It looks like the UK’s iPhone 3G carrier is preparing to pit the iPhone 3G against the GSM variant of the Palm Pre. According to the Guardian, O2 (NYSE: TEF) has inked a deal with Palm (NSDQ: PALM) that would give the carrier exclusive rights to sell the Palm Pre in the UK. The report mentions that O2 beat out rivals Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) and Orange in a bid to lock down the hotly anticipated Palm Pre through exclusivity contracts.

Interestingly, O2 is also Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s partner carrier for the iPhone 3G. And, if tradition holds, O2 will also be Apple’s UK partner for the upcoming iPhone 2009. Should that happen, O2 will be the carrier to watch – as Apple and Palm go head to head with the new iPhone and Palm Pre duking it out over GSM customers. Forget “Pre v. iPhone” polls, O2’s sales figures might just have the final say on the UK’s preference between the two multi-touch smartphones.

[Via: Guardian]

Mobile payments and billing solutions provider Billing Revolution has recently announced a partnership with advertising network MoVoxx, which as a result will be able to “commerce enable” ad placements on mobile phones. As a result, MoVoxx advertisers can add payment functionality from SMS ads, “generating more frequent transactions from mobile users.”

Just imagine – you get a promo SMS and right from the bat you can act, no matter what kind of a device you have, as long as it can send and receive text messages. This opens a great opportunities for both legit companies, but unfortunately for spammers as well.

We’ll see how this will go. In the meantime, here are the words of MoVoxx’s CEO Alec Andronikov: “We are excited to add a mobile commerce billing ad unit that makes it very simple for consumers to purchase products on their cell phones. This is a perfect way for consumer brands, especially within the CPG sector, to not only precisely target different consumer segments but also generate direct sales ROI from mobile media placements.”

While the American educational system continues to falter, Japanese educators are pushing for high-tech educational tools. A university in Japan is using the popularity of the iPhone to help keep track of their faculty and student body.

About 550 students and staff at Japan’s Aoyama Gakuin University will be getting free iPhones through SoftBank (OTCPK: SFTBF) as part of the school’s Mobile & Net Society Education and Training program. Aoyama Gakuin University will use the iPhone’s GPS hardware to help administrators determine if a student is on campus and whether or not they’ve actually been going to class. Because, you know, paper and pencil roll-call is so last decade.

Now, before you start spouting off about “Big Brother” and all that jazz, know that the Japanese university is also planning to send low-level tests and homework assignments through the iPhone. Although, it’s not clear if the school will have access to their fleet of iPhones’ location data when not physically on campus.

The program is slated to go into full-swing this Fall.

There really has to be a better way to take attendance…

[Via: MainichiDailyNews]

Nokia has just made itself one of the most socially responsible corporations in the mobile space, maybe even in the tech industry as a whole. In a move aimed at boosting the local Finnish economy, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has announced that they’ll be making available their hoard of unused patents to select technology companies in Finland. As a joint venture between Nokia, Technopolis and Tekes, the Nokia Technopolis Innovation Mill will hand over unused patents to tech companies over the next three years. The Nokia Technopolis Innovation Mill will also provide a total of 8 million Euros in public and private funding to the companies selected to pursue Nokia’s dusty ideas.

Nokia, like many big tech corporations, patent a lot of ideas as a way to keep their war-chest of ideas safe from the competition. Unfortunately, a lot of these ideas never make it beyond the drawing board due to cost or time considerations. Nokia has patents ranging from energy solutions, location based technologies, mobile security and healthcare technologies, among others, that just sit in Nokia’s patent portfolio gathering dust.

It’s these ideas that Nokia is looking to bestow on Finnish tech companies in the hopes that they’ll have the focus to run with the idea and possibly change the world. Tekes, a Finnish agency tasked with doling out tech funds, is putting up a good deal of the public funds for the Nokia Technopolis Innovation Mill. Technolopolis will use its experience in managing its technology business parks across Europe to help coordinate the initiative and find more funding.

“We feel it’s important to support the birth and growth of Finnish companies that base their offering on technology and service innovations and aim to build internationally competitive businesses,” said Mr. Esko Aho, Nokia’s Executive Vice President, Corporate Relations and Responsibility. “As we will not take all of the innovations generated by our R&D into production, we are happy to give other competent companies the opportunity to turn these innovations into success stories.”

Global corporations always talk about giving back to society, but rarely do we see them actually make such an unselfish move. Well done, Nokia.

[Via: SymbianOne]

Clearwire is working to get their 4G WiMAX network up to nationwide status before year’s end. We’re all still waiting to see if a coast-to-coast WiMAX network has what it takes to compete with HSPA+ and LTE data networks planned by the likes of AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless for the near future. To that end, Clearwire has announced that it will team up with Cisco to make mobile WiMAX a reality for millions of Americans.

Cisco has been tapped by Clearwire to bring consumer WiMAX devices to market and to provide backbone infrastructure for the nationwide WiMAX network.

“By teaming with Cisco, one of the world’s most forward-looking IP network infrastructure providers, we’re building a robust and cost-efficient next-generation network that’s designed specifically for delivering rich broadband services,” said Scott Richardson, Chief Strategy Officer of Clearwire. “In addition, Cisco plans to develop WiMAX technology for end-user devices, which will give consumers and businesses more compelling ways to stay connected through our CLEAR 4G service.”

Sprint (NYSE: S)’s bet on WiMAX may pay off if Clearwire can go truly nationwide in in the next several months. After that, AT&T’s HSPA+ network is going to give Sprint and Clearwire a run for their money.

[Via: WSJ]

Yesterday, at the Future of the Internet conference in Prague – Gemalto, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Philips announced a new initiative called “Trust in Digital Life” to address the issue of trust in new and emerging digital services. The idea is to bring European public and private stakeholders together and create an agenda for innovation and promote alignment of public and private policies, and ultimately help consumers overcome the fear of identity fraud and data breaches.

From the press release:

Consumers’ trust is key to the adoption and success of future digital services in industries such as communications, commerce, healthcare, and administration. Erosion of privacy and crime can seriously hamper the worldwide economic growth. According to a recent Unisys Security Index survey, identity theft and bank cards fraud are the top two concerns in a consumer’s digital life. These trust issues even surpass other fears outside the digital life such as national security and epidemics.

For the purpose “Trust in Digital Life” takes a multi-disciplinary approach — involving users, markets, legal and societal aspects, and technology — that will accelerate R&D of trustworthy technologies and products. A broad membership is welcomed and the initiative invites other partners that share the vision of “Trust in Digital Life.”

HP and RIM are now working together to pump out two products: CloudPrint and Operations Manager. The first lets you shoot your print jobs, be they documents or pictures, from your BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) and have them shoot out of the nearest printer. The second is an addition in BES 5.0 which helps admins troubleshoot particular problems enterprise BlackBerry-users are having. HP had launched an iPhone app not too long ago which allowed you to print photos right from the device, so it’s easy to imagine something similar for BlackBerry that might focus a little closer on documents, but the BES-side product is a little hazier. I’ll be sure to get a closer look this afternoon at the press sessions. In the meantime, you can get more info from RIM here.

[via RIM]

Not to be outdone by the likes of AT&T (NYSE: T), Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is reportedly getting ready to offer free WiFi hotspot service to its customers in the US. People familiar with the deal say that Verizon is looking to partner with WiFi hotspot operator Boingo to give Verizon customers access to Boingo hotspots across the country. AT&T already offers wireline and wireless customers free access to its AT&T WiFi HotSpots throughout the US. Verizon’s new WiFi service would finally bring Big Red on par with Big Blue’s offerings.

If you’re a Verizon DSL or FiOS subscriber, you can expect to get your free subscription to Boingo WiFi hotspots in the near future. There’s mention of a summer-launch, but negotiations are “still fluid,” so launch-windows are pretty much still up in the air.

It’s also unclear if Verizon customers will get free Boingo WiFi hotspot access in their region only or nationwide.

[Via: WSJ]

The UK wireless market, she’s a tough nut to crack. In fact, the UK is so competitive that T-Mobile (NYSE: DT)’s UK outpost is facing a merger or sell-off in the near future. T-Mobile UK’s parent company, Deutsch Telekom, is itself under pressure from shareholders. Marketing Week reports that Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) is feeling the squeeze from shareholders, following on yesterday’s announcement that the company was estimating a €1.8 billion write-down for T-Mobile UK’s Q1 2009 operations.

T-Mobile UK operates the fourth-largest wireless network in the UK. Rival carrier 3, the fifth-largest UK wireless carrier, has been mentioned as a potential suitor for T-Mobile UK. Still, business seems to be going on as usual at T-Mobile. News of a potential merger comes on the heels of T-Mobile’s latest flashmob stunt in London’s Trafalgar Square. Pop artist Pink was on hand to lead 13,000 dancers and singers in a guerrilla karaoke event aimed at grabbing publicity for the T-Mobile UK.

[Via: MarketingWeek]

As the US still waits for Clearwire and Sprint (NYSE: S) to get their 4G WiMAX network up and running on a nationwide scale, the likes of Verizon and MetroPCS are gearing up to light-off their 4G LTE networks in a couple years’ time. But, all that high-speed wireless LTE data won’t do anybody much good without the proper hardware to take advantage of the 4G network. To that end, MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS) is working with ZTE to develop new LTE (Long Term Evolution) handsets for the carrier’s LTE launch in 2010.

ZTE is reportedly developing a web-surfing smartphone with a large screen (we’d love to see a touchscreen) and full-HTML web browser as MetroPCS’s headlining LTE handset. The future LTE handset is expected to give ZTE a foothold in the higher-end US smartphone market – a market that ZTE has so far been unable to crack.

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has been chasing the LTE-dream for some time. The No. 1 US wireless carrier recently released LTE specifications, intended to give hardware manufacturers a head-start on developing LTE gear for Verizon’s future LTE network. On the other side of the mobile-coin, we have the much smaller discount wireless carrier, MetroPCS, also gearing up for the jump to LTE. MetroPCS made waves recently by announcing that they’d be joining big-dog Verizon Wireless with an LTE network planned for deployment in 2010 – roughly the same launch-goal that Verizon Wireless has announced for its own LTE network.

Both MetroPCS and ZTE are underdogs in the US market. ZTE even more so when it comes to advanced handsets in the US. But, with this latest partnership, ZTE and MetroPCS are poised to hit the LTE market hard and fast – with LTE offerings that may just undercut Verizon.

[Via: Forbes]