Lower call rates to mobile phones for Telkom customers  

Telkom announced on Tuesday that it is lowering its peak call rates to mobile phones by about 22% as of next month. The telecommunications company is slashing “its peak rate for fixed-to-mobile calls from 1 March 2010 by the full 36c resulting in Telkom customers now paying R1.475 per minute for conventional calls as opposed to R1.886 in 2009” its statement reads.
 
Nexus One by Sony Ericsson… well almost

President of Sony Ericsson (SE) Bert Nordberg told Swedish publication, Sydsvenskan, that his company was approached by Google to construct its smartphone which was eventually built by HTC. SE turned down Google’s offer as it doesn’t want to dilute its own brand by outsourcing its phone manufacturing skills to other companies and wants to succeed on its own steam within the US market. So the world missed out on a sensible Swedish Nexus One…sigh.
 
Steve Jobs honoured at MWC 2010

Steve Jobs has yet another accolade under his belt having been named mobile personality of the year at an awards ceremony held at the Mobile World Congress 2010, which concluded yesterday. Apple’s charismatic co-founder and CEO was also inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2007 and named as Forbes’ CEO of the decade. Jobs wasn’t present at the ceremony or the congress itself. For a full list of the winners within the 19 different categories check out the MWC website.
 
No decision reached yet in Google Books court battle

Google is facing off against various US interest groups, book authors and publishers in a New York court, over its plans to establish the world’s largest online library. The two sides did reach a settlement to the tune of $125 million (almost R960 million) back in 2005. That settlement still needs approval from the courts, which is why the parties are back in court. Judge Denny Chin heard arguments from both parties this week, but is still to make his decision to approve or reject the settlement.