fring, a mobile application that lets users communicate and share web-based content from their mobile devices, today announced the first ever mobile video calls over Internet for the iPhone.

iPhone and iPod touch users with fring can talk with and also see their family and friends on Skype or fring, from anywhere, for free, over Wi-Fi internet connection. This is the first video over internet service on the iPhone or iPod touch, says fring.

The video feature is embedded within the fring application that enables free voice calls from the iPhone and iPod Touch to other fring users, Skype and GTalk buddies as well as friends on regular phone lines via Skype-Out and hundreds of popular SIP services. fring users can live chat, update profiles, share files and talk with friends from several Instant Messaging services like MSN, AIM, GoogleTalk and Skype, in addition to interacting with popular online social networks like Twitter, all from one integrated fring contact list.

Avi Shechter, Co-Founder & CEO of fring: "Leveraging excellent video capabilities on the iPhone and iPod touch together with our open internet and social environment, we're bringing together families and friends these holidays, wherever they are…" Shechter continued, "We were the first to bring mobile voice over internet (VoIP) to mobile devices, the first to bring iPhone/ iPod touch users the choice to make free Internet calls, the first to enable cost-saving mobile twitter over internet, and now we're proud to continue leading the field of  rich mobile-internet communication by bringing users the world's first fring video calls over internet for the iPhone and iPod touch."

The new fring version with video calls support is currently available to users with iPhone/ iPod touch OS 3.0 (only incoming video-stream available, due to the location of the camera) and selected  Nokia Symbian S60 devices (2-way video streaming is available) . In addition, fring supports thousands of handsets on multiple platforms including Symbian S60, Android, Windows Mobile, J2ME and Linux devices.

The Latin American mobile industry is highly competitive – lower investment and less sunk costs make it easy for new market entrants. This means flexible pricing and lower costs are needed for operators in order to remain competitive. Thus there is a special need for  established players in particular to offer valuable NG services. This is the only way to still earn money despite the significant reduction of unit costs for vanilla services.

Demonstrating ROI from the outset
Despite the strong regional growth, Latin American operators still face many of the same challenges faced by operators elsewhere in the world. The overriding goal operators are aiming for is the ability to deliver innovative and intelligent new services and solutions to subscribers. In the future, revenue from data services will no longer be attributed to basic messaging services such as SMS and MMS. The launch of any new service needs to demonstrate ROI almost from the outset.

Faster launch and higher personalization than ever
Next generation mobile data services are the future source of revenue, especially for young users in Latin America looking after the latest fashion for their mobiles. Fighting for new subscribers, NG services need to be launched faster and more personalized than ever. When launching these bandwidth demanding applications, network capacity and profitability are key issues for operators. In order to improve the customer experience significantly, personal notifications and information must give subscribers transparent control over their account in real time. With its real time based products, Orga Systems Brazil meets these particular needs and fulfills the industry demands perfectly. Currently, more than 200 million subscribers served by leading Latin American MNOs rely on Orga Systems' outstanding expertise in real-time based technology.

Nokia has released Qt 4.6, the latest version of the cross-platform application and UI framework. Featuring new platform support, new graphical capabilities and support for multi-touch and gestures, Qt 4.6 is said to make developing advanced applications and devices 'easier and more enjoyable'.
 
"Qt 4.6 marks an exciting time for developers, regardless of their target form factor or platform," said Sebastian Nyström, Vice President, Application Services and Frameworks at Nokia.
 
"Developers can easily create visually appealing and web-connected applications for desktops or devices, including targeting the hundreds of millions of Symbian and Maemo-based devices,"
 
"The community will enjoy using Qt's intuitive programming interface to quickly create powerful, appealing applications." Nyström added.
 
Qt 4.6 includes support for the Symbian platform for the first time, and also adds Windows 7, Apple Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and the upcoming Maemo 6 to the list of Qt supported platforms. Also available is community support for real-time operating systems QNX and VxWorks. Support for Maemo 5 is also currently in development, with the second technology preview being released today.
 
Qt support for Symbian and Maemo creates the first opportunity for developers to target both of these platforms from the same codebase. Being able to share code across platforms means that the applications they create will reach the market faster and reach a broader audience of device users.
 
Also released today is a technology preview of new Qt APIs from the Qt Mobility project. These cross-platform APIs provide developers with functionality such as location for navigation-type devices, as well as messaging, contacts, and bearer management.
 
Qt 4.6 builds upon the graphical improvements of 4.5 and enhances them with the addition of new Animation Framework – including intuitive state machine functionality – plus new advanced graphics effects like opacity, drop shadows, glow, and filtering.
 
Nokia says that one of the most exciting new features in Qt 4.6 is the ability to create multi-touch applications. New multi-touch and gesture based input methods such as flicking and kinetic scrolling make Qt 4.6 a powerful framework for creating dynamic, tactile ways for users to interact with applications and devices.
 
Qt 4.6 is also said to challenge the conventional development notion that advanced UI capabilities normally come with a significant performance cost. Nokia claims extensive work has been done to deliver the best possible performance while enabling developers to deliver the "wow" effect that is demanded by users.
 
Key performance improvements come in the form of a highly optimized, re-written Qt GraphicsView rendering algorithm, a new OpenGL paint engine, WebKit, 2D vector graphic support using OpenVG, and new DirectFB support.
 
Complimenting the release of Qt 4.6 is an updated release of Qt Creator, a cross-platform IDE for Qt development. Qt Creator 1.3 and Qt 4.6 form the Qt SDK which contains everything developers need to create cross-platform applications.

Golden Gekko, a developer and technology provider for cross platform mobile applications, today unveiled its new service Tino, that will allow anyone to build a mobile application and bring it to market much faster, and more affordably, than has previously been seen in the mobile app marketplace, it claims.

To build a mobile app, a customer can visit www.tinomobile.com and follow five easy steps to build an application of choice. Pricing for Golden Gekko's Tino starts at as low as £100 which is said to be significantly cheaper than the  average £5-10,000 price tag of comparable applications.

"We are offering Tino as a low cost entry to the mobile app marketplace, and can provide anyone with the tools to build a mobile app, with a process that takes less than an hour," said Magnus Jern, Golden Gekko's CEO. "Our Tino customers do not need to be technical experts, as they'll get an easy step-by-step guide that allows them to self-develop a mobile app on the Web."

Golden Gekko's Tino invites everyone to create mobile applications that will support 90 per cent of the global mobile handset market, using any content, external feeds, and rich media. The process requires no programming, and can be completed in as little as 30 minutes, its claimed. Tino will also automatically host and track the number of engagements.

Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) and Nokia today announced that G&D has become the sole shareholder in Venyon Oy by acquiring the shares held by Nokia. G&D held a majority of the shares before the acquisition. Since its creation in 2006, Venyon is said to have established itself as one of the leading trusted service managers (TSM) on the mobile near field communication (NFC) market.

As a TSM, Venyon provides trusted services to provision and manage applications such as credit cards or transit tickets securely over the mobile network on the user's NFC-enabled mobile phone. Venyon is sad to be well positioned to provide aggregating TSM services between mobile network operators issuing NFC-capable SIM cards and service providers such as transit companies and banks on the growing NFC market.

"This move to acquire full ownership of Venyon is another key milestone in G&D's strategy. It will enable us to continue to expand our position as a provider of secure mobile phone solutions – from SIM and secure microSD cards through software to the secure administration of critical applications on the mobile phone," emphasized Karsten Ottenberg, CEO of Giesecke & Devrient. "The market for NFC solutions is expected to develop steadily. Venyon has built up leading service expertise in the NFC ecosystem, which will also be useful to us in other business sectors."

"Nokia is proud to be a supporter and provide multiple enabling roles for NFC, one of them having been our investment in Venyon," said Mark Selby, VP, Industry Collaborations, Nokia. "As the market for NFC is now maturing, the time is right for us to focus our efforts even more on NFC-enabled mobile devices and solutions designed to support NFC. We believe Venyon's crucial role as a trusted third party working with mobile operators and service providers is best supported through full ownership by Giesecke & Devrient, who are recognized experts in secure applications in this market." 

Accumulate has announced support for Android on its mobile payment and security platform Mobile Everywhere. Using the platform, mobile phones can replace security solutions as hardware security tokens, one-time codes or certificates on a computer.

To reduced administration, logistics and cost of special security devices and the like, Accumulate's solutions are claimed to make the everyday life easier for the user when information can be accessed anywhere and anytime. In addition, Android mobiles can now use the Accumulate payment solutions, for example, pay with phone in the store, pay online, person-to-person money transfers and to pay for goods in vending machines.

"The amount of users of Android mobiles is growing rapidly. Using Accumulates Mobile Everywhere solutions, these users can now pay with mobile at merchants and do login at their internet bank instead of having special security devices and the alike. We also see that businesses use of Android is taking off, and enabling companies and organizations with our solution will introduce very cost-effective and secure solutions. One example is login to the corporate VPN using the mobile phone as security device", said Stefan Hultberg, CEO of Accumulate.

Mobile Everywhere works on all mobiles and with all mobile operators and subscription types. The solution qualifies with the law as an advanced electronic signature and uses a method that in security language is called "true two-factor, dual-line authentication". External experts are said to have examined and approved Accumulate's technology for implementation in the banking environment. The technology is also claimed to offer protection against so called 'man-in-the-middle' attacks and phishing of user ID and password.

"Another example is that users of PayEx Mobil, a mobile payment service based on Accumates security platform, can now use Android mobiles to pay for purchases in store and online, and transfer of money person-to-person," added Hultberg.

Accumulate uses its patented solution, One-Time-Ticket (OTT), for one-times codes. OTT is said to offer a true 2-factor authentication that is more secure, easier to use and more cost effective than for example OTP (one-time password) and other solutions on the market. With OTT no user information (like user ID and password) is transported or saved over the Internet, and the cost of SMS text messaging or separate security devices is saved.  

AT4 wireless, the wireless certification and testing laboratory, has announced that it is now offering additional Interoperability Test Suites in the framework of WiMAX Certification, being the first Laboratory worldwide that can provide in-house the full range of testing services required for WiMAX Certification.

AT4 wireless was selected in 2004 by the WiMAX Forum as its lead Certification Laboratory and has  played the role of reference Laboratory by offering to the WiMAX vendors ecosystem the full range of test suites required by the WiMAX Forum in order to achieve Certification for their products.

As the latest development in this field, AT4 wireless is now offering the so-called Mobile Interoperability Testing (MIOT) Amendment (PHY and MAC-related Interoperability Test Suites) and Operator Interoperability Testing (OIOT – Network layer-related Interoperability Test Suites), in order to complete their comprehensive portfolio of WiMAX Certification testing services.

"This is another important milestone for AT4 wireless, and we are pleased  to  provide in-house the full range of test suites required for WiMAX Certification, including the Operator Interoperability Testing Service " said Jose de la Plaza, Telecommunications Laboratory Manager at AT4 wireless "We have also enhanced this complete certification service by offering the most comprehensive set of validated test systems as an add-value in the form of enhanced flexibility to adapt better to vendors' specific needs"

Vodafone has provided Northamptonshire Police with a mobile data solution that now means up to 900 officers can spend less time at the station and more time in the community. Northamptonshire Police is providing frontline officers with BlackBerry smartphones, giving them on-the-spot access to internal computer systems and records. 

Initial trials of the solution show that officers increased time on the beat by as much as 10 per cent, with BlackBerry smartphones being used more than 20 times a day.  This equates to one hour of a ten-hour shift they would otherwise have needed to spend at the station.

The BlackBerry smartphones give officers direct access to internal police computer systems such as the Police National Computer (PNC) as well as vital information including duty sheets, policy forms and witness statements that can be used to enter information on an incident, at the scene. The internal systems have been adapted for easy access via the smartphones and built-in cameras are also being used to capture images at the scene.

Paul Hill, Mobile Data Project Officer at Northamptonshire Police, explains: "It's not just that officers have to return to a police station to complete paperwork. When they're there, there's competition for resources – a desktop computer or laptop isn't always available."

An additional function that will allow officers to enter live intelligence that can be accessed by anyone involved at the scene of an incident, is also due to be deployed later this year.

The solution has been made possible through the Mobile Information Programme set-up by the UK National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) in an initiative to provide frontline technology to five forces in the East Midlands, including Northamptonshire.  

Hill continues: "This mobile technology implementation gives us valuable insights into the potential policing of the future.  Along with Vodafone's vast experience in delivering mobile data services to the police, we now have a solution that is not only invaluable for policing today, but also ensures we can move forward with a detailed understanding of the role of technology in modern policing."