– Meez and Vringo have joined forces to integrate Meez’s 3D avatars into Vringo’s video ringtone service. People can download the avatars to their phone for free (with a data package) and when they call someone the avatar will appear on the recipient’s phone screen as a video ringtone. They can also be set as wallpaper.
— Prevalent Devices has announced the Phraze-It Keyboard 2.0 for Windows Mobile 6, which creates a keyboard on touch screens for entering text (can I get through this without mentioning the iPhone? Apparently not). The system groups letter alphabetically in five groups led by the vowels, so each letter requires two presses — to get “c” you press “a”, the keyboard changes and you press “c”. It strikes me as something that could allow for fast text input but that would take quite a bit of getting used to. There’s a YouTube demo here.
— Bank of America has introduced SafePass, “which uses authentication technology developed by VeriSign Inc. [to send] a six-digit code to the customer’s mobile phone. The code can be used only once, and it expires 10 minutes after being issued, making it harder for criminals to steal money from BofA accounts” reports PC World.
— BlogTV has launched a Facebook app for sharing video in the US, but VentureBeat notes that it’s probably eyeing mobile phones in the US as well. The mobile version is on all of Israel’s carriers, where people can stream video of themselves live to their friends via their mobile phone. In this article VentureBeat also reports on a bunch of start-ups…Radar, Avot Media, Aka Aki and Zyb.
— After getting a settlement from RIM NTP is now suing AT&T Mobility, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Communications claiming the operators are violating eight of its patents for mobile e-mail, reports RCR News.
— The FCC has announced it’s going to look at the practice of charging early termination fees, reports EasyBourse. This could have an effect on handset affordability, but would probably be better for consumers in the long term.
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