August 2008 Archives

Contestants in the PAC-MAN Fever Mobile Tournament at PAX will compete on AT&T phones and battle for the best score in PAC-MAN. The top four daily scores earn a spot in the daily final challenge where they will compete for a prize pack that includes a new phone from AT&T.

Android developers will be able to distribute content through Android Market—an open content distribution system that will help end users find, purchase, download and install various types of content on their Android-powered devices.

It will be powered by Google’s expertise in infrastructure, search and relevance to connect users with content created by developers like you.

Developers will be able to make their content available on an open service hosted by Google that features a feedback and rating system similar to YouTube.

Eric Chu at  Android blog wrote “We chose the term “market” rather than “store” because we feel that developers should have an open and unobstructed environment to make their content available. Similar to YouTube, content can debut in the marketplace after only three simple steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe your content and publish it. We also intend to provide developers with a useful dashboard and analytics to help drive their business and ultimately improve their offerings.”

dotMobi, the company behind .mobi -- the only ICANN-approved Internet address designed specifically for helping consumers find mobile content -- announced the inclusion of Mobizoft video content adaptation data into the award-winning DeviceAtlas, the definitive source of mobile handset information for mobile content developers.

As part of this agreement, Mobizoft will gain licensed access to the DeviceAtlas database, which will also improve the breadth and width of their own device database and capabilities.

2Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Huawei") won 17 new commercial WiMAX 16e commercial contracts in the first half of 2008, more than the total number of contracts signed for the whole of 2007. To date Huawei has secured 29 WiMAX 16e commercial contracts and accumulated over 35 trials which according to IDC, means the company is the joint market-leader in WiMAX 16e market share.

 "Huawei is the only solution provider to rank in the 'Top 3' across mobile, fixed network and IP segments according to industry analyst firms, Dittberner, Ovum-RHK and Gartner" said Mr. Zhao Ming, President of Huawei's WiMAX product line. "Huawei has been developing these technologies for over 10 years and is committed to integrating optimal resources to provide our customers with the most competitive and diversified WiMAX solutions."

RNCOS has recently added a new Market Research Report titled, "Global Mobile TV Forecast to 2010" to its report gallery.

Key Research Findings

AT&T announced that for the fifth consecutive year college football fans will have the chance to vote via text messaging for the AT&T All-America Player of the Week, the only national college football honor that is determined solely by fans.

AT&T customers can  also view video highlights and photos of each week’s candidates and track their favorite teams through AT&T’s wireless NCAA Football Portal, which is accessible on AT&T handsets by launching AT&T MEdia Net and clicking through to the sports category. AT&T wireless customers with 3G handsets can also watch “Confessions of a College Football Junkie” video clips featuring Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit by accessing ESPN on AT&T CV.*

Each week, a panel of experts from ESPN will choose four finalists based on those players’ outstanding performances from that week. The four candidates will be revealed at 9 a.m. ET each Sunday on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” via text message alerts and online at http://www.espnallamerica.com

Global financial information software provider, Blue Systems, announced that it has entered an agreement with Sprint, to offer its real-time financial market data application, blue mobile, to Sprint's customers.

blue mobile provides professional and retail investors with a way to analyze global stock market information in their offices, at home, or on the move, 24/7.

The application runs on the latest web-enabled phones and requires a data tariff. Sprint, with its high speed network, is perfectly positioned to offer blue mobile^T to its customers and is the first US mobile operator to certify the application. 

Verizon Wireless announced it will sends 40 lucky fans on vacation with the Jonas Brothers. Customers who purchase the Samsung Glyde or Verizon Wireless Juke by Samsung, register online and download V CAST Music with Rhapsody on their PCs will have the chance to be entered into a sweepstakes to win a trip to The Bahamas to see the Jonas Brothers perform at Atlantis, Paradise Island resort on Dec. 13, 2008.

Between Sept. 2 and Nov. 1, 2008, customers who purchase or upgrade to a Samsung Glyde or Verizon Wireless Juke by Samsung at participating Verizon Wireless or Circuit City locations, register the purchase online and install Verizon Wireless' V CAST Music with Rhapsody software on their computers will be able to instantly download four complimentary exclusive live versions of songs from the Jonas Brothers' hot new album, "A Little Bit Longer." Customers will also have the chance to be entered to win a trip to Atlantis to see the Jonas Brothers.

GolfFlyOver puts aerial views of over 12,000 golf courses along with pinpoint yardage information on the iPhone. GolfFlyOver ombines the iPhone's built-in location-based services with satellite aerial imagery from Google Maps to locate nearby courses, provide yardages to the green and enable detailed course and hole layout information.

Petfinder Mobile, Petfinder.com's new high-tech initiative enables people to search for adoptable animals from their cell phones, BlackBerrys, iPhones and other wireless devices.

Petfinder.com is the largest online database of adoptable pets with more than 290,000 listed from over 11,700 animal welfare organizations across the country 

Features of Petfinder Mobile include:

Click to Call - If you See a pet you like. Use the "Click to Call" button to contact the rescue group - you don't even have to type the number. 

Sprint's XOHM WiMAX mobile broadband customers can have information customized for their locations and personalized to their needs with new Sprint ecosystem agreements for location based services.

Cricket Communications, announced a flat-rate unlimited mobile video service that allows users to view one-to-four-minute-long video clips directly from select handsets. Videos available include music videos, artist interviews, music documentaries, sports clips from FUEL TV such as soccer and mixed martial arts, entertainment news from Hollywood Insider, movie trailers, horoscopes, comedy, cartoons and selected Spanish language content.

Audi of America today announced the release "Audi A4 Challenge,"  a driving game that utilizes the iPhone's accelerometer (motion sensor) to steer a digital version of Audi's entirely new 2009 A4 through a series of progressively challenging courses. They are also offering a special iPhone designed website.

Players maneuver the course and race against the clock to beat their own personal best time. The application is now available free of charge on Apple's iPhone Application Store.

Located in Denver, Factory Design Labs, Audi's interactive agency of record designed the game in just two weeks.

Rock the Vote and Trilibis Mobile launch Rock the Vote Mobile -- a mobile site designed to make voter registration more accessible and fun, and improve young voter turnout for the 2008 U.S. general elections.

RTV Mobile is fully integrated with RocktheVote.com, providing a cohesive user experience. Anyone submitting their email address through the mobile site will receive specific instructions on completing their voter application.

Visitors of RTV Mobile are also invited to examine today's hottest issues affecting young Americans, read the RTV blog, check up on important election dates and see pictures from Rock the Vote events around the country.

Palm Treo Pro Rated 4 out of 5 by Wireless and Mobile News Review of Reviews

Palm has been losing market share recently reviewers are testing the new Palm Treo Pro for strengths and weaknesses. Palm Treo Pro's strengths are it's design, powerful business apps, large screen, push email and unlocked world access, Reviewers refer to the Palm Treo Pro as the best Windows smartphone yet and mostly liked the navigation, except some found the QWERTY keyboard cramped. The screen is bright and sharp. Although the finish looks cool it's prone to smudging.

Some reviewers found the Palm Treo Pro to be "sluggish' and web browsing to be a "mixed-bag."  The places where the Palm Treo Pro shines is business enterprise and the ability to push MS Exchange email and edit Microsoft documents.

Almost all of the reviewers commented that the current suggested price of $549 is too high in comparison to competitors.

Please note:  The Palm Treo Pro is an unlocked GSM handset and will work with a GSM SIM card. 3G aata connection will work on AT&T's network but not for the T-Mobile  frequency.

To see summaries of the reviews revied, please continue reading.

VoIP services over Wi-Fi enabled cellphones available from Gorilla Mobile Jajah and iCall. Some of these services claim you can save up to 98% on international calls.

By 2011 the number of mobile VoIP users around the world could increase to 100 million from 7 million in 2007, according to consulting firm ON World in San Diego, reports Business Week. ON World also estimates that in 2011, mobile VoIP voice services could generate $33.7 billion, up from $516 million in 2006.

T-Mobile in order to cap Wi-Fi VoIP have rigged their handsets so VoIP calls made via Wi-Fi hotspots are charged against the subscribers’ wireless minutes unless they pary for an for additional $10 plan.

An engineering and marketing survey conducted by Nexergy, Inc., a leading manufacturer of battery packs and chargers, identifies runtime and battery capacity as the most important factors in selecting battery chemistry and technology in portable products. The survey also indicated a lack of familiarity and understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the many battery chemistries available on the market today.

The survey was distributed via email in August 2008 to approximately 3,000 Nexergy customers and prospects.

Runtime and capacity were the most important elements of battery performance among both design engineers as well as marketers, according to the survey. Cost ranked fifth most important on a list of seven criteria by engineers; among marketers it was even less important, just sixth out of seven. Rounding out the most important factors after runtime, in order of priority, were safety, cycle life, power, cost, size and weight

Social media photo and video sharing app JuiceCaster, is now available for Blackberry Curve devices via a free beta application for users in the United States..In the coming weeks, the free beta will be opened up for Blackberry Pearl users, and for Blackberry users in Europe.

JuiceCaster is the award-winning social media application that empowers mobile phone users to capture pictures and videos, and share them instantly with their favorite online social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Photobucket, Hi5, Blogger, Orkut, and a number of other websites. JuiceCaster enables Blackberry users to connect in real-time with friends and interact with new people in the JuiceCaster mobile community - exchanging public and private multimedia messages on the go.

Wireless data roaming turned in a gold medal performance according to data released today from Aicent, Inc. ( www.aicent.com). With mobile phones from international GSM and CDMA networks accessing the Internet, sending pictures, videos and e-mails, it was the data roaming exchange services from Aicent, facilitating the seamless roaming between home carriers and the wireless networks of China Mobile and China Unicom, that effortlessly helped capture the gold as more people used wireless data roaming in China than ever before.

Data from Aicent’s roaming eXchange services shows a surge in wireless data roaming traffic exceeding 40 percent over the same period of days the month before. This increase in roaming traffic resulted in more than 332 GB of data being exchanged between 225 mobile operators in 106 different countries on the Aicent network. This increase in wireless data roaming is the equivalent of the content in books stored on nearly two miles of shelves.

The top twelve countries and territories for roaming traffic during this period were the United States, Hong Kong S.A.R., Japan, Australia, France, Spain, Macau S.A.R., Singapore, Finland, Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom.

hi5 Networks, announced the availability of hi5 Mobile. The global social networking site is now available on mobile phones in 26 different languages.

With hi5 Mobile, users can easily send and receive messages, update status, view friends’ profiles, share photos, find out who is online and add new friends. hi5 Mobile has been optimized for performance and display on the most popular phones, including the Apple iPhone, Nokia, Motorola, BlackBerry, LG, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.

Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced the release of Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 software with new Photoshop.com membership.

What’s interesting for mobile phone users is that Photoshop.com members also will be able to upload photos directly from a mobile phone.

The addition of Photoshop.com Mobile beta, a rich Adobe Flash based mobile application, offers camera phone users the easiest way to upload, share and access photos using their Photoshop.com account.

Photoshop.com Mobile runs in the background and allows consumers to take photos, send messages and run other applications while pictures are being uploaded to their Photoshop.com account.

Telecom carriers around the world are turning their attention to advertising as a potential source of revenue, according to Gartner Inc. Gartner forecasts that the worldwide mobile advertising market alone will be worth over $12 billion by 2011 but advised carriers that they will need to rise to some key challenges if they are to realize their advertising ambitions.

“First and foremost, telecom carriers need to differentiate their approach to the advertising market,” said King-Yew Foong, research director at Gartner. “This is particularly important, given the fact that advertising money is being pursued by their immediate telecom competitors, consumer device manufacturers such as Nokia, and Internet-related companies like Google, Yahoo, MySpace and Microsoft.”

According to Mr. Foong, telecom carriers must take advantage of their access to multiple delivery channels, including Short Message Service (SMS) Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) e-mail, fixed and mobile Internet search activities, location-based services and broadband/Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) portals. However, he warned that, while doing so, they will have to strike a balance between their ambition to increase advertising revenue and the need to control spam and user privacy.

VeriSign announced another record-breaking quarter for mobile messaging, based on the latest quarterly index of mobile messaging statistics compiled by VeriSign’s Messaging and Mobile Media division.

Through June 30, 2008, VeriSign’s combined mobile messaging networks delivered 95.4 billion Inter-carrier Short Message Service (ICSMS) messages in the calendar year, eclipsing the previous record for text messages in the first half of any year. VeriSign’s network also set a single-day record by enabling 648 million texts over a 24-hour period and a one-hour record of 42 million messages.

All told, VeriSign’s combined mobile messaging networks enabled more than 52 billion messages in Q2 2008, up more than 20 percent from the previous quarter. VeriSign facilitated an average of approximately 572 million messages per day in Q2 2008, compared to approximately 476 million messages per day in Q1 2008 and approximately 230 million messages per day in Q2 2007.

HTC introduced the HTC S740 with dual keyboards, fast HSPA speeds, Windows Mobile, Fm Radio, GPS and Bluetooth.

The HTC S740 features the fastest mobile broadband capabilities with a maximum download speed of 7.2 Mbps, up to 18 times faster than 3G. This true mobile broadband experience allows users to leverage the mobile Internet in a variety of ways including browsing to a favorite website, using Google Maps to find a restaurant for lunch and catching up to the minute news, blog posts and video podcasts with the integrated RSS reader.

The S740 follows the sleek design of HTC's hit consumer handset, the HTC Touch Diamond. This slim smartphone features a matt black facetted back, a 2.4 inch QVGA display and slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Gartner, Inc. has positioned AT&T in the Leaders Quadrant of its 2008 "Magic Quadrant for Web Conferencing."

Gartner positioned AT&T Connect in the Leaders Quadrant in its annual review of Web conferencing and collaboration services for enterprise businesses. AT&T Connect provides an effective foundation for both enterprise-wide collaboration and unified communications initiatives with its integrated telephony, ability to scale for large events, advantages in serving remote and mobile users and flexible licensing that allows unlimited global collaboration with a fast return on investment.

In 2007, AT&T launched AT&T Connect, an integrated voice, Web and video conferencing solution. AT&T is executing its strategy to deliver a series of converged conferencing and collaboration capabilities within a comprehensive, global portfolio of unified communications services.

The Nokia N85 is a dual slider phone with a 2.6” OLED screen, N-Gage gaming, music with in-built FM transmitter, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and geotagging capabilities, three month integrated license for turn-by-turn voice navigation and high-speed connectivity, all in one device. The Nokia N85 is pre-loaded with at least 10 made-for-mobile N-Gage gaming titles that jump off of the screen thanks to the dazzling OLED display and a voucher to activate one full game license. Dedicated gaming keys light up when the device is in landscape gaming mode to further enhance the action-packed experience.

Nokia also unveiled the Nokia N79, the latest addition to the Nokia Nseries range that combines customizable design with a fully-loaded multimedia computer. It offers a full range of multimedia experiences including integrated navigation, music with FM transmitter, high-speed connectivity, superior web browsing, at least 10 pre-loaded N-Gage games and an advanced 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

The Nokia N79 comes with Xpress-on smart covers that are available in five cool colors: Light Sea Blue, Espresso Brown, Olive Green, White and Coral Red. A combination of three of these comes with each Nokia N79.

The convergence of photos, music and navigation in the Nokia N79 combines with high-speed 3.5G HSDPA and Wi-Fi to make it quick and easy to share experiences on websites, blogs or online communities.

Nokia announced that the Nokia N96, unveiled earlier this year at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, will be made available for high-speed 3G HSDPA networks widely used in the Americas during the fourth quarter of 2008. Combining a large 2.8 inch screen, 16 gigabytes of internal memory and compatibility with a wide range of video formats it is classified and an "entertainment phone."

Support for popular video download services, including those using Windows Media format, means that Nokia N96 owners can easily explore, purchase and download their favorite movies, television shows and other video content on their PCs and sideload them to their devices to watch at their convenience. The internal 16 gigabytes of memory, and expandable memory card slot, allows up to 40 hours of video content* to be stored on the Nokia N96. Additionally, the built in "kick stand" allows the Nokia N96 to be supported handsfree at an optimal viewing angle to ensure enjoyment of their favorite video content

Nielsen Mobile estimates that 2.9 million US mobile subscribers received a text message from the Obama campaign over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The VP message was sent in the late hours of Friday night and is, by many accounts, the single largest mobile marketing event in the US., to date. From a mobile perspective, it makes sense that the campaign chose to use text-messages. Today, 116 million US mobile subscribers (52 percent of subscribers) actively use text messaging, making it a new mass medium for marketing efforts.

Cash Money/Universal Motown Records (UMRG) has teamed up with mobile technology provider m-Wise to offer fans a g mobile fan club experience. The m-Wise mobile fan club mobile subscription service, offers fans exclusive online and mobile content like ringtones, graphics, video clips, Cash Money trivia, weekly contests, and text alert services.

This unique mobile subscription service will also bring fans Cash Money Records’ news, artist news, trivia, and sweepstakes for highly sought after prizes such as VIP tickets to concerts, prize packs, and autographed memorabilia directly to the artists’ biggest fans.

The service will be available to subscribers via various channels, such as an on-deck mobile portal (via your mobile phone’s web browser), a web portal ( www.cashmoneymobile.net), SMS messages, and also MMS messages. Carriers such as Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Alltel, Boost & Suncom will participate.

Starting later this year, millions of iPhone/iPod Touch owners will be able to download digital comics from established industry professionals and studios, as well as new and rising comic book stars through iVerse Media.

iVerse Media has developed an iPhone Application that displays comics that have been specifically formatted for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Comics adapted using the iVerse Media software will be available in the iTunes App Store for as little as $.99. Some titles will be released free of charge.

“Creators and Studios will be able to set the final prices on their titles, but we’re expecting most standard length titles to be around $.99, and we’re encouraging creators to give away the first issues of their titles to allow new readers who may not be familiar.

Vringo video ringtone sharing developer has partnered with Nokia to make Vringo’s video ringtone application and media content available to Nokia device owners through the Nokia Download! Web store.

Through Nokia Download!, users can get the Vringo application, then choose from Vringo’s full range of media content—including video clips, animation, avatars, slides shows, music, greetings and more—to create personalized visual or video ringtones.

The application can be used on the handset or on the Vringo website to generate new video ringtones or select the clips they want their buddies to see when they call. Currently, the Nokia Download! Web store is available in 17 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

AT&T has expanded international data offerings to help keep iPhone customers connected around the world. AT&T offers two new iPhones data planswhich offer 100 megabytes (MB) or 200 MB a month, can potentially save customers hundreds of dollars compared to pay-per-use international data roaming charges.

For discounted international data usage in 67 countries, the 100 MB iPhone plan is available for an additional $119.99 a month, while the 200 MB plan costs an additional $199.99 a month2 These new plans are in addition to existing plans for smartphones, including iPhone, which offer 20 MB and 50 MB in the same countries. There are no long-term commitments required, so customers can add or remove these plans to their existing packages on an as-needed basis.

With access to full HTML e-mail, visual voice mail, enhanced web browsing and other feature-rich applications that can use a significant amount of data, iPhone users may need more than they think while traveling abroad.

This week's Democratic Party Convention promises to be the "greenest" political gathering in history. A Verizon Wireless news release says that Verizon is doing its part to help the environment in Denver and nationwide, starting with phone recycling. According to the EPA, recycling 100 million cell phones would save enough energy to power nearly 200,000 U.S. households with electricity for a year.

Verizon Wireless is encouraging delegates and other visitors to Denver and everyone with a used wireless phone or accessory they're no longer using to donate the equipment to its HopeLine program. Wireless phones and equipment can be donated this week and year-round at any Verizon Wireless Communications Store in Denver. Donated phones, batteries and accessories will be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way or refurbished for reuse, with proceeds and devices benefiting survivors of domestic violence.

Verizon Wireless also offered more "green" tips for delegates and all wireless users:

• Unplug your charger when it's not in use.
• Download or preload directions in VZ Navigator to save fuel when traveling.
• Work from home - or elsewhere - with 3G wireless
   

Comment from Wireless and Mobile News:

It's kind of hard for politicians to work at home - they have to be present to vote on bills!

If you had any trouble accessing Wireless and Mobile News today, we apologize. We have been upgrading our software to Movable Type 4.21 and there were a few glitches.

We are close to having all the problems fixed so that thing will be faster and better than before.

Wired.com surveyed iPhone users all over the world.  The results suggest that widespread data speed problems have more to do with carriers' networks than with Apple's handsets. They found "in general the data overall shows that 3G is performing faster than EDGE (which is expected)."

In some major metropolitan areas that are supposedly 3G-rich, 3G performance can be very slow. For example in San Francisco, 10 out of 30 participants reported very slow 3G speeds, ust barely surpassing EDGE. Participants in Australia reported the slowest average 3G download speeds of about 759 Kbps while iPhoners in Germany and the Netherlands reported the fastest average 3G download speeds of about 2,000 Kbps.

The Blitz is a text messaging powerhouse with a 2.2-inch screen - ideal for browsing the web or checking e-mail. The phone is a music player ready, equipped with an MP3 player that can access Verizon Wireless' V CAST Music with Rhapsody's library of more than 5 million songs that can be downloaded to a PC and side-loaded with the included USB cable, synchronized with a Bluetooth speaker or played right from the speakerphone. Most music downloaded onto the PC using V CAST Music with Rhapsody is free of digital rights management software, which means the music can be played on multiple devices.

The Verizon Wireless Blitz is available for $69.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a new two-year customer agreement. Customers can sign up for V CAST Music with Rhapsody for a $14.99 monthly subscription. For specifications continue reading.

Mobile Search - Link to search results for Obama and McCain, to avoid typing in their names on the phone each time you want information.

Mobile News - Read the latest! A link returns only elections-relevant news.

Mobile Reader - Subscribe to the Google Power Readers in Politics or Manage your account and subscriptions on your desktop computer.

Mobile YouTube - Both presidential candidates have their own YouTube channels.

Mobile Maps - Google Maps to help get around town while at conventions.

Google will be at both conventions.

Virgin Mobile USA announced that it has completed its acquisition of Helio, a joint venture between SK Telecom and EarthLink,) The company believes that the acquisition complements Virgin Mobile USA's strengths.

Dan Schulman, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Mobile USA, emphasized the benefits of the transaction providing  Virgin Mobile USA with:

• a set of unique and differentiated data applications;
• entry into the postpaid market, with a sophisticated billing and customer care platform;
• approximately 170,000 Helio customers;
• revised terms for the Sprint PCS Services Agreement [NYSE: S], expected to result in an 8% reduction in the Company's effective cost per minute in 2009;
• reduction in net debt of approximately $35 - $40 million, through the investments of $25 million each by SK Telecom and Virgin Group in the form of preferred mandatory convertible stock at the price of $8.50 per share;
• an increase to Virgin Mobile USA's total revolver from $75 million to $135 million, through additional commitments of $25 million by Virgin Group and $35 million by SK Telecom; and
• the addition of SK Telecom as a strategic shareholder with two seats on the Company's Board of Directors.

Grassroots bloggers will be broadcasting video, pictures and text updates straight from the floor of the Democratic National Convention using their mobile phones and Zannel (www.zannel.com), the instant media network that is used by millions of people for lifecasting, micro-blogging, and as a mobile social network.

The Democratic National Convention, being held in Denver, Colorado August 25-28, has accredited a select number of state-based bloggers with floor access during the entire convention. Fourteen of these bloggers, representing every region of the United States of America, are contributing to Zannel’s PoliticsBlue community channel (www.zannel.com/politicsblue or text DEM to 58888 to view on mobile) from the convention through Election Day.

The courses are presented by some of the most prominent thought leaders in their respective fields, including Tom Peters, Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, Ken Blanchard and Bob Rosner.

"This initial offering from the Chalk / MindLeaders partnership tackles the most pressing issues in corporate America today and will help companies engage and develop their leaders and managers while fostering productivity", said Stewart Walchli, President & CEO, Chalk.

Prizemo "Show You the Money" Players Get "Free" Ringtone for Sending 99 Cent Text Message

Prizemo developer of interactive entertainment announced that it is launching a new game show, 'Show You the Money,' that allows players to win cash and prizes for correct answers to trivia questions by sending mobile text messages or by playing online.

Each participant for Prizemo's 'Show You the Money' will receive a free ringtone, or other mobile content, which can be redeemed at www.prizemo.com. Players are charged $.99 from all carriers -for each text message. 

However, users can also play, for free, at www.prizemo.com. Winners will be randomly selected and announced (posted on www.prizemo.com) on a weekly basis during the game's first phase. 

Starting September 5, Prizemo will begin airing :30 promotional spots on MTV, MTV2, VH-1, and BET.  Celebrity hosts, including Saigon, Memphis Bleek, Unique, Talia Coles and others, will appear on-air with call-outs to viewers to text correct answers to questions using the short code 99799. 

Mobile web data release by Bango today confirms that mobile web usage not only is gaining traction in the United States but soon will surpass the United Kingdom, where consumers have accessed the Internet from phones for years.

 According to Bango data, the top five countries accessing the mobile web via Bango in July 2008 are the UK at 19.35%, the US at 18.88%, India at 10.82%, South Africa at 8.82% and Indonesia at 4.08%. Bango identifies users by country and network of origin. The ranking is produced by measuring the number of user visits to mobile websites from each country.

"The USA share of the browsing market has grown as an increasing number of phones come with bigger screens and service contracts that include unlimited internet access," said Adam Kerr, VP of Bango North America at Bango. "We fully expect the US will overtake the UK in this ranking as early as this month."

Intuit is now offering iPhone and BlackBerry integration with QuickBooks Online, the web-based small business accounting software, allowing business to manage their money anywhere, anytime - with or without a computer.

These early version web-based mobile applications are part of Intuit's Connected Services strategy to help entrepreneurs connect to their data when and where they need it.

Available on IntuitLabs.com, an early concept release site, these iPhone and BlackBerry applications help

• QuickBooks Online users get an up-to-date view of their finances by:
  
• Checking current bank and credit card balances.
• Tracking who owes them money and who they owe.
• Finding vendor and customer contact info with addresses via Google Maps. 
• Running balance sheet and profit and loss reports.

These iPhone and BlackBerry features are  free additions to QuickBooks Online, which starts at $9.95 per month.

Cutting the Last Cord, Wireless Power

Buzzwire, Inc. is bringing the Democratic National Convention to mobile phones across America. Beginning on August 25, Buzzwire will provide special DNC coverage within its new "DNC 2008" channel, featuring reports from Barely Political's Obama Girl, convention news updates from Political Lunch, man-on-the-street interviews and video from after-hours parties and hot spots around Denver.

 Buzzwire gives consumers access to original web programming through one-click mobile access. In addition to special reports from Barely Political's Obama Girl (E! has named her the "hottest woman on the Web"), the Buzzwire "DNC 2008" channel will feature a daily report from Political Lunch as well as off-the-wall clips captured around Denver. Consumers can use Buzzwire to catch the latest DNC news on the go and share their favorites with friends through a simple text message from their mobile phones.  

• MP3 music player
• 1.2 mega pixel camera
• Memory card slot
• Stereo Bluetooth connectivity
• Speakerphone
• Stereo Bluetooth Capable
• MP3 Music Player

AT&T announced  the launch of AT&T ConnecTech -- a 50-state, all-encompassing home services care program for almost everything: installation and support of home theatres, computers, flat panel TVs, and home networking.

AT&T ConnecTech provides in-home and over-the-phone support services -- including next-day service installation, seven days a week -- for a broad range of TV and PC needs, including:

• Custom installation of home theater and TV equipment.
• Flat-panel TV wall mounting and home video installation.
• Wall-mount speaker installation.
• New PC or Apple computer installation and the startup of a home desktop or notebook, including e-mail, security configuration and device networking.
• PC repair service, including parts and hardware replacement.
• Home network installation of multiple broadband-enabled devices.
• Computer and network diagnosis covering software and router configuration, settings, virus, spyware or operating system errors.
• Remote PC and phone support for digital products, such as digital camera, MP3 players and more.

Pricing information and all support services are outlined at www.att.com/connectech.  A Home theater pre-sales consultation costs $100, a home computer setup costs $119, home network $119 for the basic install deluxe services are higher

Jamba/Jamster announced a global partnership with Trixcell, the first company to introduce the concept of mobile magic. Jamba will offer Trixcell's magic applications as part of its mobile entertainment catalog.

Trixcell's portfolio of applications allows consumers to wow audiences with clever magic secrets and tricks. The products are developed in-house by Trixcell's team of undercover professional magic consultants, known as the "Shadow Magicians." Superior graphics and special effects are employed to increase authenticity and help advance the suspension of disbelief.

Jamba currently offers five Trixcell applications. However, the product portfolio will be updated regularly to include new tricks. The applications feature a variety of magic tricks, from controlling time and predicting the future to reading minds and turning digital coins into real money. The current products include Pyro , digiWallet , Ticker , 3Cups, and CardOmen .

Visa and Chase announced a pilot that texts merchant offers directly to mobile devices of Chase credit and debit cardholders in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

The offers - from merchant discounts to specials - are tailored to match the personal interests selected by Chase cardholders and will be redeemable at the point of sale or the web site of more than 50 participating merchants.

Partnering with Chase in this trial, Visa is delivering merchant offers to mobile devices via short message service (SMS). Merchants participating in the pilot are Chico's FAS, Inc (brands Soma Intimates and White House|Black Market), Circle K, Macy's, Marriott, Old Navy, Papa John's Pizza and Robeks Juice.

A group at the University of Washington has developed software that deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans to use sign language over a mobile phone. UW engineers had phones working together this spring, and recently received a National Science Foundation grant for a 20-person field project that will begin next year in Seattle.

This is the first time two-way real-time video communication has been demonstrated over cell phones in the United States. Since posting a video of the working prototype on YouTube, deaf people around the country have been writing on a daily basis.

For mobile communication, deaf people now communicate by cell phone using text messages. “But the point is you want to be able to communicate in your native language,” said principal investigator Eve Riskin, a UW professor of electrical engineering. “For deaf people that’s American Sign Language.”

"With this new release, iPhone users can now choose to have their photos instantly captured, tagged and sent to their Facebook page, where all their friends can see what is happening at that very moment," said Mark Haverkate, AirMe CEO. "AirMe is all about making mobile photography fun, easy and live. What better way than with Facebook?"

Rogers Wireless today introduced the new BlackBerry Boldsmartphone to customers in Canada. Designed for business professionals. the BlackBerry Bold smartphone operates on Rogers’ high-speed 3G network and features a newly designed, precision QWERTY keyboard, built-in GPS, enterprise-grade Wi-Fi and multimedia capabilities including a 2 megapixel camera with video recording and an advanced media player to play music, watch videos and view pictures.

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone (model number: 9000) will be available from Rogers beginning today from $399.99 with activation on any combination of 3 year voice plan and three year BlackBerry data plan totalling more than $45 per month from Rogers. Some conditions apply.

AdMob released July Mobile Metrics Report.  The report includes mobile browser share.  Nokia and Openwave are the top browsers worldwide with 34% and 29% share, respectively.  Globally Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Palm, and Safari (Apple) all had less than 5% market share.   Nearly half of Windows Mobile traffic came from HTC devices such as the Dash and the Touch

According to Pew Research Center for People and the Press, news audiences blend online and traditional sources. The good news for Wireless and Mobile News is that online news reading is increasing. The diversity of news audience segments identified reflects the long-term changes in news consumption observed in the biennial survey, conducted April 30-June 1 among 3,615 Americans.

Since the early 1990s, the proportion of Americans saying they read a newspaper on a typical day has declined by about 40%; the proportion that regularly watches nightly network news has fallen by half.

Since 2006, daily online news use has increased by about a third, from 18% to 25%. However, as the online news audience grows, the educational divide in online news use - evident since the internet's early days in the mid-1990s - also is increasing. Currently, 44% of college graduates say they get news online every day, compared with just 11% of those with a high school education or less.

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• According to an In-Stat consumer survey, people are increasingly using hotspots for personal reasons.
  
• Survey respondents are showing an increased reluctance to pay for hotspot access. Nearly 50% of respondents said they would only use a free hotspot.
  
• Access revenues will start to decline due to increased competition and users' reluctance to pay.

Palm, Inc. introduced the Treo Pro, smartphone for businesses and says that it willsimplify IT infrastructures and lower costs. It has a streamlined design and Palmshortcuts layered on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional.  It also offers email, Wi-Fi and GPS capabilities.

Users can quickly respond to business and personal email, access the web, stay on top of appointments and contacts, and use Wi-Fi or GPS on the go. Treo Pro's thin design blends a flush, high-resolution color touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard with a removable battery that packs up to five hours of talk time.

The U.S. version is unlocked and unsubsidized The suggested retail price is $549.

Sony Ericsson and T-Mobile USA, will launch the TM506 in early September. The TM506, Sony Ericsson's first handset supporting T-Mobile's AWS spectrum (1700/2100), is a compact and stylish clamshell phone..

It has an outer display that allows users to glance at the caller ID without having to open the phone, and 3G download speeds for faster access (in select markets), aremovable Memory Stick and customizable Web feeds.

The 2.0 megapixel camera has My Album, slide show and video blogging capability. Stereo Bluetooth connectivity allows hands-free wireless calls, and with Bluetooth stereo headphones, users can hear their favorite music the way it was meant to be heard.

A built-in GPS navigation feature in the TM506 along with the TeleNav application from T-Mobile allows users to always know their location. T-Mobile consumers have numerous messaging and communication options such as sending pictures, videos, IM notes and e-mail from their TM506 to their faves from the homescreen with T-Mobile myFaves^.

The TM506 will be available in early September at select T-Mobile retail stores and online at www.t-mobile.com

GSMA estimates the number of worldwide subscribers using Mobile Broadband (HSPA) networks has topped the 50 million mark from 11 million one year ago. Global uptake of HSPA technology among consumers and businesses is accelerating, indicating continued traffic growth for high-speed mobile networks worldwide. Wireless Intelligence expects the number of HSPA connections to be growing by 4 million per month by the end of 2008.

The FTC also will require all telemarketers to provide an opt-out feature on all prerecorded messages that allow customers to  add themselves to the company's do-not-call list.

Today we added more sources to the ""Samsung Omnia Review of Reviews." The Samsung Omnia was launched on the same day as the iPhone 3G. When more reviews appear, we will update the "Review of Reviews"

FreeRange Communications announced the commercial availability of FreeRange Mobile Publishing Platform online publishers to seamlessly extend their content to mobile consumers. In conjunction with the release, FreeRange Communications also announced new customers The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, Fierce Markets, and PaidContent.org who join NewsGator, Travelocity, and Portland Trailblazers in adoption of the platform.

FreeRange provides complete mobile coverage for publishers, delivering branded content to a wide range of mobile devices such as BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, and iPhone

Telegent Systems, released the results of a global survey conducted to assess consumer interest in watching the 2008 Beijing Games on mobile handsets around the world. Conducted in nine countries, including China, Brazil, Germany, India, Mexico, Russia, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the survey found the strongest interest in mobile access to Beijing games TV broadcasts in emerging handset markets, with a preference for live news and sports content rather than made-for-mobile clips.

Of consumers interested in mobile TV, 72% of consumers were very likely or likely to watch mobile TV if they are able to receive free, local broadcasts on their handset, compared to 40% who were receptive to subscription services. Respondents preferred live, local broadcast coverage to made-for-mobile clips, although approximately one-third expressed interest in both. The most popular programs with viewers with prior mobile TV experience were news at 60% and sports at 33%.

Starting today, travelers on American's Boeing 767-200 aircraft can access complete coast-to-coast coverage on nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and New York and Miami. American Airlines and Aircell have joined together to bring the first full inflight broadband service to the U.S. market.

Aircell's Gogo will be available to customers as a fee-based service in all cabins. Aircell will charge $12.95 on flights more than three hours, which include American's Boeing 767-200 flights. Each paid Gogo session includes full Internet access. Cell phone and Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services are not available.

Black & Veatch, global engineering, consulting and construction company, announced  it has launched services designed to address sustainability challenges faced by wireless communications service providers.

These services address the increasingly important need for the wireless industry to proactively assess areas such as monitoring carbon footprint, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and implementing renewable energy usage.

The wireless industry faces challenges related to environmental and climate change regulations. Wireless service providers have hundreds or thousands of wireless cell sites across the territories that they serve. Each site is subject to local, state and federal zoning and regulation. The requirements determine where cell sites are located; materials used at each site, and the type of generation that can be used to provide electricity to each site.

The fixed-mobile convergence market (FMC) is on the brink of very interesting times, according to analysts at ABI Research. UMA-based Wi-Fi dual-mode solutions have seen some significant penetration in both Europe and North America thanks to successful market introductions by T-Mobile in the US (T-Mobile @Home) and Orange (unik) in France, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

The first real competitive solution that could rival Wi-Fi-based products has now appeared, in the form of Sprint's nationwide (US) femtocell-based AIRAVE solution. The questions remain: is there room for both types of convergence in the market; and which solution is best placed to succeed?

Nokia's Services & Software unit announced plans to refine parts of its global research and development activities. While Nokia continues to grow its investments in consumer Internet services, the unit plans to integrate some of its content delivery services into a single service to create a better experience for consumers and to continue increasing investments into key initiatives.

 Nokia's Internet services strategy continues unchanged with a focus on key service areas such as music, games, messaging and location based services.

 "This year we plan to hire more people into the Services & Software unit than the number of affected employees, so we expect that many employees will be able to transition to new jobs within Nokia," said Niklas Savander, Executive Vice President, Services & Software. "We have made great progress with the initial offering this year and I see great potential going forward as we bring context aware Internet services to people's pockets. These changes will strengthen our offerings and enable us to accelerate the delivery of new Internet experiences to market."

According to The NPD Group, , mobile phone handset sales to consumers in the U.S. totaled 28 million units in the second quarter (Q2) of 2008, which is a 13 percent decline since the same period a year ago. NPD estimates total second quarter 2008 consumer sales of nearly $2.4 billion, down 2 percent since Q2 last year. Motorola is just barely in the lead.  QWERTY smartphone sales saw the greatest increase. The average price of phone was $84.

Following is the breakdown of the top five manufacturers' share of units sold to U.S.consumers in Q2 2008:

• Motorola 21%
• Samsung 20%
• LG 20%
• Nokia 9%
• RIM Blackberry 7%

AT&T and LG announced the availability of the LG Invision, a new phone made for video watchers.

The LG Invision, the third device to offer AT&T Mobile TV¹, is the smallest Mobile TV-capable phone in the U.S., at just a little more than 4 inches tall, 2 inches wide and less than one-half an inch thick. 

Running on the a third-generation (3G) network, the Invision is also pre-loaded AT&T Mobile Music, sideloading compatibility from Napster To Go and any unrestricted MP3 audio files and streaming digital radio by XM Radio Mobile. Ti als has  Bluetooth 2.0 capabilities.

The Invision is available in all company-owned AT&T stores and online at www.wireless.att.com for $99.99 with a new two-year agreement and $50 mail-in rebate

Nuance Communications, Inc.announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held SNAPin, a provider of mobile device and server self-service technology. With the strengths and resources of Nuance and SNAPin, the combined organization can deliver innovative, highly scalable mobile customer care solutions that transform the way mobile operators and enterprises interact with consumers in real-time on mobile devices.

FierceMobileContent's third annual Top Mobile Applications Awards winners have been announced.  They reflect the changes sweeping across the industry they honor,a new wave of practical, prosumer-oriented mobile services and tools that simplify and improve the day-to-day lives of a consumer segment in perpetual motion.

The Winners are

Cellfire http://www.cellfire.com/ - mobile coupons.

CellSpin http://www.cellspin.net/ - microblogging enables users to post content to destinations such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Blogger, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr, Live Journal and eBay,

CTA BusTracker http://www.cleverdevices.com/  - this GPS application delivers to web-enabled devices transit information for Chicago commuters.

E*Trade Mobile Pro - integrated mobile software solution promising users direct remote access to their E*Trade accounts from their BlackBerry smartphones.

Apple has updated the iPhone software to Version 2.0.2 for bug fixes a version can be downloaded directly from Apple's servers or through iTunes.

Though often thought to be the power tool of the business road warrior, wireless data card are fast becoming a popular means of home Internet access. 

Nielsen Mobile, a service of The Nielsen Company, in its first report on mobile data cards published this week, reported that there were more than 13 million wireless data card users in the US as of Q2 2008. Recent adoption has been strong, with more than half (55 percent) of these devices acquired in the past 12 months. 

Often advertised as part of a carrier's mobile broadband network, such wireless data cards come in a variety of formats--as ExpressCard and PCMCIA cards that slide into slots on the PC or laptop (which account for 54 percent of mobile data cards), as USB cards (30 percent) and as embedded cards that come built into laptops (17 percent). As of Q2 2008, consumers report spending an average of $65 on their data card, excluding service costs.

And while mobile data cards are already popular with business travelers, Nielsen's research reveals that the cards are beginning to play an important role in home and personal Internet access, as well. In fact, 43 percent of mobile data card users report they most often use their data card at home, while 15 percent say they typically use the card at work. Additionally, one in five (21 percent) data card subscribers take advantage of ubiquitous access by heading outdoors and 9 percent use their card while commuting.

ClairMail, Inc., announced that Alerus Financial, a Midwestern-based financial services company offering banking and wealth management services, selected ClairMail to power its new mobile banking offering - Alerus Mobile Access.

Alerus Mobile Access will enable Alerus Financial bank customers to connect to their accounts via text messaging (SMS) or mobile web. The service is free to all Alerus customers and allows users to access any Alerus account, including checking, savings, money market, CDs and loans. Customers will be offered a host of secure banking capabilities and alerts on their mobile phones through ClairMail's secure solution.

ClairMail's mobile banking and payments solution delivers 2-way mobile banking functionality on all mobile phones and across all three mobile user interface types - messaging, mobile web and client applications - known as the "2-way triple play."

Vringo is offering Vringo Channels, a new video ringtone channel service with free specially themed Obama- and McCain-video ringtone channels, Mobile users can personalize their phones by subscribing to a feed of video ringtones updated on either a daily or weekly basis.

With Vringo Channels, users subscribe to themed channels and receive fresh and new content automatically instead of having to update it themselves.

The first Vringo Channels launch this month, including those for Obama and McCain, giving fans of each candidate the ultimate badge of support: access to a daily updated roster of free video ringtones pulled from the latest news, commercials, events, speeches and choice campaign moments. When a user subscribes to one of these free channels, every call he or she receives becomes an opportunity to campaign for his or her favorite candidate.

Vringo has introduced an initial group of four free Vringo channels: Obama and McCain, as well as special Chill and Animation channels.

Visa and eight North American Banks: (PNC Bank, SunTrust Bank, U.S. Bank, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo, Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, and Vancity) have agreed to initiate a pilot program with up to a total of 2,000 participants to test the delivery of real-time notification alerts on Visa accounts.

The program, is designed to enhance the consumer payment experience by alerting cardholders in real-time or near real-time of transaction activity on their Visa account - typically within seconds rather than hours or days.

Participants will receive notification alerts from Visa through email or Short Message Service (SMS) delivered directly to their mobile devices. The service allows Visa cardholders to set thresholds that will trigger a transaction alert.

T hrough the alert received via email or SMS text, cardholders can verify the transaction details, and if the transaction appears to be irregular, can immediately contact their bank to help stop further transactions on the card.

The service is designed to help cardholders keep closer track of their transactions and spending levels as they go about their daily routine. According to a recent Javelin Strategy & Research report, consumers view timely alerts as a valuable resource to help detect fraud.

The winners of The Future Mobile Awards from Juniper Research been announced. are given to companies that have made a significant contribution to their sector and are poised to make considerable market impact in the future.

Future Mobile Web 2.0
Gold Award:
Silver Award:

Future Mobile Search Category
Gold Award: Google
Siilver Award: Jumptap

Future Mobile Advertising Category
Gold Award: Celltick
Silver Award: Greystripe

Future Mobile Gambling Category
Gold Award: Spin3
Silver Award: Probability

Future Mobile Games Category
Gold Award: EA Mobile
Silver Award: Gameloft

The Wall Street Journal Digital Network launched WSJ.com Mobile Reader — with immediate access to business, finance and technology news and analysis from WSJ.com as well as MarketWatch.com, Barrons.com and AllThingsD.com. The customizable application is available for free on most BlackBerry smartphones.

WSJ.com Mobile Reader, developed on the FreeRange Communications Mobile Publishing Platform, provides access to the latest headlines, news summaries and updates automatically with no manual refresh required. Content tabs include What’s News, Tech, MarketWatch, Opinion, Columns and more.

To learn more about WSJ.com Mobile Reader, see available devices and sign up, go to [www.wsj.com/mobilereader](http://online.wsj.com/public/page/0_0560.html), where you candownload the free WSJ.com Mobile Reader with  acess to subscriber content for a limited time only.

The planet is less lonely now, Nokia and Lonely Planet have teamed up to distribute Lonely Planet content via Nokia Maps.

Travellers can purchase and download the city guides that cover over 100 of the most world's most popular tourist location, for help finding great places to eat, shop and sleep, popular sights and nightlife.

The downloads are available cost $13.99, and can be found in the Guides section in the Extras menu. Nokia Maps 2.0 uses vector maps provided by Navteq and TeleAtlas. Nokia Maps now has maps covering over 200 countries, with over 70 of them navigable. Maps can be downloaded over the air directly to selected devices or by using the Nokia Map Loader on a PC.

Ringback tones are on track to become the most attractive mobile content category by 2012, according to new market research from MultiMedia Intelligence. With worldwide revenue nearly tripling to $4.7 Billion, ringback tones will fall just short of mobile gaming revenue in capturing the largest share of the mobile premium content market (not including mobile video and mobile TV).

Overall, the global retail market for mobile premium is projected to reach $29 billion by 2012, according to MultiMedia Intelligence. Developed markets, such as Japan and Korea, have seen dramatic growth in premium content, with some operators seeing data revenue exceed 30% of total service revenue. As key Asian markets continue to evolve, growth has shifted to Europe and then the Americas.

MultiMedia Intelligence also learned:

• Realtone ringtones are gently displacing polyphonic ringtones in all regional markets. Polyphonic ringtones are becoming antiquated as the cell phone evolves in to a fully realized multimedia device.
• Retail mobile music is nearly a mature market in South Korea, but an expanding market in Japan. By 2012, the mobile music market in Japan, for example, will be over 7 times the size of the mobile music market in South Korea.
• Streaming mobile music is growing; however, it does not yet have the market scale compared to other mobile music categories. Mobile games and adult content are continuing to grow, but at gradually slowing rates.

AARP Services and Consumer Cellular are offering a major senior discount with low monthly rates without termination fees, long term contracts and mandatory binding arbitration. 

 The features of the new plans include:

• Free basic Nokia phone or you can buy a Moto RAZR V3 for $100.
  
• A five percent discount on monthly access and airtime usage rates for AARP members. Monthly plans start at $10 a month and .24 cents a minute.
• 30 percent discount on some accessories,
• A 45-day extended trial period for new AARP subscribers and plans starting as low as $10 per month,
• Unlocked phones (phone can be used on other carriers' networks),
• Flexible billing cycle where a member can change rate plans mid month without penalty,
• Phone number portability,
•  Phones that are hearing aid compatible.

• Keep your wireless phone and backup batteries charged, but be aware that an interruption of wireline and commercial power could affect wireless calls.

• If possible, get extra batteries and charge them.

• In times of commercial power outages, a car adapter for your wireless phone should enable you to recharge the battery.

• Keep phones and necessary accessories in a sealed plastic bag to avoid water damage.

• Load family and emergency numbers into your wireless phone.

•  Wireless networks sometimes experience heavy traffic during emergency events, so remember to use Nextel Direct Connect( or send a text message.

Sprint is also now offering  MOTORAZR VE20  that runs on the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network. MOTORAZR VE20 offers one-touch access to its music player, text inbox and menu controls from its external display.

MOTORAZR VE20 provides easy access to Sprint-exclusive content, including NFL Mobile Live, a new application that brings the excitement of the game right to your wireless phone. Offered free to Sprint customers with a data plan, NFL Mobile Live features live audio broadcast of all NFL regular season games, live audio/video stream of eight NFL Network games (beginning in November 2008,) exclusive team content and exclusive video highlights. Additional features of MOTORAZR VE20 include Sprint Music Store for quick and easy over-the-air song downloads,, Sprint TV with extensive live and on demand programming, stereo Bluetooth wireless technology, a microSD card slot and a 2.0 MP camera.

Available starting todya, Katana Eclipse by SANYO is Sprint's first multimedia phone to combine unique lighting effects with the advanced speeds and features of the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network. The fun illumination capability allows the user to assign lighting effects to specific callers as well as alerts and messages.

Katana Eclipse features includie live and on-demand TV, over-the-air song downloads, integrated GPS navigation, web browsing, and gaming. The microSDHC Memory card slot supports cards up to 8GB to hold songs, pictures, video, and contact back-up. Additional features include a built-in speakerphone, stereo Bluetooth technology, external music navigation controls and an internal antenna. The attractive and slim phone easily slips into a pocket or purse.

ENTERTAINMENT AND PERSONALIZATION

• 40 different lighting effects that can be assigned to callers, messages, alerts, and playing music including blink, pulse, echo, and multi-color patterns
• Built-in MP3 player with MicroSDHC card slot supporting up to 8GB (256MB card included)
• 1.3MP camera with 12x zoom and video camcorder
• Sprint TV with an extensive selection of live and on-demand programming
• Sprint Music StoreSM offering over-the-air downloads of full-length songs
• Sprint Radio with more than 150 channels
• Downloadable screen savers, ring tones, applications and games

Although the overall dynamics of CDMA markets are overshadowed by the hype around UMTS/HSPA and the migration to LTE, CDMA operators continue to upgrade their networks to provide capacity for higher numbers of bandwidth-intensive data services, as well as escalating traffic load.

“Worldwide EVDO Rev A subscriber numbers ramped up more than eightfold between Q2 2007 and Q2 2008,” says ABI Research analyst Khor Hwai Lin. “The US and South Korean markets shows the highest growth rate for EVDO Rev A. The increased support for LTE from incumbent CDMA operators does not imply the imminent death of EVDO Rev A and B, because LTE is addressing different market needs compared to 3G.”

EVDO Rev A subscribers are forecast to exceed 54 million by 2013 while Rev B subscribers will also increase, to 25 million.

Satelite service provider, ICO Global Communications a has reached an agreement with MTV Network to add Nickelodeon and Comedy Central for use in ICO's alpha trials of its mobile interactive media service, known as ICO mim.

ICO mim is a fully interactive mobile video, navigation and emergency assistance service powered by the ICO G1 satellite, which launched in April 2008. The trials will take place in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina and Las Vegas, Nevada starting in late summer of this year.

Nickelodeon and Comedy Central join the recently announced additions of Cartoon Network and Adult Swim from Turner Broadcasting System, as well as multiple offerings from NBC Universal and Discovery Networks that will be featured in the ICO mim trial. The ICO mim service will include a broad mix of news, children's, entertainment, and sports offerings.

Synchronica , mobile synchronization solutions, today announced that it is acquiring consumer mobile email specialist AxisMobile

The AxisMobile acquisition aims to make Synchronica the leading player in mass market mobile email and synchronization middleware for mobile operators and service providers. It will enable Synchronica to provide mass-market mobile email solutions that work on more than three billion mobile phones in the market today.

 AxisMobile’s consumer mobile email platform complements Synchronica’s award-winning Mobile Gateway software by adding ‘email to SMS’ and ‘email to MMS’ gateways as well as a client-less solution for WAP/xHTML browser access. AxisMobile’s patented Optimizer email transcoding gateway further adds the ability to display a large variety of attachments such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint presentations on standard feature phones handsets that would otherwise be unable to support such functionality.

Jamba (aka Jamster) is partnering with Opera Software and adding  the Jamba bookmark on Opera Mini's customized browser homepage. The service offers a wide range of mobile products such as music, games, video, graphics, applications and much more.

As part of the partnership, the Opera Mini homepage now includes a Jamba bookmark allowing users to access the Jamba wireless application protocol (WAP) site with one easy click, to view original web programming and discover a variety of entertainment from major games publishers, as well as some of the top-ranked programming from Fox Mobile Entertainment Network, including The Simpsons, 24, Family Guy, Nip/Tuck, NASCAR, Dog Whisperer.

With Usage Controls, customers can monitor and control voice and data usage levels, Parrentscan also managing what content their kids are viewing or understanding if they are accruing additional costs.

Usage Controls are accessed through the MyVerizon Web site and customers can change or update their settings under the MyServices tab.  With the service, customers can:

• Set thresholds for voice minutes;
• Set specific limits for text, picture, IM and video messaging as part of pay-as-you-go or message bundle plans;
• Set time of day restrictions for data use and messaging;
• Create lists of "trusted" and "blocked" numbers (calls to 911will always be allowed to connect); and
• Employ content filters.

Usage Controls is available for a $4.99 monthly subscription for each line.  Customers must have a Nationwide Calling Plan - either Family Share or single line - to take advantage of Usage Controls.   

Their announcement states,

"Blogs.com connects casual and devoted readers with the best blogs on mainstream and niche topics. In order to ensure the highest quality content, Blogs.com relies on expert editors to choose blogs and posts based on their quality, popularity and relevance.

'Blogs.com is a destination site for anyone who wants a fast, easy way to find the best blog content out there," said Mena Trott, Co-Founder and President of Six Apart. "Whether you're passionate about gardening or gadgets, we'll guide you to the newest and highest quality posts in your area of interest.''"

Although Alden's former colleague Rafe Needleman refers to the concept as "retrograde," blogs.com is worth a try, because the destinations of web surfers (on PCs and mobile phones) are now dominated by mega SEO companies and bots that can ruin a blogger in a blink of code.

onesimcard.com, an online provider of International mobile phone service, announced they are now offering FREE SMS (short message service) to their onesimcard.com customers. It’s free to send an SMS to any onesimcard phone, from the onesimcard.com online portal and it is free to receive directly on the handset through out the world.

onesimcard.com provides mobile services for business travelers and tourists traveling overseas where US mobile phones will typically not work or are expensive to use. The company provides a sim chip (subscriber identity module) which enables business and leisure travel customers to use the discounted onesimcard service on a GSM mbbile phone.

*Comment from Wireless and Mobile News * Now that you can’t Twitter in the UK, this may cut SMS costs for travelers.

Anticipating an increased demand for wireless service during the Democratic National Convention Sprint Nextel Corporation enhanced its network in the following area in Denver

• Pepsi Center
• Colorado Convention Center
• INVESCO Field at Mile High
• Denver International Airport
• Downtown Denver business/hotel district

The enhancements include installation of iDEN and CDMA cell equipment throughout the most highly traversed areas. Additional bi-directional amplifiers were installed at more than 25 hotels in downtown Denver and at the Denver International Airport. For Sen. Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at INVESCO Field, the company will station a cell on wheels (COW) to accommodate additional call volume, text messaging and mobile broadband services.

Virgin Mobile will offers the twenty-buck  the TNT! by Kyocera Wireless, a Talk N' Text (get it?) flip phone available at major retailers nationwide including Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Radio Shack, which will be available at www.virginmobileusa.com beginning August 20.

Here are a few features of the TNT! handset:

• Measures 3.5" x 1.8" x 0.6" -- all at less than 3 ounces and about the size of half a candy bar.
• Designed by Kyocera Wireless and includes an external display with illuminating external caller ID
• Comes preloaded with an array of  games, along with downloadable animated and Real Music ringtones.
• Sports thel Virgin Mobile USA user interface and Virgin XL, which means it works as great as it looks.
•  Up to 200 minutes of talk time and 5 days of standby time on a single charge, plus room for 250 contactsu.

A free condom acappella ringtone with many manly harmonic parts in lovely funky classical style is featured in a new ad campaign as part of a two year project using mass media to make condoms more generally acceptable. It is produced by the BBC World Service Trust and funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) is also using the ad to support its condom promotion efforts.

The strategy is to show social support for condoms, as this has a positive effect on use, and position condoms as a product that men use to show they are responsible and care about themselves and their families. The creative idea of the ringtone winning approval from men and women of all ages reinforces that condoms mean good sense and those who know it are the real winners in life!

An report from Canalys shows:

• EMEA smart phone shipments reached 12.6 million in Q2 2008, up 28% on the figure one year ago
• Growth slowed from Q1 2008, when it was 44%, to the lowest figure seen for 18 months
• Despite this, it was the second biggest quarter on record for smart phone shipments in the region
• 38% of these smartphones had built-in GPS, 58% had integrated Wi-Fi
• Devices with touch screens represented 13% of the smart phone market

Ralph Lauren is making luxury shopping more mobile with the launch of http://m.ralphlauren.com/ and use of QR bar codes.  This new mobile website makes it easier for mobile access because their website is almost all executed in Flash, a software not available in many web phones even the iPhone.

Ralph Lauren is the first luxury retailer in the U.S. to directly launch m-commerce while incorporating Quick Response (QR) codes in advertisements.

By leveraging QR code technology, users can shop via their camera phones by scanning the QR code appearing in print advertisements, store windows and mailers, which will link them directly to a special Ralph Lauren website, where they can shop, watch tennis videos and read company content. 

 (Text SITE To 62262 or Go to http://m.barackobama.com on Your Mobile Phone)

CBS Mobile News Hurricane Center, a mobile severe weather resource allows users to view late-breaking and targeted thunderstorm and hurricane updates. Mobile users will be able to access detailed statistics such as hurricane positions, projected storm paths and the latest category rating for storms in their area.

 When visiting the "CBS Mobile News Hurricane Center" users will be invited to register using their zip code to ensure immediate access to their local information whenever they visit the site.

First Android HTC Dream
T-Mobile in fall.

Twitter is no longer delivering outbound SMS over their UK number, due to the high cost from UK mobile operators.

Twitter has worked cost-effective deals in Canada, India, and the United States, so that it can provide full incoming and outgoing SMS service without passing along operator fees in these countries.

Twitter will be introducing several new, local SMS numbers in countries throughout Europe, in the coming weeks and months. These new numbers will make Twittering more accessible for all the folks who have been using SMS to send long-distance updates through our UK number.

The Twitter blog states “Even with a limit of 250 messages received per week, it could cost Twitter about $1,000 per user, per year to send SMS outside of Canada, India, or the US”

Twitter will continue to negotiate with mobile operators in Europe, Asia, China

New Tower Group research finds that the accelerating investments being made in mobile payment platforms will be a disruptive industry force. As a consequence, TowerGroup believes the emerging revolution occurring for sending and receiving remittances may well undercut existing fee structures and traffic volume of incumbent brick-and-mortar money transfer operators, which already appear to be under pressure in this current economic climate.

Mobile remittances - a person-to-person payment system that is cross-border in nature and involves mobile data applications at either end of the transaction - is moving in on a total global remittances market of a half trillion dollars annually (USD).

TracFone Wireless, the Tennessee Department of Safety, local nonprofits and elected-officials will launch SafeLink Wireless to aid 812,807 low-income households in Tennessee.

The SafeLink Wireless service will provide Tennessee's eligible low-income households a free cell phone, unlimited mobile access to emergency services (911), and over an hour of air time each month for up to one year. (Participants may renew service and will be required to re-submit eligibility documentation upon their year completion. More information will be provided during media interviews.) The cell phone offers in-demand features: free voicemail account, text, call waiting, international calling to over 60 destinations and caller ID.

In September TraFone started offering a similar service for Florida residents.

To learn more about SafeLink Wireless, including eligibility requirements, please call 1-800-977-3768 or visit safelinkwireless.com.  You can get refill your Tracfone Wireless Airtime here.

On Sunday--the highest viewed day of the Olympics so far, 113 million viewers watched NBC coverage, with 107.3 million television viewers, 5.1 million unique visitors to NBCOlympics.com , NBC's mobile site had 494,506 unique visitors and VOD content viewed by 27,594 Olympics fans.

Connect 2 Media, the recently created cross-platform games publisher has announced an investment from Hands-On Mobile, Inc ("Hands-On".) In return for a minority stake in the enlarged entity, Hands-On is injecting the bulk of its EMEA assets into Connect 2 Media, which is backed by leading London-based venture capital firm Acuity Capital LLP ("Acuity").

Hands-On and Connect 2 Media will maintain a reciprocal global publishing partnership ensuring both companies strengthen their global distribution capabilities. Connect 2 Media intends to build upon the success of Hands-On's web-to-wireless gaming efforts and extensive expertise in publishing, developing and distributing mobile games to consolidate its vision of offering games across multiple platforms incorporating mobile, web and interactive TV.

The office Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum announced that his office obtained a $1 million settlement with a Hong Kong-based company that creates and distributes content for cell phones. Building on earlier agreements with advertising networks and a major wireless carrier, the agreement with MobileFunster, Inc., which does business as FunMobile, is the first CyberFraud agreement the Attorney General's Office has negotiated with a mobile content provider and addresses another link in a business model that includes wireless carriers, billing aggregators, advertising networks, and content providers like FunMobile.

"As the first content provider to adopt advertising standards created by this office, FunMobile has clearly stated its intent to lead mobile content providers in setting new marketing standards that will benefit Florida consumers and cell phone users nationwide," said Attorney General McCollum.

A settlement has been reached with Mobile Messenger in class action litigation involving claims that unauthorized charges for "mobile content" were placed on the cell phone bills of consumers throughout the country. The settlement, which was preliminarily approved by the U.S. District Court in Miami last week, entitles wireless customers across the country to receive refunds for unauthorized mobile content charges. Mobile Messenger has denied any wrongful conduct.

Mobile Messenger acts as an intermediary, between content providers, marketers and mobile operators, providing clients with advice on consumer protection, billing and payment, and direct customer support for users purchasing mobile content through its system.

The lawsuit alleged that there were not adequate safeguards in place to ensure that customers are only billed for services they agreed to purchase. This settlement is the first nationwide settlement with a company of this kind and follows a similar settlement reached with AT&T Mobility, LLC over similar issues.

Yahoo! has opened up Fire Eagle (http://fireeagle.yahoo.net), an open platform that helps users take their location to the web while giving them the ability to easily control how and where their location data is shared.

Fire Eagle gives users a place to store and manage information about their location, and offers developers clear protocols for updating or accessing that information. Because it's open, any networked service can use Fire Eagle to respond to a user's location - to help them find their friends, annotate the world or find nearby services or local information.  

Wireless phone customers who call their provider when experiencing a problem are waiting on hold longer than in the past to speak with a service representative, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Wireless Customer Care Performance Study—Volume 2.

The study finds that the average amount of time wireless customers spend on hold before speaking with a customer service representative in 2008 is 4.4 minutes—up 34 percent from the average hold time in 2003 (3.3 minutes).

“As customers try new and increasingly complex wireless phone services and products—such as playing MP3 files, capturing still pictures or video or downloading ring tones—they are more likely to call their provider for support,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. “Customer care centers and service representatives are under pressure to handle the increase in inquiries, while still trying to understand and resolve the customer’s issue on the initial contact. This can potentially increase the number of transfers and the hold times for customers. With an increase in hold times, providers run the risk of decreasing customer satisfaction and losing customers to other providers, as switching levels are 83 percent higher among customers who are put on hold, compared with those who are not.”

Forty-nine percent of wireless customers have contacted the customer care service center for assistance within the past year—an increase from 47 percent reported six months ago. Additionally, among customers who contacted the service department, 34 percent did so due to service/equipment issues.

Verizon Wireless ranks highest in wireless customer care performance with an index score of 103, followed by Alltel (102), T-Mobile (100) and AT&T (97). Specifically, customers report that Verizon Wireless performs particularly well in resolving problems in one contact.

Other two eco-friendly phones, the W510 and the F268 were also showcased with Samsung E200 Eco at Green Zone in OR@S during the Olympic Games.

Agence France-Presse (AFP), a global news agency, and Skycore LLC, a mobile technology firm specializing in Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS),  announced the immediate availability of AFP-licensed content for publishers to deliver MMS-formatted news to their audience's mobile phones using Skycore's Cellyspace.com MMS platform.

Newspapers and magazines can choose from a broad selection of AFP's licensable content and offer it to their audiences as branded MMS. Publishers can also choose the frequency, time of day, amount of new content to include with each MMS and whether their messaging services are offered as ad-supported, sponsored or premium

Bluepulse, the award-winning free mobile social messenger, today announced a contest where users have the opportunity to win a $250 Apple gift card. This referral program is timed to celebrate the new Bluepulse iPhone App, which was unveiled three weeks ago. Bluepulse provides mobile users with a messaging platform which allows them to broadcast their lives and be in constant communication with friends and groups through status updates, messages, photos and videos. Bluepulse's iPhone App allows seamless contacts integration with the iPhone address book and easy media uploads.

While almost half ofAmericans (48 percent) already have used their cell phones in emergency situations, millions of U.S. senior citizens — who might benefit the most from the technology — are not yet taking advantage of the “cell phone security blanket effect,” due, in part, to a lack of awareness about such low-cost options as prepaid cell phones.

The Seniors Coalition and Nicholas P. Sullivan today outlined the three things every senior — or the child of an aging parent who may be reluctant to use new technology — should know about when it comes to prepaid and other cell phones. Sullivan is a researcher and the author of a March 2008 study based on more than 110,000 interviews with cell phone users who were asked about emergency/safety use of wireless phones.

Older Americans are among those least likely to have cell phones. Research published earlier this year by Sullivan shows that 38 percent of America’s 45 million poorest households — including millions of seniors — are now without cell phones. According to the Sullivan report, those who do not now own a cell phone tend to be older (37 percent are retired) and low income (38 percent make less than $35,000 a year).

The Study
On the day before the election in November 2006, researchers sent text message voting reminders to over 4,000 mobile phone numbers chosen at random from a pool of over 8,000 mostly young people who had completed voter registration applications. Afterward, participants were matched to voter records to determine if they had voted in the election, and a sample was surveyed to gauge their reaction to the messages.

Important Results

• Across the board, text message reminders increased the likelihood of an individual voting by 4.2 percentage points.

• Of the different messages tested, a short, to-the-point reminder was most effective, with a boost of nearly 5 percentage points.

• In a follow up survey, 59% of recipients reported that the reminder was helpful, versus only 23% who found it bothersome.

• Hispanics had especially positive feelings about the reminders.

The Nokia 5610 XpressMusic and Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, in a new black finish with silver accents, are available exclusively in the U.S. from T-Mobile USA.

The Nokia 5610 XpressMusic comes with an included wired stereo headset, a USB cable for side-loading music and a 2 GB memory card. Its unique music slider key makes accessing music easy with just a flick of the thumb. Aluminum side panels accent the high gloss finish and large 2.2-inch, 16 million color display, available in two color options: black with red accents and white with silver side accents.

In addition, the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic delivers crystal clear sound quality, up to 22 hours of music playback and a memory capacity for up to 3,000 songs on an optional 4GB microSD card*. Nokia 5610 also features a high-quality 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and dual LED flash.

Nokia recognized exceptional mobile application developers in its 2008 Forum Nokia Innovation Series program. The developers recognized today for the 2008 Forum Nokia Innovation Series are:

Plusmo - Plusmo is a leading provider of standards-based mobile widgets that deliver rich personalized experiences for consumers on a broad range of mobile devices. Supported by the Web Run Time availability for S60 3rd Edition devices, the light-weight Web applications are developed using the same well-known web technologies used to create Web pages - AJAX, CSS, XHTML and JavaScript. Plusmo makes it easy for mobile users to develop widgets for their mobile phones, enabling them to extend social networking, track live sports, get news updates, watch videos, and play games through their mobile phones and PDAs virtually anywhere, anytime. For more information, visit: http://www.plusmo.com.

Whrrl - Whrrl is a location-based social discovery tool that gives users access to more than 6.5 million points of interest in the U.S. using Nokia's Assisted-Global Positioning System (A GPS) service. Melding the capabilities of in-depth location data and social networking, Whrrl enables mobile users to organize everything they and their friends know about people, places, and events and have that information at their fingertips on their mobile device. A Java application that easily runs on the S60 platform, Whrrl helps mobile users answer questions like, "Where should we go for dinner tonight?" or, "What fun stuff can I do around here?", whether in their home town or traveling. For more information, visit http://www.whrrl.com.

Qik - Qik is a multimedia communications service that enables users to stream video, audio and IM live over the Internet, from S60 3rd Edition devices to any PC, laptop or mobile device that has Internet connectivity. Qik enables users to share moments of their life directly from their cell phones with their friends, family and the world - by pointing their phones and streaming video live to friends on Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and other sites. Qik users can also use their cell phone like a camcorder and stream hours of video over their phone's cellular network, without worrying about storage on the cell phone. For more information, visit: http://www.qik.com.

Starting September seventh.
Same price, new locales.

CBS Sports Mobile has launched a new application, is offering a free fantasy alerts service and will improve their mobile webstie.

The CBS Sports Mobile Ultimate Sports Application provides live scores, stats, headlines, streaming videos, and complete control of CBSSports.com fantasy teams. With the CBS Sports Mobile Ultimate Sports Application users can find other fans, update personal profiles, and talk smack with rivals on the message boards, which are all cross-platform with the CBSSports.com online Community.

Currently accessible on 18 different handsets using AT&T wireless service, the CBS Sports Mobile Ultimate Sports Application is available for a monthly fee of $4.99.

Mobile social community Limbo and GfK Technology, have released the latest joint Mobile Advertising Report (MAR). The second quarter report shows that a high percentage of mobile phone users in the US, UK and India indicate they are receiving advertising messages through their mobile phone; 85 percent in India, 51 percent in the UK, and 37 percent in the US.

"We're seeing an increase in consumer awareness of a variety of mobile advertising campaigns, from text message to interactive games to mobile internet banner advertisements," says Jonathon Linner, CEO of Limbo. "With mobile phone usage growing, it's logical for more companies to seek mobile marketing as a way to reach their segmented targets in this direct and highly interactive medium."

Though mobile phone marketing exposure is prevalent in all three countries, the mobile delivery tools vary. Text messaging, however, remains the most common advertising format in all; 74 percent in India, 48 percent in the UK and 22 percent in the US. Mobile. Web advertising was most prevalent in the UK, with 16 percent of respondents recalling advertising compared with 8 percent of those in the US and 4 percent of those in India. Radio also showed a striking variation with nearly 40 percent of those in India recalling advertisements through radio on their mobile phones compared to only 9 percent in the UK and 3 percent in the US.

We live in word due to all types of technology that has become too loud for some people.  Bose revolutionized flying when it introduced that Quiet Comfort headsets that electronically made signals which canceled out certain sounds like the rumble of the plane's engine.  The Bose headsets spawned copycats and created a whole new industry as well as inspiring headset makers to create all kinds of new technology to cancel noise. However, the cost of buying into the Bose fraternity is not cheap, $300 and not easily available to those who are not frequent business class flyers.  

So what's a noise plagued person to do?  Well, regular foam earplugs cut out noise and are fairly cheap, but they can also push wax back into the ears, and in warmer climates ear muffs are just too warm. There is a fairly new invention that is wonderful solution to too much noise - Sensgard ZEM Hearing Protection.

Auditory research authority, Dr. Jozef Zwislocki, Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University created ZEM attenuation technology, after years of research and development.  Basically, ZEM directs sound away from the ears and sonically sealed chambers act as an extension of the ear canal which form a vacuum that pulls harmful sounds away the ears.  Proprietary sound dampening material inside the chamber filters and cancels sound waves.

Results of the research study will be presented in a keynote session on Friday, September 12, at CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2008 at Moscone West in San Francisco. A panel of teenagers will join moderator Trip Hawkins, founder of Digital Chocolate and Electronic Arts, in what promises to be an enlightening and compelling multi-media keynote forum.

The research report, titled, Teenagers: A Generation Unplugged is slated to cover topics, including:

• What are today's hottest wireless applications and features, and why?
• Where is mobile gaming headed?
• What is driving current social media trends and what's coming next?
• A teen view of convergence - How are the pieces playing together and why?
• Security and privacy - How will it impact location based services, mobile ads, and profile based mobile services?
• The user interface - What will teenage reengineering look like?
• Wireless devices and services in 2020 - What is the teenage roadmap?

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• Growth of Bluetooth-enabled device shipments will increase by 26% in 2008.
• Silicon manufacturers are continuing to roll out integrated radio chips with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, and FM.
• Sales of mono headsets, another high-volume application for Bluetooth, will continue to grow, particularly as regulations surrounding mobile phone usage while driving continue to be made standard in many states

Boingo Wireless announced the launch of Boingo service at both Dulles International Airport (IAD) and Ronald Reagan Airport (DCA) in the Washington, DC area. Boingo members can now use their Boingo login and passwords on the Boingo landing page to access the Internet or automatically connect using GoBoingo software at both of these airports.

Boingo's Wi-Fi network is now available to the more than 24 million passengers that go through Dulles International Airport annually, and the more than 18 million annual passengers that fly through Ronald Reagan Airport. Passengers with Wi-Fi enabled laptops, mobile phones or PDAs are able to connect to the Internet to check their e-mail, access corporate servers, download documents and surf the Web from anywhere in the airport.  

Senior Analyst Nitesh Patel noted, "Mobile messaging, which includes SMS, MMS, mobile email and instant messaging, will account for over 40% of the total consumer spend on mobile media and messaging services in 2012. We anticipate growing adoption of consumer email access via mobile, as flat-rate pricing, combined with improving email provisioning and device user experience lower the existing barriers to adoption and usage of this popular PC messaging format."

Handango, provider of smartphone content, announced a deal to distribute top casual game favorites from the mobile division of Electronic Arts Inc.

The EA mobile titles including Madden NFL 08, The Sims2, The Sims Bowling, MONOPOLY Here & Now, TETRIS, Bejeweled, and many more, are now available on leading smartphone platforms including Windows Mobile BlackBerry and Symbian UIQ() through Handango's web properties and Handango's on-device client, InHand.

 Handango will offer EA mobile games on one of Europe's largest platforms, Symbian UIQ. Titles including The Sims(2 Pets, EA SPORTS FIFAMANAGER08 and TETRIS® will be available in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Speed Matters released its second annual state-by-state Internet speed report, and the results show the U.S. still has a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the world.

The report found the average U.S. Internet speed was 2.3 megabits per second (mbps), representing a minimal gain of 0.4 mbps over last year's average speed. At this rate, it will take us more than a hundred years to catch up to Japan, where average speeds are estimated at 63 mbps.

The latest rumor from TMO News is  it that T-Mobile customers will be able to pre-order the Andriod-based code named G1 aka HTC Dream on September 17th for a lot less for $150.

"The HTC Dream (G1) will have a 3.0 megapixel camera. The presale will last 1 week, and be for existing customers only. Employees are not included in the presale, sorry! Presale begins Wednesday, September 17th, and 3G will be a large aspect of this device. "

The survey found that 48 percent of drivers between the ages of 18 and 24, and more than a quarter (27 percent) of drivers 25 to 34, admit to texting while behind the wheel. Seventeen percent of all adults surveyed say they have texted while driving.

Not surprisingly, the incidence of "Driving While Texting" is largely a function of age. While younger, more techno-savvy drivers are more likely to be avid texters even while driving, less than two percent of those age 55 and over say they have ever sent a text message, instant message or e-mail while driving. Here's a breakdown of the results by age:

Visual Voice Mail, a new application that lets customers manage their voice mail on their phones is now on the Voyager by LG from Verizon.

Visual Voice Mail provides display screen with one-touch access to listen to voice mail messages. Customers can also delete, reply and forward their voice mail messages without having to listen to prior messages or voice instructions.

Customers can store up to 40 messages for 40 days -- double the storage capacity and nearly double the retention time of Basic Voice Mail. In addition, customers can create up to 10 greetings, as well as up to 20 distribution lists and 50 distribution members to receive messages.

Visual Voice Mail is available for $2.99 monthly access, per line, plus airtime or megabyte charges and messaging fees, depending on a customer's plan. Customers should take their Voyager by LG phones to any Verizon Wireless Communications Store to receive the free software update. Verizon

LG Decoy Rated 3.5 out of 5 by Wireless and Mobile News Review of Reviews

The LG Decoy is so pretty and shiny it smudges a lot. The shiny screen is difficult to see in bright light. Because it comes as a combo, the LG Decoy with its headset has to be judged as married couple. When they are together they may work just fine for you, as long as you don't need to make calls in a very loud outdoor environment.  For links and summaries of the original reviews continue reading.

Samsung and Metro PCS debut the “Sidekicky” Samsung Messager (SCH-r450) a horizontal slider QWERTY keyboard phone making with built-in 1.3 megapixel camera, SMS, MMS, email and IM messaging capabilities, advanced voice recognition, Bluetooth MP3 player and external micro SD slot.

The Samsung Messenger is 4.4” x 2.0” x 0.7” and has a 2.1” 262K TFT, 176X220 pixel display. The Samsung Messenger costs $199 at Metro PCS. It becomes a reat value with the $40.00 a month unlimited text and voice plan or $50.00 a month unlimited web and email plans.

Global IP Solutions announced today that GIPS is enabling voice over IP (VoIP) for Apple Inc.'s iPhone. Using GIPS VoiceEngine Mobile, iPhone application developers can quickly integrate quality, real-time VoIP applications, which should make it easier for consumers to enjoy their favorite iPhone games, applications and social networking experiences.

GIPS VoiceEngine Mobile provides the capabilities that turn voice into IP packets so they can be transmitted via Wi-Fi, making it easier for applications developers to come to market quickly with integrated VoIP applications.

GIPS VoiceEngines have been downloaded more than any other voice engine worldwide, enabling consumers and businesses to enjoy high-quality IP-based communications, even under adverse network conditions. For more information visit www.gipscorp.com/ve

According the Wall Street journal iPhone App store generated more than 60 Million downloaded in the first month. Steve Jobs said that there was an average of $1 million a day at the site for a total of $30 million for the month for Apple App store.  If sales stay at that rate, Apple will generate about $360 million a year in new revenue from the App Store.

Bonny Joy, Analyst at Strategy Analytics said, "Despite economic fears and a tightening on consumer-spend, mobile phone shipments in the United States reached 41.9 million units during Q2 2008, up 5.3 percent from 39.8 million in Q2 2007. Attractive bundling schemes from operators and a number of new handset launches from vendors kept replacement rates at a healthy level."

Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, "Motorola had a good quarter and retained its number one position in the USA, with a 25.8 percent marketshare. Motorola's strong distribution network and deep carrier-relationships proved crucial in maintaining share in both GSM and CDMA markets. Motorola is not yet out of the woods, but these are encouraging, early signs of stabilization."

Thumbplay will power personalized content for MTV Mobile, including ringtones, applications, games, wallpapers and more. Fans can buy MTV-branded content a la carte or via subscription-based credits and have it delivered directly to the more than 2,000 mobile devices supported by Thumbplay. MTV fans will also have an online content locker that automatically backs-up purchased items to their account. MTV will promote the new service with marketing on-air, online and via MTV Mobile's WAP sites.

According to Chetan Sharma Consulting, the US wireless data market grew 40% in Q208 compared to Q207 to reach $8.2B in data revenues. The total for 2008 stands at $15.7B for the first six months, 38% higher than the total for the same time period in 2007. The news of Alltel acquisition, iPhone 3G, and the flat rate pricing wars dominated the news. Though the infatuation for iPhone was a few degrees lower, Apple managed to keep the device front and center of the news cycles. US again exceeded Japan in mobile data service revenues for the quarter and the market is on track to reach $34B in data revenues for 2008.

• The US Wireless data service revenues grew 8.6% Q/Q to $8.2B in Q208. Compared to Q107, the data service revenues grew 40%.
• Overall ARPU increased by $0.46. Average voice ARPU declined by $0.05 while average data ARPU grew by $0.50 or 5%.
• Verizon lead in data ARPU with $12.58 (or 24.41% of the revenues) closely followed by Sprint at $12 (or 21.4354%), AT&T at $11.59 (or 22.91%) and T-Mobile at $8.60 (or 17%).
• The strongest growth in Q208 came from Verizon with 13% increase in data revenues from Q108. Verizon generated an industry record $2.6B in data revenues closely followed by AT&T at $2.5B. Both AT&T and Verizon are on target to exceed $10B in data revenues for the year for the first time by any operator worldwide besides NTT DoCoMo (the two US carriers are already close to 50% of the target). AT&T and Verizon now account for 62% of the market data services revenues. Sprint reversed its decline in data revenues during last quarter to increase its data revenues by 3% in Q208. T-Mobile registered a 5% uptick.

ABCNEWS.com continued to garner double-digit traffic growth in July 2008 in unique visitors, page views and video views versus the same time last year. ABC News' mobile site, m.abcnews.com, increased page views 77% versus the same time last year, according to ABC's measurements.

ABC News is available anytime, anywhere on your mobile device: m.abcnews.com.

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) would like industry feedback regarding the Mobile Advertising Guidelines. The MMA's global guidelines are designed to encourage the uptake of mobile advertising by brands worldwide whilst enhancing and protecting the customer's experience by creating a framework for brands and media companies to deliver mobile advertising in a positive and consistent way.

The opportunity for public comment will remain available until 5pm GMT on September 5, 2008, at which point the feedback will be reviewed and the document finalized, with the release of the updated guidelines planned for early October 2008. The current version of the guidelines can be downloaded from http://mmaglobal.com/modules/content/index.php?id=528 and comments can be entered on the Public Forum site http://mmaglobal.com/modules/newbb/viewforum.php?forum=77

Eight iPhone owners have joined the idle rich, buying a "worthless" program that cost $999, according to the LA Times.

All the program does is show a red icon red icon with the words "I Am Rich." After activation the icon shows a glowing clear stone with red light (we're not sure whether it is a diamond or cubic zirconium.)

One description of "I Am Rich"  says, "The red icon on your iPhone or iPod touch always reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were able to afford this."

The program has been removed from the Apple Store apparently someone bought it by mistake!   Armin Heinrich(whose name actually sounds like I am rich, when you say it fast,) the program's developer, has not received payment for the purchase who wrote in an email, "The App is a work of Art and included a 'secret mantra' -- that's all."

If there really is an Armin Heinrich, he's having a good laugh....

The BlackBerry Curve 8330 smartphone in pink is available for $99.99 after a $70 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. The BlackBerry Pearl 8130 smartphone in pink is available for $79.99 after a $70 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Customers who purchase a Verizon Wireless Nationwide voice plan to use with their BlackBerry smartphone can also subscribe to the E-Mail and Web for

BlackBerry plan for an additional $29.99 per month.

Comment from Wireless and Mobile News

Mmmn, shouldn't they be called PinkBerry?  Whoops that's a premium frozen yogurt franchise that's known for causing parking problems.  With that you can actually get pink berries on it.

There have been announcements from RIM unveiling the details of the new BlackBerry Bold for Germany,  Austria, Australia, Chile and Hong Kong.  Although there's official announcement yet about the United States here's what they said about the BlackBerry Bold in Germany.

T-Mobile Germany and Research In Motion unveiled the BlackBerry Bold smartphone, a top of the line BlackBerry smartphone that features premium design and unprecedented performance for an optimized 3G experience.  The BlackBerry Bold smartphone comes with integrated GPS and Wi-Fi and is the first BlackBerry smartphone to support tri-band HSDPA high-speed networks around the world. Users can surf the Internet and download large e-mail attachments over the T-Mobile UMTS web'n'walk  network. 

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone has a rich set of multimedia capabilities and displays content beautifully on its half-VGA (480x320 resolution at 217 ppi) color LCD display, which offers stunning definition and clarity. The BlackBerry Bold is also crafted from premium materials, including a luxurious black exterior, satin chrome finished trim and leatherette backplate. 

The new BlackBerry Bold smartphone is designed to give business professionals and power users unprecedented functionality and performance and is now available from T-Mobile in Germany.     

The NBC Olympics Mobile website offers:

• top Olympic headlines
• news for every Olympic sport
• exclusive videos, slideshow galleries
• profiles of Team USA, and other feature content
•  live results and schedules
• medal counts
• detailed TV and online listings for NBC Olympics programming
• watch video highlights
• vote in daily polls
• sign up for alerts

Samsung Mobile a mobile phone partner of the U.S. Olympic Team and is giving people a their own chances to when medals with the Medal Mania contest, an online hunt for hidden gold medals with a chance to win a $100,000 grand prize.

To enter the Medal Mania contest, Olympic Games fans can visit www.medalmania.com. After registering, participants can win virtual medals three ways:

1) entrants will receive clues on where to find the hidden virtual medals, which can be found on official Samsung Web sites and various other locations on the Web;

2) during the Olympic Games, which begin August 8, entrants will receive bonus virtual medals automatically whenever Team USA wins a gold medal;

3) registered participants will receive a virtual medal for each person they refer to sign up for the Medal Mania contest.

ReCellular, cell-phone recycling firm, announced today that Investor Growth Capital is investing $15 million in a Series A Preferred Stock financing. The investment adds a growing clean-tech company to IGC's portfolio, and will enable ReCellular to handsets.

ReCellular's revenues have increased an average of 25 percent for the past eight years. Today, the company is the leading collector, recycler and refurbisher of cell phones in the world.  In 2008, the company is on track to process more than 6 million phones - equal to the combined population of Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, and Rhode Island.

With an estimated 3.3 billion cell-phone users worldwide, and 130 million phones retired in the U.S. every year, there isan  opportunity for significant growth in the global cell-phone reuse and recycling market.

"We processed almost 5,000 phones in our first year of business," says Newman. "Today, we get an average of 24,000 phones - enough to fill seven mail trucks - every day, five days a week. With the support and resources of IGC, we see the potential to double the number of mail trucks delivering to ReCellular in the very near future."

Sony announced the new slim Sony Ericsson T700 with 3.2 megapixel camera built-in stereo speakers and color-matched headsets. The T700 is just 10mm thin and has a self-portrait mirror on a 2” TFT display, with 512 memory card, and Bluetooth.

“Become a real head turner with the T700” said Sven Totté, Head of Marketing for the design category at Sony Ericsson. “Sleek and shiny, the slim elegance of the T700 gives users a premium experience at a mid-range price point - perfect for the design conscious. Everyone who bought and adored the iconic T610 will be keen to get their hands on the new T700.”

The T700 is a GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS/HSDPA 2100 phone that will be available in selected markets in the colors Black on Silver, Black on Red and Shining Silver from early Q4 of 2008.

According to the latest MusicWatch consumer surveys from The NPD Group, the five leading music retailers in the U.S. for the first half of 2008 (January through June, based on purchases of CDs and a-la-carte digital music downloads) ranked as follows:

1. iTunes

2. Wal-Mart (Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music Downloads)

3. Best Buy (Best Buy, Bestbuy.com, Best Buy Digital Music Store)

4. Amazon (Amazon.com, AmazonMP3.com)

5. Target (Target and Target.com)

Infonetics' report, Fixed and Mobile Subscribers, shows that the number of mobile subscribers jumped 31% in 2007 over 2006, while access line subscribers declined 5%.

"Subscribers in Brazil, Russia, and later this year China, are migrating to 3G, which in turn will lead to a 2G and 2.5G to 3G subscriber migration process in 2008. However, current GSM deployment patterns remain unabated, with double-digit GSM subscriber growth rates being common in BRIC countries," said Stephane Teral, principal analyst at Infonetics Research.

T-Mobile subsidizes its prepaid wireless phones making them more accessible to consumers who want to become T-Mobile customers. Traffickers such as Ali, Fone Xchange and ASPAC profit by pocketing those subsidies, preventing consumers from receiving the benefit of the subsidies and depriving T-Mobile and other wireless providers of new customers. Traffickers typically buy, or solicit others to buy, prepaid mobile phones in bulk from retail stores, remove the phones from their original packaging, discard warranties and manuals, hack into the phones' software, and resell the phones and accessories to unsuspecting customers at a substantial profit.

Q2 profits are stats were released for many of the cellular carriers.

T-Mobile USA subscriber growth was slow in Q2 this year. It added only 668,000 net new customers in the second quarter, making its total subscribers 31.5 million. In the first quart it added 981,000 new customers which is the lowest add figure the company has had since second-quarter 2006.

Analysis suspect that the low growth is due to the fact that competitors Verizon and AT&T have high speed 3G data networks and T-Mobile does not.

On the other hand, US Cellular is profiting from strong growth in data. During the second quarter, it had a 45 % increase in data revenues totaling of $123.7 million. Service revenues were increased 9% percent for a total of $987.4 million. 

While Metro PCS flat-rate is gaining cost conscious subscribers. It added 184,000 new subscribers in the quarter with a total 4.6 million subscribers. Service revenues reached $599 million, 25% better than second quarter 2007. Total revenues equaled $679 million, which is a 23% increase over the previous year. 

Mobile advertising solutions provider Amobee Media Systems, announced that Motorola, Inc. and Cisco Systems have made strategic investments in the company. These market leaders join the company’s existing investors who also participated in this round - Telefonica, Vodafone (Accel Partners, Globespan, and Sequoia Capital — to deliver the promise of mobile advertising to operators worldwide.

The Amobee media system establishes a new revenue stream for mobile operators who can offer their ad-enabled inventory to agencies and advertisers seeking to buy, deploy, and monitor campaigns across all mobile channels.

Quattro Wireless' mobile ad network, is partnering with the New England Patriots to create www.patriots.mobi . Launching for the 2008 season, the site will have in-depth Patriots content, breaking news, podcasts, instant in-game tracker plus NFL mobile, also powered by Quattro.

With the site and advertisements hosted on Quattro's platform, the patriots.mobi site serves up in-depth content to satisfy the appetite of a Patriots fans including podcasts, as well as weekly and exclusively-mobile "Patriots Now" videos offering 1-2 minute clips of the latest team news. The site features breaking news, team updates, rosters, schedules, a photo gallery, Patriots ProShop information and game reports.

Nielsen Mobile estimates that 44.7% of mobile video users and 22.6% of mobile internet users in the US are likely to follow the Olympics on their cell phone this summer, compared to 31.3% and 17.2% of mobile video and internet users in the UK respectively. The highest interest is for event results followed by medal counts, TV schedules for US users while UK user interest tops with events results, followed by "read articles" and medal counts.

Top 3 Olympic Categories (% Mobile Internet Users) - US & UK

    US                                 UK

1. Event Results (66.3%) 1. Event Results (73.5%)

2. Medal Counts (44.3%) 2. Read Articles (37.4%)

3. TV Schedule (43.7%) 3. Medal Counts (34.2%)

Top 3 Olympic Events (% Mobile Video Users) - US & UK

    US                                 UK

1. Gymnastics (61.7%) 1. Track and Field (89.9%)

2. Swimming/Diving (58.5%) 2. Boxing (59.1%)

3. Track and Field (54.4%) 3. Gymnastics (53.7%)

Most recently, u-blox AG, Switzerland, maker of the GPS chip in the Openmoko phones, endorsed Openmoko's publishing  the complete schematics for the GPS chip in the Neo FreeRunner phones.  The schematics now document how the GPS chip is wired into the system, providing vital information for developers who want to leverage the GPS functionality for new designs involving the Openmoko phones.

TheFind, shopping search engine introduced TheFind: Where to Shop, for iPhone

TheFind: Where to Shop bridges the gap between online research and offline purchases, enabling shoppers to compare products and pricing - while out and about — and ensuring that they find exactly what they’re searching for, quickly and easily within their neighborhood. With a comprehensive index of more than 250 million products covering200,000 store locations, TheFind’s iPhone application should make finding what you are looking for easier.

While nearly one-third of U.S. households have a video-capable mobile phone, operators are struggling to find an audience for their mobile video services, according to Mobile TV: Analysis & Forecast (Second Edition).

This new report by market research firm Parks Associates found a majority of consumers with a video-capable mobile phone have never used the video features. For example, 56% have never watched a video clip using a mobile phone. These low usage rates are discouraging for operators hoping to boost revenues through new TV and video services.

 "Buy before you try is always a tough sell," said John Barrett, Director of Research, Parks Associates. "Most subscribers must pay additional money to watch video and mobile TV services, even once they have purchased an appropriate phone. This circumstance presents an obvious chicken-and-egg obstacle to adoption. Many consumers are hesitant to pay for a new, unfamiliar service, but they will remain unfamiliar with the service until they or someone they know uses it."

Funambol software has been downloaded more than 2.5 million times by 50,000 developers and project participants around the world. Funambol v7 provides a t platform for push email and syncing diverse mobile content from a broad variety of devices between the Internet cloud and other devices, software and systems. Yahoo! and Gmail contact import into the Funambol Portal, server syncing of tasks and notes via native SyncML clients, an enhanced SDK and greater scalability has been added to the Carrier Editon.

T-Mobile has expanded its 3G service in Las Vegas. T-Mobile's 3G network in Las Vegas supports voice and data services. The company offers multiple phones that are able to operate on the UMTS network. These phones are designed to automatically connect to the best available network (3G or GSM/GPRS/EDGE) to provide the great call quality.

Customers using a 3G-capable handset from T-Mobile will also experience faster data speeds when accessing the web, or downloading content from the T-Mobile t-zones content portal, for example. T-Mobile plans to soon offer its first HSDPA device, along with new and compelling data-centric, all-in-one devices that help make the most of T-Mobile's high-speed data network. The launch of the 3G network in Las Vegas also enables T-Mobile to accommodate and serve more customers more efficiently through the use of its AWS spectrum.

Sprint and National CineMedia, cinema advertising, have entered into an exclusive, multi-year agreement to promote courtesy in movie theatres through a series of public service announcements reminding moviegoers to silence their cell phones and refrain from texting during feature films.

This is part of Sprints campaign for reaching movie fans, including The Greatest Product-Placement Movie of All Time, a film that promised "no plot, no romance, just phone," for the Samsung Instinct.

The spots will be seen on more than 14,300 screens in over 1,100 AMC Entertainment Inc., Cinemark Holdings Inc.and Regal Entertainment Group movie theatres - the three largest theatre operators in the U.S. - beginning in October 2008.

go2 Media now offers go2 Traffic with real-time traffic information and alerts for mobile phones.

go2 Traffic will help drivers and travelers make informed decisions about the best time to leave and the fastest route to take anywhere in the U.S.. Mobile users can access go2 Traffic through the “Local Traffic” link on go2’s main deck, and will be able to quickly find real-time local traffic conditions, commuter updates and alternate routes powered by NAVTEQ Traffic.com. go2 users also have easy access to local travel information such as car rental locations, cheap gas stations, nearby repair shops and more through go2 Travel.

Konami Digital Entertainment”s Frogger for the iPhone and iPod Touch is available on the Apple App Store. Frogger has been re-designed to take full advantage of the platform’s capabilities, including the innovative Multi-Touch Interface and accelerometer.

Konami Mobile’s Frogger for the iPhone and iPod touch is the latest edition of the 27-year old successful series that includes the classic Frogger, a top ten best-selling mobile game.

Frogger is available for $9.99 from Apple’s App Store on iPhone and iPod touch, or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.

LiveWire and Virgin Mobile USA launched Ringback Playlist, enabling customers to access pre-selected content channels instead of choosing individual tracks for their ringback tone.

Ringback Playlist allows customers to personalize their cell phones by choosing their favorite music genre and category. Each time a call comes into a Virgin Mobile USA customer's handset, a different tune from the Ringback Playlist's selected "station" will be heard by the caller.  Ringback Playlists will be available by music genre, artist, or trend with additional personalization options that can be set based on the caller, the day of the week or time of day.

Virgin Mobile USA customers can choose from 12 different channels that feature five ringback selections each, such as pop, hip-hop, alternative, country, television and movie classics, the Virgin Mobile Festival* channel and additional Ringback Playlists being

Ringback Playlist will be offered to Virign Mobile USA customers for $3.49/month, plus a $1.49 monthly ringback subscription fee.

For more information about Ringback Playlists, please visit http://www.virginmobileusa.com/.

National anthem ringtones and flag wallpapers can be downloaded worldwide for all those getting into the spirit of the Olympic Games, from voeveo.com.

 "It's an easy way to feel part of the Olympics and you don't have to fly all the way to Beijing." said Annabel Youens, voeveo.com community director."

Two weeks before the new iPhone 3G iPhone was released, a ChangeWave consumer survey showed it was likely to have a tsunami-like impact on the smartphone market. A new survey, however shows  RIM fighting back. BlackBerry users are eagerly awaiting the Bold, Thunder and KickStart with many likely buyers.

The ChangeWave consumer survey showed the 3G iPhone catapulting Apple into the lead in terms of planned consumer smartphone purchases for the next 90 days. Note that RIM remains the leader among current smartphone owners in the consumer market, and RIM holds a huge lead in the corporate market.