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A study funded by mobile phone companies has suggested that radiation from handsets can cause insomnia, headaches and confusion in users.

Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and Wayne State University in the US studied 35 men and 36 women aged between 18 and 45 and exposed some to radiation equivalent to that sent out from mobile phones - 884 MHz of wireless signals - while others were given a placebo effect.

The study found that those exposed to the radiation took longer to enter the first of the deeper stages of sleep and spent less time in the deepest stage.

Reports of headaches were also greater during radio wave exposure than during the “sham” exposures and neither group was able to tell which was receiving the radio waves and which were not.

Sleep expert Dr Jeffrey Lipsitz said the results were not comforting.

“Aside from the sleep aspects, honestly, it’s a little worrisome that you could measure any significant difference in people just because they’ve been exposed to radio waves that simulate cellphone use,” he explained.

“It certainly cries out for more research.”

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A new technology has been developed that could see people using their own bodies to transfer data from one device to another in future.

Communications provider KDDI has developed a new form of memory storage that could replace memory cards and flash sticks by making it far simpler to transfer information and less likely to be damaged in transit.

The company has discovered that the transfer of data such as video and music can be achieved at a frequency of less than 40MHz, Tech Digest reports.

This information could allow for video downloads by mobile phones to be made via human body in future, via glasses fitted with copper coils that touch the wearer’s forehead.

When the metal heart is touched, video is transmitted to the glasses, as well as to an external PC monitor.

If the technology can be successfully developed, it could revolutionise the way information is transferred.

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Search engine Google has announced a new open source development platform for mobile phones.

The Android platform, a result of collaboration between Google, T-Mobile and Motorola, among others, will allow developers to create software for a wide range of mobile devices and comes after much speculation over the rumoured launch of a specific Google phone.

It comprises an operating system, middleware and a user-friendly interface and applications and has been launched with the aim of lowering the cost of mobile handsets and other gadgets for both businesses and consumers.

A total of 34 companies have joined to form the Open Handset Alliance, with the first handsets utilising technologies from the initiative set to launch during the second half of 2008.

‘Today’s announcement is more ambitious than any single ‘Google Phone’ that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks,’ commented Google chairman and chief executive Eric Schmidt.

‘Our vision is that the powerful platform we’re unveiling will power thousands of different phone models.’

The announcement came shortly after Google announced the release of its OpenSocial platform, which will allow developers to come up with social networking applications for use across the web.

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Many businesses are less prepared than they think when it comes to using Web 2.0 technologies, a new survey has suggested.

While almost 97 per cent of companies polled by Forrester Research for Secure Computing said they believed themselves to be ready for internet threats, more than two-thirds admitted to needing to do more.

And when asked how regularly they fall foul of malware attacks, 79 per cent of respondents said they did so frequently.

‘The need to keep inappropriate content at bay, reduce non-business bandwidth consumption and limit exposure to internet threats gave rise to the industry of web filtering,’ the report stated.

It added: ‘The need for more effective web protection has never been greater.’

Earlier this week, Antti Ohrling, founder of mobile firm Blyk, told the MediaGuardian Changing Advertising Summit that experts were wrong to assume that Web 2.0 could enjoy the same level of success on mobile phones as it has done on the traditional internet, the Guardian reports.

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Internet search engine giant Google has created a tool that lets users create simple, web-based presentations.

Coming as part of Google Docs, which includes word processing and spreadsheet features, the new presentation capability has been widely seen as a competitor with Microsoft’s popular PowerPoint tool.

The presentations service in Google Docs allows more than one user to view the slides while a moderator controls the presentation.

Google has reminded users, however, that the tool is still in ’simple, early stages’ and will change as time goes on.

‘Putting documents in the cloud surrounded by easy to use features for collaboration and sharing can save people hours of inefficiency and frustration and even enable new ways of working together,’ commented Sam Schillace, director of engineering for Google Docs.

The search engine also announced this week that it is launching its AdSense service, which displays targeted ads on websites, for publishers with websites developed specifically for mobile phones.

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