Vodafone and MySpace buddy up, while the 3G iPhone hype machine gets into gear
It's the weekly Pocket Picks round-up
Perhaps the most significant story on our beloved sister site Pocket Picks this week was the announcement that Vodafone is teaming up with MySpace in order to deliver a new musical service called The Vodafone Music Reporter. The service is aimed at turning all music-loving Vodafone customers into budding web 2.0 journalists, as well as delivering swathes of music related video content, which is something the boffins at MySpace certainly know a thing or two about.
Another mobile music milestone was uncovered concerning a certain Japanese pop star called Thelma Aoyama (what sort of name for a pop star is Thelma, honestly?), who is officially the world's biggest mobile music star. Suck on that hard candy, Madonna.
But though we are attempting to avoid it, there's no getting away from the fact that with the 3G iPhone set to launch next Friday, this week really belonged, as ever, to Apple's news magnet. Bear with us, the tide will pass soon.
So kicking things off in that vein was a new 3G iPhone guided tour video complete with a cultish looking guy wearing a black jumper. It also transpired that in spite of Apple's reluctance to adopt the tech, Adobe is still working on a version of flash for the iPhone's Safari browser. It was also revealed that in the UK, O2 will limit iPhone 3G purchases to one per person when the device is launched (no doubt to try to combat those eBay scoundrels).
It also came to light that the 3G iPhone will make use of environmentally friendly packaging made out of potato starch that is one hundred percent recyclable. Besides that, Google streamlined its Google Talk IM service for the device while a company called Navizon released an application called Mobifindr that helps you locate your misplaced iPhone in a hurry.
The most interesting iPhone snippet of all, however, was a rumour that some large carriers have had working prototypes of QWERTY-equipped iPhones sent to them to test out, raising eyebrows all round.
Okay, that's the iPhone news over; breath easy, we told you it'd be painless.
Elsewhere, then, Nokia got busy with some application updates, first with a free push email solution called simply Nokia Email and then with the roll out of the beta version of its new file sharing service, Files on Ovi. In other beta related stuff, Nokia is looking for a hand in ironing out the bugs in its Drive navigation software for dwellers of various cities around Europe. Besides that, Nokia also unveiled a cryptic new viral website, the purpose for which will remain a secret until Monday morning. Exciting!
In other news, T-Mobile boosted its mobile uploading and downloading internet speeds significantly, Sony Ericsson leaked yet another handset (the Remi) and Monilink mobile banking found its way onto Blackberry handsets.
Oh, and there were not one, but two instances of bicycles being used to charge mobile phones, it's the wave of the future apparently.
Speaking of which, there will be another Pocket Picks update landing in seven days' time (which will no doubt be bulging under the weight of the new 3G iPhone release) so click 'Track It!' to be sure not to miss it.