Rose Cantine

Orange, Apple’s exclusive partner in France, is required to sell the iPhone unlocked, if requested by a customer. The reason: French law prohibits the tying of a device to a cellular service. Operators can sell phones for a lower price if they subsidize it, but if the customer just wants the phone, they have to [...]

Law professor Tim Wu says there’s nothing illegal about an iPhone user unlocking his phone plus it’s so much fun:
The good news is that my iPhone works flawlessly. With my existing T-Mobile account, I get 1,300 more minutes of talk time than I would have received from AT&T for a comparably priced plan; I also [...]

The city of Paris has begun offering free Wi-Fi access in public parks and gardens, museums, libraries, and other public buildings. To find out which areas have Wi-Fi, go to wifi.paris.fr. Inspired by San Francisco, the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, issued a public tender last year, seeking a provider to deploy the hotzones. SFR [...]

Blyk has finally launched in the UK, with service coming to other European countries in 2008. I’ve been waiting for Blyk to begin its service because the model is totally different from that of other operators:

only 16-24 year olds can get the service
they get 43 minutes and 217 text messages free every month
they agree to [...]

I don’t know whether to call Pudding Media the most loathesome business model in the world or the most cynical, or both. Pudding Media is the latest company to take advantage of the “free services in exchange for ads” business model. We’ve seen free Wi-Fi in exchange for viewing ads (MetroFi) and free mobile phone [...]

It’s a dark, gloomy, rainy day in Amsterdam and I need a good laugh. This came in just in time to cure my blues (from Network World): Apple CEO Steve Jobs said Tuesday that it’s his company’s job to stymie hackers who try to unlock the iPhone — the first time the company has officially [...]

Ninety-two percent of young people surveyed by Dutch research firm, Qruis, between the ages of 6 and 29 say they don’t want to see ads on their mobile phones. Only 11 and 13 percent of those surveyed gave a positive or neutral reaction to ads on chat and game sites. Ads on websites and [...]