Ring, ring, hello 3GSM here! (and a question of love!)

In today's IT Blogwatch, we look at 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona. Not to mention a question of love ...

Is that ringing I hear or just the announcements coming out of Barcelona from the 3GSM? We have to wonder where Eric Bangeman is as he thinks he's on the French Riviera ... oh okay it is 'just around the corner' ... "At the 3GSM World Congress today (held on the French Riviera, a place much better to spend a February day than grey Chicago), a number of music-related announcements were made by mobile phone makers ...  Sony Ericsson plans to begin selling Walkman-branded mobile phones which will leverage the music catalog of Sony BMG ... the Walkman phones will support MP3 and AAC ... Motorola introduced a hefty line-up phones today ... Look for the RAZR black, a monoblock SLVR phone, which will be as thin as the RAZR, and a very cool looking rounded phone called the PEBL. From the images on Motorola's site, I can say with certainty that the PHNS LOOK GRAT ... the E1060, their first entry into the cell phone/music market. But is it the manifestation of the partnership the phone maker and Apple announced last summer? Reuters is reporting that it is, but the product info page and press release make no mention of iTunes ... specs on the phone look decent with a 1.3 megapixel camera, video capture, high-speed web browsing, and support for RealPlayer ...  Nokia annoucned a partnership with Microsoft which will allow PC users to transfer music to their Nokia phones and purchase music directly over the 3G network ... Speaking of Microsoft and Windows Mobile, they are getting together with phone maker Flextronics to create a new mobile phone platform which will run on GSM and GPRS networks. That should give the software giant another toe-hold in a market that has remained largely outside their grasp."

» Here is one Eric missed from Emily Turrettini:  "Ericsson has announced a new service allowing users to pay for and download music, ringtones and artist images from the Napster P2P network to their mobile phones and PCs, the Swedish telecommunications equipment manufacturer announced today at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona. Ericsson will offer Napster Mobile as a hosted service to mobile operators, which will in turn make the offering available to their customers."

» Paul Mooney:  "Microsoft announced the acquisition of MotionBridge, a leading provider of search technology designed specifically for mobile operators and the mobile Internet. MotionBridge, based in Paris, is a worldwide leader in mobile search technology that is currently available to customers through contacts with major mobile communications companies in Europe and North America ... Besides the continued support of existing services and customers, the MotionBridge and Microsoft search teams plan to move forward on mobile search solutions for Windows Live to provide rich and seamless information experiences to individuals and small businesses, enabling mobile users to quickly find relevant search results on the Internet."

» John, Mobile Analyst Watch: "The clamshell shaped 6131 will retail for around 275 euros ($326.9). Nokia also 'unveiled the 6136 model, with a camera and technology allowing it to connect to wireless network hotspots,' and will also retail for about 275 euros.  Opstock analyst Hannu Rauhala said, 'I'm very happy about the UMA phone. I believe it's in the operators' interest. For instance in the United States, indoor coverage is very bad so it's much easier for domestic carriers to build this kind of coverage.' Nokia also launched a basic model, the 6070, which would have a retail price of about 135 euros. The three handsets will start shipping in the second quarter of the year."

» Mobile Guerilla: "AllAboutSymbian crew spotted Samsung's newest S60 phone at 3GSM World Congress. The Z600 is a quadband GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 and UTMS 2100 ... 262,144 colours display, a 2 megapixel camera and a second VGA camera for video calling, Symbian OS 8.1, S60 2nd Edition, video recording (MPEG-4) and messaging, MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, Real, AMR, MAF player, 70MB of internal memory and a microSD card slot, Bluetooth, IRDA, USB. That's all the info we got. No release date and no price info, sorry."

» Telekom:  "AFP - The prospect of high-speed transfers and instant messaging will have consumers rushing to buy into third generation (3G) mobile phone technology this year, companies at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona predicted on Monday."

Buffer overflow:

• Andrew Kramer: Death to SNMP Part 2
• Ars technica: Target.com sued by blind student
• Sarah Lacy: MySQL Anwers Back With $18.5 Million
• Carl Howe: The A-list blogs rule -- or do they?
• Barry Schwartz: Yahoo Asks for Help in Chinese Censorship Battle
• Philip Letts:  Motorola to launch Windows Media phones alongside their iTunes phones
• Bruce Schneier: Windows Access Control
• Dwaine van Vuuren: NAC confusion reigns
• Scott P. Shaffer:  Microsoft Buys Mobile Search Company MotionBridge
• Om Malik: Government Bias Against Apple
• Jeremy Reimer: Microsoft mobilizes a "pushy" alternative to embattled Blackberry
• IE Blog: Search in IE7
• Charles Babcock: Letter Writers On Unix: 'Wake Up, Guys!'
• Brian Krebs: The New Face of Phishing
• Robert L. Mitchell: Desktop market share numbers show resurgent Apple
• Martin McKeay: Got questions?
• John Monaghan: Documentation (or lack thereof)
• Robert L. Mitchell: Boeing: Wireless will empower the distributed workforce
• Martin MC Brown: Open wifi networks from a train
• Global News Update: Monday, Feb. 13, 2006
• Heidi Biggar: Remote backup in the spotlight
• Shark Tank: Useless Information
• Douglas Schweitzer: A Backdoor is a common entry point

And finally...  Just for Valentine's Day - a question of love!

Richi Jennings (has gone to another timezone, temporarily, so the Antipodean is blogging this week)  is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk. Also contributing to today's post: Judi Dey, our very own Antipodean.