security, archiving, encryption, and policy enforcement". This would suggest a long term play for Google, as they move into the email corporate sector against heavyweights Microsoft and IBM. Google ...