WASHINGTON-Mobile-phone carriers' tax lawsuit against Kentucky is back on track, giving center stage to a federal pre-emption argument that's also at the heart of industry efforts to prevent states from meddling in line-item billing and early termination fees.Cingular Wireless L.L.C., Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel...
NTT DoCoMo Inc. is incorporating features that appeal to the senses in its latest handset offering. One of the carrier's phones features a touch screen that allow users to input data by using a stylus or their finger. Another phone by Sony Ericsson emits...
Steve Jobs isn't the only one vying for improvements to the audio-based voicemail systems we've all come to know so well. CallWave Inc. announced it developed a free, PC-based visual voicemail system.The program sounds strikingly similar to the application Jobs touted last week at...
WASHINGTON-A stay has been lifted in the mobile phone industry's challenge to a Kentucky wireless tax. A federal court has blocked the tax from being enforced.Industry's suit and the tax itself have been on hold since December 2005 when the U.S. District Court in...
Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" is far and away the television program that consumers are most interested in watching on mobile telephones. During the second quarter of 2006, the Comedy Central show was the most popular show for mobile video customers, followed by ABC's...
LAS VEGAS-The only thing holding up the explosion of the mobile phone content and advertising business continues to be the lack of interested viewers, panelists bemoaned at the second annual NATPE Mobile conference here.Under 10%Currently, 20 percent of all mobile users have video-enabled cellphones,...
T-Mobile USA Inc. offered data this week purporting to demonstrate the consumer appeal of the Research In Motion Ltd. BlackBerry Pearl. The tidbits suggest that the Pearl-designed to appeal to consumers, yet equipped for enterprise use through IT-based controls over its features-is luring consumers...
Shiny gadgets, big and small, drive the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In that sense, the show levels the playing field for a few halcyon days in early January in the desert. Mobile handset vendors, for instance, present their wares amid fierce competition...
IN A GAHAN WILSON CARTOON several presidential campaigns ago, an alien steps from a flying saucer and a crowd of humans surge forward. At the back of the crowd, one human confides to another, "I don't know who he is, but I like him."...
Buongiorno S.p.A., one of the leading multinational conglomerates in the mobile content market, announced it entered the Chinese market by way of its acquisition of eDongAsia. The acquisition occurred through Buongiorno Hong Kong Ltd., the company's joint venture with Mitsui & Co. Ltd.The firm...
Apple Computer Inc. finally unveiled the iPhone.As expected, Apple CEO Steve Jobs showcased the highly-anticipated device during his keynote speech at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. Cingular Wireless L.L.C. will support the handset, which runs Mac OS X and serves as...
Amp'd Mobile Inc. is continuing to build on its appeal to younger mobile phone users. The mobile virtual network operator has further expanded its mobile entertainment portal through fresh deals with Facebook.com, Freewebs.com and Livejournal.com, having created one of the largest collections of social...
Motorola Inc. is jumping into the mobile music business with an effort to sell wireless content from Warner Music Group Corp.The handset maker said it will offer preloaded and downloadable full-length tunes, ringtones, ringback tones, music videos and other goodies from the record label....
The major U.S. carriers are rushing to cash in on the mobile marketing craze by selling ad space on their WAP decks. But consumers aren't thrilled about using the third screen as a billboard.Sprint Nextel Corp. was the first tier-one operator to jump into...
The keypad on the mobile handset is due for an extreme makeover. Like the television program, fashion-that age-old tyrant-and the need to update it is one fundamental driver of change. After all, the current paradigm for input technologies-think wireline, touch-tone phone-is already decades old....
Pump up the mobile motivationPeople who made a get-fit new year's resolution this year can find motivation to stick with their goals on their cellphones. PumpOne, a company that provides visual personal training programs for handheld devices like iPods, is offering a service called...
Colors, materials and finishes-aka CMF-have returned to center stage as a conveyor of value, product differentiator and sales clincher. Focused efforts to use CMF to give a handset legs in the market began with face plates nearly a decade ago. And though CMF's role...
The USB Implementers Forum has announced the completion of the Micro-USB specification, a new and improved technology expected to replace many of the Mini-series plugs and receivers currently used in mobile phones and other wireless devices. The specification was developed with the shrinking and...
ROK Entertainment Group announced the U.S. launch of ANSA, a new question-and-answer text messaging service that costs $1 per answer.A white-label offering ROK is selling to wireless carriers, ANSA (ansanow.com) delivers answers to mobile phone users via text messages for a $1 fee, plus...
A startup focused on mobile media sharing has aborted plans to auction itself off after receiving zero bids on eBay.Mojungle.com allows users to record text messages, photos and videos with their mobile phones and post them to the company's site, a MySpace profile or...
The good news for mobile marketing is that advertisers can target by location, demographic and create actionable responses. The bad news? More than three-quarters of Americans are annoyed just thinking about it. That's the latest finding in a report from Forrester Research on the...
AT&T Inc. offered to surrender some of its 2.5 GHz spectrum as part of a last-ditch attempt to secure approval of its $85 billion buyout of BellSouth Corp.The telecom giant filed a letter of commitment with the Federal Communications Commission late Thursday in...
Tired of paying fees for 411 calls, trying to get a taxi on the line at 2 a.m.? Fret not, mobile phone users. Yellowpages.com L.L.C. today announced the launch of a new send to mobile feature that allows users to send search results directly...
Editor's Note: Following are the most-read stories from RCRNews.com this year. They have been edited to fit in paper format.1. Vodafone records $41B loss, reworks strategic plansMay 30Vodafone Group plc posted a massive $41.1 billion loss for 2005, mainly from impairment charges over assets...
