Metrowerks Supports Symbian OS with OEM Development Tools
"3GSM World Congress - CANNES, France--Metrowerks will soon offer developers creating software components of Symbian OS phones a comprehensive development tool suite for Symbian OS(tm) version 8.0, with the upcoming release of CodeWarrior(tm) Development Studio for Symbian OS, OEM Edition, version 2.8.

Metrowerks has worked closely with Symbian to produce a comprehensive and integrated toolchain that addresses the OEM development process from board bring-up to software integration and testing. Providing support for both kernel configurations of Symbian OS version 8.0, the Metrowerks product offers OEMs the tools necessary to quickly complete operating system (OS) base ports, develop peripheral device drivers and integrate native applications for phones based on Symbian OS version 8.0."

Metrowerks To Assist in Rollout of Forum Nokia PRO
"3GSM World Congress - CANNES, France - Metrowerks has been selected by Nokia to provide technology to Forum Nokia PRO - a new program that provides developers with support for the creation of applications for Nokia handsets.

Metrowerks Developer Services plans to equip the Forum Nokia PRO developer program with industry-leading services and web infrastructure designed to enhance the fulfillment of service to program members, including an infrastructure that allows Nokia to implement targeted developer campaigns as well as generate and manage developer-facing content."

T-Flash is the smallest removable Flash storage for mobile phones
"SanDisk T-Flash is currently the world's smallest removable flash memory storage format. It is similar in size and function to embedded flash memory but can also be readily removed and upgraded to allow for a range of memory capacities as well as interoperability with other consumer electronics devices. Approximately the size of a fingernail, T-Flash is designed for new mobile phones that are compact yet fully-featured with storage-intensive multimedia applications such as digital cameras, video capture and playback, MP3 players, video games, personal organizers, Multimedia Message Service (MMS), email and voicemail capabilities. "

ActiveCore to spin off wireless gaming business
"TORONTO?ActiveCore Technologies Inc. announced it will spin out its wireless gaming business in a sale of about $1.75 million, a move the company said will allow it to focus on its wireless enterprise and software business. ActiveCore said it will retain partial ownership in the gaming business and will receive interest and principal payments over the next two years.

?Our decision to sell the games division substantially reduces the level of operational risk in the company while providing us with an ongoing stake in the mobile games market as revenues and profits in that market area grow over the next two years,? said Brian MacDonald, ActiveCore?s chairman and chief executive officer. "

New-wave cellphones arrive in Europe
"CANNES, France ? Now that a new wave of '3G' cellphones equipped for streaming video and multimedia content is finally arriving in Europe, the industry is focusing on the next big unknown: what services users will pay for, and how.
The mobile phone services on display this week at the 3GSM World Congress industry show in this French Riviera town has ranged from video games to tennis to the hit reality TV show, 'Big Brother.'"

Wireless: Sky Force
"With series 60 mobile games, the ones that usually stand out are from one of two camps. Either they're games that wow us with an impressive little 3D engine, or they're games that show a full understanding of the limitations of the device and concentrate on solid 2D gaming instead. We can't remember the last game we saw which excelled in both of these areas. "

New java games supplier for TIM
"IN-FUSIO, a games publisher and service provider for operators in Europe, US, and China, has announced that it is to supply the TIM Group with Java compatible games for download from its WAP portal. Under the agreement, TIM intends to distribute IN-FUSIO's games to its customers. IN-FUSIO also announced that TIM will exclusively distribute the South Park and Streghe licenses for a three month period to its Italian subscriber base. "

JBenchmark 2.0, the performance metric for second-generation mobile Java devices released
"The latest version of the industry-standard JBenchmark that measures and compares Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) compatible mobile devices was released today. JBenchmark 2.0 tests the graphical performance of devices compliant with the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) version 2.0, such as cellular phones, two-way pagers, and communicators. "

Verizon Wireless, Blue Lava Wireless and Atlas Mobile Team Up to Offer Tetris(R) Tournament for Prizes(TM) to Verizon Wireless Get It Now(R) Customers
"BEDMINSTER, N.J., Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless, the nation's leading wireless provider, Blue Lava Wireless, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games, and Atlas Mobile, Inc., a mobile game and services company focusing on multiplayer tournament game experiences, today announced the availability of Tetris Tournament for Prizes(TM) to Verizon Wireless customers through the Get It Now virtual store. Verizon Wireless' Get It Now
customers can compete against each other in daily and weekly tournaments to win CDs, DVDs, movie tickets and gift cards directly from their mobile phones."

Rich, Connected Gaming Arrives on Series 60 Platform With Airplay 2.0 From Ideaworks3D
"Ideaworks3D Ltd., a leading provider of advanced mobile gaming technology and content, today launched Airplay(TM) 2.0, a connected rich gaming SDK and end-to-end service solution for publishers, network operators and device manufacturers, on the Series 60 Platform. Series 60 is the world's leading smartphone platform, with millions of devices in the market already generating significant demand for high quality mobile gaming experiences.
Airplay 2.0 is a major upgrade to the wireless industry's only commercially proven, turnkey solution for the global provisioning of rich multiplayer mobile games. Airplay's unique architecture dramatically simplifies the development of revenue generating connected games, and offers unprecedented power and flexibility in game provisioning, billing and administration.
Airplay 2.0 will be demonstrated for attendees of the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes February 23-26, 2004. "

Compelling WiFi, Bluetooth and GPRS Centric Games to Increase Mobile Carrier's ARPU
"PlayWizard Launches GPRS centric games suite with daily Lucky Draw Jackpot cash prizes for consumers who want risk free casino fun on their Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Siemens, LG, Motorola cell phone mobiles and Microsoft Smartphones and Pocket PC PDAs.
Bangkok, Thailand (PRWEB) February 23, 2004 ?- PlayWizard Co. Ltd., a developer of solo and multiplayer mobile games, launches today its mobile casino and arcade gaming product line and lucky draw jackpot cash prizes for cell phones and PDAs including Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Pocket PCs Microsoft Smartphones and Windows."

Sun Enables new Wave of Mobile Java Services
"New Device Software, Content Delivery, and Go-to-market Capabilities Simplify Secure Wireless Services for Hundreds of Millions of Java Mobile Phones Worldwide
3GSM World Congress, Cannes, France (Stand C6, Hall 1) -- February 23, 2004 -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), the creator and leading advocate for Java(tm) technology, today announced key new products, programs and partnerships for operators, handset manufacturers, application developers and content providers to monetize the growing demand for advanced mobile data services. Enormous revenue growth opportunities arise across the value chain as new devices join the network and consume, create and circulate new services. The new mobile Java infrastructure enhancements announced today help all members of the wireless community take advantage of these opportunities."

Mobile Java Applications Can Now Be Certified Once and Deployed Everywhere
"CANNES, France, 3GSM World Congress, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Key Wireless Industry leaders Motorola, Nokia, Siemens, Sony Ericsson and Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced the launch of the 'Java Verified' program to provide a unified process for the testing and certification of Java(TM) applications for mobile handsets. Applications can now be tested and certified only once for deployment over a wide range of delivery channels. The program will help the wireless industry satisfy growing demand for mobile data services by reducing development cost and speeding time-to-market."

Symbian announces Symbian OS version 8.0
"Symbian announced during the 3GSM World Congress the new Symbian OS version 8.0. The Symbian OS v8.0 is designed to meet the needs of Symbian OS licensees, network operators and enterprises by driving down Symbian OS phone build cost, providing upgraded Java and multimedia capabilities, as well as advanced device management functionality.

Key Symbian OS v8.0 enhancements include:


New ?hard? real-time capabilities ? a core technology improvement that enhances the performance of Symbian OS and enables handset manufacturers to use ?single core? processors that integrate telephony and application processing, substantially reducing Symbian OS phone build cost.

Device management framework ? gives network operators and enterprises enhanced remote device management capabilities that allow ? for example ? remote management and configuration of Symbian OS phones. Based on the OMA
SyncML 1.1 open standard, this capability makes Symbian OS phones cost-effective for network operators and enterprises by reducing in-market deployment and management costs.

Upgraded multimedia framework ? gives Symbian OS licensees the ability to integrate quickly and easily the very latest multimedia accelerating hardware in order to deliver high performance multimedia applications such as video streaming.

Java ? Symbian OS v8.0?s enhanced Java gives developers the opportunity to access the functionality and performance of Symbian OS to create advanced Java-based applications and services. Fully compliant with network operator Java specifications and Java Community Process standards, Symbian OS v8.0 offers Java MIDP 2.0 (JSR118), CLDC1.1 (JSR139), MobileMedia (JSR135), 3D graphics (JSR184), JTWI 1.0 compliance (JSR185) and CLDC HI 1.1 Java VM optimised for Symbian OS.

"

In-Fusio to develop mobile titles for Microsoft
"Mobile game provider In-Fusio has signed a deal with Microsoft Game Studios which will see the company developing and publishing mobile titles based on some of the company's biggest franchises.
The seven titles which have been chosen for 'porting' to handsets are Age of Empires 2, Midtown Madness 3, Zoo Tycoon, Banjo Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, Banjo Pilot, It's Mr Pants and Sabre Wulf - the latter four all being Rare properties."

EverQuest clone for mobiles
"Danish game developer watAgame has announced the launch of what it says is the first worldwide online role-playing game for mobile phones: Era of Eidolon.
Era of Eidolon is based on a Lord of the Rings inspired world that offers players an extensive online community featuring stunning graphics, fantasy characters, multi-player battles, in-game chatting, clans, rankings, prize competitions and much more."

Nokia pushing reference design platform - report
"The first day of the 3GSM conference in Cannes has seen Nokia launch a reference design platform for Series 60 in conjunction with Texas Instruments. While this is a smart strategy to drive proliferation of Symbian devices, the best defence against Microsoft's ambitions in the mobile handset market, it comes at a cost. Nokia is cannibalising its own hardware margins in the long run."

SYMBIAN TEAMS UP WITH CRITERION AND HYBRID FOR EMBEDDED GRAPHICS SOLUTION
"February 23rd, 2004 - Criterion Software, the leading provider of middleware tools and technologies for the games industry, and its embedded graphics technology partner, Hybrid Graphics, announce their joint agreement with Symbian to deliver Hybrid OpenGL? ES and JSR 184 implementations for Symbian OS. Criterion's RenderWare Mobile initiative will support the pre-integration and shipping of Hybrid Graphics' OpenGL? ES solution as a reference implementation to Symbian OS licensees, which will accelerate the early development and delivery to market of devices that carry the key embedded 3D graphics standards."

IN-FUSIO RAISES MOBILE GAME STANDARD WITH NEW GAME ENGINE FOR JAVA HANDSETS: ExEn GAMING EXTENSIONS:
"3GSM, Hall 4, Gaming Zone, Cannes, France - February 23rd 2004 - IN-FUSIO, a leading games publisher and service provider for operators in Europe, US, and China, today unveiled its new mobile game engine which runs on top of MIDP 2.0 handsets - ExEn Gaming Extensions (EGE).

EGE ignites the capabilities of MIDP 2.0 gaming APIs by providing a number of enhanced features while focusing on the delivery of user-friendly services to players. Feature highlights include:

- 'real-time' multi-player functionality
- enhanced 3D game play
- 'recommend a game' to a friend
- try and buy
- simplified user interface for easy game play"

Gambling on Cellular Phones!
"Mr. Wong, President and Chief Operating Officer of Mobile Interactive System developed a revolutionary gambling technology that allows Online Casino games to be played from cellular phones. The first game to be compatible with this technology is a roulette game that can be linked to an online Casino. More games will be added to the list of interactive mobile games such as blackjack, keno, and craps."

Synergenix Interactive Joins Symbian Platinum Program
"Synergenix Interactive announced that it has joined the Symbian Platinum Program to support the emerging market for Symbian OS? smartphones. As a Platinum Partner, Synergenix is extending its mobile entertainment solution, mophun?, to the Symbian ecosystem. Symbian develops and licenses Symbian OS, the global industry standard operating system for advanced mobile phones, to the world?s leading handset manufacturers, which account for over 80 percent of worldwide mobile phone sales.

Synergenix is a key provider in mobile gaming. The mophun? platform is built on established standards and ensure optimal gaming experiences on both mobile phones and consumer electronics in general, including not only an accelerated graphics engine but also support for stereo sound and any communication bearer including GPRS, Edge, 3G, Bluetooth and SMS. The Digital Rights Management (DRM) module of mophun protects both games and other content types such as ring tones and logos, while at the same time supporting innovative business models such as pay-per-play, credit based gaming and subscription models."

Official site for Series 60 licensees and developers open
"Launched and created by Nokia and the Symbian Series 60 licensees, Panasonic, Sendo, Samsung and Siemens, the site serves as the main portal for a wide variety of Series 60 Platform information for all key stakeholders. The website includes six main sections: Terminal Manufacturers, Operators, Enterprises, Product Creation Community, Developers and Devices.

The site is an important new channel for Symbian Series 60 licensee content, such as product information, news and documents. It will give visibility on the achievements of Symbian Series 60 community member, which consists of licensees, competence centers, contractors and semiconductor vendors. "

Gambling games for mobiles
"Korea?s three wireless carriers, SK Telecom, KTF and LG Telecom, are seeing the lucrative market in mobile gambling and are now keen to grab a larger slice of the market pie.

SK Telecom began to select top-ranking game services last month to renew its contracts with service providers. The operator changes its focus and now is in deals with 26 publishers of popular mobile games."

Alphamosaic Launches A Gaming Experience Unlike Any Other
"VideoCore architecture offers a unique combination of high quality and low power resulting in an unparalleled gaming experience

3GSM World Congress Cannes February 2004 - Mobile gaming is poised to take off in Europe in a major way, much as it has done in the Far East. Alphamosaic, the leading semiconductor company for mobile multimedia devices is at the forefront of that revolution with its VideoCore? processor technology that delivers the world?s lowest power, highest quality games to mobiles."

RENESAS AND CRITERION TEAM UP TO DELIVER COMPLETE MOBILE SOLUTION FOR SH-MOBILE PLATFORM
"February 19th, 2004 - Criterion Software, the world's leading provider of middleware technology for the game development industry, announces a partnership with Renesas Technology Corp., the joint-venture semiconductor company established by Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501, NYSE: HIT) and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TSE: 6503), which will see the delivery of a complete graphics middleware solution for SH-Mobile platforms."

2ThumbZ Entertainment Goes Global with International Carrier Deals; 2ThumbZ Signs Content Deals in China, Europe, India and North and Latin America
"RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 19, 2004--2ThumbZ Entertainment, a leading provider of the wireless industry's most extensive online portal of mobile games, wallpapers and ringtones, today announced deals which will bring its mobile content to over 300 million wireless subscribers worldwide.


The deals are for distribution of 2ThumbZ content to wireless carriers including MMo2 (the mobile division of British Telecom); the two largest carriers in China; carriers and service providers in India; one of the largest Canada-based telecommunications company; along with a number of North American and Latin American carriers including Cingular Wireless, T-Mobile, and Telefonica. "

Game Developers Conference 2004 Dedicates Two-Day Summit to Mobile Games
"SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Responding to the enormous interest in everything mobile, the 18th annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) will focus two days of lectures and panels at the 2004 conference,
March 22 - 26, 2004, San Jose, Calif. on the mobile gaming industry. GDC Mobile brings together more than 500 leaders from the game development community with representatives from mobile game developers, publishers, traditional platform game developers, handset manufacturers, aggregators and operators, to discuss opportunities, challenges and viability in the space."

Java Technology surpasses 1.5 billion mobile devices worldwide
"Sun Microsystems has announced that 1.5 billion devices around the world are powered by Java technology. This technology is present secure identity cards to mobile phones, printers, web cams, automobile telematics, desktops, medical equipment, servers, jet engines, the navigation controls for NASA's Mars Rover, and more.

New Java technology-based digital identity smart card deployments include the National Aeronautic and Science Administration (NASA) and the Government of Thailand. These new wins build on Java technology handset momentum,
currently deployed by 77 operators worldwide including AT&T Wireless, China Mobile, China Unicom, Cingular Wireless, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, and many others."

First head-to-head Bluetooth game for N-Gage
"Nokia and Vivendi Universal Games have announced Crash Nitro Kart for the N-Gage game deck, the first game for the N-Gage where multiple players can go head to head courtesy of Bluetooth wireless technology. Crash Nitro Kart offers several 3D Kart racing worlds, all of which have been specifically developed for the N-Gage, and also features over the air features through N-Gage Arena. "

Game discounts N-Gage: "The price of the N-Gage has been reduced by more than 25% by the country?s biggest games retailer, Game, as it continues to be left in the shade by Nintendo?s Game Boy Advance.

The retailer, which has almost 400 stores in the country, is understood to have struggled to sell the device at the original ?230 price tag, while it has been given away free on contracts by mobile retailers and sold at as little as ?129 at Woolworths."

Motorola and Leading Developers Add Multimedia and Connectivity to Feature Phone Reference Design
"AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT - News) has teamed up with other technology specialists to help manufacturers significantly reduce the development time of enhanced multimedia feature phones. The i.250-21 Feature Phone Reference Design, based on Motorola's i.250-21 platform, includes rich multimedia and connectivity features for Global System Mobile (GSM) and General Packet Radio System (GPRS) handset developers."

THE PIONEER IN DOWNLOADABLE MOBILE GAMES REACHES PROFITABILITY AND TAKES LEAD IN MOBILE GAME SECTOR
"Bordeaux, France, February 17, 2004 - IN-FUSIO today announced that it has reached $14,4 million in revenue (Euro11,3 million) for 2003. The company's turnover has more than tripled between 2002 and 2003 and is expected to grow significantly in 2004. This result makes IN-FUSIO profitable despite the cash acquisition of American game development studio Cybiko in November 2003.
Consistently, every month, IN-FUSIO revenues increase by an average of 13%, 1,000,000 game downloads generate seven million premium SMSs and between 600,000 and 700,000 new players join IN-FUSIO's mobile gamers' community."

BT offers games via net kiosks
"BT has teamed up with mobile games company Gameloft to offer video games for download via its high-street internet kiosks.
Touch the link on the kiosk screen for free access to the BT Ringtones website and choose the game you want."

MACROSPACE LAUNCHES THE LATEST VERSION OF EMUX – THE INDUSTRY’S MOST POWERFUL WEB EMULATOR FOR MOBILE GAMES
"Macrospace, the market leader in wireless gaming and wireless gaming solutions, today unveiled the latest version of its advanced web-based emulation tool for mobile applications, EmuX. EmuX allows network operators, web portals and mobile phone retailers to market their mobile games services in style, by allowing consumers to try games before buying. By harnessing the web as a promotional tool, EmuX helps customers drive data revenues and ARPU by attracting and retaining high value customers. Companies including O2, Orange, Cartoon Network and MSN are using EmuX to give their mobile games services maximum impact. Over 1,000,000 mobile gaming sessions were successfully emulated through EmuX since its commercial launch in February 2003."

MOBILE SCOPE PUBLISHES MOBILE CAMERA GAME
"Meerbusch, Germany - February 13, 2004 - Mobile Scope, a leading European publisher and developer of interactive entertainment software for mobile devices, announced today that ?Moorhen ? Camera X? will be released in March 2004.

Video game publishers have been experimenting with innovative game controllers since the early 80?s, but ?Moorhen ? Camera X? marks the first time it's been done absolutely right.

Play ?Moorhen ? Camera X? and control the game with your built-in camera. The camera cursor automatically follows all movements of your handset. This enhanced gameplay offers a unique gaming experience, which no gamer will be able to resist."

N-Gage goes on promotional tour, secures new Sega titles
"Nokia brings its game deck out on the piste. Nokia has announced that the N-Gage game deck is to go on another promotional tour in Europe, this time covering 27 major winter sports locations in seven different countries with a tour featuring major prizes for competition winners."

Nokia takes control of Symbian
"Nokia has announced that it is buying out Psion's shares in Symbian. Symbian, owned by a core group of mobile industry players with its independent governance structure, will continue to pursue its fair and non-discriminatory licensing business of the standards-based Symbian operating system (OS)."

Sales last year could exceed 510 million handsets
"The worldwide mobile handset market continues to beat expectations and could exceed 510 million units in 2003, according to early estimates from Gartner. The estimate is based on manufacturers' shipments to the distribution channel (*sell-in) in the fourth quarter of 2003."

Key US retailer drops N-Gage from 450 stores
"More US retail woes for Nokia - but strong rumours suggest N-Gage 2.0 for E3. Major US retailer GameStop has announced that it is to stop selling Nokia's N-Gage game deck 450 of its stores, representing almost a third of its retail outlets, with remaining inventory being moved to other stores.
Although GameStop is relocating the inventory rather than ditching the product entirely, the news still comes as a further blow to Nokia in the USA, where the image of the N-Gage has already been tarnished by massive discounting."

Sega Expands US Mobile Business
"Officials from Sega of America have announced the launch of new mobile content for the Verizon Wirless ?Get It Now? mobile Internet service.

The new games include Sega Snowboarding, Pengo, Flicky and Fast Line and are available for a single download price of between $4.99 and $7.99 or monthly rental of between $2.99 and $4.99."

Youth Market Represents Large Opportunity for Wireless
"SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--Feb. 3, 2004--With an estimated 25 to 35 million potential customers, the youth market in the United States could represent an extremely lucrative opportunity for the wireless industry. High-tech market research firm In-Stat/MDR (http://www.instat.com) reports that opportunities exist not just for wireless carriers, though they stand to reap the largest share, but for handset manufacturers, wireless application developers and publishers as well."