Round-Up: Skype Phone Rumors; Orange’s Cookbook; Little Britain

– 3 is apparently working on a Skype mobile, but all 3 will say is that it and a “leading internet communications company are working together to produce a exciting new product to make free internet calls completely mobile” reports ZDNet UK. 3 already offers Skype as part of its X-Series service, which has a bundle of web content and services for a flat fee, so this must be something more. “According to reports, 3 and Skype will team with an Asian OEM manufacturer to produce the low-cost mobile device.” If the idea is to offer calls free — or at least incredibly cheap — using VoIP and the data connection 3 must be expecting to make up the revenue in some other way.

— Orange is teaming up with Fifth Estate, HarperCollins’ online community for its authors and book promotions, to advertise and promote the mobile portal for a new cookbook, “Eating for England,” by British food writer Nigel Slater. The publisher’s banking on there being a strong synergy between “Nigel’s target audience” and those who use the mobile Internet; and indeed Slater, who writes on food for the Observer newspaper (the Sunday edition of the Guardian, which has one of the most popular online news portals in the country), probably has a stronger following among web and tech-savvy foodies than other food journalists. Users will be able to access the portal via short messaging codes and/or through ads on the Orange World portal. Content includes access to extracts from the book, recipes, wallpaper, “mobcasts” and an interview with the author himself. They can of course also click through, to Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), to buy the book itself. (release)

— UK TV comedy show Little Britain will get a mobile game, distributed mostly across the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Glu (NSDQ: GLUU) has got the deal. (release)

Playphone has signed up to distribute music ringtones from EMI, according to an e-mail press release.

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