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Morning, folks,

With the strain on networks around the world becoming more visible day by day it's inevitable that the people over at the World Mobile Congress begin pointing the finger, assigning blame and responsibility for change. Yes, the carriers need to provide networks that can handle smartphone traffic...the question is, who is going to pay for it?

WMC Barcelona
We've had news coming out of here for the past few days, like Google's announcement that they still love Apple, but admissions of general network suckiness are flying; Vodaphone CEO has even blamed Google for network woes.

Whaa'??

He's stated that Google's stronghold on the ad market is costing carriers, basically taking advertising revenue off the table. We're glad he's come up with a way for carriers to offset their investment costs but really--you're going to blame Google for being good at its job? Not so much, buddy.

Advertising aside, carriers are brainstorming ways to charge more for data bandwidth both at the handset supplier and consumer level. Big surprise, right? By guaranteeing bandwidth speed, the Vodaphone man justifies rate hikes and says that it's almost impossible to invest in improving networks under the current business model.

The upcoming transition to 4G will surely bring some interesting changes, both in the way these companies do business and how they finance their improvements. We'll keep you posted.

Pwn2Own
The TippingPoint sponsored hacking competition is slated to run March 24-26 at Vancouver's CanSecWest security conference...those folks up in British Columbia are having all the fun this year, aren't they? Now in its fourth year, Pwn2Own brings all sorts of "researchers" together in an attempt to hack all major browsers and a selection of smartphones, but there's a catch. The competition gives out cash awards of $10,000 for the hacks--but it buys the rights to all the exploits used, sends them to the vendors and utilizes the info to bolster the security systems it sells.

Nice.

Climate Change Theory "Flawed"
Just in case you were wondering, the good people of Utah have an announcement to ease your mind: climate change is a non-issue. Really.

The state assembly has passed a bill arguing the global warming theory...it doesn't put anything into law, but it's sure nice to know how they feel, and the Guardian covered it so well we hope you'll click through. We know this is a touch off topic, but hey--this soapbox is right here, and we have a problem shutting up.

There are so many tools available that allow us to use our technology efficiently as well as to calculate how we can make changes to preserve this planet for future generations: green apps, ecologically friendly materials, recyclable glass and aluminum MacBooks. We're not going to pontificate (though we could, worry not), but wouldn't you rather be on the safe side and have a planet left? Just a thought.

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Till tomorrow, Newsies...