Vodafone Group published a report last week that shows how mobile technology can increase productivity, improve patient health and enable greater access to healthcare. Richard Cross, bioteams.com Guest Author reports.

85,000 cellphones and 21,000 PDAs were left in Chicago taxis in 6 months last year! Thanks to Ray Symmes for pointing out an article in the New York Times (Feb 21), Too Many New Gadgets, Too Much Information at Risk, which suggests that companies do not realise the security risk they are running by equipping their workforces with high-data storage mobile devices in terms of wifi evesdropping, theft and loss.

12 percent of US newlyweds last year met online.

One of the Ten Trends to watch in 2006, according to the McKinsey Quarterly (Jan 2006), is the transforming impact on people’s behaviour of technological connectivity.

A few weeks back I published my Polite Intrusive Technology Etiquette (POLITE). Well it seems like lots of other people think something needs to be done here too including 'The Society for Handheld Hushing' who have published a manifesto, Shhh! in ChangeThis. TSfHH provide a neat library of pre-printed notes you can give rude cell/mobile phone users to get them to turn the volume down like “We know that your ongoing conversation with ... is very important to you but it does not interest us in the least..”

Despite some false alarms cell phone viruses have not yet reached epidemic levels with just 200 viruses compared to some 160,000 computer-based ones. However when they do start to arrive in numbers they may be deadlier and spread even more rapidly due to the way we use these devices. In addition with wireless technologies like Bluetooth these mobile viruses will not only be able to infect by connectivity but also by proximity - just like biological viruses.

Reading books or even documents on your mobile device is not quite like the real thing however this might be changing with Sony launching a ground-breaking portable eReader device which is claimed may become the 'iPod of eReaders'. Priced at $300-$500, it promises a user experience as good as reading the printed page using a technology known as E-Ink and compelling content through a strong set of alliances according to Curling Up With a Good E-Book in BusinessWeek, December 28.

New Scientist, 13 December, reports that an SMS text message service has been launched where the messages self-destruct 40 seconds after being read. It is aimed at WAP phone users who need to communicate sensitive information. Other potential user include celebrities such as soccer star David Beckham who have been embarrassed when their text messages have been published in tabloid newspapers. Nice for privacy but not so good when you need accountability or traceability! To read This text message will self-destruct in 40 seconds….

The term cyborg is used to designate an organism which is a mixture of organic and synthetic parts so designed to enhance its abilities via technology. William Mitchell a professor at MIT Media Lab believes that through our mobile devices we are all becoming mobile cyborgs and its for the better.

Sure its only me and could someone bring a shovel

BBC News (9 Nov) report that fears of being buried alive have prompted an increasing number of people to take their mobile phones to their graves, according to an Irish undertaker.

You can now text devices as well as people

Thanks to Pat Garland from the NI e-Government unit for finding this surreal piece of technology news. I had to double-check the date to make sure it was not April 1 but with 22,000 entries on google it can’t be a hoax (can it?). Pat writes under “Tea-time for Bonzo?” that Tea manufacturer PG Tips has invented an "SMS kettle", according to Ananova.