The rumour mill is once again at work as speculation about RIM’s new mobile phone runs amok. Rumour has it that the new BlackBerry may be named the BlackBerry 9800 or BlackBerry Torch and a lot of telecoms people are saying that the device will be launched as early as next week – but maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

The new BlackBerry will be the first to be shipped with RIM’s new OS 6. Features of the new phone are said to include a better browser and better access to those all-important social networks, multi-touch controls, a touch-screen and a slide out QWERTY keyboard. All in all, a decent sounding BlackBerry!

The Chief Technology Officer of mobile phone operator Vodafone, Jeni Mundy, has spoken out about the difficulties facing mobile operators with the rise in smartphone ownership.

According to Mundy, last year one in five mobiles on the Vodafone network was a smartphone. By 2011, this will rise to one in two. New smartphones, for example the new iPhone 4, are continuously communicating with network even when the user isn’t using the mobile. As you can imagine, this puts a massive strain on networks and many mobile operators are struggling to cope. While smartphones are all well and good, the problems facing their continued usage need to be dealt with if we’re to continue using them.

This year’s 2010 Verizon Data Breach Investigations report has turned up some surprising facts about data security and data breaches. The Verizon Data Breach Investigations report garners information from the United States Secret Service amongst other sources in order to provide companies with information about data breaches, where they come from and how to counteract them.

According to the new annual report, in 2009 data breaches were more often the result of insiders, i.e. people working inside the company. Organised crime groups and the rise of social networking also helped to increase the amount of data breaches experienced in 2009. According to the figures, organised crime groups were last year responsible for 85% of all stolen data. Most worryingly of all though, is the fact that the majority of security breaches could have been prevented with simple and easy-to-install protection.

It has finally happened – a reminder to mobile phone maker Apple that despite peoples’ unfailing adoration and fanatical drive to posses anything with an Apple logo on it, it’s still a way away from world domination. And as long as it remains just a technology company, it is answerable to those bigger fish in the pond – like countries for instance. Countries such as Japan, which has demanded that Apple do something about its faulty iPod Nano’s.

Japan’s Trade and Industry Ministry has reported that there have been 27 incidents where iPod Nano’s have overcharged whilst heating – six of these resulted in serious fires and some resulted in burns. After demanding action and explanations, the Japanese government has been summarily ignored – after such a public demand though, Apple will have no choice but to act.

The calls and lines provider BT has reported an unexpected 6% rise in first-quarter adjusted core earnings despite its group revenues being down 4%.

The 6% rise in core earnings brings the total to £1.4 billion, ahead of the expectations of most analysts. However, BT is far from out of the woods. Its Global Services unit has been hemorrhaging money at an alarming rate and its huge pension deficit is now at £6.6 billion – hardly a minor worry.

The slight upturn in BT’s fortunes is largely due to its cutting costs – as of now, BT is down 8% on labour costs from last year. Still, they can only make so many people redundant before they have to actually turn around and deal with their deficits.

In business, call recording is a must for a number of reasons, be it legal or ethical. However, since smartphone mobiles have made an appearance, call recording has taken a bit of a nosedive – after all, it’s a lot harder to record calls on a mobile – and tapping into calls on a mobile? Forget it. That kind of technology costs a bundle and is solely the realm of law enforcement and government agencies. Or is it?

Chris Paget, a technology security consultant, has developed a cheap and easy-to-build IMSI catcher – i.e. a device that allows you to tap into calls made on mobile phones and listen in to them – or record them. He’ll be showing fellow hackers how to build this device at the annual Defcon security conference in Las Vegas.

It all seems to be happening in India at the moment, with telecoms and IT companies fighting tooth and nail to get a slice of what is to become the next emerging market in India. Well-known chip-maker Qualcomm is no exception.

According to unnamed sources, this Friday may see the announcement of a partnership between Qualcomm and India’s Global Group and Tulip Telecom, bringing wireless broadband to the masses. Other sources have said that Qualcomm will also announce its plans to roll-out wireless broadband at a news conference. So, stay tuned to get the low down!

Ron Bowles, an online security consultant has used a simple piece of code to collect information from the popular internet site Facebook. The code has collected the URL of all searchable Facebook profiles along with unique IDs and names. The list contains the information of over 100 million Facebook users – that’s a fifth of Facebook’s total amount of users.

This has once again given rise to the privacy and security debate surrounding Facebook. However, Facebook has hit back at critics saying that the data that has been released isn’t actually private data. One thing’s for sure though – people are downloading the list of URLs faster than you can imagine.

The Department of Telecommunications in India has introduced new rules and guidelines concerning service providers from outside of India. Although there has been no formally announced ban on importing telecoms equipment, no contracts with foreign providers have been approved for quite some time. According to sources, this was due to security worries over equipment from China in particular.

The new guidelines from the Department of Telecommunications state that source code and computer programmes must be disclosed if it has been used for the equipment. Also, service providers are asked to only employ the minimum amount of foreign workers.

As predicted, Microsoft is none too happy with the new deal between Yahoo Japan and its rival Google. After trying to appeal to the Japanese fair trade watchdog, Microsoft suffered a bit of a blow when Japan’s watchdog announced that there was currently no monopoly problem with the deal. However, as Google and Yahoo are both dominant internet companies in Japan, I’m sure that both the Japan Fair Trade Commission and Microsoft will be keeping an eye on them.

The deal between Yahoo Japan and Google means that Yahoo will switch over to Google’s search engine, using Google’s online ad system. So really, it’s no surprise that Microsoft is a wee bit upset – after all, the ink is barely dry on the decade-long contract that Yahoo and Microsoft have just signed.