HOW GAMES STARTED IN MOBILE PHONE?

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Mobile games are embracing 3D

The mobile games industry has long been the poor relation of the PC and console markets, but a combination of new technology, services and investment is fuelling optimism that mainstream adoption is not too far off.

Ask anyone to name a mobile phone game and the most common response will be Snake or Tetris.

And while the classic Russian puzzler is the world's most played and downloaded mobile game it is not an accurate reflection of the industry.

At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week the leaders in the mobile game industry have been preaching optimism about the future.

"This is still an infant industry, but it is growing quickly and expanding fast," said Rob Tercek, chairman of GDC Mobile.

"We are looking at an industry that is a $5bn (£2.5bn) industry overall, not bad for one that didn't exist 10 years ago," he said.

Touch technology

But for developers and publishers the mobile games industry is unpredictable.

"Some companies are very profitable, many others are not," said Mr Tercek.

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GOOGEL ON FOR THE WHITE BAND FOR WiFi AND BACKS IT BUT WHY ?

www.youthsprouts.blogspot.com Photo City-wide wi-fi networks are beginning to be rolled out across the United States. One of the most high-profile is a network operated by search giant Google.

While poring over hidden charges on your cell phone bill, or writing hefty cheques to your internet service provider, it's hard not to think there should be a better way.

Anything but high prices and no choices. Well, I'm starting to think there is, and I caught a glimpse of it in the city of Mountain View, California.

In the first week in August I drove down to Mountain View on a sweltering afternoon looking to test out the promise of free or cheap phone calls and ubiquitous internet access over a city-wide wi-fi network.

Thanks to Google, the city has been blanketed by wi-fi, which will soon allow its residents to connect to the wireless internet all over the city for free.

Using a technology called mesh, Google has placed hundreds of wi-fi nodes on lamp posts around the city that can connect your laptop or handheld device to the internet. For a town that gets the service, it's like living in a giant wi-fi hotspot.

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WiFi Q&A EXPLAINED BY BBC WORLD

www.youthsprouts.blogspot.com Wireless hotspots are spreading across the world's cities, with blanket wi-fi zones now being rolled out in many city centres. Operators are promising wireless surfing at the touch of a button from the park, the bus or the street corner. So what does the wireless future have to offer and will it live up to the hype?

What is wi-fi?

Wi-fi is the acronym for Wireless Fidelity, essentially a set of standards for transmitting data over a wireless network.

Wi-fi allows you to connect to the net at broadband speeds without cables, as long as you have the right equipment and, in most cases, a regular internet service provider and a wi-fi account.

To understand the technology behind wi-fi, imagine using a walkie-talkie. Your voice is picked up by a microphone, encoded onto a radio frequency and transmitted with the antenna to another walkie-talkie, which decodes your voice.

Wi-fi works in broadly in the same way, but using a better radio that is capable of handling a lot more data per second.

HOW DOES WI-FI WORK? 1: Wi-fi uses antennas around which wi-fi "hotspots" are created. The hotspots are outlets equipped to receive the radiowaves that power wireless networking. Until recently, wi-fi has been confined to more than 10,000 hot-spots in cafes, bars and airport lounges. But various projects are under way to set up city-wide zones, where a series of antennas are installed in the streets, on lampposts or street signs. The hotspots around them together create a much wider area of coverage. Norwich has a mesh network which links each lamppost antenna to the next creating a seamless wi-fi hotspot around the centre of the city. 2: The source internet connection is provided by a PC or server to which the antennas are connected either wirelessly or via a cable. 3: Some mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDA) now have wi-fi chips installed. With mobile phones, this means conventional networks can be bypassed and inexpensive long-distance calls made over the web (using Voice over Internet Protocol, VoIP). 4: Many laptops and handheld computers now come with built-in wi-fi connectivity; it is also possible to add wi-fi to your computer with a special card that plugs into a port on your laptop.

How do I use a giant wi-fi zone?

In the UK, there are already more than 10,000 wi-fi hotspots in public places such as restaurants, hotels, cafes, libraries and airports.

Wi-fi-enabled laptops and phones can be set up to connect to these hotspots automatically; usage is generally paid through a credit card at a login page on a web browser. Frequent users may even have accounts with service providers such as T-Mobile, BT Openzone, O2, SkypeZones and Nintendo wi-fi.

Will it catch on?

So far, wi-fi has been a service that is most useful for business people who need to work on the move; but operators want to make it available to all.

However, some analysts warn that wi-fi could be the "next dotcom crash", mainly because of patchy hotspot coverage, lack of enabled hardware and uncertainty over how to make money.

There are still a few big challenges ahead for wi-fi. Finalising interoperability and standards is one, and the concern over security is another.

Just because there are more than 10,000 wi-fi hotspots in the UK does not mean that a pass to use one means you can use all of them. Currently wi-fi hotspots are divided by who controls them.

In Norwich the local authority and regional development agency are pioneering a free wi-fi service. This model could catch on, if successful. More than 3,000 connections are being made to the city's wi-fi network each week

Logging on to the internet via wi-fi in different locations brings the risk (just as it does at home or in the office) of your computer being infected by computer viruses and worms. Experts advise you to install security software and update it regularly.

Who stands to profit?

Some critics argue that wireless hotspots can be a rip-off - the price of installing a wireless router in, say, a coffee shop, involves a one-off cost of a few hundred pounds but customers may be charged upwards of £5 an hour.

Users of the new city-wide wi-fi networks will be required to pay access charges to an account provider, such as BT Openzone or T-Mobile.

The revenues will be shared between the owners of the street furniture on which the equipment is installed (usually local councils), wi-fi hotspot suppliers and the internet service providers.

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Google believes the spectrum could create a wi-fi dividend

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Google's home is in Mountain View, California

Google is pressing the US government to allow the unlicensed frequencies of TV "white space" to be used for wi-fi.

The firm has written an open letter to regulators saying the US spectrum was a "once in a lifetime opportunity".

White space is unused blocks of frequencies in-between channels broadcast on analogue airwaves.

"The vast majority of viable spectrum in this country simply goes unused, or else is grossly underutilised," wrote Google's Richard Whitt in the letter.

"Unlike other natural resources, there is no benefit to allowing this spectrum to lie fallow," he added.

Google has said the white space could be used to bring "ubiquitous wireless broadband access to all Americans".

In the past TV broadcasters have opposed the use of white space, fearing it would cause interference with television programming.

Google believes the spectrum could create a wi-fi dividend

But in its letter, Google urged the FCC to adopt a series of overlapping technologies, including "spectrum sensing," designed to prevent signals from interfering with each other.

Mr Whitt said there was enough unused spectrum for businesses to create a wide range of options, such as building small peer-to-peer networks or even establishing an alternative national wireless network.

Google has said that devices designed to take advantage of the white space spectrum could be on the market by the end of 2009.

Other countries are also looking at using white space spectrum.

In the UK much of this space is being dedicated for use by services like wireless microphones for broadcast use, and for cognitive radio, a smart wireless technology that allows for the use of wi-fi.

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BBC website 'unblocked in China'

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Even stories about Tibet are now accessible

People in China are reportedly able to access stories on the BBC News website in full, after years of strict control by the Beijing government.

Dubbed the great firewall of China, the Communist government routinely blocks foreign news sites such as the BBC.

But BBC staff working in China now say they are able to access news stories that would have been blocked before.

However, the firewall remains in place for Chinese language services on the website and for any links in Chinese.

Beijing has never admitted to blocking access to BBC news stories - and there has been no official confirmation that the website has been unblocked.

But Chinese users trying to access pages on the site have almost always been redirected to an error message telling them: "The connection was reset."

It now appears that this is no longer the case, and access to the site is much easier.

The Chinese media website Danwei reported that BBC news output is now available to users "without hindrance".

Technology experts say such a development would not be possible without the approval of internet service providers - which are under strict supervision by Beijing.

The Chinese authorities had promised to give foreign journalists more freedom in the run-up to this summer's Olympic Games.

But analysts say that recent outbreaks of unrest in Tibet have made this promise more difficult for Beijing to uphold.

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IPHONE APPS AND MORE.

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The iPhone is a popular platform for hackers who have developed software that takes advantage of the gadget's features. Here a person who downloaded the pocket guitar software, developed by Shinya Kasatani, plays music by pressing and strumming the phone's touch screen. __