Microsoft really wasn't kidding when they announced their intention to bring Windows Mobile to the top of the smartphone market. The Redmond-based company has announced that it expects its mobile phone platform to grow by a remarkable 50% per year in 2008 and 2009 - fueled by a fast-growing smartphone market. Smartphone shipments grew by [...]

05/26/08 - Convert popular compressed audio formats to ringtone format.

05/26/08 - Convert your favorite MP3 songs into ringtones.

05/26/08 - Build ring tones for your MP3 or WAV compatible mobile devices.

05/27/08 - Manage your portfolio from your mobile device.

Semiconductor maker OmniVision Technologies Inc. has developed a radically different image sensor that can squeeze many more pixels on a tiny chip, providing a significant improvement in camera-phone picture quality, it said today. The new design employs a technique called "backside illumination," or BSI, that allows small pixels to absorb as much light as large pixels do in conventional image sensors. That means OmniVision can squeeze eight megapixels into the same space as current technology a...

Engineers have created a way to use cell phone Bluetooth signals to determine how long it takes vehicles and pedestrians to travel from one point to another. The method envisioned by engineers at the Indiana Department of Transportation offers a low-cost solution for everything from the speed of the morning commutes to the sluggishness of airport security lines. "This is incredibly valuable information that could be used for many purposes, including better traffic signal timing and management of...

Windows Mobile device makers are on the rage. HTC unveiled the Diamond, Sony Ericsson - XPERIA X1, and Samsung is preparing to roll-out its "iPhone answer" - i900. There's certainly a momentum for Microsoft's mobile platform and once all the devices mentioned above are released, picking the right one won't be an easy task. XPERIA [...]

In the UK: Tracking technology created by Path Technologies is being used to watch how shoppers mobe around shopping malls, according to The Register. By installing their receivers in the shopping centre, Path are able to pick up comms between handsets and base stations, enabling location-fix to within a couple of metres. There are apparently two [...]

Mobile Entertainment reports that France Telecom is planing to spend 200mn Euros on movies and TV this year. As most of you know, the French OpCo has moved strongly in to "Triple Play" - that is to say it has Mobile, TV, and Internet subscribers. As such, there needs to be a co-ordinated approach to [...]

UK: Woolworths announced yesterday a dual-change to it's current retailing of music and video - firstly, that from August, it would no longer sell CD singles in it's stores - and secondly that it was launching a digital download site for Mobiles. The new Woolworths site will offer ringtones, wallpapers, and Java games for mobiles, and [...]

A week ago we posted more details about the upcoming Samsung L870 smarpthone. Now we have even more information as the Korean giant officially unveiled the device at S60 Summit in Barcelona, Spain. The official specs go like this: Network: HSDPA (2100MHz) 3.6Mbps, plus tri-band (900/1800/1900) EDGE/GPRS Display: 2.4-inch QVGA 16M Color TFT screen Camera: 3 megapixels Operating System: Symbian [...]

Sony Ericsson may be announcing more devices on June 17th. Nothing is confirmed at this stage, but if this happens, we'll probably see the Swedish-Japanese handset maker going all official with two Symbian UIQ smartphones - G702 BeiBei and P5 Paris. After all, we saw both devices out in the wild, and BeiBei has even [...]

Opera Software has announced a "silent" update of its Opera Mini 4.1 web browser for BlackBerry and Palm device users. With the new version (4.1.11355) of Opera Mini, BlackBerry users should now be able to only use WiFi. In addition, BIS might be working, though Opera Mini folks can't guarantee that — it works on one [...]

Sony Ericsson may be the new entrant to the world of Windows Mobile but they are certainly serious to make their entrance a memorable one. We already think of the XPERIA X1 as the single best Windows Mobile phone announced to date. The newly released XPERIA white paper adds two important details to the mix. [...]

If SlingMedia can do it, so can Monsoon Multimedia which just announced HAVA Mobile Player for S60. Earlier we saw their "TV place-shifting video-streaming solution" hitting Nokia Internet Tablets and now it's about time Nokia smartphone owners also take their TV experience with them, no matter where they happen to be. The HAVA Mobile Player for [...]

Russia's largest mobile phone operator Mobile TeleSystems OJSC announced the commercial launch of its 3G network in the country. Saint Petersburg is the first city to get 3G, and the company also announced the "technical readiness" to launch 3G network in Sochi, Yekaterinburg and Kazan. In total, MTS plans to cover more than 10 cities [...]

This week at the 2008 S60 Summit, Monsoon Multimedia announced a HAVA Mobile Player for S60, due out next quarter. The HAVA box allows users to place- and time-shift their television, accessing it the internet. Read the full story here.

Samsung has announced the SGH-L870, its latest smartphone powered by the Symbian OS and Nokia's S60 user interface. This slider handset sports a 3 megapixel camera and a Webkit-based S60 browser that offers a near-desktop browsing experience. Read the full story here.

The Supertooth 3 is the latest Bluetooth speakerphone to come from Australian Bluetooth manufacturer BlueAnt. The Supertooth 3 is more compact than the prior version, and sports advanced features like speaker independent voice dialing. Read the full story here.