Samsung Romania liking March 20th for Galaxy S Gingerbread update

Remember that Android 2.3 update for Samsung's i9000 version of the Galaxy S that leaked out late last month? Well, it's looking more real -- and more imminent -- than ever thanks to a Facebook post from Samsung Mobile's Romanian team a few days ago. Basically, it's sounding like the Froyo update will be online until the 20th of this month, at which point the Gingerbread update will start rolling out from the 20th until the end of March... which could ironically stand to make the Galaxy S one of the first non-Google devices to get an official Gingerbread update anywhere in the world. No word on how this timeline corresponds to dates for other countries and SKUs, but it's a good sign regardless.

Online news overtaking paper, and nearly half of it is mobile

Wait, this is just now happening? The Pew Project's 2011 report on mobile devices' effect on media was published this week; it's a fascinating read from end to end that reveals a wild swing in the way we've gathered news and information as human beings over the past decade, but a couple stats really stand out. First off, the internet has finally overtaken newspapers as a news source, putting it behind just television -- and we already know the writing's on the wall there since the young ones are already preferring the web. And of those web-savvy, voracious consumers of information, some 47 percent are getting at least some of it on the go, either through their phone or tablet (like, say, Engadget's lovely selection of mobile apps). Mass transit commuters have always been a haven for newspaper-toting businessfolk -- but with iPads continuing to sell like hotcakes, not even the subway is safe from the tablet onslaught.

LG Revolution passing through the FCC, four Gs intact

We managed to see plenty of the LG Revolution at both CES and Mobile World Congress, and it's now finally cleared one of the final hurdles on its way to availability. While there's unfortunately none of the usual teardown pictures to be found just yet, the phone has now passed all of the FCC's various tests, and been slapped with the requisite label to prove it. Sadly, we still don't have much indication of a release date but, as Wireless Goodness points out, there's an increasingly good chance that this could actually be Verizon's first 4G phone if the HTC Thunderbolt delays continue.

House now burning down? Do A Google Search.

There’s nothing quite like being in an emergency situation and not knowing exactly which number to call. I know — I’ve been there recently, and it was terrifying and mind-opening. In a world filled with smartphones capable of holding 80 billion numbers and where any restaurant’s phone number is a Googling away, gone are the days where every house has emergency numbers on the fridge and a copy of the Yellow Pages in the pantry.

Google’s realized this (probably from the spike in searches for “OH GOD MY HOUSE IS ON FIRE”), and has taken steps to shave a few precious seconds off the emergency-number-getting process. When you search for emergency terms (like “poison control”, or “police department”) on Google from your mobile, it’ll now spit out a Click-To-Call phone number as the first result. If your handset’s browser has GPS functionality, it’ll even localize the number automatically (that’s great for if you’re traveling and don’t know the local equivalent to 911.)

Just don’t Click-to-call accidentally. As it turns out, the poison control ladies don’t like when you call just to say “Hi!”

iVillage Launching App Network; Adds BN.com’s Gottlieb

For over the past year, Comcast/NBC (NSDQ: CMCSA) Universal’s iVillage has been overhauling its sites and expanding its international presence. Now it is moving more forcefully into mobile with the launch of its app network. As part of its push into mobile, the company has named former Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) digital exec Douglas Gottlieb as VP for “User Experience.”

The hiring of Gottlieb represents something of a reunion for the former VP of Digital Products at BN.com, as he joins Mike Skagerlind, iVillage’s SVP/GM arrived at the company last June after serving as VP, head of content at B&N.

By the end of this year, the iVillage mobile network will include between a half-dozen and a dozen apps. The first one, Red Carpet Fever, was released over a week ago to capitalize on the Academy Awards. The app will continue to evolve into a general celebrity events offering photo galleries, real-time chats and connections to Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools.

The start of the rollout reflects the added emphasis iVillage has placed on entertainment as part of its vast restructuring that began a year-and-a-half ago.

“We did a lot of rebuilding last year and that has strengthened the relationship with our users,” said Skagerlind in an interview with paidContent. The PC-based site network already claims a reach of 30-plus million users a month. “While the mobile wap site has been around for some time. It was our plan to do a more extensive mobile strategy after that was set.”

Later this month, the company will launch its “main” iVillage app. Other apps to follow include the mom-aimed My Pregnancy and Newborn Milestones apps. The initial phase will be rounded out by apps for Health & Fitness are also set to roll out, which will center around iVillage’s successful ‘Community Challenge’ franchise

While iVillage’s site network has some experiments in paid content, the company has no plans to charge for its mobile apps. As Gottlieb told us, the focus right now is on building community and the “user experience.” There is some excitement within the company around iVillage’s work with iPad—they’re exploring the advancements associated with the second version of that device—as well as Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android in addition to the iPhone. Doing it all simultaneously is a big part of the effort, along with finding multiple ways to pay for it all.

“We’re looking at a variety of revenue models,” Skagerlind said.“We like the ‘freemium’ model, which could include enhancements you’ll be able to buy. But we believe in advertising.”

While it makes sense that iVillage didn’t want to take on too much and roll out its apps earlier, as it unveiled its various sites and channels over the past year. But you can’t help but wonder, what took so long. Skagerlind has an answer: “We are doing this as early as we could. You only have to look around at how suddenly impactful the mobile revolution has been from a user and advertising vantage—but it’s all still very early for most people. Certainly within a year or two, the amount of broadband access and the number of women using smartphones to access our content will grow tremendously. But we’re not abandoning the web, of course, we’re looking for ways we can be original and complementary at the same time.”

Gartner: PC Growth Now Slowing Amid Shift to Phones and Tablets

Smartphones and tablets will take their toll on PC vendors in 2011, slowing growth rates as people choose lighter-weight mobile devices, according to Gartner.

The analyst firm cut its expectations for PC growth in 2011 Thursday, reducing its earlier prediction of 15.9 percent growth to just 10.5 percent growth for the year, or an estimated 388 million PC shipments. It cited increasing consumer demand for alternatives to notebook PCs such as tablets, phones, and other devices that weigh less, can last for a workday on a single battery charge, and increasingly allow users to do almost all the same things online they can do from a PC.

“We expect growing consumer enthusiasm for mobile PC alternatives, such as the iPad and other media tablets, to dramatically slow home mobile PC sales, especially in mature markets,” said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner,in a press release. “We once thought that mobile PC growth would continue to be sustained by consumers buying second and third mobile PCs as personal devices. However, we now believe that consumers are not only likely to forgo additional mobile PC buys but are also likely to extend the lifetimes of the mobile PCs they retain as they adopt media tablets and other mobile PC alternatives as their primary mobile device.”

More specifically, Gartner is starting to notice that consumers are taking a “wait-and-see” approach toward notebook PCs in 2011 as they evaluate whether or not new tablets—like Motorola’s Xoom and Apple’s iPad 2—are compelling enough to forgo upgrading their notebooks. This is more pronounced in mature markets such as the U.S. and Western Europe, Gartner said, and hasn’t impacted the professional PC market to quite the same degree just yet.

But that could change as tablets grow more sophisticated and cheaper to acquire, and a slew of new models are expected to arrive this year. Meanwhile, smartphone sales are still quite strong.

“Not too long ago, PCs were a “fashion accessory” in mature markets with vendors linking themselves to fashion designers and even creating PCs specifically for women. The current ‘cool’ device is the smartphone, and now PCs will soon have to do battle with media tablets when they are launched in large numbers in the second quarter of 2011,” Gartner wrote in the report.

AT&T going to offer mobile hotspot on iPhone 4 starting March 11th, requires usual $45 data plan

Though it was kind of implied during the iPad 2 event yesterday when we learned that the GSM (that is, non-Verizon) version of the iPhone 4 would be getting iOS 4.3 with mobile hotspot capability on March 11th, we've doubly confirmed with AT&T today that the carrier will be offering the feature right out of the gate -- a departure from the tethering delay of days gone by. Naturally, you'll need the tethering feature added to your account, a $20 surcharge over the standard 2GB DataPro plan for a grand total of $45 with a 4GB bucket. Makes the extra coin a little easier to swallow over cabled and Bluetooth tethering alone, we suppose.

Trends Showing Android Gaining Among The Young And Vivacious

This little study by Nielson doesn’t actually say “vivacious,” but it’s implied — right there in the headline. The study is just an exercise in statistics and a look at the smartphone market, but it’s always worth taking a look and speculating based on the big bottom-line numbers like total market share.

These two attractive charts detail the distribution of OSes and manufacturers among smartphone owners, which, it should be noted, make up only about 25% (Update: Nielson actually says 34%, comScore says lower, around 27%, my estimate was low) of the mobile-using population, in the US at least. The information is through January of this year, so it’s quite current. So who’s winning? Everybody, it looks like. It really is a dead heat at the moment, but like Jell-O, there’s always room for analysis.

As always, Apple and RIM have a major inertial advantage in being both the manufacturer and OS provider. They have absolute control and consumers trust that. On the other hand, they are unable to cast off their skin and rebrand at will, as Motorola and HTC have done. This stolidity and inflexibility means that their brand doesn’t apply as much to the younger generation, and although the stats right now show only a very modest lead in the 18-24 demographic, it’s significant in that Android-related brands are not showing a weakness among the young.

We all know that Android has nowhere to go but up, considering that it has only barely begun to crack the feature phone market, which Apple and RIM aren’t really capable of attacking without damaging their brand. When Android starts to crack the “my first phone” barrier (perhaps with a simplifying skin cooked up by the likes of LG or Samsung), i.e. the pre-18 demographic, you better believe that age gap is going to widen.

On the other hand, it’s clearly a struggle for Android handset manufacturers to maintain their share, since they’re battling on multiple fronts. It’s fair to say that right now they’re fighting over scraps, dividing between them an equivalent share of the market as is owned solely by Apple or RIM, but establishing a pecking order early on means that once that share starts to grow, eventually a portion of the Android market may outsize the totality of the iOS market. That’s a long ways out, though, and one must never underestimate the competition. After all, the iPad is acting as a bulwark and gateway gadget, and of course Apple computers are far more popular in that young demographic, so it’s still anybody’s game.

These minor differences will grow, though, and while it’s a battle of inches right now, it’s still early in the race, if indeed the race can be said to have an end at all.

The Lowdown Of Mobile: Apple iPad, GetJar, IAB/MMA, Sony Ericsson

Our list of mobile news to start your day. Today’s topics: Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPad 2; new mobile ad standards from the IAB and the MMA; GetJar makes the case for taking less of a cut compared to Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Apple; and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson’s U.S. fightback—or should we say “Play"back?

—iPad launch: In the countdown to Apple’s simultaneous events today in Cupertino and London to launch the new iPad, there’s lots of chatter flying around about what else might be on the cards:

One Apple staffer, speaking anonymously, has said that today’s launch, product-wise, will not be all that significant—faster, thinner, better sound and more cameras are the main takeaways. More important will be the launch of the iPad 3 slated for this autumn, in time for holiday shopping and as a followup to all the other new tablets (all the Honeycomb devices, plus RIM’s PlayBook and HP’s TouchPad) that will be launching between now and then.

A possible re-launch of MobileMe, to include cloud-based storage and streaming of music and other media, could be a bigger deal. The question is whether Apple will tie that media storage to content purchased via iTunes, or whether it will include content purchased elsewhere too—LaLa, the cloud-based music company that Apple bought last year, allowed for items purchased from multiple places. Such a cloud service will be a big development for Apple, as a new kind of business line, and will give cloud-based, digital lockers a profile they have yet to achieve, despite launches from big names like Sony and an enormous amount of cloud-based media companies on the market already (think Thumbplay, MOG, Spotify, etc.).

The source did not mention iOS 5, although the latest version is “almost guaranteed” to make an appearance today.

Some are speculating that today Apple will also unveil a new partnership with its Geniuses, reportedly to be called “Joint Venture.” This is part of Apple’s ongoing strategy to build up its small business user base—a lucrative area that has been dominated by Microsoft-based resellers for years now. Under the new plan, a $500 annual fee will get you services like training sessions, data transfer assistance, and replacement machines for when your devices to pack up and need repair. The plan is sold when users buy Macs but if it gets unveiled today, it may also be applicable to iPhones and iPads, too.

—With all the Apple-talk, it’s easy to overlook other significant news. Included in this, the Internet Advertising Bureau and the Mobile Marketing Association have released a “standard methodology” for how to measure the effectiveness of mobile advertising and marketing campaigns. Such standards have been a long time in the planning, and while a number of third parties (and mobile operators) already provide tools to measure certain metrics like click-through rates, having a comprehensive policy should encourage more ad spend from brands overall.

—GetJar’s in-app USP: GetJar, currently largest non-native app store, has waded into the in-app purchasing debate. It says it gives the best deal of all to developers because it doesn’t take any cut at all when a publisher incorporates purchasing into its apps. On top of that, a publisher can choose whatever billing platform he wants for its app. One billing provider, Billing Revolution, takes only $0.15 per transaction, no matter the value.

—Sony Ericsson: The company’s much-anticipated “PlayStation” phone, the Xperia Play, will be launching with Verizon later this year and in Europe at the end of this month. The Verizon device will, of course, be a CDMA handset; but in the meantime, the company has had the European UMTS version of the device approved by the FCC. The supplementary documents include what appears to be a full user manual.

Hot ! iOS Notifications: Problematic or Primarily Perfect?

There’s been lots of talk lately that Apple’s notification system is seriously flawed. Some think Apple is poised to remedy that problem in iOS 5, which could be unveiled at tomorrow’s special press event. Once again, me and Kevin find ourselves at loggerheadswhen it comes to this debate. Here’s how our exchange went down:

Kevin: So I hear there’s an Apple event tomorrow and it’s likely geared towards introducing the next iteration of iPad hardware. That’s all well and good, but I wonder if software will be the star of the show as Apple gives us a glimpse of iOS improvements. While I think highly of Apple’s mobile platform, I still can’t believe that after nearly four years, the notifications in iOS are so atrocious! Although I dumped my iPad for a smaller Android tablet, I still keep a new iPod touch around for apps, surfing, Netflix, email and more, but every time I turn the darn thing on to quickly check something online, I get a barrage of activity-stopping notifications. That has to change soon, and perhaps this week is the when we’ll finally see notifications become more useful and less intrusive like on other mobile platforms.

Darrell: I agree that software will most likely be the star tomorrow next to an incremental hardware update, but I’m not so sure notifications will be a big part of that lead role. I’m not denying that iOS notifications are clumsy; they are. But at the same time, I don’t think Apple will make significant changes to its existing system, for the same reason iOS doesn’t resemble Android or other mobile operating systems in a number of ways. iOS notifications may seem simple and clunky to advanced users, but they do one thing quite well: they notify. Android notifications, in my experience, require a degree of fiddling that could easily exasperate less tech-savvy device owners. iOS notifications may not be ideal, but they make sure you stand the greatest chance of seeing something, when compared to notices on other platforms.

Kevin: Hmmm… I think calling iOS notifications “clumsy” is being generous. If I want to fire up my iPod touch first thing in the morning just to scan for email that arrived overnight, I shouldn’t have to tap a dozen or more notifications from other applications before getting to the task I want to use the device for. You’re right that notifications do what they’re supposed to do, but the method is inelegant and disruptive, at least for me.

I’m glad you mentioned Android because notifications there are the antithesis of the iOS approach. Notifications are all bundled up in a non-disruptive, pull-down “window shade.” And in my above scenario of checking email at first light, I can simply ignore the Android notifications or with one screen tap, I can dismiss them all. It might not be the most perfect approach, but it doesn’t stop me from doing what I intended to do with the device. And the notifications are always visible as small icons at the top of the screen, so there’s little chance of missing them.

Darrell: See, I would actually argue the opposite. The icons at the top of the screen are what irritate me most about Android notifications. It reminds me of the days of depending on the Windows taskbar to keep me up to date. I much prefer Apple’s simple sequential method that gives focus to one thing at a time, and I think that you’re part of a relatively small minority in terms of running into a notification pile-up when you leave the device unattended.

Recent studies suggest that iPhone users have downloaded an average of 40 apps per device. I’d argue that if you account for heavy app downloaders like myself and other tech enthusiasts, that number is on the high side when it comes to how many apps most iPhone owners are actually actively using on their device. Even with my many screens of apps, I generally only have to dismiss about two or three notices in the morning.

Apple, unlike its mobile competitors, continues to embrace a strategy of ongoing simplification when it comes to interface design. I don’t think it’ll introduce added complexity and potentially confusing elements to its mobile OS in the interest of catering to users with high technical proficiency and expectations based on a subtle awareness of how computing systems have generally worked in the past. This is the same company that doesn’t allow apps to repurpose hardware buttons, after all.

Kevin: Interesting because I’m actually not a heavy app downloader, yet I still have a queue of notifications. Perhaps I’m just using more apps that take advantage of push notifications, but ultimately I think the keyword here is “queue.” The fact that iOS notifications are implemented in a more linear fashion than Android offers less flexibility. With Android, I can choose which of my notifications I want to act upon, instead of being forced to deal with the notification that iOS pushes atop my app.

That actually raises another point: I’ve occasionally had media activities interrupted in iOS due to a notification. That should never happen in my opinion, because I should be in charge of which notifications and activities to see on my phone, not the other way around.

I had thought that by now Apple would take advantage of Rich Dellinger, who it hired away from Palm last summer. Dellinger was the brain-child of the webOS notification system, which I find even more elegant than the one used for Android smartphones. In fact, the new Honeycomb tablet notifications are more like that of webOS. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic, but I think — no, I hope — that Apple recognizes that it still uses an sub-optimal notification system and we’ll see the fruits of Dellinger’s labor in the form of a new system soon.

Darrell: We might see a change, but I don’t think it’ll address the areas you’d like to see it address. I think Apple will keep intrusive notifications, and stick with the alert dialogs it has been using since the feature was first introduced. Why? Because those best embody the communicative purpose of visual notifications on a phone, which is still primarily a communication device, and only secondarily a means of media consumption.

That’s not to say change is impossible, but I think it’ll go a different route. Apple’s notifications aren’t deeply flawed, but they are missing one crucial element: a central dedicated notification management page. I think that’s what Apple will bake into iOS 5, if it touches notifications at all. This would simply add a notification history to existing tools, which make it even easier for users to make sure they haven’t missed anything. But if you’re hoping for more, I think it’s only fair to notify you in advance that you’re probably going to be disappointed.

Survey finding a quarter of adults in the US and UK are 'avid' mobile gamers

Just how many cellphone users can be considered gamers these days? According to a new survey from PopCap Games and Information Solutions Group, about a quarter of adults in the US and UK have played a game on their phone in the past week, which makes them an "avid" gamer in their eyes, while about a third have played a game in the past month. If you dial things down to just mobile gamers with a smartphone, however, the number of avid gamers jumps to a hefty 83 percent, with 45 percent saying they play on a daily basis. What's perhaps most telling, though, is that 55 percent of smartphone users say they play games in general most often on their on their phone, compared to just 22 percent who play most often on their desktop or laptop computer, and 20 percent who opt for game console. Hit up the link below to check out the complete results in PDF form.

Windows Phone 7′s Marketplace Surpassing 9,000 Applications

(Okay, Greg. Don’t make an “Over 9000!?” reference. Come on; you can do this.)

Microsoft might have made some silly choices with regards to getting people to develop for Windows Phone 7 early on, but it doesn’t look like they’re having too much trouble on that front.

Early this morning, the WP7 Marketplace surpassed 9,000 applications — which, as MobileBurn points out, is more than HP/Palm’s webOS (which got a much earlier start) offers up, and quickly approaching the 15,000 mark that RIM announced a few months back.

WHAT?! OVER 9000?! THAT’S IMPOSSIB — Crap.

Mobile Interactive Group Buying Golden Bytes To Extend Marketing Footprint

Another chapter in the continuing consolidation mobile service agencies, and the growth of one agency in particular, the Mobile Interactive Group. Today, the UK outfit announced that it would be buying Golden Bytes to extend its operations into the Netherlands and Belgium. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Up to now, MIG has been providing mobile marketing and mobile content services to a range of customer segments, from broadcasters like ITV (LSE: ITV) and Sky, to financial services (Barclaycard) and brands (Tropicana, Nokia), and even iPad apps for publishers (such as the tabloid the Sun, pictured). The majority of that business has originated in the UK, as well as the U.S. and Australia.

The acquisition of Golden Bytes, which has been around since 1999 and provides some of the same kinds of services as MIG does, will add coverage of the Netherlands and Belgium to MIG’s portfolio.

Golden Bytes’ customers up to now have included operators (eg, T-Mobile, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) and KPN) as well as publishers and brands (eg, MTV, Rabobank and Shell).

Combining the two companies’ operations onto a single platform should also help reduce the costs of running those services.

The acquisition builds on another that MIG completed in June 2010,when it bought UK mobile marketing and CRM provider Piri Ltd., also for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition was made through existing funds. A spokesperson for MIG tells us that for the fiscal year to April 2010, MIG’s turnover was £77.8 million ($126 million), growth of 15 percent on the year fuelled by the rise in smartphone usage. The company also saw a 46 percent gross profit margin increase.

Meanwhile, Golden Bytes had revenue of €19.2 million ($26 million) for the year that ended 31 December 2010.

MobileNotifier: iPhone alerting improved

If you haven't jailbroken your iPhone yet then MobileNotifier might just push you over the edge -- a place you're probably already teetering upon given Apple's pathetic push notification implementation. MobileNotifier beta v3 is a free open-source rewrite of iOS' notifications from Peter Hajas (lead developer) and Kyle Adams (UI and UX). Perhaps the biggest feature of MobileNotifier is the addition of unobtrusive alerts that appear at the top of your existing app. Unlike Apple's interfering popups, MobileNotifier alerts can be ignored, leaving them on the display without inhibiting use of the device. You can also take immediate action on alerts or tap them away for later. Pending alerts can be found in the AlertDashboard -- the previously unused area above the app switcher, accessible with a double-press of the iPhone's home button. Pending alert counts are also displayed as a line item on the Lockscreen. We've been running MobileNotifier for a few hours. While it's not perfect (opaque windows?) we have no plans to remove it either. At least not until we see what Apple has in store for iOS 5 which, with any luck, will be revealed on Wednesday for a summer launch. Another screenshot and demo video can be found after the break. 

Source: Thumbplay Music Closing To Getting Sold; Fate Of Ringtone Ops Unknown

MocoNews has learned that mobile entertainment company Thumbplay is getting sold. Its cloud-based music service, Thumbplay Music, may be going to a “traditional media company”, with the deal expected to close this week, possibly as soon as today; while the fate of Thumbplay’s other main line of business—selling ringtones, games and other casual mobile entertainment—is still unknown.

Our source tells us that the sale is a do-or-die scenario because the company is running out of cash: “The price is very low. No one is making any money.” The ringtone business is still on the block, and the company is trying to sell it to another ringtone distributor. 

We have contacted Thumbplay for confirmation and will update this post as we learn more.

If true, Thumbplay’s story, in a way, doesn’t come as too much of a surprise—the music industry has been hit hard with cannibalisation from digital sales and piracy. And the promise of new revenues, on the back of the explosion in mobile and internet usage, have yet to materialise for most music companies, with Apple’s iTunes dominating the market with more than a 60 percent share. If anything, a Thumbplay sale could be a signal for more sales or closures to come.

Thumbplay was founded in 2004 by Are Traasdhal and Evan Schwartz (who is the current CEO) as a mobile entertainment startup, selling services like ringtones and wallpapers. It launched its cloud-based music service, Thumbplay Music, in 2010. This has the backing of all four major record labels, as well as independents, and has more than 10 million songs in its catalogue, which it sells on a $9.99 monthly subscription, via a smartphone app (iPhone, BlackBerry and Android) or as a desktop app.

What’s getting bought. Apparently not as much as you would think. Our source says that Thumbplay Music was built on a platform licensed from the Oslo, Norway-based mobile entertainment platform provider Aspiro. Aspiro sells both its own-brand music service under the name WiMP, as well as white-label services to companies like Telenor, Portugal Telecom, and Thumbplay. In other words, whatever sale goes down, the price paid will be for Thumbplay subscribers and revenue made from them.

However, it is unclear how many subscribers Thumbplay has at the moment. Visitors to the company’s main site, Thumbplay.com, have been in decline, according to Quantcast, but that’s not a completely accurate marker because the company runs its business mainly via its apps.

Thumbplay has a strong list of backers that include Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital; and it has raised at least $41.5 million and was valued at around $400 million back in 2008.

In addition to the founders, Thumbplay has an equally strong list of executives, including Pablo Calamera as the CTO—he was previously director of Apple’s MobileMe, the cloud-based service that seems to have been discontinued of late. Eric Hippeau, the SoftBank partner who recently left his role as CEO of Huffington Post after its sale to AOL (NYSE: AOL), is listed as a director of the company. But several executives are also understood to have left.

Thumbplay’s ringtones business saw a bit of controversy last year, when it was included in a class-action lawsuit in which users accused it (along with others like Motricity) of levying unauthorized charges for content. The defendants never admitted any wrongdoing and collectively settled the case out of court for $10 million.

MobileNotifier Does iOS Notifications Truly Right, Will Make You Want To Jailbreak

iOS’ Notifications system sucks. A lot. In the Great Smartphone War, it’s probably the platform’s most inexplicable Achille’s heel. Oh, you’re playing a game? Sorry, Bobby texted you again! PAUSED! Watching a movie? Sorry, the battery is at 10%! PAUSED!

Peter Hajas’ MobileNotifier, demoed above, shows us that things don’t have to be this way. Dismissible, nonintrusive notifications? An easily accessible notifications tray? Be still, my heart. The catch: as with anything that modifies the deeper system files, you’ll need to jailbreak to get this working.

Our fingers are crossed that Apple will finally be addressing this in iOS 5 — meanwhile, consider us jailbroken.

SlingPlayer Mobile for Android Game - now with high quality video

There you have it. High quality video streams, just like the iPhone has -- undoubtedly provided by your SOLO or PRO-HD Slingbox -- on your Android SlingPlayer Mobile client. If you haven't already copped, it'll be $29.99, while owners should just mash the upgrade all button until they're rewarded with version 1.2.

Infographic: Mobile Browsers Compared Worldwide (Or What Nokia’s now Giving Up)

All talk these days is about Google/Android and Apple/iOS, but here’s a nifty infographic that underscores just how fragmented the picture really is for which mobile phone browsers dominate.

Created by the digital marketing agency iCrossing (part of Hearst Corp.), the map shows marketshares for the leading mobile phone browsers in selected countries. Some details that stand out:

—Microsoft’s Windows Phone does not have a big enough marketshare in any one market to make it into the charts. For that matter, neither does webOS.

—Nokia (NYSE: NOK) dominates by wide margins in developing markets, but in mature markets Nokia is either too small to make it into the rankings, or it is low on the list. It’s striking how consistent that is, and it makes one wonder if the company should be pursuing something more dual as a strategy, opting for Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) in those markets where it has nothing to lose, and staying with its familiar products where they are still going strong.

—Samsung and Sony Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) make rank in developing markets for their featurephone, proprietary OS’s. They have a potential shot to covert those to bigger shares if Nokia doesn’t keep up the pace in the process of transitioning to Windows Phone 7.

—RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) has been blown out of its home market by Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). In Canada, Apple has a 77 percent share, while BlackBerry is tied with Android at a modest eight percent.

—Apple is actually leading all the developed markets that are highlighted in this graphic, but it’s also appearing in the rankings in developing markets too—something that, if Apple does launch this so-called iPhone Nano, it could capitalise on.