Orange announced a deal with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) to bring the Goole Mobile App to its customers in Europe. The multi-year agreement is made to make mobile search and geo-location services easier to use by the carrier’s customers, while at the same time helping Google become ever more powerful player in the mobile industry. This, of course, is not to say Orange won’t benefit from the deal, as well.

Orange plans to bundle Google’s mobile app in its Signature phones, starting with those running Android. And in the UK and France, Google mobile search results will also include content from Orange’s own mobile portal.

In addition, Orange’s Android devices — including LG Eve, HTC Tatto and HTC Hero — will feature specially designed services like the Orange Email Wizard in one easy-to-manage place.

Once the “Android phase” is over, the two companies will bring Google Mobile App as well as other Google services to Symbian S60, BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) and Windows Mobile devices…

In a nutshell, Google is one step closer to ruling the world. Next in line are Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) and Telefonica (NYSE: TEF), after which we can say the search giant dominates the western hemisphere.

A new App from Electric Pocket is promising to tag up your emails with personalised sounds – it’s name? – MailTones!

Users can set a different email alert for each friend, family member or colleague in their Address Book. MailTones helps to distinguish high priority emails your boss or partner from lower priority emails from friends or group email lists. MailTones can be set for a specific contact or one for all incoming emails from a particular domain – making it easy to recognise incoming emails from work colleagues or customers. It can also filter and provide custom tones for messages which include specific words in the Subject line.

The app comes with a collection of 25 tones ranging from discrete bells to more audacious (read: louder!) horns and buzzers. So for example you could set your default mail tone to silent, or ignore, and use MailTones to identify high priority people and subjects. MailTones can also optionally pop up on the screen and display the sender and subject of an incoming email for users to know instantly whether or not they need to launch the Mail app to read the whole message.

In case you are wondering how it works, it requires your email service to support ‘forward a copy’ – the copies are sent to the MailTones server, which then uses push notifications to send the instructions for the sounds.

It is available in the App Store, with a launch price of £1.79. There’s also some more information on the MailTones website at mailtones.com.

I’ve given this a quick go, and I have to say it’s really not too shabby at all! More to come in a longer review about how the App works, but for now I’d say that you could certainly do worse than giving this a go

Just by tapping on the screen, you create a drum rhythm; add some bass, strings, guitar or any of the included 16 instruments. TuneMaker is a streamlined digital audio workstation, synthesizer, drum computer and music sequencer, which can record and play back 16 tracks of sampled instruments. It’s like having Garageband in your pocket. An easy to use music composition tool that let’s anyone create music, even if you’ve never made music before, because it uses only five notes (instead of the twelve notes of a full piano keyboard) and by using a special scale they always sound good. There are 40 demo rhythms and songs pre-installed to get you started quickly.

I-play has launched Bubble Town 2 for iPhone and iPod touch.  In case you’re not familiar, it is based on the online arcade game that has garnered a good few million players through Facebook, MySpace, PC download and mobile.

In Bubble Town 2, players travel through land, sea and space in 45 bubble-filled levels. Each dynamic environment has its own unique characteristics and borb-busting challenges as players carefully aim, lob and shoot colorful borbs to pop three or more of the same kind. Adding a new dimension of gameplay to the franchise, Bubble Town 2 offers the brand-new lob shot, where players toss borbs into place with a flick of the wrist using the iPhone’s accelerometer. In addition, Bubble Town 2 introduces a brand-new Invasion Mode, and 12 varied power-ups that bring all-new hijinx to this beloved franchise.  The game’s integrated Facebook Connect feature allows players to share their bubble-popping successes by posting high scores on Facebook and sharing with friends and family.

Check out the video trailer also:

Bubble Town 2 is now available in the Apple® App Store for $2.99/£1.79, and sounds like a lot of cutesy fun

‘Word Spin’ for iPhone has hit the App store recently. ‘Word Spin’ for iPhone is the mobile version of the award-winning classic word game that has you spinning lettered wheels in order to spell as many words as possible.

This is a highly polished app based on one of the world’s favorite word games. It’s a great mental exercise and its quite fun to challenge your friends and see who has the better mind for words.

Bizarre, I can’t remember playing this at all as a kid – yet it does seem to have been popular – at least from the googling I’ve done. Anyone else play this when they were younger – well if so you can now take it mobile!

Originally a Zoo Games’ title for the Nintendo Wii, Groovin’ Blocks is now available on the iPhone and iPod Touch for only $1.99/£1.19, and is appropriate for all ages.

The game starts with addicting match-three gameplay and pours on the funk, challenging players to drop to the beat to maximize their combos.  With stylish graphics, high energy music and over 50 exciting levels, Groovin’ Blocks will provide hours of on-the-go fun.

This title looks like a cross between Tetris and Guitar Hero to me, but since I’ve not had chance to confirm it – if I do play it, I’ll let you know!

The Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid went live as Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s first Android phone earlier this morning. Then, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) announced that their Google Maps app for Android 2.0 now supports GPS turn-by-turn directions with voice guidance. The two announcements merged, like that those really big storms in that one movie involving a fishing boat of some sort, to form one of the biggest product launches of the year. I just got a chance to put my hands all over the Motorola Droid and thought I’d let you in on my initial impressions (and from-the-hip pics). The short version: Verizon’s Motorola Droid is badass. Keep reading for the long version (and a massive hands-on photo gallery.

Read the full article »

You’ve been secretly complaining about how tedious it can be to toggle some of the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre’s connectivity features. You’ve probably even told yourself that there was just nothing you could do to make it easier to access Data, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and Airplane modes. And, today, you stand corrected. Enter the latest home-brew webOS app for the Palm Pre: Quick System Tasks.

The new webOS app does exactly what its name suggests – it makes everyday system tasks quickly and easily accessible. With Quick System Tasks aggregating all your frequently-used system settings, you’ll have Data, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and Airplane modes conveniently grouped in a “card” or the “dashboard.”

I’ve personally found that it can be a little frustrating having to hunt down the various system settings strewn throughout the webOS. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s enough of a hassle to give this new app a solid niche to do its thing, home-brew style. Good thing lazy people like me have developers looking out for them.

The pictures you see here will give you an idea for what Quick System Tasks looks like.

Download Quick System Tasks here.

[Via: PreCentral]

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Voice just got a little more useful, even if you don’t have a clue as to what Google Voice actually does. Google has just released a new feature for Google Voice that allows anyone to take advantage of Google Voice’s voicemail transcription service. You may not be able to port your existing phone number to Google Voice (yet), but now you can port your voicemail to Google Voice. Google will convert voicemail messages from your non-Google phone number into text (the real visual voicemail) that you can read through Google Voice’s website, email or SMS text! As long as your phone number and voicemail are tied to Alltel, AT&T (NYSE: T), Cricket Wireless, MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS), Sprint (NYSE: S), T-Mobile, US Cellular, or Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless, Google will be happy to sort through your voicemail inbox.

The beauty of this new feature is that you don’t have to have to use your Google Voice phone number to get voicemail transcription. Just tell Google what phone number you’d like to tie in with your Google Voice account, and the magic gnomes inside Google headquarters will take care of the rest.

Still confused? Here:

[Via: Lifehacker]

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is set to unveil their new Android hotness tomorrow, and we’ll be there to witness history in the making. If you’re calendar isn’t already marked, remember to keep an eye out for out of Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid coverage from Verizon’s Android shin-dig!

For those of you that haven’t yet caught wind of the Motorola Droid or Verizon’s Droid advertisement blasting across all forms of media, the Motorola Droid is the first (of many) Android phones from Verizon. And with the way things are shaping up, the Droid could very well turn out to be the baddest Android smartphone on the planet!

In just a matter of hours, well be putting our crusty fingers all over the Droid’s 3.7-inch touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera outfitted with dual-LED flash and low-light shooting capabilities, and the Android OS 2.0. Will the Droid have what it takes to reign supreme among worthy Android competitors like the HTC Hero. Will it give the iPhone something to lose sleep over? Well see soon enough…

For now, drool over the Droid’s spec sheet:

• OS: Android 2.0 (Eclair), 550 Mhz processor
• Display: 3.7-inch WVGA (480 x 854) touchscreen, backlit with haptic feedback
• Camera: 5 megapixel with dual LED flash, autofocus, image stabilization, 4 X digital zoom, and video capture (24 FPS, 720 x 480)
• Battery: 1400 mAh, 385 min. continuous usage, 270 hr. standby
• Connectivity: EVDO Rev. A (3G), aGPS, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, microUSB 2.0, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD slot (comes with 16 GB, expandable to 32 GB)