Vodafone haunted by ghost customers

The advent of pre-pay phone packages may have been a boon for buyers who want a cheap way to get a mobile phone, but it is causing headaches for the mobile phone companies. Vodafone are one of the companies facing such woes. The company has admitted that around 1 million registered customers may have not used their phone in the past three months, this figure represents 12 per cent of its 12-million customer base. ...more

California stands firm against spam

A state appeals court panel in California has ruled that people should have legal protection against 'deceptive unsolicited commercial e-mail'. Two Californian companies that were originally charged with 'spamming' claimed the 1998 laws regarding the commercial use of e-mail were unconstitutional - that they interfered with inter-state commerce - and this was later upheld by a San Francisco Superior Court judge in 2000. This has now been reversed. ...more

Nokia 'pleased' with N-Gage launch

Nokia has stated that it is pleased with demand for its N-Gage mobile phone/handheld console hybrid, which launched at the beginning of October to a string of hostile reviews and reportedly dismal sales. Though the Finnish company says it has shifted 400,000 N-Gages to retailers, analysts suggest that consumer sales are a fraction of the units shipped to retailers. The price of the phone was temporarily cut by a third only two weeks after launch in two major retailers in the US, while here in the UK the mobile device has been changing hands for as little as 1 pence per unit (subject to additional line rental fees, naturally). ...more

Parthus on the integrated Bluetooth trail again

Parthus announced new Bluetooth-integrated products at the Bluetooth Developers Conference yesterday. It demonstrated the first Bluetooth-enabled MP3 player, integrating its BlueStream (Bluetooth) and MediaStream (multimedia) platforms, which allows peer-to-peer and peer-to-multi-peer file sharing. This means users could share their audio files wirelessly using products based on this technology. ...more

UK games charts: FIFA still on top

Still football mad after all these years; while Pro Evolution 3's fiercely loyal following can only keep the PS2 title at tenth place in the charts, the glitz and glamour of FIFA 2004 ensures that the title retains the number one spot for a fourth consecutive week. Activision's True Crime improves upon last week's early showing, rising from number three to number two, while Nintendo's corking Mario Kart: Double Dash puts in a strong showing at number three. EA's Lord of the Rings: Return of The King is the other major new entry at number four; elsewhere there's not a phenomenal amount of change, though Harry Potter spin off Quidditch World Cup manages to leap from 19 to a more impressive eighth place in the charts. ...more