Opera Software has introduced the alpha version of Opera 10, which is now available online.

The release is said to offer a taste of Opera's new rendering engine, Opera Presto 2.2 – which will be the foundation of all future Opera 10 products. Opera Presto 2.2 is said to offer around a 30-percent-faster browsing experience as compared to Opera Presto 2.1, introduced in Opera 9.5 in June 2008.

Opera says it has fine-tuned its standards support and, as a result, Opera 10 alpha achieves an Acid3 100/100 Test score. It is also said provide Web developers with a whole range of new technologies for building better Web sites.

Other new features in Opera 10 alpha include spell-checking as you type, as well as auto-updating to the latest versions as they become available. Opera Mail also has added support for HTML formatting of e-mails.

"My favorite development in this release is the support for new Web technologies, which allows people to explore new ways of using the Internet," says Johan Borg, Vice President of Consumer Engineering, Opera Software. "Our 100/100 Acid3 Test score is only a first indication of the impact these new Web technologies will have. We look forward to your feedback on Opera 10."

Unkasoft, a provider of advergaming and mobile marketing, today announced an agreement with Microsoft's mobile advertising arm to use Microsoft's ad server, Atlas, for the GameSpace project, a new form of non-intrusive advertising.

GameSpace provides media companies with an effective way to promote digital content or products and brands to vital segments of the market through games delivered on user's mobile phones. GameSpace is claimed to provide many benefits to the mobile operator, including an increase in income from content, the potential to widen the number of users by offering content for free or for preview and a new income source for back catalogue games.

Atlas is able to configure several campaigns for the GameSpace mobile portal, which will be presented in an adapted form for every device in the market. Also, Unkasoft Advergaming On the Fly technology injects advertisements at several places within games and applications.

Benefits to the advertiser include direct interaction with the user, including making phone calls and sending text messages, and the potential to create a community around a brand. With advergames, advertising is intertwined with entertainment, as the advertiser's brand appears throughout the game.

"Today's announcement will change the mobile advertising space," said Juan Antonio Muñoz-Gallego, Co-founder Unkasoft. "GameSpace allows advertising agencies to insert ads into any interactive mobile game without development tasks. GameSpace is a necessary advertising solution for any mobile marketing campaign."

Emoze, the free mobile, push email service, now allows Symbian users to add their Facebook messaging in combination with any number of email messaging systems, to their favourite mobile device. Java and Windows Mobile users will also be catered for within the next few days, says Emoze. 

Instant access to read, reply and send messages, avoids the need to open the Facebook website, and ‘Friends' lists are immediately on their handset, without even needing to go through an internet browser.

"We are proud to give our users an unrivalled mobile experience that lets them play a more dynamic role as a part of Facebook's 130 million strong community," said Eitan Linker, emoze CEO.  "Facebook is a prime example of how social networking is changing the world and our users will not miss a trick!"

"Even at this nascent stage of the market, 19% of adult consumers who access social networks on their PCs also regularly access these same sites from their mobile phones," said Jill Aldort, senior analyst at Yankee Group.

Mobile payments specialist Dialogue Communications has today gone live with Payforit Single Click Payments, across all UK operators. Payforit Single Click is a said to be a 'significant step forward' for mobile payments initiative Payforit, providing consumers with a more rapid payment method for making multiple purchases from the same merchant's mobile shop.

Customers are required to opt-in for the Single Click service, which can be done either by using the "my account" screen to change their Payforit Single Click status, or by making a purchase from the site and following the standard payments process, the buyer will then be presented with the option to opt-in. Once the consumer has done this, all purchases from that merchants shop will only require the true single click to complete a purchase. Single click is also the only operator approved payment mechanism for pay-per-view or pay-per-page content purchases.

Payforit Single Click is claimed to offer significant benefits for making purchases on the mobile internet. Consumers receive a simple and swift single click payment method with the added security and trust of the recognised Payforit gateway, therefore improving the consumer buying experience and allowing more impulse purchases that should lead to more encouraged repeat purchasing and loyalty. Due to the quick and easy nature of Single Click it will prove to be an essential and valuable tool for those consumers who make frequent purchases from a merchant's site for things like mobile content or pay-per page services, says Dialogue.

Dialogue was the very first company to propose the concept of Single Click to operators in March 2008 and is the first accredited payment intermediary to go live with the service.

Guiom Peersman, Dialogue's MD, said: "Single click purchases are widely available on the web, on sites such as Amazon and iTunes, so it is natural that mobile internet services should develop in line with this. The single click option will not only improve the user's experience of Payforit, but due to the reduced number of clicks required to make a purchase, higher conversion rates should be achieved, creating increased revenues, something which all content providers would welcome in the current market. Pricing clarity is also enforced, increasing consumer confidence and encouraging repeat purchases"

"Here at Dialogue we are very proud of our record in innovation, especially where Payforit is concerned. We were the first aggregator to go live with the Payforit service last year, the only accredited payment intermediary so far to take the solution onto the traditional web, and now the first to be approved for Payforit Single Click. This demonstrates that Dialogue is one of the most proactive companies in the market, a quality which is vital in an industry as fast moving as mobile," concluded Guiom.

Airvana and Pirelli Broadband Solutions have today announced that Airvana's HubBub UMTS femtocell has been selected to deliver 3G connectivity as part of  Pirelli's portfolio for fixed-mobile convergence.

Pirelli Broadband Solutions develops products that enable the delivery of services to the connected home and office. Pirelli is a supplier of CPEs for quad-play service providers in Europe, with a portfolio comprising IPTV Set Top Boxes and home and office access gateways for xDSL and FTTx networks.

"Embedding femtocell functionality into our home and office access products is a natural extension of the connectivity options leveraged by our open Epicentro middleware for service creation," said Francesco Schiavinato, Sr. Vice President Sales & Marketing, Pirelli Broadband Solutions.  "Airvana is known both for its innovation and leadership in industry standards that promote interoperability.  These capabilities will help our operator customers deliver a superior service to their subscribers."

Europe has become the first regional mobile telecoms market to feel the impact of the credit crunch, according to a new report from global advisory and consulting firm Ovum.

Titled 'Credit crunch jitters dawn on global mobile market', Ovum's report looked at the third quarter financial results of multiple mobile operators in all regions of the world, finding that Europe's top mobile operators are the one that are beginning to feel the hit from the credit crunch. "Unlike other regions where the mobile market has proved resilient so far, the third quarter financial results of Europe's top mobile operators show a marked, credit-crunch-induced deterioration in their performance," says Emeka Obiodu, senior analyst at Ovum and the lead author of the report.

According to Ovum's report findings while operators in other regions showed little signs of feeling the credit crunch, their European counterparts saw their revenue generating prospects shrink. So far, the North American mobile market has withstood the credit crunch and has been helped by the rise in two-year mobile contracts. Meanwhile, operators in the emerging market continued to enjoy generous revenue growth rates, with Africa and Latin America operators reporting double-digit revenue growth rates.

The report is also part of Ovum's ongoing in-depth coverage on the impact of the economic downturn on the telecoms market and is a follow up to an earlier Ovum report titled 'Europe's top MNOs unfazed by credit crunch' which looked at the second quarter results of European mobile operators in the region's top five markets.

However, despite the general state of the global mobile industry, Ovum does not anticipate a major slow down for the mobile telecoms industry. Although some operators may become vulnerable, the market remains overwhelmingly buoyant and Ovum expects it to ride out the financial crises.

"Reassuringly, the basics of the mobile market are still intact," says Obiodu. "Mobile services have become the de-facto consumer communication tool of choice, and with an increasing shift to postpaid contracts, plus the opportunities enabled by high-speed mobile data services, there is still money out there to be made in the mobile market."

In stark contrast to much of the entertainment and leisure sector, gambling via mobile phones will perform strongly in 2009, led by the UK market, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

The report found that total wagers on mobile phones are expected to more than double in 2009 to more than $3.6bn, where as user spending on mobile TV and mobile games will be adversely impacted by the global economic downturn.

According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, "Gambling is essentially a recession-proof industry, as while there may be marginal reductions in the level of stakes amongst casual users, the overall appetite for gambling per se will be unaffected. Furthermore, with the growing availability of betting services on-portal, the mobile is an increasingly convenient and user-friendly means of placing a bet."

The Juniper report also noted that the overwhelming majority of leading European bookmakers now offered some form of betting service on the mobile, with several having partnered with leading network operators.

However, the report noted that regulatory restrictions remained a key impediment to mass adoption, even in countries where mobile betting services were permitted, and argued that national and state governments needed to implement a clear and transparent framework governing all forms of mobile gambling services for the benefit of both consumers and service providers.

Other findings from the Juniper Research report include

• Mobile betting will account for 75% of all gambling on mobile handsets in 2008, with casino-type gambling the second-largest sector
• The UK alone will account for more than 30% of bets placed in 2008, although this proportion will decline to just 8% by 2013 due to increased deployment of services elsewhere
• Global gross win from mobile betting services is expected to exceed $1bn annually by 2012

Mobile broadband has seen exponential growth in 2008, yet in the face of the credit crunch mobile providers and retailers are turning away 50% of their business due to very stringent credit checks. During October and November broadband comparison site Broadband Expert said it had witnessed on average 1 in 2 sales sent to UK retailers offering a mobile broadband and free laptop deal rejected after running a credit check.

In the run up to Christmas, Broadband Expert has seen a huge rise in the popularity of mobile broadband and free laptop deals, yet one mobile provider has rejected over 75% of sales after running credit checks. Broadband Expert Commercial Director Rob Webber believes certain retailers and mobile providers are being overly cautious, "companies are spending huge amounts on advertising campaigns promoting these offers yet when the consumer comes to sign up, there is a strong chance they will be refused based on a credit check".

Webber sees a certain irony in the high rejection rates of these contracts since the offer of spreading the cost of a laptop over an extended period is "particularly popular with students and those on lower incomes who cannot afford the upfront costs of a new laptop, yet these are the people most likely to be excluded from these offers." 

Most mobile broadband and laptop deals have contract periods of between 18 and 24 months with a typical monthly cost of £25 to £40. Since these contracts carry no upfront charge for with the laptop or the dongle, there is a significant level of risk for the retailer. Webber believes the "stringency of credit checks is an interesting barometer of the confidence retailers have in consumers meeting repayments with many only unwilling to extend these deals to those without a very good credit rating".

Broadband Expert noted a substantial difference in rejection rates between companies offering these deals with some having rejection rates of less than 1 in 2 whilst others turned away more than 3 in 4 customers. Webber notes that "these rejection rates demonstrate a different strategy with some companies prepared to take a more of a gamble to fill their order books and others choosing to play it safe by only targeting better off consumers they perceive as being low risk".

Vringo has announced that it is partnering with Bouygues Telecom to bring its video ringtone application to French subscribers. Vringo will be one of the first applications on Bouygues' newly launched WAP and i-Mode portal and 3G+ (HSPA) network offering.
 
The Vringo application, along with its library of video ringtones, will be available for free to all Bouygues users at launch via wap.bouygtel.fr. By installing Vringo, more than 6 million postpaid Bouygues customers will also be able to create their own video ringtones and take advantage of Vringo's VringForward technology, which lets users share their personalized video ringtones to their friends just by calling.
 
"We're on a mission to reinvent the ringtone industry, and a big part of getting there is working with equally progressive partners," said Vringo CEO Jon Medved. "By launching with France's Bouygues Telecom, an operator with one of the savviest consumer bases, we're bringing video ringtones to an audience that is as hungry for innovative mobile applications as you'll find anywhere."
 
"We at Bouygues Telecom have pioneered a number of services over the years, including most recently our ‘NEO.2' voice and data package and our quadruple play ISP offer, the ‘BBOX,'" said Olivier Laury, content director at Bouygues Telecom. "Partnering with Vringo, whose video ringtone application illustrates mobile and fixed Internet convergence, is a natural extension of our own integrated offers. Working with Vringo to implement its technology has been a collaborative and effective process."

In the initial launch, Vringo users will have access to a wide variety of the service's free video ringtones, from music videos to animation to documentary footage. In 2009, premium Vringos will be added to the catalog, giving Bouygues users access to the largest collection of video ringtones anywhere.

RAD Data Communications has unveiled its new Airmux-400 broadband wireless multiplexer, which is said to deliver robust carrier-class, high capacity, extended range voice and data.

The Airmux-400 is a full duplex, 50-Mbps capacity multi point-to-point broadband wireless transmission device, which will transport both legacy TDM and next generation Ethernet services over licence-free 2.3 to 2.5 GHz and 4.9 to 5.9 GHz bands.

"The Airmux-400 is designed to connect 'data hungry applications' such as cellular or WiMAX base stations to controllers, meeting the requirements of backhauling applications by transporting Ethernet traffic for maintenance and control," explains Toby Korall, Senior Product Line Manager at RAD Data Communications. "In addition, Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) can use the Airmux-400 to backhaul their traffic from the point of presence (POP) to the network operation centre to achieve higher capacity and can offer bundled connectivity," Korall adds. "The Airmux-400 also provides broadband Ethernet and leased line services to large enterprises and is ideal for networks spanning multiple sites that require transparent LAN connectivity across their campuses."

RAD's Airmux multiplexers consist of an outdoor unit and an indoor unit with redundant DC power supplies. The outdoor unit is suitable for mast or wall installation. An optional external antenna is said to guarantee a transmission range of up to 120 kilometers.

Hub Site Synchronization (HSS) ensures simultaneous, multi point-to-point data transmission for all collocated radios by eliminating the interference that otherwise occurs when different outdoor units transmit and receive from the same site. HSS, which supports up to 16 collocated units, enables a complex radio environment of mixed services.

Built on advanced MIMO and OFDM technologies, the Airmux-400 ensures high robustness of the air interface even under interference and harsh conditions. Data transmitted over the air interface is encrypted using Advanced Encryption System (AES) with a 128-bit encryption key. The device adaptively changes the modulation according to air conditions, targeting maximum rate while maintaining link stability. The rate drops temporarily after encountering interference, then automatically returns to the highest possible rate. When the link quality is out of limits, the Airmux-400 automatically searches for a clear channel within a pre-selected list of frequencies.