Daily Marauder

WIRELESS

Skype is (finally) teaming up with mobile handset maker Nokia to get their VoIP and IM software program pre-installed on some of its devices, as announced at the Mobile World Congress and reported by MobileCrunch. The eBay-owned company had 405 million registered users in total at the end of last year, and Nokia is still the largest handset maker in the world until further notice, so this is a significant deal. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/17/skype-integration-on-handsets-threat-or-opportunity-for-mobile-voip-startups 2/17)

MySpace, which in a few years expects half its traffic to come from mobile devices, is unveiling new deals with Palm and Nokia that it says will make it the first social network to support every major smart phone. MySpace is also relaunching its mobile site with better-integrated ads. (Iwantmedia 2/17, http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090217/ap_on_hi_te/tec_myspace_mobile 2/17)

Under the agreement, LG will include the Windows Mobile platform on its new mobiles. LG expects to roll out 50 Windows-based products over the next five years. Bloomberg (2/16) , The New York Times (2/16)

Samsung unveiled a quartet of sexy new smartphones featuring a range of multimedia features: the Omnia HD phone, a touch-phone with a 3.7″ display, which can record video in HD resolution or play video content in 640 x 360 pixel resolution, the S8300 UltraTouch which features a 2.8″ touch screen, an 8 megapixel camera and Samsung’s new TouchWiz interface, the Blue Earth, an eco-friendly phone designed to resemble a shiny beach pebble. It utilizes a built-in solar panel to power itself, holding a full solar charge for 10-14 hours, the Beat DJ and Beat Disc models target music lovers with high end audio technology powered by Bang and Olufsen. (Cynopsis 2/17)

The GSMA, a worldwide consortium of mobile industries, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have teamed up to found the the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) initiative, allowing folks in developing countries to carry out mobile banking from their non-smartphones and keep and grow their money in a safe and affordable fashion. (http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/02/17/bill-gates-wants-to-help-the-third-world-with-cellphone-banking 2/17)

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Google’s new Latitude service, an effort to turn mobile phones into tracking devices, is facing criticism from privacy advocates. Nonetheless, U.S. mobile phones with location features are forecast to increase ten-fold to 30.9 million by 2012. For now, Latitude doesn’t have any ads. (Iwantmedia 2/17, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aS8DrblAaWOY 2/16)