Cortado working on business solutions for the Apple iPhone

Cortado announced that it is working to port its business solutions to the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone. As a result, iPhone-equipped users of their service will be able to perform such functions such as printing, faxing, access to corporate networks, scanning and copying, database access and much more. Exact details are unknown at this stage - all we have are Cortado's Dirk Löwenberg, who said: "Within the next six months, we will be offering a series of business applications through the Apple AppStore, and are expecting to have the 'Cortado Corporate Server for the iPhone' ready by summer. At the moment, the iPhone is developing into our second most important platform, just after BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) smartphones." And that's about all we know at this stage. Guess, Cortado will provide us with more information soon. Stay tuned, in the meantime… Related News from IntoMobile: Cortado Corporate Server Professional targets small businesses BlackBerry users get 1GB free online storage with Cortado and Box.net Affordable realtime email from ThinPrint

iSkoot launches Kalaida platform for operators; Brings Twitter to feature phones Posted: 01 Mar 2009 02:11 AM PST iSkoot, the company which we know as a maker of the Symbian OS Skype client, recently announced a new platform for mobile operators to empower a wide range of mobile handsets (i.e. feature phones) with new capabilities such as as real-time connection to social networks, email, instant messaging, and news feeds. The platform, called Kalaida, is designed to allow multiple services to run on the handset at once, "bringing the mobile experience closer to what users expect." In real-life, this translates into enabling users to access Facebook, email, and various IM services from virtually any mobile phone. In a separate release, iSkoot announced that Kalaida includes support for the popular micro-blogging tool - Twitter. This means that feature phone users can also micro-blog as well as follow their buddies' tweets, from wherever they happen to be. The iSkoot Kalaida platform currently supports more than 20 handsets from leading manufacturers including LG, Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Samsung, and Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE), with more to be announced later in the year. Related News from IntoMobile: CellSpin adds Twitter and Pownce to the list of supported services; Micro-bloggers rejoice! Easily blog from your mobile phone with Utterz Facebook platform goes mobile

ABI Research: Mobile Internet search engine use jumped 14% between 2007 and 2008 Posted: 01 Mar 2009 02:08 AM PST According to surveys conducted by ABI Research in 2007 and 2008, 70% of respondents used their mobile phones to access information through Internet search engines last year, representing a substantial 14% increase over 2007. Some types of content accessed via mobile phones rose in popularity from 2007 to 2008 — including news, game downloads, music downloads, and especially video downloads. A significantly lower percentage in 2008 reported downloading a ringtone than the prior year, while the interest in location information, social networking and sports remained about the same. Commenting on the findings, ABI's senior analyst Jeff Orr said: "Use of the mobile phone goes well beyond voice calls. A significant percentage of respondents say they use their handset for mobile email and web access, reflecting the broader access to inexpensive or all-you-can-eat mobile data services in the US." The surveys, each of which sampled more than 1000 mobile phone users in the United States aged 14-59 and across a wide range of demographic profiles, were conducted in November 2007 and December 2008. As a result, ABI prepared a report titled "US Mobile Email and Mobile Web Access Trends" and you can find out more about it from this page. Related News from IntoMobile: MINO - VoIP application for low cost calls iGR: Pre-teen segment shows increasing mobile phone penetration Mobile Research: The future of fieldwork

Bebo Open Mobile comes to Canada Posted: 01 Mar 2009 02:06 AM PST Bebo announced that it has extended its Bebo Open Mobile program to Canada, offering mobile operators a suite of tools to support the delivery of the Bebo social networking experience in the country. Specifically, Bebo announced deployment on Bell Mobility, Fido, Rogers (NYSE: RCI) Wireless and Virgin Mobile Canada of Bebo Open Mobile Messaging, allowing customers to receive Bebo alerts and updates on their mobile phones through the 2326 (BEBO) short code. Additionally, they can update their Bebo profiles, participate in special offers, send virtual goods and interact with friends through the short code. Additionally, Bell Mobility and Virgin Mobile Canada have deployed Bebo Open Mobile Internet, a mobile Internet platform with tailored navigation and a range of operator specific customization options. As a result of these deployments, page views for the Bebo mobile site in Canada rose 43% in January, according to internal data. And that's not all as far as Bebo is concerned — the popular social networking service expects to make further announcements regarding Bebo Open Mobile Partners and initiatives throughout 2009. Related News from IntoMobile: Bebo Open Mobile launched to spread Bebo across mobiles Bebo heads Mobile with Global Head apppointment Bebo Mobile To Launch On Orange

Phone Guardian 3.0 for S60 makes sure your phone doesn't get easily stolen Posted: 01 Mar 2009 02:00 AM PST Symbian Guru released the new version of its security software which helps protecting the phone from theft and unauthorized access. Phone Guardian 3.0 bursts with new features, among which we highlight: Added aGPS support, allowing users to trace their mobile phones more precisely New SMS commands Added an option to start Phone Guardian not only by clicking on the icon, but also using the previously set secret combination SMS can now be sent to up to 3 numbers Like with previous version, Phone Guardian locks the phone automatically, after SIM change and on receiving of the lock SMS. Phone unlock is possible only with the right application password. Phone Guardian 3.0 comes with a 5-day full functioning trial, after which, in case you like the app - you can buy it for [CENA]. More information is available on SymbianGuru's website. Related News from IntoMobile: Phone Guardian for S60 3rd Edition devices released Winterface 1.1 released; Makes your Windows Mobile smartphone look even cooler SymbianGuru's AutoThemes automatically changes theme of your Symbian S60 smartphone

Opera's State of the Mobile Web for January is out! Posted: 01 Mar 2009 01:57 AM PST Opera Software released the January edition of its "State of the Mobile Web" report, highlighting Middle East mobile web usage. Some of the more interesting data from the report include: In January 2009, Opera Mini usage jumped 12.1% over the previous month to 20 million unique users. Monthly page views increased even more, jumping 18% to 7.6 billion web pages in the same time period. Data transfers were also up 18% from December 2008 as Opera Mini generated more than 122 million MB of data for operators worldwide — an equivalent of 1.1 billion MB of data if that data wasn't compressed by Opera's servers. January of this year also marks the first month that Opera Mini servers have processed more than 1 petabyte of data! Armenia led all countries in Opera Mini growth from January 2008 to January 2009, with usage jumping more than 2800%. With 1854%, Nigeria was second and other notable countries include: Egypt (1391%), Philippines (570%) and Kazakhstan (419%). With an average of 669 pages viewed in January 2009, Armenia also led all of the top 35 countries in page views per user. The top 10 countries using Opera Mini in the Middle East are: Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon and Yemen. The top 10 countries using Opera Mini in the world are: Russia, Indonesia, Ukraine, China, India, South Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Poland and Germany. As for the Facebook usage in the Middle East, the popular social networking service was one of the top 10 sites in 9 of the top 10 countries in the region: Iran (#9), Israel (#1), Saudia Arabia (#10), Syria (#3), Jordan (#3), United Arab Emirates (#3), Oman (#9), Kuwait (#4) and Lebanon (#1). More information about Opera's State of the Mobile Web report is available from here. Related News from IntoMobile: Opera releases State of the Mobile Web report Opera releases its State of the Mobile Web report for December Opera Mini celebrates its first birthday

Ralph Lauren's iPhone app gets an update Posted: 01 Mar 2009 01:53 AM PST Back in October of last year, we talked about Ralph Lauren's iPhone app. Now it's updated bringing more content from the famous designer to its respective fans. Some of the updates of the application include: Video highlights from the new Fall 2009 runway show and the recent Spring runway show An interactive gallery of Spring Collection Accessories A gallery of advertising imagery A new feature spotlighting "a Collection Icon," featuring The Ricky Bag New video library with the brand's best collection videos The app remains free, so if you appreciate the brand, there's no reason why not to grab it. Here's an AppStore link… Related News from IntoMobile: Ralph Lauren goes iPhone Video: Ladies and gentlemen, the Nokia E65 Nokia needs to be schooled on how to make a commercial: Check these out

Israel's Pelephone jumps on the Emoze bandwagon Posted: 01 Mar 2009 01:48 AM PST Israel-based mobile operator Pelephone is set to start offering Emoze's suite of services to its 2.4 million-strong user based. As a result, customers of the Israel's first mobile service provider will be able to get their email, calendar and social networking messaging pushed to their phones in real-time. Commenting on the announcement, Emoze's CEO, Eitan Linker, said: "Pelephone has joined the messaging innovators by extending Emoze to its millions of customers, ensuring that communication on-the-go is always a great user experience; transforming technology into a lifestyle." Related News from IntoMobile: Emoze 2.0 launched with a great fanfare Emoze announces HotMail support, partnership with India's Tulip Telecom emoze defeats BlackBerry in the mobile push email showdown at 3GSM

ABI Research: More than 17% of US respondents spent more than $100 on mobile apps last year Posted: 01 Mar 2009 01:44 AM PST In November, ABI Research conducted a small survey involving 235 US smartphone users who installed applications on their devices in 2008. Even though the number of respondents is small, the results were surprisingly solid for the mobile software market: 16.5% spent between $100 and $499 on mobile apps during the year! According to ABI's senior analyst Jeff Orr, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) AppStore is seen by some as hurting the market with the low-cost apps in its catalog. "It drives the price of content down to $1-2, using a model similar to its successful iTunes music store. If you exclude Apple from the mix, applications for other platforms cost about $7-25 each," he added. ABI also noted that many developers are lacking the resources to author applications for multiple smartphone platforms, hence they need to focus on one. That means they have a "margin vs. volume" quandary: sell many copies for the iPhone at a very low price of which the developer receives 70%, or sell fewer via one of the other application storefronts, but charge a higher price and earn more per transaction. On the other hand, Orr said that Apple did a lot for the overall mobile software market with its massive marketing effort, creating "halo" effect for the rest of the industry. "In 2009 a number of new mobile application storefronts will be launched from Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Palm (NSDQ: PALM), RIM and Samsung," he concluded. More information about ABI's report titled "Mobile Application Storefronts" is available from here. Related News from IntoMobile: Apple setting iPhone application size and price limits for AppStore Apple iPhone SDK downloaded 100,000 times! Apple's iPhone App Store gaining traction, sees more than 2 million downloads per day!

10 Ways to make SMS text messages work for you! Posted: 28 Feb 2009 04:26 PM PST The SMS text message is almost as ubiquitous these days as air pollution and high gas prices. But, we'd argue that most of the 2 trillion (with a "T") SMS text messages sent around the world last year were of the vanilla variety - short text communications between friends, family and co-workers. The overwhelming majority of text message users likely go about their lives never the wiser to the fact that SMS text messages can do so much more than tell your friend how late you will be to their birthday party. MobileMaven has put together a list of 10 ways you can use the text message as a productivity tool. After all, you're paying for those text messages, why not make them work for you? Here's a quick look at how SMS text messages can make your life better… or at least a little easier to manage: Track your packages with TrackThis. Yahoo! Alerts will deliver stock quotes to your text message inbox. Xpenser keeps you on top of your finances. Stop smoking with text message-based progress tracking from Qwitter. Send small payments over SMS with Sepomo. Have Apartments.com send you apartment information via text message. Stay on top of your favorite Craigslist category with text updates from Craigslist Buddy. Send yourself reminders, update your Amazon wishlist, and manage your Netflix queue with Kwiry. Search Google via SMS, because you can. Order up some 'zza from Domino's, Papa John's and Pizza Hut. Head on over to MobileMaven for nitty-gritty on just how to make all these SMS text message services work for you! [Via: MobileMaven] Related News from IntoMobile: Papa John's Pizza goes mobile Dominos offers pizza delivery via SMS text message - Pizza lovers rejoice Papa John's sees $1 million mobile pizza orders

Kidtivities for the iPhone and iPod Touch Posted: 28 Feb 2009 08:52 AM PST Looking for something fun and educational to do with the little ones? Or perhaps you're babysitting and don't have any ideas of what you could possibly do? Enter Kidtivities from Double Tap Apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Kidtivities contains over 50 activities for you to do with the youngsters. The activities are aimed at children aged 2 to 6. Aimed at growing the mind, vocabulary, motor skills and more, Kidtivities is a handy tool for any parent to have in their parenting 'arsenal' You can email activities to others, save your favorite activities, or shake your device to get a random selection of activities. Don't be mislead, the app doesn't actually contain the activities on the device, they are just suggestions on fun things you can do with the kids… then you actually have to go out and do them You can pick up Kidtivities for $0.99 in the App Store. Probably worth it, as they are going to be upgrading the app with more 'Kidtivities' in the near future. If you always want fun and educational activities at the touch of your finger, I'd give it a shot. Related News from IntoMobile: Kiddie "BlackBerry-like" toy incoming… LG KF600 can't decide if it is a touch screen device or not Shake or Date game helps iPhone/iPod Touch users handle various dating situations

Koodo Drops Price of LG KEYBO to $200 Posted: 28 Feb 2009 08:28 AM PST Canadians out there looking to find a solid texting device will be pleased to know that the LG KEYBO has dropped in price (ok, just a touch) over at Koodo Mobile. The KEYBO is now on sale for $200 (originally $225). Koodo also lets you 'run a tab'. For this device, it looks like you can run a tab up to $150, to reduce the initial cost of the phone down to $50. Of course, you'll have to pay the tab back later, but it's a nice way of spreading out your payment. The KEYBO from Koodo comes with a free GelaSkin, full QWERTY keyboard, 2MP camera with video, MP3 player, microSD slot, bluetooth, voicedialing and speakerphone. Find out more over at Koodo. [Via: MobileSyrup] Related News from IntoMobile: LG KEYBO aka enV2 now available on Telus Telus' LG KEYBO (aka enV2) now available in pomengranate Future Shop is selling Telus' LG KEYBO for CA$19.99