Each week MobileCrunchArcade compiles the biggest news from the world of mobile gaming.

If you can’t wait for the next mobile game that is based on a movie, Glu’s upcoming game Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa will be here in October of this year, just in time to get back home from your crocodile hunting trip to the Nile. “’ Madagascar’ was an enormous success and created a broad fan base around the world. We’re very pleased to announce this license with DreamWorks Animation to bring the Madagascar brand and its well-loved characters to mobile subscribers worldwide,” said Jill Braff, Senior Vice President of Global Publishing, Glu Mobile. “Our production team is working closely with the DreamWorks team to create a vibrant and entertaining game that contains elements of the movie but has a storyline and game mission unique to itself.”

EA’s Kathy Vrabeck has had some good things to say about mobile gaming this week. “The cell phone is the platform that is leading the way in growing the casual gaming market.” “Games like Tetris, Bejeweled and Solitaire appeal to a broad audience and have been the defining applications on cell phones to date. Newer handsets with larger screens are enabling advanced 3D graphics as well as connected and multiplayer features, a dramatic increase from the black and white games of just a few years ago. This evolution will expand the types of games that can be offered on handsets and should attract new consumers to cell phone gaming.” I’d love to thump thumbs with someone like Kathy who says such great things about mobile gaming.

Speaking of calloused thumbs, Digital Chocolate has released a game that is a tribute to one of humanity’s highest forms of art and expression, dance. Strip Club Manager doesn’t put you on the pole but behind the desk of three gentleman’s clubs. You build the clubs from the ground up by hiring security, waitresses and dancers, and by buying appropriate accessories. As every good dancer knows, the show is all about the accessories. It’s your job to match the right dancer with the right clientele. Correctly done, wallets that enter your club bulging with money leave empty; but move the bulge to a more centralized position. If you like tycoon type games take your hands out of your pockets and put a smile on your face.

NTT DoCoMo field tested a 3G wireless network that reached download speeds of 250 Mbps and upload speeds of 75 Mbps. Any faster and we may need to change Einstein’s constant from the speed of light to the speed of 3G. Unfortunately for gamers, NTT DoCoMo won’t have the technology ready until 2009. The Theory of Relativity is safe for another year.

That’s this week’s Mobile Gaming News Roundup. Remember to exercise those thumbs, recharge the battery and never take your eyes off the screen.

The communist dominos are falling as the dictatorship of the proletariat realizes it can’t stand up against the relentless momentum of the mobile phone. Capitalist technology has pushed over one more domino in Cuba. President Raul Castro announced today that the Cuban government will allow unrestricted use of mobile telephones by all Cubans for the first time. Cuba currently has the lowest rate of cellular telephone use in Latin America.

A few Cubans have mobile phone service through foreigners or in their work places. Now the masses will be able to place a phone in their individual names’. According to the Communist Party newspaper Granma, the Cuban telecommunications monopoly ETECSA will begin mobile service for the general public in the next few days. “To each according to his needs” is becoming “to each according to his or her wants.”

Like the alchemists of old who converted lead into gold, Cellyspace launched an application yesterday that automatically converts RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) feeds directly to mobile subscriber’s messaging in-boxes. There is bound to be gold for someone at the end of this rainbow.

Skycore, the developers of Cellyspace, think the auto-conversion of RSS content will make mobile syndication easier and more readily available. It is hoped that by delivering multimedia feeds rather than short, text-only feeds subscribers will be more fully engaged in the content.

By converting the Really Simple to Multimedia, a feed can be viewed without a subscriber first logging onto a mobile web site or launching a feed reader application. Instead, subscribers are alerted on receipt of the feed and can view it immediately or whenever most convenient since it’s stored in their messaging in-box. This thing is better than having your own Philosopher’s Stone.

The magically converted Simple transmutes into a Multimedia slide show that includes up to eight slides, each with an image, 300 characters of text and an optional URL link for additional content, info or promotions. MMS Feeds can be billed to the end user as either premium or standard rated feeds. Providers are given the choice to add third-party advertising or promotions to their feed.

“Feeds with both images and text are generally more compelling than those with text alone. Engaging subscribers improves subscription retention and increases their response to any call to action in the feed,” said Rich Eicher, President of Skycore LLC.

I’m not in the advertising or promotion business but this looks like the type of thing that can put some serious gold pieces in your purse if used correctly. Three links are provided below.

Cellyspace
RSS-to-MMS
Short Demo

In the last month, the Taliban in Afghanistan have been targeting cell phone towers. Around 10 towers have been attacked causing nearly $2 million in damage. Service providers have been forced to shut down service across southern Afghanistan at night. This has angered hundreds of thousands of customers who have no other telephones.

The Taliban is attacking certain towers because it believes that NATO forces are using cell phone signals to track them at night. But some Taliban fighters are asking that the towers be repaired and switched back on. According to the Associated Press, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid hinted that the group could change its tactics.

“We see that some people are having problems, so we might change the times that the networks are shut down in the coming days,” Mujahid said in an AP phone interview.

According to Mohammad Qassim Akhgar, a political analyst in Kabul, if the Taliban can interfere with the phone networks, the government and international forces are seen as being weak by the population.

“After the Taliban announcement, they were aware of the situation, and still they couldn’t provide security for the towers,” Akhgar told the AP. “Maybe destroying a few towers will not have any effect on the government, but the news or the message that comes out of this is very big, and all to the benefit of the Taliban.”

This story is evidence that the cell phone is here to stay until something better comes along. Afghanistan is a country that has been racked with continuing war since the late 1970’s, and yet the telecommunications miracle has reached this remote and bloody part of the world. While some people in developed countries complain about ugly cell towers, the people of Afghanistan would be happy if their towers were left alone.

Mao Tse-Tung once said, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Ofcourse he said that decades before text messaging became so popular. Today’s savvy revolutionary is putting his or her thumbs at risk by text messaging thousands of voters to turnout and cast a ballot in Nepal’s April 10 elections.

To get around the government’s ban on putting up posters, banners and slogans in public places, former Maoist guerrillas are sending text messages to potential voters that would make Carl Marx proud.

“A new thinking and leadership for a new Nepal… Give Maoists a chance this time,” read a text message bearing the Maoist hammer and sickle sign at the top.

This will be Nepal’s first national vote in nine years. A special assembly is being elected that will work on a new constitution and most likely abolish the 240-year-old Hindu monarchy.

Maoist activist Deep Sikha said he had already sent about 5,000 text messages to prospective voters requesting for their support for his party.

“SMS are being sent to voters by other members throughout the country,” Sikha said

While communist revolutionaries might seem like a quaint anachronism to some, Nepal’s Maoists fought a ten year civil war that killed over 13,000 people. “Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed,” Mao Tse-Tung.

Kannuu won the Technology Innovation Award for Best Mobile multimedia in Nokia’s Mobile Rules! 08 competition. The award was given for kannuu’s Partial Word Completion technology that lets users find instead of search when accessing mobile services.

Ever since Samuel Johnson wrote the first English Dictionary, my spelling has been atrocious. This is especially true when I want to access something on a mobile phone using a tiny keypad or keyboard. With kannuu’s Partial Word Completion technology I can use four-way directional keys and the application’s word mastery to prevent the dreaded “no results found” that often arises from my inability to put the correct letters in the correct order to spell correctly.

The technology works by indexing list choices in up to four options. These options are presented to the user in order of likelihood and, optionally, in order of some priority metric. A kannuu-based system will present four or less options at each menu level and provide some means for the user to indicate their desired choice. For example, a device with a screen and four-way directional button may provide the user with four options at a time which would be selected by pressing the button up, down, left or right. In addition, a kannuu-based system will provide an input means for the user to indicate that their desired option is not present. On activation of this “more” option, the set of the next most likely options will be presented.

For a demonstration, go to kannuu.

According to the Office of Communications (Ofcom), the United Kingdom will soon allow passengers on UK-registered aircraft to make mobile phone calls or send text messages while flying. Ofcom has been considering the idea since last year and has been in discussions with other European countries.

MobileCrunch reported last December and this January that Air France and Norwegian Air have been experimenting with in-flight cell calls. It appears as though the European Union is getting ready to approve passenger airline mobile calls across European airspace.

Under the UK plan, passengers will be able to use their own handsets once a plane reaches a minimum height of 3,000 meters. Service will be routed to an onboard base station to make and receive calls, which will be billed through a passenger’s normal service provider. Calls won’t be allowed during take-offs and landings.

“The safety of passengers is paramount and mobile systems on aircraft will only be installed when they have secured approval by the European Aviation Safety Agency and the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK,” Ofcom said.

Being a non-European, I want to know when other countries are going to allow cell phone use on aircraft. Up to now there have been safety concerns from government agencies but I haven’t heard any concrete evidence that on-board cell phone base stations and devices cause any interference with a plane’s ability to operate. Banning in-flight calls is like banning people from swimming in the Loch Ness because a Plesiosaur might eat them. Government regulators need to stop protecting the public from nonexistent dangers and let us exercise the freedom that mobile phones give us.

Unless you live south of the Equator, spring is here and that means it’s time to dust the driver and hit your first 330 yard shot of 2008. The problem is, where do you find that perfect course for straightening out the Mulligan blues? Golf.com and Action Engine put their swings together and launched an ad-supported mobile application that lets golf enthusiasts search and access course data from their mobile phone.

Golf.com Course Finder, from Sports Illustrated Digital Group, is a free downloadable mobile application that delivers personalized golf course content. The search engine allows users to find a friendly lynx based on name, location, course type, course amenities, costs and number of holes. Once the application finds a match, contact information is displayed so a tee time can be arranged. Golfers can store the last five searches they conduct for quick reference and easy reuse. About the only thing this application doesn’t do is rate how cute the drink-cart girls are.

“GOLF.com is the most trusted name in the sport for golfers and fans seeking the most informative, timely and award-winning take on breaking news, scores, instruction, equipment and travel. Through this partnership our unique and highly used golf course database will now be available to golfers any time, anywhere,” said Kenneth Fuchs, Vice President and GM, SI Digital.

The GOLF.com application is available today with support for 28 phones running the Microsoft Windows Mobile platform. Windows Mobile is the exclusive launch advertiser for the new service. To download the application consumers can either text “GOLF” to 58585 to receive a text message with a link to download GOLF.com Course Finder or simply go to http://www.golf.actionengine.com/provision on your phone’s mobile browser and follow the instructions provided.

In a clear move to keep Motorola’s flagging mobile phone sales from pulling down its lucrative broadband and switching enterprise services the company is splitting into two publicly-traded organizations. The Mobile Devices company will focus on mobile handsets while the Broadband and Mobility solutions sector will work on secure voice and data communication along with broadband for enterprises and government.

Shareholders will receive shares in each of the companies once the process is completed.

More Motorola coverage at CG

This morning I got my mytreo.net Newsletter and despite the fact that the page anchors don’t work in Gmail, I read (skimmed) the first paragraph and decided to try the service they were promoting, Jott.

The link in the email took me to a Palm page with a longer article that I didn’t actually read and no quick and easy way to get to what ever Jott was going to make me do to use it (sign up or download whatever).

A quick Google search and I was on Jott’s website, cleverly called jott.com
Set up was easy, nothing to download. First and last name, email, password, and telephone number. Then a confirmation email, then you are asked to place a call to a 866 number to set up your phone.

With the email and phone confirmed, an automated lady voice at the other end of the phone asks you to make your first Jott, which unless you have already added contact thru the web interface is to yourself. In true geek fashion, she recommends sending yourself “Hello world”. Original. I spoke into my phone, sent my self a message, easily set up a reminder (which texted and emailed me at a set time). So far so good. This could actually be useful.

Read more…

If you are looking for a bar with a mechanical bull, a club with 80’s cheese metal or the best fish taco restaurant in town, you may want to use the mobile service buzzd. Buzzd is a location based mobile entertainment service that provides real-time information for bars, clubs and restaurants. Buzzd will even let you network with friends and strangers who have a similar interest in your style of nightlife.

Buzzd was first runner up in the Best Business Plan category at Nokia’s Mobile Rules! 08 competition. Out of a 1,000 entries from around the world, buzzd came in second. Not bad for a company named after the feeling one gets while intoxicated. The last business plan I wrote while “buzzd” created such a bad paper jam I had to throw my printer out.

“Being recognized as an emerging company within the mobile space is always an honor,” said buzzd CEO and co-founder Nihal Mehta. “Having our company recognized amongst the best and brightest companies across the world exemplifies the demand for location-sensitive services like buzzd.”

“Nokia is very pleased to announce the winners of the Mobile Rules! ‘08 competition, who with their ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit typify an emerging wave tapping into today’s exciting convergence of mobility and the Internet,” said Tom Libretto, Vice President, Forum Nokia. “Open platforms and the millions of smartphone devices available today are helping enable this new wave of entrepreneurs from around the globe to become drivers of the future global mobile marketplace through the innovative technologies, applications and business models they create today.”

buzzd

Managing Director of UpCode Ltd., Sture Udd, announced today the appointment of Jerald Cavitt as CEO of UpCode USA. Cavitt was also named the marketing leader for the UpCode brand worldwide.

“I have recognized the marketing genius of Jerald Cavitt and his ability to lead the UpCode brand with his unique marketing strategies. Jerald’s vision has separated us from the other companies by focusing on brands,” said Sture Udd Managing director of UpCode Ltd.

UpCode recently won mobile application of the year at the Nokia Mobile Rules! 2008 awards. The UpCode Parking was ruled to be the best mobile application in the Enterprise category. Parking is a point and click application that enables a mobile phone it act as an optical reader to scan any physical object, on any surface or on-screen by clicking at a mobile barcode.

UpCode USA CEO Jerald Cavitt stated “I am honored and pleased to join the UpCode Brand and to team up with Sture Udd from UpCode Ltd; together we believe that this will be the ultimate game changer in the Mobile Access & Interaction world!” Cavitt added “I have always believed in convergence enabled by physical interaction with the digital world. Accepting this award from Forum Nokia is real world validation for UpCode that we’re on the right track; and we are looking forward to deploying more solutions now.”

The FCC ended bidding for the 700 megahertz spectrum yesterday. Verizon Communications and AT&T won the largest shares of the spectrum after 260 rounds of bidding. The FCC raised $19.12 billion from bidders. Verizon and AT&T won more than $16 billion worth of licenses, airwaves they plan to use to for voice, data services and new wireless technologies.

Frontier Wireless, a partner of DISH Network, spent $711 million to buy a part of the airwaves that leaves open the possibility of a nationwide video network.

Verizon outbid Google and won the biggest nationwide block of spectrum with a bid of $4.74 billion. This loss by Google puts to rest speculation that Google will jump into the wireless business any time soon. But the company sees the auction as a victory for Google. The bidding was high enough to trigger the “open-platform” rules it requested for the nationwide airwaves won by Verizon.

Google called it a victory for American consumers. “Consumers soon should begin enjoying new, Internet-like freedom to get the most out of their mobile phones and other wireless devices,” said a statement from Google lawyers Richard Whitt and Joseph Faber.

AT&T won 227 regional licenses. These should fit in well with the piece of spectrum it acquired by buying Aloha Partners for $2.5 billion.

“AT&T’s strong spectrum holdings position the company to further enhance the quality and reliability of existing wireless broadband and voice services, and to set the foundation for new-generation wireless broadband technologies and services,” Ralph de la Vega, head of AT&T’s wireless unit, said in a statement.

Verizon spent $9.63 billion at the auction. AT&T was second with a total of $6.64 billion spent.

The FCC set aside the D block of the spectrum because no one met the minimum bid required. The D block must be shared with public agencies like police and fire departments that have overriding usage in an emergency. It is speculated that the FCC will re-auction the D block with rules that make it more attractive to buyers.

MoConDi announced today that it will make over 800 free games available to community members of the MoConDi-run MeYou Community. The games will come from Greystripe, a company that distributes ad-supported mobile games. MeYou users can download games, recommend games to other community members, or learn about a hot new game from others.

“Mobile social networks are an ideal place for users to discover and share ad-supported mobile games and we are thrilled to provide MoConDi’s users with our catalog.” said Alvaro Bravo, VP of Business Development at Greystripe. “By implementing our AdWRAP Catalog Platform, they are joining a worldwide movement of shifting from for-pay mobile content to one that is entirely ad-supported.”

This partnership will allow MoConDi to offer mobile games from publishers such as Vivendi Games Mobile, Hands-On Mobile, Skyzone, Punch Entertainment, and digital Chocolate. Greystripe will be able to tell advertisers that it has a large outlet for ad-supported games in the North American and European markets.

“We are thrilled to enter into a partnership with Greystripe. They are pioneering ad-supported mobile games and provide the best quality and quantity of entertainment for our audience,” said JT Klepp, CEO of MoConDi. “The initial response from our community is overwhelmingly positive.”

MoConDi

How often has this happened to you? You’re trapped in the trunk of a Lincoln Continental and the emergency trunk release has been snapped off. You have a document on your home PC detailing how to escape from such a situation but all you have is your WinMo or Blackberry phone with you. You do a frantic Google search to no avail, and your captors take you to a cornfield and beat you with a baseball bat. Bummer, huh?

Well, now SugarSync can get you out of those occasionally sticky situations we all find ourselves in occasionally on occasion. The service syncs your desktop to a website and allows you to view and download files on portable devices.

Read more…

A U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that banned Qualcomm from selling chips that infringed on three patents owned by Broadcom Corp. A California jury in 2007 found that Qualcomm didn’t have a right to the patents and the lower court placed an injunction on Qualcomm that stopped it from selling the chips.

“We are gratified that the U.S. Court of Appeals rejected Qualcomm’s motion for a stay, leaving in force the injunction against Qualcomm’s infringement issued by the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana,” Broadcom General Counsel David Dull said in a statement.

The chips in question are third-generation (3G) WCDMA chips. This technology provides much higher data speeds to mobile and portable wireless devices than most North American networks allow.

U.S. district Judge James Selna ordered Qualcomm to pay mandatory royalties to Broadcom for the chips it sells during the “sunset period” ending January 31, 2009. After the sunset period ends, Qualcomm will be barred from using the three Broadcom patents.

Qualcomm is currently working on 3G chips that will replace those patented by Broadcom. The new chips are slated to be ready by the end of the current quarter.

High Tech Computer (HTC) is developing a mobile phone that will use the open-source Android software created by Google for its operating system. The phone will be called Dream and have a large touchscreen and full QWERTY keypad. The handset is over 5 inches long and 3 inches wide and has a keypad that swivels out from underneath the screen.

HTC is not the only company that is developing a mobile phone around the Android operating system. Samsung has joined the hunt to create a device that utilizes Android.

HTC was the first company to announce it was building a phone around Android. Other members of the Open Handset Alliance, a group dedicated to promoting Android, are also believed to be developing handsets designed around the operating system. Over 30 companies have joined the Open handset Alliance. Samsung and Motorola are two manufactures who belong to the alliance and may be developing Android phones of their own.

The U.S. government auction of wireless airwaves ended yesterday raising a record $19.59 billion, but winners of the valuable spectrum were not immediately identified. The winners of the hundreds of licenses are expected to be announced within days.

Analysts believe Verizon Wireless is the most likely winner of a nationwide piece of the airwaves called the “C” block that attracted a $4.74 billion high bid.

“This is spectrum that’s obviously … very valuable — will be critical to trying to provide additional wireless broadband services,” Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters after the auction ended.

The C block spectrum includes a requirement sought by Internet leader Google that would make it accessible to any device or software application.

Television broadcasts are moving from analog to digital signals in early 2009. The 700-megahertz spectrum that television has been using is valuable to phone companies and others because the signals can go long distances and penetrate thick walls.

One sticking point of the auction has been the sale of the D block. No company has met the minimum bid for this part of the spectrum. Under FCC rules, the winner of the D block would have to give police, firefighters and other public safety groups priority use during an emergence.

The FCC may decide to re-auction the D block airwaves and modify the rules and minimum price to make it more attractive to bidders. The FCC has declined to comment specifically on what it will do.

In recent months, Google has seen an acceleration of activity among mobile phone users. The company said this is evidence that the era of mobile Internet is at hand. Google has seen sharp increases in mobile Internet usage spurred by services Google has offered on BlackBerry, Nokia and iPhone devices.

“We have very much hit a watershed moment in terms of mobile Internet usage,” Matt Waddell, a product manager for Google Mobile, said in an interview. “We are seeing that mobile Internet use is in fact accelerating.

Waddell believes the availability of flat-rate data plans from carriers encourages consumers to connect with the Internet over their phones. The per-minute charges of the past discouraged mobile Web browsing. Waddell also remarked that improved Web browsers and better designed services from companies like Google are fueling growth.

Recent Google software has allowed mobile users to increase Web search speeds by up to 40%. The software shortcuts the time it takes for people to perform Web searches of Google by eliminating initial search steps of finding a Web browser on the phone, opening the browser, waiting for network access and getting to Google.com. The company said the increased convenience has increased the number of searches.

“We are actually seeing a 20 percent increase in the number of searches by people,” Waddell said.

“Faster is better than slow, especially on a mobile device, where fast is much better than slow,” Waddell said. “Not only are we are seeing increased user satisfaction but also greater usage.”

Users of phones based on software from Research in Motion, Nokia’s Symbian-based phones and now Microsoft Windows Mobile can download the software at http://mobile.google.com/.

AdMob released a report today that tracks traffic percentages for Smartphones, trend data for the top five country markets and manufacturer market share trends. For every advertising request AdMob received in the month of February, AdMob analyzed information available in the user’s mobile browser.

AdMob’s report includes percentages of Smartphone traffic worldwide. The statistics culminated in data pulled from the following company’s Smartphones: RIM, Nokia, Palm, Apple, HTC, HP, MITAC, Samsung, T-Mobile, Motorola and others. According to AdMob’s data, RIM’s BlackBerry 8100 Smartphone has the greatest percentage of worldwide traffic with 34% of Smartphone traffic share. Nokia’s Smartphones followed in second with 29% share of the traffic and Motorola’s Smartphones came in last with 1% traffic share. In the United States, iPhone traffic flattened slightly during the month of February, consistent with the theory that people use new devices a great deal in January, only to have traffic slow down in the following months.

Manufacturer share trends were included in February’s report as well. Nokia held the top spot worldwide with 29.4% of ad requests, in India with 66.7%, South Africa with 35.5% and Indonesia with 49.3%. In the United States, Motorola was the top device manufacturer with 35% of all ad requests and, in the UK, SonyEriccson claimed the top spot with 37% of all ad requests.

“AdMob is constantly working to better classify our network traffic to help our advertisers target,” said Jason Spero, VP Marketing at AdMob. “The February report has seen the addition of a few new data features that we hope will further empower advertisers and developers to leverage the mobile web.”

AdMob’s February report also included new data from AdMob’s top five country markets – the US, India, the UK, South Africa and Indonesia. Individual country statistics do not follow consistently with overall worldwide data. The BlackBerry remains the Smartphone with the highest traffic in the United States with 39% of US Smartphone traffic share. In India, the UK, South Africa and Indonesia, however, Nokia’s Smartphones become the clear leaders with 89%, 67%, 89% and 86% Smartphone traffic share respectively. The top devices in AdMob’s top five markets remained the same: the Motorola KRZR in the US, Nokia 6030 in India, Motorola v360 in South Africa, SonyEriccson K800i in the UK and the Nokia 660 in Indonesia.