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Nokia to integrate Skype into Nokia devices

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skypeSkype and Nokia forged a partnership that will bring the Skype experience to the Nokia range of mobile computers. Under the terms of the cooperation, Skype will be integrated into Nokia devices, starting with the Nokia Nseries. The Nokia N97 flagship device will be the first to incorporate the Skype experience in the 3rd quarter of 2009.

The Skype experience will be part of the address book of the Nokia N97, enabling presence – seeing when Skype contacts are online – as well as instant messaging. Nokia N97 owners around the world will also be able to use 3G and WLAN to easily make and receive free Skype-to-Skype voice calls, in addition to low-cost Skype calls to landlines and mobile devices.

“With more than 400 million Skype users worldwide, the integration of Skype on Nokia Nseries mobile computers is a significant step in bringing converged Internet experiences from the desktop to the world’s most advanced mobile computer,” said Jose-Luis Martinez, Vice President, Nokia Nseries.

Originally posted on February 17, 2009 @ 11:06 am

Glu Mobile releases Build-a-lot for Android Market

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Mobile games publisher Glu Mobile Inc. has launched the real estate strategy game Build-a-lot for the Android Market.

Build-a-lot is a strategy game where players build, buy, sell and rent properties to become a real estate mogul. Players can flip houses for quick cash or sit back and collect rental income. Earn enough, and they can work their way into commercial properties, build up towns and eventually master the market.

“We are proud to continue to support the Open Handset Alliance’s efforts with Android and believe Android Market provides a fertile environment for the business of mobile games,” said Jill Braff, senior vice president, global publishing, Glu Mobile. “Build-a-lot is an addictive game that will resonate with anybody who’s ever wanted to try their hand at the housing market.”

Originally posted on February 16, 2009 @ 2:53 pm

Boingo, Qik partner for Valentine’s Day and beyond

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qikBoingo Mobile and Qik are launching their partnership this Valentine’s Day to help lovebirds stream their devotion with live video from their mobile phones over Wi-Fi.

This partnership will enable Qik users to enjoy the global Boingo network for free for 30 days by signing up. For Valentine’s Day, Boingo will award three free Boingo Mobile accounts to the three best proclamation of love on Qik. Winners will be chosen for showing creativity, style, humor, and/or the most ardent declarations of love.

Boingo Mobile is a downloadable application for smartphones that simplifies the process of logging in to Wi-Fi hotspots.

Originally posted on February 11, 2009 @ 12:38 pm

MySpace Mobile launches new site

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13MySpace has launched a new, more integrated and optimized mobile website for the 20 million worldwide members accessing its mobile website every month.

MySpace also announced that it is committed to developing new applications for Nokia in their S60 web runtime environment and Palm’s new webOS, first available on the Palm Pre. MySpace is currently the only social network with applications that support all smartphone platforms currently active in mobile social networking: iPhone, Google Android, Sidekick, Nokia, Palm and BlackBerry.

The new mobile website enhances the look and feel of MySpace on mobile, making it even more consistent with the popular online MySpace experience. New user interface elements have been optimized for devices with screen sizes 176 pixels wide (and larger). It features the familiar “MySpace blue” color scheme and includes the ability to configure email photo upload. The new mobile website is supported in 13 languages and localized for 29 countries.

Originally posted on February 17, 2009 @ 10:32 am

Bitstream releases BOLT browser to mobile phones of all types

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boltBitstream Inc. announced the public beta of BOLT, a mobile browser built for speed and completely optimized for mobile phones. It provides a desktop-like view of web pages on even the most basic feature phones.

One month ago Bitstream began offering BOLT in a private beta that included more than 30,000 users around the world. From the data collected and comments received over the past month Bitstream made improvements to the user experience and further optimized BOLT by adding device-specific features and making pages load even faster.

BOLT features unrivaled speed of routinely 25 percent faster, and as much as 50 percent faster, than the next fastest competitor in speed tests. BOLT is also both optimized to conserve battery life, and to minimize data transmissions allowing people to browse longer without recharging batteries while consuming less data.

The BOLT mobile browser lets people view full websites as they would on a personal computer. It does so using a patented magnification technology that smoothly scales both text and images, letting users navigate to specific sections of large web pages and then zoom in to display clear text and images that look crisp on even small mobile phone screens. BOLT also supports streaming video from popular websites such as YouTube, vids.myspace.com, video.yahoo.com, blip.tv, dailymotion.com, and metacafe.com.

Originally posted on February 16, 2009 @ 3:06 pm