Just read an article from the Times of India entitled "New tech to keep tabs on disease", where the new tech in question is the collection of data for health on mobile phones.

Our friends at the 3G Doctor blog weigh in on my last posting re Text4Baby (in which I point out that the system is on track to reach only 4% of pregnant women, the target population):

It is evident that mobile phone technology is taking Africa by storm, with regional and multinational investors looking at the mobile telephony sector as a majour source of income. As much as mobile phone technologies benefit the investors, the technology in itsself (or the idea behind mobile telephony) is without doubt positively influenced relationships as well as businesses.

Terrific leader in the Economist and longer "special report" about mobile financial systems like Kenya's M-PESA, which are transforming the way people save, use, and transport money in poor countries.

A new report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project shows that Americans are increasingly accessing the internet wirelessly (including mobile phones, game consoles, and laptops). And 32% of Americans have accessed the internet from a mobile device (meaning mobile phone or other handheld device). Two years ago that was only about 20%.

Great story from the BBC on how Africa is pioneering the use of mobile banking. Award for most honest quote goes to Mark Pickens of the World Bank's Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP). "There's a lot of excitement, but very little understanding what's going on."  

The Government of Kenya has finally realized the benefits of making phones cheap and available for its citizens. During yesyerdays budget speech by the Minister for Finance, Uhuru Kenyatta, he proposed the removal of VAT on all mobile phones sold in the market.

Here is the extract from the speech:

Paul Lamb has a great opinion piece in the San Jose Mercury News talking about the importance of wireless connectivity rather than "broadband" (by which he means fixed-line broadband). As he points out, at least in California, people don't have fixed broadband because it's not available, but because they don't want it. 

What they want is mobile. 

Jessica Shambora of Fortune magazine has a great article talking about the iPhone-spawned explosion of mobile applications, and she wonders "Does this mean that we'll soon be trading in our PCs in the same way many of us gave up our landlines in favor of our cell phones?"