Rumor Mill: Microsoft wants to buy RIM.

"According to widespread rumors, Microsoft is interested in buying BlackBerry maker, Research In Motion, which is an old, tired rumor that won't seem to go away... Meanwhile, Motorola is also reportedly interested in snapping up RIM."

BigFix plans agents for hypervisors and cellphones.

"BigFix offers patch, software distribution, security configuration, asset-management, and power-management for servers, desktops, and laptops. It delivers these capabilities by deploying agents on the machines that are to be managed. BigFix CEO Dave Robbens said the agents' role is to carry out continual assessment of the host system’s compliance with corporate policy, both when connected to the network and not... there are plans to launch an agent for smart phones in February. The first mobile OS for which one will be available will be Windows Mobile (versions 5 and 6). The rationale behind this is obvious. Enterprise mobility is growing and extending beyond laptops into smart phones and PDAs, while the most vulnerable OS in such environments is the Microsoft offering."

Nokia barges into mobile services.

"The road map announced in London is an effort to weave all of Nokia's software and services into a seamless package. Researchers have been toiling for years in Nokia's labs on such technology, and more recently the company has been on a furious shopping spree to beef up its portfolio. In October, 2006, for instance, it bought an iTunes rival called Loudeye, the largest independent music distribution platform, for $60 million.

The same month it snapped up gate5, a maker of navigation software for mobile phones, and in July of this year, it bought media-sharing site Twango—both for undisclosed prices. No other handset maker has made a comparable effort to profit in mobile communications by distributing content, not just hardware. 'Devices alone are not enough anymore,' says Kallasvuo. 'Consumers want a complete experience.'

Europe's mobile operators are paying close attention because their own efforts to launch digital music stores and other data services have largely failed. Yet without such offerings, there's no way subscribers are going to run up monthly data charges as high as the operators are counting on. 'Mobile operators around the world have invested a fortune on networks, services, and marketing, and it has been a gigantic disaster,' says John Strand, head of Copenhagen-based mobile consultancy Strand Consult. 'Not a single one has succeeded with a "walled-garden" strategy,' which directs users to a closed set of services rather than to the wide-open Internet."

Patents could bring mobile phones closer to ATMs.

"Diebold, the company that produces electronic voting machines, announced that it has acquired five U.S. patents that allow mobile phones to interact directly with ATMs.

Diebold said that the technologies will allow mobile phone owners to find ATMs, order cash withdrawals remotely, generate electronic checks, transmit wireless payments and conduct other transactions more securely and conveniently than they do now."

FastScale extends software management to VMware.

"Back in April, a startup company called FastScale Technology came out of stealth mode with a different twist on the virtualization game. Rather than virtualize a whole software stack, FastScale Composer Suite builds a stack from the actual bits of software used by applications and puts it in a container; if an application doesn't use a DLL or EXE, it doesn't go into the container."

related: Fastscale puts VMware on a diet
"The company has created super thin versions of operating systems and applications by stripping out most of the general purpose software components. If you want to run WebLogic on Red Hat, Fastscale will install an anorexic version of Red Hat that has only what it needs to run an application server. In many cases, Fastscale can craft OS and application images that consume only MBs of space, as opposed to GBs."

34.6 million Symbian OS handsets shipped in Q2 2007.

"Symbian today announced that 34.6 million Symbian OS handsets shipped in Q2 2007 (200,000 per day), a year on year increase of 52%. There are now 122 Symbian models in the market (up from 86 this time last year) with a further 62 in development (55 last year). Cumulatively 145 million Symbian OS phones have been shipped."

Nokia's main announcement (Ovi).

"Nokia is moving from being a pure handset manufacturer to being a service provider. Nokia simply wants to deliver a more integrated experience and make sure consumers are ready to pay a premium for their devices.

As such they are increasingly going to compete with operators... Nokia will thus increasingly use the online as well as alternative channels to sell not only devices but also digital goods. The likely decrease of handset subsidies, raise of new payments methods and non-cellular networks (WIFI, DVB-H,...) will be of great help, even though it will take some time before Nokia manages to move away from the subsidy model...

There used to be some doubts about this strategy following the Club Nokia initiative a few years ago. The launch of OVI, an umbrella brand for Nokia's new Internet services, is a clear signal to the market. Nokia has many assets to be successful in this strategic shift, but it will be an internal cultural change. Not the first one for a company who just started to sell mobile phones 20 years ago."

Google phone rumors: HTC, Android, and even Yahoo in the mix.

"Google’s effort is different than the iPhone. They look to be focused mostly on the OS and layering Google applications like Maps and Gmail on top of that, while simultaneously talking to device manufacturers about a number of devices. Apple, instead, took a much more holistic approach in creating the iPhone. Google’s product likely won’t appeal to the mainstream audience that the iPhone attracts…but it probably won’t have a $500 price tag, either.

And just to throw another tidbit out there - the HTC exec that was mentioned on CrunchGear yesterday said Yahoo is on a parallel track as Google, and has actually been working on custom phones for longer than Google. We may be seeing a Yahoo phone next year, too."

NJ teen unlocks iPhone from AT&T network.

"The hack, which Hotz posted Thursday to his blog, is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software. It takes him about two hours to perform... Hotz heads for college on Saturday. He plans to major in neuroscience - or 'hacking the brain!' as he put it to the newspaper - at the Rochester Institute of Technology."

Microsoft chooses Limelight for content delivery.

"Microsoft has geared itself up for an explosion in the delivery of content over the internet with a multi-year outsourcing contract with content delivery network provider Limelight Networks... Microsoft said its internet services serve over 460 million unique users per month worldwide. By working together, Microsoft and Limelight aim to deliver content to any device in any format."

Inc 5000: InnoPath Software at no. 102.

InnoPath Software: "What it does: Builds software systems that let mobile phone service providers update operating systems as well as multimedia, data, and e-mail offerings--and fix tech glitches as they arise.

Why it's growing: People are using mobile phones in many novel ways, creating greater need on the parts of carriers to be able to install, track, update, and fix these services."

Nokia teams with Microsoft for Windows Live apps on smartphones.

"See, just a couple of weeks after Nokia announced plans to put Microsoft's PlayReady DRM inside its Series 60 handsets, it's now revealed that it's also going to preload Windows Live applications like Hotmail, Messenger, Contacts and Spaces on its smartphones, with Series 40 devices to follow next year... If you've got an N73, N76, N80 Internet Edition, N93i or N95, you can get the Windows Live apps now via your phone's Download application."

related: Microsoft Stakes Mobile Claim With Windows Live on Nokia
"The hurried nature of the Microsoft/Nokia deal could be an 'indication of the threat that both Nokia and Microsoft see coming from the likes of Apple and Google' and might also point to 'the extent to which services can and will be provided by Internet players, such as Microsoft, in collaboration with devices players rather than the wireless carriers,' Taylor said."

Gizmodo How To: Install apps on your iPhone easily, no hacking skills required.

"If you wanted to install third-party native software in your iPhone but you didn't had the necessary technical knowledge or courage, the newly updated iPhone Installer.app [from Nullriver] will make it so easy that it will be very hard to resist. We have tried it in Mac OS X and, as you will see in the tutorial after the jump, it works perfectly —including the installation of applications over Wi-Fi and EDGE."

Mobile management portal gets simpler.

"Movero Technology was formed in 2003 to smooth out the complications of giving enterprise employees mobile devices and service plans, plus updating and keeping track of them. It handles those problems for its customers and runs a full-time support call center. The Austin, Texas, company can set up a special Web site for each company where employees shop for the specific phones and plans they are allowed to order... For IT managers, Movero makes the mobile provisioning process a matter of simply approving or disapproving each order."

Synchronica signs breakthrough contract with Sun Microsystems.

"Sun plans to use Synchronica Mobile Gateway's core SyncML technology to enable over-the-air synchronisation of the Sun Java (TM)Communications Suite with any mobile device supporting SyncML, the dominant industry standard incorporated into more than 1.3 billion devices from leading manufacturers including Nokia, SonyEricsson and Motorola. The Sun Java Communications Suite occupies a strong niche in the communication and collaboration market, providing services for major global enterprises and mobile operators, and is reported to power more than 240 million mailboxes worldwide."

Why OSS silos must come down.

"OSS vendors are beginning to acknowledge the surging operator interest in service composition and the synchronized provisioning of complex service packages, and that these will be difficult to achieve without such a [Mobile Service Delivery Platform]. As growing numbers of OSS vendors develop strategies for integrating service creation, composition, and service management, this is likely to spur more merger and acquisition activity in the OSS and SDP markets."

also see: Vendors Take On Service Management
"In a rush of acquisition activity, network equipment vendors have put their operations support system (OSS) houses in order and are ready to take back the service delivery platform (SDP) field from IT vendors and systems integrators through the creation of common service management platforms."

Nokia adds camera, Wi-Fi shut-off to management software.

"Nokia Corp. announced today the latest revision of its Intellisync Mobile Suite software -- the ability to shut off the camera or Wi-Fi connectivity of a mobile device from a remote location...

The new capability is part of Service Pack 2 of Nokia Intellisync Mobile Suite 8.0. It applies to Windows Mobile devices. Support for Symbian devices is due in a future release... In addition to control over the camera and WLAN functions, IT managers can enable or disable Bluetooth and infrared connectivity and memory cards... Other new functions in the software include the ability to troubleshoot devices remotely...

Today, there are about 12 million mobile e-mail users, with 8 million subscribers to RIM's e-mail service and about 1.6 million Nokia users, Nir said. Another 3.6 million use Nokia Intellisync e-mail, which was developed separately before becoming a part of Nokia. Competitors of Nokia Intellisync include products from Sybase Inc. and MFormation Technologies Inc., as well as Novell Inc.'s Zenworks suite."

Toshiba adopts Red Bend's vCurrent Mobile Software.

"Red Bend Software... today announced that its vCurrent Mobile FOTA software has been adopted by Toshiba Corp. for use in the WX320T handset for Japanese operator Willcom.

This is the second manufacturer to bring to market Red Bend-enabled mobile phones for PHS networks. The first was Japanese manufacturer JRC, announced in February 2007. "

Novell buys endpoint security firm Senforce.

"It's certainly not a surprise to see these two areas merging, and Novell has been doing a fair amount of work in the security space... Novell is seeing companies including McAfee, Symantec, and Microsoft merge management with security, and customers seem to agree that it makes sense to merge [endpoint] security, configuration, and support into one single suite."

FutureDial and Sun Corporation acquire Cellebrite.

"Established in 1999, Cellebrite offered contact synchronization and content transfer tools for mobile phones, for use by wireless carrier sales support staff in retail stores. Its UME-24 and UME-36-Pro series are widely adopted by many carrier stores due to their simplicity and ease of operation."

Sybase CEO says the future is mobile.

"We want to be No. 1 in enterprise mobility." -- Sybase CEO John Chen (source)

"So anything that moves along creating more mobile apps for business [is interesting to Sybase]. You need to subdivide in verticals—there are financial, health care, transportation, logistics people, government sector, a whole bunch of them. So what we are looking to do is really enrich a development platform.

In our case now, what we're focusing [on] is a development environment that actually leads people through to develop a mobile-based app, or mobilize an app. For lack of better words, call it application enablement. We need those technologies; we have a lot of those. We need to put it together in a coherent and logical manner."

Nokia launches mobile social networking site beta.

"Mosh, short for Mobile Sharing, lets anyone upload and share video, images, ringtones, games, and mobile applications from their mobile phones. The site has many features of other social networking sites, including the ability to tag and share content with others and create collections of content."

Report: Mobile venture financing on the upswing.

"According to a new report issued by M&A advisory services provider Rutberg & Company, private wireless companies announced $2.7 billion in venture financing in the first six months of 2007, a 9 percent increase over the first half of 2006. Rutberg reports 30 private companies announced rounds of $20 million or greater in 1H07, with illustrative late-stage subsectors attracting investor focus including mobile device management, service management and delivery platforms, enterprise Wi-Fi equipment, enterprise sales/field force applications, and healthcare monitoring systems."

Sybase, HTC aim to improve Windows Mobile devices.

"iAnywhere Solutions has announced a partnership with High Tech Computer (HTC) that could help smart phones based on Windows Mobile compete more effectively with the BlackBerry, according to an iAnywhere executive.

iAnywhere, a subsidiary of Sybase, has started to work with the Taiwanese contract manufacturer during the design stage of its products, to ensure that iAnywhere's suite of management and security software, called Information Anywhere, runs smoothly on new devices when they are released.

HTC makes most of the smart phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile, which are then sold under other brands. Information Anywhere is widely used by companies to manage and secure mobile devices for employees."

Google developing search tool for mobile content.

"Google Inc. is developing a new search tool for cell phones that will allow users to find and purchase mobile content, including ringtones and games, according to a published report.

Google has been working for months with content providers such as 'large entertainment companies and smaller mobile-media aggregators' to make their material available through a mobile search, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the matter...

'This is another example of Google stretching out beyond the world of search, even beyond their stated mission of 'organizing all the information in the world,' and this time, it's into a high-stakes, complicated commerce arena where nobody wants to give an inch. It will be interesting,' Sharpe said."

Watch mobile, user interface and Web 2.0 innovations, says Gartner.

"Major themes in Gartner’s hype-cycle report, Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2007, include Web 2.0 innovations, the commercialisation of user interaction techniques and mobile technologies and applications."

FutureDial enables content transfer among 1,000 mobile phone models.

"George Huang, CEO of FutureDial, explains: 'Last year more than 400 million subscribers visited retail stores in Europe and North America, and about 50% of them required some type of content transfer, backup, or erase service. Since many stores had limited or no capability to do these services, the negative effect on customer satisfaction was quite high, and it became a hurdle for carriers and the store front to upgrade subscribers to the latest models. FutureDial’s solutions and broad support of numerous handset models address this obstacle by making the transfer service simple to operate, and by supporting all the valuable content which a subscriber has on the handset.'"

InnoPath joins LiMo foundation.

"InnoPath... today announced that it has joined the LiMo Foundation, an independent, not-for-profit entity aiming to increase the adoption of Linux within the mobile industry, whose founders are Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone."

Linux to power Google GPhone?

"Google's first mobile phone reportedly will run a Linux operating system on a Texas Instruments 'Edge' chipset, and will likely ship to T-Mobile and Orange customers in the Spring of 2008. 'GPhone' call minutes and text messages will apparently be funded by mobile advertising, according to unconfirmed reports."

Mobile phone shipments slowing.

"Mobile phone vendors shipped 272.7 million units worldwide in the second quarter, up 6.9 percent from the previous quarter and up 16.5 percent from the second quarter of 2006, according to a new report.

The report is from IDC, a Framingham-based provider of global market intelligence.

While year-over-year growth increased compared to that of the first quarter, it is still significantly lower than 22 percent growth seen in 2006, said IDC, attributing the slower growth to 'the high market penetration rate in more mature regions.'"

Why cell phone networks are a weak link in a crisis.

"So why do text messages get through when phone calls can't? For one, SMS text messages are very short, so they require very little capacity when they are transferred over the network. The second reason is that text messaging works by allowing messages to be stored and sent through the network.

If there is a delay in connecting to the network, the phone will store the message in its memory and it will continue attempting to send the message until it gets through. By contrast, voice is a delay-sensitive application. If a sustained connection can't be made, the person on the other end won't be able to understand what you are saying. And so the call cannot be completed."

Google working on super double secret mobile phone.

"Advertising is cited as the main motivation behind Google extending its reach to the mobile phone, an with good reason. CEO Eric Schmidt has been quoted saying mobile ads are 'twice as profitable or more than the nonmobile phone ads because they’re more personal'."

Apple security update may stifle unlocking of iPhone.

"A security update for Apple's iPhone does more than just fix critical flaws in the handset. It also looks for and wipes out any modifications that users make to the firmware on their phones, according to hackers looking to unlock the phone."