NotePage SMS, Paging and Messaging Blogs

The manufacturer of BlackBerry smartphones has assured the French government that their products are not vulnerable to espionage.

Canadian phone maker RIM said after France's national defense agency banned many government officials from using the devices for sensitive government purposes that the communications are protected by sophisticated encryption codes that would take billions of years to crack, The Times of London reported Wednesday.

French security officials had expressed concern that communications sent via BlackBerry could be intercepted by the U.S. National Security Agency or other foreign agencies, as the phones use mail servers located in the United States, Cnet News.com reported.

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Spanish police have arrested a 28-year-old man on charges that he created variants of the CommWarrior and Cabir mobile phone viruses, according to published reports.


The man, whose identity was not disclosed is accused of creating 20 new variants of the viruses.

Rural cell phone service provider Dobson Communications is the latest telecommunications firm to attract the attention of buyout managers, according to media reports Monday.


Dobson has a customer base of 1.76 million subscribers over a mostly rural 17-state area. The region has a population of more than 12.6 million.

Most teens say they could not live without their cell phones. For some of them, the exaggeration may soon have a kernel of truth.


Doctors are testing technology that uses wireless data, text messaging and other youth-friendly technology to monitor and manage chronic illnesses.

While these systems do not address life-and-death medical emergencies, some experts say the emerging field does show promise for improving the lives of those with long-term conditions.

AT&T Inc. and Apple Inc. on Tuesday said wireless service for the iPhone will range from $59.99 to $99.99 per month.

Mobile phone operators have lost a legal battle to reclaim more than £3bn of the £22.5bn they paid to the British government in 2000 for third-generation licences.


The final decision by the European Court of Justice confirmed a preliminary opinion issued last September. It rejected arguments by companies such as Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and Hutchison that value added tax was charged in the price paid for licences.

Tessera Technologies has revealed new wafer-level camera technology that can be implemented into devices such as mobiles and PCs.

European Union governments approved a cap on cell phone roaming fees this week, but the move isn't likely to have much if any impact on U.S. cell phone callers traveling in European this summer.

Approved Thursday, the new cap is scheduled to take effect in European countries in August. Rates will be capped at 66 cents a minute for outgoing calls and 33 cents a minute for incoming calls. The lid on roaming fees drops prices drastically and service providers have complained about the action.

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen said on Saturday consumers in many parts of the world will have access to the popular video-sharing Web site on their mobile phones by next year.

Forest guards in western India are using cell phones with ringtones of cows mooing, goats bleating and roosters crowing to attract leopards that have wandered into human settlements, officials said on Monday.

But rather than use methods such as live bait like goats tied to trees to lure the leopards, which then fall into large pits dug by guards, officials say they have found a safer method to trap the cats.

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Cell phones in Japan could soon provide a vital warning seconds ahead of a major earthquake. Japans three largest cellular carriers, NTT DoCoMo Inc., KDDI Corp. and Softbank Mobile Corp., plan to develop a way to automatically funnel alerts to cell phones from a new government advance warning system, which went into operation last year.

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Motorola will cut an additional 4,000 jobs as the mobile phone maker tries to cope with tough global competition.

A Chinese city has halted construction of a chemical plant after residents sent more than 1 million mobile phone text messages protesting possible pollution dangers, news reports said Thursday.

Prince is giving away the first single from an upcoming album to cell phone users as the rock star, who is also launching a perfume, looks to create a buzz around his Planet Earth album, due out in weeks.


Similar to David Bowie's involvement with a Nokia phone launch last year and Paul McCartneys plan to publish an album through Starbucks, Prince's latest stunt is part of a trend for long-established musicians to try to interest new fans in their latest music by aligning themselves with the next new thing.

CNN rankings show another banner year for the leaders of the tech revival. BioMed and Pharmaceuticals also make a strong showing!

Fastest 100 Growing Companies

PC World editors rank the best PCs, HDTVs, components, sites, and services. Plus: the products PC World is looking forward to next year, and which technologies are rising and falling.

Google Apps Premier Edition
Intel Core 2 Duo
Nintendo Wii
Verizon FiOS
RIM Blackberry 8800
Parallels Desktop
Pioneer Elite 1080p PRO-FHD1
Infrant Technologies ReadyNAS NV
Apple Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger"
Adobe Premiere Elements 3
Apple TV
Samsung SyncMaster 244T
BillP Studios WinPatrol
HP dv9000t
McAfee SiteAdvisor
Canonical Ubuntu 7.04
Pandora.com
Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite
Paint.net
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000

more in the top 2007 list