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Mobiles on the moon, Google Android, Facebook fall
silicon.com's Stories of the month - February 2008

By Natasha Lomas

Published: Thursday 28 February 2008

Spring is almost in the air but something else taking off this month was news Nasa is planning to build a mobile phone network on the moon.

Clearly current levels of demand for mobile coverage on the big green cheese-wheel in the sky are not overwhelming but some time after 2020 that could change if colonists and astronauts take up residence in a planned moon base near the lunar South Pole - another construction project on Nasa's wish-list.

Stories of the month - February 2008

Click on the links below to read the stories everyone is talking about...

Mobiles on the moon? Nasa prepares trial for takeoff

Photos: Google Android comes out to play

silicon.com Classics: 'Nigerian' money scam - What happens when you reply?

The Naked CIO: Time to wage war on home users

Vista-XP downgrade software launched

BlackBerrys squashed by Whitehall data ban

Photos: Heathrow bags RFID tech to end lost luggage

Microsoft backtracks on Vista SP1 update

Facebook suffers from social networking slowdown

What's hot at Mobile World Congress 2008?

The satellite-based moon mobile network would give lunar dwellers a full four-bar signal - and even enable them to phone home (aka Earth), though presumably the roaming costs would be astronomical...

It's all still a long, long way off however (if not in a galaxy far, far away) - a prototype trial of the satellite system is several years away from blast off.

Returning to earthly matters, the annual Mobile World Congress trade show took place in Barcelona this month and silicon.com reporter Natasha Lomas was on the ground gathering all sorts of phone-based goodness from the world's biggest mobile shindig.

But before jetting off for Spanish shores, Natasha hit the phones to round up the collective wisdom of an antechamber of analysts to get a flavour of what was going to be on the MWC menu. You can read the result here.

One thing most definitely on the menu in Barcelona was Google Android, after Texas Instruments showcased a prototype handset running the OS at its MWC booth. Photos of the device - and of another Android prototype on show elsewhere - can be found here in this photo story.

For more coverage from MWC check out Natasha's daily diaries - Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - and keep an eye out for a mini series of video interviews with senior mobile execs at the show in the coming weeks. The first video - click here to watch it - finds CEOs considering whether smart phones will ever kill off the laptop.

silicon.com has introduced a new feature this month called silicon.com Classics which aims to showcase flagship pieces of content from our archives. One such digital classic is an old gem going by the rather self-explanatory title: 'Nigerian' money scam: What happens when you reply?'.

So if you want to find out what happens, 419 style, then read on…

silicon.com's new columnist on the block has also been drawing plenty of eyeballs - perhaps partly because the name of said columnist is 'The Naked CIO'. The anonymous CIO has been raising hackles and encouraging insurrection like there's no tomorrow.

Two columns provoking much debate this month are this one where the Naked CIO rails against arrogant job applicants who lack right skills, and this one on the political pitfalls of supplying home workers with fancy equipment.

Another story that was big news on silicon.com this month is a report suggesting the UK may be falling out of love with Facebook. Surely not - not when other folk in the tech industry are only just now proclaiming the arrival of the social networking revolution, long live the revolution!

Social networking a passing fad? You decide - post a Reader Comment below or email us at editorial@silicon.com.

Until next month…