Skype has launched its mobile client beta. The application available for subscribers from all over the world features a chat, group chat, receiving Skype users calls. The call Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut are available only in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Sweden and the UK.

It is recommended to use unlimited traffic plans, though the service used the standard mobile network for Skype, SkypeOut and SkypeIn calls, and in all the other cases the connection is carried out via the Internet. It is assumed that the prices for the voice call will match the standard operator prices – and under the standard prices come local (but not international) calls.

Associated Press is announcing the new advertisement-sponsored mobile service for smartphones (the ones like iPhone). The service will be launched this summer under the name “Mobile News Network.” It will provide the international news by AP, plus local new by local papers.

Tom Curley, AP CEO, stated:

“The formation of the Mobile News Network positions members to capture opportunities on high-growth mobile platforms. Members can participate by providing local news that will appear alongside their logos. Importantly, the network also offers a new outlet for members to sell local advertising to the mobile audience.”

AP will pay and manage the service in realizing its technical and advertising-financial functions, local advertising will be sold by the local publishing agencies, and the international advertising will be sold by advertising networks. The profit will be shared equally between news providers and advertising sellers. The given network will be the first product by Digital Cooperative, an application created in order to find new digital channels from gaining profit from information and news provided by AP members.

Latest Breaking News about Mobile Phones

The company KHCW-TV has launched a transport service with advertisement sponsorship which will enable Houston drivers to avoid traffic jams. The service will give access to over 600 cameras that show traffic on roads and it is operated by Houston TranStar on mobile devices.

The cameras are built along speedways, paid motorways and a number of thoroughfares of the city and its suburbs. In order to start using the service, the drivers will have to download the application to their mobile devices and set up buttons for fast control and switching between images sent real-time.

Roger Bare, VP and general manager of KHCW-TV, Tribune Broadcasting Company, Houston, commented:

“This is something that isn’t dependent on having a morning news show to offer traffic to commuters. This service gives people real-time traffic information anytime, anywhere and should prove to be popular with local commuters.”

Dinah Massie Martinez, public information officer, Houston TranStar, said:

“This new service supports our mission of enhancing transportation services to taxpayers throughout the region. Drivers will be able to plan the most time and fuel-efficient route to wherever they are going before ever setting foot in their vehicles.”

The British mobile question-answer service AQA 63336 has worked on his 10-million request. Over 1.3 million people in Britain have used the service at least once in order to solve a small argument, satisfy their curiosity, get a piece of advice, ask the first question that comes into the head. Now, in order to match the growing demand, AQA is planning to increase its stuff to over 2200 employees in Britain and Ireland in 2008.

At the moment AQA answers over 17500 question a day thus helping 3000 per day on the average. The 10-million question was the following: where did the expression “pull the wool over your eyes” come from? The answer is: the wool in this context is a powdered wig. Hence the expression means the make a man temporarily blind. The expression is an Americanism that dates back to the 30s of the 19th century.

5 top popular questions of 2007:

Q. What is the sense of living?
Q. What appeared earlier – egg or chicken?
Q. How AQA works?
Q. When I will die?
Q. What are men’s nipples for?

Is Mobile Content Dangerous? Part 2

New York Times has launched a service under the name ShifD which enables transfer of content for easy access from a PC, phone or any other device. The service works the following way: you see an interesting headline of a news article, copy it and read later on any gadget. If you are, for instance, in a restaurant you can send yourself a message with the name of the vine you just tasted in order to buy it later for a home celebration. If you are in a local store you can read the recipe of the dish you wanted to make and make sure that none of the ingredients is forgotten.

The personal page can be checked either online or via a phone browser. The user interface is quite simple. There are 3 memory slots – notes, places and links. Notes are the things you don’t want to forget like reviews of a book or DVD. Links are for news articles or other web-pages. Places are the slot where maps, schemes and address can be accessed. Information can be added from any browser or via a text message. The service works on any device like iPhone, Blackberry, Razr or Palm Treo.

The concept of ShifD has been made up by Nick Bilton (art director of NYT) and Michael Young (creative technologist). For the first time the novelty was shown at 2007 Yahoo BBC Hack Day and later on it was decided to realize the concept. Initially, the service required the chip RFID (Radio-frequency identification) in a phone and another one for a PC. When a user was at the computer he/she had to place the phone close to the reader in order to send the information.

The service offered at ShifD.com is beta and it seems to be a good personal reminder (and thus a good alternative to reminder letters). Nevertheless there are certain disadvantages. For example, if you keep the map of the place you are going to and forget your phone on a bed stand you won’t be able to access the information. At the moment the company doesn’t seem to have clear plans about the integration of the service into its web-page and advertising is only considered as a potential business-model.

The service ShifD uses the technological platform Adobe AIR launched by Adobe Systems. Adobe AIR allow developers to create Internet-apps based on such technologies as HTML, Ajax, PDF and Adobe Flash. The apps created on base of Adobe AIR can work as browsers which accelerates the development and enables access from almost anywhere (including a PC or mobile device). The novelty can serve as a desktop application, it means that you can work with other applications and save valuable data on your desktop.

What Everybody Should Know About Modern Cell Phones