Gossip

Can you catch 30 seconds of illegal mobile audio?

When is the most embarrassing moment in a phone conversation? According to consultant Dean Bubley, it's the thirty seconds after you think you hung up. Would you like software to capture that?

Being a consultant Bubley hasn't actually written the code; indeed, he hasn't even tested the function calls on a single mobile phone. But he has exposed an interesting opportunity:

What applications have the automatic right to access the microphone and/or cameras? Obviously the main phone dialler, any obvious speech-based functions, and the videotelephony app, and any VoIP clients... but what else? And how do I control it?

Traditionally, the embarrassment arises when you think you've pressed the "red phone" to hang up, and your caller hears your comment about them. This new app extends that - and the fun would come if you installed a 30-second audio recorder on someone else's phone.

All the program has to do is notice your phone number, and send you a mini-note of what the other person said after you'd finished the call. Then it can call you back and play the audio:

• "Great! another customer paying full price! What a sucker"
• "Oh My God! he just asked me on a date!"
• "It's OK, I persuaded her I'm in a meeting"
• "Yeah, that geezer's got a garage full of moody kettles"
• "Jeez that was a tough briefing. Bloody know-it-all analysts"

Bloody know-it-all analysts indeed, Dean...!