Here's a novel use of cell phones: They can assist you in cheating. On tests.
As the Agence France-Presse writes, it's common in Cambodia for students to bribe teachers to let them smuggle notes into exams, and even purchase answer sheets for tests from teachers. And some more high-tech cheaters have people read out answers over mobile telephones to them while they're taking national exams.
As the Phnom Penh Post, which no doubt is one of your bookmarks, reported last month, "around 108,000 Grade 12 students across the country took Khmer literature, social sciences, geography and chemistry exams, and exams in physics, morality, history and English" were taken later.
"What would happen if they fail?" asked Than Vichea, according to AFP. "We have to think about our expenses for schooling, part-time studies and fuel costs, and especially our time."
Students admitted to the AFP that they had "bribed teachers to allow them to use their mobiles to phone relatives for help during the exams, the results of which will be announced on August 20."
Read more here.
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According to Reuters, India's security agencies "are testing ways to access corporate email on BlackBerry devices by obtaining encrypted data in a readable format."
Research In Motion "faces an August 31 deadline to give Indian authorities the means to track and read BlackBerry Enterprise email and its separate BlackBerry Messenger service," Reuters says, explaining that the government is "concerned about the potential for militants to use the secure BlackBerry network to carry out attacks."
And they're serious, as they've threatened to shut down the services if RIM fails to comply.
As industry observer Scott Canon wrote recently, it's a thorny issue for RIM in some countries. "Ongoing talks could ban the BlackBerry in some countries or, perhaps just as critical, remove the cloak of encryption that makes its e-mails secure," he noted.
"One of the reasons we use the BlackBerry is the strong encryption," Dave Spickard, Euronet's director of information technology told Canon. "It would definitely cause some issues if that was lost."
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Nokia will acquire Motally, "a small, privately held mobile analytics firm in San Francisco."
According to industry observer Lance Whitney, Motally, staffed by a team of only eight people, "offers mobile app developers a service for tracking the usage of their software. The goal is to help developers enhance and optimize their apps by understanding how people use them."
PCWorld reported that Nokia's plan is to adapt Motally's tools for cross-platform application, the Qt user interface framework, operating systems Symbian and Meego and Java. Motally's tools will also continue to serve the company's existing customer base.
Nokia is still the market leader, but only just, and probably won't be too much longer. As Whitney notes, it "has been shedding market share to rivals such as Apple, Samsung, and Research In Motion. With earnings dropping and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo reportedly on his way out, the company recently embarked on yet another reorganization in an attempt to simplify its product lines."
Read more here.
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Multi-screen services are already reaching the market, and "major media industry players - including content providers, broadcasters, advertisers and device vendors - are vying for market share."
Officials of Alcatel-Lucent observe that with assets like existing media offerings, multi-device reach and subscriber intelligence, network service providers "are well positioned to capitalize.
Modeling by Alcatel-Lucent projects that multi-screen services will accelerate revenue growth for service providers. So obviously, as a service provider, "you don't need motivation to make the jump to multi-screen," they say. You need products that enable you to attract and retain multi-screen subscribers, secure a central role in the multimedia value chain, and generate sustainable media revenue. And mobile smartloading can help with that.
What is mobile smartloading? Glad you asked. According to its developers, Bell Labs, owned by Alcatel-Lucent, mobile smartloading supports offline, time-shifted consumption, "ensuring that subscribers always have access to their favorite content when they want it."
This new technology is designed to push content to smartphones "at the best possible time," company officials say, "using the best access technology available, always accounting for subscriber preferences and device conditions (including battery and memory)."
Read more here.
