Mobile phone companies have upped their customer service according to new research from Ofcom, which shows that customer satisfaction with their mobile network is generally higher than average.

The research, which involved 3,000 interviews with consumers, showed that O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone have all improved their customer satisfaction significantly compared to 2009's findings.

The one blot on the networks' copy book came from 3, which was found to have more fault issues and garner more complaints than average; however, its overall customer satisfaction was still fairly high, at 63 per cent.

I want to speak to the manager

Ofcom also looked at landline, broadband and pay TV providers; TalkTalk takes home the wooden spoon, with almost a quarter of its customers dissatisfied with its landline service, and 23 per cent unhappy with the broadband service.

On the Pay TV front, customers' satisfaction with Sky has improved, but Virgin Media's customers are more dissatisfied with the company's customer service than they were in 2009.

Consumer Group Director, Claudio Pollack, explained the reasoning behind the research: "By publishing this research we want to give consumers an insight into the standard of customer service being offered across the communications sector.

"The more information of this kind consumers have, the more effectively they can exercise their choice."

Ofcom has today announced a new lower cap on the rates that networks can charge landline operators to connect calls to mobile phones and on charges for cross-network calls.

Coming in to effect on 1 April, the cap will affect the UK's four mobile networks: Three, O2, EverythingEverywhere (previously Orange and T-Mobile) and Vodafone.

From 1 April, the networks will not be able to charge more than 2.66p per minute for a call to a mobile phone from a landline or from a different network, with prices dropping until the 2014/15 low of 0.69p per minute. Hopefully, operators will pass these savings on to consumers.

April fools

These new lower rates apply only to the major networks – smaller virtual networks, like Virgin Media and Tesco Mobile, will get their own rates "to be set on a fair and reasonable basis".

While the new rates are lower than we are currently subject to, they are also higher than Ofcom's last recommendations on the matter, which would have seen rates fall as low as 0.5p per minute.

BT is the first landline provider to promise that the lower costs will be passed on to its customers.

The telecoms company was a key player in the 'Terminate the Rate' campaign, along with a number of other companies including Three.

John Petter, managing director Consumer, BT Retail, said: "Ofcom has made some worthwhile reductions in mobile termination rates, which will benefit customers in the near future.

"Our focus is now on developing an all-inclusive package that will enable people to call mobiles from their landlines at no extra cost, with no fear of 'bill shock'. This will be incredibly good news for BT's customers."

Word Lens, a new augmented reality app, has just landed on the app store that visually translates written words on signs in real-time.

The app is a meld of Google Translate and Google Goggles and we have to say that after being initially dubious of the promo video, the app actually works.

It's not quite perfect, but the signs we tried it on (including a Christmas card) were translated pretty quickly.

Found in translation

Word Lens has been created by Visual Quest. While it is free, there is a $4.99 (£3.20) in-app store purchase for the language packs.

Currently there is only the option to change Spanish to English or English to Spanish. So if you want to learn your 'por favour' from your 'buenos días' then this is the app for you.

The BBC has revealed it has created a malware-ridden app for smartphones, which crimps the location and passwords details of whoever uses it.

The app, which was only made for use on one unnamed smartphone, was never released to the public but was created using regularly available software toolkits.

To create the malicious app, the BBC was helped by Chris Wysopal, co-founder and technology head at security firm Veracode.

Speaking about the experiment, Simeon Coney, from AdaptiveMobile, said: "In the PC domain the only way a criminal can generally take money from a user is by having them click on a web link, go to a website, purchase a product and enter their credit card details.

"In a mobile network the device is intrinsically linked to a payment plan, to a user's credit.

"Nothing happens on a mobile network, no call is made or text is sent, without money changing hands."

App woes

The piece of malware was hidden in a "crude game". Personally, we have had a lot of fun playing noughts and crosses but we get where the BBC is going with this, and it does highlight potential problems of what could happen when Joe Public starts creating its own apps.

Which is exactly what will be happening soon, when Google's App Inventor gathers more steam.

This isn't the first time that the BBC has caused tech controversy. Back in March 2009, the Beeb created a botnet as an 'experiment' and infected a number of computers with it.

This is something which riled a number of security experts, including Sophos' Graham Clule who told TechRadar that it was unjustifiable.

CEO of Google Eric Schmidt has revealed that there are no plans for a Nexus One update and it is all because of the phone's success.

While other normal companies would leap at the chance to create another version of something that was deemed successful – Apple we're looking at you – Schmidt believes that the Nexus One proved to the world Google could create a phone (with a little help from HTC), so there's no need to do it again.

Congrats… now stop

"It was so successful, we didn't have to do a second one," Schmidt told the Telegraph.

"We would view that as positive but people criticised us heavily for that. I called up the board and said: 'OK, it worked. Congratulations - we're stopping'. We like that flexibility, we think that flexibility is characteristic of nimbleness at our scale."

We're not quite sure how Schmidt deems the Nexus One a success, but it wasn't seen that way in the UK, where predicted sales for the device dropped 70 per cent when it was first released.

Although when it was released, it did so to rather glowing reviews.

Saying that, future versions of the Nexus One look to drop the OLED screen, in favour of an LCD.

Spy pictures of the HTC Vision have been released, showing off a high-end specc'd smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard.

While some were hoping the HTC Vision would be a Desire with a keyboard, design-wise, the Vision looks a touch uglier, with the 'Terminator eye' optical trackpad missing.

At least the screen-size is the same 3.7-inches as the Desire. It also has a 1GHz processor and seems to be sporting Android 2.1 – which will more likely be 2.2 when it is officially released.

Real keyboard

It will be interesting to see what the market is like for another Android smartphone with a real keyboard.

Most Android releases of late have dodged actual keys in favour of a full touchscreen experience.

The HTC Vision seems to have HTC's Sense UI overlay, which means that even if its chassis isn't the nicest we've seen, the OS will be.

Anssi Vanjoki from Nokia has hinted that there could well be more N-series handsets which sport Symbian, despite the company saying just this week that it may drop the OS.

Doug Dawson from Nokia told journalists that he believed that "going forward, N-series devices will be based on MeeGo" but Vanjoki says something different in a blog.

"Symbian and MeeGo are the best software for our smartest devices. As such, we have no plans to use any other software.

"The Nokia N8 will be our only Nseries device on Symbian^3. Of course, we 'never comment on future products', but a Symbian^4 Nseries device is a strong possibility. A very strong possibility."

He also added a smiley face at the end, but we decided to omit this to save him the embarrassment.

No Android

The announcement that Symbian is likely to stay will not be a popular one. Even die-hard Nokia bloggers are wavering over Nokia's insistence on using the OS, with TheNokiaGuide stopping its coverage of Symbian and SymbianGuru recently closing.

In his blog, Vanjoki also put to bed rumours that Nokia is set to embrace Android, explaining: "Despite rumours to the contrary, there are no plans to introduce an Android device from Nokia."

Got that? Good.

BE Broadband has opened trials of a new landline service, believing its users could 'save a little money' if they switch from BT.

BE Broadband is looking at three different levels of service, including a Basic version for those who just need a line for their broadband and don't make many call, and Evening and weekends package and an Anytime package.

"The launch of BE Landline is a response to the demand of our member community explains Tom Williams, Head of BE Broadband.

Benefits

"It means that they'll be able to benefit from the great service from BE for both their broadband and landline.

"There's also the convenience of a single monthly bill and our members should be able to save a little bit of money compared to what they currently pay for a BT line."

The 70 people chosen for the trial – both current members and those on other ISPs – will get a half price BE Landline package for a year.

And we though landlines were dead…

Nokia has taken no time in mocking Apple and its iPhone 4 problems, by releasing a tongue-in-cheek 'How do you hold your Nokia?' feature.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you won't have failed to have noticed that Apple's iPhone 4 release was overshadowed with the fact that the phone's antenna fails to work properly when you hold the phone in your left hand.

Nokia knows this and has written a feature that shows you the many ways you can hold a Nokia phone, without reception woes.

Shown on its official Nokia conversations blog, the piece may not explicitly name-check Apple but it is easy to see which company it is taking the Michael out of.

As the feature explains: "The key function on any Nokia device is its ability to make phone calls. After all, that's why we know them universally as mobile phones (or smart phones, feature phones or mobile computers – though the same grip styles work for those, too).

"One of the main things we've found about the 1 billion plus Nokia devices that are in use today is that when making a phone call, people generally tend to hold their phone like a…. well, like a phone."

Hold your own

The blog goes on to note: "Of course, feel free to ignore all of the above because realistically, you're free to hold your Nokia device any way you like. And you won't suffer any signal loss. Cool, huh?"

Nokia has been a bit of a whipping boy for the mobile phone world recently. Overshadowed by both Google and Apple, the company's phones aren't exactly flavour of the month at the moment.

So it is good to see that the company still has a little bit of humour left in it.

UPDATE

It seems that Nokia hasn't exactly been without its reception woes. There are a number of videos on YouTube showing that its phones also drop reception when held.

Nokia maybe should have checked this out before making fun of its opposition.

A trial of a new mobile TV network is set to take place this autumn, run by three of the UK's main mobile operators - Orange, Vodafone and O2.

Set to take place in West London and Slough, the new Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB) technology is set to take the strain off of existing networks and allow the watching of TV channels straight from your mobile.

The IMB tech will use part of the 3G spectrum which was sold off in the early days of the dotcom boom and will be for broadcast only, no phone calls or texts will clog up the signal.

Explore the potential

Speaking about the technology, Luke Ibbetson, head of technology research and development at Vodafone Group, said: "By joining our peers in this UK pilot, we expect to be able to explore the potential of delivering broadcast services across available 3G spectrum."

The trial is set to last for three months and if successful could pave the way for decent broadcast TV over a mobile phone.

The newly released Apple iPhone 4 appears to have a significant design flaw that means the device loses network signal when you hold it in your hand.

Reports are flying across the internet that highlight the problem, and TechRadar has discovered that its own handset is badly affected by the same problem.

UPDATE: Apple has commented on the problem, insisting that all phones suffer from the flaw to a degree.

We found that holding the handset quickly brought the handset down from five bars of 3G coverage within our offices to limited edge or even no data network coverage at all.

But you don't have to take our word for it – here's our video footage of the incident.

You will notice that as the video draws to a close, the phone actually loses all network coverage.

It's a major problem for the latest iPhone – which saw plastic bands placed around the metal rim to prevent aerial problems.

This flaw was first flagged up in the MacRumors' forum, but we had to do our own video to see if this was an actual problem in the UK.

Worryingly, it seems that it is. Although when we tested a call, it didn't really seem to affect the quality. But even if this is just a visual flaw, it's definitely a problem.

Controversy hit the front of the London iPhone 4 queue, with the person who stood at the front of the line for two days threatening to complain to Steve Jobs after Apple 'rearranged' things.

Ben Paton of Stoke on Trent was the first man out, but expressed sympathy for Alex Lee, who had queued for DOUBLE the time, but was curiously moved back by Apple.

Lee told TechRadar that he would be emailing Jobs in the hope of an explanation, expressing his anger that he missed out on being first.

A little cross

When asked by TechRadar if he was 'a little cross' he replied: "Absolutely.

"I've been approached by media asking me why I'm not the first person in today and I don't have an answer, because I've been queuing for a lot longer than anyone else.

"My only thing is that I can't do anything about it now, but if you don't like what you've seen then emailing Steve Jobs is a good way of getting hold of someone that matters."

Alex Lee: A hollow second place

Paton delight

Lee's frustration was a rare sour note in an otherwise enormous but friendly queue, with 23-year-old Paton enjoying his 15 minutes of fame as first through the doors.

"It's been an incredible experience," he told TechRadar. "I did ask if [Lee] could be moved into the front of the queue.

"Alex Lee had been there since a couple of days ago."

"Apple was moving people around to get people with contracts and things – people that had pre-reserved were moved forward and people that hadn't reserved were sent back."

So to the list of famous second places like Buzz Aldrin and Ultravox's Vienna add Alex Lee – 32 hours to come a distant runner-up.

Google has announced an update to its Maps service for Android, adding train information, place ratings and Lattitude friend suggestions.

For commuters, the Transit feature will mean that, where applicable, you will be able to look at the schedules of trains from the Maps app.

All you have to do is add the Transit layer and click on whatever station you want information about.

Information sharing

Lattitude has also been improves and it is now easier to track / stalk friends and family through Google Maps on Android.

You can share information between contacts and you can go through another Lattitude users contacts and suggest sharing information with them.

This is easy to opt out of, though, which should allay any privacy fears some may have about using the service. Just look for the big red cross.

Colour coded

The final updates comes in the form of an improved Place Page. Now places are colour coded to make it easier to see if you want to visit that dodgy looking café down the road.

If you drill into this section you will also get reviews about a place, which is broken down into: food, service, selection and atmosphere.

The Maps update is available for those using Android 1.6 and over and is available to download from Market now.

Vodafone has announced the arrival of a trio of new Android handsets, available now from the network operator.

The two headliners are the HTC Wildfire and Samsung Galaxy S (16GB) – the latter is available exclusively on Vodafone.

If you want the HTC Wildfire – which is a cut-down version of the five-star rated HTC Desire – then the handset will be free on £20, 24-month price plans, including 300 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of mobile data.

Price plans

If you want to claim the Samsung Galaxy S as your own, then the handset is free on £35, 24-month price plans, including 900 minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of mobile data.

And if you get in there quick you will also receive a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes rucksack.

Finally there is the Vodafone 845. Amazingly, given its name, this is an exclusive phone to Vodafone and will be free on £15, 24-month price plans, including 100 minutes, 500 texts and 500MB of mobile data.

The Vodafone 845 packs Android Éclair / 2.1, has a 2.8-inch screen, 3.2MP camara, GPS and is a touchscreen device.

For more information, visit: http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/.

Apple has released new details regarding the iPhone 4 and its gaming capabilities, announcing something called 3-axis gyro.

This, alongside the accelerometer makes the iPhone a true virtual gaming machine, adding motion sensitivity that rivals the PS3 controller.

To show off the technology, Steve Jobs at the WWDC 2010 played a game of virtual Jenga-like game on the device, slightly moving the iPhone 4 to knock out individual blocks.

The results were impressive, paving the way for a new wave of games that can benefit from this precision of movement.

New games

Steve Jobs announced that there is 15,000 apps a week that are entered into the App Store, with 225,000 apps available now.

Both Zynga and Activision showed off new games for the iPhone - Farmville and Guitar Hero respectively.

Apple patented gyro technology for the mouse back in February, with the note: "Today's patent focuses on introducing a "rotatable mouse" using new sensors and a triple-axes gyroscope that detects the roll, pitch, and yaw of the mouse. That translates in allowing the user to tilt the mouse one way to cause a horizontal scroll and another way to cause a vertical scroll and yet another to tilt a graphic as shown."

This seems to be an update of this technology.

Google has announced an update to its Google Goggles phone app which translates foreign words found in the pictures you take.

The service, which is available for Android devices running Android 1.6 and above, allows for automatic text translation, whether it be words on a street sign, menu or poster.

Once a user takes a picture of the word or phrase, Goggles will ask the user whether they want the information translated.

Currently the languages the app supports are: English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Google is hoping to add more languages to its recognition capabilities in time.

This isn't the only updated feature on the new Goggles app. Google has informed us that the app now has a bigger database – so it will recognise more objects – and the UI of the program has been improved.

Google Goggle's launched back in December 2009, heralding a new area for the company – visual search.

Although it is still very much in its infancy, Google has been ramping up its efforts to improve the software

In April of this year, Google bought up visual search app Plink and swiftly moved the creators of the app on to its Goggles project.

Google also told TechRadar recently that it is looking to open up the platform to other developers.

With this in mind, expect some more big things from the app in the coming months.

Google has bought its first-ever British start-up – visual search pioneers Plink.

The company has only been around for four months, but the head bods at Google has obviously seen something pretty special in Plink's visual search algorithm.

In some way, Google can pat itself on the back for Plink's success as it 'discovered' the company through an Android Develop Challenge, where Plink's founders won $100,000 in funding for the search application.

Visual search for all

Mark Cummins and James Philbin, founders of Plink, wrote about the acquisition on their blog, explaining: "The visual search engines of today can do some pretty cool things, but they still have a long long way to go.

"We're looking forward to helping the Goggles team build a visual search engine that works not just for paintings or book covers, but for everything you see around you. "There are beautiful things to be done with computer vision – it's going to be a lot of fun!"

Cummins and Philbin will be working on Google Goggles which does mean that their app PlinkArt is to take a backseat.

PlinkArt will still be available as a download but it looks likely that it won't be updated.

There are plenty of reasons to worry about growing old.

You can feel invisible in a world that caters overwhelmingly for the young. Your body can let you down. You can end up driving a Toyota, or a Kia.

And you have to put up with people patronising you silly while trying to sell you overpriced rubbish.

Take a bow, Sagem, and take a bow, Broadband Computer Company. You've both sat down and thought, "Hmmm! What can we make for the generation that invented the personal computer, the internet and most of the technological innovations we take for granted as they move into their twilight years?"

The answer you came up with was "Expensive crap a toddler would find too simple." Nice!

Sagem's Cosyphone is aimed at the over-50s. Not only does it have really big buttons and numbers, but it has near field communications technology, too.

Need to call somebody? Why not wave a big picture of them in the air, like a simpleton? "It uses cards, which can be customised with a photo or other information and pre-programmed with the number of the doctor's surgery, or a friend or relative. To make a call, the user simply "waves" their phone over that card to speak to that person or send a text message."

Remember, this is a phone for the over-50s, a group that includes such drooling basket cases as Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Bill Gates and Chuck Norris - people who continue to do amazing things and who can kick your face off if you look at them funny (well, in the latter case at least).

Easy PC?

Meanwhile the Broadband Computer Company has Alex, a system for novices and people scared of technology. For a mere £399 and a further £9.99 per month for technical support (or £24.99 per month if you'd like broadband, too), you too can have a low-end laptop running Linux with an ultra-simplified front end.

Amusingly, the available technical support includes technical support by post. Don't use that option if the laptop's on fire.

We're sure Alex's intentions are pure, but it's quite a lot of cash for what's essentially Google's Chrome OS with a Fisher-Price makeover. It limits users to specific hardware - printers are only supported if they're listed as "approved" in Alex's literature, for example - and it could easily leave its users in a technological cul-de-sac if the parent company goes bust.

Our big concern, though, is that Alex isn't simple enough. There are genuine considerations for older users - Windows, Linux and Mac PCs really haven't nailed the combination of simplicity and accessibility that older users really need - but we're not convinced Alex addresses them.

The Broadband Computer Company says it has started from scratch, but it hasn't. If it had really reimagined the PC from scratch, it wouldn't have a mouse; it'd have a multi-touch screen. It wouldn't have taken the familiar Windows-style interface and made the buttons bigger; it'd have removed the buttons altogether.

It wouldn't have stuck with a no-name laptop running a thinly disguised Linux; it'd have a whole new form factor, with a whole new OS.

It'd have come up with something awfully like the iPad.

Virgin Media has announced it will be allowing its customers to make free calls to mobiles.

Although only available from Virgin Phone lines to Virgin Mobile customers, this will be important to a lot of people who see landline to mobile calling as prohibitively expensive.

The new service will go live from 1 April this year, with Virgin Media claiming that £1.6 billion is paid in charges from landline to mobile.

Big claim

Virgin Media claims that nearly 500,000 customers subscribing to its quadplay (broadband, phone line, TV and mobile services) will be able to take advantage of the offer, with more than 4 million home phone customers also able to make free calls to anyone with a Virgin Mobile phone.

Graeme Oxby, Executive Director of Mobile and Telephony at Virgin Media said: "At a time when other providers seem keen on giving their customers less from their phone service, we are extremely proud to be leading the way in this field, being the first to offer free home phone to mobile calls.

"Our successful quadplay strategy has demonstrated customers are looking for exceptional value by bundling more services together, and this move to include free calls to mobiles with our home phone service underlines our commitment to ensure Virgin Media customers get the best deals possible."

O2 has announced that it will be offering home phone lines along with its broadband packages from March.

The company is best known for its mobile phone network, but a foray into broadband has been positive and the company is now going to offer a home phone service.

"This is the most important launch for us in the home space since we entered the broadband market and is part of our strategy to evolve beyond mobile to a leading connectivity brand ," said Sally Cowdry, UK Marketing Director at O2.

Convenience

"We know how many of our customers value the convenience of paying for their home phone and broadband together with no hidden extra costs, and we will be bringing the same commitment to quality of service with our home phone service as we have successfully established with broadband."

Two home phone packages are being offered to O2's broadband customers. 'Evening & Weekend' costs £9.50 per month and offers unlimited calls to UK homes on evenings and weekends.

'Anytime' is available for £12.50 per month and offers any time, unlimited calls to UK homes, 0845/0870 numbers and landlines in over 20 international countries.

"Together O2 Home Broadband and home phone will offer some of the most competitive pricing in the UK. O2 mobile customers will be able to get O2's Standard broadband package and Evening & Weekend phone package for just £17 per month, including line rental," adds O2.