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France wants Apple to pay $55 million over strict carrier deals
Have you noticed that many carriers give prominent placement to the iPhone in their catalogs, with virtually identical marketing? That's because Apple gets to dictate some pretty strict terms to providers that want the iPhone in their roster... and France isn't happy about it. The country's competition regulators have launched a complaint against Apple that asks the tech giant to pay a total of €48.5 million (about $55.3 million) and change carrier deal clauses that are reportedly illegal. If you ask officials, these pacts are extremely lopsided.
Jinni's TV search tools selected by Time Warner and Vudu to power intelligent search
Whenever you ask a friend to suggest a good TV show, they often just bellow praise for The Wire, Breaking Bad or My Little Pony -- not useful if your tastes are a little more diverse. That's why major players Time Warner and Vudu have signed up Jinni's taste engine to build into their platforms to help you find entertainment -- no more boring grid-style guides, Jinni promises. We're apparently entering, "a new era of intuitive, personalized user experience," which sounds perfectly swell to us. A duo of European providers are also hopping on board -- Bouygues Telecom and C More Entertainment -- as well as Asia's SingTel and Africa's Multichoice. Nobody's talking specifics on when we'll see these metadata-pulling suggestions appear in homes, but if your horizons suddenly start to broaden, you know who to blame.
UK and French carriers working on cellular coverage for Channel Tunnel, aim to finish by 2012 Olympics
If you live in a technophile city like Taipei, you'll have been enjoying underground 4G for a long time now, but in London the rule is that you have to bid adieu to your mobile connectivity when diving into a tunnel. The city's Mayor has been active in encouraging (forcing?) the major British carriers to install the necessary equipment to provide coverage on the Tube, and now we're hearing that ambition has stretched beyond the nation's borders as well. The Daily Telegraph reports that Vodafone, O2, Everything Everywhere, and Three from the UK along with Orange, SFR and Bouygues from France have agreed to share the cost of putting together a £20 million ($30.8m) project for making cellular coverage possible while traveling through the 31.4-mile Channel Tunnel between the two countries. The goal is to get things up and running by the Olympics in 2012, though we've no indication as to what speeds those wireless data transfers will reach. Still, having some bars is better than none, right?
French gendarmes bust network of 'cellphone hackers'
Police in France have busted what's been described as a "mobile phone hacking ring" and arrested nine people, according to Reuters. Apparently the criminal enterprise, which has been operating for five years, purchased SIM card unlock codes from phone company employees and retailers at €3 ($4) a pop, which it then sold on the Internet for €30 ($40). According to investigators, one of the employees made something like €25,000 ($33,685) a month from the scheme, which all told cost mobile operators anywhere from about €500,000 ($667,200) to several million per month. Among the affected providers were Bouygues Telecom, Orange, and SFR, the latter of which prompted the investigation last year. A brother and sister arrested in the city of Rennes are suspected to be at the head of the ring.
The end of exclusivity leading to big iPhone sales in Europe
Go figure, right? You get a relatively hot phone out onto more carriers, and just like that, sales increase. It ain't rocket science, buster. As AT&T grins happily while enjoying a death grip on Apple's cash cow here in the States, things are a lot more wide open for consumers across the pond. In both France and the UK, the iPhone has been given the all-clear to be sold on multiple carriers, and according to research from Bernstein, the "widening of the distribution has boosted Apple's value market share to 32 percent in the latest quarter from 21 percent just three months earlier." The notes also mention that Apple's increase is coming at the expense of RIM, with over 600,000 iPhone handsets being sold during Q3 2009 in France alone. The point to all this madness? Oh, not much -- just to tell Sir Jobs that he can count on quite a bit more dough should he decide to sell this elusive "iPhone" device on Verizon in the US of A.
Samsung i7500 to be renamed Galaxy, released in France in early July
Speaking of Samsung touchscreen handsets, Bouygues Telecom's announced that they expect to ship the company's first Android handset -- the i7500 -- in early July, making it the first carrier to snag it. The French company will rebadge the device, calling it the Galaxy, which is certainly sexier than the numeric moniker. The quad-band GSM, tri-band 7.2Mbps HSDPA (900/1700/2100MHz) handset has a 3.2-inch, 320 x 480 pixel AMOLED touchscreen, WiFi, GPS, a 5 megapixel camera, 8GB of storage with MicroSD expansion for up to 32GB more. We're still expecting this bad boy -- which recently passed through the old FCC -- to make a possible T-Mobile debut this fall. [Via Talk Android]
Samsung shoots out Betty Boop handset in France
We won't lie -- Betty Boop is a curious choice to us, but we will admit that it's entirely more unique than Hello Kitty. At any rate, fans of the lovably lady who just so happen to live in France can apparently pick one up from Bouygues Télécom. Though, we'd recommend you shuffle on down in a hurry, 'cause the limited edition nature could mean that these will be all claimed in the near future. As for the phone itself, you'll find a relatively simple slider design, microSD card slot, up to three hours of talk time, a VGA camera, FM radio and built-in MP3 player. All yours for the low, low price of €129 ($175).[Via UnwiredView]
