July 2008 Archives

Forrester Research announced the acquisition of JupiterResearch, LLC., and its parent company, JUPR Holdings, Inc., from MCG Capital Corporation for $23

JupiterResearch has 83 employees and 2007 revenues of approximately $14 million. Forrester, with 2007 revenues of $212 million, now has more than 1,000 employees. JupiterResearch joins Forrester's Marketing & Strategy Client Group, which contributed $46.4 million to Forrester's total revenue in 2007.

Like Forrester, JupiterResearch provides business professionals with syndicated research, analysis, and advice backed by proprietary data. JupiterResearch has a substantive and growing library of syndicated research and strong consumer data and excels at market forecasting.

Westwood One, announced a multi-year strategic partnership with AirSage, Inc. to combine traffic speed and flow information derived from cell phone signals with Westwood One's leading traffic incident reporting expertise. With the expanded depth of information-gathering provided by the partnership, Westwood One's Metro Traffic will improve the accuracy of traffic information available to commuters, offering significant advancements in the reporting of travel times, faster alerts, and better alternative route suggestions. Metro Traffic will begin to roll out the innovative reporting technology in September.

Goggle Maps for Mobile has been upgraded to 2.2 of the application for Symbian S60 (3rd edition or later) and Windows Mobile (2005 or later), with public Transit directions.

From a second tab labeled Transit (or Public Transport), where users can request a route using only public transportation.  There will a number of alternatives that for (car-free) methods to the destination.

Transit directions are available on Google Maps in more than 50 cities.

 
The new version of Google Maps for mobile for WinMo and S60 also has:

• Star-ratings for businesses
• Faster search results
• User-generated content will now surface in search results.

According to SNL Kagan’s latest wireless projections, the recent launch of Apple’s iPhone 3G along with new smar-phone offerings from other providers is setting the stage for mobile data to dominate the U.S. wireless industry. SNL Kagan expects mobile data revenue to increase by a compound annual growth rate of 16% from $24 billion in 2007 to over $100 billion in 2017, compared to barely a 5% CAGR for total service revenue over the same period.

SNL Kagan’s estimates show average data subscribers growing at a CAGR of 5.8% to 249.5 million by 2017, comprising 77% of total wireless subscribers. During the same period, total wireless subscriber growth will increase by only 2.9% per year on average.

SNL Kagan predicts that by 2017, wireless subscribers will reach 90% per capita penetration. As the market nears saturation, sales of new data services are becoming the primary driver of revenue growth. The largest source of mobile data use continues to be messaging and mobile email, with 62% of wireless subscribers utilizing these services by 2017. Mobile web users, growing from 18% of wireless subscribers in 2007 to 52% in 2017, will comprise the second-largest category.

Qualcomm has completed the world’s first data call using High-Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) network technology.  The call achieved a data transfer rate of more than 20 Mbps in a 5 MHz channel.  HSPA+ will allow operators to double the data and triple the voice capacity of their networks compared to current HSPA deployments.  The successful data throughput was achieved on Qualcomm’s MDM8200(TM) product, the industry’s first chipset solution for HSPA+. 

T-Mobile will be offering Family Allowances, allowing parents manage when and how their family members use their T-Mobile phones and service.

With Family Allowances, parents can give their teens an upfront monthly wireless allowance that works on all the phones T-Mobile offers. The feature lets parents set and change limits for minutes, messages and downloads (e.g., games, ringtones and wallpaper) using an online tool.

Once the allowance is reached, the feature shuts off service for that specific element and parents receive a notification. Parents can stay in contact with their family members by setting up "Always Allowed" numbers that will continue to connect, even after allowances have been spent. Any unlimited calling features that are included in a family's plan, such as myFaves and T-Mobile-to-T-Mobile, can also still be used, which preserves the value of the calling plan. Additional controls are available so parents can choose to set allowances on unlimited calling features, if desired.

Leaders in the wireless telecommunications industry today announced formation of the Wireless History Foundation (WHF), industry-wide support for the new non-profit group, and further details regarding a celebration launching the organization. The Foundation, designed to preserve and promote the rich history of wireless, will hold its kickoff event Oct. 13 at the Drake Hotel in downtown Chicago. The date marks the 25th anniversary of the start of cellular communications.

Begun as a grassroots wireless history initiative, the Wireless History Foundation and its Cellular 25 event have gained support from trade associations and luminaries from across the industry. Today, WHF announced new sponsorship from PCIA-The Wireless Infrastructure Association (PCIA) and the Rural Cellular Association. These two trade groups join CTIA-The Wireless Industry Association® as association sponsors. Discussions with several other industry groups are underway.

In the second quarter of 2008, Tier One handset vendors enjoyed year-over-year unit shipment growth of between 15 and 22 percent. ABI Research estimates that 301 million units were shipped during the quarter and therefore reaffirms its forecast that the mobile device market will deliver 13% growth to take 2008 annual shipments to 1.3 billion units.

“If there is an economic slowdown, no one bothered to tell the mobile device buying public,” says ABI Research vice president Jake Saunders. “In particular, consumers in emerging markets in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America shrugged off inflation fears to sign up as mobile phone users. These healthy gains in net subscriber additions are stimulating replacement and upgrade sales. In developed markets handset purchases tended to be flat, but those consumers who did purchase dug deeper and paid out more for coveted higher-end handsets and smart-phones.”

In terms of market share, Nokia has passed the 40% threshold for the first time (40.3%). Samsung secured second place with 15.2%, while Motorola barely managed to keep ahead of LG with its 9.3% versus LG’s 9.2%, and both edged out Sony Ericsson (8.3%). There is a distinct possibility that LG might overtake Motorola by the end of 3Q 2008, putting Motorola into fourth place.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has added several more U.S. internet service providers who have agreed to block access to child pornography.

Cuomo said Comcast, NetZero, Juno and BlueLight Internet will will eliminate access to child porn Newsgroups and will also purge their servers of all child pornography websites identified by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).

Qwest Communications is now offering Verizon Wireless services to all new residential and business customers in its residential service area. Through the five-year agent agreement announced earlier this year, new Qwest customers can now purchase Verizon Wireless products and services, including handsets, smartphones and BlackBerry devices, as well as high-speed wireless broadband services for e-mail, Internet access and multimedia services, such as mobile music and video.

Current Qwest Wireless customers will soon be notified directly about all Verizon Wireless plans and handset options, and are not required to do anything at this time.

In the near future, Qwest will begin contacting Qwest Wireless customers with specific Verizon Wireless device and calling plan recommendations. At that time, Qwest will waive the contract termination fees for Qwest Wireless customers who switch to Verizon Wireless sold through Qwest. For a limited time, those Qwest Wireless customers who sign on for Verizon Wireless service through Qwest will be eligible for exclusive offers from Verizon Wireless. Additionally, residential customers with bundled services from Qwest may choose to have their Verizon Wireless services appear on their Qwest bill when billing systems are fully integrated this Fall.

Here's a copy of the text of the letter Robert Quinn wrote Commission Mc Dowell regarding P2P and 3G:

July 25, 2008

Robert M. McDowell

Commissioner

Federal Communications Commission

445 12th Street, S.W., 8th Floor

Washington, DC 20554

Re: Ex Parte Statement - Broadband Industry Practices

WC Docket No. 07-52

Dear Commissioner McDowell:

At Monday's en banc hearing on Broadband and the Digital Future, in response to a question you posed, I promised to provide further information on AT&T's policies and practices with respect to the use of peer-to-peer ("P2P") applications by AT&T's mobile wireless broadband customers. This letter is intended to supplement my initial answer.

As I indicated on Monday, AT&T does not use network management tools to block the use of P2P applications by its mobile wireless broadband customers. However, AT&T's terms of service for mobile wireless broadband customers prohibit all uses that may cause extreme network capacity issues, and explicitly identify P2P file sharing applications as such a use. Under these terms of service, which are similar to those of other wireless providers, use of a P2P file sharing application would constitute a material breach of contract for which the user's service could be terminated.(1) Since the vast majority of our customers abide by their contractual commitments, AT&T has not yet found it necessary to terminate anyone's service for such a use.

There were so many calls call made regarding the Chino Hills Earthquake, yesterday, that service to wireless and landline customers was disrupted, reported the Los Angeles Times. Although there was not damage to equipment, the increased calling stressed services.

Sprint reported a 800% hike and Verizon's volume soared .to 40% above peak expected during disasters. Emergency disaster called spiked to the point that "Office of Emergency Services urged people to curb non-emergency calls because they could cause 911 calls to be blocked."

By mid-afternoon phone services returned to near normal levels.

W3C (World Wide Web Consortium ) today announced new standards that will make it easier for people to browse the web on mobile devices. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0, published as a W3C Recommendation. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 helps content authors face those challenges and develop content that works on a wide array of mobile devices. Authors and other content producers will find practical advice for managing user experience challenges such as data input and page scrolling.

Until today, content developers faced an additional challenge: a variety of mobile markup languages to choose from. With the publication of the XHTML Basic 1.1 Recommendation today, the preferred format specification of the Best Practices, there is now a full convergence in mobile markup languages, including those developed by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA).

The W3C mobileOK checker (beta), when used with the familiar W3C validator, helps developers test mobile-friendly Web content.

W3C is also developing resources to help authors understand how to create content that is both mobile-friendly and accessible to people with disabilities. A draft of Relationship between Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is jointly published by the The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group and WAI's Education & Outreach Working Group (EOWG).

LG Electronics and Dolby Laboratories, announced that LG would be the first handset maker to incorporate Dolby Mobile into handsets bound for the global market. The companies signed an agreement that grants LG a license to embed Dolby Mobile technology into its handsets.

Dolby Mobile is an audio processing technology platform designed to deliver rich, vibrant audio and dramatically improve listening enjoyment. Built on Dolby's extensive portfolio of technologies, Dolby Mobile has been optimized for mobile applications.

Dolby Mobile is designed to allow customers to optimize and tailor audio for an enhanced entertainment experience. LG plans to apply Dolby Mobile technology to a wide range of multimedia features on its phones.

Some of the Dolby Mobile features that LG plans to incorporate into its phones include:

 Mobile Surround, which delivers a realistic surround sound experience using headphones

• Sound Space Expander, which creates a wide, rich, and spacious soundstage experience especially suited to music playback
• Natural Bass, which adds powerful boost and bass extension
• High-Frequency Enhancer, which enhances music and other content by restoring high-frequency effects
• Graphic EQ, which helps tune the audio experience for different content types
• Sound Level Control, which helps level out audio for a more consistent playback volume
• Mono-to-Stereo Converter, which improves the playback experience of user-generated content

LG plans to begin launching high-end multimedia phones that incorporate Dolby Mobile technology from the fourth quarter of this calendar year.

The new T-Mobile Sidekick powered by Danger (a subsidiary of Microsoft Corp) is available today with software upgrade, improved web access, removable printable shells, video recording/sideloading, wireless stereo music and media sharing via Bluetooth and universal search across all phone applications and data

A streamlined Web browsing experience allows users to either view Web pages vertically, as with previous models, or to "pan and scan" Web pages.

The customizable exterior allows users to match the hardware to the software with their own personal taste. The new Sidekick is built with removable shells, and at http://www.sidekickshells.com, users can create their own unique designs -- that will be printed directly on the shell and shipped to the customer -- to personalize their handset and show off their style.

Starting with an always-on connection for true IM and push e-mail capabilities, the latest Sidekick takes it a step further. Now users can see IM status on e-mail messages and in the address book, so they always know when friends are available to chat. IM also becomes easier to use with a "search for friends" feature and the ability to initiate group chats with a simple keystroke.

Wireless broadband services will create significant opportunities for revenue growth, and cellular technologies will take the largest share, according to the latest report from Analysys Mason, the premier advisers on telecoms, IT and digital media.

Globally, 2.1 billion wireless broadband customers will generate $784 billion in service revenue by 2015. This revenue increase of about 2400% will be underpinned by continued developments in wireless technologies, improvements in devices and more flexible pricing options.

HSPA will support 88% of all wireless broadband consumers at the end of 2008, and its importance will continue. "Despite the increasing availability of LTE and WiMAX, HSPA and HSPA+ will still support 54% of wireless broadband users by the end of 2015," according to Dr Mark Heath, co-author of the report.

Developing regions will account for only 17% of wireless broadband customers at the end of 2008, but the lack of fixed-line infrastructure in these regions will bolster the growth of wireless broadband services, and developing regions will account for 57% of wireless broadband customers worldwide by the end of 2015.

Sprint and Samsung Mobile announced the upcoming nationwide launch of the Sprint AIRAVE by Samsung. the first commercially available femtocell, a mini cell tower that works with any Sprint phone and a broadband Internet connection to provide enhanced in-home wireless coverage. Customers purchasing the AIRAVE can take advantage of unlimited in-home calling with an optional AIRAVE Unlimited Voice plan, starting  August 17.

With the AIRAVE, Sprint customers can:

• Take advantage of enhanced coverage without having to purchase a new phone.
• Talk all they want when subscribed to the optional unlimited AIRAVE calling plan. With the plan, unlimited incoming and outgoing calls and nationwide long distance are included when using the AIRAVE.
• Use their existing Sprint phone, with the option to upgrade to the latest phones at any time. All Sprint phones are compatible with the AIRAVE.*
• Easily install the device using their existing broadband Internet connection and AC power outlet. The AIRAVE is ready to use straight out of the box, with no configuration changes required.
• Take their call with them. Calls initiated on the AIRAVE will transfer automatically to the Nationwide Sprint Network when leaving the AIRAVE coverage area.

Cellfire Inc announced the availability of mobile grocery coupons in partnership with Kroger. For the first time, consumers can achieve savings on individual grocery items using their mobile phone. The new capability is presently available to Kroger consumers in Georgia, South Carolina, Eastern Tennessee and Alabama, and includes savings on dozens of brands from leading consumer product manufacturers: Clorox, ConAgra, Del Monte, General Mills, Kimberly-Clark and Unilever.

To get started with the Cellfire mobile coupon service at Kroger, consumers register with Cellfire and link their Cellfire account to their Kroger Plus card. Consumers view coupons within Cellfire on their phone and the coupons they select to use are automatically loaded to their Kroger Plus card. Consumers simply shop, use their Kroger Plus card at checkout, and discounts on qualifying items are automatically applied. Once the coupon is used or it expires, it is automatically deleted from the consumer’s phone and Kroger Plus card.

Palm today said it has sold its two-millionth Centro smartphone, Palm is now offering Centro in more than 25 countries in North America, South America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Recent data released by AdMob, the largest advertising network on the mobile web, further echoes the momentum of Palm's smallest, lightest and most affordable smartphone. According to the company's Mobile Metrics report (www.admob.com/s/solutions/metrics), Palm Centro leapt onto the list of mobile phones worldwide in May as the No. 8 device, and moved up in June to No. 7. AdMob cites the growth of inexpensive phones, such as Palm Centro, as a primary driver in mobile Internet usage.

Sprint Nextel Corp. violated California law in how it charged early terminations fees, under a ruling in Alameda County Superior Court from Judge Bonnie Sabraw on Moday.

The Associated Press reports "Sprint will have to pay $18.2 million in cash to customers who sued over the fees and credit $54.7 million to those who were charged but did not pay the fees."

The judge rejected Sprint's defense that federal law pre-empts California law on the case,

The FCC has not made a final ruling on ETF.

Update time = Tue Jul 29 13:16:12 PDT 2008

 MAG    DATE    LOCAL-TIME  LAT     LON    DEPTH    LOCATION
        y/m/d     h:m:s     deg     deg     km

 1.9  2008/07/29 13:13:20 33.940N 117.740W 14.4    4 km ( 3 mi) SSW of Chino Hills, CA
 1.6  2008/07/29 13:04:28 33.883N 117.853W 13.6    0 km ( 0 mi) ENE of Placentia, CA
 1.7  2008/07/29 12:57:32 33.950N 117.730W 11.4    3 km ( 2 mi) SSW of Chino Hills, CA
 1.7  2008/07/29 12:53:59 33.921N 117.787W 15.5    4 km ( 2 mi) N   of Yorba Linda, CA
 1.7  2008/07/29 12:53:40 33.907N 117.830W 16.7    4 km ( 2 mi) NE  of Placentia, CA
 1.8  2008/07/29 12:46:27 33.925N 117.804W 17.5    5 km ( 3 mi) NNW of Yorba Linda, CA
 1.7  2008/07/29 12:45:46 33.929N 117.780W 14.2    5 km ( 3 mi) N   of Yorba Linda, CA
 1.7  2008/07/29 12:38:50 33.939N 117.791W 17.1    6 km ( 4 mi) N   of Yorba Linda, CA
 1.7  2008/07/29 12:35:34 33.928N 117.819W 16.6    5 km ( 3 mi) NNW of Yorba Linda, CA
 1.4  2008/07/29 12:32:38 33.925N 117.819W 18.4    5 km ( 3 mi) NNW of Yorba Linda, CA
 1.3  2008/07/29 12:29:25 33.949N 117.808W 17.8    6 km ( 4 mi) S   of Diamond Bar, CA
 1.7  2008/07/29 12:28:23 33.923N 117.798W 16.7    4 km ( 3 mi) NNW of Yorba Linda, CA
 1.9  2008/07/29 12:25:32 33.944N 117.782W 17.7    6 km ( 4 mi) WSW of Chino Hills, CA
 1.9  2008/07/29 12:22:40 33.937N 117.757W 14.3    5 km ( 3 mi) SW  of Chino Hills, CA
 1.8  2008/07/29 12:19:59 33.959N 117.812W 17.5    5 km ( 3 mi) S   of Diamond Bar, CA
 2.3  2008/07/29 12:18:44 33.946N 117.731W 14.2    3 km ( 2 mi) SSW of Chino Hills, CA
 2.4  2008/07/29 12:15:25 33.950N 117.805W 18.6    6 km ( 4 mi) SSE of Diamond Bar, CA
 2.1  2008/07/29 12:14:48 33.937N 117.793W 15.9    6 km ( 3 mi) N   of Yorba Linda, CA
 1.7  2008/07/29 12:13:53 33.966N 117.805W 17.0    4 km ( 3 mi) SSE of Diamond Bar, CA
 2.2  2008/07/29 12:12:28 33.953N 117.729W 14.3    3 km ( 2 mi) S   of Chino Hills, CA
 1.3  2008/07/29 12:10:31 33.920N 117.762W 13.9    4 km ( 3 mi) NE  of Yorba Linda, CA
 2.3  2008/07/29 12:03:00 33.923N 117.810W 16.4    5 km ( 3 mi) NNW of Yorba Linda, CA
 1.8  2008/07/29 12:00:23 34.155N 117.819W  0.0    4 km ( 3 mi) NE  of Glendora, CA
 1.8  2008/07/29 12:00:06 34.325N 117.463W  9.7   13 km ( 8 mi) NNW of Devore, CA
 1.7  2008/07/29 11:58:57 33.957N 117.805W 16.3    5 km ( 3 mi) SSE of Diamond Bar, CA
 1.9  2008/07/29 11:58:33 33.973N 117.739W 14.7    1 km ( 1 mi) WSW of Chino Hills, CA
 1.4  2008/07/29 11:56:36 33.947N 117.778W  9.5    6 km ( 4 mi) WSW of Chino Hills, CA
 2.2  2008/07/29 11:54:12 33.948N 117.791W 14.0    7 km ( 4 mi) SSE of Diamond Bar, CA
 2.2  2008/07/29 11:54:03 33.952N 117.770W 15.5    5 km ( 3 mi) WSW of Chino Hills, CA
 3.8  2008/07/29 11:51:52 33.956N 117.797W 16.3    6 km ( 3 mi) SSE of Diamond Bar, CA
 5.4  2008/07/29 11:42:15 33.955N 117.765W 13.6    4 km ( 3 mi) WSW of Chino Hills, CA

"AT&T's terms of service for mobile wireless broadband customers prohibit all uses that may cause extreme network capacity issues, and explicitly identify P2P file sharing applications as such a use," said Robert Quinn, AT&T's senior vice president of federal regulatory affairs in letter to  FCC  member Robert McDowel

"Under these terms of service, which are similar to those of other wireless providers, use of a P2P file sharing application would constitute a material breach of contract for which the user's service could be terminated," Quinn added.

Zeemote maker wireless controllers for mobile devices, announced that Gameloft is developing titles for the forthcoming Zeemote JS1 Controller which connects via Bluetooth to handsets.

 In order to ensure a consistent quality consumer experience with the Zeemote JS1 Controller, the company has also launched the Zeemote Ready developer program. The new certification process includes a set of standards and simple testing procedures that make it easier for publishers to bring Zeemote JS1 Controller compatible games to market. Once approved, the titles will be branded Zeemote Ready so mobile gamers can easily see all the games that work with the controller.

SendMe, and Moderati have partnered to provide SendMeMobile.com members access to Moderati's premium catalog of indie music. Members who sign up for SendMe's mobile content offering will be able to select and download ringtones from Moderati's vast catalog, including songs from well-known labels such as Beggars Group, TVT Records, Silva Screen and others.

As part of the deal, SendMe will include popular and niche music from TV shows and movies, including James Bond, Charlie's Angels, Ghostbusters, Rocky and more. Among the top indie labels from Moderati that will now be available at SendMeMobile.com are: Beggars Group, TVT Records, Silva Screen, All N Da Doe, and Lil Joe Records.

 "SendMe's innovative platform is a natural way to extend the reach of our catalog, and we're excited to provide SendMe Mobile members with a direct and personalized connection to the music from our favorite label partners," said Cindy Mesaros, SVP Marketing of Moderati.

Millennial Media, has integrated Bango's mobile analytics into its Decktrade marketplace platform, providing its Decktrade users with Bango's mobile analytics' service.

 
Bango Analytics will enable Decktrade users to accurately track unique visitors responding to mobile ad campaigns, and provide the precise measurement and insight needed to optimize campaigns and maximize return on investment (ROI). Analytics include unique visitors, country of origin, network and device.

Consumer Cellular has innovative cell phone recycling program that has already kept 10,000 cell phones out of landfills and raised more than $8,000 for Portland, Ore.-based Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation.

As reported by CTIA, an estimated 150 million cell phones are retired in the U.S. every year but less than 10 percent of idled phones are recycled. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) reports that 75 percent of Americans are unaware of cell-phone recycling options.

With every mobile phone sold, Consumer Cellular includes a postage-paid envelope so customers can recycle their old cell phone, regardless of if the phone still works. Consumer Cellular’s award-winning recycling partner, ReCellular, refurbishes and resells the usable cell phones, making wireless communication more accessible to more people. Phones that no longer function are recycled according to strict environmental standards and the salvaged materials are used to make other products.

CellSigns, Inc., has released version 2.0 of their mobile search tool, Mobile Agent  that enables a home buyer to see any home for sale and get property information on that home, including photos and detailed descriptions, in just seconds. Any Broker or Agent can easily deploy an SMS (text message) mobile access tool for home buyers and agents alike. The buyer can quickly search by property address, street name, MLS number and more, all on-the-go, from any cell phone and get information by SMS (text messaging), MMS (multimedia messaging) and WAP (mobile internet).

Mobile Agentprovides such features as:

•  Mobile Search by Property Address, Street Name, MLS#, Agent Name...
•  Photos on a cell phone with detailed property description & information.
•  Comparable properties to view all similar homes.
•  Text-to-Client lets listing information be sent immediately to clients or other agents.
•  Click-to-Call empowers consumers to instantly connect to their agent or broker.
•  Works on all cell phones without any downloads or special training.
• Mobile Agent has been launched market by market to thousands of real estate agents. The service currently covers 20 major metro areas and more are being added daily

ARTISTdirect, an Internet resource for music and entertainment news and artist information, today announced it has signed an agreement with Boopsie, Inc., a leading supplier of mobile search clients and server infrastructure, to create ARTISTdirect-branded mobile channels on the Boopsie Mobile Platform.

Through the deal, ARTISTdirect will provide a constant feed of branded indexed music news and artist information from content on its website. Boopsie users with handsets supported by Blackberry, J2ME, Palm OS, Symbian S60, Windows Mobile and the iPhone will be able to enjoy ARTISTdirect's catalog of entertainment which will also be available via the Boopsie desktop search engine.

MobileSphere recently introduced slydial, a free voice messaging service that connects you directly to someone's mobile phone voicemail to avoid, crying jags, listening, and actually talking to someone:

Their release stated, " -- it's the best way to save time, avoid an awkward conversation or relay information without interrupting your friends, family or business contacts. Checking-in with a boss, friend, significant other or parent has never been easier as slydial provides the illusion of communication without the hassle of engaging in a time-consuming conversation. "

The company notes that overr the past few months as part of a successful test program, thousands of people have slydialed and discovered various uses for the service, such as:

-- Canceling a date they never wanted to go on in the first place

-- Confirming appointments with business contacts

-- Avoiding a lengthy conversation with a chatty relative  

In 2007, 91% of US 17-year-old girls had mobile phones whereas only 78% of US 17-year-old boys had cell phones according to a recent study by MultiMedia Intelligence. The difference is quite striking as there is little difference in handset ownership between the genders at age 13, with 57 percent of teenagers having cell phones.

Key findings regarding teen wireless subscribers include:

• The US 12-17 teen cellular subscribers surpassed 16 million in 2007. This is up 12% from 2006.

• By 2012, the number of teen  mobile subscribers will reach 17 million, a delta of only 1 million subscribers from 2007. Wireless penetration rates for teens are reaching saturation, resulting in stagnating growth. Since the teen market is not a multiple handset demographic, subscriber growth is forced to slow.

• Subscriber growth is seasonal, with Q3 and Q4 the stronger quarters.

• The Hispanic teen market has become significant, projected to approach 3 million subscribers by 2012.

mywaves, mobile video destination, asidd that second quarter traffic to the mywaves mobile site grew by 25% over the first quarter. Now, up to 300,000 daily unique users visit m.mywaves.com, to access  free, short-form video entertainme. In addition to overall traffic growth, mywaves saw iPhone users increase in record numbers, 500% over the first quarter. Music, celebrity, comedy, and sports videos continue to be extremely popular with the mywaves global user base.

mywaves offers the broadest choice of free mobile video for consumers. Leading content partners such as MTV, Sports Illustrated, Playboy, CBS, Fox, SpikeTV, VH1, and more have dedicated channels on mywaves. mywaves direct-to-consumer mobile Web site enables consumers to tune into video free of charge on more than 500 different mobile phone models in more than 100 countries.

GyPSii geo-mobility social networking platform, today announced it has entered into a multi-year worldwide agreement with Samsung Electronics.

Under the terms of the agreement, GyPSii will provide technology, products, worldwide data center infrastructure, and GyPSii branding rights to Samsung, on a worldwide non-exclusive basis for a range of Samsung products.

GyPSii's leading mobility digital lifestyle application will be initially be bundled on Samsung's Omnia (SGH-i900) and SGH-i780 as an embedded application. Samsung's customers will be able to take full advantage of the location-based social networking digital lifestyle features of the GyPSii suite and create and share user generated content (UGC) with GyPSii's global user community, and other interoperable social networks such as Facebook. The agreement has provisions for revenue sharing between GyPSii and Samsung, utilizing the business models enabled by GyPSii.

Verizon announced Q2 earnings which increased 12% with substantial data growth up 45.3% over last year. Revenues reached $1.88 Billion.

 Retail data customers in June totaled 49.6 million-boosting revenue by $2.6 billion. Other interesting facts about Verizon in Q2:

• 70 billion text messages were sent
• 1.4 billion picture/video messages were sent
• 36.5 million music and video downloads
• 60 percent of its customers have 3G broadband-capable devices
• Overall subscribers reached 68.7 million
  

Sprint launches new version of Sprint Web today, with an adaptive home page that delivers content based on the customer’s previous usage, along with direct access to search from Google .This enhancement is automatic for Sprint customers who currently access the mobile Web on these phones and requires no additional action on their part.

The new Sprint Web home page uses technology by ChangingWorlds, to provide each customer with dynamic, relevant content and information as a result of their past usage. This makes each customer’s Sprint Web home page unique, depending on their interests.

Sprint Web also gives customers direct access from the home page to Google search, so users can get relevant open Internet results quickly and easily, in a format they’re used to seeing on their computer screens.

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Touchscreen-equipped mobile handsets sales have been building steadily for over a year now, and a new report from IMS Research forecasts that growth will become even stronger. Although there were fewer than 30 million touchscreen phones sold in 2007, IMS Research expect that number to increase to over 230 million by 2012.

There are numerous signs that touchscreens are poised to significantly increase their presence in the mobile handset market. Recent reports and announcements from the three largest mobile phone manufacturers have highlighted a trend in the increased production of phones using touch technology.

In July, LG revealed that it had sold 7 million touchscreen handsets. This announcement came just five quarters after LG launched its very first touchscreen mobile phone. Showing similar success, Samsung recently released the Instinct, a full touchscreen handset, through Sprint. Just one week after the launch, Sprint announced that the Instinct had already become the best selling EV-DO device in the carrier’s history. Not to be outdone, Apple reported selling 1 million of the new 3G iPhone handsets in just the first three days of its release

Overall satisfaction among prepaid wireless customers who subscribe to flat-rate plans with unlimited minutes is considerably higher than that of customers who subscribe to per-minute price plans, primarily due to cost advantages associated with flat-rate plans, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 U.S. Wireless Prepaid Customer Satisfaction Study^.

Now in its third year, the study measures customer satisfaction with current prepaid wireless service across seven key factors. In order of importance, they are: call quality (24%); company image (19%); cost of service (17%); account management (15%); initial activation (11%); service plan options (8%); and customer service (6%).

The study finds that overall satisfaction among prepaid wireless customers that subscribe to flat-rate pricing plans with unlimited minutes is 764 on a 1,000-point scale, which is considerably higher than that of subscribers of traditional per-minute pricing plans (717, on average). This gap in satisfaction is primarily driven by differences in the cost of service, as well as by the benefit of unlimited minutes available in flat-rate plans. In particular, unlimited-plan customers report higher satisfaction levels with the amount of airtime minutes offered for the price paid, the overall cost-per-minute charges and the cost per transaction to refill minutes in their account. 

“Prepaid customers are clearly responding favorably to these unique service plan options, as they provide a cost-effective alternative to traditional price-per-minute plans that are typically offered and allow customers freedom from worrying about being charged extra fees for making too many calls within a given time period,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. “Although plans with unlimited minutes typically have geographic restrictions for placing and receiving wireless calls, they still fulfill customer expectations and tend to meet a specific service need better than other wireless plans. In fact, 46 percent of unlimited plan customers have completely replaced their traditional landline phone with wireless service, compared with only 13 percent of traditional pay-as-you-go customers.”

The study also finds that satisfaction ratings for the initial activation process also vary greatly between customers that subscribe to, flat-rate prepaid plans with unlimited minutes and subscribers of traditional, per-minute plans.  Specifically, customer satisfaction scores with plans that have unlimited minutes average 862, compared with only 756 among traditional prepaid calling plans. The ease of initially subscribing to the plan and activating the phone are the two areas driving the gap in satisfaction. 

MetroPCS ranks highest in prepaid wireless satisfaction for the first time since the inception of the study and performs particularly well in five out of seven factors that drive overall satisfaction: cost of service, account management, initial activation, brand image, and service plan options. Also ranking above the industry average are TracFone, Cricket, Virgin Mobile and T-Mobile To Go, respectively.

Beginning Monday, July 28, mobile phone users and web surfers can enjoy Stephen King's latest work in a groundbreaking series of 25 original video episodes. The series of video episodes was created through a unique partnership between Scribner and Simon & Schuster Digital, Marvel Entertainment, and CBS Mobile and is believed to be the first comic-style book adaptation specifically developed and produced for viewing on today's most popular small screen platforms.

Starting today, viewers can go to www.NisHere.com or www.simonsays.com to see a preview of the episodes, which will also be unveiled at Comic-Con International in San Diego today at a panel event featuring the creators of this pioneering venture.

The series will also be available for purchase at major online digital content retailers.

The episodes are based on King's original and previously unpublished story "N.," the tale of a psychiatrist who becomes the victim of the same mysterious and deadly obsession as his patient, and which will be included in his forthcoming collection of short stories Just After Sunset (Scribner, November 11, 2008) and published as a comic book miniseries by Marvel, launching in 2009.

Muze Inc., will now provide track-level data as a part of its forthcoming release of MuzeMusic 2.0 media information solutions portfolio for music product sales, audience development, and social networking applications.Having track and song-level metadata and descriptors is essential for enabling search, discovery, recommendation, and consumption of music and other forms of digital entertainment.

MuzeMusic 2.0 is a comprehensive music database that contains normalized commercial metadata, expert editorial content including reviews and biographies, artist images, and music samples that enable companies to increase their sales of entertainment products -- such as tracks and albums -- and to attract and retain subscribers to Internet, mobile, and social networking sites.

Muze Tracks Plus, along with MuzeMusic 2.0, will be generally available at the end of July.

Loopt social-mapping t has joined Facebook Connect to allow users to "connect" their Facebook identity, friends, and privacy settings to the Loopt service.

Working with Facebook Connect will allow Loopt users to share and discover recommendations for nearby businesses, integrate location awareness into their Facebook feeds, and easily find and connect with Facebook friends both on and offline in a manner consistent with their Facebook privacy settings.

AdMob  has launched a global iPhone ad marketplace with new interactive advertising formats that take advantage of the device's capabilities and mobile context. The new ads include Brand and Performance formats that will function in both the browser environment as well as native applications built for the iPhone. AdMob also announced that it will give $1 million in advertising to developers to promote their iPhone applications, sites and services.

 Advertisers and Publishers who are currently working with the new ad formats include:

Brand Advertisers: Ford, Electronic Arts, Land Rover, Jaguar and Universal Pictures "The Mummy"

Performance Advertisers: vsnax, Stitcher, Loopt and Shozu

Publishers: AccuWeather.com(R), MovieTickets.com, Mippin, Flirtomatic and Loopt

Pinch Media, analytics and advertising company for iPhone applications, and JumpTap, mobile search and advertising company, have formed an iPhone application advertising network.

The partnership combines Pinch Media's analytics and advertising technology for iPhone App Store applications with JumpTap's comprehensive mobile ad network. Developers can easily insert advertisements into their applications to effectively creative revenue to drive their businesses. In turn, advertisers can creatively reach the iPhone's desirable demographics in the immersive in-application environment.

BuzzCity revealed the results of worldwide research conducted with users on their portal, myGamma. Wireless consumers are eager to access new services via the mobile internet. From m-commerce to mobile banking, respondents seem keen to explore all available options, but are often unaware that particular services exist. For example, more than half of the survey respondents (51%) say they would use their mobile phones for financial services, if such services were available in their country, and one-third would like to be able to transfer money.

KF Lai, CEO of BuzzCity, states: "Consumers want to make payments with their mobiles but many are not yet aware that these services exist. Signs point to a need for marketers to share more product-related information on the mobile internet."

m-commerce
More than half of those surveyed have made electronic purchases, with one in five having purchased items via mobile phone. Books, downloads and virtual gifts are the most popular items purchased. Items for online gaming are also in demand, as are other digital products such as movies and music. This suggests that myGamma users are becoming very comfortable with the digital lifestyle. Twelve per cent of users also express a significant interest in buying movie and travel tickets via mobile.

NextWave Wireless announced that it has signed agreements with four parties to sell a portion of its AWS license portfolio, representing 63% of its total AWS MHz-pops, for a total of $150.1 million.

Subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission, the agreements call for NextWave to sell 599 million MHz-pops of AWS spectrum at an average price of $0.25 per MHz-pop. The company’s cost basis in the licenses being sold is $75.2 million or $0.126 cents per MHz-pop. Pursuant to the terms of NextWave’s 7% Senior Secured Notes (“Notes”), $75 million of the proceeds from the sale will be deposited into a restricted cash collateral account and $75 million will be used to redeem a portion of the Notes. After the sale, the company will possess 348 million MHz-pops of AWS spectrum primarily in New England, Florida and California. NextWave acquired all of its AWS licenses for a total of $115.5 million, or $0.12 per MHz-pop, at an FCC auction held in 2006.

Yougetitback debuted its service to help protect, recover and replace mobile devices from theft and loss, called Mobile Superhero. Yougetitback protects and helps recover mobile devices--such as phones, PDAs, cameras, iPods and laptops--while preserving the sensitive information they may contain. The company's premium service will even replace the device, if it is not recovered. Yougetitback estimates 75 percent of its lost or stolen devices registered and tagged with the company's labels are returned to their owners.

Here's how Mobile Superhero works for a mobile phone. (Currently available for  BlackBerry and Symbian OS phones)

Yougetitback software is preloaded or downloaded to the user's mobile phone; the user creates an account at Yougetitback.com.  If a protected mobile phone is lost or stolen, the user logs into his or her Yougetitback.com account and remotely locks the phone by simply clicking a button. Within seconds, the mobile phone is locked. Now the only thing a finder can do with the device is call the Yougetitback service to report finding the phone.

Samsung Electronics and Symbian Limited unveiled the Samsung INNOV8, model : i8510. The entertainment mobile phone is equipped with high-end features and multimedia including an 8 megapixel camera, internet browsing, audio playing, and ergonomics. This is Samsung’s eighth mobile phone based on Symbian OS. INNOV8 is based on Symbian OS v9.with  power efficiency, platform security and phone performance.

INNOV8 brings users a ‘cinema in your pocket’ experience through access to asuite of applications from the S60 applications library, they can watch videos, including DivX files, view pictures and play two exclusively free embedded 3D games on the 2.8” LCD display. With HSDPA connectivity at 7.2Mbps and seamless connection through Wi-Fi, Samsung INNOV8’s optical mouse and easy navigation enables users’ quick internet browsing, alongside GPS and geo-tagging. The smartphone can receive push e-mail and is Bluetooth-capable. The 2.8-inch LC screen has an accelerometer sensor.

Samsung INNOV8 will be available in Europe from August 2008.

Wireless and Mobile News, received the following email from the PR representative for Thumbplay:

I noticed a story posted on Wireless and Mobile News today regarding the class-action lawsuit filed against Thumbplay and wanted to offer you a comment from the company for any follow-up.

BEGIN QUOTE:

"The lawsuit is utterly meritless. We have retained experienced, nationally-recognized counsel and intend to vigorously oppose these claims.

"As a leading member of the Mobile Marketing Association, Thumbplay strictly adheres to the Mobile Marketing Association's Consumer Best Practices Guidelines, (http://www.mmaglobal.com/bestpractices.pdf http://www.mmaglobal.com/bestpractices.pdf ), and we have been active in developing and leading best practices for mobile advertising.

"Thumbplay has been recognized as a model of best practices in the mobile commerce marketplace (m-commerce). In fact, on May 6, 2008, Florida's Assistant Attorney General, William Haselden, praised Thumbplay at the Federal Trade Commission's two-day Town Hall meeting titled Beyond Voice: Mapping the Mobile Marketplace, which explored the m-commerce marketplace and its implications for consumer protection policy. He specifically cited Thumbplay's ads for being compliant 'in every way.'"

END QUOTE

This is the only statement that will be made by the company on this matter and can be attributed to a company spokesperson if you are interested in running it.

Thanks so much.

All the best, Ryan Wallace,  Kaplow for Thumbplay

Aviv Raff wrote that the iPhone is phisable and spam. He notes that the iPhone's mail program that opens up Safari allows for URL spoofing, which can allow attackers to phish using a specialized spoof URL in an email, clicking on the URL will send the user to the wrong web address that opens in Safari. where information can be phised for credit card, financial or other  personal information.

He is keeping the technical details private for now and suggests that until the vulvnerabiility is fixed that users should always enter a trusted URL when visiting financial sites.  The iPhone email application is also spammnable, and he also withholding technical details. Raff posted this information on his website, Aviv Raff On. NET.

Ad-supported mobile content provider,  Myxer announced the new Myxer Select program for mobile handset manufacturers, wireless network operators, and web destinations. The program provides the ability to create a customized mobile content stores using Myxer content.

Myxer Select partners can be up and running with their own mobile content download site (on the web and/or mobile web) in a matter of days. Myxer Select is delivered over Myxer Mobile Platform, that currently delivers over 22 million downloads per month, at a rate of over 8 mobile downloads per second.

Myxer Select includes content from thousands of content partners, ranging from music to comedy, movies, popular TV shows, and political content.

SMS will continue to lead as the highest revenue generator across all messaging categories, providing global revenues of $177 billion in 2013. Regional differences will determine the success of messaging expansion into the Web, advertising, and the incorporation of mobile messaging within social networking media, says ABI Research.

For instance, developed regions of North America and Europe have the highest messaging ARPUs, and send the most messages from the computer to the mobile device using IM; Asia-Pacific subscribers sign up for the most SMS alert services; and Latin Americans are heavy SMS users, but prefer pay-as-you-go for all messaging services.

Additionally, these regional differences will cause established messaging suppliers to reevaluate their business models.

“Device vendors and messaging platform suppliers serving the global market will have to manage across markets where growth is king - and other markets where product differentiation is king,” says principal analyst Dan SheyShey. “This is a great time for smaller companies to develop new products and services individually and in partnerships to serve the niche needs of a region or country.”

Chicago attorney Myles McGuire on behave of Nikolay Antonov has filed a class action complaint in Cook County, against Thumbplay Inc. a mobile content provider that claims that the billing methods used have no “checks and safeguards.” to protect consumers’ from unathorized charges on their wireless bills.

“Cell phones are morphing into credit cards, but the same security procedures don’t apply to phone numbers, which are public information,” said Myles McGuire whose firm successfully reach a third-party agreement with AT&T.

The suit implicates players on all levels of the industry: aggregators,  copyright licensors, and affiliate marketers, Internet advertising networks who fail to clearly display the “service’s price, subscription period and cancellation procedures,” the suit states.

A Thumplay PR representative sent Wireless and Mobile News a rebuttal at 11:11 am which we posted at 11:19.

The Motorola Adventure V750, a rugged Push to Talk phone designed for the most extreme conditions, will be available through business sales channels and online at www.verizonwireless.com.

 The V750 offers a durable and reliable solution for Verizon Wireless Push to Talk customers and leverages the high-speeds of the Verizon Wireless Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) Revision A (Rev. A) network. The Motorola Adventure V750 will be available in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores beginning July 28.

The Motorola Adventure V750 meets military specifications for extreme conditions including shock, vibration, dust, solar radiation, high-temperature storage, high and low temperature operation, and altitude. With Verizon Wireless’ Push to Talk capabilities and a large 2.2-inch high-resolution internal display and 1.6-inch external display, customers can easily see which friends and colleagues are available and speak to them instantly. The phone’s no-slip surface and speaker make the V750 tough and functional enough for a day on the job site, an afternoon hike or a night out at the club.

The Motorola Adventure V750 costs $99.99 with service.

• Improved Gmail IMAP compatibility and an updated setup wizard with the new Gmail settings
• Updated compatibility for Google Mobile Maps My Location feature to approximate your current location - great for directions, finding nearby restaurants or business, or checking local traffic.¹
• Improved ongoing delivery of email sent to VersaMail accounts using Microsoft's Direct Push Technology via Exchange ActiveSync
• Bluetooth usability enhancements and updates
• Sprint TV performance enhancements²
• Enhanced AOL Instant Messenger performance
• Improved performance when adding a contact using Mobile Voice Control
• Improved email attachment handling
• Changed default camera shutter sound to "ON." Audible shutter "click" will be heard when taking photos
• Allows Preferred Roaming List updates over the air.

Alltel Wireless, and Txtstation announced they will be working together to provide unique promotions to fans at select Alltel sponsored sports properties. As the Official Wireless Partner of FansSM, Alltel will leverage Txtstation’s capabilities and implement a real time text messaging feature at five sponsored properties.

The text feature, titled the ‘Alltel Fan Poll’ will pose a compelling question to fans inside the stadium and ask them to weigh-in with their opinions. At each home game, fans will be able to interact with the video board by sending a text message from their wireless phone to 88222. Within seconds, votes will appear live on the screen, causing percentages to change and providing a fun and entertaining experience for all.

The “Alltel Fan Poll” will debut later this summer as the football season begins.

Agilent announced a new 5.7 Mbps HSUPA test capability for its W-CDMA/HSPA Test and Lab Applications, which run on the 8960 (E5515C) Wireless Communications Test Set.

HSUPA is a 3G mobile telephony protocol in the HSPA family with uplink speeds up to 5.7 Mbps. Also known as E-DCH (Enhanced Dedicated Channel), it is designed to extend and improve the performance of UMTS protocols by reducing latency and increasing uplink throughput. Agilent's E1963A W-CDMA/HSPA Test Application provides Radio Bearer and Frequency Division Duplex test modes and applicable 3GPP TS 34.121 HSUPA RF measurements for the latest HSUPA manufacturing and device verification. The addition of Agilent's new 5.7 Mbps HSUPA test capability allows engineers to now test all available Category 6 HSUPA-capable mobile devices and chipsets.

The latest version of Omniture SiteCatalyst has been released. Omniture's mobile analytics provides business insight to optimize mobile site design, content, marketing campaigns and user experience for the mobile Internet visitor based on attributes such as their device type, location, video and audio formats. As a result, mobile marketers can provide a better experience -- driving loyalty, brand and conversion.

For more information about mobile analytics from Omniture, please visit the company Web site at: http://www.omniture.com/en/products/web_analytics/sitecatalyst.

Interop Technologies, a leading provider of advanced wireless technology solutions for the global wireless, packaged goods, and content industries, today announced that content from VeriSign Messaging and Mobile Media, a division of VeriSign, Inc. ("VeriSign") will be made available to the Interop Common Short Code ("CSC") Gateway. The CSC Gateway extends national short codes, premium short codes, campaign and voting participation, and subscription content to the many wireless network operators served by Interop.

Interop Technologies will offer the aggregated content from VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media division. VeriSign's assistance will help mobile content providers distribute and bill for their products through wireless operators to assist the rapidly growing Interop client base. Interop currently serves more than 55 network operators representing millions of customers.

Interop Technologies recently developed this "aggregator of aggregators" approach to simplify the complex wireless content value chain and create benefits for all participants-wireless operators, aggregators, content providers, and customers. The company's CSC Gateway solution includes technology and management tools such as performance reporting and customer care. The gateway enables operators of all sizes to obtain, provision, and manage mobile content in a resource-efficient manner.

"The Interop CSC Gateway provides a convenient, single point of connection between VeriSign and dozens of network operators," said Damian Sazama, Vice President of Marketing and Product Development for Interop Technologies. "This new model goes up a level to make the value chain more efficient for our operators."

Hands-On Mobile unvieled mixtART, an SMS service that allows independent artists to sell their original works of art as wallpapers to mobile subscribers.

mixtART provides mobile users access to an art application, offering a variety of wallpapers created by an array of artists. Many artists featured on mixtART will be attending ComiCon which will be taking place in San Diego from July 24 to the 27th. At ComiCon, the artists will be unveiling works of art, which customers will be able to purchase immediately for their mobile phones.

Participating artists include Patrick Ma, Buff Monster, Jon Burgerman, Brent McHugh, Patricio Oliver, Alex Pardee, Ekundayo and Dave Correia, Noferin and Astro. For those that cannot make the event, many of the wallpapers will be available on www.mymixt.com/mixtart.

ESPN kicks off the 2008 Fantasy Football season with an unprecedented multimedia initiative, with many mobile features:

•  Mobile Team Management - players with the ESPN MVP on Verizon Wireless phones, you'll be able to set rosters, trade and waive players, and check scoring - all from your phone.
•  Mobile Scores and Alerts (all mobile carriers) - players can keep up with their team while away, with the ability to see their team, scores and latest news on their mobile device, or have breaking news, scoring, injury and substitution alerts sent directly to you on the go (all carriers).
• Fantasy Focus - ESPN's daily Original Digital series is available daily on ESPN Mobile TV, along with other fantasy football-related video content.

AT&T's net profit is up 30% due to an increase in wireless data renvenue (up 52%) while the company added 1.3 million new wireless subscribers. 

 Meanwhile Verizon added 1.5 million new subscribers in Q2.

In the summer blockbuster, The Dark Knight, a Nokia device is prominently featured. We worked closely with the producers of The Dark Knight to develop an appropriate device that would suit the technology-savvy character of Batman. The Nokia device used in the film is not a commercial product - at this point.

AT&T  announced the availability of AT&T Navigator Global Edition, the only GPS-based service available from a U.S. wireless carrier to provide international navigation capabilities.

Beginning today, AT&T Navigator Global Edition can be used in 20 countries on AT&T-powered smartphones featuring built-in GPS capabilities. AT&T Navigator Global Edition's coverage area includes most countries in western Europe, North America and the U.S. Caribbean as well as the six cities in China that will host Beijing Summer Olympics events. The new international navigation service is available in conjunction with the domestic AT&T Navigator solution on the AT&T Tilt, BlackBerry 8800, BlackBerry 8820, BlackBerry Curve 8310, BlackBerry Pearl 8110, BlackJack II and MOTO Q 9h global smartphones. 

AT&T Navigator Global Edition also features a local "business finder" service, which allows customers to find the locations of businesses by category or by specific name with the click of a button using AT&T Navigator's GPS-based navigation capabilities. AT&T Navigator's business finder database contains more than 19 million businesses and services located in the U.S. and abroad, including ATMs, hotels, restaurants, gas stations and airports. This feature also allows users to quickly look up and call the phone number

To coincide with the Walkman phone’s third birthday and sale of over 77 million Walkman phones, Sony Ericsson has unveiled three brand new mobile phones launching Q4 2008: the W902, W595 and W302 and seven new music accessories.

The W902 features the same superior sound quality as the W980, about to launch shortly, which was rated “best audio experience” this month, in a trial conducted in Germany by TESTfactory. It has a five megapixel camera and great video capturing and sharing capabilities, an 8GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) for storing more than 8,000 songs.

Warner Premiere's Motion Comics are bringing favorite DC Comics and graphic novels to life in short digital formats. Watchmen Motion Comic is available for free for two weeks.  Batman: Mad Love is available through Xbox Live and V CAST.

Watchmen Motion Comic

Watchmen takes viewers through the critically acclaimed DC Comics and Hugo award-winning graphic novel by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. Set in 1985 at the height of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union, costumed avengers have been banned with the exception of two - The Comedian and Rorschach. During this time the mysterious murder of a United States government official named Edward Blake occurs in New York, possibly by Soviet Communists. It is later confirmed that Blake is actually a costumed avenger - The Comedian. The news of the murder is discovered by his fellow costumed avenger, Rorschach who sets out to discover the murderer.

As consumers increasingly surf the Web on their mobile phones, handset vendors are looking toward open-source browsers such as WebKit - the browser engine at the heart of the iPhone's Safari browser - as a way to bring it to them. However, despite growing interest in WebKit and Gecko (the engine for the Mozilla Corporation Firefox browser), commercial browser vendors such as Opera and ACCESS continue to see growth in their businesses. According to ABI Research, overall growth in the mobile browser category will lead to a total pre-installed revenue of $492 million by 2013, driven by the trends of more complex HTML-based browser integration.

"Device manufacturers are interested in open-source solutions where there is a desire for increased control of their software footprint, and where they can bring internal programming resources to bear," says research director Michael Wolf. "At the same time, vendors such as Opera are seeing strong growth in their mobile browser offerings, which provide the ability to access Web pages with advanced features such as zoom, bookmark syncing, and landscape mode, while also permitting handset vendors and operators to focus development resources elsewhere."

Open-source offerings such as WebKit are experiencing adoption by vendors such as Apple, Nokia, and others. Google made WebKit its core browser and Web-rendering engine for the Android platform; and application framework vendors such as Trolltech have integrated WebKit into their development framework. Mozilla also continues to develop its version of mobile Firefox, and Nokia has integrated a Gecko-based browser on its N800 Internet tablet."

Bango unveiled new technology designed to help website owners measure the value of mobile sites by accurately counting unique visitors browsing their site. This new site analysis capability in the latest release of Bango Analytics, v3.0, complements existing campaign analysis functionality and features enhanced image tag technology to identify unique users.

With site analysis added to its mobile analytics service, Bango now provides the two metrics most sought after by website owners: the number of unique visitors and conversion rates from mobile marketing campaigns.

Results of a recent survey of more than 550 mobile website owners, commissioned by Bango, showed that the “most important” data point for them is unique visitor count. Respondents gave the following answers to the question: “Which of the following mobile web metrics are important to you?”

The daily/weekly/monthly number of unique visitors to your mobile website - 80% Conversion rates/effectiveness of mobile marketing - 71% New/repeat visitors - 58% Information about the handsets your visitors use - 54% Location - 50% The mobile networks used by visitors to your mobile website - 41%

Verizon now offers information about its Nationwide Messaging plans in online videos in American Sign Language (ASL) to better serve customers who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The videos feature Tom Boudrow of the Marlboro, Mass.-based Verizon Center for Customers with Disabilities, using American Sign Language to answer frequently asked questions about Verizon Wireless' Nationwide Messaging plans. The video clips can be viewed at http://aboutus.vzw.com/accessibility/nationwide_faq.html.

LG Electronics touchscreen phones reached 7 million units at the end of the second quarter, five quarters after LG launched the world’s first full touchscreen handset, the Prada Phone by LG.

Of LG’s touch-based phones, the Viewty, a professional camera phone, is its top seller, surpassing 2 million units. The phone has a 5.0-megapixel camera and easy touchscreen interface that allows for easy editing of photos. Runners up include Venus, and Voyager, the first handset to incorporate both a full touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard. These phones sold 1.6 and 1.3 million units respectively. The Prada Phone by LG was also a strong seller, even at its original premium price.

Increasing sales of touchscreen phones were a strong driver for LG’s overall profits. The average selling price of the 7 million touchscreen phones that LG sold was USD 530.

The company’s brand recognition in the U.K. grew to 91.4 percent in 2007 versus 80 percent in 2005, according to internal research measuring unaided brand awareness. During the same period in the U.S., where LG launched a number of touchscreen phones including Voyager, Venus and Vu, LG’s brand recognition rose to 83.1 percent from 65.1 percent.

On Sunday a check  Apple's own stock-checking tool, none of the 38 stores in California,  had iPhones.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau released "A Mobile Advertising Overview," a report about the mobile advertising platform that outlines a broad spectrum of opportunities for marketers and agencies.

The report:

• Educates media companies, agencies, marketers and users about how advertising is currently implemented within the mobile platform
• Explores the mobile platform as a viable part of the interactive advertising ecosystem
• Includes case studies of mobile advertising campaigns

To download the full report, please go to www.iab.net/mobileplatform

A few weeks ago in order to raise money for homeless people without clothing, Vrigin Mobile launched Strip2Clothe saying that for each strip video (of de-clothing) they would donate an article of clothing to a charity and another for each viewing with the motto,  "Someone out there needs clothes more than you."

The site was a big worry for parents who thought that their teenagers under 18 would strip, unzip and not reveal their real age. Although Virgin said that they did screen to see if strippers were over 18.  Non-profits also objected to the methodology and some of the charity partners withdrew from the program.

Virgin Monday, has changed the name"Blank2Clothe." By submitting any kind of talent video, Juggle2Clothe, Dance2 clothe etc., clothing will be donated. Videos that receive more views will generate more clothing donations.

mobivention is partnering with American Greetings Interactive for license distribution American Greetings properties such as Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Holly Hobbie, Twisted Whiskers and many more. The rights cover the usage of the brands for mobile contents for mobivention network operators clients.

This licence agreement will provide new opportunities for mobivention to offer highly popular brands to network operators throughout Europe.

Initially static background pictures and videos are obtainable. In the next step further content-types such as (MMS-) greeting cards, themes and even Java games are planned.

VEGAS.com is making sure that more happens in Vegas with the launch of Mobile Concierge and Box Office in Your Pocket, mobile show ticketing in Vegas combined with mobile concierge services.

The Mobile Concierge shows current day and next day show and tour listings for visitors already in Vegas available by texting 777 to shortcode VEGAS (83427) or by visiting mobile.vegas.com on handheld devices. Customers can browse show times, ticket prices, reviews and, soon, view video clips on specific shows.

Customers select a show or tour offering, click when they’re ready to buy and are instantly connected to a live expert in VEGAS.com’s 24-7-365 contact center who quickly completes the transaction by taking the customer’s name and credit card number.

The Associated, has joined the BUZmob Mobile Media Network which will offer AP mobile news content worldwide. AP's global and multilingual news is now available as licensable mobile content channels to mobile operators and services providers to create service offerings.

The BUZmob Mobile Media Network has more than 200 media sources, news agencies and newswire service providers mobilizing content channels of current news, sports, finance, business, weather, entertainment and user-generated content.

ContentGuard Holdings, Inc., a leading developer of digital rights management technology,  announced a worldwide patent licensing agreement with Nokia Corporation ContentGuard technology enables the consumer-friendly implementation of digital content distribution models such as content rental, content subscription, variable pricing, and secure peer-to-peer distribution. Terms of the licensing agreement were not disclosed.

"We are extremely pleased that Nokia will be able to use our technology in its business to advance the delivery and consumption of digital content," said Rob Logan, CEO of ContentGuard. "We are confident this will broaden and enable consumer-friendly DRM solutions in the marketplace. This agreement adds another industry leader to our marquee list of licensees, and further validates the importance of our DRM technology for the future of digital content delivery."

The Direct Marketing Association released the mobile marketing research. The online survey indicated that text messaging is by far the most often cited mobile marketing method -- accounting for 70 percent of consumer mobile marketing responses - compared to a 41 percent response rate to surveys and a 30 percent response rate for e-mail offers.

Edward T. Manzitti, Ph.D. and vice-president Research & Market Intelligence at the Direct Marketing Association, said, "These findings suggest that mobile marketing will continue growing into a multi-billion dollar industry as more mobile phone users are enticed by falling prices to purchase data plans and broadband enabled devices."

The survey also revealed:

• About one-quarter (24 percent) of those surveyed have responded to a mobile offer;
• One-third of the group that did not respond to any mobile marketing reported that they had never received an offer.
• 71 percent of people who respond to mobile offers have data plans with lack of interest and cost of airtime cited as the leading reasons by those who haven't responded to mobile offers;
• 21 percent of mobile marketing responders indicated that they responded to three or more offers per month;
• Respondents that used AT&T  Wireless and T-Mobile were more interested in mobile marketing incentives than respondents who used Verizon Wireless;
• Teens between 15-17 years old (19 percent) and young adults between 21-30 years old (19 percent) are twice as likely to respond to offers on their mobile devices as individuals between 18-20 years old (seven percent);
• Single (never married) respondents were the most likely of all groups to respond to mobile marketing appeals;
• Overall, higher-income respondents making more than $60,000 per year were more likely to respond to mobile offers;
• Responders to mobile marketing were typically more tech savvy -- for example, responders were twice as likely than non-responders to subscribe to Internet-based music subscription services;

Intergalactic Spore Origins from Electronic Arts Inc. has just invaded a mobile AT&T device near you.  AT&T's wireless customers and AT&T High Speed Internet customers with exclusive Spore content including: 

Spore playser are armed with a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe, including creatures, vehicles, buildings and even UFOs, Spore players create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe filled with creations made by other gamers.

Spore hits North American stores September 7 for the PC and Mac along with Spore Creatures on Nintendo DSL Spore Origins for the iPhone and additional mobile carriers will be available September 4, 2008.

To download the free AT&T edition of Spore Creature Creator demo, visit http://www.att.net/spore.

uclick digital entertainment has entered into a exclusive agreement with MTV Networks (MTVN) to bring content to mobile consumers this summer, from brands including Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Spike and VH1.

Available from mobile phone network operators, and other major distribution channels, they will offerin a broad mix of mobile wallpapers, short animations, themes and videos, all optimized for mobile devices, from shows ranging from Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" to Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants."

Zumobi launched a new version of its tile widget for BlackBerry devices. 

Zumobi offers a library of widgets (Zumobi calls them “Tiles”)  to entice users of Windows Mobile and BlackBerry with news, sports, weather, entertainment, games and more, Zumobi now offers even more new Tiles for users including NPR, AP Olympics report, Major League Baseball as well as social media sites Facebook and Twitter.  Users can also create their own Zumobi mobile widgets from just about any Web content with the new Tile Creation Wizard now available on Zumobi’s website.
 

Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass is now available for mobile phones on select carriers nationwide.
 
Backstage Pass offers more than 25 hours of gameplay.  Players assume the identities of Axel Steel or Judy Nails and promote their band and music on TV and radio, build buzz and street cred, create demo tapes, sign record contracts, handle press interviews, rehearse songs and play shows.  By achieving certain career goals, players can unlock several guitars to strengthen their performance.  Players can also earn in-game money, which can be used to buy new guitars to play at a variety of venues in an effort to gain the attention of record labels and soar to the top of the charts.

Hands-On Mobile recently announced that Guitar Hero III Mobile, a marquee game in its current collection of Guitar Hero branded mobile phone games, has reached over one million downloads and that more than 250,000 songs are played everyday by mobile subscribers across the country.
 
Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass can be downloaded in the U.S. by text messaging STAGE to 46966.  Prices vary by carrier.

Opera Software released  the first public version of Opera Mobile 9.5 beta. Opera has changed the face of its mobile browser in this beta release. Opera Mobile 9.5 beta now defaults to page overview mode, allowing the user to view the entire Web page and instantly recognize the Web site. With panning and zooming options, the user is able to focus on specific page content. Opera also introduced new user interface for easier navigation.

New Features

Faster - Opera Mobile 9.5 has improved performance over Opera Mobile 8.65.

Pan and zoom - Opera Mobile 9.5 beta defaults to full webpage viewing and allows users to pan and zoom into their desired content easily.

Improved user interface - The new UI is designed for quick and easy navigation.

Opera Dragonfly - Use your Opera desktop browser to debug sites on your mobile phone through the Opera Mobile 9.5 debug menu.

Improved standards support - Opera Mobile 9.5 is the most standards compliant browser available.

Save pages and/or images - With a click, simply save pages to your phone.

iSuppli's Teardown Analysis Service on July 11 obtained an iPhone 3G and commenced a dissection in order to identify component suppliers, as well as to determine preliminary part and system costs. Per the teardown analysis and subsequent examinations by analysts, iSuppli has issued a preliminary estimate of $174.33 for initial production costs for the 8Gbyte iPhone 3G.

At $174.33, the BOM and manufacturing cost of the new iPhone is markedly less than the $227 that iSuppli estimated for the first-generation, 8Gbyte 2G iPhone in June 2007. While using a new design, the iPhone 3G really represents a refinement of the original iPhone 2G, according to iSuppli.

Symbian was formed in London 10 years ago by of top mobile handset makers looking for a standardized way of building software to run hones.

It was the descendant of software on Psion electronic organizers.

Lexy audio content distribution platform, has signed a deal with The Onion to be its mobile distribution partner for all audio programming. The partnership launches with the integration of a Lexy subscription button into the Onion Radio News (ORN) webpage. This button provides easy access to Lexy, giving fans of ORN a way to listen to the ORN daily broadcast and share it with their friends.

Similar to other distribution buttons (e.g., RSS, iTunes) and like an RSS feed, Lexy immediately updates each subscriber's playlist with the latest ORN broadcast. However, unlike traditional RSS readers, Lexy subscribers can access this audio programming on their mobile phones, not just on their PCs, and share individual broadcasts with friends -- instantly from phone to phone.

This is not digital content, phone listening content: One users subscribe to the service they call a (415 area code) number and listen to the audio on their phones.  This could have some interesting uses for spoofing and also killing bored times while increasing minutes used.

Verizon and NBC Universal have reached an agreement to bring Verizon customers NBC Universal's coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing on all three Verizon platforms -- TV, broadband and wireless.

Wireless -- During the games, Verizon Wireless customers can keep up with the Olympic action on V CAST video through NBC's wireless coverage, which will include daily highlights, breaking news, scores and results, features, and more..

Alltel Wireless now offers a new user-generated slide show application MyShow. MyShow, enables customers the ability to become social media publishers with a few simple clicks to create custom slideshows that showcase their photos from their phones.

The application automatically composes slideshows that can be personalized with text and background music. Users can upload their slideshows to MyShow's companion Web site http://myshow.funmo.com as well as embed the MyShow "widget" and broadcast slideshows on popular social networking sites. MyShow, also allows users to view, rate and comment on slideshows created by other subscribers. The application is now available through Alltel Shop for $3.99 per month.

Verizon Wireless customers with the BlackBerry Curve 8330, BlackBerry Pearl8130 and BlackBerry 8830 World Edition smartphones can now use Verizon Wireless' Mobile Banking application. Also available on a number of popular Get It Now-capable phones, Mobile Banking offers customers the following capabilities and features on their handsets:

• Account Balance and Transaction History -- Get account balances and account transaction history.
• Transfers -- Transfer funds between eligible accounts at the same financial institution.
• Bill Payment -- View and pay bills when enrolled in their financial institution's Bill Pay service.
• Mobile History -- View the last five transactions successfully completed on their mobile devices.

Verizon Wireless customers must be account holders of a financial institution that offers Mobile Banking to enroll in the application. Currently Wachovia, Regions, SunTrust, USAA, Synovus, America First Credit Union (AFCU), Arvest, Bancorp South, FirstBank, South Financial and BECU offer the service. Once customers sign up for Mobile Banking through their financial institutions' online banking site, they will receive an eight digit secure initialization code that will allow them to access the Mobile Banking application on their phones.

Wi-Fi hotspots are continuing to grow greatly in 2008. According to ABI Research's WI-FI Hotspots Forecasts, by the end of this year global hotspots will grow by 40% over 2007. The greatest growth and the largest number of hotspots continue to be found in Europe. While the UK has long led in European Wi-Fi hotspots, there is also marked growth in France, Germany, and Russia.

Most remarkable about the hotspot market, says vice president and research director Stan Schatt, are the dynamics of a fast-changing business model. "Starbucks' decision to go to a virtually free Wi-Fi hotspot model is having a profound impact. Hotspot owners are beginning to see Wi-Fi as a cost of doing business and an operational expense, rather than as a profit center." Schatt expects major retailers to move towards a free service model in phases. "The first phase is likely to be a free or almost free service for good customers, those who have signed up for loyalty cards."

One reason hotspot owners are willing to move towards such a business model, according to Schatt, is the realization that, "Charging for service is counter-productive in the long run because the real money will be in value-add content downloads." In the near future hotspots are likely to encourage users to pay to download the latest music and TV shows. Airport clubs are likely to offer hotspot users the chance to download movies for their upcoming trips. Starbucks has already begun selling music CDs in its stores. The next logical step will be to move to selling music downloads.

• Nokia net sales of EUR 13.2 billion, up 4% year on year and up 4% sequentially (up 11% and 7% at constant currency).
• Devices & Services net sales of EUR 9.1 billion, down 1% year on year and down 2% sequentially (up 6% and 1% at constant currency).
• Nokia Siemens Networks net sales of EUR 4.1 billion, up 18% year on year and up 20% sequentially (up 26% and 23% at constant currency).
• Services and software net sales of EUR 119 million, up 42% sequentially.
• Nokia operating cash flow of EUR 1.5 billion.
• Estimated industry mobile device volumes of 303 million units, up 15% year on year and up 3% sequentially.
• Nokia mobile device volumes of 122 million units, up 21% year on year and up 6% sequentially.
• Nokia mobile device ASP of EUR 74, down sequentially from EUR 79 (approximately 40% of the decline was caused by the impact of exchange rate movements).
  

Sprint, Cisco and Ciena announced that they have implemented 40-gigabits-per-second (Gbps) network capabilities on the Global Sprint Tier 1 IP Network using a technology called Internet Protocol over dense wavelength-division multiplexing, or IPoDWDM for short.

Sprint is further enhancing its network by deploying 40-Gbps circuits and expanding available capacity for its customers. Earlier this year, Sprint completed final testing of the 40-Gbps IPoDWDM technology and enabled their first production 40-Gbps circuit.

Aircell, airborne communications, said it will upgrade 4G on Long Term Evolution to enable the next generation ultra-high bandwidth mobile services such as hi-definition and interactive TV and multi-player gaming .

Aircell's current offering, Gogo turns a commercial airplane into a Wi-Fi hotspot, providing full Internet access - Using an exclusive FCC frequency license, CDMA Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) Rev A protocol and network optimization and acceleration technology, to deliver an data rate of more than 12 Mbps peak to Gogo-equipped aircraft.  By the end of 2009, further advances in existing technologies will enable Aircell to deliver a raw data rate of up to 22.7 Mbps to aircraft. By the beginning of 2011, Aircell expects to deploy its 4G LTE network, which will enable a throughput of up to 300 Mbps to aircraft.

The time is right for banking, money transfers and online payments to make the move to mobile handsets and services concludes IMS Research in a new report. Improved coverage, greater uptake of feature phones and smartphones, higher mobile penetration and service availability have all contributed to this. As much as anything, greater demand from consumers, operators and financial stakeholders has seen the number of application developers and platform providers all multiply in numbers in recent years.

The number of active users of mobile banking and payment services is estimated to grow by 662%.

UltraSlo.com's videos are now being distributed by Thumbplay

UltraSlo produces new  content using the latest camera technologies. UltraSlo's highly-rated slow motion video clips of everything from table-top to documentary action scenes, sports and nature have been described as ranging from "sexy to science" and from "silly to spoof." To date, UltraSlo has delivered more than 10 million videos to a wide demographic of fans.

Six-time Emmy Award nominee and two-time winner Alan Teitel of UltraSlo said, "They say content is king; well, it is, if you get to where your viewers are. As such, with its massive reach, Thumbplay makes an ideal distribution partner and I have every confidence we will expand our fan-base even further with their support.

"UltraSlo plans to embark on a very aggressive shooting schedule for Q3 and Q4 of 2008. UltraSlo's library of mobile content can be found on Thumbplay's Web site at http://ringtones.thumbplay.com/UltraSlo-ringtones

ESPN and MediaFLO USA, will bring action sports fans X Games 14 live on their mobile phones, July 31 - August 3. To celebrate this year's event, MediaFLO USA and ESPN will offer EXPN, a dedicated X Games video channel that will run 24/7, July 16 - August 8. MediaFLO mobile TV service is available to AT&T subscribers as AT&T Mobile TV with FLO and to Verizon Wireless customers as V CAST Mobile TV.

ESPN and MediaFLO USA will air a combined 31 hours of live X Games 14,coverage during the event (July 31 - August 3), allowing fans to follow the X Games  From the early practice rounds all the way to the ffinals, action sports fans can watch the BMX Freestyle, Moto X, Skateboard and Rally Car Racing events live, along with additional ESPN-produced segments.

X Games events will also be re-aired overnight.

SendMe Mobile will offer content from Warner Music Group through SendMeMobile.com and its mobile sweepstakes site SoLow.com. Together, SendMe and WMG are creating a series of custom premium SMS subscription products that will enable fans to connect with their favorite artists directly over multiple platforms.

As part of the agreement, SendMe will offer thousands of WMG artist ringtones, video ringers and wallpaper images at SendMeMobile.com, for subscribers to download directly to their mobile phones. In the coming months, WMG and SendMe will debut a series of additional mobile products available exclusively at SendMeMobile.com and SoLow.com.

WMG and SendMe will work together to further engage fans with their favorite WMG artists by offering artist-related experiential prizes and content on SoLow.com, SendMe's mobile game and contest site where the lowest unique bidder wins. Soon, fans can visit SoLow.com to bid on one-of-a-kind artist giveaways, some of which will include opportunities to meet and hang out with today's hottest artists.

Avot Media, released its mobile video user survey in which more than four hundred mobile device users answered an online survey after viewing a video via their mobile phones.

Results of the study revealed that mobile video is in demand by a variety of users. One of the key takeaways from the study is that 55 percent of the 29-and-under demographic said they would use the simple "send SMS for video" model to request video content of interest to them. This user demographic was open to a variety of video content, for example:

• 32 percent would watch American Idol performances
• 36 percent would view movie trailers
• 31 percent would access instructional 'how to' videos

Sprint has slashed prices on two smartphones the HTC Touch and Samsung Ace.  The HTC Touch originally sold for $250.00 with a two year contract and rebate, is now priced at $100 with contract and rebate.  While the Samsung Ace a QWERTY Windows smartphone which previously sold for $200.00 after rebate and contract is now $100.00 with rebate and contract.  The phones cost $30.00 less than the Sprint Instinct.

SANRIO Inc. has chosen FunMobility to distribute mobile content. SANRIO is developer of Hello Kitty

Celltick, a mobile idle screen marketing solution, is partnering with San Francisco-based Greystripe, ad-supported mobile games distributor. The partnership will see the two companies team up to distribute advertising-funded games for mobile devices through Celltick's innovative LiveScreen Media platform.

LiveScreen Media broadcasts messages and teasers to the idle screen of mobile handsets, communicating with subscribers in a non-intrusive fashion, and turning the idle screen into a personal billboard through which advertisers and publishers can promote their content and products.

Glu Mobile is offering The Dark Knight, a mobile game based on the Batman film opening in US theatres on July 18

In the game, a reign of chaos has swept over GOTHAM CITY, organized by a criminal mastermind known to terrified citizens only as THE JOKER. Gamers play as BATMAN using dynamic combat moves, special gadgets and stealth tactics to evoke fear in the hearts of his enemies. Players must use every weapon in BATMAN's arsenal in order to confront his most devious enemy yet.

To accompany the game release, Glu will be publishing an extensive content suite for The Dark Knight, 31 wallpapers, 14 voicetones, 4 music tones and 8 animated screensavers for mobile phones.

Mobispine an aggregator of news and content for the Mobile Internet has acquired NewsAlloy, web based feed reader. Mobispine and NewsAlloy are both leading innovators in the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) space will offer users a seamless product to view personalized news feeds on both mobile phones and PCs.

 Mobispine is an easy to use, free mobile service that allows users to view web content on their mobile phone. It aggregates web content transmitted by RSS feeds. Users can personalize content by subscribing to existing feeds and by adding new feeds instantly. For more information, visit: http://www.mobispine.com

News Alloy is a free Web Based Feed Reader for discovering, reading, and sharing news and information. News Alloy lets you view information from a wide variety of news sources, special interest publications and blogs via RSS and Atom in an easy to use and manageable way via Web Based AJAX Driven GUI and Mobile/PDA enabled service. For more information, visit: http://www.newsalloy.com

The delay was supposedly due to the FCC certification of 802.11n Wi-Fi with five times faster wireless connections

New energy saving  HUGI, "Hurry Up and Get Idle" will allow the new 2.8GHz processor to consume 60 percent less electricity than its 2.33GHz processor per task, and which will done 30 second faster.

Future versions of Centrino 2 will include built-in WiMAX, hopefully in time for Sprint's commercial WiMAX. Centrino 

The Mobile Marketing Association which represents 650 member companies worldwide, released its Global Code of Conduct, designed to provide guidelines that all Mobile Marketers should consider and build their mobile marketing initiatives around.

The Code has five categories:

Notice - The fundamental principle of the MMA Privacy Code of Conduct, informing users of the marketers' identity or products and services offered and the key terms and conditions that govern an interaction between the marketer and the user's mobile device.

Choice & Consent - Respecting the right of the user to control which mobile messages they receive by obtaining consent (opt-in) and implementing a simple termination (opt-out) process.

Customization & Constraint - Ensuring that collected user information is used to tailor communication to the interests of the recipient and is handled responsibly, sensitively and in compliance with applicable law. Mobile messages should be limited to those requested by the user and provide value such as product and service enhancements, contests, requested information, entertainment or discounts.

Security - The implementation of reasonable technical, administrative and physical procedures to protect user information from unauthorized use, alteration, disclosure, distribution, or access.

Enforcement & Accountability - The MMA expects its members to comply with the MMA Privacy Code of Conduct and has incorporated the Code into applicable MMA Guidelines, including the U.S. Consumer Best Practice ("CBP") Guidelines. Until the Code can be enforced effectively by a third party enforcement organization, Mobile Marketers are expected to use evaluations of their practices to certify compliance with the Code.

The WiMAX chipset market is advancing quickly. There are solid 2-chip designs consisting of a single-chip baseband IC and a single-chip RF IC that are bringing power consumption down. Beceem, GCT Semiconductor, and Sequans have single-chip designs that include both the baseband and RF. Most importantly, WiMAX chipset ASPs are dropping rapidly.

“Even as the mobile WiMAX chipset market has barely gotten its feet wet, chipset ASPs are declining rapidly due to heavy competition and greater integration in designs,” says ABI Research principal analyst Philip Solis. “Prices for the baseband and RF components of the chipset have come down from the $35 range a few years ago to below $25, and will drop below $10 in 2011. These falling WiMAX chipset prices are critical for inclusion of the technology in smaller mobile devices.”

A new analysis of the NFC mobile payments opportunity from Juniper Research forecasts that the gross transaction value of payments made via NFC contactless technology, for relatively low value purchases (such as refreshments, tickets and food), will exceed $75bn globally by 2013.

In the second report in its Mobile Payment Markets series, Juniper Research found that there is a significant opportunity for NFC mobile payment services, chips, phones and supporting services as the market reaches its tipping point over the 2011 to 2013 period. The study explores how NFC will transform the mobile phone into a mobile wallet payment tool that will be used by more and more people, more and more often in future.

Highlights from the report include: • Global annual gross transaction value will grow over 5 times between 2011 and 2013 • 2009 will see limited numbers of NFC devices shipped (except in the Far East & China region) but the market will begin to ramp up from 2010 onwards and by 2013 20%, or 1 in 5 phones shipped, will possess NFC capability.
• The top 3 regions (Far East & China, North America and W. Europe) will represent nearly 90% of the $75bn p.a. market (by gross transaction value) by 2013.

The software program,  'Highlight', was built at the Almaden Research Center allows users to record the required steps in performing simple tasks.. The software will also allow web surfers to create their own website versions

'Highlight' takes its code from CoScripter, another project from IBM, which gives users a facility to record web tasks that are repetitive and share them among other users. Because it requires a proxy server, it may not be liked by website developers who will loose control and screen space.

"The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Developers have created some extraordinary applications, and the App Store can wirelessly deliver them to every iPhone and iPod touch user instantly."

The App Store on iPhone works over cellular networks and Wi-Fi,and  users can purchase and download applications wirelessly and start using them instantly. Applications are free or charged to the user's iTunes account and the App Store notifies the user when updates are available for their apps. The App Store is also available in iTunes (www.itunes.com) running on a Mac or PC, which syncs applications to the iPhone or iPod touch using a USB cable.

Device management ensures that WiMAX devices can be remotely activated and provisioned irrespective of their source, ensuring they work seamlessly and deliver a true mobile Internet experience. "Advanced device management is critical to delivering the best possible user experience over WiMAX and enabling the broadest and most compelling suite of WiMAX devices," said Barry West, President of Sprint's XOHM business unit. "The ability to remotely manage and support any WiMAX device -- irrespective of where it has been bought -- will create the first truly open wireless marketplace, allowing customers to purchase their own devices and activate them when they choose with or without a contract in place."

erizon Wireless customers who download Jonas Brothers' songs, purchase ringtones or ringback tones from their V CAST-capable phones will be entered to win a pair of mobile tickets to see Jonas Brothers in concert.

Verizon Wireless provides fans with access to the Jonas Brothers during the "Burning Up" tour, including exclusive music and video on V CAST, mobile tickets and a chance to meet the Jonas Brothers.

Verizon Wireless customers can download exclusive songs and video from the Jonas Brothers through V CAST Music and Video. With V CAST Music, fans can now download the live versions of the previously unreleased songs from the Jonas Brothers' anxiously awaited album, "A Little Bit Longer," including "Shelf," "Burnin' Up," "A Little Bit Longer" and "Pushing Me Away." The songs can be downloaded over-the-air directly to fans' mobile phones with V CAST Music.

Nokia's WidSets service has selected MobileSearch.net, to power WidSets Search for its millions of mobile users.

WidSets Search will allow users to find new widgets, providing a short description and view of the widget for immediate download. In addition, WidSets Search services will encompass several content and information channels, including images, yellow pages, news, weather and more. Search results will be provided by the mobile web, in order to enable the best possible experience for optimized mobile internet navigation. WidSets Search has launched in Finland and will be rolled out to European and global users as part of the global WidSets initiative.

"iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world."

ABI Research announced the appointment of Nick Holland as Principal Analyst, Mobile Content. Holland is responsible for ABI Research’s Mobile Content Research Service, including analysis focused on mobile video and TV, mobile music, mobile social networking and mobile gaming. He also conducts and supervises research into business models and content service delivery platforms.

Nick’s multiple skill-sets will assist this role: not only is he experienced at relating technical advancements to business opportunities, he has a deep understanding of the mobile content industry and the mobile commerce and payment models that enable it.

Research director Mike Wolf comments, “Nick brings a wealth of industry expertise to our mobile content research, combining a strong background in mobile entertainment and content models with his work in the mobile commerce arena. I believe this strong pedigree, combined with Nick’s infectious enthusiasm for this fast-moving market, will further solidify ABI Research as a leader in covering mobile content markets.”

Prior to joining ABI Research, Nick was a senior analyst at Aite Group, where he produced primary research-driven reports on key issues impacting the intersection of technology, payments and security. He also provided consulting services to card networks, handset vendors and many of the top ten US financial institutions. Earlier, Nick served as senior analyst within the CMT Group of Pyramid Research, and as director of the Emerging Technologies Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group.

New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo has recruited AT&T, and AOL to help stop child pornography. Both companies have agreed to eliminate access to related Newsgroups, a major supplier of these illegal images.  They will also purge their servers of child pornography websites.  Similar agreements were made with Verizon, Sprint, and Time Warner Cable announced by Cuomo last month.

Cuomo also unveiled a new website, www.nystopchildporn.com, dedicated to fighting online child pornography.  The website provides details on which Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have signed agreements with the Attorney General's office to eradicate access to child porn on their servers.  It also provides consumers with information on how to contact ISPs that have failed to make the same commitment to stop child porn. Cuomo urged consumers across the state to check whether their Internet Service Providers have signed the code of conduct and to demand that they do so if they have not.

 Cuomo continued, "I commend AT&T and AOL for working with my office to aggressively purge child pornography from the Internet, and I encourage consumers across New York State and the nation to visit my website www.nystopchildporn.com to make sure their Internet Service Providers are also taking every step they can to eradicate this appalling trade."

Greystripe is opening up that their in-game mobile advertising for iPhone game and application developers. Greystripe now offers iPhone game developers an SDK which integrates advertising and reporting APIs and creates the opportunity to make money off every use of their applications and every play of iPhone games.

Many of Greystripe’s 120 existing publisher partners, including Amplified Games, Xgen Media, DS Effects, United Fun Traders, Relaxas and Norbsoft plan to offer iPhone games using Greystripe’s advertising technology and will be able to monetize their new iPhone applications. Both existing and new publishing partners will be able to take advantage of Greystripe’s already proven results.

“We are excited to be launching Cookie Bonus Solitaire, a new twist on the traditional Klondike game, with the launch of the Apple App Store,” said Tom Hubina, CEO of Amplified Games. “By making it free, ad-supported, and included in Greystripe’s massive distribution network, we now have the best chance to go viral and make significant revenue as an independent game publisher.”

Greystripe’s iPhone SDK supports standardized, full screen square (320x320) advertisements to provide advertisers a new canvas size for their brand messages in pre-, interstitial and post-roll inventory. Application and game developers can add Greystripe’s iPhone APIs and start monetizing their content immediately by signing up at iphone.greystripe.com/register.

IBC Bank, a subsidiary of International Bancshares launched a new bilingual mobile banking application from mFoundry, a provider of mobile banking and payments.

IBC leveraged mFoundry's mobile financial services platform to launch this bilingual mobile banking application. IBC is offering its mobile banking application as a free service to customers in both English and Spanish languages.

According to mFoundry, with IBC's mobile banking application, customers can have on-demand, secure access to IBC checking, savings and loan accounts. Customers can view account balances, search and retrieve account transaction histories, transfer money between accounts, pay bills, and search for IBC branches and ATMs. The application is available across carriers on a wide array of handsets including mass-market devices as well as BlackBerry devices.

Dennis Nixon, chairman of International Bancshares, said: "We are very pleased to offer bilingual mobile banking services to our ethnically diverse customer base. mFoundry provided us the most flexibility and the best end user experience in the industry so we're anticipating great adoption and usage of these services by our customers."

The LG Chocolate 3 will available on Sunday. The LG Chocolate 3 is the premier music phone for the launch of the V CAST Rhapsody music service ($14.99 mo.) that enables users to download copies to their PCs free of DRM.

The LG Chocolate 3  has a built-in FM transmitter so customers can play music through a car stereo or other stereo system, dual speakers, Bluetooth for wireless stereo sound, and multitasking capabilities while listening to music.

 With V CAST Music with Rhapsody, includes

• Unlimited subscription syncing with access to more than 5 million songs
• Creating and accessing playlists, viewing playlists of other users, including celebrities
• Burning, importing and converting CDs to play anywhere
• Managing an existing digital music collection for free and syncing it to their mobile phones
• Buying non-protected MP3s of songs on the PC for 99 cents per song
• Buying songs on the phone, over-the-air -- get two copies of the song for just $1.99 (one is over-the-air, the second master copy is the file customers download onto their PCs)
• Software for PC syncing.
  

While some mobile phone lovers lusted over the iPhone 3G that does not have a real keyboard, texters tapped out phrases in quick time during The Second Annual LG National Texting Competition.

Beating more than 15,000 entrants, Nathan Schwartz, a 20-year-old Clyde, Ohio resident, is the faster texter and winner of $50,000 in prize money. In one minute,  he texted  154 mixed characters including punctuation.

The winning phrase was "Does everybody here know the alphabet? Let's text. Here it goes...AbcDeFghiJKlmNoPQrStuvWXy & Z! Now I know my A-B-C's, next time won't you text with me?" The contestants used any LG phones that featured full QWERTY keypads including the enV2, enV and Voyager.

"When I heard that I won I just wanted to scream," said winner Nathan Schwartz. "I called my mom as the confetti was falling on stage. I am really looking forward to spending some of that prize money and I think it will be fun to tell all of my friends and family that I am the fastest texter in the country!"  

         
Top 200 iPhone Search Term Suggestions for June 2008
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Top 10 Overall      Share of Visits  Categories           Sum Volume
----------------------------------------------------------------------
iphone                   15.94%      New Release             35%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
iphone 3g                6.21%       Brand only              34%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
new iphone               4.46%       Apps/Software            6%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
apple iphone             2.87%       News/Info                5%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3g iphone                1.98%       Price/Plans              5%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
iphone 2                 1.36%       Provider                 3%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
the new iphone           0.94%       Size                     3%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
apple iphone 3g          0.63%       Unlock                   3%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
apple iphone 16gb        0.59%       Purchase                 2%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
free iphone              0.40%       Features                 1%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Results are based on the top 200 search term suggestion for the
 query "iphone" for the 4 weeks ending June 28, 2008
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Hitwise
----------------------------------------------------------------------

• As of Q1 2008, 91 million (36% of all mobile phone subscribers in the U.S.) owned a video-capable phone. As more subscribers upgrade to phones capable of receiving mobile video, subscription cost, promotion and network speeds will be the primary challenges to the growth of mobile video consumption.

• As of Q1 2008, there were already 13.9 million persons (6% of U.S. mobile subscribers) paying for a mobile video plan, up from 8.4 million (4% of all mobile subscribers)in Q1 2007.

• 4.4 million persons (2% of U.S. mobile subscribers or 31% of those who subscribe to mobile video) report that they watched mobile video with a mobile video subscription.

• In addition, 95 million persons (37% of U.S. mobile subscribers) subscribed to mobile Internet as part of their mobile data plan in Q1 2008, a significant platform.

Myxer will distribute music from The Orchard, a global leader in digital music, adding over 1 million new ringtones to Myxer.

Using its patent-pending ringtone creation technology, Myxer will convert the tracks from The Orchard's catalog of 1.1 million songs into premium ringtones via an automated process. Available to the Myxer community of over 11 million users, the new content will come from a wide variety of The Orchard's labels partners including Definitive Jux, Park the Van, DIM MAK, BCD Music Group, Nuclear Blast, Greensleeves, Musart/Balboa and many more. Ringtones will feature artists from around the world,
spanning every genre and era.

Myxer and The Orchard will also be adding select ad-supported ringtones
promoting key Orchard artists to fans. These offerings will be made available as Myxer's special "picks of the day."

GOSUB 60 (GS60), an independent publisher and marketer of mobile entertainment, launched direct to consumer MobileDeluxe.com

MobileDeluxe.com includes a free trial feature that allows players to demo certain games on their phone prior to purchase. An industry first, each game purchase is accompanied with the Mobi-D Guarantee - giving players a 100 percent refund* up-to 23 days from game purchase if not fully satisfied with their GS60 mobile game.

Visitors to MobileDeluxe.com can register to become Mobile Deluxe members for exclusive access to insider information. Membership privileges include discounts on games, sneak peeks at upcoming releases, helpful game tips and a subscription to the Mobile Deluxe newsletter. From now until August 22nd, consumers that register to become a Mobile Deluxe member are entered into a drawing to win a Nintendo Wii and Guitar Hero game package along with other prizes.

MobileDeluxe.com offers GS60 games and supports downloads for most Java carriers in the U.S. including AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. For a monthly subscription, the price is approximately $2.99. For unlimited access, the price is approximately $6.99.

Early sales results show the Samsung Instinct, is Best Buys's best selling handset in the past two years.

As part of customers' purchase, Best Buy Mobile is extending its unique Walk Out Working program exclusively to all Instinct purchases in July and August. Walk Out Working provides multimedia and smartphone set up and personalization - such as e-mail and data transfer, ensuring that the technology will be ready to use immediately.   

 "We have a winner in Instinct," said John Garcia, President of Sprint's Wireless Division. "Current customers are spear-heading the demand for this innovative device. Our customers are recognizing the convenience of Instinct's user interface, the intelligence of integrated GPS services and the terrific speed and reach of our national mobile broadband network."

Other Wireless and Mobile News coverage of Samsung Instinct:  iPhone 3G vs Samsung Instinct Features and Samsung Instinct in the Review of Reviews.

Sony Ericsson has partnered with  Handango for direct to consumer content on all Sony Ericsson convergence phones, including the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1.

Handango will offer an array of mobile applications across all genres including mobile productivity, games, imaging, music and more directly on the phones.

Handango's InHand clients will offer Sony Ericsson customers a vast and easy-to-navigate array of best-in-class smartphone applications. All applications have been designed for optimal performance on Sony Ericsson's XPERIA and UIQ devices.

Handango will also serve as the content provider for Sony Ericsson's mobile web storefront for UIQ devices, and will offer its InHand mobile client embedded  in  UIQ devices by the end of the year.

Digital camera, Bluetooth, and music/radio playback on mobile phones are the top three features that consumers consider essential for the next mobile phone they will purchase, according to a recent ABI Research survey of 1,402 current wireless subscribers in seven countries.

The desire for camera phones with 2+ megapixels leads the pack with 47% of consumers listing this feature as a "must have," followed by Bluetooth at 34% and music/FM radio functionality at 32%.

Other key findings from ABI Research's global wireless consumer survey are as follows:

• Consumers across all mature markets still choose their mobile operator based on "the basics": price, friends/family on the same network, and network coverage.
• The three most common features that subscribers have on their current mobile phones are: games (64%), Internet access (61%), and 2+ megapixel cameras (58%).
• Games and Internet access are also high on the list of features that subscribers have on their phones, but never use.
• The handset features that are least likely to be regarded as essential are: Wi-Fi, mobile TV, and games.

Consumers are demanding more personalization and entertainment content on their mobile phones, driving mobile video revenue to exceed $3.5 billion in 2008, according to recent research by MultiMedia Intelligence. By 2012, the mobile video and mobile TV market will exceed $15 billion, including direct pay and advertising.

Mobile video, which relies on the mobile operator's 3G network for delivery, has the advantage of an established network, making it the stronger of the two categories in today's market. However, mobile TV infrastructure deployments and mobile TV handsets are rolling out aggressively, making mobile TV the dominant category in 2012.

 "The mobile phone is inherently an inferior entertainment platform compared to other media devices like TVs," according to Frank Dickson, Chief Research Officer for MultiMedia Intelligence. "However, the mobile handset is inherently a superior portable communications platform. It allows for TV advertising outside the home as well as enabling new forms of advertising, including "call to action" advertising. Call to action leverages the handset's built in return channel to deliver advertising beyond the capabilities of the living room TV experience."

Washington Mutual has launched mobile banking delivering account information: real-time account balances, real-time transaction history and branch/ATM locations.

WaMu customers can benefit from the mobile banking services by logging into their accounts online at www.wamu.com and opting into the free service. Mobile banking is easy and offered free by WaMu (customer's wireless provider may charge standard fees).

"We develop products and services based on what makes sense and is of value to our customers," said Richard Blunck, SVP, and Director of eCommerce for WaMu. "Internal and external research tells us that the SMS text banking tool that we've launched is an application consumers find valuable because it is a fast, simple and affordable way to keep track of the most important account information -- account balance and recent

The Mobile Marketing Association has updated its Consumer Best Practices (CBP) Guidelines for Cross-Carrier Mobile Content Services.

Modifications to the July 9, 2008 Guidelines include the following key areas:

• use of wireless carrier SMTP gateways for commercial traffic
• handset delivery
• clarifications around promotional content and marketing to children
• expansion of and clarification of guidelines for Free To End User (FTEU)
• standard and premium rate messaging
• mobile web and interactive voice response (IVR).

The guidelines are effective immediately and are available for download.

The Nielsen Company released figures showing video and TV usage across the 'three screens' - Television, Internet and Mobile devices. While the number of mobile video users is relatively small at about 4 million, the video usage these early adopters report is impressive, perhaps due to "always available" mobile devices. It may be an early indicator of how this technology is becoming more commonplace among mobile users.

Nielsen's findings show that screen time of the average American continues to increase with TV users watching more TV than ever before (127 hrs, 15 min per month), while also spending 9% more time using the Internet (26 hrs, 26 min per month) from last year.

At the same time, a small but growing number of Internet and mobile phone users are watching video online (2 hrs, 19 min per month), as well as using their cell phones to watch video (3 hrs, 15 min per month).

Backhaul is very important for 4G expansion, and IP backhaul is the chosen option for Sprint, who selected DragonWave's IP-based backhaul solutions for its XOHM-branded WiMAX mobile-broadband services in North America.

DragonWave's Horizon Compact and Horizon Duo products will be deployed initially in the Baltimore/Washington and Chicago markets. DragonWave's native Ethernet radios will provide Sprint's XOHM network with carrier-grade reliability, capacity, throughput and Quality of Service (QoS) for backhauling 4G traffic. The Horizon products provide software controlled scalability, ultra-low latency, wire-speed connectivity up to 1.6 Gbps full duplex, 99.999% service availability and a full suite of network management options. Ring/mesh network architecture coupled with adaptive modulation and integrated antenna solutions enables a 50% reduction in the total life cycle cost compared to conventional designs enabling Sprint XOHM to rapidly and affordably expand their market coverage and meet increased bandwidth requirements.

"Big-name carriers such as Sprint are confronting the backhaul challenges of the mobile Internet, and, consequently, they are increasingly transitioning to lower-cost IP backhaul to support 3G and 4G expansion and booming data rates," said Caroline Gabriel, Research Director and Lead Wireless Analyst with Rethink Research Associates. "Carriers no longer can allow backhaul bottlenecks to slow their mobile-broadband growth plans, so we are seeing heightened uptake for powerful IP backhaul solutions that allow for simple, cost-efficient network rollout."

The new 3G iPhone from Apple (AAPL) is going to have a tsunami-like impact on the consumer smartphone market, according to a new ChangeWave survey of 3,567 consumers conducted in the aftermath of Apple's June 9th announcement.

At present, the Canadian Blackberry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIMM) (42%; unchanged) is the clear consumer smartphone market leader among smartphone owners.

But the biggest mover over the past 90 days has been the Apple iPhone (11%; up 2-pts), which continues to make major inroads in the consumer marketplace. Having gained market share for the fourth-consecutive survey, it is now close to wrestling the number two spot away from PALM (14%; down 2-pts) which has sunk to a new record low.

The Coming Apple Tsunami

The survey found that a full 56% of respondents who plan to purchase a smartphone in the next 90 days say they're getting an Apple iPhone  a huge 21-pt leap from the previous survey.

The accompanying chart shows just how dramatic a jump in market share this represents.

Apple sent an email stating details for purchase of the iPhone 3G at Apple Stores.

The UTStarcom Arc. clamshell phone with Bluetooth and a camera, IM and email messaging is offered by Virgin.

Only 3% of people recycle  mobile phones while many are lying around at home according to a survey released by Nokia.

Apisphere  partnered with interactive advertising network BuzzHub.

Action Engine Corporation and Millennial Media, will integrate Action Engine's in-application Mobile Advertising Engine (MAE) technology with Millennial Media's  MBrand network.

Olympic sponsor AT&T will produce AT&T Team USA Soundtrack to inspire and support U.S. Olympic Teams.

Olympic sponsor AT&T will produce AT&T Team USA Soundtrack to inspire and support U.S. Olympic Teams with music by 3 Doors Down, Army of Me, Colbie Caillat, Clique Girlz, Sheryl Crow, Flipsyde, Lady Antebellum, Mere, Nelly and Kate Voegele.

These songs will be played during broadcasts of the Olympic Games and will be available for download only during the Olympic Games in August through AT&T MEdiaNet. The proceeds from the tracks will benefit Team USA. Other artists who will participate in the AT&T Team USA Soundtrack will be announced later.

AT&T will also serve as the official telecommunications services partner of the U.S. Olympic Team for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Additional information about AT&T’s sponsorship of the U.S. Olympic Team is available at http://www.att.com/teamusa2008

For the Knight Rider experience, Mio partnered with Universal Studios to become a Knight Rider licensee and collaborated with Navtones to include exclusive voice guidance and turn-by-turn directions featuring the original voice of K.I.T.T., the most iconic TV car of all time.

The device's integrated randomized greetings and 300 custom names will welcome you to your navigation experience. In addition to Mio's hallmark high-quality navigation, the Knight Rider GPS features an active LED voice synthesizer display that moves in sync with the voice,  just as it did on K.I.T.T.'s dash. The Knight Rider GPS can even be programmed to advise drivers of speed limit infractions for those inclined to apply too much turbo boost.

On-Device Portal Company (ODP), Action Engine Corporation, and Millennial Media, cross-platform mobile advertising company will integrate Action Engine's in-application Mobile Advertising Engine (MAE) technology with Millennial Media's premium MBrand network.

The integration enables Millennial Media to support of advertising within a variety of Java, BREW, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile downloadable applications.

Millennial Media's networks have run more than 1,000 mobile advertising campaigns. Millennial Media advertisers will have an even broader ability to reach consumers.

"The creation of applications is the next big wave in mobile, and the race is on. Ad networks like Millennial Media are recognizing this trend towards in-application mobile advertising and are working with mobile application experts, like Action Engine, to capture this growing market," commented Scott G. Silk, president and CEO of Action Engine.

Action Engine's mobile advertising technology lets mobile operators and content companies extend mobile advertising into the 'offline' pages found within downloadable mobile applications

 
Three out of every four people added that they don't even think about recycling their devices and nearly half were unaware that it is even possible to do so.

The survey was based on interviews with 6,500 people in 13 countries including Finland, Germany, Italy, Russia, Sweden, UK, United Arab Emirates, USA, Nigeria, India, China, Indonesia and Brazil.

People on average have each owned around five phones, very few of these are being recycled once they are no longer used.  Yet very few old devices, 4%, are being thrown into landfill. Instead the majority, 44%, are simply being kept at homes never used.  Others are giving their mobiles another life in different ways, one quarter are passing on their old phones to friends or family, and 16% of people are selling their used devices particularly in emerging markets.

Apisphere, a  mobile location-awareness services provider has partnered with interactive advertising network BuzzHub to create a location based media delivery platform for mobile devices.

BuzzHub will be integrating Apisphere's location-awareness intelligence with its electronic kiosk-based ad serving technologies to create a platform that will deliver targeted advertising to mobile devices.

Currently, BuzzHub subscribers can access promotional offers and advertisements at kiosks set up in malls, movie theatres and festivals. BuzzHub will be able to extend its relationships with retailers and consumers beyond touch screens to  target coupons, sale flyers, etc.to be automatically sent to consumers' mobile devices based on their location.

The partnership will leverage Apisphere's Geo-Enabled Mobility GEM platform which delivers mobile content, including applications and messaging - triggered to launch when users enter specified locations. Integrating Apisphere's mobile location-awareness technologies with its interactive advertising network, BuzzHub will be changing the way retailers reach their customers.  BuzzHub currently has kiosks positioned at six properties and continues to increase its consumer reach.

A concierge in an orange shirt will direct customers to the iPhone bay for free Personal Setup.

Customers with a previous iPhone should sync their current iPhone one last time before going into the store.

To purchase and activate iPhone 3G, the following are needed:

• Credit card
  
• Social security number
  
• Valid, government-issued photo ID
  
• Your current wireless account number and password or PIN (if you're new to AT&T)

Current and new iPhone users who now receive or will receive service under a corporate account and wish to purchase iPhone 3G must contact AT&T directly.

Apple states, "iPhone 3G will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis, and sales will start at 8:00 a.m. Arrive early to get in line as daily quantities are limited by stock on hand."

The UTStarcom Arc. a flip phone with Bluetooth and a camera, IM and email messaging is now available from Virgin Mobile USA, priced at $49.99.

The ARC gives Virgin Mobile USA customers access to a variety of calling and messaging plans without annual contracts, including the recently introduced Totally Unlimited voice plan that provides unlimited calling for $79.99 without roaming charges, activation fees or a two-year commitment.

More Features:

• Small and compact, this clamshell phone is 3.6" x 1.9" x 0.8"--the perfect size to slip into a bag or pocket, weighing in at only 3.0 oz. without causing any unsightly bulges!
  
• Preloaded games provide entertainment, while a range of animated and Real Music ringtones are there to amuse...or annoy.
  
• ARC also comes with the enhanced Virgin Mobile USA user interface for a slightly cooler look and feel than the average "lump of phone."
  
• 210 minutes of talk time, 14.5 days of standby time, and room for 500 contacts make this the perfect phone for the socially connected..

The report shows a shift in reported consumer purchasing behavior in the developing world. In some countries, consumer demand is being driven by consumers who are looking to replace older models while in other countries new buyers are driving demand. These differences have important implications for manufacturers and service providers.

Satyam Computer Services Ltd., a global consulting and IT services provider, announced that it has entered into an alliance with Tyfone, a global provider of mobile financial services, infrastructure and fully-integrated mobile payments capabilities.

The alliance combines Satyam's deep domain expertise and system integration experience with Tyfone's complete mobile financial services infrastructure, and will provide institutions with enhanced solutions and technology.

Tyfone's technology suite currently encompasses an independent, issuer-branded solution for secure mobile banking, mobile contactless payments, mobile retail, mobile remittance, and mobile identity management services, enabling institutions to communicate quickly with their customers via mobile phones.

Tyfone's patented technology enables secure, end-to-end communications and has the adaptability to provide plug-and-play implementation with current core banking, internet banking, and payment systems.

GlobalFun, a publisher and developer of premium mobile games announced that GlobalFun will be one of two main official content acquisition partners for the Play Now Arena and Fun&Downloads services run by Sony Ericsson.

The deal follows 5 years of close cooperation between the companies.

GlobalFun provides games to operators including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint.

Physical music spending is down as online and mobile formats gain momentum. eMarketer estimates that online and mobile will grab about 40% of the total music spend in 2009.

Marketers should be looking to enhance the customer experience by bringing together online, mobile and user-generated platforms such as blogs where fellow users can interact.

The global BWA/WiMAX subscriber base increased by 260,246 in the first quarter of 2008, reaching a total of 1,988,246 subscribers according to the 4^th issue of the WiMAXCounts Quarterly Report from Maravedis.

There was an increase of more than 19% in WiMAX subscribers in the first quarter of 2008, while operators are still waiting for the tipping point that will lead to acceleration of WiMAX adoption and deployments. 

Many operators have held back their network expansion pending the mobile WiMAX 802.16e equipment certification, which was announced in June 2008.

Of the 264 operators tracked in WiMAXCounts, approximately 50% of them are providing HIS (High Speed Internet) services only. The remaining percentage corresponds to operators that are offering different applications, such as VoIP, Video, VPN , in addition to HIS.

"We expect however double/triple play to become the norm in the next two years" said Robert Syputa, Maravedis Partner and Senior Analyst.

Alltel Wireless said that it will continue expanding its wireless broadband network in 2008 with the launch of EVDO (evolution data optimized) Revision A technology in Wichita and surrounding areas enabling customers to upload files five to 10 times faster than before.

"Alltel Wireless is committed to bringing our customers the fast wireless broadband service they expect in their business and personal lives," said Jay Ortman, vice president of business solutions for Alltel. "This network upgrade in Wichita will give our customers secure, reliable access to the latest wireless technology."

Alltel's existing broadband Wireless Internet service enables remote access to corporate intranets, productivity enhancing applications and a variety of consumer products, such as Alltel TV. Download speeds also will increase. Rev. A download speeds average 600 Kbps to 1.4 Mbps, with bursts up to 3.1 Mbps. By comparison, downloads on the existing broadband network average 400-700 Kbps with bursts up to 2.4 Mbps.

Alltel Wireless customers will need a Rev. A-capable device to access the company's enhanced broadband network. Customers also can add unlimited access to 25,000 Wi-Fi hotspots to any Alltel Wireless Internet plan for $9.99 per month.

Bill Hogg, president of network services for AT&T says in a podcast interview that the speed of AT&T's 3G network is "remarkable with speeds up to 1.5 megabits a second near DSL and Wi-Fi."
 
He notes that the network can be used for Internet access, to watch videos,  listen to music and shop online.  For business users, it will work for business apps, and remote mobile workers.  Currently, 3G  is available in 280+ metro areas and there should be 350 by end of year as AT&T builds the network out. 

You can tell that the iPhone is using the 3G network because on the top of iPhone near the signal bar is a 3G icon. If an iPhone 3G is outside a 3G network it will use the Edge network.

Hogg also says that the 3G network is software upgradeable to 20 megabits per second and AT&T will continually upgrade the software to  upgrade to LTE eventually.

"2007 was 'the year of the personal navigation device'," says ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte. Handset-based navigation also fared well, and there was a renewed interest in outdoor GPS devices. New form factors emerged. High-profile mergers and acquisitions redrew the landscape of the navigation industry."

2008 and 2009 will see continued success for navigation devices, with 'connected' PNDs becoming more important. Replacement markets will slow the current erosion of device prices as the PND market consolidates. Location Based Services will grow, driven by social networking movements and increasingly supported by advertising. By 2012 Europe, currently the world leader in personal navigation, as well as up-and-coming North America, will both have been eclipsed by the Asia-Pacific region in terms of market size, though regional patterns differ: A-P will favor handsets, while Europe holds fast to PNDs.

1. When talking on a wireless phone in public, you:
   1. Talk loudly. Cell phone connections are not that good.
   2. Get caught up in the conversation and do not realize how loud you are talking.
   3. Talk in a normal tone. Cell phone technology is so good that a whisper could be heard on the other end.
2. When entering a movie theater, you:
   1. Turn your phone off or place it on silent so you will not disrupt others in the audience.
   2. Put your phone on vibrate.
   3. Keep your phone on its normal ringer, so you do no miss any calls.
3. You are in a meeting and your phone rings, you:
   1. Don't worry about it ringing; you have already set your phone on silent.
   2. Take the call. It is more important than the meeting you are in.
   3. Remove yourself from the meeting to take the call. You have already alerted your colleagues that you are expecting a call.
4. You are out to dinner with friends at a restaurant and your phone rings, you:
   1. Apologize and let the call go to voicemail. Then turn off the ringer.
   2. Step outside to take the call. You had already told your friends that you are expecting a call.
   3. Take the call at the table.
5. You are in the grocery store and youre co-worker alerts you on your Walkie-talkie, you:
   1. Let her know that you will contact her in 10 minutes when you're in the car.
   2. Continue the conversation on speaker phone as you shop.
   3. You turn off the speaker-phone to continue the conversation.

AT&T retail stores will open at 8 a.m. local time next Friday, July 11, when the iPhone 3G goes on sale.

The early opening should help avoid the massive crowds and lines that happened last year at the iPhone launch.

Nokia announced the Nokia Wireless Loopset, designed specifically for improved mobile communications for people with hearing aids. With a T-coil equipped hearing aid or cochlear implant, the Loopset can help hearing aid users enjoy great audio quality and handsfree operation of their mobile devices and other compatible audio devices. The Loopset is expected to start shipping worldwide in the first quarter 2009.

Motorola ROKR E8 Rated 3.5 out of 5 by Wireless and Mobile News

After reviewing the top reviews of Motorola ROKR E8,  the consensus is that the ROKR E8 rocks as a music phone looks cool, and falls short in other features.The touchscreen keypad that morphs for different functions as a phone, music, player and camera is so different with haptic feedback, it takes a while to get used to using.  Some reviewers liked the touch interface and others found it tricky. Audio features such as music playing and call quality were excellent across reviews.

The screen, although small, was called brilliant, clear and easy to read. However, the software user interface was often referred to as sluggish and didn't keep up with the slick design.  Lacking fast 3G data, web browsing is s-l-o-w and email support is limited to POP 3 and text only. Although the ROKR E8 syncs in Windows Media Player, you can't sync video. 

With new phones getting the iPhone acid test, the ROKR E8 doesn't have all the features of the iPhone but has its own unique personality that you may like. Because the interface is also unique, you might want to meet the ROKR E8 in person and see how she feels and appeals to you.

The ROKR E8 costs $199.99 with a two-year contract, the same price as  iPhone 3G, LG Dare and more than the Samsung Instinct.  To see specs and summary of all the reviews reviewed continue reading. One reviewer suggests that  Nokia 5310 @ $49.99 with a contract does almost everything the ROKR E8 does and costs less.

Google has released in the US a new version of Google Talk designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod Touch browsers. In addition to sending  gmail messages from an iPhone, you can now chat with them while you’re on the move, too.

From the iPhone browser,  go to www.google.com/talk, sign in and start chatting. Google Talk runs entirely in the browser so there’s no need to download or install anything.

There are some differences from using Google Talk on your computer. For instance, in order to receive instant messages with Google Talk on your iPhone, the application needs to be open in your Safari browser. When you navigate away to another browser window or application, your status will be changed to “unavailable” and your Google Talk session will be restarted when you return.

You can select from a quicklist of the people you contact most, search your contacts, and manage multiple conversations. 

The Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies service predicts that shipments of phones equipped with removable memory card slots will grow at an average 13% per year over the next five years, hitting 1.04 billion phones in 2011. The report, “Removable Memory Card Forecast: Slotted Phone Penetration Exceeded 50% of All Phones in 2007,” reveals that 592 million slotted phones were shipped worldwide in 2007, representing 53% of all cellphone shipments.

The report also concludes that, with nearly 57% of slotted phone shipments in 2007, the microSD (including microSDHC) slot format is now more popular than the MMC format. The microSD format is expected to hit peak penetration of 86% in 2011, after which it will face competition from other, new, high capacity systems, such as the Universal Flash Storage (UFS).

Communications market research firm Infonetics Research reported  that worldwide mobile video phone sales neared $99 billion in 2007 and are expected to grow strongly over the next 5 years, despite the challenge service providers face in making mobile video services profitable.

The report shows that the number of mobile video subscribers topped 10 million worldwide in 2007, and is expected to nearly triple by the end of 2008, with explosive growth continuing through at least 2011.

• Worldwide service provider revenue from mobile video services nearly tripled in 2007 and is expected to nearly triple again in 2008
• Advertising will play a major short- and long-term role in ensuring the profitability of mobile video services, and mobile operators will be working throughout 2008 with advertisers and media buying agencies to sell their mobile video ad avails, which should become more prevalent in mid-2009
• As more mobile devices emulate the look and feel of the iPhone, much like Samsung’s Instinct and LG’s VU, and become more widely available, subscribers will be more likely to subscribe to, and stick with, a mobile video service
• Vendors of video processing and headend equipment, such as Motorola, Envivio, and Harmonic, are lining up with mobile network equipment suppliers to help speed the rollout of mobile video networks; partnerships and acquisitions along these lines will continue as the mobile video opportunity becomes clearer around the world
  

Got a sports opinion to get off your chest, but you don’t want to get off the couch? Now there is a way. The Score Television Network has partnered with MyThum Interactive to deliver the next generation in interactivity for sports fans, txtTV. Sports fans can now share their two cents on The Score broadcasts in the form of rants, opinions, votes and predictions - all via mobile SMS.

Users can text in their expert opinions during select live Score-produced programming, including Drive This (4-6pm EST). Viewers at home will be able to interact with the hosts and help steer the direction of the programming. Sports experts will also be able to customize their nickname and hometown to help solidify their status as recognizable on-air personalities.

A just-released study from Knowledge Networks reveals that while consumers are indeed turning to new video technologies - such as online streaming and mobile video - most of their video-related spending continues to be on conventional sources such as DVD rentals and purchases.

New findings from, How People Use the Video Marketplace, also show that Generation Y (ages 13 to 29) - and, to a lesser extent, Generation X (ages 30 to 43) - is way ahead of Young Boomers (ages 44 to 54) in using emerging video sources, such as mobile and streaming, but their spending on such video sources is not significantly higher.

The research is part of The Home Technology Monitor, the authoritative source of information on consumers’ ownership and usage of traditional and emerging media technologies. The study shows that the average person aged 13 to 54 spends roughly $31 per month on video-related content. Of this, about $13 goes to TV service, and another $13 from buying and renting DVDs; meanwhile, spending on emerging video distribution channels accounts for less than $5 combined.

Spending on emerging categories is dramatically lower than traditional

According to this Knowledge Networks study, monthly video spending breaks down as follows:

* $13.43 on TV service
* $7.60 for DVD purchase; $5.14 for DVD rental
* 76 cents for VHS rental; $1.85 for VHS purchase
* 61 cents on PPV movies and events
* 44 cents on VOD
* 37 cents on streaming video
* 26 cents on cellphone video
* 25 cents on downloaded video

Over the next few years the growing cost of bulk diesel fuel, coupled with wholesale electricity price increases, are likely to offset significant gains in cellular base station power efficiency. This will result in a collective network OPEX of $22 billion in 2013, according to a new study from ABI Research. Starting in 2012, however, the benefits of power consumption and efficiency advancements should start to rein in the spiraling operating expenditures.

Infrastructure vendors are focusing intently on reducing power consumption in their products through hardware integration, the use of remote radio heads, and software-based solutions that provide dynamic network dimensioning. These measures seem likely to reduce the average base station power consumption level by 43% between 2007 and 2013, a development that is eagerly awaited by the carrier community.

ABI Research vice president Stuart Carlaw says, “Although reducing power consumption provides good ecological credentials for carriers and vendors alike, the real driver for improving power consumption is financial. It is imperative that carriers do everything possible to negate rising energy costs in an environment where network traffic and ARPUs are diverging.”

MetroPCS Communications, Inc, a provider of unlimited wireless communications  announced selected subscriber information for the quarter ended June 30, 2008.

"Achieving 184 thousand net additions during the seasonally slow second quarter, coupled with a challenging economic environment highlighted by dramatically escalating prices for fuel and food, strongly demonstrates the resiliency of the MetroPCS business model," said Roger D. Linquist, MetroPCS' Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.

New Motion, Inc., doing business as Atrinsic an Internet media and mobile entertainment company, today announced that it has acquired the assets of Ringtone.com, a popular mobile entertainment destination for downloadable mobile content and a highly valuable Internet domain which receives more than 1,000 signups per day.

Virgin Mobile USA customers have direct online access to some of the hottest mobile downloads including those of PlayPhone, Inc.,which operates the largest network of mobile content destinations in North America. PlayPhone announced today it will power off-deck mobile entertainment content for the leading no-contract wireless provider's more than five million customers. Some of the unique content includes wallpapers and ringtones from partners such as SONY BMG, Cartoon Network and Disney.

SilverBirch Inc. a leading digital media company, today announced an agreement in principle to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Red Mile Entertainment, Inc., a California-based video game publisher with worldwide rights to established brands and intellectual properties including the "Heroes" flight combat franchise.

Red Mile, an NASD OTC Bulletin Board listed company, has developed and published a number of successful console and PC titles including Heroes Of The Pacific, which sold over 600,000 units. Current projects in development include a sequel, Heroes Over Europe, which is anticipated to be released in early 2009, and another highly anticipated licensed title, for which the company will seek a co-publishing partner.

Red Mile is expected to contribute over $7 million in revenue and roughly $2 million in EBITDA starting in 2009. SilverBirch has advanced a bridge loan of $750,000 CAD dollars to Red Mile as part of the acquisition terms, and will also issue seven-eighths of one SilverBirch share from treasury in exchange for each Red Mile share, plus an earn-out based on future revenue targets. Currently 16,544,461 Red Mile shares and warrants qualify for the transaction, which equates to 14,476,403 new Silverbirch shares. The transaction is subject to regulatory and exchange approvals both in Canada and the United States as well as, in the case of Red Mile, shareholder approval.

NAVTEQ, provider of digital map data for location-based solutions and vehicle navigation, announced today that Nokia has received unconditional approval from the European Commission for its planned acquisition of NAVTEQ. With this, Nokia now has received all approvals for the purchase. The parties expect to close the deal within the next five business days.

"We welcome this news. NAVTEQ will play a key role in our Internet services strategy with world-leading maps and navigation industry expertise, a strong customer base and industry-leading map data and technology platform offering the broadest geographical coverage," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, President and CEO, Nokia.

"We are pleased that the Commission has reached the same conclusion we have regarding NAVTEQ's ability to continue providing broad access to all our customers," said Judson Green, President and CEO, NAVTEQ. "We believe NAVTEQ will be better positioned to serve all our customers under Nokia ownership."

According to a survey of cell phone users commissioned by ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. and conducted by independent research firm Amplitude Research, buyers of new cell phones view accessing the Internet (61%) and email capabilities (63%) as most important features along with such items as text messaging (73%) and a camera (67%). Among the list of 19 items respondents selected from, music (34%) and video capability (33%) were also frequent choices, with only a small percentage selecting such features as battery life (0.5%) or voice activation (0.33%).

Fifteen years have passed since Neil Papworth in England sent the world’s first text message to a cell phone with the simple phrase of “Merry Christmas” to the person receiving the greeting on his cell phone, Richard Jarvis. “We’ve come a long way since that first text message was sent to a cell phone from a computer keyboard — because at that time cell phones were not yet designed to type out and send individual letters of the alphabet,” said Kiyo Oishi, COO, ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. “It’s truly a milestone that in 2008, 73% of new cell phone buyers cite ‘text messaging’ as the ‘most important’ feature on their device.”

Sprint is inviting video makers to plug the Samsung Instinct in their YouTube Videos and create the best product placement video showcasing the Sprint Instinct phone.

The Samsung Instinct must be included in the homemade videos. Samsung is providing a remix tool tool to add the Instinct to video even if the viideographer doesn't own the phone.

Contestants create a video from 30 to 120 seconds in length and follow the instructions at www.InstinctThePhone.com to upload the video and then can use a video remixer tool provided on the contest website to creatively overlay the Sprint Instinct phone throughout the video; use of video remixer tool is recommended but not required. Contest ends August 1. The first 1,000 contestants get a $20 check in the mail.

The top ten videos will be selected and then voted on on the special YouTube channel. The winner receives a $10,000 grand prize.

More reviews are included in the Wireless and Mobile News’ Review of Reviews of the LG Dare.  The article has been updated and now includes summaries of the  latest reviews from CNET and Gizmodo which were very positive. 

CNET noted the hand feature of the drawing pad and sensor that disables the touchscreen when the LG Dare is close to an ear. Gizmodo

Verizon is offering a free SanDisk 3 in 1 Memory Kit - 8GB that consists of a microSD card and two adapters: miniSD and full size SD with activation on retail $79.99 or $99.99 Monthly Access Nationwide Basic calling plan.

Package Includes:

• One LG Dare Phone SanDisk 3 in 1 Memory Kit - 8GB
  
• 350 Monthly Anytime Minutes
  
• Unlimited IN Calling AND Night & Weekend Minutes

Huntington customers can now stay on top of their finances with Huntington Mobile Banking, a new banking service.. Huntington Mobile Banking is a secure, convenient and easy way for Huntington customers to access their bank accounts anytime, anywhere, using a cell phone, smart phone or any other mobile device with browser access.

Existing Huntington Online Banking customers can log in today using their existing username and password at http://mobile.huntington.com and have free* access to:

• View up-to-the-minute account balances and history on Checking Accounts, Savings Accounts, Lines of Credit and Loans.
• Transfer funds seamlessly between Huntington accounts.
• Pay your existing bill pay payees with on-time delivery guaranteed.
• Find the nearest Huntington location on the go.

A leading group of mobile operators today unveiled a new initiative to create a blueprint and roadmap for opening up mobile functionality to encourage the development of exciting mobile applications without compromising customer security. The new initiative will be known as BONDI.

Supported by the OMTP members including 3 Group, AT&T, T-Mobile, Telenor, Telefónica, Telecom Italia and Vodafone, BONDI will provide a consistent and secure web services interface that can be used by all web developers across multiple device platforms. This will provide the opportunity for web developers to address a mass market of consumers and to drive the use of data services on mobile.

BONDI will harmonize the various open and proprietary ongoing initiatives and this cooperative work will minimise the potential for technology fragmentation in this exciting area. BONDI, under the OMTP umbrella, will contribute towards ongoing standardisation work to help create a new rich web experience for mobile while also ensuring an appropriate degree of protection that will maintain the current high level of trust by mobile phone users.

BONDI will expose key handset features to web developers to help them develop more function-rich, user friendly and relevant applications. The new handset software will be engineered in such a way as to prevent fraudulent and malicious activity through unauthorised access to functions or sensitive personal information.

Nokia announced that Warner Music Group will make its diverse catalog of new stars and legendary artists available through Nokia Music Stores around the world as well as through Comes With Music,

Comes With Music is expected to launch in the second half of 2008 on a range of Nokia devices in selected territories. With a single purchase, consumers will have access to a year of exploring and downloading the music that they love, and be able to keep all their selections in their permanent library.

Warner Music Group content will also now be available through the Nokia Music Store. With millions of tracks from major artists and independent labels, the Nokia Music Store lets people enjoy music directly on their Nokia device or personal computer. The Nokia store, with its compelling combination of download and streaming services, empowers fans to connect to music they want, in the way they want.

Consumers can browse for new music, get recommendations or search for favorite artists, songs or albums all from the palm of their hand. Songs can be added to a wish list for future purchase or purchased immediately and downloaded directly to the mobile device. Purchased songs can also be transferred between a PC and a compatible Nokia device, regardless of which device was used to buy them.

A new analysis of mobile payments by Janiper Research forecasts that the gross transaction value of payments made via mobile phone for digital goods (such as music, tickets and games) and physical goods (typically gifts and books) will exceed $300bn globally by 2013.

A region by region analysis by Juniper Research found that there is a significant and immediate opportunity for mobile payment services, systems, software and supporting services to underpin the processing of this value of payment transactions by 2013. With applications and service case studies, the study explores how the mobile phone is developing into a payment tool that will be used by more and more people, more and more often in future.

Report author Howard Wilcox noted: “Merchants in North America and Western Europe are just starting to realize the potential of a mobile web presence as a fourth channel to market. Retailers should be evaluating the benefits of the mobile web, and be mindful of the success of regular ecommerce sites in generating sales. They need to move quickly to exploit the opportunity presented, and ensure that they maintain ease of use for their customers who are already familiar with web shopping from their PCs.”

Highlights from the report include: • Global annual gross transaction value will grow over 5 times by 2013 • The ticketing segment will be driven by consumer usage on rail, air and bus networks as well as sports and entertainment events This will represent over 40% of the global transaction value by 2013 • The top 2 regions (Far East and W. Europe) will represent over 60% of the $300bn p.a. global mobile payment gross transaction value by 2013 for digital and physical goods Western Europe is currently dominated by digital goods and services sold via SMS, whereas the Far East & China region (specifically Japan) is already well established in physical goods sales over the mobile web, and has been for a number of years.

Earlier reports suggested that the original iPhones abandoned for upgrade to iPhone 3G would be orphans and not available for anything else but use as a iPod Touch.  AT&T has changed the story an posted a video to You Tube on the subject. Answering the questions "What can I do with my old iPhone?"  and "Can I give my original iPhone to a friend?

The way it works is simple. The hand-me-down adoption process of an original iPhone:

• First check and clear all your voice mail from the original iPhone - it doesn't transfer to the new iPhone.
• You should also clear all your information from the oPhone via iTunes.
• The phone number from original iPhone will be transfered to the new 3G iPhone.
• The new owner of the iPhone O will need a new SIM card.
• If the adopted parent of the original iPhone has a SIM already he/she can activate it via iTunes.

The iTunes activation process will perform a credit check when activating a new line of service.
iTunes will also allow you to transfer your number from a different wireless carrier, select a rate plan and required data plan, upgrade your text message package, set up your iTunes account, accept iPhone and AT&T Terms and Conditions, and downloadthe latest version of software to your iPhone.

Movaya announced the availability of mobile games from IG Fun. Under the newly formed partnership, Movaya will distribute IG Fun’s array of mobile games directly to the mobile marketplace. IG Fun content will be readily available to the mobile community via Movaya’s PlugNPlay system, a free to use e-commerce solution for mobile content.

Games available immediately through Movaya’s system include selections from IG Fun’s broad catalog ofcasual and action titles including Battle Chess, Bruce Lee Iron Fist and Tradewinds 2.

“We’re pleased to work with Movaya to bring our games to Movaya’s distribution network,” said Sean Malatesta, CEO, IG Fun — Indiagames’ international publishing division. “We continue to look for ways to reach the global audience of mobile gamers and Movaya’s system enables us to reach hundreds — andsoon to be thousands — of points of distribution with a single relationship.”

“Movaya is excited to add IG Fun to our growing list of catalog partners,” said Phil Yerkes, CEO of Movaya.”Indiagames, the parent company for IG Fun, is one of the longest established and most innovative mobile games companies and it is fantastic to be working with them.”

IG Fun joins a list of major publishers such as Capcom, RealNetworks, GOSUB60 and In-Fusio that have recently partnered with Movaya. Over the coming weeks, Movaya is expected to announce additional partnerships with other leading mobile game publishers.