Today Microsoft and Sprint announced a strategic alliance through which the companies will develop and deliver a range of innovative new service offerings for Sprint's business and consumer customers. The first consumer offering in this collaboration enables Sprint customers to use Windows Live(TM) Search for mobile on their wireless phones to conveniently search location-based content from the Internet, such as nearby stores and restaurants, as well as Sprint's catalog of ring tones, games, screen savers and related services.

The service also provides new opportunities for highly relevant and targeted local advertising, which will benefit businesses and consumers alike. The new Sprint mobile search service powered by Windows Live aims to provide one-stop access to relevant online content associated with a given keyword or phrase.

Firethorn  today announced a partnership  with Cingular Wireless that will offer mobile banking and payments services to Cingular Wireless customers. Atlanta-based Firethorn is the only mobile banking and payments provider Cingular has authorized on its network.

FirethornSM enables consumers to securely perform a wide variety of banking and payment functions anytime, anywhere using their mobile phone, PDA and other mobile devices. Offering Firethorn's mobile banking and payments application to your customers can help you keep and strengthen customer relationships, increase brand awareness and value, and increase customer profitability.

Firethorn delivers the most powerful yet flexible mobile banking and payments solution on the market. From a single, secure application, consumers can:

As announced last September, Verizon has just launched the Chocolate flip phone, for those of you who prefer flip mobile phones. The new chocolate flip phone will have most of the features of the VX-8500 Chocolate into a thinner clamshell form factor. Compared to the 8500, the 8600 has a lower-resolution display, but retains all other key features, including:

• All Digital Phone
• 1.3 Megapixel Camera/Camcorder with flash
• Bluetooth® Capable
• MicroSD Memory Port
• V CAST Music and Video - Demo
• Speakerphone
• Voice Dialing
• Color Screen
• TTY Compatible
• Hearing Aid Compatibility = M3
• For details on Hearing Aid Compatibility, select this link
• Meets FCC SAR limit. Manufacturer's highest FCC reported SAR .68 at ear, .78 on body.
  

Orb Networks a privately held company plans to offer Web videos from YouTube.com on mobile phones with a new software launch this week, well before the wildly popular Web site makes its own cell phone service available.  (Note: Recently YouTube announced plans to launch mobile phone services.

More than 400,000 people have already downloaded Orb's previous software program that allows them to view their own digital media stored on a home computer, like photos, videos and music, on a mobile phone or wireless device.

This week, Orb will offer users a program that lets them view, search and create media channels from the Internet and direct it onto cell phones and laptops from sites like YouTube or Google Video.

Third Screen Media, the leading provider of mobile advertising software and services, today announced that actor and romance novel cover model Fabio has officially hit the third screen thanks to a mobile advertising campaign launched by Unilever’s I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® brand on November 9. With the assistance of Mindshare Interaction, Unilever launched the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® campaign on Third Screen Media’s TSM|Network to reach the brand’s target audience on mobile handsets across the US.

The I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® mobile initiative features a WAP site that closely mirrors the brand’s Kitchen of Love online counterpart, featuring Fabio. The site enables users to download video content, send Fabio-grams to friends and view recipes provided by Unilever.
“The mobile environment we created for the brand not only enables consumers to interact with our brand in new and exciting ways, but also allows users to learn about the brand on their own time and importantly, at their own discretion” said Ryu Yokoi, Unilever Associate Brand Manager.

 enabled products are now in the hands of one billion consumers worldwide said the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) today. Citing shipment information from ABI Research, the trade association announced that the installed base of Bluetooth devices reached one billion in early November. Weekly shipments of the wireless devices continue at a pace of 12 million per week.

“To put this number in perspective, one billion is greater than the number of PC users in the world and equal to the number of mobile phones shipped this year,” said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director, Bluetooth SIG. “Reaching the one billion milestone is a huge win for the Bluetooth industry and we want to congratulate and thank our 6,000 member companies whose innovation and products got us here.

Boost Mobile has launced loopt, is a Palo Alto-based startup that has built a revolutionary "social mapping" service to change the way people use mobile phones to keep in touch with their friends.

loopt uses GPS (and other location technology) to show you where your friends are by automatically updating maps on your mobile handset.

loopt also lets you send messages to nearby friends or receive automatic alerts when they're nearby so that you never miss an opportunity to meet. With loopt, mobile subscribers put themselves on the map.

Recently, Helio launched a similar feature in their new Drift handset called Buddy Beacon.

Traffic.com has launched a mobile site containing its live traffic information for 50 metropolitan areas in the US. 

Traffic.com offers numerous other traffic services, however, this is the first time they have offered the information directly to mobile phones. The free site is accessible at http://mobi.traffic.com/. Registered members of the main Traffic.com can view their personalized reports on the mobile site (after logging in).

Traffic.com® is a leading provider of accurate, real-time traffic information in the United States, based on the quality of its traffic data and the extent of its geographic coverage. Traffic.com offers detailed traffic information, including specific speeds, travel times and delay times.

Sprint has launched the Samsung M500, a slim Power Vision phone, with advanced features including a MicroSD external memory card, Bluetooth, Themes and GPS , for tech connected power Users, mobile Professionals and Mobile Families who need the speed of the Power Vision Network to access information while on the go.

Main features:

• Digital Dual-Band
• Up to 3 hours continuous digital talk time.
• 3.66" x 1.81" x 0.65" (size comparison)
• 3.0 oz
• 1.3MP Camera and Video Camcorder
• GPS Enabled
• Bluetooth® Wireless Technology

Google's CEO Eric Schmidt stated recently that he sees a future where mobile phones will be free to users who accepts advertising on their handsets. Schmidt stated that as mobile phones become more like handheld computers and consumers spend as much as eight to 10 hours a day talking, texting and using the Web on these devices, advertising becomes a viable form of subsidy.

Google is experimenting with delivering text, brand-image and video ads onto small-screen mobile phones. It is enjoying early success in its strategy to win phone network allies in Japan, where TV viewing and shopping on phones is advanced, he said.

Google has no plans to directly give away phones itself, nor is he aware of any effort by partners such as phone makers Nokia or Motorola or mobile operators like Vodafone to make such a radical move.

Cingular, Samsung and Microsoft Corp. today unveiled the BlackJack, a robust, slim smart device packed with the power and functionality desired by business customers and consumers alike.

With the BlackJack customers can get rich entertainment features, powerful business applications and the familiar look and feel of Windows Mobile® 5.0, turbo-charged by Cingular's 3G-enabled BroadbandConnect service in an ultra sleek design.

The stylish and compact BlackJack will be available exclusively from Cingular in the U.S. in mid-November for as low as $199.99 (with a two-year activation and unlimited data plan). This ultra-thin 3G device features a fully integrated QWERTY keyboard with a large high-resolution QVGA color screen.

Built to satisfy everyone from the music fan to the business user, BlackJack includes a bevy of cutting edge features:

• MP3 player and access to Cingular Music, the most comprehensive music subscription service of its kind ever offered by a U.S. wireless carrier, including access to online subscription music content from eMusic, Napster and Yahoo!
• Cingular Video – Cingular's on-demand streaming video service featuring exclusive content such as HBO
• High speed Internet browsing over Internet Explorer® Mobile optimized for Cingular's 3G and EDGE networks

Want to save money on your cell phone bill?  Then you may want to consider using Mobilemiser. 

Mobilemiser is a website that promises to cut your cell phone bill in half. Using Mobilemiser, you can call anywhere [in North America] from 4.9 cents a minute, Mexico City is 6.9 cents a minute and London is 6.9 cents a minute.

Here is how it works: You sign up for the service, which asks for your cell phone number and provider, your email address and the long distance numbers you call most often, assigned on your keypad by the numbers 1-8. You then dial 1-647-476-7070. You get a busy signal, so you don't pay for the call. You hang up.

AeroMobile, the provider of mobile phone services to airlines, today announced Emirates as the world’s first airline to introduce in-flight mobile phone use for passengers.

AeroMobile allows passengers the choice and convenience of safely using their own mobile phones in flight to stay in contact with family, friends and colleagues by phone and text messaging. AeroMobile, based in Crawley, West Sussex, has developed an aircraft system which controls the power output of all mobile phones down to the minimum level allowing their safe use onboard aircraft.

(Last July, ASI Entertainment, applied for a patent for a new concept that allows cell phones to be operated in-flight.)