Cheryl fans may struggle to contain their excitement after it was announced the singer will embark on her first solo UK arena tour.
It's been a good week for Cheryl who wowed Wembley at the Summertime Ball and her new single Call Me Name when straight to No.1 within hours of release on iTunes, clocking up record breaking sales.
Now it has been confirmed that the Fight For This Love singer will tour the country and Ireland for the first time as a solo artist.
Cheryl will play eight shows in October, including the O2 Arena and a homecoming at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle.
She opened as a special guest for the Black Eyed Peas European tour in 2010 and played four sold-out arena tours as part of Girls Aloud.
She's one of the most exciting performers in music and will be performing songs from previous albums 3 Words and Messy Little Raindrops, as well as new material from the much awaited A Million Lights which will be released June 18.
There will plenty of surprises in store for fans who can purchase tickets from 9am on June 15 at Live Nation.
Can't wait until October to get your Cheryl fix? Read more below.
"Cheryl Cole is losing her touch": Desperate star adds nothing to the nation and it's time she went away: Read Mirror Online's guest columnist Fleet Street Fox brutal opinion on Cheryl.
Cheryl Cole pointless and unworthy of Prince Harry? She’s the perfect modern day celebrity and would blow Kate Middleton out of the water: Sunday Mirror celebrity columnist Dean Piper bit back at the Fox with his praising verdict of Queen Chez.
CHERYL COLE TOUR
6 Oct Capital FM Arena, Nottingham
7 Oct 02, London
9 Oct Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield
11 Oct Echo Arena, Liverpool
12 Oct LG Arena, Brimingham
13 Oct Manchester Arena,
15 Oct SECC, Glasgow
17 Oct Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
O2 deploys cloud based sales platform to run natively in Force.com - IT World
June 12, 2012, 4:05 PM — O2 has integrated CloudSense's Order Management stack into O2 Business' Salesforce.com platform in a bid to increase efficiency and bolster its customer relationship capabilities.
The sales and service cloud-based platform has been deployed within O2's Joined-Up Business operations, which is a division that aims to help companies connect their IT, staff and customers through communications products.
Ricky Mortimer, e-enablement programme manager at O2 Business, spoke to Computerworld UK and explained why it decided to opt for a public cloud offering over an on-premise deployment.
"Given the business challenge we have around managing this increasing portfolio of products [through O2 Joined-Up Business], whilst trying to drive down costs, cloud allows us to implement without large up front CAPEX costs and gives us a quick time to market," said Mortimer.
O2 has integrated CloudSense's Order Management stack into its Salesforce.com platform, which includes applications such as CS ClickApprove, CS Configurator and CS Orchestrator. These enable O2 to manage its products, quote customers, carry out electronic approval for contracts and enable end-to-end fulfilment in the cloud.
"We were using Salesforce at the time for lead-to-opportunity management - so pure sales pipeline stuff. We looked at how we could take that lead-to-opportunity and extend it all the way through to lead-to-cash," said Mortimer.
"The target was to do that in a way that would leverage the Force.com environment and run everything natively inside that platform."
Mortimer said that moving from lead-to-opportunity to lead-to-cash would enable O2 to develop a fully cloud-based CRM platform.
He said: "Our strategy is to get a full CRM system in place, 100% in the cloud, integrated into O2's systems via our service orientated architecture."
By running applications natively inside the Force.com platform, O2 was able to use Salesforce's other cloud services, such as Chatter, mobile and native security features.
O2 selected CloudSense over one other shortlisted company, an American-based firm called ChikPea, due to its "track record and proven experience of delivery".
Prior to this deployment O2 had been using a combination of manual processes and Microsoft Office products, but over the past 12 months has managed to get 800 users on the new sales and service platform. It plans to increase this to 3,500 users over the next 18 months.
Although Mortimer couldn't provide specifics about efficiency or cost targets, he did say that O2 Business will "grow and diversify its portfolio of products without increasing its operating costs".
He also stated that although the thought of cloud made many within the business "go pale in the face", the platform is running to service levels beyond what Mortimer was able to agree with Salesforce's commercial team.
"There were a number of concerns around cloud, not just the security element. This is business-critical activity and uptime is essential - this was clearly a big leap of faith," said Mortimer.
He added: "I tried to demand high service levels from Salesforce, but wasn't able to agree targets with the commercial team.
"However, we are actually operating to levels much higher than what I attempted to agree - we are operating at beyond 99.9% uptime.
"We have been using it for the best part of a year now and we haven't had an outage yet, which isn't what you expect from new platforms and new technology. Typically what you would be looking at is hundreds of minutes of downtime and how you would reduce that."
O2 also recently announced that it has signed a five-year managed services deal with China-based services provider Huawei. It will be transferring 118 staff to work for Huawei's managed services business, where under the agreement, Huawei will be charged with planning, implementing and managing Telefonica's core transmission, mobile access and network in the UK.
Analysis: Apple's big enemy in smartphone wars: delay - msnbc.com
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc has spent nearly three years fighting its rivals in a global smartphone patent war. Now, setbacks in two key U.S. court cases are laying bare why a drawn-out battle could be bad news for the iPhone maker.
Last Thursday, Judge Richard Posner in Chicago federal court canceled Apple's long-awaited trial against Google Inc's Motorola Mobility division, which makes devices powered by the Internet search company's Android mobile operating system. The trial had been set to start this week.
Then in an order late on Monday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, effectively dashed Apple's hopes of stopping the launch of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's new Galaxy S III smartphone, which also runs on Android. Koh had said Apple's push to get a court order blocking the June 21 launch would overload her calendar, given Apple's high-stakes trial over other Samsung devices set for July that she is overseeing.
The latest decisions don't doom Apple's courtroom efforts - the company can appeal Posner's ruling, while Koh's directive had nothing to do with the merits of the Samsung case about to go to trial, or the legal arguments for an injunction on the new Samsung smartphone. But delays in moving its cases through the courts is a blow to Apple's efforts to get quick and favorable rulings that it hopes would give it an edge in the marketplace for mobile devices.
Apple has waged the international patent war since 2010, part of its attempt to limit growth of Android, which last year established its dominance as the world's best-selling mobile operating platform. Apple's opponents, meanwhile, say the iPhone maker is trying to use patents to avoid competing solely in the market.
A clear victory in one of the U.S. legal cases could strengthen Apple's hand in negotiating cross-licensing deals outside court, where companies agree to let each other use their patented technologies.
"The stalemate is much more of a victory for the accused infringers than it is for Apple," said Brian Love, a professor at Stanford Law School who studies patent litigation.
Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet reiterated a previous statement, saying the blatant copying of its devices was wrong. Google spokesman Jim Prosser said the rise of patent litigation is due to too many vague software patents, and that Google's success makes it an attractive target. A Samsung representative declined to comment.
Apple is not the only smartphone combatant that has faced setbacks in litigation over its technology. Last month, Oracle Corp came up empty in a trial against Google, a case where Oracle's damages estimates ranged up to $6 billion.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco rejected Oracle's copyright claims on parts of the Java programming language. The enterprise software company said it would appeal.
LAND GRAB
Apple is in a pitched battle with its competitors over who can develop the most innovative smartphone features. In an attempt to help keep Android at bay, the company announced new features for its voice-activated Siri software at its annual developer's conference on Monday.
The company's first lawsuit in its global patent fight was against smaller competitor HTC Corp in a Delaware federal court in March 2010. Apple also filed an action against HTC before a U.S. trade panel, which has forced delays in sales of some HTC smartphones.
Michael Yoshikami, chief executive of Destination Wealth Management, says HTC stock has suffered due to adverse court rulings. But for a larger player like Apple, the patent battle is important but not for its share price. Rather, it is used for a short-term edge in the land grab for smartphone and tablet sales, said Yoshikami, whose fund holds Apple shares.
In a move that was widely seen as a preemptive strike against an imminent Apple lawsuit, Motorola sued Apple in October 2010 in Chicago, and Apple filed its own claims against Motorola the same month. That case landed before Posner, who issued a series of pre-trial rulings that eliminated nearly all of Motorola's patent claims against Apple from the prospective trial, while maintaining more of Apple's claims against Motorola.
That meant Apple had more to gain in the trial, which was set to start on Monday. But in an order last week, Posner scrapped the trial after finding that neither side could prove damages. Apple had sought an injunction barring the sale of Motorola products, but Posner said that would be "contrary to the public interest."
Nick Rodelli, a lawyer and adviser to institutional investors for CFRA Research in Maryland, rated Posner's decision an "incremental negative" for Apple. However, Rodelli doesn't think it will stand up on appeal, saying in part that Posner improperly denied Apple a hearing on its right to an injunction.
Yet Stanford's Professor Love said that Posner's ruling, and the delay it causes in Apple getting the case to trial even if it wins an appeal, will reduce Apple's leverage during any potential licensing talks.
In the Samsung lawsuit, filed last year in California, the iPhone maker says Samsung "slavishly" copied the iPhone and iPad. Samsung denies the claims and countersued.
The trial centers around Apple's claims against multiple Samsung phones, as well as a Galaxy tablet. But those products are not the most pressing worry for Apple at the moment: Samsung's Galaxy S III phone is set to launch in the U.S. on June 21, and Apple fears blockbuster sales.
But courts don't move as quickly as new technology. At a court hearing last week, Apple attorney Josh Krevitt complained that Samsung is able to release new phones before the legal system has time to address their patent violations.
"Samsung is always one step ahead, launching another product and another product," Krevitt said.
Koh last week said Apple could ask for a temporary restraining order against the Galaxy S III phone, but that would likely delay the trial over a Galaxy tablet and other smartphones. In her order on Monday, the judge said Apple would have to request a new hearing date if it wanted to stop sales of the Galaxy S III phone. That likely would not take place before the phone's scheduled launch. Apple has not said what its next move will be.
Court-ordered mediation between the CEOs of Apple and Samsung did not produce a settlement in the wide-ranging litigation. Barring a last minute agreement, the trial is slated for July 30.
Apple cannot afford to get bogged down in its global legal campaign against Android, said Paul Berghoff, a Chicago-based patent attorney with McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff who is not involved in the litigation.
"If Apple's goal still is the Steve Jobs holy war, then the status quo is not in their benefit," Berghoff said.
(Reporting By Dan Levine; Editing by Martha Graybow, Amy Stevens and Phil Berlowitz)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
Debenhams rolls out free wi-fi in its stores - Econsultancy
The wi-fi coverage will allow customers to access information about products, view reviews, order out of stock items, and receive discount vouchers straight to their mobiles.
This is a smart move from Debenhams, and one which addresses the threat of mobile use in store and turns it to the retailer's advantage.
The use of mobile for offline price comparison
The use of mobiles by customers in stores does present a challenge for retailers. More and more people have smartphones (and tablets)and are able to use them to check prices and view reviews while shopping on the high street.
Stats from a Toluna/Econsultancy multichannel retail survey last year show that 18.5% of UK and 20% of US shoppers have used their phones to compare prices while in a store, a trend which will only increase:
Debenhams wi-fi
While retailers may be fearful of this trend, since mobile apps from brands like Amazon threaten to take business away from the high street, it's something that must be addressed.
Debenham's will use O2 wi-fi, something trialled by House of Fraser last Christmas, to allow customers to carry out a range of activities in store.
They can scan a product using the barcode scanner on its Android and iPhone apps to access further details about products, as well as ordering out of stock items for home delivery.
In addition, customers can send pictures of items to friends for a second opinion, while phones can be used to access store layouts. This wi-fi can also be used to target customers with offers and discount vouchers while in store, a potentially powerful tool for the retailer.
Debenhams' forward-thinking mobile strategy has been very effective so far, with one million downloads of its apps and 250,000 barcode scans in store. 20% of the retailer’s online traffic now comes from mobile devices.
By launching apps across different platforms, and adding the crucial barcode scanning function to its apps, the retailer has laid the foundations for this move.
Why other retailers should follow suit
The use of mobiles as an offline shopping companion will continue to grow, and retailers need to embrace this trend rather than ignoring it. In fact, it offers retailers an opportunity to improve the in-store experience and bring some advantages of online into stores.
For example, the ability to access online reviews and opinion more easily can actually work as a sales driver for instore customers, while accessing extra product detail could also push shoppers towards a purchase.
The key is to ensure that, as far as possible, customers are using your mobile sites or apps and can find all the information they need. This way, they are less likely to use competitor's apps, which may tempt them to make a purchase elsewhere.
The point of providing wi-fi is that it ensures that a shopper's mobile experience in store is as good as it can be, avoiding the frustration of variable 3G signals.
Providing mobile internet in stores is a great move by Debenhams, and I'm sure it won't be the last to do so.
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