By Tarmo Virki

(Reuters) – Global spending on information technology (IT) will grow more slowly than expected this year due to weaker economies and floods in Thailand, and will decline in western Europe, research firm Gartner said on Thursday.

Gartner cut its forecast for 2012 worldwide IT spending growth to 3.7 percent from its earlier estimate of 4.6 percent growth. In 2011, worldwide IT spending totalled $3.7 trillion, up 6.9 percent from 2010.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Mobile phones, long seen as safe amid rising threats to computer security, have become a key target for hackers and an increasing worry for corporate IT departments.

While the first mobile virus dates back to June 2004, risks from hackers remained limited because of the relatively small size of the market.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Flaws in a widely used wireless technology could allow hackers to gain remote control of phones and instruct them to send text messages or make calls, according to an expert on mobile phone security.

They could use the vulnerability in the GSM technology — which is used by most telecom operators globally and by billions of people — to make calls or send texts to expensive, premium phone and messaging services in scams, said Karsten Nohl, head of Berlin-based Security Research Labs.

BERLIN, Dec 27 (Reuters) – A well-known expert on
mobile phone security says a vulnerability in a widely used
wireless technology could allow hackers to gain remote control
of phones, instructing them to send text messages or make calls.

They could use the vulnerability in the GSM network
technology, which is used by billions of people in about 80
percent of the global mobile market, to make calls or send texts
to expensive, premium phone and messaging services in scams,
said Karsten Nohl, head of Germany’s Security Research Labs.

FRANKFURT, Dec 22 (Reuters) – Patent firm IPCom has
sued German retailers for patent infringement for continuing to
sell phones made by HTC, the No. 4 smartphone vendor
globally.

A court in Mannheim, Germany, ruled in February 2009 against
HTC in a patent fight with IPCom, allowing an injunction against
sales of HTC phones using UMTS technology and setting a penalty
of up to 250,000 euros ($326,200) each time the injunction was
contravened.

Dec 22 (Reuters) – Weakening economies and falling
prices of rival smartphones are hurting sales of Apple
iPhones across Europe, data from research firm Kantar Worldpanel
ComTech showed on Thursday.

The October roll-out of Apple’s iPhone 4S boosted its
position in Britain and United States, but the new phones failed
to excite interest in continental Europe, where Apple’s share of
the fast-growing smartphone market slipped.

HELSINKI, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Nokia’s long-awaited Windows
phones may be too little, too late in the smartphone war
dominated by Apple and Google, despite positive reviews by
handset critics.

Its first Windows model, the Lumia 800, has won little
interest from consumers, with only 2 percent of Europeans in the
market for a smartphone saying they would pick it, according to
a survey by Exane BNP Paribas.

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Nokia’s long-awaited Windows phones may be too little, too late in the smartphone war and investment in the shares will increasingly be driven by takeover speculation.

Its first Windows model, the Lumia 800, won some positive reviews but little interest from consumers, with only 2 percent of Europeans in the market for a smartphone saying they would pick it, according to a survey by Exane BNP Paribas.

HELSINKI, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Nokia’s long-awaited Windows
phones may be too little, too late in the smartphone war and
investment in the shares will increasingly be driven by takeover
speculation.

Its first Windows model, the Lumia 800, won some positive
reviews but little interest from consumers, with only 2 percent
of Europeans in the market for a smartphone saying they would
pick it, according to a survey by Exane BNP
Paribas.

By Tarmo Virki, European Technology Correspondent

(Reuters) – Layar, one of the pioneers of mobile augmented reality, rolled out on Tuesday Stiktu, an application allowing smartphone users to combine their digital postings with real images and share them with each other.

Augmented reality (AR), used to deadly effect by the movie character the Terminator, is expected to move into the mainstream over the coming years as chipset vendors incorporate the technology, which enables features like image recognition in smartphones, tablets and PCs.