Windows phone ' Mango ' released production.

Mango, cut into slices. If Microsoft can get people to buy five a day ... Photo: Helen Rimell

Microsoft have logged off the code for the "Mango" version of its Windows phone operating system-officially, the code has had the RTM (release to manufacturing)- according to Windows Team Blog.

There, explains Terry Myerson, Corporate Vice-President at the Windows phone team (basically the daily manager) that "This marks the point in the development process where we hand-code to our handset and mobile operator partners to optimize the Mango to your phone and network configurations."

(See our previous coverage on Windows phone Mango for an idea of what this includes.)

The good news: this is a bit ahead of where it had been expected to be (and probably miles better than the original release of Windows phone, which got caught up in internal struggles within the entertainment and device division of Kin-project Pink, from $ 500 m acquisition of danger-and rewrite of the Windows Mobile).

The bad news: it will be called "Windows phone 7.5". We wanted Mango. We will stick with that for now.

So it is the end-July, and the code is going out now, so that they have misunderstood the entire August ... so that should mean release in September, right? Unfortunately, not. Involved in getting the phone code quite complicated dance includes an extra layer, as you did with the release of Windows OS to OEM PC makers: air carriers.

So to get the Mango in people's hands (or retailers ' stores) processes to navigate are:

• handset makers have to test the Mango against their new design to ensure that the code runs really well on their systems

• handset makers have to test the Mango against their old design to make sure the code does not cause devastating thing to happen and that in fact only good things will happen-not even indifferent this worked perfectly with the first update to Windows phone ("pre-NoDo" update), which created some LG phones when it rolled out in April.

• handset makers (like Nokiawill include) must take their phones to carriers and allow them to test them against their networks. All airlines insist on this as a condition for phones will on your network-especially new phones it is the same for Apple. (New iPhones sent to airlines in sealed boxes software so can be tested.)

• If everything is hunky dory, so the airlines who will leave the handset makers. This will depend on the course of the slowest airline to respond in General.

This year there is a greater problem but: lots of Android phones and of course the new iPhones-expected in September-which is in the queue in front of Windows phone Mango phones. It is potentially a traffic jam that will hold things up.

This means generally that you should not expect Mango update to be rolled out, or the new Windows phones (including Nokia's Sea Ray-no doubt you can find a more interesting name, such as N9487) appears before October.

Which is what I have tell you since February, at least with regard to Nokia.

You can also consider fully how Mango would fare in the new OS to the world that it would be articulated. Many said that Windows phone wasn't competitive when first released (no cut + Paste and various other things). Mango is a great improvement. Windows Team blog notes that it will have threading to bring conversations with an individual across multiple connections (IM, email, text) in a single view; multitasking; and Internet Explorer 9. No words on Flash.

The question is whether it will be sufficient, when Apple's iOS 5 is released, and whether there will be the next version of Android code name Ice Cream Sandwiches-available by then. There are expected to have componnents such as face detection, a new app launcher, USB host (for a game controller), and simpler updates. Because Androids messages system is just about perfect, but (in my opinion) its Gingerbread keyboard system is grim perhaps UI improvements will be there.

Inapplicable, Mango is not going to have a soft landing.

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Justin.TV boss: We want to replace the camera app on your phone

U.S. Startup Justin.TV started life as a man livestreaming his daily life in the world, before evolving into a platform for anyone to broadcast video over the Internet from their webcams – and more recently their phones.

The company's future may, however, be more with his Socialcam new iPhone app, which focuses on helping people to upload short video clips and share them across social networks. Launched at the beginning of March, sailed past the 200,000 downloads free app in a couple of weeks with claims, to do what apps video as Instagram and Picplz for photographs.

Justin.TV CEO Michael Seibel has specific grand ambitions for Socialcam, as he explained that the Apps Blog in an interview. ' We want to replace the camera app on the phone, ' he says. "It is our goal: used by almost all who have had a smartphone to store all their media and distribute media wherever they want."

Which is what someone will say when pitching their social video startup, although Seibels talk about replacing the camera app – not to mention his deliberate use of the word "media" — makes it clear that will Socialcam current focus on video to expand in the future, probably photos first.

Socialcam was born in response to feedback from Justin.TV, livestreaming iPhone app which was downloaded more than four million times in the first six months after its release in March 2010. "We realized that more than 90% of the views of these videos were not people see live, but after that," Seibel said.

"What is more, videørne, himself was not broadcast as live videos: they were taken as video clips. So we wondered why people were using our live video app to take video clips – was this a sollwitt problem? And it turned out that it was not. "

Seibel has a point. Smartphones like the iPhone and Android phones are good for people to upload video clips to YouTube, but not so good help these videos must be shared on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Facebook's iPhone app allows users to upload video clips directly, but the feature is something hidden under the button ' photo ' while Kvidres is still pictures only.

"The whole process was broken, so we are trying to solve the problem of sharing videos from your phone," Seibel said. Three months development led to the launch of Socialcam, during which time made photo sharing app Instagram own burst nature, with two million downloads.

"Their success showed us there is a massive amount of space in this space to take on the big boys," Seibel said. "They are not afraid of Facebook, and they do not. They make a really good piece of work in their niche. "

However, resists Seibel label for ' a Instagram videos» which have been used for the Socialcam in some early press coverage. "We think of us as much more like a Facebook photos to video". Thus the ability to tag friends in Socialcam videos.

Justin.TV has strong views about what its new app, and it is not. Seibel says that it is focused on personal – videos of people's friends, family, and nights-rather than a tool for people to broadcast to the world, which was intended for livestreaming apps to be.

"We do not see this as YouTube," he said. "This is not people producing videos for general consumption. We are not even a view-count at videørne. What we are really about is, there is little happening now with a small circle of friends, and all the people in this video would love to see it later. "

How to make money from this? Like many apps of this kind, Socialcam currently goes for reach – the maximum number of users — rather than monetisation. When it is said, Seibel says in app payments for additional features can play a role in the app's future, together with the subscription-based pricing, and, where appropriate, the levying of charges for storage as Socialcam users build a collection of videos.

Justin.TV is also looking at the new series of tablets, led by Apple's iPad 2 which comes with front and rear cameras as standard. "For me the iPad 2 and tablets in general are really exciting from a front-facing camera perspective, to make these short video clips where you talk about where you are or what you are interested in, and your face up on the entire screen" he saysWhile declining to give any specific details about a Socialcam iPad app.

In the meantime, have a great effect already Socialcam on Justin .TV's approach as a company. ' We no longer iterating and improving our live video app, ' says Seibel. "We put all our resources to solve the problem more fundamentally. Live is much more a niche case than video clips. "

That is when he comes back to the idea of being the default camera app smartphone users. "YouTube could never control the intake point: they were always to use your phone or digital camera or flip video or webcam," he said.

"But on smartphones, we are all of a sudden that developing economies all these other devices and control the intake point, with the potential to reach many more people than Sony or flip or Panasonic with their dedicated video creation units. Smartphones should completely disrupting the market, except on the extreme high end. "

The great challenge for an app like Socialcam will be competition in trying to become the default camera app: competition from Facebook in particular, but also from handset makers, OS platform owners and other startups with VC money to throw at the social photos n videos area.

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Mobile phone use increases brain activity, study suggests

Radio waves mobile phones from appears to increase activity in parts of the brain that are closest to the devices, according to US Government antennas scientists.

Researchers found, 50 minute call led to a localized increase in brain activity of 7%, but they said there was no evidence to suggest the increase was harmful.

In order to exclude variation in brain activity, which would be expected when someone is listening to a call normally, changes in activity was monitored while the phone takes a call but was dampened.

Team, led by Nora volkow, Director of the National Institute on drug addiction in Maryland, found this brain activity increased in line with the strength of the electromagnetic field as the region specific brain was exposed.

Mobile phones use radio waves to send and receive calls and these produce small electromagnetic fields that can be absorbed by the head and brain.

"Even if we can't determine the clinical importance, our results provide evidence that the human brain is sensitive to the effects of radio frequency electromagnetic fields from acute cellphone exposures", said Dr. Volkow. the study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The dramatic increase in mobile phone use in the world has prompted concern about the possible adverse effects, including brain tumours. Last year, it was very late Interphone report no hard evidence that mobile phones increase the risk of cancer, but the question remains unresolved.

In the new survey had 47 voluntary two brain scans, each on different days. Scans, which used a technique known as positron emission tomography (PET), was designed to monitor changes in the way, the brain becomes glucose, fuel it requires to work.

Before being scanned, volunteers had a mobile phone located at each ear. In one scan, were both phones switched off. But in others the scan, the phone on the right ear was turned on, muted and set to receive a lengthy recorded message. Volunteers were given not to know what scanning was like.

When they compared scans taken in these two different scenarios, Volkow's team discovered a pattern of increased brain activity in the right orbitofrontal cortex and the right superior temporal gyrus lower parts. In these areas of the brain increased glucose metabolism from 33.3 to 35.7 micromoles of glucose per 100 g every minute.

Brain activity may increase much more than this, when a person just look at the images on a screen. In 2006, Andrei Vlassenko at Washington University School of Medicine reported to show images could increase brain activity by between six and 51%. Vokow said these increases were caused by way of thinking about images, while mobile phones appeared to increase activity "artificially".

She said it was unclear how mobile phone radiation can affect the brain metabolism and added that more research was needed to examine whether the effects could be harmful. Since completing the investigation, she is started by using a set with his mobile phone, a Move she described as "conservative, not paranoid".

If increases in brain activity caused by mobile phone use is, however, to be harmless, Volkow said, this phenomenon could be used to stimulate patients have underactive brain regions.

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Facebook goes back, address and phone number API

Facebook has disabled the API that share users ' mobile phone and address details with developers in response to a wave of what it calls "feedback", and what I would call a legitimate concern.

A carefully worded statement on the Facebook Developer Blog listed the potential benefits of using this data in the apps-speeding up the payment process on a shopping website, for example, or to permit the Groupon property-type concerns should be sent directly to your phone. And the post says, users must give permission to each app that may be using these data, it does not share the friends details and there is a program dashboard, where each user can control how their information is used.

Photo by andymangold on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Despite these precautions and benefits ... Facebook admits now, "that we could make people more clearly when they grant access to this data".

"We are making changes to ensure that you only share this information when you intend to do it," said Douglas Purdy in official record. "We must work in order to launch these updates as soon as possible and want to temporarily disable this feature until these changes are ready. We look forward to thawing this improved feature in the next few weeks. "

Facebook's ' seek forgiveness not permission ' strategy is a high risk, but ultimately successful. On the one hand, it means a steady stream of what could be perceived as ' controversy ', as some of the more privacy-related features are rolled out, responded, and rolled out again in some modified form.

But it is the nature of iterating in an innovative company. The strategy also means that the number of problematic launches in relation to the total number of functions that can be rolled out, is very small.

Facebooks incredibly rapid development and growth have a lot to do with this process, and these kind of ' adjustments ' are a sign of a company that constantly pushes his own business forward. Tensions arise where activities overlap with our sense of public and private-an area where Facebook is on the line front redefine what personal information does for us.

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' I felt great after I have lost my mobile phone»

In front of our eyes, Eric ... Stoltz with Paula Malcomson in Caprica. Photo: Syfy

What is your favorite piece of technology, and how it has improved your life?
TV-B-gone. It is a wonderful little device that has one button – which when pressed, will turn off any tv within 15 metres. It is ideal when you are sitting in an empty pub and a television is blaring ads too high. A simple device that brings peace.

When was the last time you used it, and what for?
Last week. Turn off a TV.

What additional features do you want to add, if you could?
It would be nice if the company expanded their repertoire a little. "People-who-speak-on-cellphones-in-shops-B-Gone" would be album swell. Not to mention "Taxes-B-gone".

Do you think, it will be obsolete in 10 years time?
' No '.

What always frustrates you about technology in General?
All that cursed convenience.

Is there any particular piece of technology that you have owned and hated?
I have a love-hate with just about all the technology in my life. My first typewriter in particular. I had a helluva time put new tape on it.

If you had a tip to get the best out of new technology, what would it be?
Please wait until the next version comes out – price drops, and they work normally some of the kinks.

You consider yourself to be a living or a nerd?
Both at different times in my life. Recently I directing an episode of hopeful of this and I lost my cellphone – and I devote time to buy a new one for three weeks. Well, could the first few days in was eager as hell, a little delirium tremens, didn't think I make it through, and so on. Then been kind of curious something – I began to feel great. Really great. Completely untethered, almost giddy. I had not had this feeling, because I learned to ride a bike, when I was a kid – it was fantastic. Later this week, my Twitter account suddenly and inexplicably deleted all my incredibly interesting speech. I took this as a sign, and decided to leave Luddites and end the modern age once more. But I am still thought-provoking about the entire experience.

What is the most expensive piece of technology you've ever owned?
My car or my piano, they were both pretty animals.

Mac or PC, and why?
Mac. I have been on them for 13 years and never had a virus.

Buy you still physical media such as CDs and DVDs, or you download? What was your last purchase?
I still buy them, even if it is stupid. A DVD Store near me went out of business last year, so I favoritspillet up a lot of older and foreign films. CDs not so much, I download them. my last purchase was you are not listening to the rescue operations.

Robot butlers – a good idea or not?
Let us not kid ourselves here, robots that are already running most of our world. We want to be their butlers quickly enough.

What piece of technology would you most like to own?
The emerging nanotechnology, which is able to deliver treatment to (and trigger death) malignant cancer cells in your body while leaving the healthy cells untouched.

• Eric Stoltz stars in tv series Caprica, season, one which is out now on DVD

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