GetJar has been trialling the service with Facebook, which automatically offers users the correct version of the Facebook mobile app when they log onto www.facebook.com via their mobile, without needing to supply any details such as the phone make or model. Since the trial launched with Facebook the app regularly achieves significant downloads.

App Download Page works by providing mobile developers and content owners with a simple mobile webpage that can be linked to from any mobile site. When the mobile webpage is displayed on a phone, the device is automatically detected and the user is directed to the appropriate version of the partner’s mobile application for their phone located on GetJar. If no application exists, GetJar provides a free Mobile Site Shortcut (MSS), which is a small application that launches any phone’s native Web browser and redirects it to the appropriate mobile site.

Photobucket, the Web’s premier standalone photo and video-sharing site has confirmed that it will be using the service starting this Autumn 2009.

Why is this important? With thousands of different mobile phone makes and models and lots of different operating systems and browsers, large internet brands want to make sure that their users can get the right mobile app quickly and easily. App Download Page is an enabler, allowing brands to get onto consumer handsets without any technical difficulties.

The eagerly anticipated launch will see mobiles equipped with Microsoft’s new Windows Mobile 6.5 software, which can play music and open Word and Excel documents.

The new phones will be competing for a share of the market that up until now has been dominated by the Apple iPhone and Research in Motion’s ever popular Blackberry devices.

Microsoft also used the launch to announce the opening of a new online application store, where customers will be able to download and buy 246 applications for their phones.

Samsung Electronics, AT&T Inc and the Vodafone Group will be among the first manufacturers and network providers to offer the Windows driven devices.

The N900 is Nokia’s first Maemo device.  This mobile phone  is aimed at business customers and offers users a powerful and functional mix of smartphone and pocket laptop.

The new Nokia N900 is available for pre-order now at www.shop.nokia.com/n900

Sony Ericsson Jalou

The Sony Ericsson Jalou mobile phone is the ideal gadget for ladies that lunch, weighing only 84 grams and a minuscule 73mm in height, it fits perfectly into the smallest of handbags.

The 2 inch screen also features a mirror and the touch of a button and more importantly a 3.2 mega-pixel camera, video recorder, music player, a built-in FM radio, 3G, Bluetooth and Internet service.

The range comes in various gem colours and there is also to be a limited Dolce and Gabanna branded edition, featuring extras such as; 24 carat gold plating, a special gallery of the fashion show for the Autumn/Winter 2010, plus special themes and wallpapers.

The advertising campaign is due to begin in October with both editions of the Jalou expected to be in selected stores towards the end of the year and as yet no price has been given.

For your next break why not enjoy a skiing holiday?

Martin Cooper placed the first mobile phone call on the April 3 1973, while he was general manager of Motorola’s Communications Systems Division.

Raymond Tomlinson is a programmer who implemented an email system in 1971, using the @ sign, separating the user from their machine, unlike others attempts.

They have been awarded for their technical and scientific research and noted that their respective works are “among the greatest technological innovations of our time”.

Vodafone team up with MySpace to offer The Music Studio

Vodafone has teamed up with MySpace, the world’s premier social portal, to launch an online music studio designed to further strengthen its association with the music industry.

The pan-European campaign, which was launched today and will initially run for eight months, is aimed at bands, artists and music enthusiasts and sees the creation of a new and integrated music solution; showing Vodafone to be a brand immersed in music around the globe.

The venture, available to music lovers in the UK, Germany and Spain will deliver engaging and interactive brand experiences for users while ensuring revenue is driven through Vodafone’s music related products and services. It will provide the perfect platform for Vodafone to communicate and engage with music consumers in a social networking environment.

The Music Studio incorporates four key themes – Create, Discover, Experience and Share – maximising the opportunity for interaction and engagement:

Create:
Users will be given the tools to remix the tracks of established musicians using the new ‘Go Mix’ application, and later in the campaign, easily record tracks and upload them onto their MySpace Profile

Budding musicians will be given Tips and Tricks on how to make the most out of MySpace as well as learn new skills including remix and DJ techniques
Discover:

Bands can put themselves forward for a monthly ‘Ones to Watch’ competition. The chosen bands will be promoted via The Music Studio and also win a session in a recording studio
Experience:

Provides users with the latest news and interviews from Vodafone-sponsored music festivals and events across Europe
Share:
Users can post links to their next events or pose questions to the community in the forum

The Vodafone Music Reporter competition gives users the chance to win reporting opportunities from music events across Europe

Today’s launch builds on the success of last year’s Vodafone Music Reporter campaign which gave users the chance to travel to festivals across Europe and report back to the MySpace community, with the final winner reporting on a gig on MTV. Additionally, the development of The Music Studio to incorporate additional engagement opportunities has built on the Vodafone Music Unlimited offering on MySpace and further strengthens the site’s ongoing relationship with the brand.

Nick Reid, Head of Sales, MySpace UK, commented: “MySpace has worked with Vodafone to develop a bespoke platform to engage with our audience and offer them something we know they want. This deal provides us with a great opportunity to allow users and musicians to express themselves, discover new talent and get closer to bands and their music”.

David Wheldon, Global Brand Director at Vodafone Group said: “The Music Studio offers a unique opportunity to bring a great product to a fully engaged audience. We know that our customers are really passionate about music and we strive to give them new opportunities to experience music on – or off – their mobile. This campaign gives users an innovative, interesting and useful product, while strengthening Vodafone’s association as a key player in the music industry.”

Nokia N97 Mobile Phone

This month, the highly anticipated Nokia N97, Nokia’s flagship mobile computer, will begin selling in June in more than 75 countries. This is Nokia’s direct competitor to the Apple iPhone and Blackberry Storm.

Along with a tilting 3.5″ touch display, QWERTY keyboard and a fully customisable home screen, the Nokia N97 will offer instant access to the full range of Ovi services.

The Nokia N97 is Nokia’s first device to feature a personalisable home screen, which can be customised with a range of widgets to bring real-time information directly to your mobile device in the form of ‘widgets’.

These widgets include key social networking destinations like Facebook, news services like the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters, as well as shopping and weather information. The Nokia N97 is the first device to ship with the Ovi Store, which offers easy access to applications, games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services, and much more. Ovi Store includes both paid and free content from a range of global and local content providers and developers, including Paramount Pictures, Facebook and Qik, as well as a selection of Twitter applications.

“The Nokia N97 is an important step towards our vision of delivering a highly personalized Internet experience,” said Jonas Geust, Vice President and head of Nokia Nseries. “Fuelled by a multitude of music, maps, games, media and applications via Ovi, the Nokia N97 transforms the Internet into an experience that’s completely tailored to the tastes and interests of its owner.”

The Nokia N97 is like a computer

Taking your Nokia N97 out of the box is just the beginning. As with any computer, you can constantly improve and refresh the Nokia N97 with new features, functions and fixes so you can do more with this device than any other Nokia mobile phone.

Mobile Entertainment

The Nokia N97 also has direct access to the huge catalogue of music in the Nokia Music Store. With multiple high-speed connectivity options and 32GB of storage (up to 48GB using a microSD card) it is possible to directly download and store tens of thousands of songs on the handset. And you can listen to your favourite music on the Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905, which Nokia also launched today.

The headset brings crystal clear sound, eliminates background noise, and is the ideal accessory for listening to music and making calls on the Nokia N97, as well as being compatible with a diverse range of other mobile and music devices.

High-quality images and video clips at 30 frames per second (fps) can be captured using the 5 megapixel camera with integrated Carl Zeiss optics. Images can also be geo-tagged to specific locations and shared instantly with friends or uploaded online via Ovi Share, Twitter or Flickr.

Whereas the iPhone appeals more to personla consumers,  I believe the Nokia N97 is going to appeal more to business customers and looks set to be one of this year’s biggest selling mobile phones.

Blackberry Storm 3G Touch Screen Mobile Phone

The Blackberry Storm will be launched in the UK on 11th November

The latest Blackberry mobile phone is about to be launched in the UK.  Latest reports suggest the Blackberry Storm will be available on 11th November.  The newest touch screen 3G mobile phone will be available exclusively from Vodafone.

Reviews have been very favourable and suggest it is the first “serious” competition to the Apple’s iPhone, which was launched in 2007.

The new Blackberry Storm has been given the thumbs up in positive reviews from The Guardian, The Times , Wired and PC Magazine to name a few.

Vodafone Blackberry Storm tariffs may stop it being the #1 mobile to be seen with this Christmas. The Blackberry Storm is FREE with a 24 month, £35 per month contract, which includes 600 minutes of calls and unlimited text messages.

I’m still waiting to get my hands on a Blackberry Storm, but the reviews have certainly whetted my appetite.

Nick Read, the chief executive of Vodafone UK, told The Telegraph:

“Our customers tell us that they want a single phone that can also give them the most secure, reliable email and messaging experience possible combined with all the desirable smartphone features, and they want it at a price that’s affordable” [and] “The BlackBerry Storm delivers all of this and more.”

The Blackberry Storm is the first touch-screen BlackBerry, and as with all previous Blackberry mobile phones it offers a full Qwerty keyboard.

It also has a 3.2 megapixel camera, 3G internet access and satellite navigation.

The mobile phone also has up to 16GB of storage for music or video files.

Since the successful launch of the Apple iPhone, there has been several mobile phone touch screen contenders including the Nokia 5800, Google’s G1 and Samsung’s good looking Tocco.  But none have quite matched the cool ‘must-have’ and exceptional functionality of the iPhone…until now!

By simply pointing their web browser at www.vtap.com/feeds/uk_festivals or m.vtap.com/feeds/uk_festivals music lovers will see a continually updated feed of the latest web video content relating to festivals including O2 Wireless, T in the Park and Reading/Leeds, as well as videos of the headlining acts at this year’s festivals.

About vtap
vtap, is a unique mobile web video search service that allows consumers to quickly and easily search, view and save relevant web videos from any source on the Internet on any imaginable topic, tailored to their individual preferences on their preferred device(s).

By registering with vtap, users can receive a feed of personalised up-to-date content from thousands of video sites directly to their mobile device or PC.

Features include:

Search – easily find any video with vtap’s proprietary “incremental” search where results are returned continually as characters are input, with further results displayed and ordered by relevance

Discovery – Advanced algorithms organise videos and present related topics such as movies, TV, songs, artists, etc., in a way that’s easy to browse and discover

Feed – vtap makes it easy to set up a personalised feed. Any music artist, team, celebrity, TV show or topic can be added to the feed and vtap will find the latest related videos across thousands of sites and push them to any profile or device

Keep – save videos for viewing later or sharing with your friends on the go. Users can save online at vtap.com and then watch later on their mobile (and vice-versa)
Share – users can share any video with any of their friends using SMS, email or vtap feed links.

About Veveo
U.S. company Veveo’s mission is to become a driving force in creating a consumer mobile video habit. The company’s flagship product, vtap, makes discovering, viewing and sharing mobile videos easy through its proprietary incremental search technology and by delivering a personalized feed of content directly to any screen, anytime. The service is free to consumers and features more than 170 million videos from more than 50,000 sites across the Web.

For more information about vtap, please visit www.vtap.com or for mobile vtap visit m.vtap.com.

But with the merging of mobile internet marketing and customer tracking via GPS comes the latest incentive for UK businesses who wish to push local advertising.

There is a whiff of ‘big brother’ when you consider you will be targetted by businesses advertising on the internet because technology knows exactly where you are, when using your mobile phone or PDA to browse the internet or send emails

This technology is already available, and Microsoft are stepping up their mobile services in an attempt to claw back some of the market that has been lost to Google.

Microsoft have suggested that e-mail and instant messaging applications for mobile phones will now display advertisements for the first time. Windows Live will also show advertising.

According to The Times Online, mobile advertising spending in Western Europe is expected to rise from $1 billion in 2007 to $1.5 billion this year, according to eMarketer, the research firm.