With the return of Daylight Saving Time (DST), there are big problems looming, which means when the phone changes your clock it might not be the right time. Several phone OS manufacturers have put out patches hoping to fix the problem.

Deaf people could soon be using video mobiles to chat with their friends using sign language.

Video compression tools made by US researchers make it possible to send live pictures of people signing across low bandwidth mobile networks. The system cuts down on the bandwidth needed by only sending data about which parts of each frame have changed.

Even as Microsoft rolls out the next version of its portable operating system -- Windows Mobile 6 -- a group of open source developers is readying software that could underpin the world's first fully open source cellular phone.

The developers behind the GPE Palmtop Environment -- an existing project to create a free graphical interface for Linux-based handheld computers -- are extending their efforts to create a full stack of open source software for use on mobile phones. At least one major mobile network operator is contributing to the effort.

A new analyst report has predicted that smartphone OS leader Symbian will soon be toppled by two relative upstarts of the mobile world.

According to the Diffusion Group, by the end of the decade both Windows and Linux will have greater market share than Symbian.

In 2010, the analyst house said, Symbian will see its market share halved to around 22 percent, while Windows will climb to more than 28 percent and Linux to more than 26 percent.

The Diffusion Group said the change will come about as 3G networks enable more advanced applications made possible by the likes of Microsoft and Linux.

Currently, Symbian shipments dwarf those of rival Microsoft. At last week's 3GSM conference, Symbian announced its 2005 shipments had reached 33 million for the year. Microsoft said it had shipped five million devices in the same period.

Texas Instruments Inc., the leading maker of chips that run mobile phones, said Tuesday it has developed a more powerful processor to enable high-quality video and other intensive tasks on wireless devices.

The company says the new technology will improve the quality of phone camcorders and let users download high-quality movies to their phones for replay on a TV screen.

In addition, the company says the new processors will allow users to take 12-megapixel photos with just a one-second delay between shots _ the kind of performance usually reserved for expensive digital single-lens reflex cameras.

Interest in Wi-Fi phones - long seen as bleeding-edge technology - has suddenly exploded, according to analysts. The voice on Wi-Fi handset market went up by 76 percent in 2005, and will double to $200 million in 2006, predicts Infonetics Research. Dual-mode phones, that handle both Wi-Fi and cellular voice, are on an even more rapid growth curve, the company says. By 2009, the voice on Wi-Fi market will be almost $1.9 billion, spreading out from the enterprise to consumers who will buy it as part of a broadband service bundle, the researchers predict.

The Corporation of London is poised to award a multi-million pound contract to build a wireless network covering the financial heart of the capital. The Corporation's policy committee met on Thursday to assess the merits of three wireless operators — BT Openzone, The Cloud and Wicoms. According to those familiar with the process, the winning operator will be announced on Monday 23 January.

believe that 2006 will be the year for Linux-powered consumer electronic devices. For the past few weeks I've been enthralled by one early example: the Nokia 770. Though it's small enough to fit comfortably into a purse or hip pocket, the 770 isn't a phone, and it's not really a mobile device, either. Nokia envisions it as a new product category and calls it an Internet tablet with the idea that it probably won't even leave your home.

Opera Software has released a beta version of its first web browser for the Windows Mobile Pocket PC. Opera Mobile 8.5 for the Pocket PC is based on the same core as the current Opera 8.5 for desktop computers. It runs on Windows Mobile 2003 and Windows Mobile 5.0 and, like other Opera browsers for small devices, shrinks web pages to fit devices.

After launching a streamed mobile TV service, Vodafone Group is poised to introduce a new streamed music offering, in a move to boost revenue beyond its core telephony business. Europe's largest mobile phone operator has joined forces with Sony NetServices, a unit of Sony, to launch the Vodafone Radio DJ service, which offers personalized music channels streamed to customers' handsets and computers, Vodafone said Monday.