Industrious hackers have managed to jailbreak T-Mobiles new G1 phone through a hole in the Google Android operating system, and made it known on a high traffic forum.

The hack, was posted on a XDA-Developers forum, and is a relatively simple process that allows Linux pros to gain root access in around a minute. The hack uses the widely available PTerminal application to telnet to the device’s IP address – giving you root access.

The hack, although significant, is not as impressive as the jailbreaking of Apple’s iPhone – an effort that involved loads of hackers who spent weeks trying to break through the numerous locks that Apple’s security engineers placed on the device.

The hack gives the hacker complete system access with full read and write functionality, the running of Symbian, Linux, or other alternative OS’s is possible. Other modifications are also possible. One forum participant claims to even have the ability to “port apps to native C code for Android.”
Some members of the forum are looking at the possibility if using the hack to make the G1 and future Android phones act as a Wi-fi router or to enable Bluetooth profiles.

You should know though. If you don’t quite understand the ins and outs of jaailbreaking, its best too steer clear as you could easily turn your shiny new G1 into a paperweight – changes to the /system directory cannot be undone by hard reset.

Google have their security experts working on a patch, and they will also update the source code base to make it more secure.

The number of motorists caught driving with a mobile phone pressed to their ear has been on the increase in recent years, with the majority of culprits dwelling in London – who are also the best at getting away with it.

He first ever conviction for use of a mobile phone while driving was in 2003 – and was also the only one that year. Fats forward to 2004 and 789 people were in court for mobile use, with 596 fines handed out for the crime. The figures have been on the increase every year. In 2005 2,090 people were busted, and in 2006, 2,682 people got a slap on the wrists.

The amount of people actually found guilty has also been on the rise. In 2004 the Metropolitan Police dragged 203 drivers to court, but just 124 people were charged – just 61%. In 2005 they police upped the ratio of collars to around 83% of the 658 people they put in the docks. Then in 2006 good things continued with 85.8% of its 588 law breakers charged.

Its good to see so many people being found guilty of essentially dangerous driving, but what this also means is that there is more people blabbing away on their phones while in the car. The police are getting better at catching some of these people, but it’s worrying that people are willing to risk their life and others just to maintain a phone call.

There are some areas in the UK that have excellent rates of police captures. Remarkably no one in Kent uses a mobile phone while driving, or more realistically the police are terrible at catching them. Northamptonshire is the second closest with 8 arrests in 2004.

A market analyst, probably not Apples favourite guy right now, claims that Apple will cut production of the revolutionary iPhone by around 40 percent during the current 4th quarter.

FBR Capital Markets analyst Craig Berger said in a report that, compared to the previous year on year figures, some “new checks” have helped him to reach the 40 percent reduction figure, which has no doubt got Apples shareholders nervous.

Berger’s latest prediction marks an increase of four times the amount of his earlier forecasts, when he said iPhone production would reduce by ten percent during the current quarter.
However, it’s not quite as crystal clear as Berger makes out. Apple iPhone sold 6.9 million units in the third quarter of the year, and the reasons for any reduced output could be many things.

It’s entirely plausible that the company over-ordered during the previous quarter and it may want to reduce market stock levels slightly. Its also possible with the global credit crisis that Apple are just being cautious.

News corporation CNN said that Bergers analysis should be “taken with a grain of salt, given Bergers track record with Apple”, before noting some of the analysts previous claims on the company.
It’s fair to say that maybe Craig Berger is a rubbish analyst. He made claims last February that Apple had cut its build forecast for MacBooks because of a predicted 50 percent decline in sales. What actually happened was sales in macBook rose by seven percent.

Telecom’s operator BT have issued what many will see as a shocking profit warning, which saw shares plummet by almost a fifth as a result.

The company announces its results for the third quarter on the 13th of November, but it told the London Stock Exchange earlier today that although revenues has grown with expectations, they have missed their profit targets, notably in BT’s Global Services sector.

Global Services grew revenues by 15 percent but Ebitda is below expectations at £120m. The company blamed a decline on high margin UK business and the no show of expected efficiency savings for the shortfall.

The retail, wholesale and OpenReach aspects of BT’s business all brought in revenue growth on target. Overall the company expect revenues have grown faster than expected but earnings per share are slightly below expectations.

Ian Livingstone, BT’s chief executive, said: “BT is performing in line with or ahead of expectations in all but one of its divisions, so the results in BT Global Services are particularly disappointing. We acknowledge that the performance in this part of the group is unsatisfactory and are committed to taking decisive action to rectify the situation.”

The company announced a share dividend of 5.4p, which is down on last year.

British Telecom’s Global Services boss has got himself in hot water after the announcement that they missed profit targets for the division. Francois Barrault quit his position as a member of BT’s board of directors, to be replaced by finance director Hanif Lalani. Ray Leclercq will move from his position as chief financial officer at OpenReach to become CFO at BT Global Services.

For the past ten years, the internet has played a huge role in everyone’s lives. From computer games to managing finances and new flourishing industries, the World Wide Web has been thriving in everyone’s eyes. Now that it has entered all of our homes, it has started to take over our phone lines as well. Of course this is no surprise, as internet phone calls have always been in the background. However, recently, VOIP (also known as Voice over Internet Protocol) has finally caught thousands of people’s attention.

For those who don’t know, VOIP has become the latest way to connect with others. In simpler terms, it is a phone call that comes directly from an internet connection. It is not only going to be the future of the telephone industry, but it will attract thousands of consumers because it comes with a lot of different advantages. No matter how budget conscious you are, you will most likely love VOIP’s affordability.

We all have experienced outrageous long distance fees and extravagant monthly bills. For this reason, many telephone subscribers feel that VOIP is a blessing in disguise, as the prices and fees are twice as low. On the other hand, there are some downsides to this form of service. Unfortunately, businesses are going to have to deal with downtime and the possibility of a bad connection. After all, the internet always has occasional issues, and may require extra attention and additional fees. Nevertheless, as long as they give it a try for a few months, the benefits are usually overwhelming. Regardless of potential problems, large firms like IBM have embraced it with open arms.
In order to use VOIP, all you need is a VOIP program and a microphone. Surprisingly, many VOIP programs are free or very affordable to buy. With a pair of speakers and a phone number to dial, you are easily on your way to using VOIP. Due to the popularity of wireless internet, anyone can place a phone call, no matter where they are. It is a convenient alternative, especially if you are displeased with regular telephones. For this reason, there are already thousands of users becoming regular VOIP users. In the future, most homeowners will be a customer.

If you do not want to use this form of VOIP, there is another alternative. There are specialized VOIP phones that often come with video conferencing. This is a great product for any business that has long distance clients or other offices. Companies like IBM love the fact that they have a VOIP system, because it offers such affordability and convenience. No matter what type of package you are looking to get, VOIP offers it all. It is not only going to be a bargain for people who are dying to save money, but soon everyone will be using this new form of technology.

SAN DIEGO and REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Qualcomm Incorporated , a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies and data solutions, and Amobee Media Systems, the world leader in advertising solutions for mobile operators, today announced that they are working together to offer mobile advertising on Qualcomm’s Plaza solution.

Amobee and Qualcomm completed an integration of Amobee’s ad-serving platform with Plaza that now enables advertising to be fed into Plaza’s ecosystem of widgets. Operators worldwide will be able to use the combined offering to take advantage of unique mobile Internet opportunities while generating significant mobile advertising revenues.

In May 2008, Qualcomm Internet Services announced Plaza, a platform-agnostic service that provides a framework for the development of mobile widgets — Web-based applications for mobile devices. This new framework will feature catalogs of mobile widgets that will be made available to mobile operators worldwide, allowing them to deliver quick and personalized Internet services to their end-users across all devices. The Amobee Media System will enable operators to monetize the use of these widgets.
“This collaboration between Amobee and Qualcomm gives operators an easy-to-deploy and trusted solution that creates a new revenue stream and the opportunity to boost mobile Internet usage,” said Ziv Eliraz, vice president of alliances at Amobee. “It will also allow developers and media companies to get closer to the promise of the new mobile media.”

With Amobee’s implementation on Plaza, operators can create and sell new advertising inventory to brands and agencies that want to deploy and monitor campaigns across all mobile entertainment and communication channels. Amobee will dynamically insert relevant ads into appropriate widgets and will measure and optimize these campaigns to yield the highest results.

“Amobee’s mobile ad-serving solution has been deployed by more operators than any other solution to date. Their proven technology is serving the mobile needs of global operators, as well as top brands that are reaching out to mobile users with targeted advertising,” said Noam Raffaelli, managing director of Plaza for Qualcomm Internet Services. “The goal of Plaza is to let operators provide their users with the platform to personalize their mobile Internet experience and in return drive additional revenue streams. Mobile advertising is a key ingredient to make this happen.”

Headquartered in Redwood City, California, Amobee Media Systems is the most deployed telco-grade ad-serving solution. Amobee is dedicated to mobile operators, allowing them to dynamically insert advertising impressions in all forms of mobile communication and content: WAP Browsing, Video & Music, SMS, MMS, applications and Games. Amobee’s complete ad-serving solution is designed to facilitate the launch of advertising campaigns for brand building, direct response and lead generation campaigns helping mobile operators and their subscribers “get more for less.” The company enjoys strategic investments from key mobile ecosystem players: Cisco, Motorola, Telefonica and Vodafone, as well as financial backing from some of the biggest names in venture capital: Accel Partners, Globespan and Sequoia Capital.

Qualcomm Incorporated is a leader in developing and delivering innovative digital wireless communications products and services based on CDMA and other advanced technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., Qualcomm is included in the S&P 100 Index, the S&P 500 Index and is a 2008 FORTUNE 500 company. For more information, please visit http://www.qualcomm.com/.

It seems gimmicky mobile phone products just will not die. After my joy at the demise of the worlds most infuriating icon – Crazy Frog – mobile vendors are still styling to find a way to drive people insane with a barrage of tacky add-on’s that teens can play with in the bus or on trains.

Step up Vodafone. New service FlipFont, although not noisy, is another gimmicky thing that people can download to ‘enhance’ their mobile. What does it do? Why it changes the font of course…

Nokia N73 or N95 customers on Vodafone can download the application that allows users to change the font on their phone. This allows users to have a different font, breathing new life in to the font selection of their phone. The range of fonts is provided by Monotype, and is to be expanded from the ten fonts currently available.

If it looks like I’m scrabbling for ideas on the features of this app, it’s because I am. The app will cost a couple of quid to buy, and is the latest next big thing in mobile crap…sorry…app technology.

Over the past few years mobile companies have been desperately seeking ways of making mobile phones appealing, everything from 3D wallpapers, to tacky ring tones, to annoying message tones. Orange called it “mobification” once, but no one listened.

Of course ringtones have been a huge success story for any companies, until people realised you could just download them illegally, or burn them from cd on to your computer, then onto your phone with the software your phone comes with.

Anyway, Monotype seems to think they have unlocked a money spinner as, “users have tried to change their phone font and have broken their phone in the process”. The horror.

Presidential candidate John McCain has had Verizon and AT&T install temporary cell sites near his Arizona ranch so that he receives better coverage.

The Washington Post reported the story at the end of last week. They established that McCain’s wife, Cindy, offered some land to Verizon early last year in the hope that they would put a cell there, however at that time, the company said no.

However, buckling to pressure from security services, Verizon rolled in a temporary base station to provide better reception. AT&T – not wanting to be left out (he could be president soon don’t you know) – wheeled in their own cell, giving the McCain’s the best coverage in the planet.*

The cells are towers on trailers that are powered by a generator and connected to the world through a microwave link.

So why are these two companies falling all over themselves to help McCain? Well, I think it could be to do with the face five of his campaign officials worked as lobbyists for Verizon, and that Verizon’s own employees have raised $155,000 to fund the campaign, along with $1.3 million from the Verizon chief executive.

AT&T is even more under McCain’s thumb, with its executive vice president raising $2.3 million with the help of AT&T lobbyists, and staff donating $325,000 to the campaign fund.

McCain is also a member of the Senate commerce committee, which oversees the FCC.

A campaign spokesman told the Post – through his gritted teeth - “Mrs McCain’s staff went through the website as any member of the general public would - no string-pulling, no phone calls, no involvement of Senate staff … Just because she is married to a senator doesn’t mean she forfeits her right to ask for cell service as any other Verizon customer can.”

AT&T made it clear they were helping McCain: “You can’t have a presidential nominee in an area where there is no cell coverage.”

* Ok, so maybe not the best in the world, but its probably quite good.

Electronics specialist Favite has been demonstrating the latest advancement in RFID technology by changing TV channels with a battery-less remote control.

Using a passive RFIS tag to send a signal to the television at, the remote works by collecting energy from a two-watt induction field generated by the idiot box every few seconds.

Favite admits that not everyone would like a high-powered transmitter in there living room, so it’s suggested that a rechargeable version could be made that uses a button cell, which would give up to ten years of life.

Most remotes use infra red which works by line of sight, and is pretty cheap to manufacture, but Favite’s RFID controller could prove an even cheaper option, say the company.

Wireless remotes are common for stereos such as the Sony Bravia which uses Zigbee-based remotes at 2.4Ghz. Favite believes that not only is their technology cheaper, its also thinner than infrared.

Ok, so its not the most groundbreaking story, but according to RFID Journal, big name companies will be adopting Favite’s battery saving technology. But I have to ask how often do you need to change your batteries? Is this just a case of needless technology or is it more about saving the environment?

Wireless networks use radio waves instead of wires to transmit data between computers. Here’s how: The Binary Code: 1s and 0s

It’s well known that computers transmit information digitally, using binary code: ones and zeros. This translates well to radio waves, since those 1s and 0s can be represented by different kinds of beeps. These beeps are so fast that they’re outside the hearing range of humans. Morse Code: Dots And Dashes It works like Morse code, which is a way to transmit the alphabet over radio waves using dots (short beeps) and dashes (long beeps).

Morse code was used manually for years via telegraph to get information from 1 place to another very quickly. More importantly for this example, though, it is a binary system, just as a computer system is. Wireless networking, then, can be thought of as a Morse code for computers. You plug in a combined radio receiver and transmitter, and the computer is able to send out its equivalent of dots and dashes (bits, in computer-speak) to get your data from here to there. Wavelengths And Frequencies You might wonder how the computer can send and receive data at high speed without becoming garbled nonsense.

The key to wireless networking is how it gets around this problem. First, wireless transmissions are sent at very high frequencies, which allows more data to be sent per second. Most wireless connections use a frequency of 2.4 gigahertz (2.4 billion cycles per second) — a frequency similar to mobile phones and microwave ovens. However, this high frequency produces a wavelength that is very short, which is why wireless networking is effective only over short distances.

Wireless networks also use a technique called “frequency hopping.” They use dozens of frequencies, and constantly switch among them. This makes wireless networks more immune to interference from other radio signals than if they transmitted on a single frequency. Internet Access Points The final step for a wireless network is to provide internet access for every computer on the network. This is done by a special piece of wireless equipment called an access point. An access point is more expensive than a wireless card for 1 computer, because it contains radios capable of communicating with around 100 computers, sharing internet access among them.

Dedicated access points are necessary only for larger networks. With only a few computers, it is possible to use 1 of them as the access point, or to use a wireless router. Industry Standards Wireless equipment from different manufacturers can work together to handle these complex communications because there are standards which guide the production of all wireless devices.

These standards are technically called the 802.11. Because of industry compliance with these standards, wireless networking is both easy to use and affordable today. Wireless Is Simple To Use If all this talk of frequencies has you worried — relax. Wireless networking hardware and software handle all of this automatically, without need for user intervention. Wireless networking, for all its complicated ability, is far simpler to use than you might expect.