Darren Crookes (25) is charged with stealing the Nokia from Armir Mateen at the Hyde Park Hotel on November 6 last year.

His address was given to the court as Brixton Prison where he was being held on another charge.

He is also charged with having an imitation firearm capable of firing blanks at the time of the offence.

Crookes was remanded in custody for a preliminary hearing at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court.

Nokia is continuing its assault on the games console market with the launch of the N-Gage QD last week.

Nokia UK director of communications Mark Squires told Mobile News that Nokia has learned from mistakes it made with the release of the first N-Gage.

This time round Nokia has created a product aimed at hardcore gamers. We are very proud of the N-Gage QD – we are fulfilling our promise to provide multi-player wireless anytime gaming and we have high hopes for its success he said.

The QD is aimed at 18- to 35-year-old hardcore gamers and sits alongside the N-Gage. It is not a replacement rather an expansion of our existing games portfolio.

The N-Gage QD has many of the features of the original N-Gage but the radio and MP3 player have been taken out to make the product sleeker and lighter.

The N-Gage is a gaming and a multimedia entertainment centre whereas the QD is specifically for hardcore gamers said Squires.

Its a compact device with a brighter screen longer battery life improved gaming controls powerful smartphone features and the new N-Gage Arena launcher application.

Owners of the first generation N-Gage criticised it for being unergonomic when they used it as a phone.

To make a call without using a headset the N-Gage had to be held sideways at an awkward angle. This trait led to parody websites including sidetalking.com.

We made a decision to be innovative with the last model in terms of side-talking but we know we went wrong admitted Squires. We have listened to the public. There is no side-talking on the QD.

The first N-Gage was also criticised because the battery had to be removed to change the game. The QD has a hot-swappable multimedia (MMC) slot for instant gaming. Users can change games without touching the battery.

N-Gage sales were also restricted by a price that was high relative to conventional mobiles. Nokia has responded by pricing the QD at e99 ( 66) on contract or e199 ( 133) on pre-pay.

The new N-Gage QD supports popular existing N-Gage games such as The Sims: Bustin Out Crash Nitro Kart and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2004 as well as forthcoming titles such as Ashen Pathway to Glory and Pocket Kingdom: Own The World that are exclusive to the QD.

Eric White marketing manager of Nokia distributor Data Select said that having exclusive titles will be key to how well the N-Gage QD does.

The fact that Nokia has launched the N-Gage QD shows how serious it is about making an impact in the console market he said.Nokia has looked at what the market wants and has refined the product.

He believed the defining factor for success in a games console was the variety of games available.

Nokia needs to develop an exclusive killer game for the N-Gage which can do for it what Super Mario Brothers did for Nintendo or Sonic the Hedgehog did for Sega he said.

In a statement N-Gage QD distributor 20:20 added:

One of the N-Gages greatest strengths is its multiplayer features which have also been enhanced with pre-loaded N-Gage Arena software.

It went on: The N-Gage QD confirms Nokias commitment to mobile gaming and well continue to give the product the support it deserves in both mobile and games sales channels.

See Comment P16

The network will offer the wholesale MMS product to selected partners including MX Telecom WIN Mobileway Dialogue and Netsize.

Max Grender-Jones technical director of MMS at MX Telecom which is one of O2s partners explained:

Wholesale MMS will mean that those images or ringtones can be sent through us as an intermediary to however many people a client requests.

It also works for inbound MMS. If we had a client running a competition where it wanted people to send funny pictures in using MMS all the pictures are sent directly to us. We bundle them all together and send them to the client.

The BBC uses inbound MMS on BBC3s nightly show Live at Johnnys to support its Theme of the Day section. Viewers send in MMS photos of lookalike celebrities.

MX Telecom is currently in negotiation to provide a similar service to a radio station which will enable listeners to send MMS messages to radio shows to win prizes.

Mike Short chairman of the Mobile Data Association said:

Wholesale SMS propositions have been enormously successful in the UK and we are very excited to see the first innovations around wholesale MMS with television.

This latest development is a great step forward for the industry as it will provide consumers with a new way to interact with brands and gives broadcasters an additional content feed for programming.

Siemens will have a BlackBerry-type handset by Q4.

Neither company would confirm the model of the intended Siemens handset to offer BlackBerry-style connectivity nor the services that will be made available.

Nokia Samsung and Sony Ericsson already have BlackBerry services available on their handsets.

Our handset will be targeted primarily at the business user the market most associated with BlackBerry said a Siemens spokesman.

The always-on aspect will attract users and mean theyre never out of touch. The handset design is also important. Siemens will make it more than just an e-mail device.

Gary Bridger of Somerset dealership Airwaves Communications was to supply 50 handsets on two Orange Business plans to a business client. But before Orange would connect the phones the network told him he had to get the client to vouch for him in writing.

Now Bridger is threatening to switch the client to Vodafone.

Orange requires that contracts of more than 49 handsets must be dealt with directly unless the client affirms the dealer is authorised to manage the contract.

Orange Business customer relations said we were not on account and could not connect any new phones said Bridger.

They told me to ask the client for a letter of approval and trust. I can see this policy prevents fraud but Orange has our dealer code. It knows us. We have a five-year history with this client who we brought to Orange and who is worth 35000 a year to the network. Orange has not shown us any loyalty. I have now proposed to the client that it switches to Vodafone. The client has agreed if it saves money.

Orange said the problem could be resolved if Bridger went through the correct procedure.

Orange sales director Stuart Henry promised to investigate the matter.

I can assure all dealers of my complete support over any unnecessary obstacles that may be put in their way when trying to do business with Orange he said.

The dealers stand to win a trip by signing customers up to Orange contracts on Nokia phones.

Nokia was keen to make a noise in the market said Bob Sweetlove business manager at Hugh Symons Communications which is managing the dealer promotion. It wanted to be more visible in the dealer channel because the other handset manufacturers are making good progress.

Sweetlove says the stakes were raised last year with Data Selects Who Wants To Be A Millionaire promotion which increased Data Selects sales of Nokia products by 850 per cent.

Hit The Strip is similar to Avenirs current Orange promotion which rewards 14 top dealers with tickets to the European Cup final in Portugal.

Entrants to the Hugh Symons promotion are divided into three leagues according to their performance record with Orange contracts over the previous three months.

The leagues are determined by a points system with more points awarded for signing or upgrading customers to higher Orange tariffs and better quality Nokia handsets.

Of the 14 eventual winners eight come from the premier league of Orange dealers. Just one winnercomes from the lowest division made up of smaller Orange dealers with the rest from the mid-range of dealers.

The small dealers like it because they can enter and have the chance to win said Sweetlove. But it is weighted towards the bigger Orange dealers as they are the main source of connections.

Another Vegas trip will be awarded to the best new Hugh Symons dealer. Sweetlove said the best new dealer also is likely to come from the higher divisions.

The Hit The Strip promotion is one of a number of new Hugh Symons incentives for April.

The distributor is also offering a 60 bonus on Orange Talk Plan contracts and a free Java game worth 6.99 with every order of a Nokia handset.

Among forthcoming Hugh Symons dealer incentives this quarter 12 O2 dealers will have the chance to race performance cars at a Jonathon Palmer race day and T-Mobile dealers will be able to win Red Letter Day outdoor activities. Details have yet to be confirmed.

Ashley Simon 25 of Playfield Crescent East Dulwich raided the shop with an accomplice on January 16. Simon who had pleaded guilty was also placed on probation for 18 months.

The prosecutor told the court that two men wearing balaclavas went into the Orange shop just after 5pm and each snatched one of two phones being shown to a customer.

They ran out chased by an Orange shop employee. A passing police officer caught Simon but not the other raider.

Simon told police he had not wanted to commit the offence but that the other man had put him up to it because he owed him money.

Simons defence lawyer claimed he was not wearing a balaclavaalthough he did have a woolly hat on that was a meant as a disguise.

The barrister said Simon had committed the offence to pay off a drugs debt.

He was sentenced after the defence told the court his drug use was cannabis only not Class A substances.

It reckons customers can save up to 80 per cent on their international calls by using the special handset.

A three-minute call to the US will cost just 39p compared with 4.50 on one of the UK networks.

The Primus PTL888 is an 85g dual-band clamshell design handset which will retail for 119.99 SIM-free.

It has a 64000-colour screen WAP GPRS and polyphonic ringtones and comes in three colours.

Primus will initially be selling the handsets direct SIM-free. The company says the handset can be used with any UK SIM card.

The selling point of the handset is the Primus Hotkey button which links the user to the Primus international fixed-line network.

Access numbers for each country are stored in the phone which means the customer only has to enter their destination number.

To use the service the customer also has to register with Primus.

The customer is charged a local or standard rate by their network for the connection to the Primus network. Primus sends the customer a bill for the international leg of calls routed over its least-cost routing system.

The site will boost our incremental revenue by providing customers with a great after-sales offering said Dunstone. I really like the browse-and-buy shopping experience on the phone – it should prove a big hit with customers.

The new content service which was developed by Ringtones.co.uk with billing facilities from Bango.net went live just before the Easter weekend.

Traditionally mobile users have had to read catalogues or print ads then text special codes and words to purchase the ringtone or picture they wanted said Bango.net CEO Ray Anderson.

The Carphone Warehouse has now made the process much simpler and user-friendly but it has cut out the complexity and gives people a wider choice of up-to-date content.

Users access the online mobile shop by texting go cartones to 87121 or going via a bookmark on their phone.

They can then browse a virtual catalogue of thousands of ringtones and pictures and review ringtone charts. A click-to-buy system then downloads them to their phone.

A Carphone Warehouse spokesperson said it was too early to tell how many people had visited the new mobile shop since launch but commented that early forecasts looked very promising.

Jones used to run Vodafones old service providers such as Peoples Phone and London Car Telephones.

An ex-Vodafone executive told Mobile News:

The appointments are typical of Vodafones policy of rotating senior executives around a number of prominent positions around the group. Joness move is part of a determined effort to get Japan on the same page of the script as the rest of the Vodafone group. He has gone Japan to sort things out.

The board feels things have not been progressing quickly enough. David is a mover and a shaker – he doesnt suffer fools gladly. Hes not radical; he believes in facts and figures. But Vodafone is confident that he will stir things up.