Daily Marauder

WIRELESS

On-demand media solutions developer Akoo International’s m-Venue platform enables customers to use their mobile handsets to activate in-store entertainment and marketing, such as music, sports and fashion videos, in exchange for freebies. Akoo has teamed up with Universal Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Fashion TV for content clips. “This is the only digital out-of-home billboard network that’s fully interactive with mobile phones,” Akoo marketing vice president Andy Stankiewicz said. (The New York Times 2/25)

Six months after Facebook came out with a version of its social network for the iPhone, LinkedIn is finally coming around to releasing a mobile version of its own. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/24/linkedin-goes-mobile%e2%80%94finally  2/24)

Deborah Taylor Tate, a commissioner with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, says the agency is looking into how its indecency regulations could extend to content on mobile devices. Parents “want safe places for their children to play in the online world,” she says. (http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=141144  2/22)

The New York Times Co. is launching ShifD, an application that enables users to seamlessly shift content between their computers and mobile devices. Says Times exec Michael Zimbalist: “We see a future for device-independent media, with convergence around the user experience.” (http://www.rttnews.com/sp/breakingnews.asp?date=02/25/2008&item=14  2/25)

A new plug-in for Research in Motion’s BlackBerry users will convert voice mail into text for about $10 a year. SpinVox said its service carried a 97% accuracy rate and worked with all voice mail systems. (vnunet.com 2/25)