Bubblewrapping’s too good for them Ed Balls has again weighed into parents who insist on bubblewrapping their children and leaving them in front of the computer, after research showed British kids have slipped down the world s literacy league. Continued

All that glitters… Some say you get what you pay for and, in the case of a Sagem handset, the statement rings true. Its gold-and-black MY220X handset costs about the same as an Indian takeaway, but still delivers plenty of bling. Continued

Review Palm’s best smartphone yet? D’you know the most interesting thing about Palm’s Treo 500v? It’s a Windows Mobile smartphone without a stylus. For years, we’ve been noting PDA and, later, smartphone makers’ attempts to overcome the Microsoft OS inability to work one-handed, but until now no one’s quite succeeded. Continued

To subscribe to The Register’s weekly newsletter - seven days of IT in a single hit - click here All your data are belong to…er… someone else, we just don’t know who Continued

Comment Takes a leaf from Nokia’s book All the coverage thus far about Microsoft splashing out $46m for Musiwave, has been about how the mobile music service supplier has had a dramatic fall from grace, and has cost parent OpenWave some $80m. Continued

Watch out for this one… ahem These days a clothing label isn t fashionable unless it s got a mobile phone to its name. But now Swiss watch-maker Tag Heuer has clocked onto the idea and has announced plans to launch a range of luxury handsets. Continued

CEO of Symbian, Nigel Clifford, has said that he sees no real competitive threat from Apple’s iPhone - in fact he welcomes their entry into the mobile market, particularly in the US. In a press conference at 3GSM, Clifford also… Continued

Can YouTube be a big hit on mobile phones? The company signed a deal with Vodafone last week, but some industry rivals aren’t so sure. One is Yospace CTO David Springall. The company runs the See Me TV and Look… Continued

Samsung has rolled out the anticipated update to its UMPC-style WiMax-connected mobile internet gadget along with a PDA-style handset that also used the mobile broadband technology for access to the net. Continued

Poser alert If you can t afford a Vertu phone, then hide your humdrum handset and create the poser s allure by hooking a diamond-cut metal hands-free kit around your ear. Motorola s created the MotoPure H12 Bluetooth headset, endorsed by - of all people David Beckham. Continued

Review Gets you from A to B without going via L, O, S or T Nokia has decided satellite navigation is where it s at. The Finnish phone giant released its first GPS-enabled mobiles this year, and is promising a whole heap more for 2008. And its multi-billion dollar purchase of map supplier Navteq leaves no doubt how seriously Nokia is taking sat nav. Continued

Playground taunts Vodafone chief Arun Sarin is relishing a fight with Apple’s Steve Jobs - and he aims to wound. But it’s a throwaway remark the Financial Times published on Monday that caught the attention. It was surely designed to create maximum personal offence. Continued

SC07 The server booster bonanza takes hold One topic - even more so than cheap shrimp - dominated this year’s Supercomputing conference in Reno: Accelerators. Continued

Power cycle problem T-Mobile has suspended sales of its recently unveiled launched Sidekick Slide handset, following reports of power faults on the device. Continued

The view from the LiMo window What a pity Andy Rubin’s charming Welsh Terrier can’t talk. But that makes “Alex” Rubin the perfect spokesperson for Google’s phone software. Continued

eBay auction to help Brazilian street kids Jimmy Page has donated a pair of tickets for Led Zeppelin’s December 10 reunion gig at London’s O2 arena to Brazilian street kids charity Task Brasil. Continued

This time it’s Google making the claim So Google is working with some big industry players on an open-source operating system for mobile phones. The assumption is that developers are waiting for a completely open OS to change the mobile world. Continued

‘No one can take our customers’ Arun Sarin has told the FT that he has nothing to fear from Apple’s iPhone/iTunes combination, or Google’s Android, or even Nokia’s Ovi, as no one can ever take their customers’ billing relationship away from them. Continued

Comment Takes a leaf from Nokia’s book All the coverage thus far about Microsoft splashing out $46m for Musiwave, has been about how the mobile music service supplier has had a dramatic fall from grace, and has cost parent OpenWave some $80m. Continued

SC07 The server booster bonanza takes hold One topic - even more so than cheap shrimp - dominated this year’s Supercomputing conference in Reno: Accelerators. Continued

Apple vs BlackBerry vs numeric pad The virtual Qwerty keyboard on Apple’s iPhone allows users to enter text as quickly as they would on another handset’s physical keyboard, but they’ll make rather more mistakes in the process. Continued

Nokia, Qualcomm, handbags at ten paces Nokia today saw its Netherlands case thrown out of court on the grounds they hadn’t explained it properly, three weeks after the same thing happened in Germany - but the war of patents between the two companies continues. Continued

Exclusive Just having a chat with Ofcom The man behind Google’s $4.6bn plan to become a national wireless broadband provider in the US has ruled out a similar move in the UK when spectrum is auctioned off over the next two years. Continued

Unsure which DSLR to plum for this Xmas? Just ask an expert… Christmas time always means photography time. So, if you’re looking to buy a new digital SLR (DSLR) or upgrade on older machine to capture this year’s happy moments, here are the season’s five hottest models according to camera expert George Asghari, who runs independent retail chain Ask Electronics’ flagship London store. Continued

Always look on the bright side of life… Peter Erskine, CEO of UK operator O2 said it’s “early days” for the iPhone in the UK - and shot down some of the larger sales numbers being touted for the device. Continued

Will they hook you? Taiwanese manufacturer E-Ten has expanded its Glofiish smartphone range with the launch of the 3.5G M800 - part of its plan to double its share of the Windows Mobile market to 20 per cent by the end of 2008. Continued

Can we charge more than that? Oh, yes we can Vodafone customers disappointed at not being able to pay 899 for an iPhone can rest assured that O2 is not alone in overcharging customers for flashy hardware - as this screen grab from its web site shows: Continued

Review Gets you from A to B without going via L, O, S or T Nokia has decided satellite navigation is where it s at. The Finnish phone giant released its first GPS-enabled mobiles this year, and is promising a whole heap more for 2008. And its multi-billion dollar purchase of map supplier Navteq leaves no doubt how seriously Nokia is taking sat nav. Continued

Also suitable for voice calls, apparently Nokia has rolled out the rumoured extension to the N series line-up, a candybar alternative to the N95 sliderphone, dubbed the N82. Continued