We know that Google+ is invitation only but it looks like celebs are also accountable to Google’s whims after Star Trek actor William Shatner’s account was suspended on Monday, only to be mysteriously restored later in the day.
The actor, who played Captain James T. Kirk, revealed on his Twitter account that he had received an email from Google claiming that he had violated their standards and that they had taken his account offline. The space age star tweeted, “My Google+ account was flagged for violating standards,” and later added: “Saying hello to everyone apparently is against the rules. Maybe I should say goodbye?”
The Google+ ban didn’t last too long though and Shatner was soon beamed back to the Google+ site and wrote on his account: “I am back plusers. I still do not know what happened but I will refrain from saying hello again for a while just in case. My best, Bill.”
Representatives at the search giant have declined to comment on what Captain Kirk did wrong, but perhaps they didn’t quite believe that old Bill was quite who he said he was. It just goes to show that it’s not just us humble folk who are schmoozing online – who knows who you could end up with in your Circles!
It could have something to do with a general clampdown on slightly suspicious accounts. On the same day, Google also shut down a Google+ account that allegedly belonged to the Anonymous hacker group.
Google has reported that there are now more than 10 million users on Google+, despite still being in testing and having only debuted three weeks ago. Are you one of them?

With spectacular sales and levels of customer devotion normally reserved for the more intensive cults (the ones that use drugs and electric shocks) Apple is the envy of other tech companies. But while the likes of Microsoft desperately streamline their products to appear more like Apple, one chain of stores dared to just be Apple. Without telling them.
A traveling tech blogger has documented her discovery of fake “Apple Stores” (and even “Apple Stoers”) in Kunming. Protip: Apple doesn’t actually write “Apple Store” on its signs. The capital of China’s Yunnan province has almost six million residents but absolutely no official Apple stores. Someone clearly recognized the wasted opportunity and decided to do something about it, where “something” means “rolling in piles of money.”
 
While a single traveling blogger isn’t a forensic examination, we’d be much more surprised if this wasn’t true. If Apple are going to make the whole world want its hardware without giving them the chance to buy, opportunists will do it for them. Apparently, even the staff believe they’re working in an authentic store, which is a great trick if you can manage it. Simply setting up an entire replacement store is brilliant. It’s the techno toy version of The Sting, where even the actors are being conned, and someone is making an awful lot of money. And is doubtless ready to disappear the instant Steve Jobs sends anyone to so much as the same part of the continent. Until then, though, the money keeps on rolling in.

Back in August last year, the GSMA announced a few of the cities competing for the honour of hosting the annual Mobile World Congress event, which has for the past few years been held in Barcelona.  The search began with thirty cities, which became six, then finally four.
The competition has been running for 18-months, and on the 22nd of July, the GSMA formally announced that the winning city was…Barcelona!  The press release says the Spanish city has been selected as the ‘Mobile World Capital’ until 2018, and will not only play host to MWC, but to various other events relevant to the mobile industry too.
Mobile World Congress 2012′s location was never in question, and is scheduled to run between the 27 February until the 1 March, but we’ve now got 2013′s dates too – the 25th until the 28 February.
As well as the main international event, a new Mobile World Centre and Mobile World Festival will be set up, the former as a permanent home to mobile-related exhibitions and hospitality, and the latter for sporting events, music, art and technology showcases.
If you’re quite new to cellular phones, you may not know what MWC is all about; it’s one of the biggest mobile trade shows in the world, and regularly used as the launchpad for many major manufacturers’ new products for the year. The last show was attended by more than 60,000 people from 200 countries.

Apple is hiring more staff for August and September, suggesting the company could be gearing up for the launching of the iPhone 5.
Apple resource MacRumors sparked speculation after it claimed to have spoken to a former Apple employee asked by the company if they would like to return to work between 15 August and 15 September, a time-frame in which the highly anticipated device is rumoured for a release. The news also ties in with earlier reports suggesting that UK Apple stores are recruiting for temporary staff to work between August and October.
With iOS scheduled for a September release, many within the industry hypothesised that the iPhone 5 would coincide with the new software platform’s launch. However, this latest development, coupled with reports that the firm is said to be recruiting for extra staff in the US to cover the weeks leading up until the middle of September, suggests that the mooted smartphone could be released sooner than that, possibly next month.
Of course, the new batch of recruits might not necessarily be down to the company’s desire to meet demands when the iPhone 5 comes out – Apple has been known to ask former employees in the US to return to help with holiday and back to school shoppers for instance. However, it’s hard to believe that Apple is recruiting purely to help with the back to school period, especially since the iPhone 5 is due out at around the same time.
With August being just around the corner, we should find out exactly what’s going on with the iPhone 5 in the next few weeks.

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The BlackBerry Bold 9790 (AKA Bellagio) has appeared in a series of online tutorial videos, suggesting a release may be just around the corner.
RIM fan site CrackBerry happened across the clips, which show off several of the incoming device’s features and design elements remarkably similar to the Bold 9780. Since the videos emerged, speculation surrounding a possible release date has been mounting.
The clips demonstrate the prospective touchscreen device running BlackBerry OS 7 so we assume it will be part of RIM’s incoming smartphone line-up, all tipped to launch with the updated platform. Other than that though, specs are being kept under wraps.
Whilst the online leak has generated much excitement among industry watchers and BlackBerry fans alike, the likelihood of the Bold 9790 landing on UK shores is up for debate considering the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is due to arrive in September.
You can check out the videos for the BlackBerry Bold 9790 below but if the Bold 9900 tickles your fancy, you can pre-order yours with Dialaphone right now. Click here for more information.
 
 
 

Korean manufacturer LG is taking to the streets of London to promote its recently released LG Optimus 3D smartphone with an event in the capital’s Cavendish Square.
The LG Play Hub will invite those from within the mobile industry and members of the public along to experience the revolutionary glasses-free 3D device across four different hubs, and Dialaphone will be in attendance to see what’s in store. Those hubs are:
Movie Zone – Enter in to the cinema to watch a short movie in full high-definition 3D directly on an Optimus 3D, glasses-free.
Games Zone – Discover just why gaming just got better with the Optimus 3D. Jump behind the wheel of a simulated race car with an Optimus 3D in hand and compete against other drivers in a game of Asphalt 6 in full 3D for top prizes.
Photo Zone – Here you can test out the Optimus 3D’s 5-megapixel dual lens camera. Get dressed up in full biker gear, hop on a real Harley Davidson and take 3D images and videos in front of the iconic backdrop of Route 66.
Quick Zone – Have a free play on the Optimus 3D!
We’ll be tweeting live from the LG Play Hub between 6pm – 8pm and will be back with a run-down of the event tomorrow. So check back here then to see what went on.

Phone cases for the HTC Omega and HTC Eternity have appeared online. The images come courtesy of trading site, Alibaba and are rumoured to form part of the Taiwanese firm’s new Windows Phone 7 Mango line-up.
Although the cases don’t really give anything away, the position of the camera on one of the accessories does match the camera placement of an earlier leaked picture of the Eternity.
In terms of what we do know about the handsets so far, the Omega is rumoured to feature a 3.8-inch SLCD display, 1.5GHz processor and an 8 megapixel camera. The Eternity on the other hand is said to have a whopping 4.7-inch AMOLED display, 1.5GHz processor, 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and 720p video recording, a front-facing 1.3 megapixel snapper plus 16GB memory.
The Eternity is reported to be coming out in the autumn; a specific release date for the Omega is still yet to surface.

Although we shouldn’t be holding our breath for it to appear any time soon, Mozilla has announced plans to make it’s own web-based operating system along the same lines as Google’s Chrome OS. However, instead of debuting it on a netbook, Mozilla is targeting smartphones and tablets.
The name of the project is Boot to Gecko, an unusual moniker which refers to starting up the OS into Gecko, the name of the browser engine powering Mozilla’s Firefox. The company will use sections of the open source Android code to get Boot to Gecko up and running, and then rely on internal developers and the army of external Mozilla coders to create APIs to run web-based apps to control the device’s main functions.
Although Android will feature in its code, Boot to Gecko won’t run Android apps; but will instead use web apps created specifically for the project.
New entries into the smartphone/tablet operating system world are always interesting, however, the market has never been as competitive as it is now, and for any newcomer to make an impact it’ll have to be something very special indeed. Quite aside from needing to get hardware partners onboard, the general consumer has got to accept the possibility of a continuously online OS too.
Mozilla has a dedicated following, but if industry heavyweights such as Intel and Microsoft struggle to break through with their smartphone software; they’ve got a long and very difficult road ahead.
 

RIM could be set to unveil a new smartphone today after it hinted towards the arrival of something “shiny, new and social” on its official Facebook page.
The company made the intriguing post on Monday night which read: “Hey Team BlackBerry, what’s shiny, new and social all over? We want to tell you all about it. Can you guess what it might be? Tune in tomorrow for details!”
Without any official confirmation of a specific device, just what exactly this new arrival might be remains a mystery. That hasn’t stopped tech industry watchers from speculating though with many predicting that it could either be the BlackBerry Bold 9790, which appeared in a series of leaked videos a few days ago, or the much talked about Torch 2.
However, some haven’t ruled out the possibility of RIM revealing an official release date for the BlackBerry Bold 9900, although this couldn’t really be termed a ‘new’ handset as the company unveiled it at BlackBerry World back  in May.
The Canadian manufacturer didn’t give away an exact time as to when it would be making this announcement, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on Camp RIM throughout the day to see what it’s got up its sleeve.