Those of you who were getting comfortable with the breadth of Sprint (NYSE: S)’s Simply Everything plan and partaking in the odd smartphone tethering will be in for a rude interruption.  Some heated discussion on the Sprint forums has revealed that phone as modem service is no longer available for Simply Everything customers, although a Sprint employee vehemently defends the decision, saying that PAM has always been an add-on, and anyone tethering up until now was doing so outside the purview of their contract. Sprint VP David Owens has confirmed the change and that there won’t be a PAM add-on available for Simply Everything any time soon. There are always workarounds, like My Tether for the Pre, and TetherBerry for BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), but that’s more work than a lot of users would like to put in; clearly Sprint is more interested in hawking their mobile broadband access through WiMAX routers. It’s disappointing news for many customers, but it’s hard to blame Sprint for pushing 4G.

[via SlashGear]

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) just posted an entry to their N-Gage blog saying that the N-Gage publishing platform is going to die in less than a year. Games will now be sold through the Ovi Store, which on face value makes sense, giving consumers a single location to purchase applications, whether that be a new alarm clock, or Super Monkey Ball, but all the community features that many of you have come to love will be gone. Stuff like high scores, messaging, and keeping up with your friends in the N-Gage Arena, that stuff is gone.

If you’re an N-Gage addict, make sure you read the complete blog post to get the details on what’s changing and when.

[Hat tip to @stevelitchfield from All About Symbian]

Even though mobile applications existed for 10 years now, it was Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) which brought the hype to the industry. And now we have a new service, actually social network, dedicated to those people who really (and I mean *really*) love their apps.

The service is called Appboy and it’s apparently made for both developers and end users. Various platforms are present (not just the iPhone), and you can comment and rate apps, as well as create your own little app store and eventually earn a 5% commission. Furthermore, developers can ask the end users for some idea input – what would they like to see developed next, or which feature is missing from their software. This, of course, is in addition to actual promotion of the application.

And that’s about it. I dig the idea and I’ve no doubts they’ll raise money in the times of the app stores boom. That’s in case the Appboy folks actually need funding. We certainly wish them all the luck.

[Via: mashable]

A new SMS news alert service has been launched recently. It’s called matchalert and it’s aimed at those dedicated football/soccer fans who want to keep up with their team while on the go.

Although similar services already exist on the market, matchalert says their advantage is in the flexibility and “sophistication of web-based subscription management.” Meaning that users can customise their alerts using the matchalert website, and easily stop the service via the usual “stop” text message.

As I said, it’s customization that’s matchalert’s main strength and in that sense users can:

• receive only the final score, or a single SMS per game;
• subscribe to a whole league – all goals and/or final scores;
• follow a wide range of leagues and teams, including the Barclays Premiership, the UEFA Champions League and the Europa League. Subscription to a particular team means the user receives alerts for that team across all competitions.

Each SMS alert costs 25 pence, plus standard network charges, and users are limited to receiving a maximum of 18 text messages per week…

UK specialist search company Simplexo has launched its mobile offering, enabling anyone working out of the office to securely access corporate documentation and databases via their mobile devices.

Simplexo Mobile is the name of the application/service and it currently works on the iPhone and Windows Mobile devices, with BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) version coming within 30 days. Users can simultaneously search across all enterprise environments including SharePoint, live and archived email, word processing documents, images, spreadsheets, databases, applications such as CRM and SAP, and more. And the results are displayed in a single consolidated list…

And that’s about all I can tell about it as a non-expert. Those who like to know more about Simplexo Mobile can visit a dedicated website to get the information fix.

Avenir Telecom (a business-to-business telecoms distributor in the UK), has announced a partnership with O2 to provide its new Joined Up communications service to the UK channel.

Avenir is O2’s leading distribution partner, and Joined Up is a fixed line service which will enable businesses to have one single converged solution for their telecoms requirements.

Sorry, not much more info that at the moment (more when it comes) – what you should take away though is that O2 is active in all market segments, including businesses, and they are willing to partner to go after market share. That’s probably why they are leading the pack in the UK at the moment!

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) announced Google Maps Navigation earlier today, and it crouched on several people’s business models.

Check out how Garmin, makers of dedicated turn by turn navigation devices, reacted:

[Hat tip to @zpower, otherwise known as Chris Ziegler from Engadget Mobile]

Now we all use and love Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps, but turn by turn navigation has always been missing. With the Motorola Droid announcement today there was a mention of a new application: Google Maps Navigation, and as the name implies, it finally adds navigation capabilities to Google Maps, albeit with some limitations. It only works on Android 2.0 devices, and so far there is only one: Droid. And It only works in the USA, so Europeans and Asians are out of luck. Those small issues aside, you do get some nifty new features. The new voice API is used to enable hands free searching, and if you have a handset that supports a dock then you get “dock mode” so you can keep both hands on the wheel. Check out the videos below to get an idea of what Navigation is all about:

6 minutes 50 seconds: Intro to Google Maps Navigation:

1 minute: Google Maps Navigation Voice Search

35 seconds: Google Maps Navigation Car Dock

Quote of the Day: “Condolences to everyone who owns TomTom/Garmin/etc stock.” – @zacharye

Also let us not forget that the days of operators charging “some bullshit monthly fee” (quote from Simon in the ultra secret, ultra exclusive IntoMobile chatroom) are soon going to come to an end.

T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) UK will be offering a special, Chrome coloured (not pictured above, but just imagining what it would look like makes me go ewww), edition of the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) 5800 on Sunday, sources tell Mobile Entertainment. The device will be free on a 2 year contract, 30£/month. Note that the Comes with Music subscription only lasts for 1 year, so if you’re picking this up then you better start downloading the second you turn the device on. If you’d rather have the 5800 without Comes with Music, then you’ll only have to pay £15/month. Do yourself a favor: buy an HTC Hero and a 1 year subscription to Spotify. You’ll be a happier person, with a better phone, better music selection, and a better overall experience. Comes with Music has been out for roughly a year and they’ve barely managed to get 110,000 people to sign up. Old devices, limited selection, higher prices, I’m not surprised Nokia is having a hard time getting customers.

So, the iPhone and a bunch of other HSPA handsets are coming to telus (NYSE: TU) on November 5, but if that wasn’t enough, they’re revamping some of their plans with a little something called Clear and Simple, that will eliminate the much-loathed monthly System Access Fee and 911 fee, but raising overall rate plans by five dollars. This handy little chart shows how you’ll actually be saving two bucks on the old $25 plan, since it went well over $30 with SAF and 911 added. I wonder if lower plans will even out as nicely, but to sweeten the deal, telus has thrown in voicemail. On the downside, provincially-mandated 911 costs will still exist for P.E.I., Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Quebec, but they’re relatively minute ($0.38 – $0.50). Rogers (NYSE: RCI) recently pulled a similar stunt, where they replaced the SAF with what they called a Government Regulatory Recovery Fee, which varied according to region. Just like Rogers, with telus you’ll be able to grandfather your old plan indefinitely, but you’ll hang on to those old costs and all new activations will be with their Clear plans. Clear and Simple goes live on November 5, but you can hit up telus for more information.

[via telus]