Acutrack To Present Eco-friendly Solution At “Future Of Packaged Media”

(1888PressRelease) January 17, 2009 - LIVERMORE, Calif. - Asheesh Barman, Executive Vice President of Acutrack, Inc. will address the attendees of The Future of Packaged Media 09 being held at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City, California from February 3-4, 2009 as a featured speaker. The Future of Packaged Media is the new industry event that attempts to dispel the hype that physical optical discs containing entertainment content is quickly disappearing from the marketplace in favor of electronic delivery. The event is being produced by the Content Delivery and Storage Association, MEDIA-TECH Association, and the Entertainment Merchants Association, the three leading trade organizations representing media manufacturing, equipment suppliers, and the retail supply chain. The two-day program will address technology, content and marketing challenges. A product showcase will provide attendees with an opportunity to see the latest technology solutions as well.Panel sessions and featured speakers representing Hollywood content producers and others along the packaged media supply chain will discuss the current state of packaged media—both standard and high-definition — and what they're doing to sustain its viability in the future while minimizing its environmental impact.Asheesh Barman of Acutrack, Inc. will talk about the principles of eco-friendly CD/DVD manufacturing spanning packaging choices for CD, DVD and Blu-ray and on demand production and fulfillment of optical media. “Acutrack, considered among the leaders in world-wide On-Demand CD/DVD manufacturing and Blu-ray production is proud to practice such principles on a daily basis in its production environment and I look forward to sharing what we have learned and developed with the participants of the Future of Packaged Media 09,” said Barman. About Acutrack, Inc. Acutrack can help you publish & distribute your content worldwide on Digital/Offset Print, CD/DVD/Blu-ray or USB. We pride ourselves on working with our clients to create custom and scalable solutions that meet their current needs and can grow with their future needs. We enjoy a leadership position in the industry by combining state-of-the-art technology with the talents of experienced professionals whose priorities are quality, customer service and innovation. For more information, please visit http://www.acutrack.com.

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Mobistar,one of Belgium's three mobile telecommunications operators in cooperation with Sony Ericsson, is launching a new interactive Bluetooth campai

All Bluetooth users can benefit from a unique one-week offer allowing them to receive free of charge a Christina Aguilera ringtone if they are within 30 metres of an Abribus. With this Abribus campaign Mobistar is taking the road of permission marketing.
Today Mobistar is surprising its customers and other mobile users with an exclusive Abribus campaign. The telecom operator is the first to use the new Bluetooth technology from Alterwave commercialised by JCDecaux Innovate within the 2m2 JCDecaux network. “Traditional mass communication must give way to new communication methods. This campaign illustrates the concept of interactive communication and is based on the principles of permission marketing" states Chris Van Roey, Chief Communication Officer of Mobistar.
The Abribus – equipped with a Bluetooth data server – can detect a Bluetooth-activated handset within a range of 30 metres. The consumer then receives a message asking whether he would like to receive a ringtone. If he accepts, the consumer receives from Mobistar, free of charge, the Christina Aguilera True Tone. All one needs is a True Tone compatible mobile phone with Bluetooth technology.
“Music plays an important role in the lives of young people. To create a unique music experience via mobile and to further reinforce our position with the music and youth segment, Mobistar cooperated with JCDecaux Innovate, Sony Ericsson and Sony BMG to develop this interactive campaign" comments Van Roey.The Mobistar and Sony Ericsson interactive Abribus campaign, which is part of a global Abribus campaign, starts as of today in 8 major Belgian cities (Antwerp, Brussels, Brugge, Charleroi, Gent, Hasselt, Luik and Leuven)* and runs from 12 till 18 September.

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Bluetooth marketing offers free ad-related multimedia content

Zoom Media & Marketing has announced the launch of a fixed indoor Bluetooth advertising network in more than100 bars and restaurants throughout New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Working in partnership with Kameleon Technologies, a leading provider of Bluetooth media hardware, software and content, the network will consist of 36” x 22” illuminated backlit boards equipped with a Kameleon Mobizone device that allows consumers to download free multimedia content to their Bluetooth-enabled phone.
“With over 70% of new phones being Bluetooth enabled, Bluetooth marketing will continue to be a growing, dynamic and unique way for advertisers to engage consumers," said Lee Levitz, vice president of marketing at Zoom Media & Marketing. “Now we can offer our advertisers the opportunity to ‘broadcast’ free ad-related content like video trailers, music tracks, movie previews, sports clips, and coupon offers to complement their in-bar campaigns.”
“The Zoom partnership is an exciting opportunity for us to showcase our Bluetooth mobile technology and services,” said Patrick Nagle, CEO of MobiZone Inc. “We can monitor download ‘accepts’ in real time and report to advertisers a quantification of the results. Additional mobile services like SMS links and WAP links can also be added into the content offering so that advertisers can gauge immediate calls to action and connect with interested customers.”
Levitz added that Zoom’s network of restaurants and nightclubs are perfect locations for the Bluetooth billboards because of the high traffic levels, and ability to attract affluent, young, trend-setting consumers that often spend long periods of ‘dwell time’ around the boards with their mobile phones.
Stay connected!
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Is Your Marketing Blue? The Latest Bluetooth Technology can be yours.

Did you know you you can send adverts to mobile phones for FREE using bluetooth marketing also know as proximity advertising.
I have just discovered a great new piece of technology that is already being used in Europe.
This is an environmentally friendly way to avertise using digital flyers that are sent to mobile phones that are bluetooth enabled.
This product wil revolutionise advertising for both business advertisers and realtors ...imagine sending out your flyer, message, video, blog or website to the audiences handset...promoting your message.
Imagine you or your business hitting every passer by with a digital flyer about your company direct to their phone. By the way this is not just for real estate agents it can be used by all types of businesses.
Say I wrote a blog about why I love the Celebration Lifestyle. You can send this page right from the office or from your car in Celebration. You can target visitors coming for the car show, art show, or snow time (Celebration is famous for this during the holiday season and we are Florida after ll).

You can send a short video annoucing your latest listing be the first one to see it.

You could share the latest market report

This is not spamming as the customer can decide to accept the message or not. There are lots of other options for it and several different uses which the videos will explain and sizes to fit every budget.
Check it out and let me know what you think. I have already started sharing this with past customers in business too.
What other uses will you find to make it add to your bottom line?
Watch the videos and you will see just how effective this could be don't miss the one about the night clubs it shows some of the advanced techniques.
You can watch all the videos about this and learn more about this powerful product you may have an i-pod but will you move forward to another called an ad-pod.
Enjoy.

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Bluetooth Marketing for Career Expos/Job Fairs

Have you ever used bluetooth for marketing purposes? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth Nearly all mobile phones and laptops have bluetooth installed by default, and we use it to transfer images, ringtones, documents, connect to one another or to other hardware. Feb/March is always around the time Universities and organisations hold Career Expos or Job Fairs. But did you know you can use it as a marketing medium to attract candidates?Around this time last year, I initially approached a number of employers to see if they were interested in trying out an idea...The expo was held at a major university in Melbourne during April 2008. Which, 5 employers collectively engaged me to help them attract graduates to their respective brands. 2 x Engineering 1 x Bank1 x Professional Service1 x Government Agency If you have been to a careers expo or job fair before, all employers are pushing freebies, flyers and so forth. As you would be aware - these expos can attract hundreds/thousands of Graduates wanting to work for these organisations. There are usually 2 or 3 staff for each stand, and they just cant talk to each potential candidate at once. There is so many information sheets being handed out to each person most of which just ends up in the bin!The process was quite simple, I set up a recruitment message (campaign) for each employer and then put it into some "bluetooth push marketing software" I have and left it on a computer in the expo hall. I made the assertion that every university student had a mobile phone.We had some posters on each employer stand which read "Want to find out about the application process? Turn your mobile phone bluetooth on to receive the information" Every campaign had the online careers page URL for users to either find out more information or apply for the Graduate program. The software sends out the campaigns automatically pinging any mobile device in the area - it also has a reporting system that records how many/who it was sent to. It locates mobile phone devices within 20 meters from a dedicated hotspot. The results from the trial were varied. I can’t split the results for each employer's campaign but here are the totals for the expo
1400 phones found
980 accepted the message
420 rejected the message
78 failed (but then tried again) Overall I think it went very well. The demographics was 90% Gen Y and the employers were more than happy with the integrated marketing approach. Total cost of the project was quite low, and certainly it attracted candidates to their respective brands. The challenge is how to use this innovative tool wisely, and certainly add value to the users. This marketing medium has a lot of impact on end users, so it should be used with wisdom.Unfortunately I can't give any details to who the employers were, but certainly contact me if you want to find out how you can do this for your recruitment campaign in 2009!

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MWC: Voice Control

Next up, Ditech which looks, sounds and behaves like a start-up, but has actually been around for the past 10 years. In that time, it’s made its name selling systems to network operators that improve voice call quality, so it’s got its foot firmly in the door of some of the big players. Its big idea now is to sell these same operators its mStage platform, which brings an element of voice activation to the party. So a caller, mid-call, could say a unique keyword, such as ‘Talk-talk’ which would open up access to voice services. This could be to access the user’s calendar to schedule a meeting, or to update their Facebook profile. “Pretty much anything you can do with Instant Messagingor social networking via text, mStage would enable you to do with voice,” Michael Lambert, Ditech’s Senior Director of Product Marketing told me. According to Lambert, the 20-somethigns the company has demoed the platform too are “all over it”. The networks like it to, he says, as it presents an opportunity to monetise social networking. At this conceptual stage, it might seem a little hard to get your head round – we couldn’t get a demo as some guy from a little firm called AT&T was hogging the demo PC during our briefing – but if nothing else, those three words, “monetise social networking” should be enough to get most operators interested in mStage.

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MWC: Jinny Platform Targets Growth Markets

And so on to Jinny, which made its name providing messaging solutions to mobile network operators. It got into mobile advertising at the request of those operators, and has now announced the official launch of what it is calling its Mobile Marketing & Advertising Service. This is a way of connecting mobile networks that want to monetise their mobile portals with advertising, with agencies looking to run campaigns. Jinny says the service takes responsibility for managing almost every aspect of a mobile advertising campaign for operators and advertisers, enabling them to implement comprehensive mobile marketing and advertising strategies quickly and effectively. It offers the complete range of marketing and advertising channels expected from the mobile environment, from straightforward insertion into application-to-person messages, through to the delivery of Internet advertising and inbound/outbound campaigns. For the ad agencies, the service provides a quick., easy and efficient way to deploy mobile campaigns, Jinny is focusing its efforts on growth markets, such as S. East Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South and Central America, where, as Jinny’s Head of Mobile Advertising, Cathal O’Toole, puts it: “it is early days for mobile advertising; most of the operators have little or no advertising solutions deployed. Jinny’s platform is currently deployed by Zain Jordan, and O’Toole says the company will be in a position to reveal the names of other operator clients for the platform in the coming weeks. The Jinny solution is capable of inserting ads in messaging and browsing sessions. Banner ads are all on-portal, but pre-roll ads can be on-portal or off. O’Toole says the platform has two key USPs. The first is the agency partnership piece, the second, the company’s detailed understanding of messaging infrastructure. “We know how to handle high traffic volumes and load sharing across operators. This is not something that can be learned overnight,” he says.
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MWC: Standard Issue

My next briefing was with Jeri Owen, VP of Marketing at DigiMarc, which licences technology building blocks to its partners. One of these, Spanish firm aquaMobile, is a member of the Digital Watermarking Alliance, which also counts Philips, Thomson and research firm Nielsen, among its members. aquaMobile creates digital watermarks for printed content. A digital watermark is invisible to the naked eye, but enables a machine, or a phone, to interact with the content, so it’s basically a QR Code that you can’t see.Owen says that digital watermarks are preferable to QR Codes from an aesthetic point of view, because they are either invisible, or if you do need to have a symbol to tell people that the content is interactable with, it can be whatever you choose. Aquamobile uses a small camera icon, but it could just as well be the brand's logo. The DWA, in fact, has produced a Whitepaper comparing and contrasting barcode and digital watermarking technologies, which we hope to reproduce in the not-too-distant future. But while digital watermarking is undoubtedly clever, it seems me that it’s one more standard, and one more application, that you need on your mobile in order to engage with this stuff. The day that digital watermarks, QR Codes, barcodes and all the other various bits of technology that enable you to initiate a digital interaction with a brand by pointing your phone at its marketing collateral come together in one unified standard will be a happy one. It will also, no doubt, encourage more brands to use whatever technology it is that wins out. Be honest, have you seen many campaigns using a QR Code lately? No, me neither.
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MWC: Social Call

Our last meeting of the day was with INQ Mobile, the Hutchison-Whampoa-owned handset maker that released its first, and so far only, handset, the ‘Social Mobile’ in the UK in November, describing it at the time as: “the world’s most advanced social networking mobile phone.”As regular readers will know, we don’t spend a massive amount of time covering handsets – we figure there are enough gadget sites to do that - but I was interested to know what makes a social networking phone a social networking phone, and INQ Marketing & Strategy Director Jeff Taylor was on hand to explain. There’s more to the phone, in fact, than meets the eye. Taylor told me that the device nothing less than an attempt to help mobile networks move the majority of their users onto data plans. “The operators have pretty much failed to sell the mobile Internet,” Taylor told me. “So rather than loading more and more features onto high-end devices, we set out to launch an affordable one that makes it easy for regular people to use the mobile web.”At £79, or free on a £15 per month contract with 3 in the UK, the phone is certainly affordable. But what is it about the phone that makes it easier to use the web?“The key barrier to uptake is that the customer has to learn new behaviours,” says Taylor. “So we have built the mobile web into the places the customer goes.”This breaks down into three areas: the address book, the inbox, and the idle screen. The address book lists all the user’s contacts, and against each, he can see whether they are on Facebook, Instant Messenger or other communications services. If the contact in question is on Facebook, the user can get straight to their Facebook page with one click, without the need to launch an application. If the friend calls, the phone will automatically retrieve his Facebook photo and assign it to his contact entry. There’s one inbox for everything, including emails, texts, Facebook updates and IM messages. Each has its own folder, but the user can see everything at the top level. The idle screen has several widgets, updating things such as the weather and Facebook status updates every 20 minutes or so. Thanks to a traffic management system, says Taylor, the phone does not pull down large amounts of data to do this. After the UK launch, the phone was rolled out in Australia and Ireland, with Hong Kong and Italy next on the list. Other devices are also planned, and Taylor says the company is offering the handset to non-Hutchison networks. Most tellingly, he says, INQ is seeing “incredibly high activation” of the data service among users.What I liked about the phone was the thought process that’s gone into the design and, in particular, the user interface. It reminds me of a story I heard about someone being asked if they ever used the mobile web and replying that they didn’t. When questioned further, it transpired that they went on the operator’s portal several times every weekend to check the football scores, they just didn’t realise that was the mobile web. The more seamless, transparent and idiot-proof the networks can handset-makers can make the process of accessing data online from your phone, the more people will do it, to the benefit of everyone in the mobile marketing value chain. Who knows, Taylor and his colleagues at INQ might just achieve their aim of moving the majority of users on to data plans, no matter how unlikely that might seem.
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MWC Day 1 Wrap-up

More from MWC, by no means all of what's been announced today, we'll get some more written up tonight for the morning, and we'll be back tomorrow with the news from Day 2...
Vodafone revealed that it has signed an agreement with Opera Software to develop a custom-made version of its Opera Mini mobile browser. Vodafone says the move is aimed at giving customers with low- and mid-priced handsets a high quality mobile Internet experience on the go.Opera Mini will be available in Vodafone markets across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Vodafone says the browser is particularly appealing to customers in developing countries, who are likely to experience the Internet for the first time through a mobile phone
Alcatel-Lucent announced the launch of a multi-industry initiative, the ng Connect Program, that is dedicated to establishing “a rich and diverse ecosystem of infrastructure, devices, content and applications for both mobile and fixed broadband networks including 4G, Long Term Evolution (LTE), GPON and other ultra high bandwidth technologies.” ng Connect will bring the benefits of a seamless broadband experience to mobile phones, computers, cars, gaming systems and more, enabling consumers to stream more content, run more sophisticated applications on-the-go. Founded by Alcatel-Lucent, the program has attracted initial members including HP, Samsung, 4DK, Buzznet, Chumby, Connect2Media, dimedis, FISHLABS, QNX, SIGNEXX, Total Immersion, Alcatel-Lucent also revealed that it has completed a series of data calls - involving terminals from third-party suppliers - using LTE technology for Time Division Duplex (TDD) spectrum (TD-LTE), a mobile broadband standard that will be used by operators in China and across the globe. The company has also introduced new capabilities for its Alcatel-Lucent Venture product solution, touchatag, formerly known as tikitag. These new enhancements include 2D barcode support, extended API, and new business solutions. This will assist application developers, businesses and consumers in creating contactless applications for touchatag that link real world objects to information and applications on the Internet, PC, Mac or mobile.
Tellabs released the results of a survey it commissioned research firm Nielsen to carry out. The survey of over 50,000 European and US mobile users found that consumers intend to dramatically increase their use of mobile data services over the next two years, with a significant ramp-up in the next 12 months.The Tellabs-commissioned survey shows that up to 71% of consumers anticipate daily use of services such as mobile Internet. Yet mobile users continue to raise concerns about cost, speed and quality of service.The research, conducted in the five larger Western European countries and the United States by Nielsen for Tellabs, analysed 10 mobile data services. It reveals that more than half of the approximately 200 million mobile data users in those countries expect to increase use in the next two years.
Roamware, which provides mobile roaming solutions, announced the launch of Data Tariff Advisor and Roaming Service Controller. Both products enable operators to meet proposed European Union regulations mandating the introduction of tariff transparency, control and safeguard mechanisms for roaming use of data services. The solutions seamlessly addresses the regulatory requirements, while transforming them into revenue-generating opportunities for operators; improving customer retention, increasing roaming data usage and reducing fraud.
On2 Technologies launched its latest video encoder, the Hantro 8270 1080p. The encoder, available for licensing in March, 2009, supports H.264 video as well as 16 megapixel JPEG still images. Designed for low-power chipsets, the 8270 delivers 30 frames per second 1080p video in less than 250MHz designs. The improvements in the encoder include proprietary Hantro technologies for video stabilization and automatic scene-change detection.
The GSM Association (GSMA) reported significant progress in the Rich Communication Suite (RCS) Initiative, a service providing interoperable, enriched communication capabilities such as in-call multimedia sharing, conversational messaging and presence-enhanced contact management, all accessible through a user’s mobile phone contact list. The GSMA says the initiative has generated considerable momentum across a number of fronts since it brought RCS into its work programme in September 2008, including the delivery of the RCS Release 1 specification, the addition of new programme participants and the successful completion of interoperability tests.The GSMA recently issued the first technical specification for RCS, defining the feature set for the first version of the service and ensuring that vendors will be able to develop standard, interoperable implementations.
Bitstream revealed that its BOLT mobile browser is now available as a free public beta offering. Bitstream included 30,000 people in the private beta that started a month ago and made a number of other improvements and optimizations for certain phones in the public build that went live today. For example, the navigation of the pointer/cursor is more fluid on BlackBerry trackballs. Bitstream says that BOLT will work on the majority of the mobile devices. Additionally, it says, BOLT is around 25% faster than its competitors when downloading for full real web pages and multimedia content. You can download BOLT here.
BuzzCity revealed the results of worldwide research conducted across its mobile advertising network. The research divulges when, how and why people use the mobile internet, as well as identifying global user demographics and activity patterns. The survey was conducted in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, among users of the 2,000 mobile publisher sites that form BuzzCity’s mobile advertising network.The study found that less than 6% of users use the mobile Internet when travelling or when outdoors. 70% of those polled surf the mobile web from home, while 11% browse while at work. Users tend to access the mobile Internet regularly and often, with 87% accessing the mobile Internet more than once daily and more than half accessing it over five times a day. 81% of users surf for more than 15 minutes in one session, and this tends to be in the evening, with 36% logging on after their evening meal. Just under half of those surveyed (45%) access the mobile Internet from a Nokia device.Typically, users access the mobile Internet to communicate with friends through online tools like chat, blogs and discussion groups, with 60% citing this as their main activity. 16% use the mobile Internet for entertainment purposes and 10% to find information.
Rapid Mobile Media announced an agreement with MSHK Group, whose portfolio includes brands such as Ministry of Sound, Hed Kandi, Hard2Beat and Global Underground) to deliver a range of mobile applications that capture the style, fun and entertainment values associated with their music and entertainment brands. The interactive applications will enable MSHK Group to further extend its engagement with consumers through compelling content, designed to take advantage of contemporary handset capabilities. Rapid Mobile’s ThinkPhone delivery platforms and Ad360 mobile advertising server will maximise reach for MSHK Group’s service and provide additional branding and monetisation opportunities, whilst delivering the best possible user experience.
Mobixell Networks announced a multimedia messaging support package that enables iPhone users to send and receive MMS messages to and from any device. Mobixell’s MMS iPhone solution, an add-on to Mobixell’s Rich Media Service Centre (RMSC) which is already widely installed in mobile operator’s networks worldwide, encourages traffic increase for the operator by enabling an MMS-style experience via email for the end user. This includes retaining the original rich media presentation experience; the forwarding of email to MMS to any device; and retaining the iPhone profile usage for media adaptation. Separately, Mobixell announced a partnership with Spanish mobile advergaming company Unkasoft to deliver multi-channel, rich-media advertising campaigns, including in-game ads. The companies say the alliance will allow mobile operators and content providers to offer a comprehensive multi-channel mobile advertising solution to brand owners, which includes the option of ad-funded games.
Mobile email provider Emoze revealed that it is partnering with India's largest enterprise communications service provider, Tulip Telecom. The partnership will see Tulip offer its business customers mobile business email, calendar and contacts information from Emoze.
Zain announced plans to bring mobile banking to over 100 million people in East Africa with the launch of its new service, Zap. The service will be available initially in Kenya and Tanzania, prior to launch in Uganda. Zain is partnering with leading international and regional banks, including Citigroup and Standard Chartered to launch Zap, which will allow Zain customers in the three countries to use their mobile phone to pay bills and pay for goods and services; receive money and send money to friends and family; send and receive money to the bank accounts; withdraw cash; top up their own airtime account or someone else's; send airtime to Zain customers in East Africa; and manage their bank accounts.
And finally, Voice On The Go announced the launch of additional new features to its ‘Email by Voice’ solution. Mobile users can now leverage Email by Voice and SMS by Voice solutions to reply to, compose and forward email and SMS by voice, as text, without the need to type. Voice on the Go requires nothing more than a mobile phone from which users can access their email and SMS by voiceVoice on the Go is available in 60 countries and in seven language versions; English (US & UK), French, Spanish, Italian, German and Dutch.

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MWC Day 2 Morning News Round-up

Another busy morning at MWC. Here are some of the key annnouncements...
Handset maker HTC revealed that it had selected ALK Technologies’ CoPilot Live navigation software to provide turn-by-turn voice guidance on the new GPS-enabled Touch Cruise Smartphone in selected territories. In addition to navigation-based services, such as live local search and weather information, the Touch Cruise also sports HTC’s FootPrints photo navigation application, which enables users to permanently chronicle their special moments by capturing and storing a digital postcard on their phone.
Another handset-maker, LG, unveiled the LG ARENA (LG-KM900), which boasts a 3D user interface, and is the first handset in the world to incorporate Dolby Mobile surround sound. LG Electronics also found time to demo the world’s first market-ready Touch Watch Phone, the LG-GD910, with 3G video telephony capabilities. Tomorrow, it will demo the first data card based on 3G PP LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology.
ABBYY, which provides document recognition, data capture and linguistic software, demoed a preview version of its FotoTranslate mobile application, which has to be one of the show’s wackier ones. FotoTranslate combines ABBYY’s optical character recognition (OCR) technology and mobile dictionary software, enabling users to translate words by photographing them with their phone. In a few seconds, the program automatically recognizes the photographed word, looks it up in the dictionary database and shows the translation on the phone screen.
The GSM Association (GSMA) held a Leadership Summit, bringing together 400 CEOs, government ministers and officials, who stressed the unique role that broadband, specifically mobile broadband, can play as an economic stimulus. The Summit called on governments to support the rollout of mobile broadband services to drive economic growth. The Summit also noted that the switchover to digital television will present a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to make low-frequency spectrum, in which radio waves travel long distances and better penetrate the walls of buildings, available for mobile broadband services. Of the 400MHz of low-frequency spectrum freed up by the switch-off of analogue television, the GSMA believes 100MHz should be used to enable the roll out of cost-effective mobile broadband networks. In the same vein, the GSMA awarded its annual Government Leadership Award to France, which it said has taken several key policy decisions that will ensure the vast majority of its people will be able to benefit from cost-effective, high-performance mobile broadband services.
Openwave announced the launch of Openwave Email Mx 8.0, an extensible, carrier-scale email solution that supports mobile email using the IMAP IDLE standard, and high capacity mailboxes. The IMAP IDLE feature enables service providers to offer mobile email directly to their subscribers with any compatible handset, while high capacity mailboxes offer almost limitless storage to handle the increasing amount of rich content.
Nokia became the latest firm to open an App Store. The Nokia store will distribute applications, of course, but also, user-generated content and widgets.
Cisco announced support for the LTE (Long Term Evolution) gateway on the Cisco 7600 Series Router. Cisco also launched the Cisco Wireless Security Gateway as part of its offering to support the security needs of various in-home licensed and unlicensed wireless broadband technologies, such as UMA and Femto, which enable service providers to scale their service offerings. The Cisco Gateway solution is based on the Cisco 7600 Series Router and can support up to 900,000 IPSec sessions.
Mobile games publisher Gameloft used the show to announce that it has sold over 200 million mobile games since launching in 2003. The Gameloft catalogue now contains close to 300 entries in all existing categories. Gameloft games are available in more than 80 countries, and are generally adaptable to all phones and platforms.
Bridgewater Systems unveiled the Subscriber Data Broker, a subscriber data management solution that brings together dynamic subscriber data with the tools needed to broker the data to multiple systems and applications. Bridgewater says the Subscriber Data Broker will enable operators to reduce operating costs, and create and deliver personalized services more quickly. Separately, Bridgewater announced that it has received a multi-million dollar order from a large, North American mobile service provider for the Bridgewater Policy Controller, to manage its successful streaming video, music and content service. It is also being used to authorize and authenticate subscribers for third-party applications.
Advanced Receiver Technologies (ART) unveiled its interference cancellation technology, which is designed to improve voice call connectivity and offer uninterrupted high speed broadband to 3G mobile users without changes to the network. It addresses the problem of inter- and intra-cell interference which reduces 3G network capacity by 50% and restricts the data transfer rate at cell edge by 70%, degrading data transfer performance for 3G mobile users.
ACCESS CO., which provides advanced software technologies to the mobile and beyond-PC markets, revealed that it has reinforced the capabilities of its NetFront Widgets solution by adding support for the Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) BONDI standard, by increasing the number of supported platforms and by expanding available services. NetFront Widgets provides operators and handset manufacturers with a comprehensive solution comprising client (device), server, community site and content. By adopting NetFront Widgets, the company says, operators and handset manufacturers can accelerate development and delivery of high value-added widget services.
Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm and LG, announced an agreement to begin the development of mirasol-enabled handsets. mirasol displays consume significantly less power than other display technologies, extending handset battery life.
VASCO Data Security unveiled DIGIPASS for Mobile 3.0, an authentication solution for mobile phones offering time- and event-based two-factor authentication and digital signature capability. This latest version of DIGIPASS for Mobile focuses on an improved user experience. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) has been revamped. Menus, messages, logos, colours, font can be fully adapted to the bank’s branding, supporting the brand recognition for the end-user. It also supports multiple languages including Asian Character sets amongst others Mandarin and Japanese. Menus have been extended and include links to services like ATM locator and WAP information.
Bharti Telesoft, which provides integrated VAS solutions for mobile operators in emerging markets, launched an aggregation system that it says will transform operators' ability to launch innovative new voice applications quickly and cost effectively. Bharti says its AVAN (Aggregated Voice Applications Network) enables operators to deliver an unlimited portfolio of voice-activated rich applications instantly, and at the same time optimize the existing network to realize major efficiencies in terms of network utilization and operational resource. This is achieved without any upfront investment, creating a sustainable competitive advantage for operators in rapidly expanding markets where subscribers demand voice-enabled access to content.
SpinVox announced its intention to release SpinVox Create, an open API (Application Programming Interface) to VMCS, the world’s largest commercial speech platform. SpinVox says that SpinVox Create is a response to an increasing demand for voice conversion services from technology developers who recognise that a speech interface enables the most natural form of communication and who want to build Speech 2.0 applications and are looking for best-in-class open products. The company intends to deliver SpinVox Create as a simple, straightforward API to leverage its commercial speech platform, to enable any developer with web access to quickly build commercial speech applications. It will also enable SpinVox to collaborate with third parties to foster further innovations in voice and expand the Speech 2.0 market. SpinVox also announced the launch of Portuguese and Italian as the fifth and sixth languages in its multi-lingual service offering, as it targets the expanding Brazilian, Portuguese and Italian telecoms markets. The company also revealed that it has converted more than 100 million voice-to-text messages in the two years since its service started to be rolled out with carriers around the world.
Stantum Technologies, which develops multi-touch sensing technology, announced a multi-touch framework including gesture recognition, context-dependent cursor management, and a virtual physics processor. Called TouchPark, the new framework will run on leading operating systems (Symbian, Windows Mobile, and Android) and semiconductor platforms, including Texas Instruments Zoom, Freescale i.MX, and ST Nomadic. TouchPark’s gesture recognition module interprets such user gestures as pinch (zoom), twist, close, and rotate. The virtual physics processor provides a natural look and feel of actions shown on the display, based on the type and speed of gestures used on the multi-touch panel; for example, it can slow down the speed during the final phase of a scrolling on lists or graphical objects and can bound when reaching an edge or a limit defined by a window or the screen size.
Sony Music announced an agreement with MATERNA Communications to create a retail offering on its labels’ artist sites across Europe, enabling the sale of digital downloads direct to consumers. The service will support a variety of localised payment methods pursuant to a co-operation with payment service provider, GlobalCollect. Relevant launch dates and applicable territories are expected to be revealed in the next few weeks.
APT Licensing, the developer and licensor of apt-X audio compression technology, announced a partnership with CSR, which provides wireless semiconductors for Bluetooth connectivity, to provide a seamless ecosystem for delivering high quality stereo audio wireless connectivity between Bluetooth A2D- enabled devices, such as music mobiles, Smartphones, portable media players and netbooks. The technology collaboration further advances the existing business-to-business relationship between the two companies established through the CSR eXtension Partner Program. This is an open program for developers of DSPs (digital signal processors), helping CSR’s electronics OEM customers differentiate their products, using a range of third-party audio and DSP enhancements.
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MWC: Yahoo! Unveils Yahoo! mobile

Right now, I’m in a Yahoo! press conference, where Yahoo Connected Life Executive Vice President Marco Boerries is in the middle of unveiling Yahoo! Mobile, describing it as “Your starting point to the Internet”. Yahoo mobile is, essentially a homepage for mobile browsing from where you can easily jump off to your favourite places. It comes pre-loaded with one-click links to popular services such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Yahoo! Maps, but users can also add their own. Users can either choose from a pre-populated list of popular widgets, or use the integrated Yahoo! oneSEARCH voice-activated search engine. When you get the results of your search, there’s an option in the menu to add any returned site to the Yahoo! Mobile launcher. This extends to friends too. If you have someone you want to keep in touch with, you can add them to the launcher too, for one-click access to their social network updates. Another feature called Pulse aggregates all of your social network updates in one screen. Yahoo! mobile also inorporates Yahoo! oneCONNECT and onePLACEYahoo! mobile is available as a browser version, but also as a downloadable application for the iPhone and for Smartphones from Nokia, RIM (Blackberry), LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Windows devices. Boerries also revealed that an Android version will be released at some point. The mobile app doanload incorporate the Opera Mini mobile browser. The browser version is available initially as a private, invitation-only beta, with the full release, along with the iPhone app, due at the end of March. The Smartphone version ships at the end of May.
David MurphyEditor

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MWC: The Buzz Around Nimbuzz

Just out of a meeting with Nimbuzz VP of Business Development, Geoff Casely, who was looking very pleased with himself. And well he might, as the company’s social messaging application has just been selected for pre-loading onto Toshiba’s TG01 handset. I had not seen Nimbuzz at first hand before and it is a very neat application. As Casely puts it: “You put your life into Nimbuzz”. That includes your address book, and all the various types of messaging you use, from Instant Messaging to email and social networking. When you call up the address book, it tells you which of your contacts are online, and via which network/device (PC/mobile, IM, Nimbuzz etc). It also geotags them, so you can see where they are. Users can turn this feature off, but Casely explained how it could be used by parents to check that their kids are where they say they are. If they’re not, or if they have turned the feature off, the parent can ‘buzz’ them. This makes their phone ring once, then gives them a message saying that you want to talk to them, or communicate with them some other way. Nimbuzz runs an Ambassador programme in which real people get early access to new features in return for feeding back to the company on what they and their friends think of them. “We’re trying to learn from some of the mistakes that other companies in this space” have made,” Casely told me. “You have to constantly ask yourself what more could you do, what’s the next thing.”Nimbuzz is on something of a roll. In addition to the Toshiba announcement, it is also being used by two social networks, one in Germany, StudioVZ, which has 12 million users, and another in Italy, Giovani, which has 2 million. It was also recently named in the Red Herring Global 100 list of tech companies, and has a new iPhone client out this week, updating the one launched towards the end of last year, which was very well received. Whatever that next thing is, chances are that it will be worth watching.
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You’re Surround Sounded

There’s more news coming in all the time, we’re just busy flitting from briefing to briefing and then writing them up, but we’ll get through it all in due course. I’ve just had a brief catch-up with Rapid Mobile Media CEO Jeremy Copp, in which he told me about the company’s new Ad2txt solution. According to Copp, when companies send out text messages with a WAP link, they can’t count the number of people that end up on the WAP site by clicking on that link. I found this hard to believe, but he generally knows what he’s talking about, so I’ll take his word for it. In any event, Ad2txt, which is currently being tested with some of Rapid’s clients, solves the problem. After that, it was off to see Dolby Labs, who I used to write about in a previous life, when I spent far too long reviewing home cinema systems being played far too loud. Last year at MWC, Dolby announced Dolby Mobile, its surround sound solution for mobile phones. This year, it can tell the world that the solution is deployed on two handsets, both from LG, (plus some in Japan from Sharp). The Renoir launched last year and the Arena has just been announced. Surround sound on a phone is a great idea, especially if you’re going to use it for listening to music and watching movies, as people increasingly are. On theway out to Barcelona, I had a call from a hi-fi PR, who was going out representing hisclient Sennheiser at the show. Clearly, the hi-fi companies have started looking at the phone and taking it seriously ads a music device. The audio processor on the Renoir was music-focused, with bass and high frequency enhancers, and SoundSpace, which widens the soundstage when listening through headphones. The processor on the Arena is more focused on movie sound reproduction. The other development from Dolby is called Dolby Media Generator. This is a software solution that encodes content prior to being sent down to phones. Dolby is targeting the solution at content owners and aggregators, basically anyone selling music and/or video content. “The benefit for the operator or content owner is that customers will be more satisfied with the content and more likely to download more,” Dolby Account Manager Simon Arnold told me. “Heavily compressed video and sound and video can look and sound awful, but this will be fantastic.”On that point, it’s hard to argue. Dolby has long been synonymous with high quality audio processing, and the lengths it goes to in order to police its royalties and ensure that anything with a Dolby badge on meets its exacting standards, which were explained to me on a trip to the company’s San Francisco head office many years, ago, have to be seen to be believed. An additional benefit is that the solution can include metadata to help the ocntent owner sell more content. So when someone downloads one Oasis track, for example, they could get a link to sample another, or to a band that sound a bit like Oasis.The only slight caveat is that the MPEG4 files that will come out of the Dolby Media generator will only work on around 40% of the handsets on the market, though as Arnold pointed out, the sort of mobile user who downloads lots of music and video files is more likely than not to have an MPEG-4-equipped handset.

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MWC: iPointer Genius

I’ve just had the demo that, if I saw nothing else at this year’s show, made the trip worthwhile. When the company that gave it, Intelligent Spatial Technologies (iST) asked me to meet them at the show, I read their pitch and said yes immediately. When I asked them where they stand was and they told me they didn’t have one, I half thought of cancelling, but decided their application looked too good to miss. Having had it demoed to me, I now know I made the right decision. It’s called iPointer and it is simply a work of genius. The company has aggregated data on 50 cities in Europe and 58 in North America. This data relates to buildings, restaurants and other points of interest and has been collated form a variety of sources, such as the Yellow Book business directory in the US, for example. To give you an idea of the scale of the project, there are 96,000 buiildings in the Barcelona database.Now for the clever bit. Point your phone at any of the buildings in the database and the company’s server returns a ton of information on the building, including a text description, photos, perhaps multimedia content. The company’s CEO, Chris Frank, just stood with me outside Hall 7 of the Fira, pointed his Android phone at various buildings, even the fountain, and brought up content on each on the screen automatically. Now to do this, the phone needs to have what’s called digital compass capability. This is like a supercharged GPS. Not only does it know where it is, it also knows which way it’s pointing, which enables it to know which building you’re interested in. This sort of capability is only currently offered on the G1 and a couple of Nokias, plus some Japanese handsets, but according to Franks, several handset makers are planning more, including Motorola within the next two quarters, and LG within the next four to five quarters. iST’s plan is to deploy the application with network operators as a paid local search service. So if you point your iPointer-equipped phone at two restaurants, it would return very basic information for the one that had not paid to advertise, and much richer information for the one that had. “Google became successful because it delivered advertising in a very non-intrusive way,” Frank told me. “The carriers want to advertise to their customers, but not in a way that makes them feel they’re being spammed.”As Frank notes, the way the iPointer system is designed to work, the consumer would not perceive they were looking at an ad. They would, hopefully, realise they were looking at a work of genius.

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