This week’s launch has seen a flurry of online activity around Ladyblabla.

 TheNextWeb said:

The good people at London agency Mint Digital are never short of ideas, and theirlatest has a really good cause at its heart. Ladyblabla (points awarded for the silly name) is a UK price comparison site for smartphones, offering tools to help you find a good deal that suits you and then sending you off to a retailer to make your purchase. Not that unusual, you might think, but Mint is running this as a charitable project. So, the commission it’s paid from each successful referral goes to fight mother-to-baby HIV transmission in southern Africa.

Wieden + Kennedy’s Welcome to Optimism blog said:

You know Tom’s Shoes - buy a pair of shoes and donate a pair to a child in the developing world? Well this is the smartphone equivalent. If you buy a phone from ladyblabla.co.uk you help donate a smartphone - the HTC Sensation + internet data contract - to a health worker in southern Africa who uses it to improve the quality of healthcare and to save lives.

Also we’ve got ourselves on Facebook and Twitter. Please follow or like us, to help spread the message of how Ladyblabla helps saves lives.

Wired Magazine says the Nokia Lumia was the most talked about and hyped-up phone at this year’s CES in Las Vegas.  

Excuse me? Nokia? 

Known for low cost,  dependable and let’s be honest - rather boring feature phones, Nokia seemed to have lost their way over past years as smartphones from Apple and Android have transformed the market and stolen millions of customers away from the lumbering Finnish giant. 

Now they’re back with the Lumia 900 - a high end smartphone which rivals the Apple iPhone for design quality. The Lumia is made from a single piece of polycarbonate, has a gorgeous OLED display and exudes a real sense of style. Phone geeks are drooling all over it. 

What really sets it apart is the software. Last year Nokia hooked up with Microsoft to put Windows Phone software on Nokia handsets. The results are impressive. Maybe the single most exciting thing about the Windows Phone software is that it isn’t Apple or Android - it’s a new smartphone operating system that feels, well, a bit more grown up. The  typography is big, functional and sophisticated and draws on the principles of classic Swiss modernist design. It’s clean and fast and simple - and refreshingly different from the fussy icon based interfaces found on Apple and Android phones. 

Nokia has achieved something it’s been trying to do for years - it’s got great press - and great buzz - in the USA. 

Looks like reports of Nokia’s demise were, well, premature.

Read more http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/01/windows-phones-ces-2012/

Low cost mobile phones are helping millions of people in developing countries make a better life for themselves.    

Mobiles offer affordable banking services to those who can’t get a bank account, market information for farmers or fisherman to ensure the best prices for their produce, and a direct connection between vendors and customers everywhere. Low cost SMS networks can give healthcare advice, payment systems, and even support with education. 

There are 4.5 billion mobile subscriptions in the developing world and people are using them to build a 10 trillion dollar informal economy - and get themselves out of poverty.

It’s an economic revolution and it’s happening without government or NGO planning.

The New York Times says it’s the most underreported story in technology.

Read more at http://www.forbes.com/sites/eliseackerman/2012/01/12/the-10-trillion-economy-mobile-built/

Research shows more women playing games than men - and those who cheat in games are more likely to cheat in real life.    

Social games on mobile phones have become a huge success with women - and we’re not talking Dressup Princess or Big Eyed Hunk.

Games like Farmville and Plants vs Zombies are pulling in millions of female players.

Analysts report that more than half of social and mobile games are played by women, whereas men still predominate in traditional console gaming. With trends firmly away from console and desktop and towards smartphones, it looks like the future of mobile gaming is most definitely female.

The bad news is that game cheaters are 3.5 times more likely to cheat in real life. Research shows that people who cheat in games tend to play fast and loose with hotel towels, magazines in dentist waiting rooms and those little sachets of sugar you get in restaurants. Oh, and they’re more likely to have sex with people they shouldn’t be having sex with.

Even though more than half of all gamers are women, turns out the majority of cheaters are men. Or to put it another way, the majority of people who admit to cheating are men…

Read more about cheatinghttp://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/game/3329327/48-of-social-gamers-cheat-in-real-life/

And how more women play games http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/22/do-women-play-more-games-than-men/

Research shows more women playing games than men - and those who cheat in games are more likely to cheat in real life.  

 Social games on mobile phones have become a huge success with women - and we’re not talking Dressup Princess or Big Eyed Hunk.

 Games like Farmville and Plants vs Zombies are pulling in millions of female players.

 Analysts report that more than half of social and mobile games are played by women, whereas men still predominate in traditional console gaming. With trends firmly away from console and desktop and towards smartphones, it looks like the future of mobile gaming is most definitely female.

 The bad news is that game cheaters are 3.5 times more likely to cheat in real life. Research shows that people who cheat in games tend to play fast and loose with hotel towels, magazines in dentist waiting rooms and those little sachets of sugar you get in restaurants. Oh, and they’re more likely to have sex with people they shouldn’t be having sex with.

 Even though more than half of all gamers are women, turns out the majority of cheaters are men. Or to put it another way, the majority of people who admit to cheating are men…

Read more about cheating http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/game/3329327/48-of-social-gamers-cheat-in-real-life/

And how more women play games http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/22/do-women-play-more-games-than-men/

300 million fewer women than men in developing countries own a mobile, new research has found. A woman living in sub-Saharan Africa is 23% less likely than a man to own a mobile phone. This figure rises to 24% in the Middle East and increases again to 37% for a woman living in South Asia.

A new initiative called mWomen aims to halve this gender gap within three years by providing 150 million women around the world with access to mobile phone technology. Part of the project will involve creating tariffs and handsets specifically for women as well as educating men about the positive aspects of women owning a mobile phone.

Increasing the availability of phones to women will have a huge effect on their ability to set up businesses, become more independent and feel safer.

The project is championed by Cherie Blair who said: “If you help a woman set up a business, you’re not just helping her, you’re helping her children and her family. That has a ripple effect on the wider community.”

Read more on BBC News

What do you think about phones designed to appeal to women? The team at Women With Droids have surveyed their readers to find out just what girls are looking for when they embark on that all-important relationship milestone: committing to a brand new phone. 

As the results show, the phone-loving ladies at Women With Droids want top hardware specs, without having to compromise on style. 71% didn’t find the idea of phones designed for men or women offensive, while 60% reckoned they would be likely to seek out a phone aimed at a female market.

Do pink and sparkly phone designs make you shudder? Or do you like the idea of being able to change your phone to match your outfit, or choose a slimmer body to fit in with your handbag essentials? The survey results might surprise you…

Read more on Women With Droids

The Women & Mobile Report is the first global study of its kind. It endeavours to understand mobile usage by women subscribers in low- and middle-income countries and highlights the barriers facing women’s adoption of mobile technologies. It also shows that by extending the benefits of mobile phone ownership to women, a host of social and economic goals can be advanced. These include:

• 93% of women reported feeling safer because of their mobile phone

• 85% of women reported feeling more independent because of their mobile phone

• 41% of women reported having increased income and professional opportunities once they owned a mobile phone

• 93% of women felt more connected when owning a mobile phone

read more